By Mubanga Mubanga
President Hakainde Hichilema’s press briefing on the drought situation facing the country failed to provide a solution, according to Patriots for Economic Progress (PeP) leader Sean Tembo.
In a press statement, Tembo stated that instead of providing a solution to the drought situation, President Hichilema chose to throw back the problem to the people.
“After indicating how much the Government needs to provide relief assistance for drought victims and that he had a shortfall of K22.2 billion, he ended there without providing a solution of where he intends to get the money. In other words, instead of providing a solution to the problem facing the people, he was giving back the problem back to the people without a solution,” Tembo stated.
He stated despite the President declaring hunger a national disaster three months ago, he had not yet come up the solution to address the situation, stating that it was a mere pronouncement by the President.
“ … Firstly it occurred to me that the President had declared the drought as a national disaster more than 3 months ago, and just left the matter at declaration, with no proposed solution on how he was going to mitigate the effects of the drought. In other words, the President and his Government have been circulating how much will be needed to provide relief assistance to the affected population for the 3 months, meanwhile, the affected people are either sleeping hungry or in the case of rural population, sleeping on world fruits. Are these really the attributes of a serious President who cares about the people?” Tembo asked.
The opposition leader also stated that if President Hichilema was serious about the hunger situation, he could have realigned the national budget by cutting down expenditure on various sectors and channeling it to fight the hunger caused by drought.
“A serious President was supposed to say we have a deficit of K22.2 billion for us to provide relief assistance for the effects of the drought and my Government has decided to re-align the National Budget by cutting down on expenditure for sectors A, B and C so as to mobilize the required deficit of K22 billion which is urgently needed to save lives by providing relief assistance to our population that is hard hit by effects of the drought,” stated Tembo.
