HH OPPONENTS ASHAMED TO ENGAGE IN CONSTRUCTIVE DEBATE – ANTHONY
By Oliver Chisenga
PRESIDENTIAL spokesperson Anthony Bwalya says President Hakainde Hichilema’s focus is not on re-election but on delivering the goods for the people of Zambia.
He accused opponents of President Hichilema of naturally being ashamed to engage in a constructive debate about successes already recorded.
In a statement on his Facebook page, Bwalya said opponents of President Hichilema are intent on scaling up their “poorly crafted propaganda” to shift the public’s attention away from the incredible works the President and his team are doing to the fortunes of ordinary people.
“Let us be clear: the President has only done a little more than 100 days in office. His focus is not on re-election but on delivering the goods for the people of Zambia on the basis of which they will decide and exercise their democratic rights in five years’ time,” he said.
Bwalya added that while the opponents focus on unproductive propaganda, President Hichilema and his team are focused on delivering a new decentralisation agenda with K25.7 million per constituency in 2022 among other areas.
He said President Hichilema is focused on paying all arrears for all pensioners and putting over 40,000 public workers in the education and health sectors back on the job.
Bwalya said President Hichilema was also fixated on enhancing access to quality education for all children by building 130 new schools and making education free from grades 1-12 and paying all outstanding CDF arrears and settling all Local Government Equalisation Fund arrears.
“Aggressively moving to restructuring our public debt as a means to boost and stabilise the kwacha against major convertibles, with the kwacha already 55 per cent stronger against the US dollar since August 2021, as well as unlocking support to critical social sectors and the return to the rule of law and law and order with markets and bus stations back to the control of councils and a 12 per cent salary increment awarded to civil servants, in addition to scaling up the tax exempt threshold for lower income brackets to K4,500,” he said.
“Compare this to the eight per cent mockery rejected by unions which the old regime awarded civil servants. These and many other constructive milestones were achieved in the first + 100 days of the President’s stay in office.”
Bwalya noted that opponents of President Hichilema would “naturally be ashamed to engage in a constructive debate about these successes because they had a whole 10 years to deliver for the people of Zambia but spent
their time in office engaging in leveraged corruption”.
“We urge the people of Zambia to keep the focus with us as we push the boundaries of possibilities and take the country to the next level,” said Bwalya.