WHY AM NOT VOTING FOR HAKAINDE HICHILEMA IN THIS ELECTION
By Hope Moonga
If there is one person who has made it embarrassing to be Tonga, it is President Hakainde Hichilema. It is difficult to be honest and proud of one’s identity while being associated with such open levels of hate and division directed at other Zambians.
Let me put it on record: President Hakainde Hichilema and the small group of tribalists around him do not represent how Tonga people are.
We are not a vindictive or bitter people, contrary to the picture painted by the President. It is simply not true that Tongas were being beaten when they arrived in Lusaka, or that people from Sikongo faced such treatment.
I have many Tonga friends and relatives who live and work in Lusaka without ever experiencing anything of the sort.
And this is why I cannot vote for President Hichilema.
I cannot vote for a president who has turned tribalism into his main campaign message. Wherever he goes, he preaches division along tribal lines instead of uniting the country.
President Hichilema has reduced our people to a stereotype. He projects us as citizens who cannot think beyond tribe and whose votes are reserved only for fellow Tongas. This is false. When he eventually leaves office, he must be held accountable for the tribal sentiments he has repeatedly promoted because they ate potentially genocidal.
I cannot vote for a president who is more obsessed with graphs than with the reality facing ordinary Zambians. The reality is that many homes are struggling with hunger.
We have worked hard, yet the environment has become hostile to progress. Hichilema has made living in Zambia unbearable. The cost of doing business and the cost of living have risen sharply.
Instead of fixing these problems, he continues to wave graphs showing that inflation is down and that reserves are healthy.
If the numbers are so good, why is everything still so expensive for the ordinary citizen?
I cannot vote for a president who has damaged agriculture. Farming has been made more expensive and less profitable under his watch.
Today, many of us are farming only for survival, not to produce surplus for sale. The maize floor price has still not been announced. Meanwhile, farmers have no food and have resorted to selling cheaply to nuyers offering peanuts.
It is also sad that farming inputs distribution was selective, my province has normal distribution while other regions were left behind. I cannot accept this selective neglect and the deliberate weakening of agriculture just because it may not directly affect me.
I cannot vote for a president who has created an environment where citizens are silenced so that his supporters can freely attack the opposition.
We now have state-linked hate speech blogs and pages that are well known to the authorities. Some appear to enjoy state sponsorship or protection, with individuals on government payroll spreading misinformation and facing no consequences.
I cannot vote for a president who has delivered no visible development in the Southern Province or in most other parts of the country. He talks endlessly about the Constituency Development Fund (CDF), yet there is little to show for the billions that have been allocated, even in constituencies where tens of millions of Kwacha have been spent. If the results are so poor, why keep increasing the allocation?
I cannot vote for a president who shows no respect for those who held the office before him. He is constantly competing with, and maligning, his predecessors including those who are no longer alive to defend themselves.
Finally, I cannot vote for a president who has welcomed back many of the same individuals previously accused of theft under the Patriotic Front, while continuing to brand the entire PF as thieves. That level of hypocrisy is too much to ignore.
These are the reasons I will not be voting for Hakainde Hichilema in this election.
Ba praise singers Feel free to call me names and insult me but we all know this is the truth. https://zambianwhistleblower.com/
John 8:32 “And you will know the truth, and the truth will set you free.”
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