HH: "THE ZAMBIA WE ARE BUILDING, OR THE ONE WE FOUND IN 2021?"

As Zambians prepare to go to the polls in August, President Hakainde Hichilema has set out the choice facing the country in plain terms: "You do not abandon a crop just as it begins to bear fruit."

Opening the final Cabinet meeting of his current term on 13 August, the President framed the election as a decision between continuing to build the Zambia the New Dawn Government has begun to deliver, or returning to the one inherited in 2021.

President Hichilema thanked his Cabinet Ministers for their service to the Zambian people and for the work they have led to put the country back on its feet over the last five years. He reminded Ministers that the UPND Government inherited an economy buried in debt and going backwards, and said the recovery was now beginning to bear fruit. "We tilled the soil. We planted the seeds. And today, those seeds are sprouting," he said.

The President pointed to Free Education and the school feeding programme, the rebuilding of every constituency through the enhanced Constituency Development Fund (CDF), peace on the streets, and the return of international partners as evidence of the progress made since 2021.

He was clear, however, that the job is not done. Prices at the market remain too high, and too many young Zambians are still looking for work. The Government was not making excuses, he said, but the energy crisis was being fixed once and for all, new power was coming online, mining was back, and the economy was getting stronger.

The President told Cabinet that Zambia was no longer a country divided against itself, citing the national response to the drought as proof that Zambians look out for one another.

He closed with a call to finish the work that began in 2021: "Let us go forward, not back. Let's deliver Zambia's harvest, together." The Head of State emphasised that his government was delivering because of the deep love it has for the country.