UPND leader Hakainde Hichilema has declared the prevailing hunger situation in the country a national disaster.
Mr Hichilema has since called on well wishers to donate food items towards the cause.
He has since appealed to President Edgar Lungu to emulate the declaration to further allow the international community to unlock its emergency funds.
“Let me use this opportunity to declare an emergency and a disaster with regards to hunger in this country. I will not wait for Lungu (President Edgar Lungu) and the PF to dictate how we help our people. We shall not allow the situation to continue unabated”, said Mr Hichilema.
He said he hoped that President Lungu would follow his lead and allow the flow of humanitarian aid to affected areas as both the party and his individual assistance is not enough to avert the crisis which he said has reached endemic levels.
President Hichilema who was speaking during a press briefing this morning said it was wrong for the government to refuse to declare a national disaster.
“It is wrong for Lungu to refuse to declare the hunger situation in the country a national disaster when the majority of our people have resorted to eating unripe wild fruits. Just in Chibombo and Rufunsa districts, our people don’t have access to clean drinking water, health services and food,” said Mr. Hichilema.
He said it was wrong for President Lungu to refuse to declare the hunger as a national disaster when bigger economies such as Brazil have done so and were receiving aid from the United States of America.
Meanwhile, Mr. Hichilema has described as mediocre President Lungu’s State of the Nation Address last Friday.
He said it is clear to see that Zambia’s fate has now been relegated to climate change.
Mr. Hichilema said the current hunger situation should not be blamed on climate change but the poor leadership style of the PF.
He said it was unfortunate that the government failed to utilize the normal to above normal rainfall received in the Northern half of the country to grow more maize which would have averted the food insecurity adding that the continued export of maize despite warnings of an impending El Niño is a sign of failed leadership.
Mr. Hichilema said it was unfortunate that the PF is blaming Climate Change when other countries had managed to weave their way through the problem by coming up with sound solutions to combat the problem.
He has since vowed to continue with his community visitations including Chawama and Gwembe, distributing mealie-meal to the needy as the Republican Constitution guarantees him freedom of movement.
Hahahahaha, ati let me take opportunity to declare national hunger.
I need to declare something as well.
Yes it’s a disaster. Right on HH. After all it’s mainly Tongas facing the famine. So others hv every incentive to see them die given the rabid hatred we hv seen before.
Whether gazetted or not, the hunger situation in most parts of the country is prevalent.
The fact that one is not affected doesn’t change the fact that others are starving. Even in season of plenty others less fortunate may only have a single meal per day. Waiting for statistics to grow as to how many more are affected by hunger before they are considered for assistance is not a humanitarian solution at all; they are hungry now even in the midst of plenty and they need assistance.
Let Zambians do what is right for fellow citizens instead of playing politics with the lives of others.
HH should know that Zambia is made up of 10 provinces and only two are facing hunger. Te two hungry provinces are the UPND strongholds. Southern and Western provinces do not make the whole Zambia. Show true concern for your supporters by selling all your cattle and buying food for them
Well done HH. Lungu thinks that if he declares hunger a national disaster, he will affect his already poor chance of winning in 2021. Leaders do selfless things and win the trust as a result.
Stolen money being hidden in warehouses and tax havens must be declared a national disaster! Also presence of UPND in Zambia must be declared a national disaster! CHILDISH.
Mediocre? Iam sure the Police are itching to arrest HH for defamation
I am not mistaken in my assessment that h² cannot make a good president. What’s h² with hunger situation declaration? What’s h² with international donations?
How is he wired?
Isn’t he a waste of time and space?
Is his pocket running dry already?
Please well-wishers be wary of this cheat, he can’t be trusted. He is a highly questionable character. A little bit more circumspect can do.
Sharon you talk like a makosha ashau you talk like a prostitute what do you do there in US
HaSichalwe you HAright! How is Prof. Hansoni? Has he written another memo to the UN on his University Letterhead that South Africans are killing Africans and NAMWALA HaHappened? CHILDISH!
Bo HH,you always talk about the rule of law.In what capacity have you declared hunger in Zambia,which law have you used ba daala?Desperation for presidency will kill you.
He has since appealed to President Edgar Lungu to emulate the declaration to further allow the international community to unlock its emergency funds….So why make a useless declaration which will be ignored by the international community?
Good question!
This is anarchy. This man needs to be advised, you don’t gain popularity by undermining the government of the day. Wait for your time and stop fuelling the already volatile situation. We want peace in our country.
Which law allows govt to deny that there’s famine in some parts of the country even whn it’s clear that people hv no food?
Hunger everywhere in this country sign of bad government
The biggest clown, jester and f00l in the opposition.
How did we end up with this cluesless kleptomaniac as a lead opposition??????
When God wants to remove a king he makes him blind that’s the case of pf its time to go please start parking your bags that says the Lord.
Bitter Hakiende h and your inherited under five party without a Vice President let me also declare a party disaster on your inability to pay your herdsmen realistic salaries for all these years they have enriched you. You haven’t even registered them with Napsa so they die poor
(HH) is the one who is mediocre. What does he know about Parliament or law making?
The quack has never sat in Parliament before. He’s never been a Councillor or Mayor.
And he wants to jump to State House with a campaign called “Tomato yapya”
No wonder President Sata called him Under 5!
Who is he to declare a disaster? Power hungry thief!
He should start as a sectional leader first for five years, become a councilor for another five years then an MP for one term and then a Minister for another five years and only then can he try to stand as President and he will lose HAGAIN.
So he can turn the country into a begging basket this nincompoo. The scewy thickhead cretin is clueless on Government issues.
He strategylessly donates 11 bags of maize meal in Lusaka and feels the pressure. Just listen to this broken record.
Watch HH very very carefully because his desire to rule this country at any cost is really alarming and its meant to settle scores with his perceived enemies. Whatever this man is doing is not genuine and the PF government needs to work harderr and smarter to ensure that people retain them in power in 2021 otherwise HH and UPND dont mean well. Their plans are extreme and beyond anyone’s comprehension. So my advise to PF and especially to President Lungu is this
1. Ensure you strengthen and change the way Agriculture is handled in this country, in short, make it your number one priority in policy, implementation and delivery in Agro, livestock and fisheries on a very erious note
2. Ensure that you start looking at energy, electricity and fuels, from are a different perspective and never…
Malinso, this man hasno ability to listen or plan. Zambia is currently on auto pilot!
The screwy is sinking very low every posting. How can an opposition leader be advocating for donations from the international community? Sounds like HIPC to me, a write off.
No wonder he’s been frustrating Government effort.
Indeed, why donate in Bauleni instead of Bengwa in SP where people are having to receive relief food from Government.
A serious hypocrite and an in darkness dealer.
Allow him to spread his fo.olly. We are watching him.
contd
2. Ensure that you start looking at energy, electricity and fuels, from are a different perspective and never allow the current power load-shedding never to happen again in this country. It calls for serious minded people to advance this sector
3. Continue with the robust infrastructure development program without ceasing because any country that lags in infrastructure development like good roads, airports, hotels and lodges, health system, education, conference facilities
4. You need to start supporting research in sustainable water, forestry and land management
5. Support and encourage entrepreneurship in the youth by empowering them and monitoring.
This guy is annoying, why cant he be truthfull for once!
Truthful, like what? Like saying the speech on climate change was fantastic!? We need solutions, like stopping people encroaching on Forest 27 & reducing deforestation.
May any educated Zambian please educate me. What where Zambians eating before the introduction of maize in Zambia? Maize is not indigenous to Zambia but it’s the staple diet and it does not have any nutritional value.
Thank you your Excellency the president of Zambia for declaring what is an obvious disaster while the fake party in power pf continue laughing at Zambian people. Their leader even makes fun by mispronouncing water when people are genuine going without food and water. I now believe my white wife when she said that Zambian are too good of people because in other countries this would be a war by now
Its not about the law or tribe one belongs to, its about life. Life cannot be replaced once it is lost.
This reminds me of the Pharisees who condemned Jesus and wanted to put him to death simply for healing or saving a life on sabbath day coz according to them, the sabbath was too holly to do any righteous work.
And What seen does one commit for simply helping or wanting to help the poor?
You did not just compare a mason to Jesus. Use another passage in the bible please.
The sin is Bragging about help the poor. He is not used to helping so he’s expecting a lot of Praises and ultimately VOTES in 2021. Shame on him.
Why didn’t he delegate to an NGO to distribute it. Because he wants his face to be associated with the mealie meal. Its not a genuine gesture of helping hand. There’s a cost attached to every bag.
@12, HaSharon STOP IT PLEASE!!!! Please don’t masquerade me like a SERPENT CHILDISH! FIND YOUR OWN NAME!!!!
If you’re to help just help the poor and not recieve defectors at the same gathering, and then you go to declare hunger someone’s job, are the president of the country??
Three Mansons are Satanists?
HH take food to ur pipo who are suffering, pipo in bauleni tabalima, but in southern balalima, its bcoz of climate issues, not only in Zambia, also educate ur pipo not to grow crops which need a lot of rains. maize seed go for the draught resistance.
When you critically analyse those pictures, HH is purely doing it to for some political mileage. When you donate to the needy, at his level he shouldnt have been in the picture. He should have simply sent his UPND officials, anyway what do you expect of someone whose only thing he thinks of being republican president? Doesnt HH know that even us we have serious ambitions of being republican president but we think through this deeply on how best this can be done. Its NOT automatic or coercion of falsifying to people, or taking advantage of the prevailing challenging situations. To lead a country one ought to clearly be mentally and physically convinced with a clear agenda of how you will ensure everyone is united and toll and embrace your vision, values and agenda. One needs to be prepared…
contd
To lead a country one ought to clearly be mentally and physically convinced with a clear agenda of how you will ensure everyone is united and toll and embrace your vision, values and agenda. One needs to be prepared to be led first by others and able to discern from a wider audience. HH falls far below these simple but yet important attributes.
Upnd is a national disaster.
“If HH had been captain of the Zambia National Team instead of Kalu, Zambia could have won at least 10 AFCON trophies,” Larry Mweetwa Group 4 INCOMPO.
Thank you for speaking on behalf of the voiceless. This is an eye opener for Lungu to stop pretending as though all is well in the country.
Real hunger is real in Zambia.
There is nothing wrong with anyone donating to the needy in our communities but i always have a problem when same comes with so much publicity. On the other hand, I wish to appeal to H.E. ECL & HH to find a way of talking to each other especially on National matters. It is a fact that there is extreme hunger in almost half of the country but it is not HH’s job to declare the same a disaster. If the two were in talking terms, all this confusion wouldn’t be there.
Talking about talking to each other, recall how reconciliation talks failed completely to extent that in a christian country, our political leaders refused to participate the excuse being that the talks were led by christian leadership of the country.
Yo Ha right HaMwelwa! National HaDialogue which he runs away from! MPs dialogue in Parliament (South African Parliament NOT Zambian Parliament!) Independence Celebrations which he runs away from! National Prayers which he runs away from! Desperate Three Mansions ONLY needs one thing! The SEAT! Dept of INCOMPOS!
So Sharon can be objective? This is great
This is a different Sharon. The other one is in some institution in the US.
HH has been discharged from the Institution on Great East Road, opposite Kaunda Square and that is good news for the Tribal H-organisation! Nevertheless, he will be UNELECTABLE still!
Nosense, you declare a national disaster……is this a national disaster?you stop your people from praying for the rains and when drought affect your area you complain and blame the nation leadership alaaaa iweee.Start thinking on how you are going to develop this country,umunobe nailetelela because of what he was saying during the companies.Careful shimwana.mze careful
This is strange reasoning ba “since!”
Do you mean to say Southern and Western Provinces overpowered your PF national day of prayer to deny the country rains? It means these provinces are too powerful and may just ask God for another drought! Please put away this hatred! It’s going to choke you to death! Don’t reduce your analysis to tribal hatred! No one applied to be born from a tribe race of choice! To those who are Christians, you can do better!
Eh! We are tired of hearing from desperate man mwe foreign aid it is not good for the country too much external dependency is a bad move we do not need a papet leader for the international community
It’s only Southern and Western province that are starving and animals dying because they refused to join the rest of the country a day of National Prayers. Where do they think rain and prosperity comes from? Repent, or it will get even worse.
It is only in NAMWALA where they are starving because they had xenophobia like in South Africa. He should declare Namwala a national disaster and bring the money from PANAMA and feed them with milk.
PF and their supporters are behaving like Pharisees! Any donations from their members is good and that from others is bad. Where is this blind hatred coming from? Food is food! The one who is starving doesn’t mind who has made the donation! PF must just take responsibility for reducing Zambians to beggars! We did not elect PF so as to make donations to citizens! Begging is dehumanizing! We are supposed to create an enabling environment for our people to be able to catch fish on their own and not on political handouts! Let those who wish to donate do so without being demonized! Feed a d0g for 3 days and it will remember you for 3 years! Feed a human being for 3 days and they will forget you in 3 days! For those seeking political mileage, don’t donate to get votes!
The hunger situation mwebantu is real. Loadshedding situation is real too. Take time and travel and see how people are living and surviving on around Zambia mwebantu. Why is it that the mealie meal prices have gone up? Ask yourselves. If all provinces did well in the last farming season, would the mealie meal prices go up, no. I was so saddened about one case I experienced first hand in Nakonde. Villagers picking up grains on the road. It’s sad to see such. Cooperatives have died. Farm inputs are delivered late. This FISP program good for nothing. These implementations and many other policies not helping in any way coupled with climate change, disaster. I was at Kasumbalesa a few days ago and the car I was travelling in was searched by ZNS to check if we were carrying mealie meal to…
It shows systems are in place to prevent smuggling. Did you see it offending after the same situation you described in the country to be searched by the zns
HH is a sadist that’s why he can’t win the hearts of the majority of Zambians…He’s a crook who has hidden the privatisation loot in the paradise papers because of his greedy and bitterness…
Its not about donations it’s about who have been reduced to beggars in a country where there is enough maize to smuggle out to other countries. Be sure to join the rest of the country for prayers next time. As it is the rest of country is suffering for lack of electricity because the curse on your land has not only dried up rivers in your provinces but has impacted the kariba dam.
Well done President HH for the declaration, hunger is everywhere only that PF is pretending
Let’s call a spade a spade. The hunger situation is real. If we go to bed full that doesn’t mean that everyone is having the same experience. We always forget when we live comfortably. HH is right about this. It’s not political to say the right thing. Government will by all means try and turn a blind eye to it. As it always the case, it tends to always act when there is criticism. As of yesterday, FRA was told to release more maize to the millers to try and bring the maize prices down. If we have maize why hoard it. As some mentioned in his comments that systems are in place, which system. Why let a situation escalate snd then move in to quench, is that how systems work?
Sharon you always talk like ashau makosha what do you do in US you sound like un expatriate in that field.
HaSichalwe! Greet Prof. Hansoni please! How is he doing? Has been a victim of xenophobia yet? Please dictate to him a new memo to send to the UN on his University Letterhead! I haven’t heard from him say anything about South African leadership! Is it true that he is tribal too like HH? I think HAZALUZA HAGAIN!
“ONLY A TONGA MUST LEAD UPND” Says SEjani. This so called HH is power hungry and desperate for plot one but apparently he is not destined for it because his questionable character. This donation is just sugar coating,the man does not give wholeheartedly, if you want to belive me go to his farms and see the way he keeps his farm workers, it is pathetic. His tribesmen the TONGAS who give him 98.6% votes are feeding on wild fruits and roots why he cant help them when he has so much wealth that part of it is hidden outside the country. His hidden agenda for presidency is to come and promote the TONGA ethnicity and oppress his perceived enemies. Imagine what could become of Zambia with HH as its president; national disaster.
“SAKWIBA you Ha NOT TONGA, you cannot be President of UPND, only a TONGA can be a President of UPND,” Larry Mweetwa Group 4 INCOMPOS.
When God wants to remove a king he makes him blind that’s the case of pf its time to go that’s says the Lord start parking your bags.
HaZALUZA HAGAIN has been blind than the assumed blind. He needs to be removed, He was plundering to prepare himself to be a leader? He has to be plundered!