Socialist Party Copperbelt Province Vice Chairperson Reagan Kashinga has branded 2024 as a terrible year on many fronts to the extent that the people of Zambia want to put it behind quickly.
And Mr. Kashinga has asked the people of Zambia to avenge themselves through the ballot in 2026 over the misery they have been subjected to by the UPND Government.
Mr. Kashinga said 2024 was awful for the people of Zambia politically, economically and socially because of hardships people ensured such as prolonged hours of loadshedding, high cost of living and unstable fuel prices.
He charged that despite the cited challenges the UPND Government doesn’t seem to take pragmatic steps to avert them.
“Economically, it is in 2024 when we saw productivity in the local industry declining drastically due to power rationing by Zesco which resulted in prolonged hours of load shedding that negatively affected all spheres of the local economy. Compounded by high and unstable fuel prices this pushed the cost of living to unmanageable levels for many suffering Zambians. Research has shown that a family of five requires about K11, 000 to meet monthly food needs but salaries are very low in Zambia,” Mr. Kashinga said.
“As we write, the local economy is currently in the grave because the UPND Government is not taking practical steps to avert the situation apart from the cheap talk Zambians have been subjected to in the last three and half years. We can foresee severe hunger in the first quarter of 2025 as we wait for the harvest season,” he said.
Mr. Kashinga bemoaned the reported lack of activities at Mopani Copper Mines and Konkola Copper Mines despite the arrival of investors to run the two mines last year.
“In the mining sector, the much talked about and alleged revival of Konkola Copper Mines and Mopani Copper Mines has not yielded positive results despite the arrival of foreign investors to run the two mines. We can safely tell the people of Zambia that nothing new was happening at KCM and Mopani because the investors at the two mines are broke and have not invested the huge funds as promised. International Resources Holdings (IRH) at Mopani and Vedanta at KCM are literally doing nothing to revive the two mines because there is clearly a lack of political will to stir the mining sector,” he said.
On the political scene, Mr. Kashinga reiterated that democratic space declined further in 2024 as he cited arrests of opposition political party leaders, long detention and denial to have rallies as undemocratic tendencies.
“Politically, in 2024, we saw democratic space shrink to unprecedented levels with the infringement on freedoms and human rights by the state as the order of the day. The Socialist Party was on several occasions stopped from holding rallies and mobilisation meetings. Not even Churches were spared from State orchestrated attacks on human rights and freedoms. Opposition political party leaders have continued to be arrested and detained without trial. If freedoms and human rights are not guaranteed going forward we won’t have free or fair elections in 2026. Leveling the playing field for the 2026 General Elections must start now. Failure to respect the separation of powers by the Executive is not helping matters,” Mr. Kashinga said.
He demanded the immediate leveling of the playing field for all political players ahead of the 2026 General Elections.
“Furthermore, the Electoral Commission of Zambia (ECZ) is far from being impartial because it is managed by politically aligned individuals. We have seen rampant vote buying, bribery, violence and intimidation by the UPND during recent elections. We are also aware that the State House is interfering in the operations of the judiciary as evidenced by some questionable judgments witnessed in 2024.In this vein, we wish to warn President Hakainde Hichilema against thinking that the 2026 elections will be a walkover. President Hichilema has been claiming that no one will remove him from the seat in 2026. The Head of State should know that the power to change government lies in the hands of the people of Zambia,” Mr. Kashinga continued.
“President Hichilema’s must win approach ahead of the 2026 elections is dictatorial and must not be tolerated in a democratic country like ours. The Socialist Party under President Dr. Fred M’membe is ready to unsettle Mr. Hichilema in 2026 with or without is mingalato. Mr. Hichilema indeed is an under-5 politician like President Michael Sata would say because he openly talks about his political moves. Mr. Hichilema openly told the nation about his mingalato and that he was aligning the judiciary to suit the UPND wishes. Finally, we appeal to the people of Zambia to avenge themselves through the ballot in 2026 over the misery they have been subjected to by the UPND Government. The UPND has failed to properly govern the nation as we can see from numerous challenges,” he concluded.
Tell the people (voters) your roadmap. They are the ones to decide whom they want to rule the country. load shedding HOW ARE YOU GOING TO END IT?? Economy.. HOW WILL YOU IMPROVE IT?? How many trains, planes, buses are there to serve the nearly 20million Zambians? 60yrs of independence ONE line of rail instead of two running from south to North and the Copperbelt. START AT GRASSROOTS… How many MPs do your party have in parliament???
Jump on a weighing scale to understand what a terrible year means.
Very useless political charged article without spelling out causes of the problems cited and no solutions whatsoever. What a waste of space and time.
Let us not spend time criticizing without solution to those problems. We want solutions to those problems highlighted, that is what Zambians are interested to hear.
If someone failed to run his own company , then how possible he will manage to run a country, the current leadership is just fine they have gone through the most difficult year 2024 but managed the affairs of the country diligently even if even they found the country on life support machine created by the same violent paya farmers.
Just check the beautiful people of kawambwa acknowledged them through the ballot while those violent people we know went there to preach tribal politics , am sure they are ashamed of themselves , we are one Zambia one nation full stop.
HH inherited a doomed broke Zambian economy .. 20 years of unprecedented foreign borrowings has crimpled the Zambian economy. Zambia is on the right path to recovery, have faith.
Has our debt not gone up ??
forget the excuses which will come forth
Tiki
Has our debt not gone up??
If you inherited a broken economy in order to restart the economy, what do you do? Do simply do some magic? That is why our leadership is using PPP unless not possible. Not what used to happen where money borrowed at high interest rates and most the project were done below standard. Please have a big heart for Zambia.
Opposition parties should do better. It is wrong for them to capitalize on natural disasters like drought to criticize Government. Let them instead tell us what strategies they would have used to mitigate the situation we have found ourselves into.
Hé is a rapper. Hé says things which his own brains cannnot understand. Let u call him DJ Fat T