Party of National Unity (PNU) leader Highvie Hamududu says Zambia needs an economic Indaba in order to revamp its economic standing.

Speaking in an interview with News Diggers! Hamududu also urged the PF government not to restrict itself to outsourcing only from those in the political cycles but to look around for other people with proven integrity within the country.

“This is doable even now, you don’t need to have a government from somewhere. We need a better country, and PF, they know where the resources are to make a country better. If they want to outsource, there are better Zambians, not even in politics, the best intelligent Zambians, the most experienced Zambians are not even in politics. Let the PF look around. There are people who can run the economy better than all these in politics. There are even better people than in parliament. The Magandes are there, the Fundangas are there, the Oliver Saasas are there and not us elements who have gone into politics, we are not the best. So let them look for these resources. Mwanawasa looked for these people, he went and hunted for the former UNIP people. Let us not waste time experimenting. This country requires an economic indaba and we have people with proven economic integrity. The reason why there is all this political tension is because the economy is bad. When the economy is okay, everyone becomes happy,” Hamududu said.

“We need to sit down as a country and have an economic indaba. For me an economic indaba is more important than all these so-called dialogue they are talking about. Let us have an economic indaba. Mwanawasa called [for] and economic indaba and left these political peacock dances [that] we are having in this country. The biggest problem of this country is bad economy and poor service delivery,” he said.

And Hamududu said given a chance to lead, he would make a better president.

“The common denominator in this country is the economy. That woman selling tomatoes there, that vendor there, that farmer there, they must feel the good economy, they must receive better prices, they must receive better extension services, they must have good infrastructure, their children must go to better schools. All children of this country must afford to go to the university. That is what Zambians want first. It is not about whether Hamududu wants to be a president, of course I can be a better president I can tell you. But the issue is let us do acceptable things to our people. We want a better economy, we want better service delivery and one way to stop it [is] let’s stop the greedy, let us stop the abuse, let us stop the corruption, and start afresh,” said Hamududu.