When we borrow, we don’t borrow to eat but to improve people’s living standards, so those who say we can’t borrow, get out! President Edgar Lungu exclaimed today.

President Lungu was speaking when he toured Lusaka’s Garden Compound, one of the areas where Cholera has broken out.

“To the minister and all of you who are here, the government workers, let us contain and control this cholera within Lusaka province please, I don’t want to hear that cholera has shifted, it has gone from here to Southern Province or Copperbelt, please I beg you. We must fight it because when this epidemic becomes countrywide, it will be too big for us to conquer. Let’s concentrate and make sure that we contain it in this area and eradicate it for now. But going forward, we must make sure that we upgrade all shanties in Lusaka and Zambia as a country and this is a policy which we are going to implement in the next five, 10 years to come because…at independence, there was no planning, people were settling anyhow. That’s why we have all these shanties but going forward, we have to upgrade these shanties and make decent housing for our people, that is the job you have given us,” President Lungu said.

“So we shall work and if it is money, we shall borrow if we don’t have to make sure that the country moves forward, it doesn’t matter if people will talk so much against this. Because when we are in an emergency like this, it is time to borrow if we don’t have. So those who are telling you that government is borrowing too much, when we borrow, we don’t borrow to eat, we borrow to make sure that there is development and people are living well. We fix the water, schools, hospitals and roads. That is why we are borrowing money. So those saying that we can’t borrow, get out!”

And President Lungu asked Garden Compound residents to cooperate with health workers in order to end the pandemic.

“Please wash your hands when you come from the toilet before you eat. And I beg you, please stop stealing taps. These things which are coming here, we just want to help you so please don’t steal the taps, or any equipment brought here to help in the fight against cholera it is intended to serve you and me so that we can live in a healthy environment. We beg you, this is your equipment. We shall work so that cholera ends so please cooperate with the health workers and everybody so that we overcome this cholera,” says President Lungu.

Take a listen:

The Minister of Health has recorded over 1,000 Cholera cases since the disease broke out in October.

President Lungu was accompanied by Minister of Health Dr Chitalu Chilufya and his Local Government counterpart Vincent Mwale, among others.

Health Minister Dr Chitalu Chilufya speaks to his Local Government counterpart Vincent Mwale when they visited Lusaka’s Garden Compound on December 23, 2017 – Picture by Tenson Mkhala

 

President Edgar Lungu speaks to a child in Lusaka’s Garden Compound during his visit on December 23, 2017 –
Picture by Tenson Mkhala 
A health officer teaches a child on how to wash his hands in order to prevent cholera in Lusaka’s Garden Township on December 23, 2017 – Picture by Tenson Mkhala