President Banda has challenged Zambians to shed off their dependency syndrome and to take the initiative to develop Zambia themselves. The President said that the best development was that initiated by the people themselves hence the need for them to be involved in it as this would also attract assistance from various co-operating partners.
“Meaningful development can only be achieved through the participation of all people including those at grassroot levels by being committed to eliminating poverty,” he said.
President Banda said this at Chilobwe Basic School grounds in Chipata yesterday when he officially launched the Mfumbeni Five-Year Strategic Development Plan aimed at mitigating poverty in Senior Chief Nzamane’s chiefdom.
Mr Banda said the Zambians can only be proud of themselves if they stood up to the challenge of fighting poverty by making a decision to develop themselves.
He praised farmers in the country for taking advantage of the Farmer Input Support Programme (FISP) to maximize their yields.
“I’am proud that you worked hard and took advantage of the FISP to produce more than anticipated and the country now has a surplus,” he said.
He said, however, that success is only possible through hard work and discipline. Mr Banda said Zambia produced 2.7 million tonnes of maize because of hard work, especially by peasant farmers who received support through the FISP.
Earlier, Senior Chief Nzamane said the Mfumbeni Strategic Plan intends to improve the quality of life among people in the chiefdom through development and prosperity centered on the local people.
He said the association will also plan, mobilize resources, monitor activities and collect data from zones in order to effectively manage the developmental activities.
He observed that despite it being a rural area it has great potential generate wealth but that there is need for people to remain focused on the objective of improving their standards of living.
The Senior Chief said that his subjects are poor because of unsystematic development plans but that the Strategic Plan will enhance coordinated development.
He said Government’s efforts to develop the area had fallen short of people’s expectations and resources allocated to developmental activities did not show clear and prominent results.
Senior Chief Nzamane said this was because people did not contribute to the planning and implementation of the developmental activities.
He cited education, commerce, health and agriculture as some of the sectors the plan will address.
Senior Chief Nzamane said that the association has already planned to have immediate activities of zonal farms to grow maize, groundnuts and millet to achieve food security.
He also said various factors limit access to Voluntary Counseling and Testing (VCT) services for people in the chiefdom.
Senior Chief Nzamane said long distances to medical facilities, some of which are inaccessible during the rainy season and stigma associated with the scourge, hindered access to the services.
He said this is why the plan incorporates programmes aimed at streamlining HIV and AIDS.
In a vote of thanks, Mfumbeni vice-chairperson Festus Ndhlovu said that President Banda’s coming to grace the occasion was testimony of Government’s commitment to support developmental programmes initiated by people in the rural areas.
Mr Ndhlovu said the people of Mfumbeni are happy that President Banda is willing to work with them in alleviating poverty by developing the area.
He said vices such as illiteracy, poor health, poverty and food insecurity have negatively impacted on the people hence the decision to initiate the strategic plan.
“Mfumbeni has suffered negative social, cultural and economic impact of inadequate development due to vices such as high illiteracy levels and deadly diseases such as HIV/AIDS. This prompted the chief to put in place a strategic plan to guide for the implementation process of developmental programmes,” he said.
The 2010-2015 Mfumbeni Strategic Plan, an initiative of Senior Chief Nzamane has received technical support from United States International Development Agency (USAID) and various co-operating partners.
ZANIS
Is the president giving up already? WELL Sir, For Zambia to develop government needs to get involved. UTH is collapsing, mend it, don’t ask locals in Kabwata to do it. Roads need repairs, mend them. All developed nations were developed by unselfish leaders, unlike us, our leaders are selfish. TIn developed countries the leaders worked with their own people and developed their infrastructure and road networks, whole nations. Zambia is peaceful and has never been in a civil war but behaves like one that has been. We have no proper infrastructure, no railway network, not even a international airline. How can government say locals should build Zambia, when they have failed without shame? To develop the nation government MUST get involved that is what happened in developed nations Sir.
The so-called tenders for business allocations of money all the nonesense only favours and feeds corruption.
GRZ should now get it right, if you want investors to come to zambia, build proper roads. Put money into the infrastructure and build railway networks across the country. Ethiopia is doing far better than Zambia, and so are Rwanda and Tanzania. Their leaders are working very hard, they are not just talking and telling jobless people what they should do to get out of hunger situations. Zambia has vast empty lands, and still government is sitting on its hands and doing nothing. They killed the international airline, now they are telling locals to revive it. Landing rights are not run by individuals
Zambians are not lazy, they are hard working people. We need job creation in Zambia. there is cheap labour in our country which many crave, use it. People ae willing to work, build houses, schools, college, universities and hospitals – these institutions are money making machines build more of them.
Employ learned people to help you think the way through to development. Sitting in office and telling people to build roads will not help achieve anything. It is like giving a man a stick to till virgin land and expect him to harvest big crop by the end of the year. LOANS in Zambia are only given to the favoured. It is a practice which creates poverty, spells CORRUPTION
Government should back off calling us lazy, and let the hard working community prosper. We are not lazy. We work on empty!!
Talk of dependancy: who is dependant on whom? Mr President your country does not even own planes.
You produce electricity but you have constant BLACKOUTS.
Zambian children should sort this mess?? What a joke
What a Joke who is flying about in the world looking for Investors???????????????? local Zambians or the Presdent Himself. amafooling yabi guys sometimes it good just to shut the f***** up
Zambians learnt from the best; The government!!! Speaking of dependence, the government entirely depend on foreigners to run the economy
This president is a real joker. Theres simply no statemanship in him. His dressing for a start, his pronouncements, second.. the list is endless. He doesn’t have what it takes. If this is what Zambia can settle for then I don’t know.
Thats what happens when you have a joker for a president !!!! Let him come up with a good plan not this nonsensical advice.What is this advice going to do to an underpaid government worker ? Ala bane.
Nkosi Nzamane, well done! This can only be commended. At last some one in Zambia has seen the light! All the chiefs in Zambia should travel to Rustenburg in South Africa and see the Bafokeng. There they will learn how the people at the grass roots can better their lives in the rural area utilising their own natural resources. Many Zambian chiefs are sitting on gold! But they are quiet happy to let their people wallow in poverty while they are driven along in government donated Pajeros. Bayete, baba Jere, Nkosi Nzamane! Perhaps Nkosi ya ma Nkosi may also learn from this.
Every able bodied Zambian should not be poor. In the west land is so strictly controlled and so expensive to own that people NEED welfare. But not so in Zambia. Zambia is still like the ‘wild west’ 200 years ago! You can settle in any village. A chief can give you a plot of land from which to etch a living. But all lazy Zambians like ‘inswa’ flock to the city lights for scraps. Sir Stuart Gore Brown built a mansion in Shiwa Ngandu in the midst of nowhere when there was no Great North Road and no ZESCO! Come on Zambians, change your attitudes. The richest people on earth are not Professors of economics. Those IT diplomas are a waste of time. Roll your sleeves and hit the road!
Ba The Saint, by the look of it you are at some university, anyway regardless. When you talk about someone having seen the light.Who exactly are you refering to? If its banda, then am afraid you need to have your head examined. banda is a non achiever. Starting from when he was MD for Namboard to when he was governer of Lusaka added to that he is a failed politician. This man has never been able to articulate anything. Look at how he is squandering the presidency.As president how do you honestly expect to move the country forward when you are hardly in the office. He hardly understands his calling, clearly an indication he is the wrong man for the job, God did not put him there but men. Men who basically know his weaknesses, corrupt and lack of seriousness.
banda is one corrupt bugger and lacks seriousness. The people who put him forward understood this very well. Putting him in that position would afford them the chance to plunder at will. And this is exactly whats happening. mulongoti was one of the people that were championing banda’s asendence to the presidency. Look at him now. mulongoti has become rich over night… and the story goes on.
Look who’s talking, put the money where your mouth is.
This is just crap rumbiling,Look at Zambia it looks like a country that just came out of war.
Rwanda is even surpasing Zambia.
RB are you sure you are alright?Maybe RB has early Alzheimer! You are busy promoting the dependence syndrome by going around the world every month(is it every week?)asking other nations to perpetuate this syndrome. Rb has shown that he has no capacity to provide cure for this dependency syndrome but to shoot himself in the foot by telling Zambians not to depend on foreign funds but he is actively doing the same! Lead by example Mr President!Get out of the way, move to the side and let someone who can provide the solutions take over the leadership.
This man is depending on Zambians tax money to enrich himself and his sons. They will be followed and thier end will be worse than Chiluba.
Stop dependency syndrome my foot!
Does he expect ordinary Zambians to believe his message when he himself is busy depending on the health systems of South Africa or Indian, health care systems built by responsible leaders in those Countries, every time he and his minions gets an itch in their “you know what”! How can you promote self-reliance as a leader when the term means completely nothing too you?
Lead by example Mr President! The monies you waste on your countless trips and sending your Ministers to foreign lands for medical treatment could be used to build a lot of infrastructure in Zambia that can spur a lot of self-reliance and development locally. South Africans and Indians are smiling all the way to the bank due to medical-outsourcing by senior govt officials—shame