President Hichilema Vows to Drive Down Cost of Living

President Hakainde Hichilema has pledged to intensify efforts to ease the cost of living for Zambians, telling a large crowd in Choma that relief is already beginning to show.

Addressing thousands of residents who turned out to welcome him in Southern Province yesterday, where he met party structures and adopted candidates, the President said the price of mealie meal had started to fall, a trend he linked to a marked improvement in maize production. This year's harvest, estimated at around five million metric tonnes, would take pressure off food prices and bolster national food security, he said.

He pointed, too, to wider signs of economic recovery, noting that the Zambian kwacha had recently been recognised as the world's best-performing currency. But these gains, he cautioned, could only be sustained if voters in Southern Province and across the country continued to back the ruling party at the August polls. Supporting the opposition, he warned, risked reversing hard-won progress and dragging Zambia back into the heavy debt and excessive borrowing of the past.

The Choma rally marked the final stop on a nationwide tour that has taken the President to all ten provinces to meet candidates and party structures. With that leg now complete, attention turns to the broader campaign ahead of the vote.

Southern Province UPND Chairperson Billard Makwembo said the party was mobilising actively on the ground and gearing up in earnest for the weeks of campaigning to come.