By Staff Reporter
Zambians should just endure the pain because things are going to be better, says ZNBC board member Dante Saunders.
And former Foreign Affairs permanent secretary Ambassador George Zulu says Indeni must be allowed to operate as a parastatal for the good of the nation to compete with other oil marketing companies, when asked on information that the UPND administration is moving along that path.
Speaking with Daily Revelation, Saunders, a longtime supporter of the UPND, said the UPND administration took over the leadership mantle when the country “could not sink lower than it had sunk under the PF administration.”
He said it said a lot about the state of the country when President Hichilema came in and said that he would turn things around, saying he was pleased with the progress the UPND administration had scored thus far, adding that some decisions made seemed harsh but he could see light at the end of the tunnel.
“We should just endure the pain because things are going to be better. There is no sweet without sweat … The remedies coming in are nice. The fight against corruption is there and the fight against unemployment,” Saunders said. “If UPND had taken over from where KK left we could have been a different country altogether.”
Saunders said as member on the ZNBC board he was focused on improving the working conditions for the journalists.
And Amb Zulu said as opposed to the likes of Stephen Kampyongo who is said to have said that the UPND administration was making late founding president Dr Kenneth Kaunda seem intelligent, Dr Kaunda had foresight in that while he could not enjoy free education he made education free for all when he assumed office.
He said because of the problems Zambia had with apartheid South Africa and racist Southern Rhodesia (Zimbabwe), where they even closed trading route, Dr Kunda opened up trading routes to the north, including the establishment of Indeni.
But asked on information that the government was working on transforming Indeni into a parastatal to start producing products like ethanol and to compete with other oil marketing companies, Amb Zulu said that would not be the first time such a thing would be happening if the information was true, as even during the administration of late former president Frederick Chiluba, the company was given to Total.
Amb Zulu said the government was simply working at improving Indeni in order to also protect the jobs, arguing that they were doing the same thing even in countries like Zimbabwe.
