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New Heritage Party Leader, Chishala Kateka, says the ruling United Party for National Development (UPND) administration’s honeymoon is over and should stop the blame game for the state of the economy.
Kateka is disappointed that the UPND had been in power for two years and four months and still pointing to the Patriotic Front (PF) for their ineptitude and incompetence.
The New Heritage Party leader said this in a statement issued in Lusaka on Sunday.
“In change management, there is something that is called “The Six Months Rule”. That means that when you take over a role, you are at liberty to blame your predecessor for all that goes wrong,” she said.
Kateka stated that this was an acceptable practice, but was only allowed to go on for six months, and that this was known as the “honeymoon period’’.
She argued that the six-month period was an acceptable time for the UPND to settle into their role and to take complete charge.
“After that period, the country is now squarely within your hands and you must take the blame when anything goes wrong as the ‘honeymoon’ is now over,” Kateka stated.
She said UPND’s failure after the six months period should be heaped on them because they were the ones holding office.
Kateka noted that after the 1991 elections, the Movement for Multi Party Democracy (MMD) had inherited an economy that was in a much worse state than what the UPND inherited from the PF.
The New Heritage Party leader claimed that within six months of MMD taking over power, there was a visible improvement in the economy.
“The MMD did not continue to point at UNIP but simply rolled up their sleeves and got their work done,” she said.
Kateka stated that this was however a different breed of leadership – men and women that faced problems head on and not given to posturing.
She wondered how the Minister of Local Government and Rural Development, Gary Nkombo, could tell the nation that street vendors had come back on the streets because Edgar Lungu had come back into politics.
“How ridiculous is that? Why not just use the Council Police to get rid of those vendors that have come back on the streets?” Kateka questioned.
She said when predecessors were blamed, a culture of ‘opting out’ of accepting responsibility becomes the order of the day and becomes entrenched, it becomes a culture.
Kateka stated that this had now become the modus operandi for the UPND.
“Pointing to predecessors, for all of UPND’s failings, is such a tired tactic. As Zambians, we are frankly tired of this and are looking for performance,” she said.
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