By Walusungu Lundu
THE last six months has been exciting, there’s a lot we have achieved it feels like six years, Thabo Kawana has boasted.
Kawana who is Ministry of Information and Media director said when he featured of Spring TV’s “Crossfire” programme on Monday that the new dawn administration has in the last six months paid a good number of retirees among other people.
Kawana further boasted that the government has been able to pay schools in rolling out the free education policy.
“Within six months, we have been able for example to pay a good number of retirees… We have cleared all the farmers including those that supplied excess maize to FRA. We have paid off councils as far as the equalisation fund is concerned. We have paid off the arrears of the CDF, the 2020/2021 CDF arrears we have cleared all those,” he said. “We have been able to pay schools in rolling out our free education policy. And therefore the amount of work that has been achieved it feels like it’s the work that has been achieved over the period of six months yet we have only been in office for six months.”
On corruption fight, Kawana said the government had given law enforcement agencies autonomy to carry out their work without any aorta of instruction on whom to follow and whom not to follow.
“We have given the law enforcement agencies autonomy, freedom and independence to carry out their work without interference, without undue influence, without any aorta of instruction on whom to follow and whom not to follow. That is the biggest milestone. We have brought back professionalism in the law enforcement agency,” he said.
Kawana argued that there was no soft approach to corruption as others allege.
“You don’t want to take cases to court like we saw in the previous regime where for example then minister of health Dr Chitalu Chilufya was called by ACC, interrogated and taken to court and the state says this man is fit to have such then court wonders why is he in court. What you want is if people are taken before the courts of law, it’s because the state is able to achieve a conviction,” he said.
“So that is not done in a hurry, it is done systematically. So those that are used to quick fixes feel frustrated and feel like it’s taking long but it is never too long for Justice. It is said world over that the wheels of grind slow but they grind.”
Touching on the issue of cadreism, Kawana said what cadres in the previous regime were carrying out was extortion.
He said criminality perpetuated by people in the name of cadres would not be condoned under the new dawn.
Kawana said the government is prioritising fixing the economy so that it begins to perform in as far as job creation is concerned.
And Kawana lamented that UPND found a sink hole, an economy which was badly damaged.
“ZNS is putting up the marijuana farms and they are going to do three cites, each site will employ 1,000 people, and that’s already 3,000. We have got the police, the army…” he said. “And within government itself there are a lot of departments that are employing. We know the economy is biting. We know the cost of living is high because we live with you, we eat what you eat. We go to the same shops that you go to but hang on a little bit. We found a sink hole, we found an economy which was so damaged that it created a sink hole. Now for us to build we have to backfill that hole. We didn’t find it at a place where we could pick it up and go. We found it at zero, so we have to start at zero. And that’s what we are doing now. There was no economy to talk about.”
Meanwhile, Kawana said the roadmap as to when doctors would be employed is there stressing that the programme commenced in January.
He explained that in the 11,200 health personnel to be employed, there are others to be considered such as nurses, physicians, clinicians and cleaners, among others.
Kawana failed to clearly state as to whether all the 800 doctors, some of whom have been volunteering, would be employed./LM