We’re proud to have competition in the election – HH

PRESIDENT Hakainde Hichilema says he is proud to have competition in the election. And President Hichilema says the price of mealie meal has continued to reduce. Speaking with Dingindaba Jonah Buyo on BBC Focus on Africa, President Hichilema said elections were important in a democratic country. When asked that the tide seemed to change and […]

PRESIDENT Hakainde Hichilema says he is proud to have competition in the election.

And President Hichilema says the price of mealie meal has continued to reduce.

Speaking with Dingindaba Jonah Buyo on BBC Focus on Africa, President Hichilema said elections were important in a democratic country.

When asked that the tide seemed to change and that the opposition were now challenging and whether he thought that it was an indication of dissatisfaction from the Zambian people, President Hichilema said he was happy with the competition.

“One can say so, we don’t believe that is the issue, we are proud to have competition in the election. Democracy is important, elections are important. After all, elections are the ultimate in a democratic period, five years. We are happy to have competition. That is how it should be,” he said.

“We sought leadership from the people of Zambia when we were in opposition. We made commitments, we declared our vision clearly, and our manifesto to the people of Zambia. By and large we have delivered on a greater majority of those commitments, [save] maybe where we were disturbed by exogenous variables, factors that are beyond our control such as drought and the war. Otherwise, we have delivered. I am glad to go into one or two specifics,” he said.

When asked on the cost of living, President Hichilema listed measures government was implementing to lower it.

“The starting point is that what country did we inherit? We inherited a broken-down country, completely broken down. We were in debt distress, [we] defaulted on our obligations to pay our debt. The economy was declining, how do we know? Minus 2.8 percent GDP growth that is how we know. We said we will restructure the debt and we have delivered on that. A clear saving of $1.9 billion, that is the money we are putting in the economy, creating a headroom and driving that headroom away from consumption expenditure of the past into investment expenditure,” President Hichilema said.

When asked why he should be elected when mealie meal was still expensive, President Hichilema said the price of the commodity was reducing with the achievement of the five million metric tons on maize in the last season.

“Despite the worst drought in living memory, two years ago, we have been able to increase production of maize to the highest level since independence, what is that level? Five million tonnes of maize this year, never done before [since]independence. What is the impact of that? Supply side increases, then as a consequence of that, the price of mealie meal is coming down that is why I am saying it is coming down,” President Hichilema said.

“This is not how you measure economics, this so what is called nominal figures, you must be talking real terms. Real terms being context, in terms of the general price level over the period of time and the true value of that price in today’s currency”.

When asked what he will do for the youth, President Hichilema assured that more youths would be employed.

“Forty five thousand teachers we have employed are youth, 20,000 health workers we have employed are youth. Those we have employed in the public sector, other public sector areas such as the army are the youth. Look at the jobs we have created in four years 10 months, we are saying when the economy bottoms up, which is what it is doing now, it creates opportunities for the youth, who are not yet employed to be the next ones in the queue,” said President Hichilema.