HH MUST OWN UP…and tell people his agenda for Zambia – Changala
By Walusungu Lundu
PRESIDENT Hakainde Hichilema must own up and tell people what is his agenda for Zambia, urges Brebner Changala.
He says while the new dawn government is geared to serve one term, “I beg them not to destroy the country” stressing that Zambians are hurting because there is so much poverty.
“The President must own up and tell the people of Zambia, what is his agenda for Zambia? What is his agenda for the youth? What is his agenda for the Constitution? What is his agenda for judicial reforms? He must call for a national indaba where every concerned citizen must attend and contribute in a manner we are going to be gathered. Not secret meetings with people that will only create suspicions and entrench serious worries as to where this country is being taken by a popularly elected government, the new dawn administration. And we need to know how a group of people can serve the agenda for the President to chair a meeting. We have been told by Jito [Kayumba] that those people that attended, they asked for that meeting and indeed they chose the agenda. And the President presided over a meeting whose agenda was set elsewhere. He must clarify this, otherwise, we are headed for doom,” he told The Mast in an interview. “And this is the more reason the Vice-President can confirm that we are here only to serve one term. Because the Vice-President is very much aware that there is no normal person who can vote for this government once again and they are geared to serve one term. But in that one term, I beg them not to destroy the country. Zambians are hurting. There is so much poverty. There is so much youth unemployment. There is economic failure which we have been entertaining from day one since the new dawn administration came to power. They have been talking about the economy and how they will uplift the people of Zambia out of poverty. They have done it at the expense of structural changes to our Constitution. At the expense of the access to information, at the expense of the operationalisation of the Public Protector, at the expense of judicial reforms…there is no inch in the positive movement of the economy.”
Changala, a good governance activist, accused the government of serving partisan interests and those of foreign investors at the expense of indigenous Zambians.
He said the new dawn regime is for the elite and those who financed the ruling party.
This follows a “secret” meeting President Hakainde Hichilema held at State House with “private sector leaders” on February 3.
The letter of invitation dated 1st February, 2023 for the same meeting which was signed by Jito Kayumba, the special assistant to the President -finance and investment, was marked secret and some 17 “economic” players were invited to attend.
Those that were invited for the same meeting included Sipho Phiri, Ana Hajduka, both from the energy sector, Grant Cumings from the wildlife and tourism sector, Mark O’Donnell from the hospitality sector, Dino Bianchi from the automotive sector, Michael Kroupnik from the retail sector and Dave Bosse from the milling sector. Others are Phesto Musonda from infrastructure, Luxminarayan Subramanian from manufacturing, Eric Stubbs from commodity trading, Ashu Sagar from manufacturing, Muna Hantuba from the financial sector and Professor Oliver Saasa from the mining sector. Diego Casilli from the property sector, Graham Ray from agriculture sector, Mark Luring from construction and David Ndopu are also among those that were invited.
Kayumba’s justification over the matter in question is that those on the list were not selected by State House but that they are the ones who requested for the President’s audience because they wanted to submit some solutions to the economic challenges the country is grappling with.
Due to failure by State House to confirm the authenticity of the letter after it leaked, Changala said the presidency has for the first time become so difficult to be accessed by Zambians.
He wondered why a meeting aimed for the good of the country could be held in secret and that the resolution of the meeting could not be made public while State House failed to confirm the authenticity of the letter.
“It is the presidency, for the first time in the history of Zambia, which is so difficult to access by all those interested citizenry. Whether it’s businessmen, whether it’s politicians, whether it’s civil society, it is a State House which decides who to see, especially men and women of foreign origin. It is a State House that is more accessible to foreigners than to the indigenous citizenry. Now, what is surprising is that they have started holding meetings…a business meeting which is supposed to be in the interest of the nation, inviting participants with State House letterhead that are marked secret, in the first place what is secret about a person being invited to State House and discuss national affairs? Especially when 98 per cent of participants are of foreign origin? And when that letter leaked, there was compulsion. People were not happy – striving on a daily basis – crying to see the President and yet they are blocked by powers that be,” he said. “And yet there’s a group of citizens who can lead the President secretly to decide the fate of the people of Zambia, to decide the economic fate of this country. That is not going to be accepted. That is an uprising against the very people that elected this regime. When that secret letter leaked, the media houses in this country had a problem to confirm the authenticity of that letter. There was a problem because everything was nothing but a secret.”
Changala fumed at the UPND government and advised them to have shame.
He charged that this is the reason Vice-President Nalumango can confirm that we UPND will only to serve one term in government.
“Not even State House could confirm that letter. Now how do you make public the resolutions of the meeting which was secret? You must have an element of shame. How do you make public a meeting which was secret? A meeting you refused to confirm or deny when there was a leakage. We are now seeing a trend that this new dawn government is there to serve partisan interests or the foreign investors,” he said.
Changala wondered why the President could chair a meeting whose agenda was set by some other people.
He stressed the need for President Hichilema to call for a national indaba where all concerned citizens would air their views.
“Now they went further, they start engaging people who do not understand our local challenges, our poverty levels and our suffering. To come and map out a rescue package which they have released in that communique, after the secret meeting held at State House, chaired by an elected President of the Republic of Zambia! Chairing a secret meeting in which an ordinary citizen is excluded because he has no input, his only input is to vote. What happens thereafter, an ordinary citizen must have nothing to do in the management of the country. That we will not accept,” said Changala.