KABWE PF member of parliament Tutwa Ngulube says telling the truth about the failures of his party’s government should not be treated as a crime. And Ngulube says it is sad that those in government who tell the truth are being dismissed for standing up to speak on behalf of the majority Zambians. Meanwhile, Ngulube has dared the police to arrest him, but wondered when telling the truth had become a crime in the country.

President Edgar Lungu dismissed his national development planning minister Lucky Mulusa on Wednesday, days after he made controversial comments on the continued power shortages in the country, saying some ministers and the Head of State had not told the truth about the problem. Two months ago, Mulusa made another controversial comment on the purchase of 42 fire tenders by the government and likened them to wheelbarrows.

Speaking in an interview with The Mast yesterday, Ngulube, a lawyer who validated President Lungu’s election as the PF leader at the disputed party convention in Kabwe in 2014 following Michael Sata’s death, said today’s leaders must tell the truth when things are not alright.

He said a number of policies of the PF government were not being implemented properly, citing the e-voucher system which he said had caused misery among many farmers.

“I have vowed to speak like that. I have a team of people who voted for me, there are thousands, 25,000 people agreed to say ‘let’s elect an MP who will speak for us’. When things are bad, and we actually as ruling party members cannot alert each other of what is going on, it becomes very sad because we should not only be seen to praise government when things are okay. When things are not okay, we remind each other and praise each other,” Ngulube said.

“The police, you see, of late, when I speak, police officers will come surround my house, surround my vehicle when I try to speak to the people. I have told them to arrest me because I know that whenever I speak, they threaten me with arrests. I am ready to go to jail if telling the truth is now a crime in Zambia.”

When asked why he had taken a hard stance towards the PF government, having been the one who declared President Lungu the winner of the controversial convention in Kabwe, Ngulube said he had no problems doing that because telling the truth was what he would embark on to save the party.

“You’ve heard even the deputy SG has done…she was on UNZA radio. She has actually agreed with me that when we are not doing well, we need to remind each other, and when we are doing well, we need to give each other a part on the back. I have no intention of attacking government, this is the party we love, the party we fought for, the party we slept in the bush for at all costs to ensure we get in power and help the people. So when we see that things are not okay, the only way we can correct the situation is to remind each other to say gentlemen, this policy has collapsed, this policy has collapsed and agree on how else we can do something better. The people who voted for us will hold us accountable for our failure, and we should also hold accountable the implementations of the policies. We are only trying to promote accountability. The ultimate power lies with the people. The power we are enjoying right now as PF belongs to the people,”

Ngulube said.

And commenting on Mulusa’s dismissal, Ngulube said minority views should always be respected.

“There can be no complete democracy if minority views are ignored. No one should be punished for telling the truth. Let’s compete on opines. It’s sad for people to be dismissed for telling the truth. If we don’t speak out, people always find a way of coming out of oppression,” warned Ngulube.