By Allan Mulenga
Mon 02 Dec. 2013, 14:01 CAT
COMMENT - President Sata 'should apologizie' - why, to make the MMD look better? Just like in the USA? Nevers Mumba has no, repeat, no original ideas of his own. None. Ignore. By the way, there is something particularly obnoxious about a charlatan who used the cloth to hide behind. Call me conservative. :) - MrK
MMD president Nevers Mumba has asked President Michael Sata and the PF to seek forgiveness from Zambians for failing to deliver campaign promises. And Mumba has advised President Sata against using "a strong hand" in dealing with the nurses' strike.
Commenting on President Sata's statement in Mansa that it was not possible for the government to introduce free education because it is a cost, Mumba said Zambians would not take kindly to excuses from President Sata and the PF for failing to deliver campaign promises.
"Zambians are upset that they were taken for a ride. They were given promises that are now being backpedalled. Our advice is that there is no Zambian who is going to take kindly the comment that 'there will be no free education' without government coming out in the open to ask for forgiveness for the promise that they gave," he said.
"Zambians are not expecting anything outside what PF promised. They are not asking PF to do anything that they didn't promise. All they are saying is, 'this is what you promised us, please deliver it. If you are unable to deliver it, tell us that you are sorry for the promise and tell us that you did wrong to ruin our votes by telling us what is not true'."
Mumba accused the PF of backtracking on its campaign promises.
"It is incumbent upon government to come clean and explain to the Zambian people that their intentions were made to do the right things, but they have discovered that governance is more than being in the opposition making political promises," he said.
"That might play a little bit with the Zambian people not just to backpedal and expect Zambians to accept it."
Mumba claimed that the PF made promises out of ignorance of the governance system.
"The first step for the PF is to let the Zambian people know that they did not exactly understand what was involved in running government. They made those promises because of that ignorance. In the absence of that repentance, the Zambians will not take their backtracking," he said.
And Mumba advised President Sata to employ dialogue in resolving the impasse between the government and striking nurses.
"At the moment because of what people are going though and the promises that the PF made, it is unnecessary for the party in government to use a strong hand to try to wish away the grievances of the public sector. The public sector was promised certain things; those things have not been delivered," he said.
"I would advise very strongly that in the interest of keeping the peace of our country, the government prefers the issue of dialogue and understanding what the plight of the public workers is instead of saying 'the government is going to strike'."
Mumba disclosed that he had written President Sata on the issue surrounding nurses' strike action.
"I have done a letter in which I have asked the President to be able to consider dialogue to the level where our public sector workers could feel confident that government is committed to resolving their issues. That statement in Mansa was unfortunate," he said.
Mumba said the opposition would not take kindly to the government's manoeuvres to fire striking nurses.
"We will not take it kindly if the government attempts to fire these public workers that are aggrieved in the same manner that the government did not take kindly to KCM trying to offload those thousands of workers. It will be unfortunate for government to take that route, because there is room for negotiation. They are negotiating for the things promised to them. I think government should listen," said Mumba.
President Sata on Saturday warned nurses to resume work before the government strikes.
No comments:
Post a Comment