Tambatama: HH is one in a million type of leader

Labour and Social Security Minister Brenda Tambatamba has described President Hakainde Hichilema as a “one in a million” type of leader, praising his government’s transformation of Zambia through the Constituency Development Fund (CDF).

In an interview on 18 August 2025, Tambatamba, who is also UPND MP for Kasempa, said her constituency had become a stronghold for the ruling party because residents were experiencing unprecedented development.

“Kasempa is a bedroom for the UPND. UPND is indomitable not just by praise and singing but people have seen what they have never seen before,” she said.

Reflecting on her time as MP between 2015 and 2021, Tambatamba noted that Kasempa had received less than K10 million in CDF over five years under the PF. By contrast, she said, the current government had ensured consistent and significant allocations.

“Here we are year by year, people have seen projects come year after year, not what we saw the time I was in Parliament in the opposition… Things are happening under the leadership of President Hakainde Hichilema. CDF is preoccupying our terrains in Kasempa. In my own constituency Kasempa, we have seen meal processing, copper processing plants. So a rural constituency is transforming, we have to get up and work hard. Lusumpa and Kalengwa had died out and now they are back on the production line, things are happening in Kasempa,” Tambatamba said.

Tambatamba emphasised that development under the UPND does not discriminate. “There’s nothing like that’s a PF area, that one is UPND in the governance of the country because the President wants to unify the country. We want to demonstrate how we govern by taking care of everybody because it’s their country. Every constituency receives what others have received, it’s up to you to run and deliver to the people.”

She contrasted the work of the UPND in recent years with that of the PF. “For five years, it was less than K5 million, and here is a prudent government that delivers over $1 million. We have a visionary President in Hakainde Hichilema, one in a million occurrence that you get a leader like that, with a vision.”

Tambatamba concluded that no government could match the UPND’s record on the CDF. She said: “You can go to any parts of Zambia and see what CDF has done. Literally I can stand here and say show us a graph over the past 20 years that would beat the CDF delivery by the UPND government. We have delivered, we have shown.” 

She further highlighted the impact: “How many classroom blocks [have been built]? How many health posts [have been built]? How many children have been put on CDF bursary in colleges?”