By Mubanga Mubanga
President Hakainde Hichilema says he has learnt from the spies sent around his critics that they are admitting that his administration is delivering.
Speaking during the launch of the Kazungula Bridge Authority in Kasane, Botswana, with his Botswana counterpart President Duma Gideo Boko yesterday, President Hichilema urged reforms in the manner affairs were conducted by removing rigidities.
He said in Zambia his administration’s reforms were delivering results, such that even his critics were now admitting the same.
”Even our critics they say things in public but we send spies around them in privacy, (and) say ah! But these fellows are working eh! They are delivering. That’s okay,” President Hichilema said.
He said he would continue pushing for reforms, and that the private sector working with the government should be leading in pushing for the same reforms.
President Hichilema said when reforms were embraced, they would result in the growth of the resource envelopes that would enable government to support the citizens.
He said the value of bridge went beyond the four countries, namely Zambia, Botswana, Zimbabwe and Namibia to the wider continent of Africa and the world.
He said there was need to be broader in the management of bridge in order to draw benefits from the same
President Hichilema said he was told by one of the ministers from Botswana that Kazungulu was now the preferred route for those coming from the north.
”Our ambition is to get to a thousand tracks daily that will translate into more goods passing through the bridge,” the President said, adding that he wanted to see return loads in turnovers in the countries involved.
He said the bridge must translate into benefits for both countries, adding that the Africa Continental Free Trade area could not exist in the air, as it needed to be anchored by infrastructure such as the bridge.
He said the asset had ameliorated the negatives lost through accidents and lives before the construction of the bridge.
President Hichilema urged for more joint ventures between the two countries.
He said that the next time President Boko would be in Zambia, he would invite him to talk to his cabinet, and would do the same if he were allowed in Botswana.
And President Boko said the border would now operate 24 hours daily.
He said the Botswana Stock Exchange was able to bring about the technology needed for the non-stop border post, saying said people wanted results and their lives to change and there was no luxury of time.
He said Zambia was able to mobilise funds from the Botswana Stock Exchange to develop their factory plant in Zambia.
President Boko said finance must be mobilised for development and transformation.
