Cost of living still high - Kalaba
THE cost of living under the new administration is still high despite the Kwacha appreciating by over 30 percent in the last three weeks, Democratic Party (DP) president Harry Kalaba has said.
Mr Kalaba said the government should take some interventions to make sure the problem was addressed because it would not just push up inflation but would also push citizens into abject poverty.
He said that some fast-moving consumer goods that had a higher turnover should have been selling at lower prices by now but traders had opted to continue charging higher prices even when they had gotten their new stock at lower prices.
Mr Kalaba said this during a media briefing in Lusaka yesterday.
“As DP we are concerned why there is this continued increase,” he said.
Mr Kalaba said the DP was concerned that there was a sudden toning town in the promise of free education from primary school up to university.
He said the speech by President Hakainde Hichilema in the National Assembly in which he alluded to the fact
that deserving participants, beneficiaries in bursaries sounded like a departure from the promise of free education for all Zambians.
Mr. Kalaba also said that despite the President having made pronouncements against cadrerism, there were still elements of cadres collecting money in bus stations and markets.
He said there was need for urgent provision of employment for the cadres because the country would see a spike in criminal activities if an alternative way for them was not found.
Mr Kalaba recommended that the government should consider employing the cadres in the Zambia National Service for rehabilitation and enable them to learn life skills that would allow them to be reintegrated into society.
He said that the new regime should make sure that the trend of having political party offices in markets was stopped because that was where they start charging traders.