President Rupiah Banda has appealed to all September 20 elections aspirants to be truthful in their campaigns and to avoid undermining and mudslinging each other.
ZANIS reports from Luanshya that the President Banda said, yesterday, that although Zambia is a democratic country, politicians from their respective political parties should endeavor to tell the Zambian people the truth about what they will do for them if elected into office.
“ Politicians, especially presidential candidates should be circumspect in the way the talk about others, “ he said.
President Banda, who was accompanied by the first Lady Thandiwe and other senior government and ruling MMD officials, was speaking today when he addressed thousands of Luanshya residents at the Rados Cinema Hall.
He said it was not right for presidential candidates and other politicians to peddle on lies about other politicians and to overstate issues during their campaigns.
He urged politicians to substantiate the allegations they make about other people.
The President said politicians should consider what could be sustained by the Zambian economy when making promises to Zambians other than talking about impossible issues.
“All politicians should come and stand before Zambians and give reasons why you should vote for them and stop undermining others.
“ As MMD we promised to fix roads, build more schools, hospitals and we have done that,” he said.
He reiterated his policy of empowering Zambians with houses through selling housing units to sitting tenants and allowing them to acquire loans to build their won houses.
President Banda said his Movement for Multiparty Democracy (MMD) will ensure that infrastructure is developed to a level that would trigger huge external and internal investment.
He explained that his government had already laid a strong foundation in developing road infrastructure on which economic prosperity can depend on.
Mr. Banda said government has improved the health, education and other sectors that were vital to the economic development of Zambia.
“Every President would want change by having more schooling opportunities for children, more medical attention and having infrastructure reconstructed for investment to flourish in the economy of the country,” he said.
The President further implored Zambians to uphold the peace which Zambia has enjoyed since independence.
He reiterated that sustainable development can only take place in a peaceful and safe environment.
“External investment should flow into a country where there is peace, in a country where workers are hard working and are responsible,” he said.
The President, who is on a campaign trail in some selected districts of the Copperbelt province, further asked Zambians to work together and love one another to foster development in the country.
“My dream for Zambia is that we must express our political feelings without hating each other,” he said.
And Mine Workers Union of Zambia (MUZ) Chairman, Stanslous Mwinde, extolled President Banda for listening to cries of the people of Luanshya when the Luanshya Copper Mine (CLM) was closed in 2008.
Mr. Mwinde said at the same meeting that the current owner of the CLM was a good choice made to take over the mine.
He said in a vote of thanks that workers that had lost their jobs were now happy because they have gotten back their jobs.
He has however appealed to President Banda to lobby for the increase of salaries for workers at the mine.
Mr. Mwinde further asked President Banda to direct the district council to reduce the prices of residential plots in order to enable residents of Luanshya, especially miners and civil servants afford to build houses.
Earlier, President Banda attended a church service at St. Maximillian Catholic Church in Mikomfwa township where he urged the church to pray for peace and unity as Zambia prepares for elections next month.
“We cannot achieve any of our desires for ourselves, our children and our families if there is no peace,” he said.
ZANIS
