I’M NOT A DICTATOR
…I want things done – HH
By Fanny Kalonda and Kombe Mataka
I’M not a dictator, I want things done, says President Hakainde Hichilema.
Addressing the AGRITECH Expo Chisamba 2022 yesterday, President Hichilema said Public Private Partnership Dialogue for Development “will be our way of working going forward. Call me any name you want, it’s Okay”.
He also warned that the Ukraine war is bad for the world, “it’s bad for us”.
“This government will not run away from its weaknesses. When it is failing, tell us in the face. Don’t shout at us, just tell us. We have ears, we will hear and listen. When you fail, we will tell you. But we will do it together. How lucky would you want to be to have someone occupying the Presidency who is like you? Use that opportunity,” President Hichilema told the farmers. “I went to Ministry of Health and I saw some of the social media critics saying the ‘President is micromanaging ministers, he is disturbing ministers. He is a dictator’. I’m not a dictator. I want things done. There are not medicines in the hospital, we must get medicines in hospitals because the patient needs the medicine.”
He said he had agreed with the Zambia National Farmers Union to attend the field day event in Mpongwe.
“But I just won’t come to the field day. I want us first to use our brains just to sit and agree, to have consensus on how we can revolutionalise agriculture. And what is missing, government side, private sector sector side, and who else, cooperating partners – technology. Affordable capital. We will pull all that together. Let’s work together in partnership from this month. And any challenge that we face, we must resolve together…
That is not dictatorship. No,” he said. “If we have produced a product that is not selling and the market is in Angola, that platform Mr president [ZNFU’s Jervis Zimba] that problem will be itemised that HH will be travelling to Angola to unlock this market, so that these goods are moved. I will move at your instruction.”
On the ongoing Russia-Ukraine conflict, he said it was bad for Zambia.
“Ukraine is bad for the world. It is bad for us. Cost of fuel has gone up. It means farming costs have gone up. It means we may produce mealie meal which is not affordable to our poor and also to DRC as I said (exports). So we have to address those exogenous variables. But the best way of addressing those variables is to improve, increase our capacity to absorb shocks,” President Hichilema said. “An alternative to wheat growing to Ukraine is Zambia. So the global community must work with Zambia to reduce heavy reliance on one source of wheat, potatoes and else. This country is a special country. This country is second to none. Let us make it happen together. We cannot do it alone as Zambians. We’ll do it with partners. And I want to say to the partners, exhibitors, everybody who is here today, citizens, small operators, Mr president, must be brought into the mainstream of our agriculture support programme. A guy who irrigates an acre is important to us. We must provide to them. The one who is on rain-fed, we must provide for them. Once they produce nothing must go to waste. Public Private Partnership Dialogue for Development will be our way of working going forward. Call me any name you want, it’s Okay. After two, three years, we’ll be all happy that we did it.”
And President Hichilema observed that there was no structured way of working to yield agreements on how to resolve problems in the sector between government and stakeholders.
“I disagree strongly that agriculture must be viewed from a point of view of FISP (Farmer Input Support Programme), fertiliser, seed. It cannot be. It is bigger than that. We will work together to evolve rapidly from political FISP to an agriculture commercial business driven – fully fledged agriculture supply programme, ASP (Agriculture Support Programme),” he said. “We want water harvesting. Small to large irrigation to be brought in this ASP. Value addition to be put together. We want to deal with the issues of importing that which we can produce. As you are aware, I was speaking to the Minister [of Agriculture, Reuben Mtolo]. I was saying we haven’t shut the importation for onions? I won’t say what he said in his answer. I said minister ‘that answer is not good enough’. If they are in transit, we can check the export-import documentation and agree the last onion to reach us will be in 30 days. After 30 days there will be no onion coming here. So that we don’t punish the traders because it is not their fault. We will deal with that, in this instrument correctly together. We want to see the financial product laid on this sector properly. We are working to lower cost of capital overall.”
President Hichilema said there was no excuse for citizens to go hungry when the country was well endowed with natural resources.
“This is a well-endowed country. We are land-linked. Good soils, water bodies are all over. Climate Change is here. We can put in mitigation measures. In this country, we must agree that it should be a production centre. This country should be the processing centre, value addition. This country should be the packaging, repackaging centre. This country should then be the trade centre around agriculture for domestic consumption and export market. There is no way that Zambians must go to bed without food. Truly there is no reason,” he said. “You raised questions in your speech, why should this be like this way? I am here to tell you that you and I are one. Private sector, farmers and government, we are one. We have heard the list of questions. Now we must work together to find the answers to those questions. We as government has been looking around, understanding the sector. As a farmer myself, I farm around here.”
President Hichilema said the government was elected to reconstruct the country.
“Remember we were elected on the ticket of change. The intention was to reconstruct the country. That is the ticket that brought is into government,” noted President Hichilema.