Q FM Africa's Modern Radio
Presidential Aide Amos Chanda
State House says President Edgar Lungu has proved that he is capable of handling any crisis and is fully in charge of the affairs of the state.
Special Assistant to the President for Press and Public Relations Amos Chanda says this is evidenced by how President Lungu has been able to handle crisis after crisis within his early days of his presidency.
Mr. Chanda has cited the acute fuel shortage inherited soon after assuming office, the recent drug shortage and the standoff between the mines and government over the new mine tax regime as some of the challenges President Lungu has ably resolved.
In an interview by telephone, Mr. Chanda has told Qfm News that this entails that President Lungu is actually dealing with a lot of things which also includes mitigating the current power deficit.
Mr. Chanda says does not think that the current load shedding or the trends in the Country’ economy can be used as the basis upon which President Lungu should be re-elected or not.
He states that his understanding is that a President of a Republic like Zambia is elected on the basis of the party manifesto and how one delivers the promises he makes to the people.
Mr. Chanda adds that the power deficit the country is currently facing stems from lack of investment in power generation in the last 40 years.
He says even if President Lungu puts all the money from the Treasury in power generation now, there would still not be any power generation plant established in just 7 months as it takes not less than 3 years to do so.
He adds that the President has been able to deal with many other challenging issues, and that dealing with the current power shortage in the country is not an issue he can fail to handle.
Mr Chanda states that if there are some people therefore thinking that they can use load shedding as an issue to win the 2016 general election, State House wishes them well.