By Mwansa Kamba
President Hakainde Hichilema has urged students who graduate from colleges and universities to engage in volunteering once they graduate from their tertiary studies.
And President Hichilema said the government would now pay exam fees for students in public secondary schools to enhance free education.
President Hichilema also said that since those in NRPUP were saying they would take the country back to how PF governed it, it meant that pangas would be back in markets and meal allowances will be taken away from students.
Addressing thousands of students who turned up at State House yesterday, President Hichilema urged them to start volunteering after they graduated from colleges and universities.
“When you graduate you must show an example by working even as a volunteer then we will reach you out and we will fwanta (give you) you a job,” President Hichilema said.
He said he would work with student leaders from colleges and universities to give him names of volunteers to take care of them.
President Hichilema promised to push student internship harder in his second year to attach them to organisations as they are studying.
He said he was so humbled and acknowledged student leaders as he did not segregate where students came from.
“I see you as my friends. Yes I’m your Bally but I see you as my friends … and I mean that,” President Hichilema said, and recognised those at State House who had coordinated with student leaders to organise the event.
He said he hoped they would keep him in State House for another five years as he did not take the favour granted to him for granted.
President Hichilema said politics was not a game but serious business, with education sitting as his number one priority.
He said the government had taken over payment of exam fees for secondary school children
President Hichilema said meal allowances were here to stay and was looking at expanding them.
He said last year the country recorded the highest pass mark in public schools since independence.
President Hichilema said he was focussed on exponentially growing the economy after the heavy lifting in the first term, and urged the students that he needed to protect the gains through re-election.
President Hichilema said the boys in the Tonse Alliance were the same ones who were ministers under PF.
“Are you not the same genetic material? Physiologically you are still the same tissue and material … your habits are still the same. Isn’t it? So they changed their names from PF to Tonse is there any difference? Are they not the ones who stopped building hostels or meal allowances,” President Hichilema asked.
He said since those in the NRPUP were saying that they would take the country back to how PF used to govern it, it meant that pangas would be back in the markets and that student meal allowances would be taken away
It means metal allowances will be taken away. It means pangas will be reintroduced in the markets.
“Do not be duped. In Bemba we say akabwelelo kalalya,” President Hichilema said.
He said he always old First Lady, Mutinta, and his children that he was no longer just her husband and their father but the father to 21 million Zambians.
