ice President Mutale Nalumango says government did not ignore early warnings about El Niño but could not just predict its magnitude.
She has also dismissed claims that the government had induced by-elections in the opposition Patriotic Front (PF) despite the current drought and hunger that has been declared a national emergency.
Answering questions from the audience at the ongoing Newsmakers’ forum organized by the News Diggers newspaper, Ms Nalumango said it is difficult to have prior knowledge about the exact impact of the phenomenon before it hits.
“Climate change has come to be with us. We may have known that there will be El Niño but climate change is something you should look at away from the El Niño,” she explained.
“It is not easy to predict the effects of what will happen. The impact of this El Niño is not something that we would have predicted.”
She said the government had prepared to handle the situation without knowing the full extent, prior.
“Nobody can say they are fully prepared. Even with developed nations can’t really know the impact.”
“We didn’t know the impact will be this bad so it wasn’t recklessness despite the early warnings.”
Ms Nalumango said it was because no one knew the exact impact of the impending drought that people were still encouraged to plant crops.
“Yes we knew. Does our government plan? Yes we do,” she stressed.
Meanwhile, Ms Nalumango has reiterated that government was not behind the confusion in the PF that has seen the declaration of nine parliamentary by-elections by the National Assembly.
She said President Hakainde Hichilema had always been against by-elections even before the drought kicked in.
“This government does not want by-elections. We are waiting to beat our friends in 2026 but unfortunately, they are impatient and are expelling one another,” Ms Nalumango said.
“Somebody must have thought about expelling their members. Infact, it’s us who are supposed to be angry because we want money to go towards fighting hunger.
“Please, we don’t want [by-elections]. We are not going to allow this recklessness.”
