THE United Party for National Development (UPND) says it has already prepared its 2016 budget in anticipation that it is going to form Government in the 2016 general elections.
The UPND has also said it will reduce the size of Cabinet in a bid to reduce budgetary expenditures and that it would manage the country’s resources more prudently to spar economic growth.
UPND president Hakainde Hichilema announced during the Muvi TV special assignment on Sunday that his party was forward looking and had already formulated its dummy budget for the 2015/2016 fiscal year.
The special edition of the Assignment programme also featured UPND vice-president Geoffrey Bwalya Mwamba, his counterpart Dr Canisius Banda, former first lady Maureen Mwanawasa and Senenga Member of Parliament Likando Mufalali.
Mr Hichilema said the UPND was going to exponentially reduce external borrowing but would improve the economy by ensuring that local resources were generated and optimally utilized.
Asked how much time he would need to turn round the country’s economy, Mr Hichilema said he did not want to promise Zambians a specific timeframe in which he would meet their needs and expectations.
He however said a five-year mandate after being elected president would be his time in which to work and deliver his promises adding that he was going to avoid making Zambians to expect their economic challenges resolved in a short period of time.
Mr Hichilema said the latest Euro Bond had been acquired at the rate of nine percent which he said was too high and that his government was going to source cheaper loans at the rate of three percent from which the country could save millions of dollars.
“The UPND is forward looking and we have already prepared our budget for next year and it is somewhere in the suitcase. We are going to run this country prudently and we are going to cut down on expenditure by reducing Cabinet. We are also going to reduce on foreign borrowing to save money that could be channeled to other economic sectors and prudently manage the country’s resources to the benefit of Zambians,” Mr Hichilema said.
The Govt in waiting. Osati kuwayawaya monga malinso.
What is it that they say about counting chicks…
You can’t condemn a man who has vision and a big dream.I wish all Zambians were this forward thinking.It doesn’t hurt anyone to dream people.Thumbs up HH.
He is right about it being a dummy budget. We all know Zambia has borrowed off Peter to buy off Paul, the only thing left to do is to go back to pick the pockets of both!
This kind of reporting is not correct. We all listened to that interview but the issue of 2015/2016 budget is not correct. Journalism pa Zed yalifwa. Anyway feed the people with lies so that they eat lies.
No farmer prepares a field after the rains arrive #visionary
The issue of budget is not there. News reporters are paid bonuses if they report something on hh. If they dont have any, they have to manufacture one. So they are news manufacturing companies.
awe kwena, this reporting sounds so unlike HH mwebantu!!!! How have you spliced up the things he said. It comes out ridiculous and uncoordinated!!!! Ba lusakatimes fye!!!!
but we like you ba LT, we just want you to get better. Thats for real, no josikisi!!!!!
The issue of a leaner cabinet will always be difficult to implement for as long as all decisions are made in Lusaka.
There are certain ministries that are could be based in provinces (regions) if we did a proper devolution of power. (eg Cgovt can have min. of natural resources while CB, NWP can have mines, SP can have tourism, etc as per each region’s needs).
Central govt can probably just do with just 12 or less cabinet positions.
Cabinet should come from outside parliament & we should do away with deputy ministers. They add no real value to these ministries.
Of course this calls for constitutional changes.
@ The Real Olivia Pope……easy with marginal error and percentage allowance for hatching mortality.
What I don’t see on all these politicians, is a strategy to reduce fuel costs, which will enable many things to reduce in pricing and improve people’s lives.. Further more, a strategy to stop taxing Zambians heavily on everything?
Give the people buying powers. why is the Zambian government so lazy that they think the only way to Increase revenue taxation and dependance on the so called ZRA, which is the head of corporate corruption.
HH show Zambians what you will do different???/ we are sick and tired of the same school of thoughts. Improve service delivery and let Government workers Know that they work for the people of Zambian not other ways round.
Stop dependency on Human capital if you want to clear corruption?? Automate Automate my man Technology is key?
Where the is no vision, people perish! In the midist of plenty a f_oolish man dies of hunger. We all seem to know that but ignore it anyway. That is my Zed.
Forward past plot 1 whichever direction no one knows. The elections are after October 2016 how does a normal person prepare a budget for 2015/16. Ubushilu abiche aba. To win presidential elections in Zambia you need more than one province to vote for you.
Exactly KCI. I don’t think this UPND guy has any brains in his head. The 2016 budget will be presented his October, and elections are next latest September. How do they prepare the 2016 budget? Are they going to kill ECL?
They prayed very hard that Sata should die. Even after Sata died they are still a government in waiting. To be defeated by EL who hard only a few weeks to campaign tells it all. GBM should remember that it is PF that is popular in Kasama and not him. GBM should remember what happened to him in Kabwata 2006 despite all his bicycles he gave away to voters Lubinda the came out smiling.
Habakuk 2:2 Yahweh answered me, “Write the vision, and make it plain on tablets, that he who runs may read it.
This is the sort of stupidity that will mess up our country… Do you not know that the Ministry of Finance has already made a budget for the 2016 financial year? Why has Zambia got too many dunderheads for heaven’s sake? HH is saying that he is ready to work on day one. What is wrong with that? You want the people who go into office by accident and then they spend the whole year trying to figure out what they need to do? CRY MY BELOVED COUNTRY!!!
Take care the things you say publicly! When do we usually have elections in Zambia? Even if the elections were to be held in January 2016, you would still need to work with the PF budget at least to the end of 2016, so why not say you have a budget for 2017/2018?
Habakuk 2:2 Yahweh answered me, “Write the vision, and make it plain on tablets, that he who runs may read it.
This is the sort of stupidity that will mess up our country… Do you not know that the Ministry of Finance has already made a budget for the 2016 financial year? Why has Zambia got too many dunderheads for heaven’s sake? HH is saying that he is ready to work on day one. What is wrong with that? You want the people who go into office by accident and then they spend the whole year trying to figure out what they need to do? CRY MY BELOVED COUNTRY!!!
I like this guy, HH. Ladies and gentlemen, can we all support this man. He means well for our economy. The Zambian economy will change forever. He himself is a successful business man and he has a very brilliant team to work with. Together, they will turn around all the misfortunes of our country to real tangible prosperity. If you truly love Zambia, then lets try HH and team. Thank you.
Iwee,which brilliant team. First he must tell us how he is going to liquidate the loans that Zambia already have. He has also talked of more borrowing, and cheating to borrow at 3%,from which source? As an opposition leader, he should tell the PF govt where to borrow from at 3% interest, but again it is all politics.
Maureen looks sick, will she manage to plot 1 again? Kaya.
FORGET THIS CHAP HH, THIS CHAP IS SELF CENTERED.
@Mr Intelligent..
I think i like your honesty in your comment. Very real and accurate.
However, as i know the Zambians, you will be insulted even after saying such straightforward and unbiased plea.
My Zambia…………
They are day dreaming and they will surely disband the tribal party after 2016.
Problem of a budget that is already prepared by UPND is that it did not receive any input from anybody other than UPND. Secondly, UPND has no idea about what the government resource envelope is. So this clearly shows if these guys were to be in power they would not bother to consult anyone and would just be groping in the dark preparing budgets from without. And they call this skills-based management. Come on, tell us something better ba Under 5! You receive varied sector inputs to prepare a budget and you need to know about your government resource envelope and even review the previous budget to know whether there are any carry over projects that need to be taken into account and if there are any monies left over that were not spent.
So Zedoch, what you are saying is PF consulted widely when they formulated their budget?
@Jane, you wish!
That’s prudent. And now give us a glimpse of the “shadow cabinet”, let them Profile themselves by addressing specific ministerial issues where PF Ministers are playing “chipante pante”; well done, this is high-gear politics now – no mercy !! Foward! This Country must be turned around NOW !
UPND has no shadow Cabinet because they are waiting to “unanimously elect” people to positions first! It is necessary for these guys to change the branding of the party, secondly there is need to bring out messages of what different they will do and not just saying that PF has failed NO.
Asked how much time he would need to turn round the country’s economy, Mr Hichilema said he did not want to promise Zambians a specific timeframe in which he would meet their needs and expectations.
This statement shows that he has got no plan.
We need someone with a plan. So far Edgar Lungu seems to understand the way things are going.
Only Chilufyanya Tayale is against Lungu
@Tutu, you are the ONLY Zambian who thinks Lungu has a ‘plan’ for running the country whilst he himself admitted that he has no vision! I guess Lungu’s plan only exist in your head!
Mary go around don’t mislead people he said within 5yrs .He is careful not to behave like Sata who said 90 days.Ubufi bubi bane.
SUPPOSED TO BE 2017 BUDGET.
I also have mine for the next 5 years. Amendments will be made along the way. Be focust
Do we have doctors in mental , to make unassement on this man called HH ? Is he ok
Diagnosis: After examination my conclusion is Mr Hichilema’s capacity for logic, abstract thought, understanding, self-awareness, communication, learning, emotional knowledge, memory, planning, creativity and problem solving is above that of the average Zambia.
just go to Mandevu where he shared Nshima in order to win a vote or two
This is the sort of stupidity that will mess up our country… Do you not know that the Ministry of Finance has already made a budget for the 2016 financial year? Why has Zambia got too many dunderheads for heaven’s sake? HH is saying that he is ready to work on day one. What is wrong with that? You want the people who go into office by accident and then they spend the whole year trying to figure out what they need to do? CRY MY BELOVED COUNTRY!!!
Mr Hichilema said the latest Euro Bond had been acquired at the rate of nine percent which he said was too high and that his government was going to source cheaper loans at the rate of three percent from which the country could save millions of dollars. HH YOU DONT CONTROL THE LOAN HOUSES. IF THEY CAN SQUEEZE THEIR FELLOW WHITE THE GREEKS WHAT CAN THEY DO TO YOU.?
And if I may ask, isn’t he the same id1ot talking against borrowing day in day out? And in the same breath, he says he will borrow at a cheaper rate. We always said this that there is no government that can run a country without some borrowing. Ati economist malabishi yeka yeka! VIVA ECL, VIVA PF!!
Now he has no time frame to develop Zambia while when in Luapula he promised the people that he would develop Luapula in 1 year if voted for him? So we know now that HH was lying and he has no plan for this country. People want this country to develop in no time but HH says he does not know when he will deliver development as President of Zambia. This is Bu Chimbwi no Plan at its best.
Politics mwana. You can even promise the impossible. To me it is a game of chance. Sometimes you become president when things are looking up and you become a champion. Other time it is the opposite and people will blame you even for locusts invasion over which you have no control.
We are certainly convinced that it is HH who has no vision for his party and otherwise. A visionary person cannot say the things this failed politician has said and rants.
Those who had some faith in HH, today you have a chance to assess for yourselves the man you have been thinking can bring miracles in your homes hey?
Ever wondered that cow dung can produce gas which can easily be used for cooking, lighting and heating? If the so called “economist” had the vision for his people and Zambia, why hasn’t he advised his people to utilize the massive free cow dung to produce gas so that the poverty levels and deforestation is reduced especially in his homeland?
They say desperation can kill and this is what is happening to HH and his cohorts but thank God PF is far ahead of them….
Lungu/Kambwili/Chikwanda/Kapata/Mwanakatwe seem to be a formidable team from where I sit in this rural and rustic Buckinghamshire hamlet. I endorse them for a second term.
U C! Finally there is NDF on the table and the cadres are out with verbal-pangas! Its just that mwebantu….dummy-budget, the Team is in-place and it now only needs to show it can fix ALL eventualities with an interim Budget come 2016/17. Numbers-Data-Facts bambo, this is the REAL selela tubombepo 🙂
TONGAS…………………CANT NEVER
do not report on hear say animal. HH never said we have made the budget already for the UPND total rubbish lairing. sex your mother you hopeless reporter Owen of Lusaka times
HH+GBM no future I can safely say they will lose again . Analyse what they are saying now , no plan bangwele.
This is the sort of stupidity that will mess up our country… Do you not know that the Ministry of Finance has already made a budget for the 2016 financial year? Why has Zambia got too many dunderheads for heaven’s sake? HH is saying that he is ready to work on day one. What is wrong with that? You want the people who go into office by accident and then they spend the whole year trying to figure out what they need to do? CRY MY BELOVED COUNTRY!!!
He says it would take him five yrs to change the economy, so its good as going with the PF since they also have a pla which infact is already in the process.
Is it over confidence, or these people have another plan (to finish PF) to this time around impeach ECL for not firing madam Mwanakatwe…
This group seems to be focused and know what they are talking about. You have my vote. Give another plan on power.
Iwe sheep sheep come home, you do not prepare a national budget the way you prepare a UPND budget for 2016 elections. You get inputs from different sectors and the ministry of finance technocrats are at the heart of the exercise. Tell HH he does not know what he is talking about because he has never worked in public service. Running government is not the same as liquidating parastatal companies and looking at how you are going to benefit yourself.
“he did not want to promise Zambians a specific timeframe in which he would meet their needs and expectations.” Reality has now caught up with this pathetic liar! Is this not the same chap who was promising miracles prior to 20th January 2015 elections?
Why then is considering five-year term to only trim the cabinet and on the the other end everyday accusing H.E. ECL to have failed to deliver to the Zambians? How long has President Lungu been in office, six months I believe with serious developmental results.
Mwebekala chalo, ba HH chikopo and do not be deceived by this guy because what he is hallucinating about wont even come pass because he is like warm and a big deceiver?. This guy has never been consistent on any issue. Remember in 2008, he was calling himself “Obama” does he…
What plan? When more than Half of UPND dont even know where ministry of finance offices are?
The quality of Zambian political parties places UPND in ranking order of seriousness. Rainbow is haunted by the socialism tag. FDD is inspiring but has low quality in its ranks except for the President. She needs a strong team. PF comes after Revolutionary Party.
Up and Down always boasting for nothing. I can not wait for 2016 to see them on the losing side again.
A bunch of dreamers, this. Form government next year, who in the name of blazes is going to vote for you? In the first place the Tonga haven’t the necessary numbers to give you the majority vote you would need to form that hoped-for government. The majority voters don’t just like your type of politics, based as it is on Tongaism. Anyway you are allowed to dream on, although failure is your deserved result.
Why do you keep replying to HH if he is useless . The fact that everyday you reply with bitterness you have realized that he is a threat.Ati their is no opposition in Zambia when the difference with Lungu was just 1% my foot.HH is was number three in 2006 and 2008 and he was number 2 in 2015 and guess now he will certainly be number 1.I am sure you will run away from Zambia.
Chitutuma that’s stop insulting Tongas many people are now sympathizing with Tongas .Do you what made Clinton loose to Obama it was her racial remarks against Obama.Obama never replied but just emphasized that he was able to bring change.Yes we can will also work in Zambia.Everyday you always remind other people that they are inferior.God has away of humbling people.Who told that all people in UPND are Tonga and that only Tongas can vote for HH.Thats a blue lie it shows how back ward you are in your small head.people have inter married and tribe will no longer be a big issue.It will be about who has the solutions to fix our economy full stop.
You are wasting your time HH you will never rule this country.You dog!I thought you were going to say that once elected your government will not borrow but you are talking about borrowing at three percent .Is it your money to give yourself conditions on which to pay back loan?You nincompoop!
Surely HH deserves plot 1. He has too much vision.
Zambians are now only guests in their own country. Zambia produces nearly 1 Million metric tonnes of copper every year, but how much of that copper is transported by Indigenous Zambian transporters to ports? In fact, there is more to this debate that an email could carry. Zambians like any other people need true friends, but trust will be hard to earn back after nearly 20 years of UPND Machiavellianism. HH like late Mazoka represents the interests of foreign capital, that is why he will lose the 2016 election.
You are missing the point. Zambians are dull. Any intelligent Zambian with 5 senses left Zambia many years ago. What is left there is fit for the bin, nothing to write home about…
Thats why a guy who has never held a job before from the compound can become a president
PF government burried theirs with Sata at embassy park. This is wvident by Edgar Lungu’s cofussion whether to go and be with Obama in Ethiopia or officiate some cultural ceremony of villagers. Fuel is high, power supply is scarce, CBU lecturers on strike, Kwacha naipena, civil servant salaries not paid and PF membership is dwindling.
Lungu is busy modeling in suits for cameras and believes that’s ruling Zambians.
Shut your smelly stinking mouth mother muntu iwe. Should our President be reduced to just welcoming anyone without clear agenda for Zambia?
With due respect, Obama went to Kenya to meet his relatives and of course just took the opportunity to say hello to some eager leaders who opted to greet him. The trip agenda was not Africa otherwise we would have known this way back.
I love President Obama but more so my very own President Edgar Chagwa Lungu period and I will ensure he white washes the opposition in 2016 with a huge huge margin which others would call LANDSLIDE VICTORY.
We have seen his capability in the short time he has been our President, bringing the world back to Zambia and at the same time developing Zambia massively. Ask people in N/Western & Western Provinces, its ECL…
Why should President Lungu be with Obama in Kenya? Sorry I don’t understand your inferiority complex whereby you think Africans should kneel down for Obama. What has Obama done for the continent?
your reasoning is faulty boss. is Obama a God that every African should stop whatever they are doing to go and listen or see him?
UPND WILL LOSE ELECIONS IN KASAMA CENTRAL AND FORM KASAMA CDF BUDGET WITH OUT RESPONSIBILITY AND COST CENTRE
GBM WILL LOSE KASAMA TO WHO EVER WILL COMPETE WITH HIM
KASAMA PEOPLE HAVE RESOLVED THIS AFTERNOON
Ba Upnd why are you denying that HH did not say thi? If it’s Kambwili quoted mwaunfwa nasexy
??????Yangu tata Ye!!!!!! UPND ni mu 2090!!!?
??????Yangu tata Ye!!!!!! UPND ni mu 2090!!!?
??????Yangu tata Ye!!!!!! UPND ni mu 2090!!!?
HH and his party should keep such rhetoric to themselves. Even though I would like them to form govt, this info is ridiculous. HH is a farmer who must understand that you don’t count chicks before the eggs hatch. Reminds me of the last election were he claimed he would win by 80%, and reality was totally different!
I was suspecting some leaders in UPND are crazy, but this confirms that they are really crazy. How on earth do you do a budget without any input from the line ministries and other government agencies. How do you do this without knowing how much money you have. By Just dreaming figures?
And you useless villagers are clapping and saying this is sensible. Please do not encouragement madness. If someone needs to go to Chainama, the best thing is to help him go there. HH needs mental attention.