By CHUSA SICHONE in Kanchibiya District –

.President Lungu

PRESIDENT Lungu has observed that some individuals within the Patriotic Front (PF) are contradicting themselves by leaving the Government but still want to remain party members.
Without mentioning names, President Lungu said it was such party members’ negative utterances against its leadership that had somewhat contributed to turbulences in the PF.
President Lungu said that some of those individuals were giving problems because they still had not accepted that he was the Head of State as they wanted to replace his predecessor Michael Sata after his demise in 2014.
“It is true that seemingly PF is going through a turbulent time because of some utterances by some people who feel the leadership we are providing is not good enough,” Mr Lungu said.
“But surprisingly, these same people are saying they want to remain in PF… They are saying ‘I’m not good for Government as a leader but I’m good as a leader in PF and I want to remain in PF’. Quite a contradiction,” President Lungu said.
President Lungu said this when he addressed a public meeting at Chalabesa School in Kanchibiya District on Sunday.
President Lungu said there was no shortage of people in the PF, neither was the case in Government.
Mr Lungu said people who did not accept to be led could not make good leaders and that those that could not manage ambitions, then theirs was a failed project.
PF Bahati Member of Parliament (MP) Harry Kalaba recently resigned as Foreign Affairs minister but has opted to remain in the ruling party despite castigating the Government thereafter.
President Edgar Lungu has said the Government will continue creating more districts because they are special vehicles to accelerate development.
Mr Lungu said vast districts would be demarcated to pave way for the creation of others.
The President said this when he met traditional leaders in Muchinga Province’s newly-created Lavushimanda and Kanchibiya districts on Sunday.
“We know that the trend is that every big district will have to be broken down because these districts are intended to be special purpose vehicles which will enable us deliver to the people,” President Lungu said.
“And I think this was the vision Mr (Michael) Sata launched in 2011. Then most people were laughing and mocking him about creation of these districts.”
President Lungu was happy, however, that many people had realised that Mr Sata’s vision of creating districts guaranteed accelerated development in those localities.
He said creation of districts would ease service-delivery as such areas would have their own education, health, security and communication facilities, as well as improved road network, among others.
President Lungu said development of the districts would be well-planned after drawing lessons from old localities, and instructed the district planning office to quicken the planning of new districts.
He reiterated that projects that had been pending would be identified and completed before moving on to new ones and that people residing in districts would be consulted on what they required.
The President also assured that he would soon appoint the Kanchibiya district commissioner to provide leadership in the area.
He further said the Government, through the Ministry of Tourism and Arts, would restock districts like Kanchibiya whose wildlife had been depleted to attract tourists.
In Lavushimanda District, President Lungu met chiefs Mpumba and Chunda Ponde while in Kanchibiya he met Senior Chief Kopa as well as chiefs Luchembe, Mpepo and Kabinga.
The traditional rulers were elated by the Government’s decision to create districts in their localities despite itemising what they required in those areas.
Chief Mpumba asked for President Lungu’s intervention in a matter in which a farm bloc in his chiefdom had extended to burial space for traditional leaders as well as villages where his subjects had lived for up to 40 years.
Chief Chunda Ponde cited poor road network, poor telecommunication network and lack of electricity as some of the challenges in his chiefdom despite the area having minerals and Black Lechwe.
Chief Luchembe spoke on behalf of the other traditional rulers, and one of the requests was for the creation of another district as Kanchibiya was too vast.
The traditional leaders, who also presented a letter from TAZARA retirees to President Lungu, said development priorities included construction of a civic centre, upgrading of gravel roads to bituminous standard and completion of schools which had been abandoned since the MMD was in power.