By Kombe Mataka
PRESIDENT Hakainde Hichilema says he has stopped his biological children from working for government to leave job spaces for other citizens.
Speaking to journalists during a cleaning exercise of Lusaka’s Central Business District (CBD), which were among activities held to commemorate the Kenneth Kaunda Day, President Hichilema who was cheered but street vendors and bus drivers at Lima Tower Station, said his children already benefited from his savings from self-employment.
“I was always self-employed. I started working for myself when I was 27-years-old. That is true. That is good. That is fantastic. My biological children have been stopped by me and my wife from working for government. None of them work for the government. Why? It is to leave space for your children and yourself to work for your government,” he said. “Because HH’s children are privileged, now that they are privileged, they must also allow others to have access to income. Same principle. I am funded but by myself. The little investment we made when we were working for ourselves for such a long time is now to allow others to have access to opportunities that is why I sought public officer.”
President Hichilema said as man who was brought up by a villager he was part and parcel of the community of street vendors and street kids.
“HH is part of this community. I am part of the street vendors. I came from them. I was bred by a village woman. I am them, they are me. I cannot succeed when they are not succeeding. Together we should succeed. So HH is bred by these people,” he said.
President called for patience as people were waiting to see results.
“Those benefits are not for me. As you know, I have not taken my salary since I took office. My mind is not even there. My mind is where these people are. How they are sleeping, how they are eating. What is the environment, is it clean? That is where my mind is because we love them,” he said in explaining his intention of his salary. “We are working on something. We want to find beneficiaries of what will come from the President. My team is working out on (identifying) who are the beneficiaries. Orphans? You know I love school. Education will be part of it. When my team has decided then those beneficiaries that would will be identified, I will ask my friends, farmers to contribute, then I want to ask my friends in the international community to also include and add something. Then when we roll out that fund, more beneficiaries will come out of there and then I will be a proud person.”
And President Hichilema said cleanliness is important.
“We should not just look like…we should be orderly then we can reduce the disease burden, then we can raise our children in clean environment. When they grow up they will learn to understand that ifiko (dirt), dirt is not good. When we cook and sell good, where we sell our food from, it must be clean so that we don’t infect the very customers,” he said. “Cleanliness is important. We must keep our surroundings clean. Our hygiene and sanitation has to be good because we can reduce the diseases burden. And also it shows who we are. It shows who we if we are clean. We need to keep our homes and surroundings clean. We need to work on the drainage. I know the drainage situation in Lusaka. I am aware of the water situation. This is why we have increased the CDF (Constituency Development Fund) to allow local people to decide where water is in short supply. To decide where they need to put garbage collection and collect it properly. These are part of local decisions. I expect the constituencies to clear garbage because they all have resources. That is what the resources will be for, number one. Number two, they have revenues. They now have revenues from markets. Every constituency which has a market, a bus stop, being taken away by party cadres, we have restored that to them. They must be able to clean every constituency. It is easier for the local authorities.”
And President Hichilema said Dr Kaunda’s way of life should be emulated.
“You know KK was a special person but not only to our country but to our region and to the global community. He was a semblance of a human being. One who offered himself for the service of others for years. He started as a youth, as a young person in his twenties you know. Left teaching, went out to serve the people until his time in government was over,” he said. “I think we must emulate him. We must work hard. We must be human beings and feel what other people feel and in office work hard to alleviate the lives of our people. We really need to keep the city clean.”
President Hichilema said he drew inspiration for his free education policy from Dr Kaunda.
“I am a product of KK’s free education system. Are you surprised that once we took over office one of our first steps was to restore free education? You shouldn’t be surprised because we who benefited from KK’s social community policy now that we are in office, where he sat for 27 years as I am, I must emulate. How do I emulate? Free education. More Constituency Development Fund. The CDF is part of the Kaunda vision. We carry on with that but we want you the young generation to do the same because you are the majority. You are the leaders of today and tomorrow, so let us emulate leaders like KK,” urged President Hichilema. “…We must be humanists every day. Today is KK’s day. I come out…dirt should not be collected because the President is here. It should be daily. Human behaviour, love towards each other, supporting each other, inclusions, unity not divisions. I look at you from the mouth, I can’t tell who your mother is, can’t tell what language you speak. You are a citizen. You are a child of God. If we treat each other that way with respect, humanism will not be for week, in a year. It will be every day. I want it to be every day.”