UKA PRESCRIBES AUSTERITY MEASURE FOR HH

…including reducing foreign trips, stop commuting and move into State House, stop ministers from travelling for campaigns for ward by-elections, ensure campaign promises are delivered

THE United Kwacha Alliance (UKA) has prescribed a range of posterity measures for President Hakainde Hichilema, including reducing foreign trips, stopping ministers from travelling for campaigns for ward by-elections, selling all the V8 Toyota luxurious motor vehicles for the ministers, which should be implemented in the face of economic turmoil and drought.

UKA has also said it is happy that President Hichilema has finally heeded to its advice for austerity measures to be put in place and stop the extravagance that has characterised the new dawn administration.

Mr Sakwiba Sikota SC, the UKA interim chairman says the alliance is also demanding that President Hichilema should immediately move into State House as his daily commutes were an unnecessary drain on the treasury.

Mr Sikota said President Hichilema had made a record number of foreign trips and should therefore cut his international trips to the barest minimum during the implementation of the austerity measure so prescribed. “The UKA would like to congratulate President Hakainde for finally bowing down to our, and other opposition parties’ calls for this government to put in place austerity measures. We are glad that President Hichilema has finally seen the need to start addressing this issue as we have been demanding,” Mr Sikota said.

“President Hichilema must put his money where his mouth is by ensuring this pronouncement is not a mere public relations stunt and statement but make it a promise that he will keep. Zambians demand that politicians must keep their promises and not turn them into lies. To turn his decree about austerity to become a reality, President Hichilema should therefore stop ministers travelling to campaign at by-elections, including even ward elections. Recently we saw four ministers go to campaign at a ward election. The fuel, allowances and accommodation for themselves and their drivers could have been saved,” he said.

He said the Toyota Landcruiser V8s that several ministers were still driving should be sold as was promised months ago so that vehicles that were more efficient and have lower fuel consumption were used.

Mr Sikota said President Hichilema should ensure that after every trip outside Lusaka by his ministers, an activity report should be filed and published by the concerned minister within seven days of the trip having been made.

“These measures will ensure that only important trips are undertaken and that the country is kept informed on what is being done on their behalf. The President must equally reduce his trips as currently he has recorded a record of being Zambia’s most travelled President. If anything, presidential trips are twenty or thirty times more expensive than ministerial trips. The President must immediately move to State House as the frequent commutes to and from Community House are an unnecessary drain on state resources,” Mr Sikota said.

Mr Sikota has also spelt out the austerity measures the UKA president, when in government would put in place, which included doing away with the royal processions to and from the airport each time the President flies out and into Lusaka.

This he said would be to avoid locking down traffic for Lusaka residents who were often stopped by the traffic police for very long periods.

He said the UKA President would move into, and reside at, State House in order to ensure that there would be no need to erect a helipad at the personal residence of the President and provide dedicated ZESCO supply lines and transformer station to the personal residence of the President.

“The UKA would like to congratulate President Hakainde for finally bowing down to our, and other opposition parties, calls for this government to put in place austerity measures. We are glad that President Hakainde has finally seen the need to start addressing this issue as we have been demanding.” - Mr Sikota.