President Hakainde Hichilema says he is not a hurry to appoint Permanent Secretaries as fixing the economy is his administration’s topmost priority.

President Hichilema says rather than appointing Permanent Secretaries as expected by sections of society, his administration will not be rushed into making haphazard decisions.

Speaking to journalists shortly after arrival at Kenneth Kaunda International Airport from the United Kingdom, Mr Hichilema said government is managing time and decisions being made are well orchestrated.

Responding to concerns over the delayed appointment of Permanent Secretaries, Mr Hichilema said from the time he took over office in August this year, his preoccupation has been to work on the economy.

“What’s your priority? It’s to get this economy going, the economy goes on. The Budget was one of the key issues,” he said.

The Head of State added that he will not appoint Police Commissioners as this will be the responsibility of the Police Command.

“We want to reduce the direct number of presidential appointments in the Commission. That was an anomaly which was not normal but already you believe it was normal. This was only altered a few years ago,” Mr Hichilema said.

And responding to criticism by sections of society which saying the increased Constituency Development Fund (CDF) from K1.6 million to K25.7 million per constituency is illegal, President Hichilema explained that the budget is legal under the Budget Act.

He further expressed surprise with such levels of debate.

“Sometimes it’s difficult to understand where people come from, what their conceptualization in their mind when they raise issues like that. How can there be no legal framework. How can anyone argue like that,” he said.

And President Hichilema dismissed suggestions that most appointments and reinstatements are being done on a tribal basis stating that his administration has unprecedentedly created inclusive appointments representing all the regions of the country.

And the Emirates aircraft plane carrying President Hichilema and his entourage touched down Kenneth Kaunda International airport from the United Kingdom at 14:50 hours.

The President arrived back home after he attended the World Leaders Summit of the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) in Glasgow Scotland.

During his visit to the United Kingdom, President Hichilema held high level meetings in London with members of the House of Commons and UK policymakers, potential investors, as well as the Eurobond holders.

And the President told journalists that his Government will continue to engage the Eurobond holders until a lasting solution is reached.

ZAMBIA has continued to witness unproven allegations of public service workers being dismissed based on tribal and political reasons. The Acting Secretary to Cabinet Patrick Kangwa owes the nation an explanation on how that was under the past regime and is now being done under the new Dawn Administration, Center for Constitutionalism and Legal Justice Director Isaac Mwanza has said.

Mr Mwanza said there is a growing public perception that the Government under the administration of late President Michael Sata and Edgar Lungu and now Republican President, Hakainde Hichilema, had been and continues to dismiss civil servants based on political and tribal grounds.

These allegations, he said, against the Government are usually started by politicians themselves or affected civil servants and carried through social media for political purposes or to gain sympathy.

He said these allegations have now been authenticated by the Head of Civil Service through his recent statement inviting those who were dismissed on such unsubstantiated grounds.

Mr. Mwanza said Mr. Kangwa was part of the civil service establishment when public service workers were allegedly dismissed based on the alleged tribal and political lines by the previous regime.

“He is still part of this establishment when allegations are emerging workers continue to be dismissed based on tribal and political lines by the New Dawn Administration.

Mr. Kangwa must provide an explanation on these dismissals so the public can know what has caused such rot in the management of the public service.

“The Center does not believe any public service servant was or has recently been dismissed by Government because of one’s tribe or politics. However, owing to the subtle admission by Head of the Civil Service through his recent statement, it is more desirable than a public inquiry should be made to ascertain the truth and allow justice to run its full course,” he said.

“It is nevertheless absurd to expect Mr. Kangwa and his top civil service team, they very people who dismissed those public service workers, to hear appeals unless the strategy is to hide the truth from the public and apportion the blame on immediate political leaders through processes conducted in the dark. No truth will come out from such a process,” he said.

Mr Mwanza said “We finally call upon the Republican President, His Excellency Mr Hakainde Hichilema, to set up an inquiry led by an impartial judge on the dismissals that went on and are currently going. The Inquiry, as opposed to appeal processes done in darkness, will help determine whether dismissals were based on tribe and political reasons.

The Centre Director said the failure to inquire into this matter and allow the dark corner process to happen at Cabinet Office will strengthen some growing perception that President Hichilema is silently using his arm in a vindictive of wanting to paint the predecessor administration as having been tribal.

“We urge the President to allow dismissed public service workers to publicly testify, show that they were indeed dismissed based on tribal and political reasons and give room to those accused of carrying out those dismissals to defend themselves. This is what the rule of law means and not those dark corner processes being led by people, many of whom must stand accused as having conducted the dismissals,” he said.

Minister of Health Silvia Masebo says Zambia has been reclassified as a COVID-19 level 1 (low) risk country under the United States CDC travel guidance.

Ms. Masebo says this follows the country’s continued low proportion of new cases and deaths being reported.

During the daily COVID-19 update, the minister states that studies are currently underway with Johns Hopkins University to model the fourth wave and understand the population at risk.

She said in her daily update that past exposure to the virus, vaccination and waning immunity, and possible new variants are being taken into account.

Ms. Masebo explained that the third wave rose very fast compared to the previous two waves and placed tremendous pressure on the health system, a situation the country has to avoid at all costs.

“If the variants we will see in the fourth are those we have already been exposed to or are weaker than previous variants, this may result in a relatively lower fourth wave.

“ Data from countries that have achieved high vaccination coverage has shown that although this does not avoid future waves altogether, it does greatly impact the severity of waves,” she said.

The Minister stressed the need for the health and safety measures to remain in place by the public as the country continues to plan ahead for the fourth wave.

She said she is saddened that the country continues to see low adherence due to perceived low risk by the public.

Ms. Masebo further warned that low adherence by the public places everyone at greater risk of a possible resurgence as there have already been some spikes in the Ministry’s reported figures.

She assured me that her ministry is currently working to finalize its resurgence plan with support from World Health Organisation (WHO) which will put the ministry in a much better-prepared position to counter any surges in the country’s COVID-19 numbers.

And the country has in the last 24 hours recorded 37 new COVID-19 cases out of the 5,875 tests conducted countrywide representing a 0.6% overall national positivity.

The new cases were reported from seven provinces while Northern and Southern provinces did not report any new cases from the tests conducted, whereas no report was received from Central.

“By district, the new cases were reported from eight districts, of which Kitwe recorded the highest number (23), followed by Lusaka (5), Kasempa (2), Lufwanyama (2), Senanga (2), Chipata (1), Mpika (1), and Nchelenge (1). Our surveillance teams are interrogating the spike observed in Kitwe,” Ms Masebo said in the update.

And no new deaths were recorded in the last 24 hours while the cumulative number of COVID-19 related deaths recorded to date stands at 3,662 classified as 2,741 COVID-19 deaths and 921 COVID-19 associated deaths.

Currently, 182 active cases and of those who are admitted, 12 (86%) are on Oxygen therapy, and 4 (29%) are classified as being in critical condition.

She further added that following the 14 discharges made in the last 24 hours, the cumulative number of recoveries recorded to date now stands at 206,008 (98% recovered).

The Minister further noted that 5,658 doses of Johnson and Johnson, 973 Dose 1 and 977 Dose 2 AstraZeneca, 148 Dose 1 and 9 Dose 2 Sino-pharm were administered in the last 24 hours.

“This brings the cumulative number of doses that have been administered to date to 941,396. These are broken down by dose type as follows: 377,914 Dose 1 vaccinations and 563,482 fully vaccinated (of which 364,062 (65%) are the single-dose J&J vaccinations),” she said.

She noted with concern over the unfortunate reports of facilities running out of vaccines as there is enough stock in the country.

She assured the public that the situation will not be allowed to continue as Provinces have been advised to ensure that they implement efficient and effective stock management and that vaccines are reordered from the central level in good time.

“Zambia has not run out of vaccines; we currently have over 32,000 doses in stock and we are scheduled to receive an additional consignment of Pfizer, Moderna and AstraZeneca over the next few days,” she assured.

And the minister has dismissed reports of health care workers responding poorly to the vaccination programme.

Ms Masebo explained that the Ministry’s data indicates that over 67% have so far been fully vaccinated and this is not taking into account those that have so far only received one dose.

She added that Zambia and its partners are implementing a basket of vaccines and so far, a decent response to all the vaccines on offer has been seen.

She announced that Zambia is, however, still far from a comfortable level with a target of at least 30% getting vaccinated by December 2021.

She said to address the issue, her ministry has envisaged ensuring commodity availability, heightened levels of information of the target population, and proximity of the service to the communities.

Ms. Masebo reminded the general public that the flu season is here as the country continues to keep an eye on the COVID-19 situation.

The Minister advised that it is the time of the year when other disease outbreaks also come into play.

She said government epidemic preparedness and response structures at the provincial and district levels remain active to pick up and respond to any outbreak reports around the country.

The cumulative number of COVID-19 confirmed cases recorded to date in Zambia now stands at 209,852.