By NATION REPORTER
IT has become a habit for President Hakainde Hichilema to commission projects initiated by his predecessor and claim the credit, PF Deputy Media Director Edwin Lifwekelo has said.
Mr Lifwekelo said the party joined fellow Zambians who were shocked at the President’s behaviour as just a few days ago he was shamelessly boasting that in less than one year his regime had ended load shedding of electricity.
He said leadership demanded honesty and truthfulness, which the President did not seem to have right now. What has the UPND done that has suddenly stopped loadshedding?
“As usual Mr Hichilema was not courageous enough to mention that the projects that have led to the end of load shedding were initiated by his predecessor, President Edgar Lungu,” he said.
Mr Lifwekelo said that they knew that he had been advised by his foreign image builders at State House and UPND secretariat that he should never mention President Lungu as doing so would make him popular.
He said they had told him that mentioning President Lungu would make the former head of state popular and wondered what kind of insecurity this was.
Mr Lifwekelo said the new dawn regime had done literally nothing in the energy sector to start claiming credit for the achievements it had recorded. It’s the massive investment the PF made in energy generation capacity that had stabilised the supply of power in the country.
“Does HH believe that Zambians are so gullible that they will attribute those achievements to his clueless regime? He did the same when he commissioned the Kenneth Kaunda Wing at Mulungushi International Conference Centre, the Kafue Lower Power Station and the Kafue Bulk Water Supply Project,” he said.
He urged Zambians not to be fooled by the cheap and shameless propaganda from Mr Hichilema and his foreigner-controlled regime.
“We planned and invested the money we borrowed well and the fruits can now be seen, for which he is claiming credit without an iota of shame. When the PF took over power in 2011 it inherited a yawning power deficit resulting in frequent and lengthy outages,” he said.
Mr Lifwekelo said the country’s generation capacity was a meagre 1, 600 megawatts. The last time the sector had received meaningful investment was 1977.
He said in nine years the PF government had managed to increase the generation capacity to 2, 800MW through multiple interventions.
Mr Lifwekelo said the most significant investments included the Kafue Gorge Lower Power Station which was expected to inject a whopping 750MW into the national grid on completion and turn Zambia into an energy self-sufficient country.
He said other projects were the Itezhi-Tezhi Hydro Power Station, Lusaka Transmission and Distribution Project, Pensulo Sub-Station in Serenje and Shiwang’andu Mini-hydro Power Station.
Mr Lifwekelo said they also upgraded a number of power stations, including New Runzua and Musonda Falls.
“As if that were not enough the PF government created an enabling environment for independent power producers to undertake generation projects such as the 300MW Maamba Collieries Ltd thermal power plant. The net result of these bold interventions has been the stabilisation of electricity supply and surplus power the nation is enjoying today.
He said it was therefore embarrassing and immoral for President Hichilema to publicly boast that in only 11 months his regime had managed to end load shedding.
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