Talking Point | President Hichilema, As Usual, Is Lying!
Lusaka – 14thth April, 2023.
President Hichilema must avoid politics of deception. He is not using the plane because he is too arrogant to admit that he was wrong when he told the nation that the Gulfstream G650 presidential jet cost Zambia $400m and, as such, he would sell it to recover the money.
He now knows what you must equally know. The $400m amount that was leaked to him in the run-up to the 2021 general elections was a loan that included other projects in the Ministry of Defence such as the renovation of Maina Soko Military Hospital, the upgrade of helicopters by Suckhoi of Russia and the purchase of unmanned aerial vehicles (known as drones).
The loan also included the purchase of two C-27J transport aircrafts from Leonardo Aerospace Company of Italy after they were ordered in 2015.
But his administration is silent on all the other items that the loan covered to save face. Is Mr. Hichilema going to equally sell the two C-27J transport aircrafts his Veep is using at DMMU or will he downgrade Maina Soko Military Hospital he uses for his medical checkups?
The C-27Js have registrations AF002 and AF003 as the serial AF001 has been allocated to the Air Force’s Gulfstream G650 presidential jet. The C-27Js replaced the Air Force’s BAe 748s and supplemented Y-12 and MA60 transport aircrafts. He has this information.
The controversial Presidential Jet only cost $70m and not Mr. Hichilema’s pre-election campaign lies of $400m. The contract (MOD/MPC/024-17) further shows that the jet was later fitted with aircraft defense systems and poor weather landing systems that cost a further $50m bringing the total to $120m. It’s a Presidential Jet, for God’s sake!
For a government that is single sourcing everything, from fertiliser to mealie meal, it’s incomprehensible to note that it can’t understand how equipment that was ordered as far back as 2015 and would later be financed through Isreal’s Hapoalim Bank could not involve an Israeli firm, Elbit Systems Ltd.
Elbit is an Israeli weapons company, operating in a wide range of areas including aerospace, land and naval systems, command, control, communication, computers, intelligence and surveillance. It’s sad that military intelligence is no longer respected.
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Source: Woodpecker’s Digest.
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