HH lied on NRDC- Tayali
HAKAINDE Hichilema lied that NRDC has been sold just to gain cheap political mileage as the MoU between AVIC and government for the relocation of a school in Chief Shakumbila in Mumbwa does not talk about sale, Chilufya Tayali has charged.
Mr Tayali who is Economic and Equity Party (EEP) leader described Mr Hichilema’s claims that NRDC has been sold as a “political strategy” by UPND for cheap political mileage.
Mr Tayali challenged the UPND leader to tell the nation what was wrong with NRDC’s relocation to a more conducive 1,160 hectare of land in Mumbwa and disclose how much it was sold for.
Mr Tayali said his party has been trying to appreciate the concerns of the UPND on the relocation of the NRDC to Mumbwa but it was difficult getting point.
“As far as I am concerned, we should be praising the PF government and Dora Siliya ( then Agriculture Minister) for the decision to give NRDC to AVIC for us to get a new school on the 1,160 hectare land given to it by chief Shakumbila in Mumbwa.
“In the place where NRDC is, AVIC will build a shopping mall, which on first hand points to development which will also create jobs. Unless the UPND have better plans,” Mr Tayali said.
He added, “In an article on 31st January, 2018, we challenged president Hichilema to produce evidence that NRDC has been sold. But on 25th February 2018, HH brought out a MoU between AVIC and Govt for the relocation which does not talk about a sale. He never told us at how much NRDC was sold.”
Mr Tayali said there was need for those alleging of corruption to be able to point at where it.
He challenged the UPND and all those against the relocation to explain how the move by government to relocate NRDC to Mumbwa will disadvantage Zambians so that people can appreciate their argument just as they have appreciated how Zambians were disadvantaged during privatization.
“We need to understand the objective of NRDC, which is to educate people in Agriculture and that being the case, the school must be a farm itself, meaning you should have enough land to cater for all farming activities, including livestock, aquaculture, poultry,” Mr Tayali said. He explained that in the past, NRDC was okay to be where it is now because it was far away from residential and Central Business District (CBD), which is no longer the case because population has grown.
The land at NRDC is definitely not enough now, he said, because agriculture has developed and the demand for students to do agriculture is also more, so the school need more infrastructure.