Tasila wants to debate with HH, says its a waste of time to bring in her father

Tasila Lungu

Tasila, the daughter to incumbent president and ruling party candidate Edgar Lungu says it is a waste of time for her father to debate with Hakainde Hichilema.

Hichilema is the main challenger to President Lungu. He is standing on the UPND ticket and has challenged President Lungu to a live debate so the country can tell who is best suited to governor.

But Lungu’s daughter who is also standing as a councilor in one of the wards in Chawama in Lusaka says she is set to take on the UPND Strongman.

Tasila has also charged that the UPND manifesto which she says was produced during founder president Anderson Mazoka is outdated. She says the UPND has no manifesto.

Here is Tasila’s statement:

” I have great respect for elders. It is hard to believe that in this day and age we can still be engaging in debate without clear guiding documents to support our debate.

It is easy to promise heaven on earth; even our uncle Mr. Mulyokela does that but what really matters is that every promise we make should be explained with reference to how it fits into other larger context of economic development.

All nations work with limited resources. An increase in expenditure in one sector means less in other sectors. You can not promise to spend more in all sectors. So the starting point should be developing a very detailed manifesto and development plan detailing how you are going to spend, on what you are going to spend and how you will raise what you are going to spend.

UPND last developed a manifesto in the Mazoka days. They maintained the document beyond its span and now that they know they cant use it any more, they develop ten points on a small pice of paper. That is lack of seriousness. There is actually no basis for debate. PF has a new manifesto 2016 to 2021 detailing achievements and plans.

We also have a PF development operational document detailing the programmes that will be implemented to realise the targets set in the manifesto. This clearly show how resources will be generated and spent with clear projections of growth in all sectors. This feeds into the PF 50 years document which shows long term development planning.

With all this level of detail how do we debate with people who can only manage ten points on quarter a page? There is no time to waste with people whose debate has no basis. The President is way above this level of politics. I challenge Mr. Hichilema to a full day live debate. I am ready for him.”