Amos Chanda says President Edgar Lungu decided to declare today a holiday in order to give full support and solidarity to the International Women’s day commemoration and facilitate a smooth transition into youth day on Monday.

Chanda who is President Lungu’s Special Assistant for Press and Public Relations, explained to News Diggers in interview yesterday that Cabinet office and State House officials collectively proposed to the President to make the declaration.

“The basis for that was basically to honour the cause for women. To give it momentum and give it full support and then prepare to transition into the youth day. Given that it was coming on a day like Thursday, propositions came and stakeholders from within the government administration, particularly cabinet office and State House, and it was accepted, so it was basically simply in solidarity with the women folk,” said Chanda.

Some section of society have expressed concern over today’s declaration saying it was unproductive given that the economy slowed down in January owing to the cholera outbreak.

Critics further observed that pupils who were supposed to be catching up in school after late opening, were being inconvenienced.