PATRIOTIC FRONT Deputy Secretary General Mumbi Phiri says responding to NDC Secretary General Mwenya Musenge’s claim that his party was dominating Copperbelt was boring as the NDC Party led by political failures.

“You listen to a failure Musenge who lost in a constituency? That one is a political failure. You loose in a constituency you expect to gather votes from a country when you have lost to a small constituency? Now to even be talking about a political party which is being led by political failure, I find it very boring. Let them continue dreaming. Bakepusheko umwaiche wandi Miles (they should ask my young brother Miles [Sampa]. Let them continue dreaming we will meet in 2021. Even in the last election, other parties were saying ‘we have taken over the whole Copperbelt, we have taken over Lusaka’ we are used to these things. Let’s wait until 2021 we will see who is popular. Let them continue praising themselves as they did in the last election. But I can assure them that they will be in a very big shock,” she said.

And Phiri said there was no corruption in PF.

“These corruption allegations which people are talking about, they are not even there. Why they are doing that, they have nothing to talk about. They have seen the projects which we are doing and they want people to believe that some people are stealing. And me I have come out very clearly to say ‘those who are being alleged to be corrupt, they should come out and defend themselves’. I’m one of the victims. Somebody lied that even at the farm where I stay, I bought it in cash and built an eight bedroomed house in three months, which is not true. The farm where I am right now was bought in 1998. It wasn’t even bought by me. In 1998 I was a full time house wife. It was bought by my husband and the house is a normal four bedroomed house. And since I came out clearly, have you heard them say anything about me? They have kept quiet because with me I know where I’m coming from,” she said.

“I’m on record to have said ‘the only person I respect over corruption is Levy Patrick Mwanawasa’ may his soul rest in peace. When he saw the rot which was happening in MMD he resigned at the level of vice president because he didn’t agree. Now Chishimba Kambwili was fired. That’s when he can talk about corruption? And even the corruption they are talking about they started that the fire tenders were overpriced. Those fire tenders started in the time of Micheal Sata when even Chishimba Kambwili was there. Secondly, the ambulances which they are talking about, honourable Dr Chitalu Chilufya was on the floor of the House in Parliament and he explained the specifications. There are certain specifications that’s why they were bought at that price. So those who are singing about corruption, they want to deter PF from doing things because they think there will be propaganda. They are wasting their time..”

Phiri observed that PF had pushed a lot of developmental programmes.

“We [PF] have done what we could do within this year and we are going to continue. We are not stopping so that when we go back to ask for another mandate in 2021, these people [opposition] will have nothing to talk about. We have a five-year mandate and I can sure you that by the time our mandate finishes, we could have fulfilled all the promises we gave to the people of Zambia. This year, there are so many things which we have done. We have seen the beginning of the Lusaka-Ndola dual carriageway, we have seen the Mporokoso-Kawambwa road being done, we have seen the beginning of the Ndola Airport and the Lusaka international Airport is almost complete. There are so many projects which I can point out across the country. So those who are saying that we haven’t done anything, they are just politicking,” said Phiri.