Lubansenshi Independent Member of Parliament Patrick Mucheleka says opposition MPs who are defecting to the ruling party claiming that is when they will take development are lying.
Featuring on Radio Phoenix’s Let The People Talk programme Mucheleka said the issue of subsidy removal had been done haphazardly without consistency.
Mucheleka said the individuals who were saying they were defecting to take development to their constituency were just selfish individuals.
“The issue of the people who are defecting claiming that they are doing so to take development to their area. That is a big lie because by virtue of being a Member of
Parliament I am a member of the government,” he said.
“It is the responsibility of the executive to take development everywhere in the country and not only for the ruling party. That is not true, those who are saying that are individuals who are selfish and are not telling the truth about their intentions.”
He said the over K8 billion that was being spent on by-elections could be used to develop the country’s social sector.
“If I were to resign you can imagine they are spending over K8 billion for any of those by-elections. You can imagine what can happen to that money if it was channeled towards the social scetor,” Mucheleka said.
He said life in the civil society had always taught him to side with the people.
“Also those people who are defecting assuming they had any principles at at all they are doing it for themselves. My time in the civil society taught me to always side with the people,” he said.
Mucheleka said the the scrapping of subsidies had been done without preparing the citizens.
“Also the manner this was done it reflects inconsistency in terms of policies. Where did it come from? They never talked about this until they just ambushed everyone. This is part of the policy inconsistency that people talk about,” he said.
“Where is the money going to go? How much money are you going to save? Are you doing it because you want to fund by-elections before you take a supplementary budget? These are questions that must be answered.”
Mucheleka is one of few MPs outside government to have resisted the temptation to defect for the promise of a ministerial jobs.
“Of course I would want to aim higher but I should not do it in such a desperate manner as to sacrifice principles,” he said.
“We should all learn from Sata’s example when he sacrificed all comfort during his struggles in the opposition.”
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