HH Says Zambians Should Be Grateful to Him Presidential candidate for the United Party for National Development Hakainde Hichilema has denied allegations that he benefited from the privatisation process he advised in the 1990s, according to statements made during a special radio address this morning. Responding to the publication of a matrix and PACRA documents showing that UPND leader had awarded a tender for two hotels to the lowest bidder – a company in which he held his own shares – Mr. Hichilema said that Zambians should be grateful for his wealth and what he has done for the country. “There have been a lot of falsehoods and there is nothing substantial in that. You know, i did a lot of things in this country. Do you know that I structured the Shoprite deal? I changed the face of the retail business in Zambia, are you not happy that I brought Shoprite to Zambia? Are you not happy that Shoprite employs thousands of Zambians now?,” Hichilema said during the radio address. He continued, “Are people not proud that there is Sun Hotels which is the largest employer of Zambians now? Are people not happy that there is Royal Livingstone and Zambezi Sun? That Mosi-ou-Tunya and Rainbow Lodge was closed before it was privatised and i structured the transaction from zero and that revived Livingstone as the tourism capital and that brought about 8,000 director jobs and 20,00 indirect jobs.” HH also compared himself to the Olympic Gold Medalist Usain Bolt: “I didn’t acquire my money from privatisation, i have come from the village, it is not like i haven’t come from nowhere. Thank God he gave me the intellect. Many children have intellect and we want to exploit that intellect. In the Americas, a child who is talented in sports can have a bright future, in running, a Jamaican Usain Bolt is a now millionaire out of running, he is the fastest man and that is what HH wants to do, to raise many Usain Bolts from the compounds and everywhere.” The UPND candidate also emphasised his strong work ethic growing up taking care of animals: “I am cultured to work hard, as a young boy taking care of cows and you come home with 99 out of 100 cows, you were never allowed to sleep in the house and if you try to sneak in, you will find they have poured water on your blankets, that is how I was raised.” In his comments, however, HH did not dispute the PACRA document showing that he had registered the company Sun International Ltd. as a shareholding company director four months before the Zambia Privatisation Agency (ZPA) official documents showing that HH rejected a bid $20 million dollars for the hotels in preference of his own company’s offer for around $5 million. zambiareports/2015/01/19/hh-says-zambians-grateful/
Posted on: Mon, 19 Jan 2015 19:21:23 +0000
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