EDGAR Lungu is a very greedy and selfish man who doesn’t care about the interests of the Zambian people and if he continues as President, our economic problems will worsen, Hakainde Hichilema has warned.
Commenting on Statutory Instrument No 19 of 2016 which has raised President Lungu’s basic annual salary to K447,559.00 from K414,406 approved in 2013, Hichilema, the UPND leader, said it is unthinkable to have a salary hike for a Head of State in a country whose economy is dwindling by the day.
According to Statutory Instrument number 19 of 2016, dubbed the Presidential Emoluments (Amendment) Regulations, 2016 signed by finance minister Alexander Chikwanda on March 10, the Head of State would in addition get a special annual allowance of K117, 648.00, from K108, 934 in 2013.
The latest salary adjustment means the President now gets a total of K47, 100 per month. But Hichilema wondered why President Lungu opted to have his salary increased amid the socio-economic challenges the country is facing.
“If this guy continues in office after August 11, Zambia’s economic problems will worsen. Ask yourselves how much the price of mealie meal will be in 2019 while Zambians are languishing,” Hichilema said. “What does the President do amid these problems we are facing? He has increased his salary greedily. Now people should not doubt when we say Lungu is a very greedy and very selfish man who doesn’t care about the interest of the Zambian people; he only cares for himself, his family and children.”
He said he was saddened by President Lungu’s failure to adhere to advice from the International Monitory Fund, which had asked him to trim government expenditures, especially those that border on politics.Hichilema accused President Lungu of making the government bankrupt because of his greedy style of leadership.
“Lungu has increased his salary by millions, in today’s rebased currency by thousands. So the workers of Zambia must know that President Lungu doesn’t care for them, and he doesn’t understand the increase in the cost of living which requires that he looks after workers more than himself,” he said.
“And this is a clear indication that he went into State House not for the interest of the people of Zambia. You have seen the IMF report that basically indicates that the country is bankrupt and one of the measures that they have indicated is to cut government expenditure, especially on the political side of the government expenditure.”
Hichilema said President Lungu was failing to address the economic problems which were burdening many Zambians.
“He is a leader with poor understanding of governance matters. Lungu has real and excessive greed. The President doesn’t know whether he is going or coming, he has no idea what is going on in the country...this country is bankrupt, but he doesn’t seem to know that,” he added.
“He is increasing his salary and traveling a lot basically to earn a little bit of 30 more pieces of silver, while students are being threatened with expulsion for asking for meal allowances.”
The government has also raised annual salaries and allowances for selected constitutional office holders, with the Vice-President now getting an annual pay of K270, 596. 00 and a K67, 349. 00 special allowance.
The Speaker of the National Assembly has had the basic annual salary hiked to K258, 722.00 while a special allowance has been pegged at K59, 723.00.
The Deputy Speaker will now be getting a basic annual salary of K204, 846.00 per annum and a special annual allowance of K52, 435.00 while Cabinet ministers’ annual salaries have been raised to K204, 846.00, with a special allowance of K52, 435.00 per year.
Deputy ministers, whose positions are not provided for in the amended Constitution, have had annual basic salaries adjusted to K193, 491.00 while their special allowance has been pegged at K47, 914 per year.
Meanwhile, Hichilema has warned President Lungu against rigging the August 11 general elections.
“We don’t expect him to rig the elections, we are aware of his plans and we don’t expect him to do that. So Zambians must all come together and get rid of this greed we have never [before] seen in our history. How can one individual who has been President for one and half years destroy our country in such a short time? Inflation figures are doubling, the kwacha has collapsed under his guidance, we have a budget deficit, we have trade deficit all because of this group of greedy people,” said Hichilema.
“Lungu knows that aleya, August 2016, aleya, so he is doing what we call in economics primitive accumulation of some allowances so that he can continue the expenditure habits that he has acquired of late.”
The Post
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