1 November 2007
Ndola — UNITED Party for National Development (UPND) president, Hakainde Hichilema has said Zambians should desist from harassing foreign investors as that amounts to racism and goes against modern world trends.
At a Press briefing in Lusaka yesterday, Mr Hichilema said that the attacks on Chinese nationals by a political party bordered on racial discrimination because all foreign investors came to the country through established channels.
Mr Hichilema said what was needed was for the current labour and other laws governing investors to be strengthened and stringently enforced.
He said it was wrong for anyone to mount a campaign against China on the basis of the kind of investments its nationals were bringing to Zambia.
He said UPND, if elected in 2011 elections, would embrace all investors regardless of their countries of origin but it would leave certain sectors of the economy, like trading, to local people.
On agriculture, Mr Hichilema said that the Government should not reduce the number of Fertiliser Support Programme (FSP) beneficiaries next season as planned but should increase allocation.
He bemoaned the delay by the Food Reserve Agency to pay farmers for the maize several months after they were sold.
Mr Hichilema said that Government should quickly pay off the farmers to allow them plan well for the next farming season instead of keeping them in suspense.
He said Government owed Zambians an explanation on the fish disease in Mongu which he described as a disaster.
He said Government's continued silence on the matter was frightening, saying a lot of people in Zambia and neighbouring countries depended on the fish for their livelihood.
Moving onto the forthcoming Nchanga Parliamentary Constituency by-elections, Mr Hichilema said there was evidence showing glaring electoral malpractices by the MMD.
He accused the ruling party of using Government machinery like motor vehicles during the campaigns while roads were being worked on to hoodwink the electorate in the area.
He said the Government was allegedly dishing out fertiliser to bribe the people, saying the Electoral Act was being violated with impunity.
Mr Hichilema said the Electoral Commission of Zambia (ECZ) seemed to be favouring MMD and cited its move to allow only two representatives one from MMD and another one from UNIP to witness the printing of ballot papers in South Africa.
He said the party had information that ECZ was planning to abandon the system of counting the ballot papers at respective polling stations and instead wanted to carry out the exercise at a central place.
But ECZ director, Dan Kalale said the commission was perturbed at insinuations that it was not providing a level playing field in Nchanga by sending only two representatives of political parties to witness the printing of the ballot papers in South Africa.
Mr Kalale explained that ECZ met representatives of political parties on October 10, 2007 and informed them that the printing of ballot papers would take place in South Africa. Due to budgetary constraints the commission asked that one representative of the MMD and one from the opposition should travel.
He said another meeting was held on October 17, 2007 where political parties were again reminded to submit the name of their representatives. During the second meeting the opposition political parties were unanimous in their choice of UNIP's director of elections, John Sandwe to represent the opposition parties.
He said consideration was, infact, given to Mr Sandwe's previous experience as he witnessed the printing of ballot papers for the 2006 elections.
He said there was a provision for members of the political party liaison committee to call for an extraordinary meeting if there were concerns needing redress but in this case no committee members had called for a meeting and instead some members of political parties were misrepresenting facts in the Press.
Mr Kalale called on all players to abide by the Electoral Code of Conduct and avoid conduct that bordered on corruption and violence, saying the ECZ was closely watching the unfolding events and any player found wanting would be prosecuted in line with the law.
He advised party candidates that had concerns with the electoral process to clarify their concerns with their members who sat on the ECZ/political party liaison committee or the commission itself.
Acting chief government Spokesperson, George Mpombo said separately: "If the UPND can't stand the heat in the kitchen, they better move out."
Mr Mpombo said the MMD was not using any Government property, adding that all the officials in the campaign team were using their own private vehicles.
He said UPND was jittery about the elections as there was no way they could win.
Be the first to Write a Comment!
Copyright © 2007 The Times of Zambia. All rights reserved. Distributed by AllAfrica Global Media (allAfrica.com). To contact the copyright holder directly for corrections — or for permission to republish or make other authorized use of this material, click here.
AllAfrica aggregates and indexes content from over 125 African news organizations, plus more than 200 other sources, who are responsible for their own reporting and views. Articles and commentaries that identify allAfrica.com as the publisher are produced or commissioned by AllAfrica.
