Lungu’s Lies Will Catch Up With Him -Nawakwi

Edith Nawakwi says President Edgar Lungu is in full campaign mode ahead of the 2016 general elections, which was causing him to make deceitful promises to the people.
And Nawakwi has warned that President Lungu’s lies will catch up with him, following his announcement of the lifting of the wage freeze without consulting his finance minister over government’s ability to increase workers’ salaries.
Meanwhile, the FDD leader said if Alexander Chikwanda had any modicum of decency, he would have resigned as finance minister and walk away after being overruled by President Lungu on the mineral tax system and wage freeze. Commenting on President Lungu’s May Day speech, Nawakwi warned citizens against believing the Head of State’s promises. “The country must get it very clearly that President Edgar Lungu is in a campaign mode for 2016. As you heard him say, he is trying to make his own shoes for 2016, that is the statement.
They are in an election mode and you will begin to see these announcements which have not been thought through or discussed by Cabinet,” she said. “He should have thought through and on Labour Day, he should have instructed the Minister of Finance to start negotiating.
If he said, ‘I have instructed all government departments to start thinking about hiring young people who are sitting depressed at home’, that for me, I would have been running around saying ‘thank you Mr President’. Because then it would have been devoid of the populist position intended for vote buying for 2016.” Nawakwi said the trade unions must be skeptical about the sincerity of President Lungu on the matter. “The trade unions must look at the following: One – is the President being genuine? And if he is genuine, can we have the lifting of the employment freeze because our young people who are dying of depression would also want to benefit from the President’s generosity. But for all intents and purpose, I read deceit in the President’s pronouncement,” she said. Nawakwi further cautioned President Lungu to be careful with lies.
“But you see, when you tell a lie, you must work very hard to cover it [up]. The ploy by government to say keep on negotiating and we will include it in 2017 budget, it will blow up like a katusha rocket and for me, that is my major concern. The sooner the President sits down to think about how he will govern us, the better for us instead of making promises which clearly he has no capacity to fulfil and I assure you at this current level of expenditure, he has no capacity to fulfil negotiated salaries for the public service, let alone the capacity to hire new people and finish the projects that they started,” she said. “This government is virtually bankrupt. Now everyone is excited and they expect something and when you expect something, it must be delivered. I hope the President is aware that he has to deliver at the end of negotiations, and if he is thinking that he will hoodwink the trade unions and the public service up to 2017, he is in for hot soup.” Nawakwi said President Lungu should have instead called for a meeting with the labour unions and the finance minister to understand the challenges on both sides. “And in all honesty, is the office of the Minister of Finance still relevant at this point in time? Under this current Minister of Finance? It is totally irrelevant.
He has been overruled on two major issues. The mineral royalty tax, the wage freeze and I want the President to overrule him equally on employment freeze. If I were Minister of Finance, that would be the last straw in my back, I would walk away. But you see, our friends don’t have the modicum of decency to be able to tell that their policy is defeated even in their own homestead,” said Nawakwi.