PRESIDENT Hakainde Hichilema yesterday flagged of the distribution of Constituency Development Fund (CDF) procured Toyota Land cruiser motor vehicles with a warning to Members of Parliament (MPs) against personalizing the vehicles because the purpose of procuring the vehicles was to serve and work for Zambians.
President Hichilema said the CDF vehicles should not in any way stop working when the MPs were in Lusaka for Parliament business.
Mr Hichilema said the handover of the CDF vehicles was the manifestation of the visions of the expanded CDF that he had when he was still in the opposition.
“These vehicles should not be found packed at your boyfriends and girlfriends houses, they must be in the field working for the people,” President Hichilema said.
The head of State said the visions of the UPND had come to pass as the CDF was actually serving the people equally, claiming that in the past, the UPND constituencies were being given little or no money at all.
President Hichilema said he had instructed the Minister of Finance and National planning to Dr Situmbeko Musokotwane to disburse the expanded CDF to the people without any segregation.
Mr Hichilema said before UPND took over power, CDF was at a meagre K1. 6 million and at that stage, it would not have managed to buy the vehicles that were being flagged of yesterday.
He said only one vehicle would have been bought to monitor nothing at all but now the k1 million that the Ministry of Local Government was directing towards the purchase of the vehicles would be used to monitor K27.3 million worth of projects.
Meanwhile President Hichilema has told off Kitwe Mayor Mpasa Mwaya to stop politicking but concentrate on working because tile for politics was way far from 2026.
President Hichilema said the Kitwe Mayor was being patty and that his administration would not tolerate pettiness because its vision was to work and deliver for Zambians.
He said time for politicking would come in 2026 but for now; “it was time to work together for the good of the people.”
And President Hichilema has chastised Fr Anthony Salangeta for mocking him over his graphical representation of how the achievements so far scored in less than two years of being in power.
Mr Hichilema said it is impossible to run a country without numbers and those that think it was were jokers who did not understand governance.
And speaking on behalf of the MPs Chama South lawmaker Davison Mun’gandu thanked President Hakainde and the UPND government for the expanded CDF.
He said he never thought the CDF would achieve such results until the yesterday when the vehicles were being presented.
