HH says PF Blame him for Every Political Calamity that Befalls them

UPND President Hakainde Hichilema says the Patriotic Front has a tendency to blame him for everything that goes wrong in the country.

And Hichilema says the only dialogue he would be part of would be the one overseen by the church as he sees them as an unbiased negotiator.

Featuring on a Special Muvi Television live program, Hichilema said Zambia was in a state of economic meltdown.

The UPND leader said that the PF had blamed for every political calamity that had befallen them.

He said that they had even blamed him for examination leakages that had led to postponements for the 2018 grade 7, 9 and 12 exams.

The UPND leader said even the economic challenges that the country was going through were being blamed on him.

Hichilema said government was running the country down through heavy borrowing.

He said that 87% of domestic revenue in the 2018 budget was already gone through debt servicing and salaries for civil servants.

The UPND president said that his party had predicted the debt crisis as far back as 2012 and throughout the years but were labelled bitter.

“We were made to believe that there would be more money in our pockets, lower taxes and more jobs. When we said in 2012, 2014 and 2015 that the country was heading for an economic crisis, we were dismissed. Ati HH naye akonda kukamba kamba (HH likes talking),” he said.

“Simply put we are in an economic meltdown. It is affecting everyone, people are going to bed hungry, children can’t go to school, and 70% of graduates from tertiary schools are walking the streets without jobs. This is what is called a meltdown.”

Hichilema said 43% of the budget would go towards debt servicing while another 44% would be for salaries for civil servants.

“You can see the pain of nkongole (debt) in high fuel prices, high taxes, borehole tax, withholding tax and very soon an increase in electricity tariffs, let me inform you that electricity tariffs will be increased very soon,” he said.

Hichilema said that a UPND government would reduce taxes to widen the revenue base.

He said that Zambia had an acceptable fiscal deficit that was driven by heavy borrowing.

“There is no money being raised in the economy, they will spend more money than they will raise. The only way to support expenditure will be for them to borrow more,” he said.

On national dialogue Hichilema claimed that the UPND had always been ready for dialogue as long as it is presided over by the church.

“We were ready for dialogue yesterday, we are ready for dialogue today and we will be ready for dialogue the day after. We agreed that the church should lead the dialogue, especially that this is a Christian nation,” he said.

“The church has the credence to lead dialogue. They did it in 1991 because the church is reasonably unbiased. The church has no reason to discriminate so let us stick to the church and get on with the dialogue.”