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The Citizens First party has criticised the government for a disconnect between policy pronouncements and tangible economic outcomes, particularly in the agriculture sector.
Party National Chairperson, Faith Munthali, said the government’s rhetoric on supporting agriculture and family values rang hollow while farmers face financial ruin due to unpaid dues.
In a statement issued in Lusaka on Tuesday, Munthali urged the government to exercise fiscal responsibility and ethical stewardship of public funds to genuinely serve the people.
She highlighted that recent allocations for the Constitution Amendment Bill No. 7 and by-elections, such as in Chawama Constituency, demonstrated a clear political capacity to mobilize resources for legislative priorities.
“Yet, this same political will evaporates when it comes to fulfilling a fundamental duty: ensuring our farmers—the backbone of our food security and rural economy—are paid what they are owed,” Munthali said.
She described the delays as not merely a budgetary issue but a profound failure of governance and moral prioritization, calling for urgent redirection of political capital and administrative focus.
“This is a matter of political choice. Funding one initiative while neglecting a crisis in another sector reveals a hierarchy of interests that sidelines the public good,” Munthali said.
She urged the UPND administration to implement transparent and accountable mechanisms to prevent such failures in the future.
“Our children learn about justice, fairness, and leadership from what they see. Right now, they see a system that can act but chooses not to. This erodes public trust and undermines the social contract,” she said.
Munthali demanded that the government align its legislative priorities with its constitutional mandate to protect citizens’ welfare.
“Prioritize our farmers. Secure our food sovereignty. Honor your commitments. The political choice you make now will define your legacy and shape the nation our children will inherit,” she said.
However, Chief Government Spokesperson, Cornelius Mweetwa, attributed the delay to pay the farmers to bank procedures and not lack of money by the UPND admimistration.
Mweetwa said the monotonous bank process was what was slowing payments to beneficieries, contrary to speculations by some sections of society that the government did not have the momey to settle the farmers.
Citing himself as an example, Mweetwa said arising from the presidential directive that all ministers and Members of Parliament should produce something, he took about 3,000 bag of maize to the Food Reserve Agency (FRA).
He, however, regretted that as part of the procedure to access his payment, the bank subjected him to a tedious process, making him sign about 40 receipts, photocopied the same and made him sign again.
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