ABOUT THE SELFIE PRESIDENT: A CASE OF FLOOD VICTIMS- Sean Tembo

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Sean Tembo

ABOUT THE SELFIE PRESIDENT: A CASE OF FLOOD VICTIMS

By Sean Tembo – PeP President

1. By now, those who have studied President Hakainde Hichilema know that when a national crisis arises, his approach is largely centered on creating a public perception that he is sorting out the problem, rather than actually sorting out the problem.

2. And so it was that on Saturday, he went to visit flood victims in Kamwala South. As shown on his Facebook page as he live-streamed, the houses there are completely immersed in water. Under those circumstances, President Hakainde Hichilema’s Government was supposed to evacuate all the affected people together with their personal belongings, and erect makeshift tents in a dry area where these people can live until their flooded houses are dry again. That is what a responsible Government does.

3. But not with Hakainde Hichilema. He has no time or resources to actually help these flood victims. It is always about him and never about the people. All he could do was go assemble cameras to film these people who are in dire straits, and create an impression that he is doing something about their problems, then go back home and forget about them altogether. To make the selfies that he took more impactful, Hakainde made sure that he was accompanied by notable cronies such as the DMMU Coordinator and ZNS Commandant, so that the Zambian people can think he was there to help the flood victims, when in fact he was there merely to take selfies.

4. However, for the UPND Kamwala Ward Councilor Mr. Mainda Simataa who is too naive to know that his President is a pretender and has no intentions of actually assisting flood victims other than to just take selfies with them, he led a group of Kamwala South flood victims, to the DMMU headquarters to go and ask for assistance. Of course President Hichilema was non-chalant about the fact that his own Councilor had exposed him and his Government that they were failing to assist flood victims despite alot of sweet talk on television.

5. The President was swift in sending police officers to detain UPND Councillor Mainda Simataa and record a warn and caution statement against him, as well as to tear-gas the flood victims who had assembled at DMMU headquarters asking for assistance. Hakainde’s wrath did not end there, as he instructed the UPND leadership to immediately suspend Councillor Mainda Simataa from the party. And yet, the Councillor merely did his job by advocating for his constituents to be assisted by either pumping the water out of their houses or being evacuated to dry land. Is that too much to ask?

6. The question is; if President Hakainde Hichilema’s Government is failing to assist flood victims just here in Kamwala South, barely 3 kilometers from Community House where he lives, then what are the chances that he can assist flood victims in far-flung areas of the country such as Mambwe District, Namwala, Shang’ombo etcetera? Indeed, l feel pity for those who still have hope that Mr. Hakainde Hichilema means well for this country.

7. When there are drug shortages in hospitals, he assembles a camera crew, goes to Ministry of Health headquarters and takes selfies with officials there, while drug shortages continue unabated. When there is a load-shedding crisis, he again assembles a camera crew, travels to Kariba dam, and announces that the dam is leaking… at 20 liters per second!!! Personally, l will not be surprised if he soon assembles another camera crew and storms the Bank of Zambia vaults to take selfies with the Zambian Kwacha, given the rate at which the Kwacha has been depreciating of late !!!

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SET 27.02.2023

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