It’s HH who should reduce his travelling – Kalaba

IT is ironical that President Hakainde Hichilema could reprimand his Permanent Secretaries and other high-ranking government officials for the love to be ever travelling when the head of State has scored 67 foreign trips in the last two and half years, Harry Kalaba has said.

Mr Kalaba says President Hichilema should have reprimanded himself for having made a total of 67 trips in only two and half years, surpassing Zambia’s first republican President Kenneth Kaunda who had been head of State for 27 years.

Last week, while addressing Permanent Secretaries at Mulungushi Conference Centre, President Hichilema chastised his appointees, including high-ranking government officials for their love for foreign trips and luxurious automobiles such as VX Land Cruisers which he describes as just pieces of metals.

But Mr Kalaba said President Hichilema had beaten the record of late President Rupiah Banda, Michael Sata and immediate past President Edgar Lungu combined foreign trips and it was therefore unbelievable that the head of State could chastise his Permanent Secretaries who could have made fewer trips than him.

He said it was shocking that President Hichilema who was the one approving foreign trips for his appointees could be the one complaining about the endless trips his Permanent Secretaries were undertaking.

“The one who loves travelling is President Hichilema himself and he will never rest unless he is on the plane going to some capital of a foreign country. It is ironical that President Hichilema could chastise his appointees, the Permanent Secretaries and other high-ranking government officials for making endless foreign trips. In only two and half years, President Hichilema has made 67 foreign trips, surpassing all former Presidents including Dr Kenneth Kaunda who was in power for 27 years,” Mr Kalaba said.

He said it was unprecedented that a President could undertake 67 foreign trips in only half of his term and yet there had not been corresponding results from the trips to change the living standards of Zambians. Mr Kalaba said the many trips President Hichilema had undertaken in the last two years had certainly contributed to hunger and poverty Zambians had been subjected to in the last two years.

He stated that if there was anyone who should minimize foreign trips in Zambia was President Hichilema because it was not possible that the Permanent Secretaries and other high-ranking government officials could have traveled more than the head of State.