Friday, March 29, 2024

HH SPeech in Kitwe outlining UPND 10 Point plan

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UPND Rally at Freedom Park in Kitwe
UPND Rally at Freedom Park in Kitwe

Fellow Zambians, we stand here today proud of this nation: its people, its beauty, its Godliness and its diversity. But, we stand here knowing that Zambia faces a crisis, a crisis that has resulted from five years of PF Government.

We believe that now is the time to take matters into our own hands. We believe that now is the time to unite and FIX our country.

We have come here to offer hope to all of you that have turned out to witness this historic event. Take note of this date – 21st May 2016 marks the beginning of a new journey for our country. It is the start of our campaign for the economic liberation of each and every Zambian.

Ladies and gentlemen, in 1964, a crop of politicians, led by our first President Dr Kenneth Kaunda took decisive actions and fought long and hard battles against the colonialists, for which we remain grateful. Then in 1991 the reintroduction of multi-party politics was another landmark stage. In 2011 when the PF took office Zambia was firmly on the path to middle income status but look at where we are now?

Colleagues and fellow citizen, wherever we go today what we see is broken promises, broken roads, broken pipes, broken souls and broken dreams. Go to Wusakile, Chamboli, Bulangililo, you will see the suffering there. We cannot continue like this. President Lungu and the PF have ravaged our economy through mismanagement and ransacked our treasury through corruption.

In January 2015 the kwacha was trading at K6 to the dollar, it is now at K10. Inflation was 7% and today it is 22%, with bags of mealie meal selling at over K100 and the pump price of fuel up to K10 per litre. Here on the Copperbelt, instead of the thousands of jobs they promised to create we have seen thousands of job losses.

We have seen the danger of leadership that has no vision and the damage that can be done even in a short space of time.

The PF have borrowed and borrowed, growing our debt from US$1.1bn in 2011 to US$6.6bn. They have spent so much but delivered so little, putting it into their pockets. While the people cannot afford three or even two meals a day, the President and his ministers have been increasing their own salaries as recently as March this year.

Our dear Zambia is now in the intensive care unit and requires urgent surgery. So what will the UPND Government do to fix our great nation?

The UPND has a 10 Point Plan for Zambia. We will fix it. Tukalungisha. Tukakontolola.

Let us share that plan with you here today.

We plan to start with job creation and employment. From the first day in office, our Government will help Zambian companies to create jobs, by ensuring we start manufacturing most of the things we import. Isn’t it an embarrassment that we are importing toothpicks? Are you telling me we can fail to make toothpicks? We will promote investment, trade and economic growth, diversifying the economy and investing in under-developed sectors with huge potential for job and wealth creation such as tourism.

Point Two will be an attack on poverty and inequality, with a strong focus on youth and women. On day one we will start addressing youth and women empowerment. The women folk present here today, can’t you sow uniforms. So why can’t Government give you contracts to supply uniforms in Government schools? Youths are found making furniture at Nakadoli market. Why is Government importing furniture for their offices and not buying furniture from Nakadoli market? This is what we mean by empowering women and the youth when you give us a vote.

Point Three will be investing in our people through education. There is no nation in this world that has advanced without a population that has the right skills. The youths that will be making chairs and desks for Government schools will need education before they get skills to start making desks. Our women who will be supplying uniforms to Government schools need education first before they can learn knitting and tailoring. This is why we are saying education for all is a must. The waste we shall save from ending corruption in procurement of Government goods and services, by-elections and other areas will be invested in education. Now listen carefully here. In Zambia building a road costs 2 million dollars per kilometer, while in South Africa its 400,000 dollars. This means the money we pay for one kilometer, you can do 5 kilometers in South Africa. Why are our roads expensive? It’s because of corruption.

Point Four is to electrify Zambia. The PF has failed to run the power sector resulting in load-shedding, limited and unreliable access and high costs of production. How are businesses supposed to operate under such conditions? Our plan is very simple, we are discussing with the private sector to build power stations from renewables. What do I mean colleagues? Zesco is broke that they cannot build new power stations, we will talk to our friends in the private sector to build power stations, and the power produced will be sold to ZESCO, that is how we will end load shedding.

Point Five will improve competitiveness so that our local businesses can grow and create jobs, and new ones can start up. We will tackle areas such as heavy regulation, the high costs of transport and trade, access to finance and power supply.

Point Six will focus on aggressively cutting Government waste. We are not going to have 71 ministers in our Government the way our friends did. We are going to reduce on the number of ministers and review their conditions of service. A minister gets 800 liters of fuel per month, that is about 500,000 kwacha for the entire cabinet. By the end of the 5 years of PF we will have spent over 29 billion old currency on fuel for ministers. This does not include the free phones, cars, housing and many other things we provide to them. We cannot continue making a few people rich at the expense of 14 million Zambians.

Point Seven will develop our agriculture sector. Our job once you put us in power is to reduce the price of mealie meal. How will we do this? We will increase farmer support in both input provision and reduce the unit cost of production. In this country a farmer produces about 40 bags of maize per hectare when it is possible to produce 100 bags with the same inputs. What farmers need is a robust extension service system so that they can produce more by improving their management of fields. Once this happens then the price of a 50kg bag of maize will come down and with it mealie meal. We will also help farmers diversify their crop to produce other foods and grow produce for neighbouring countries.

Point Eight will end the flip-flops and policy inconsistencies that are costing people jobs. In this place over 10,000 miners and their affiliates lost employment. And the PF Government looked on as our people were losing jobs. From the time the PF took over they have changed mining tax policy three times, scaring investors away. What we are doing immediately you give us the instruments of power is to instill confidence in the economy. As a responsible Government we will rather lose a bit of mineral royalty than see you lose your wages and your livelihood.

Point Nine, building a healthy nation, cannot be compromised on. Colleagues, people are going to hospitals that have no medicines and doctors. We have a shortage of over 13,000 nurses and yet we have thousands of young people looking for jobs – another PF miscalculation. Meanwhile, the high maternal mortality rate remains a stain on the conscience of our nation. Immediately we take office we are reforming procurement of medicines in hospitals. The money we will save from a reduced cabinet and corruption will be used to hire nurses, doctors and buy medicines. We have already spoken to people that are willing to come and set up mini water plants in places like Chamboli so that you people can have access to piped water.

Point Ten is Good Governance. Zambians under PF are living in fear. If you say something against the Government or the President, then you are threatened with arrest. Police are being misused by the PF. People have to apply for permits to have church meetings. We are taking over Government to ensure that Zambians can enjoy their rights. We will immediately repeal the Public Order Act. We are also going to embark on reforming the Anti Corruption Commission and the Drug Enforcement Commission (DEC) to make them independent bodies to pursue corrupt elements. There will be no sacred cows in a UPND-led Government. We need to fight corruption to the bitter end, it has made us poor and I am telling you now, anyone who is corrupt will face the law. Corruption is a cancer that needs to be aggressively tackled.

Fellow Zambians, this is our 10 Point Plan.

Can Zambia rise again? The answer is yes. Can our people ever live a better life again? The answer is yes. What do we need to do? Mark “X” on HH and UPND.

We cannot share poverty, we can only share prosperity so let’s build a Zambia for all.

Please join me in delivering this message to every doorstep. It will not be easy, but it will not be impossible. We are a party that wants to restore confidence in the voters because we want to make sure that we deliver on all our commitments. This is where I end. I am very grateful to the people of Kitwe for hosting us. Travel well colleagues.

God bless you and we now officially launch the UPND Campaign for the 2016 elections.

Hakainde Hichilema
UPND Presiden

49 COMMENTS

  1. Visionary leadership from a great leader!

    HH for President

    Viva Mr President

    August 11, put “X” on UPND and HH

    You will live your dream!
    Believe that.

    • TALK IS CHEAP. EVEN I CAN MAKE A 1000 POINT ECONOMIC PLAN BUT TRUTH IS NO HUMAN WILL SATISFY THE NEEDS OF EVERY CITIZEN. ITS ABSURD TO EVEN THINK THAT. ITS ALL AN ILLUSION.

    • I am disappointed. Is this what HH has for Zambia? I had alot of respect for HH but I am disappointed. He thinks gvt buying chairs from Nakadoli will just happen like that? I cant see the real solutions for poverty eradication here. No plans for building Schools, no plans for more roads, no plans for investors, no plans for copper value addition, no plans for agriculture diversification, not plans for tax review, etc,compare his plans to what PF is doing, you will find that everything he has said is within the greater PF manifesto and most of it is being addressed.

    • HH, you have my vote! You and your team have a plan and vision for the country..more importantly the skill to do that. Edgar is clueless, yesterday he said they way to reduce prices for mealie meal is to curb smuggling, really? what kind of nonsense form a head od state is is?

    • HH is by far the best candidate but the problem he has is that, Zambians have been used to living in poverty and the think its normal, So when someone tells them that he can change things for the better they can not believe him. The moment my own dad tells me when i have a problem that its beyond coz even our neighbours have the same problem is the very day i will disown him as a dad. A parent will do anything for his kids even if it means death, but people can put up with being told its global and look now even load shedding has become normal while other countries like south Africa which had a more bad weather than Zambia are almost done away with it. Cry my beloved country poverty affects the mind.

    • I don’t know which is my favorite point, they are all precise.
      But I hope 10 points will be the 10 ministries.

    • Very basic and extremely lacking the how.
      No mention of taxes, how education will be financed.
      Road in RSA cost USD500,000 because the roads are either not new construction or extensively damaged but in Zambia we building new roads or expanding trunk roads or mending extensively damaged roads. That is the reason under five.
      hh for sure you are not mosses but opportunist using stolen wealth to claim that you have a solution yet empty

  2. When are you announcing GBM as your running mate?
    God forbid anything happens to HH then GBM becomes President. Can you imagine that?

  3. This is what Zambia needs not an incompetent person with no future plan for the country other than learning bad behavior of dictators and wasting tax payer’s money.

  4. TALK IS CHEAP. EVEN I CAN MAKE A 1000 POINT ECONOMIC PLAN BUT TRUTH IS NO HUMAN WILL SATISFY THE NEEDS OF EVERY CITIZEN. ITS ABSURD TO EVEN THINK THAT. ITS ALL AN ILLUSION.

  5. BRIEF AND TO THE POINT. VERY INSPIRING, INDEED! THE LIGHT AT THE END OF THE TUNNEL. THIS IS WHAT ZAMBIA NEEDS: VISIONARY AND INCLUSIVE LEADERSHIP, FOOD PRODUCTION, JOB CREATION, CITIZENS EMPOWERMENT, MANUFACTURING, VALUE ADDITION, ZERO TOLERANCE TO CORRUPTION, GOOD GOVERNANCE, THE RULE OF LAW, EDUCATION FOR ALL, TO BUILD A PROSPEROUS ZAMBIA. YES WE CAN.

  6. @TED
    Am happy and disappointed about you TED! Am happy because you claim to be able to produce 1000 points 100 times better than HH. My disappointment with you is that you let someone who produces 0 (zero) points to lead you, are you NORMAL? You are the sort of people why our country is moving backwards!

    • @Keen Follower: SIMPLY PUT : TALK IS CHEAP.I CAN SAY ALL THAT I CLAIM TO BE OR WANNA BE OR DO. BUT ITS JUST A IT IS-MERE OPENING OF THE MOUTH AND BRINGING OUT SOUND. I WOULD RATHER BELIEVE ONE DOING IT ALREADY THAN ONE PROMISING: TALK IS CHEAP. WE ALL CAN TALK EVEN YOU CAN. MAYBE EVEN BETTER THAN HH

  7. @munene
    What is new with HH’s message No1, style of doing things! This is goole like…computer like if you like it!

    • @keen follower. Munene does not understand that success comes from consistency.
      Had he read the speach he would have seen point 8. People like HH are successful because they are consistent it’s not about new things every day.

  8. Very clear and concise 10 point plan of action. No well meaning person can dispute that.
    Now what plan does PF have for Zambia? How do the two compare? This is what we should be debating on if we are serious about the future of our Country.

  9. @munene
    What is new with HH’s message No1, style of doing things! This is google like…computer like if you like it!

  10. HH is showing the Zambian Nation that he knows the main problems facing Zambia and he has a 10 Point Plan to fix the problems. Where is Lungu’s Plan so that we can compare the 2 Plans. No Plan and No vision as usual.People who went to the PF Launch were bused from all Provinces and some on their return home have unfortunately been involved in an accident. HH’s Launch was attended by people willingly on the Copperbelt and not ferried from other Provinces. It shows Zambians want a change of govt. Hence ECL and PF with the help of a biased ECZ are trying to rig these elections in their favour. Will the rigging work? Time will tell!

  11. HH cannot show any work he has done obviously because he is in the opposition. In his speech (yes it might be the same as one blogger has pointed out) he is outlining what he will do. ECL doesn’t and it was the case in his 2015 speech too in which he said he had no vision. Let us be serious about the leaders we elect.

  12. Two different leaders pronounced their plans. HH said mealie meal prices will be reduced by reducing the cost of production and increasing production from 40 bags to 100 bags per hectare and talks of renewable energy. ECL said he will reduce mealie meal prices by reducing processing cost by introducing solar powered hammer meals.

    • Right there @cisi, you can see the difference between the 2 leaders. HH’s approach is more holistic. In fact, ECL’s solution is just one of the points included in HH’s solution. HH seems to understand the entire process & addresses the entire production chain. It is not just milling that affects the cost of production here.

  13. @TED
    Talk is cheap…! TED you must know that am a keen follower I dont argue from blues. HH restrains himself alot when discussing he does not talk anyhow/cheaply, like ECL. Mind you I like, both HH and ECL except their qualities are different as to what they can offer at level of presidency. The choices you make in life and how you do that matters. I would discourage you from ‘pick…pick…na pick doli’, sort of method. You must have a criteria!

  14. I did not know that HH stood for Hollow Hallucinations! the statements are too general, the plans lack depth. For instance, cabinet may be reduced to half the size, ACC and DEC may be made autonomous, but will that in itself reduce the cost of road construction? Corruption is not just preserve of Ministers. Corrupt Civil Servants and the suppliers of corruption, who are generally in the private sector, will still be around and there are no plans of countering that.
    UPND seem to be suggesting that women are presently not sowing and tailoring because they have not been to school. So the solution is providing education. How long will that take? what type of education will UPND provide that is not taking place now, or which women currently don’t have? and why should UPND confine women to…

    • HE IS TALKING ABOUT EQUIPING THEM WITH SKILLS, NAMELY TAILORING SKILLS, FINANCIAL SKILLS AND BUSINESS SKILLS. WHEN THEY ARE SO EQUIPPED THEY WILL PRODUCE QUALITY GOODS AND RUN THEIR BUSINESSES SUCCESSFULLY. HE IS TALKING ABOUT PROVIDING THE MISSING LINK WHICH HAS CAUSED ZAMBIANS NOT TO PROSPER. REMEMBER THAT HE IS HIMSEL A SUCCESSFUL BUSINESSMAN. BEING PF YOU CANNOT UNDERSTANG SIMPLE ISSUES.

  15. I have issues with this party’s points no. 4 and 10; I feel this point has been sped through..how are you going to encourage the Private sector to invest in energy if the tarrifs are not cost reflective as ZESCO can’t be buying electricity from the private sector and retailing at a loss.Why can you simply state that you will increase tariffs because PF has swept the problem under the carpet.
    As for fighting corruption how do they plan to make the ACC and DEC independent?

  16. With mucheleka, gbm, Scott, Sampa, nalumango, Mulenga, mukafwilwa 1 & 2 plus others we now know all secrets of upandown.

  17. I’m not partisan in anyway, my main interest is that the right person with a vision leads our beloved country. I’m also not impressed with this 10 point plan as someone has said it is way too simplistic that anyone with secondary school education could put it together.
    For a start it lacks depth and it lacks detail. What I would like to hear from our leaders is;
    1. How they are going to improve sanitation?Lusaka and most of our cities sewage system is still from the colonial era. How can this be when the population has more than tripled. Let’s plan for the future.
    2. We have at least 40% of the natural water resources in southern Africa and yet we’re talking about access to water.
    3. We have enough resources in terms of water and the sun to have enough electricity for…

    • @ Man Chiku you need where to start from.The 10 points that the UPND government in wait are somehow a starting point.You do need sophisticated plans that look good on people but difficult to understand,manage and implement.Thats why most people fail because thay labour to put priorities or plan that seem appease but to the majority of people they do not understand them.What UPND meant by buying desk/furniture from Nakadoli,Twapia and Mandevu markets is simply to empower the local market with skill,morden equipment and tools,financial help and they will be able to produce. Thus creating employement and wealth for the country.

  18. Under 5 boss, kaya you are talking of electricity ,the works the pf government is already doing connecting the nation, The pf government has walked the talk, the only party besides pf to do the kind of work the government has done is unip…..capital projects.
    Ba under 5…..manifestio please show us.
    It’s sad hh is the same fool who sold companies together with chiluba and today you want to talk about creating employment you should have thought then before privatization as a matter of fact you have right to talk about employment or unemployment your are partly to blame for failing to advise the mmd government correctly.
    Eg You say you very an economist, when selling the mining companies the

  19. The problem in Zambia is that some chaps think when they win a tender from govt and make a few millions then they say they are great businessmen and can run a country No Sir!

  20. Best you should have done is to advise the than government to give a condition of keeping their money in the nation and giving it back after two or three months to help the local currency to be strong.
    You want to show us that you care about us yet you failed to help your veep.
    Shame

  21. These are the plan meetings that Kaunda would end with “One Zambia”………….and the crowd would respond like this”””One Nation”””. Hahahahahhahahahahhahahah!

  22. If it was Chiluba in 1991,he would go like”” The hour””! and then a very big “” Has come””!.Hahahhahahaha! wapya munzi

  23. Quest Mweni, did you read and understand the article? I suggest you read through the article again.

  24. Hollow indeed! Fantastic dreams while ECL walks the talk from practical and realistic implementations- keep on waiting for the ‘sugar candy mountains’ as PF gives the people intrinsic needs that are there for all to see, except blind demagogues!

  25. –constructing a KM of road @ 1 million usd … who does that ?
    –Constructing schools and hospitals without man power …. who does that?
    –Coming up with a constitution that is ambiguous …. who does that ?
    –Signing a constitution at a high cost …. Who does that ?
    –ati manifesto could not be printed on time ….. who does that ?
    –ati sonta where you have worked …. Who does that ?
    –everything happening ati global… who does that ?
    Brethren lets vote wisely and help mother Zambia proud again . Vote HH and UPND !!!

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