President wants rural constituencies to be proud like those in towns – Moyo
By Christopher Miti
LUANGENI Independent member of parliament Moses Moyo says the vision of President Hakainde Hichilema is to ensure good life is enjoyed by all Zambians and not only in Lusaka.
Featuring on Breeze FM’s political hour on Friday night, Moyo who is also second deputy speaker of National Assembly said the Head of State has put up good programmes that will help improve the livelihood of people.
“The vision of the President, the people in the east, I am the second deputy speaker of National Assembly, I grew up from here, I am your child… A lot of money in the previous governments was being concentrated in towns. When you go to Lusaka you will find good roads that were done at $1 million per kilometre. The government used to borrow a lot of money which was mainly channelled towards Lusaka roads. And yet they were not putting money in the social sector for us in rural areas,” he said.
Moyo said the increased Constituency Development Fund is a start of good things to come.
“This is a new policy and it has its own challenges but let’s give it a bit of time. The vision of the Head of State or our President is to ensure that life in villages improves. Life should not only be good in Lusaka,” he said. “The President wants even us in rural constituencies to be proud just like those in towns.”
Moyo said certain things are moving slowly because the country is heavily indebted.
“When the President assumed office, I am a well-informed person because there (at parliament) we have an oversight committee, Public Accounts Committee, I know the level of pilferage that went on. I am well informed. A lot of money in this country did not go well. Again the country is in debt. The debt starts from the head to the toe,” he said. “The government is renegotiating debt and once this is done there will be a lot of money in the social sector and a lot of developments will take place.”
Moyo urged Zambians to give government chance and be observant to what the government was doing.
He also said he has embarked on a project of building teacher houses by donating cement to various schools.
Moyo said the recent employment of teachers has also raised the demand for teacher houses.
“In Chipata Chire, I am building two teachers houses. Kafoteka we are doing something. At Chifunge I gave them 50 bags of cement. When it comes to houses at Chankhonzi School, we gave them cement and at Mbazima we also gave them 50 bags of cement. This was also done at Chinyama in Khova ward,” he said.
Moyo said also the new clinics would have maternity wings to promote maternal health in the constituency.
He said he was saddened that some youths did not take up CDF bursary scholarships.
Moyo suggested that colleges should give students one bill for tuition, accommodation, and food.
On Chikando Boarding School, Moyo assured the people that the construction of the school would be completed because he has already engaged Minister of Education Douglas Syakalima.
“We engaged the Minister of Education and minister of Finance [Dr Situmbeko Musokotwane]. I am assuring that this school will be completed. The Minister of Finance toured the school when he came to tour the one-stop-border post. This is a school that has remained incomplete from the time of my predecessors such as hon Angela Cifire, Hon Zulu Charles and now the government has assured us that the school will be done so that we can also have a boarding school in Luangeni,” he said. “We don’t have a boarding school. The only boarding school is the Catholic run St Mary’s Junior Seminary for boys.”
Moyo also said new maternity annexes would be built in Luangeni and the first one will be at Kayeka.
He said he has sunk 105 boreholes in the constituency in the past one year in conjunction with various partners.