Dear Editor
President Hakainde Hichilema and his government have completely failed to prioritize top notch service delivery to the people of Zambia as expected and as promised. Their failure to stabilize the prices of essential goods and services such as food stuffs, fuel, and electricity to mention a few is profoundly evident.
It is the same story when it comes to addressing poverty as the majority of our population is still languishing in abject poverty. Lack of equipment and medicines in government healthcare facilities is still a major concern as poor people are dying every day in these facilities because they do not have money to buy drugs, needles and cylinders as the only thing they get from these hospitals is a prescription.
Mine workers are also still faced with challenges of poor working conditions and wages; farmers are still experiencing late delivery of farming inputs.
When Zambians voted for change, they hoped for a change in human development and human capital, and they expected Mr Hichilema to attend to their basic needs. They voted for change because they hated the living condition in the previous regime. It is unfortunate that the situation has worsened and President HH appears to be very insensitive with regards to the suffering of the poor Zambian people.
Poverty being a major challenge in the country, late delivery of Farmer Input Support Program packages sends a bad picture on the government’s commitment to poverty reduction and improvement of the agricultural sector; late delivery of fertilisers through FISP will increase poverty levels in the country because the majority of our population derives its livelihood from agriculture. Food and Agricultural Organization of the United Nation indicates that, “almost 72 percent of the Zambian population is engaged in Agricultural activities.” And according to the International Trade Administration, “small scale farmers represent the vast majority (approximately 90 percent) of Zambia’s agricultural producers are generally subsistence producers of staple foods with occasional marketable surplus.” In this regard, late delivery of farming inputs has the potential to impact negatively on the food security and worsening poverty and hunger in the country.
According to the UPND Manifesto and I quote, “Agriculture is the critical priority sector in the growth and poverty reduction agenda of the UPND government” (UPND Manifesto 2021-2026, pg. 19) end of quote. The failure to deliver faming inputs on time is on itself an insult to the UPND manifesto. It is a shame that Mr Hichilema and his government have failed to deliver according to their manifesto.
Therefore, Mr. HH and his government should stop exacerbating suffering of the poor Zambians through witch-hunt and trying to fix previous government leaders and arresting opposition political party leaders as witnessed everyday. Instead they should prioritize top notch service delivery. Find solutions to the obtaining abject poverty, hunger, lack of equipment and essential drugs in public hospitals and unemployment. President Hichilema should be reminded that he was voted into power not to fix the PF and opposition political parties but to fix the suffering of the people and the economy. Not to worsen poverty and hunger, but to reduce them.
The people have the power!
By Joseph Kangwa,
Member of the SP Copperbelt Media Team
