By Kamuti Muyambela
President Hakainde Hichilema has justified the security cooperation with the United States of America, saying the global security is threatened with new threats hence the need to cooperate with other countries.
Speaking during a media conference today at Mulungushi Conference Centre, President Hichilema was asked about the ongoing debate over the AFRICOM, with some asserting that it was a nascent plot by the Americans to increase their military foothold in the country including coming up with a military base, President Hichilema said there was no military base that was going to be established in the country, saying what was happening was increasing cooperation with other countries owing to the new threats.
He said unlike in past, today’s bombs came silently through drones, saying there was no need to argue today’s security arrangements based on the 1964 arrangements. President urged against involving politics over issues of security.
President Hichilema said there was the issue of illegal mining for instance and that most of those involved in the activity were coming from areas where there was conflict in order to sustain the fight, and therefore it was wise for the country to compare notes with other.
He said the threat level was serious and that governments share intelligence to secure stability.
President Hichilema said in the previous government the two former Defence ministers would have been arrested for saying what they said recently when they featured on a radio programme.
He said the narrative had changed from the time he was in the opposition when his opponents asserted that he would divide and sell the country if he were elected to now being accused of wanting to sell the country to the Americans and the Germans.
President Hichilema urged the media to create another narrative anchored on truth, saying many people though he was a masonist and satanist because the media gave legs to those assertions.
“I am hoping you can tell the nation that someone is stealing money somewhere which is meant for the public,” he said.
President Hichilema also said there was a law on minimum wage coming and that the same should apply to those in the media.
On the cyber security act which he opposed when in opposition, President Hichilema promised that it would be reviewed and that the media must work with him and that specific proposals must be put in place. However, the expectation from the general public is that the whole act should be scrapped off, something those in the UPND alluded, including the President himself during his opposition times.
And as opposed to the submission from the media liaison committee that Press Freedom be made a public holiday, the President said he was of the view that it should be a working day on which he would engage more with the media, wondering how many more holidays the country was going to have if president press freedom day were added to the list.
