LOAD-SHEDDING DUE TO BALLY’S POOR LEADERSHIP – KAUNDA
…says Zambia needs a leadership that will take very difficult and bold decisions in mitigating the challenges
Lusaka, Friday, January 6, 2023 ( Smart Eagles )
Socialist Party (SP) National Youth Chairperson Kelvin Kaunda has castigated President Hakainde Hichilema over the load shedding that Zambians have been subjected to.
Ending load-shedding was amongst the big promises that the Head of State saw him into power.
He, while in opposition, claimed that lack of leadership was the main source of load-shedding.
In his recent address to the nation towards the end of last year, the President boasted about how he had managed to end load shedding in the period he has been in office.
President Hichilema said there are things that he had been doing in the background that made it possible for the challenge in question to be a thing of the past.
He had even challenged journalists who were present, despite some areas of the country experiencing load-shedding at that time, to raise their hands if there was anyone who was experiencing power outages.
And speaking when he featured on Muvi TV’s “Special Interview” yesterday, Kaunda said Zambians can now equally say load-shedding is as a result of lack of leadership, despite President Hakainde Hichilema being in office.
“…barely 72 hours after the almighty press conference, reality has dawned. It only gets to tell us one this, that it is easier said than done. We need practical leadership that understands how challenges of our time can better be addressed. We have heard a lot of rhetoric over the years, we have heard a lot of promises over the years. And we can’t afford on this same trajectory,” he said.
“We need leadership that will take very difficult and tough decisions in mitigating the challenges of our time. And this approach where we want to be politicking all the time, there is a time when we should do politics and there is a time for us to deal with issues that affect our people. We can’t continue doing politics all the time from 1st January to 31st December, no. I think as a country we need to understand time… we don’t seem to understand when we must do politics and which time requires us to provide practical and relevant leadership which requires dealing with the challenges our people are faced with.”
He lamented that people have been left in pain with the load-shedding that goes on for 12 hours on a daily basis.
Mr Kaunda tipped the new dawn that countries with stronger economies have SMEs that are doing well, which is the opposite of what is happening in Zambia.
The SP Youth Chairperson wondered why the country still exports power.
“We were bragging because we were generating 3,000MW as a country when Iran produces 17,000MW. That 3,000MW we are producing here as a country is basically used in Iran at a radio station and yet we are quick to address our people saying we have addressed the issue of load shedding. And from this 3,000MW we even have the audacity to export electricity,” he said.
“What we want to hear from this leadership is that they are now investing in more power stations. We are not God who can cause things to happen by word of mouth. We are human beings. In things that require effort, apply effort. It’s not about saying we will fix this we will fix that, how are you going to fix? Things are never fixed that way.
Leave a Reply