Daily Nation Newspaper

EFF LEADER SLAMS UPND OVER MISTAKES

- By ROGERS KALERO

IT is disappoint­ing that the UPND which claimed to have solutions to the various challenges the country was facing is already making unnecessar­y mistakes and giving excuses after less than two months in government,'' Economic Freedom Fighters (EFF) President Kasonde Mwenda has said.

Mr Mwenda said, during campaigns, the UPND articulate­d well on how it would run the agricultur­e sector, but it was embarrassi­ng that, due to poor planning, the government had failed to distribute agricultur­al inputs on time thereby disrupting the farming cycle.

Mr Mwenda was reacting to revelation by Agricultur­e Minister Mtolo Phiri that Government was late to start distributi­ng farming inputs (Fertiliser and seeds) because it was conducting an audit.

He said, if the UPND had solutions to the challenges and problems facing the country, they would have properly planned the whole assignment of agricultur­al inputs to ensure they were delivered on time.

"To the farmers, what is important is the distributi­on of agricultur­al inputs on time because if that is not done on time, then their yield will be affected. With this behaviour by our New Dawn government , our harvest may be affected.

"During the time of campaigns , this New Dawn government claimed to have had solutions to the various challenges the country was facing, but they are just waffling. Waffling, even failing to distribute fertiliser on time sure? No.'' Mr Mwenda said.

Mr Mwenda said it was an embarrassm­ent that the 'New Dawn' government could fail to distribute agricultur­al inputs on time in their first year in government, when their predecesso­rs were distributi­ng the inputs on time.

"The farming season has already started with rainfall reported in some places already. This is October meaning we are already late for the distributi­on of farming inputs for the 2021 farming season which traditiona­lly starts between September and October.

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