UNITED Party for National Development (UPND) president Hakainde Hichilema says the Access to Information Law is long overdue and the threat to delay it, indefinitely, is the latest example of betrayal of the Zambian people by the PF Government.
Mr Hichilema in a statement said, “We share the concerns of our brothers and sisters who have spoken out following comments by President Lungu that he may not enact the Access to Information Bill into law. The law is already long overdue and the threat to delay it, indefinitely, is the latest example of betrayal of the Zambian people by the PF Government.”
The opposition leader added that the Access to Information Law was another one of the PF’s election promises in 2011 that 4 years later they are still delaying on.
“Its introduction is widely recognized as being important for both citizens and media representatives so that they can have access to vital information. Government’s unwillingness to empower Zambians with this freedom is disappointing and demonstrates once again their first thought is self-interest, rather than serving the Zambian people, as should be the case,” he said.
Mr Hichilema said that President Lungu’s reference of the media mishandling sensitive information is absurd to say the least. The revelation that his Government borrowed US$192 million to buy military equipment shouldn’t be a basis for acting in this manner. There is no security risk as he puts it. As a matter of fact whatever involves public money must never be a secret. It’s unfortunate that President Lungu, a lawyer, thinks that way.
Mr Hichilema continued, “This is perhaps unsurprising from a Government that has still not held a press conference after more than 100 days in office. State House must improve its communications further. It is only right that the President should update the country regularly on the progress being made to deliver on election promises rather than trying to keep people in the dark.
No doubt President Lungu is concerned about exposing himself to questions and criticism for the other areas in which PF election promises have been quickly thrown aside once they have won. In the UPND we have still not given up our fight for the new constitution as it contains vital provisions to protect the human rights of Zambians and to limit the power of the presidency. Now 1238 days overdue, hope that it will be delivered by the PF is fading however.
Unfortunately at the same time as Government is pushing the new people driven constitution to one side and toying with the Access to Information Bill, concerns continue to reach us of pressure being exerted on several media houses by Government officials and even Ministers. In addition, in the opposition we are almost daily reminded of the need for urgent reform of the Public Order Act, as police officers are sent to disrupt our peaceful meetings with community members.
We are ready to stand alongside other civil society, media and our fellow opposition to push for delivery of the Access to Information Law, and in protest against the continued delay to the new constitution and abuse of the Public Order Act.
We must unite together to protect our democracy and the fundamental rights of each and every Zambian.”
A press conference for what? What does he know about governance? he has never ever been an MP nor a Ward Counselor?
Cannot wait to witness his another and final defeat in 2016.
Nkhosi – I am thinking that he has been informed that the president is about to hold a press conference. After the fallout of the previous careless statement about controlling the intelligence system, he is now trying to cover up. It does not require any intelligence for someone to begin by chastising the media to be professional before parroting the right to ATI. I have never been impressed by this guy’s intelligence.
Only f00ls don’t take HH very serious. His statements about anything regarding governance make a lot of sense. He is by far the most modern leader Zambia needs to progress by any standard.
Any way when the comes he will be president whether PF idi0ts like it or not. People are slowly realising that PF is bunch of f00ls and liars.
Who thought Sata would one day rule Zambia? alas he did and messed up big time.
imwe ba kachema na imwe ba urine drinking leshina,,, You should start thanking ba na Dalisto,,,,, she has opened an orphanage at state house,,, all orphans can apply for appointments,,,, my friend @Nostradamus was criticizing her for letting ba lungu to look ifiko,,, it has come to my attention that she is busy with orphans,,, thats why she cant chisa shirts for the bwana
OF COURSE IT HAS TO MAKE “A LOT OF SENSE” TO HIS SUPPORTERS. US NEUTRAL BYSTANDERS WE BEG TO DIFFER. WANZELU U HAVE ALWAYS SEEN SENSE IN EVERY UTTERANCE FROM HH’S MOUTH BUT WE UNDERSTAND WHY…
YABA! I THINK THIS SERIES IS TOO MUCH.. NEXT PLEASE!
So far in Zambia among all those claiming to be the “it” for leadership, none comes closer to be. they are all shrinks. i think there’s need of someone else not HH, not Kabimba, not NM..EL is already president, not Nawakwi, in short none. they all look lost and out of touch with reality.
Head Kachema. Stop wasting the Press’s time!
Its leaked that the president is about to hold a press conference thats why hh is saying so. He is already being informed by his moles in govt. We know hh wants to capitalize on it and his fullish supporters will start saying its him who forced the President to hold a press conference. Kiikikikikiki
PRESS CONFERENCE FYAKALE NAIMWE BA CHITOMBWA. TULEFWAYA IMIBOMBELE. NEW ROADS, NEW RAILLINES, NEW AIRPORTS.
@ Yebo Nkhosi, I was convinced I would somewhere come across a comment such as yours! You question what HH knows about governance when he has never ever been an MP nor a Ward Counselor!
Many have congratulated the appointment of PM Jr as DPS Eastern Province and condemned those against the appointment reasoning that PM Jr is ill qualified for elevation to this civil service job and rank. Your doubts about HH being short on understanding governance as he has never been a ward councillor or MP fits PM Jr who has never been an Executive Officer or Office Clerk in the civil service! However in politics there seems to be no professionalism which easily qualifies anybody who can rally numbers as opposed to the civil service.
Oh I forgot aiii ….. Chiluba was once an MP and Kaunda too!! So HH has to become an MP too before becoming president including bena Elias …. ili bad ai!!
WANZELU!
Just because one or two people does not agree with what HH says, it does not make them F00LS.
Who qualifies you to call every Zambian who does not agree with HH to be called such delegotary references.
It’s staunch supporters like you are will cost HH the ballot.
Why is that.. its because you are chasing away the very people that want to look at HH and give him chance.
Most readers know that you have become a voice for UPND. Unfortunately, you are not helping HH with would be voters in 2016.
You have caused so much trouble with UPND UK Branch with your conspiracies and lies.
And now you will cost HH elections. Every vote counts.
If I were you, I would concentrate selling the UPND Manifesto; tell Zambians how different UPND is
Then again have you even…
Please give HH credit where need be. HH4K16
Me too I want to come and witness his final defeat.
@ Marvis # 1.1
In so far your neutrality (not ours) is limited to avoiding to comment on 5tupid statements originating from party in government and ridiculing any comments from any other source.
Somehow, thanks to you I have learned meaning of “neutral” according to “closet cadre”. Thanks
Zambians should take this man seriously. People who are not progressive are people like yebo nkhosi above. I am sure PF is his bread and butter in the states. By the time we realise, we will be 100 years behind the rest of the world.
How do you define progressive. is progress synonymous with HH. You must be brainwashed to worship this guy. Zambia has made alot of progress and HH is never in the picture from independence to-date.
He is just a guy who was working for some capitalists and somehow managed to cleverly steal our money from parastatals and now boasting of being the wealthiest man in Zambia. Zambia has much more rich people than HH who are humble.
Is leaking confidential papers progressive. The Americans are trying to prosecute their own now hiding in Russia for the same offence. State secrets are for safety of the country. Do not be careless. HH is such a careless man. His desire for power is making him blind. If he loves Zambia he should not putting this country in danger. That being selfish.
Ati modern politician when he can’t he even visit a barber shop
Bukala bobe you stinking dirty and ugly bastard. First wash your amashinsha in your unkempt pant and trim your ichunsu, dirty pig. Fuseke kolokombwa wakantu. Sela tubombeko kwindi wakantu iwe
YAWN… next please
iwe bootlicker,,, how did you survive xenophobia??,,, come back from exile, RB is now with PF,,,, No one will arrest you for the money you stole during MMD rule
@ Ndobo
and u also wants to still under upnd, if they ever win. as far as i am concerned there’s no patriotic Zambian just political beneficiary hopefuls, be it upnd, mmd, etc.. 99% Zambians dont love their country, and none of the politicians and their cadres..
No pressure Mr. President (Edgar). A citizen cannot force you to hold a press conference. You do that at your own time.
Victor, just like Observer correctly observed, HH may have been informed by his informants in government that EL is thinking of holding a press conference and wants it to look like EL held a conference at his command.
It is very easy by now to read the thinking of HH. He is day by day showing us that he is an political amateur. Always stealing things. If it not money fro our parastatals, it is classified state information. The description of such a person, is that he is a thief.
His predecessor never did. He run out of time.
Why is it that social media comments in Zambia are so backward, only full of insults? There is nothing to learn from most of the comments often written in very poor grammar. Kenya or even Zimbabwe, on the other hand, have extremely informative and intellectually stimulating comments on their social media. Are we just a nation of dunderheads who cannot manage to express a comment without insult because we are incapable of basic reasoning?
Indeed Kamwale the intelligence quotient in the two countries you mention is so high and its disservice to try and compare it to Zambia. In Zambia are a people happy living in squalor and hopelessness who in their poverty despise well earned success always relishing in everything that takes the country years backwards! Reasoning has been exchanged for dumbness!
I think most Zambians are just bitter and lack respect for other peoples opinions that’s why there are so many insults on our social media.Lets be practical and articulate issues of national interest with a view to share knowledge and the way forward.
It is because they understand freedom of expression as a right to show theirs 1mbecility
Wanzeru, what do you mean that HH is the most modern politcian in Zambia?. You must first define your terms before writing. That is a baseless over generalisation. There are many modern politicians in Zambia, some much younger and intelligent than HH.
How go you prove that HH is the most modern politician in Zambia. He has never held any political position other than UPND presidency. So he has nothing to show political experience, We know he was only hand picked to UPND leader because of his money and ethnicity. To me that is not being modern but backward. Regional politics is not being modern.
Comparing him to Sata is not fair. Sata was a very experienced politician than many politician today. HH is under 5.
It is because they understand freedom of expression as a right to show theirs 1mbecility.
Nkosi, you must research a little bit before coming to the media. What political job did Kaunda have before he became Prime Minister of Northern Rhodesia? Sata was a porter on a British train and later police Constable before joining politics. He was the most cantankerous fella to come to politics, no University education, never a business man, just nothing except full of insults. He established PF as an unashamedly ethnic party. He never used English in all his party meetings including important party organs, just Bemba.
Presidential, to the contrary, I do my research. Before Kaunda became PM for NR, he held various politcal positions in ZANC, ANC and UNIP during the colonial times. Sata apart from being police officer, he held various positions in UNIP. His police experience brought him face to face with politics of that day. Even if he was of humble education he was a born businessman. He started his business from the scratch and built it. If you do not know Sata’s business company helped build Lilongwe of Malawi. He was only not boastful as your HH.
Sata was a formidable politician and Zambia is alive to his achievements. What has HH done apart from amassing person wealth.
HH has no historical record in politics apart from from being a UPND leader, Challenge me on this one.
I can give u free…
E
ven if he holds a press conference we ca’nt get h
im clear,balandila mumatobo…..
True mumatobo. Can’t get what he is saying
I cannot understand what HH says too. He speaks like a pregnant cow.
You people, let Edgar Lungu step down. He is very useless.
We should employ him as a garden boy for HH.
Hildah, to the contrary, HH is already a garden boy. I thought he is a farmer? That is being a garden boy. Live politics to politicians like EL and gardening to HH. HH knows gardening better. EL has no idea about about gardening. Ask him about politics, he will surprise you. Do not underrate him. He is a very good politician and formidable too. HH knows this, he thought EL was a push over and he was hit in the same with a sucker punch. He has never recovered since.
Now he is stealing state secrets. How do you trust such a person with instruments of power. He setting a very bad example of leadership. If he was to be President, which will never happen, he would be selling state secrets.
@ Yebo Nkhosi
Can you please clarify who has availed documents related to the transfer of powers between Acting President and Vice President?
It will be also highly appreciated if you can give your opinion why AG; SG; DPP and ZP never investigated publication of that particular theft of State Secrets documents?
Because HH instructed them not to proceed?
PF BANDITS!
Lungu & PF are completely visionless period!
The Skeleton Key
~206~
A skeleton depicts lack of life. It is no doubt that Skeleton key’s comments are from the grave yard. Please we need comments that have life in them, not bones.
I am of the notion that not only UPND fellows dislike President Lungu, but Kaseba and her losing northern clique. We are happy our Aunty Bo Inonge is vice president though.
Viva President Nawakwi.
HH is politically shallow. He never sets the national Agenda as expected from a key opposition leader but comments on Newspaper & Online articles like many of us. At this rate he must consider taking the route demonstrated by opposition leaders in the UK.
HH is the next president after our man Lungu has finnished our “eastern term of office” in 2021.
Nchi sasa ni yetu lazima machiBemba wakae kimya na kulala chini kama bahasha.Foolz and conmen.
Chunsu Kachema at it again. He has gathered information that the President has called for a press conference to talk about the freedom of information bill. looks like this guy has not stopped smoking cow dung even after the jackpot bonanza following privatization.
This Hell Hole should just shut up after all his moles are already stealing information. What is the need for AIB when you can have access at will?
Many times I ask myself if I could think like hh had I been born Tonga? I refuse to even support hh. I now agree with hh’s former classmate who confessed on hh’s behalf that he was a serial repeater at school, and that he was always good at coping from his neighbour. My analysis is that It takes him too long to understand a situation. That’s why he has dwarfed the popularity of the upnd. He sticks to one ideology for too long without questioning why the delay in realising results. I thought Sachika rushed to quit upnd, that he should have given hh a chance. Now I know Sachika knew hh as a failure….& Moonga’s quitting sums up the reasons. hh is a pathetic loser, & I know that even 2021 hh shall lose. upnd is dead under hh…carders saleni amano.
Einstein fell his maths exams. And yet, his brain has been preserved for posterity.
“Only the one who does not question is safe from making a mistake.”
Albert Einstein — From a letter to Gustav Bucky, 1945. AEA 037–462
“Wisdom is not a product of schooling but of the lifelong attempt to acquire it.”
Albert Einstein — To J. Dispentiere – March 24, 1954. AEA 59–495
“The more success the PF theory has, the sillier it looks.”
Aleshaday to the black woman not pink May 14, 2015
Noted in Zambia is that WHEN HH TALKS, ALL THE LEGS AND MINDS FROM THE RULING PARTY START SHAKING AND WORSE FOR THE LEAPS. THEY ALL GO IN VIBRATION MODE. This man has the power of the mouth and mind. You like it or not HH is ruling the other half of the country especially the EDUCATED MASSES and the ILLITERATES ARE BEING RULED BY LUNGU. No sane mind would deny the fact that PF is ruling this country with impunity. Today we are talking about FUEL price having been hiked. PF is all out to silence the media houses, what does this mean, f one may ask? I personally voted for LUNGU in January andthought he would deliver, but alas, all has gone heywire. LUNGU MUST HOLD A PRESS CONFERENCE< unless he is telling us this is the only SATA legacy he wants to maintain, because the others he has messed u
Rasco or is it rascal? I get confused who you are. Prove it here that all UPND supporters are intelligent and that all other people belonging to other parties in Zambia and illiterate. Where do you get these false statistics from? Please do not just write for sake of it.
If you theory is correct, how can you lose to people who cannot read and write? Then your HH and UPND must be extremely useless.
What is your definition of intelligence and illiteracy? from your comments, your own intelligence is questioned because it is devoid of educated reasoning. In short, it displays alot of illiteracy in you.
Be advised that people on this media come from diverse backgrounds. Some highly educated than you and your HH. HH was a plagiarist at UNZA if you do not know and was suspended.
@ Yebo Nkhosi
From current Honorable Minister of Information when did attempt to clarify “90 days promise” as a “electoral gimmicks” which can be believed only by uneducated and 5tupid people.
And have guess, not once but twice he was right!!!
Whether HH says sense or nonsense (to you) why should he be insulted? Is this the way Zambians now talk to each other – just insults whenever they see each other!. I am starting to wonder if we have a social mental problem creeping into our country. How widespread has this new culture of insults become – and our leaders don’t seem to see anything wrong with this society they claim to lead. Where’re we being led to?
If someone fails to comment on the issues HH has raised in the article and comments on other issues, I view them as agreeing with HH. Can we comment on the issues. Surely, can anyone give credit to Sata’s rule, that he was the best President Zambia has ever had? Access to Information Bill is a must. Who is the master? The President or the people?
Tell HH to be ready for another looming defeat. Let us hope he will not cry foul.
In 2015 HH lost to just a Cabinet minister now in 2016 he will face his excellency Edgar Chagwa Lungu.
@Yebo Nkhosi, are you talking to Wamene Alibe Nzelu?
Victor, I was agreeing with your views. I find them very constructive. Keep it up!!!
From the comments made one can tell that its not about politics/issues its all about personal hatred, If you just look at what the poor guy HH has said, It makes a lot of sense but alas people on here are attacking the messenger and not his message.
Actually life is much nicer and easier when one decides to put personal hatred aside and just focus on issues that affect us all, the thing is i can be ok but what about my brother/sisters/uncles and the poor citizens in rural area and unplanned compounds etc who are not as fortunate as i am.
So when making a comment on here do people even think about such.
Zambia needs all us and hatred is for losers.
2016 is only next year. Bonse bamene sitima votako tizakavota chifukwa sitifuna vipuba kuti rulinger. Mungakambe vilivonse vamene mufuna koma President 2016 azibika. Imwe bana bonse pano pa Lusaka X mu kazitenya na makambidwe yanu.