UPND deputy spokesperson Cornelius Mweetwa says it is shocking that President Edgar Lungu has chosen to travel to Turkey and attend the inauguration of that country’s President after his government announced stringent austerity measures.

Speaking in an interview with News Diggers! Mweetwa said the residents of Lusaka and Chilanga and those from other districts where there will be by-elections should give a protest vote against the PF for having a leader who is a heartless.

“It is extremely shocking to hear that a Head of State for a country called Zambia can decide to go to Europe to go and attend the inauguration of a president there. This is very unprecedented. This runs very contrary to what a president should have been doing under the prevailing economic situation and austerity measures that they announced,” Mweetwa said.

“We should have been looking at modalities of how to save money and not wasting money. When you have so much unemployment, when you have the economy constricting, when you have the economy plummeting, people who are doing business have gone out of business because there is no money in circulation, when we have the Eurobond approaching maturity; we must be able to save every little money for the country,” Mweetwa said.

He said it was surprising that a Head of State who recently announced to parliament some modalities of cost saving measures decided to give importance to an international trip at the expense of his country’s sufferings.

“This is a time for president Lungu to decide to go to Turkey under the guise of an inauguration? I think that he is just an actor because he came to this house to pronounce modalities of cost saving measures. They have cut workshops and other allowances for civil servants, they have cut even rations for police officers, but they have money to fly and go to Europe for an inauguration. This is playing,” said Mweetwa.

“We think that this is a kind of wastage which the people of Lusaka, Chilanga and other districts should say no to when they go to vote for their various and respective mayors and chairpersons. The people of Lusaka, Chilanga and other districts should give a protest vote against this kind of wastage because it is taking this country nowhere.”

President Lungu is in Turkey to attend the inauguration of that country’s President Tayyip Erdogan who on Wednesday last week acquired some additional new powers as part of a transition to an executive presidency.