GILBERT Liswaniso has accused councils and municipalities of sabotaging President Hakainde Hichilema and the UPND government’s efforts of delivering campaign promises and efforts by frustrating the implementation of the Constituency Development Fund (CDF), the new dawn’s developmental flagship.
Mr Liswaniso is claiming that the councils and municipalities have not been politically fair to both President Hichilema and the ruling party by intentionally destabilising and frustrating the implementation of CDF in order to create an impression that the upnd has completely failed to deliver on its promises m, when in fact 90 percent of the pledges had authentically been achieved.
He said the idea behind the CDF was to decentralize the utilization of the funds from Lusaka to the constituencies. However, councils had allowed people based in Lusaka to continue benefiting from the CDF projects.
Mr. Liswaniso said the UPND Secretary General, Mr. Batuke Imenda, had started touring the country to monitor CDF projects. However, those misusing the fund accused him of acting illegally since he is not a public servant but a party official.
He appealed to Mr. Imenda to resume his monitoring program, warning that if councils were left unchecked, they could harm the party.
Mr. Liswaniso also advocated for Members of Parliament to return to the councils, stating that some actions by council secretaries handling procurement were unacceptable.
And Mr. Liswaniso said the prices of mealie meal were expected to go down this year because people had responded to the President’s call to grow food and had successfully harvested.
Meanwhile Mr Liswaniso says former President Edgar Lungu is a runaway chairperson of the Tonse Alliance, which is why the alliance does not pose a threat to the ruling party.
Mr. Liswaniso said information was emerging that Mr. Lungu had fled the country and was not planning to return.
Speaking when he featured on the Costa program on Diamond TV, Mr. Liswaniso said the Tonse Alliance was crumbling, and the UPND was happy to share its remnants.
“You know, people must not run away from their own country because they have committed small crimes. People like Emmanuel Mwamba have run away because they have committed crimes,” he claimed.
He said Mr. Lungu was never coming back, which was why Socialist Party President Dr. Fred M’membe was positioning himself to take over the alliance.
