UPND Alliance a failed project - Namulambe
BRANDING the opposition alliance as United Party for National Development (UPND) is a self-testimony of the selfishness of the party and its leader Hakainde Hichilema, says former member, Gabriel Namulambe.
Mr Namulambe said because of the selfishness of the highest level of Mr. HIchilema, the UPND wanted the National Democratic Congress (NDC) candidate to be adopted on their ticket.
The former UPND chairman for labour said in an interview that the UPND Alliance was a failed project after the exiting of the NDC party which they had relied on to pull votes in the August 12 general elections.
Mr Namulambe stated that the UPND had been in so many alliances in which the party displayed selfishness by wanting to hold on to the leadership.
“UPND has been in so many alliance like the United Democratic Congress (UDA), they still held on to the leadership of that alliance, they flopped.
“In 2016, they were so many prominent people that rallied behind the candidature of Mr. Hichilema, the likes of Miles Sampa, Mulenga Sata, Geoffrey Mwamba, Maureen Mwanawasa, they left him because of his selfishness,” he said.
He added the exit of the NDC from the alliance effectively made the UPND alliance a failed project because only one-man political parties among them the Alliance for Democracy and Development (ADD) and United Progressive People (UPP) had remained
Zambians, he said, should ensure that such selfish political leaders were not entrusted with the responsibility of running the country.
Mr Namulambe said Zambia would be a failed nation if such political leaders were given the mantle to lead the country.
“As Zambians we should be careful and think through and then think about entrusting such a person with the responsibility of running the country, always leading failed projects, it is a projected failure of the failed project if such a leader ruled the country,” he said.
THE Zambian Kwacha lost further ground in yesterday’s session which was characterised by moderate market activity due to low dollar supply and unmatched dollar appetite from corporates.
With dollar inflows still very low and demand swelling, the local unit is anticipated to add on to its losses in the short term, says Absa Bank Zambia in its market report.
According to Absa Bank, the local currency opened the trade day at K21.88/21.93 per dollar from a previous day’s close of K21.86/21.91 to on the bid and offer respectively.
“On a close to close basis the Kwacha was down 2 ngwee but was firm during the trading session,” Absa said.
Cavmont Bank Zambia which was recently acquired by Access Bank indicated that interim trends suggested that the local unit was likely trade between K21.90 and K22.20 in the short to medium term with a minimal bias to the upside.
The report explained that with supply still inadequate, the Kwacha made a further movement to the downside against the United States dollar.
“It ended the day trading at K21.89/ K21.94, up from the previous day's closing level of K21.87 / K21.92.
“Trading activity was largely flat during the session, with little or no inflows being seen from sellers -a situation that seems to characterize the market,” the Cavmont Bank said.
On Thursday, The Zambian Kwacha traded in a tight band against the dollar in during the trading session, with the local unit evidently exhibiting signs of weakening further.
At 08:00 hours, commercial banks quoted the Kwacha at 21.86/21.91 per dollar compared to Tuesday’s close of K21.84/21.89 on the bid and offer respectively.
The build-up in demand mainly flowing from the agriculture, energy, telecommunication and manufacturing sectors continued to weigh down the local unit on the day and this is likely to be the trend in the absence of strong dollar inflows in the near term.