Fresher Siwale says funding of political parties by the serving government is tantamount to institutionalised plunder.

Fresher Siwale, the New Labour Party(NLP) party leader described the Polical Party Bill as a fraud.

He protested that political parties cannot receive funding from government in the midst of abject poverty, unemployment and high death rates.

The opposition leader said currently, government is  failing  to provide nutritional needs  to the citizens, leading to increased death rate.

“Let us address the national nutritional problem because currently we have 90 percent  diseases in hospitals which are nutritional based. Therefore, amidst all these nutritional challenges, government must not be seen to be funding political parties. They must first address needy areas,” Siwale said,” You have to preserve lives of citizens and not enriching politicians. The death rate is very high in Zambia today because of nutritional problem. If you want to know what I am talking about, take a walk to the mortuary and see queues there. Go to the graveyard and see rallies there. In the midst of unemployment, in the midst of poverty government cannot be looting the treasury by funding political parties.”

Asked whether his party was invited to the discussions on the political party bill organised by the Zambia Centre for Inter-Party Dialogue(ZCID), Siwale responded in the negative.

He said even if his party was invited or not, it was not going to attend the gathering that was aimed at institutionalise  theft.

” As New Labour Party, we are not in support of the Political Party Bill because it will steal from the citizens,” he said.