HICHILEMA SHOULD HAVE FOCUSSED ON SOLUTIONS THAN PRAISING HIMSELF – SICHINGA
Hakainde Hichilema should have been focused on announcing the imminent load shedding and the solutions he had for the same rather than praising himself, says former Commerce minister Bob Sichinga.
Sichinga told Daily Revelation, that the excuse by Zesco board chairperson Ncube that he misled the President was simply an act made to save President Hichilema’s face.
During the last press briefing the President held he challenged anyone to raise a hand if they were experiencing load shedding, and boasting that he had managed to address the problem because of the work he was doing in the background
“If the President does not verify information that comes to him or he wants to justify that he’s a better leader because he solved the problems and then it turns out that he has not even solved the problem it reflects badly on the President himself because he is the one making the statement,” Sichinga said, saying the fact that the President addressed the nation barely seven days before the crippling load shedding started, the matter should have been very serious to have verified throughly and addressed heading into the new year. “Rather than praising himself he should have been saying look we have the following challenges ahead of us in the New year and my government intends to tackle them in this way.”
Sichinga said challenges would always be there for any nation but the key was to resolve what would be done about them, and that the President should have been telling Zambians that because of the challenges, the government would expedite the processes of bringing on stream new sources of power especially those which are not jointly owned.
He said there were so many areas in the country, especially Luapula with its massive water bodies, where additional hydro-power could be generated, including for industrialization.
Sichinga urged President Hichilema to undertake his own projects, adding that his predecessor Edgar Lungu did not start the Kafue Lower but he implemented it and should be given credit for that just as the commissions President Hichilema was undertaking now were not his projects.
On the argument by Zesco board chairman Ncube that he misled the President, Sichinga wondered why Ncube could have misled the President, especially that the head of state has got many methods of verifying issues in his own described ‘methodical ethos’.
He said even if at State House they may not have power shortages, verification could simply be done by asking a few people from the compounds and townships, saying the journalists simply did not confront him on the issue on account of being polite and also because opportunity was given for people to asks questions but not follow up ones.
“And the reason why Mr Ncube is there is because the President knows him personally from the industry from which the President was operating…the question Mr Ncube must answer is why did he mislead the President? What was his objective?” Sichinga asked. “So it seems to me he’s simply taking this in order to deflect criticism against the President because the President himself could have called the intelligence…minister to say can you people verify before he made that statement. As far as I am concerned it’s clear that he’s looking to save the President’s face.”
Sichinga further wondered why it had to take the President to go to Maamba and not his minister or even Ncube to verify the matter before he told the President.
“To cut power by 12 hours is a serious matter that should have thoroughly done by the technocrats. You cannot expect the President to do the jobs the ministers, the technocrats should be doing,” said Sichinga, adding that Ncube should in fact resign if he was genuine with his claim that he misled the President.
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