AS Zambians grapple with the high cost of living which has seen a price of a bag of mealie meal fetching at more than K200 a kilogramme bag coupled the continued hike in fuel prices, Vice-President Mutale Nalumango says government is with them as it seeks to address the challenges.
Ms Nalumango said when she featured on radio phoenix this morning that government is concerned with the welfare of Zambians and “we have not left you behind”.
“Trust us, we feel what you feel, I am a part of you. We have to work together to resolve [the challenges] wow never said that it would be easy [to address the challenges]. We never promised roses without thorns,” she said.
She however emphasised that as government implements various interventions aimed at addressing the welfare of citizens, it will do so cautiously even if it those decisions will result into them only serving for only for a term.
“Let’s navigate together, it’s better we do one term and leave a positive print. Not to over borrowing [debt] and allowing cadres to do wrong things,” Ms Nalumango said.
She said the New Dawn is just in the driving seat and not a monopoly of wisdom in addressing challenges faced in the country such as the depreciation of the kwacha.
“It [kwacha depreciation] could be that we are an import based economy,” Ms Nalumango said during the call-in programme when citizens aired concerns on the state of the economy and other concerns.
She said while the UPND made various campaign promises, the governing party should be judged based on what it will implement in a full five year tenure in accordance with its 10point plan.
“10point plan is not a magic figure, you need to judge UPND after five years,” she said.
Ms Nalumango said government has so far recorded various successes in accordance with what is stipulated on the 10point plan such as creation of jobs in the health, education sectors and restoration of the rule of law.
“But it’s impossible to do all this [in the 10 point plan] in one year,” she said adding.
A responding to concerns over the late delivery of inputs, Ms Nalumango said the challenges faced during the process were part of the “learning curve”.
On corruption, Ms Nalumango said government has strengthen the fight against corruption with a call on citizens not to hesitate to report suspected corruption to law enforcers even against government officials, including herself.
She said government will work with various stakeholders to address challenges faced in the country because “no one has monopoly of wisdom”.
Some callers called on government to stop blaming the former Patriotic regime over the debt burden each time they are asked to account for the campaign promises.
But Ms Nalumango said the New Dawn has to make reference to the past mistakes, which it is correcting, to find a way of avoiding to repeat them in future.
“Even the last caller made reference to UNIP government,” she said.
(Mwebantu, Friday, 3rd Februray, 2023)
