It’s time to work, Lungu tells ministers

Thu, 29 Sep 2016 09:02:27 +0000

IT’s time to work, so don’t focus so much on election petitions, they will distract you from working, President Edgar Lungu told Cabinet ministers during the swearing-in ceremony yesterday at State House.

And President Lungu has asked Cabinet ministers to start working towards fulfilling campaign promises made by the Patriotic Front (PF) in their manifesto 2016 to 2021.

Speaking after six Cabinet ministers and State House permanent secretary Christa Kalulu took oath following their appointments, President Lungu told the ministers to remember what they told the people of Zambia during their campaigns.

“If you are not prone to getting counsel then you will never get to know what the President wants,” the Head of State said.

President Lungu said going forward; all the pronouncements which were made during campaigns would have to be fulfilled by Government.

“So let us ensure that we remember what we said to the people and follow through… I don’t expect any difficulties in this aspect because we have said the same messages over and over again and our manifesto is there and ours now is to work, so let’s get to work,” President Lungu said.

And President Lungu said he was aware that a number of Members of Parliament had been petitioned and urged them not to focus on the petitions.

“Don’t focus so much on the petitions. I was also petitioned and it came to pass so don’t get distracted by these things. You may lose focus at the end of the day and people will say they have failed,” President Lungu said.

He also encouraged the newly sworn-in Cabinet ministers to ignore those who were talking about the Patriotic Front that it had stolen votes.

“Even those talking about us that we have stolen their votes just ignore them. Let us focus on service delivery to the people of Zambia,” the Head of State said.

President Lungu also reminded the Cabinet ministers that on Monday next week there will be a Cabinet meeting to look at the National Budget ahead of the Parliamentary presentation.

“I am sure we shall finish all the appointments by Thursday afternoon and swear-in the last group but we have to realign some ministries.

“If parliament approves then the ministers would be sworn-in. So we shall have a complete set after parliament approves the realignment of some ministries,” President Lungu said.