PRESIDENT Edgar Lungu has said the Patriotic Front (PF) will deliver on its promises because it is a party that ‘walks the talk’.
Mr Lungu said too many people were positioning themselves to be leaders but the PF was a party that delivered on promises in its manifesto and those made during January’s presidential campaigns.
The President was speaking when he addressed people that had gathered to witness the commissioning of the Lunzua power project in Mpulungu on Thursday.
“Making promises is one thing, seeing those promises through is another and fulfilling the promises is a challenge to many but am glad that the PF is delivering,” he said.
Mr Lungu said that was the sort of leadership that late president Michael Sata bestowed on him.
He told the gathering that as the PF seeks a new mandate next year, people will consider what the party had achieved so far.
He said there were people that kept criticising him because they were merely bent on making him look bad.
President Lungu urged PF members and Zambians to ignore those people that spent their time attacking him and focus on promoting the party’s achievements.
Zambians should instead spend their time working and not listening to those that talk too much.
Meanwhile, president Lungu has said that his Government will continue to borrow and spend money to bring development to people in various parts of the country.
President Lungu on Thursday commissioned the US$52 million Lunzua power project in Mpulungu to supply electricity to the area.
President Lungu said, when he addressed people in Mpulungu on Thursday that it was not a waste of money if it was going towards development that would benefit the people.
Mr Lungu said he had no problems with borrowing money to bring development to the people both in rural and urban parts of Zambia.
“I will not borrow to buy me a suit but I will borrow to develop Zambia,” President Lungu said.
He said Government’s aim is to improve the living standards of people anywhere in Zambia regardless of whether they are in Mpulungu or Lusaka.
President Lungu said he was overjoyed to see the Lunzua hydro power project completed.
The Lunzua hydro power project is a Zesco and Government project worth $52 million on Lunzua River in Mpulungu which involved decommissioning the existing 0.75 megawatts plant and upgrading it to 14.8 megawatts.
President Lungu urged Zesco to ensure that the plant first served the villages, clinics and schools in the area.
He said Zesco should provide rural Zambians with affordable power and with the help of Government, take electricity to all rural areas.
Zesco acting managing director Victor Mundende said the commissioned power plant will serve Mbala, Mpulungu and Kasama.
Mr Mundende said the project is part of the power plants upgrade in the Northern circuit to increase power by 100 megawatts.
Senior Chief Zombe said he was grateful to Government for the power plant.
The representative of the plant construction company, China National Electrical Company, Wu dong Mei, said she was looking forward to future projects in Zambia.
PF talk the talk but don’t walk the walk on a whole list of issues such as smaller Government, less spending, properly following the Constitution or giving us a new one.
I often wondered why PF feel that they have cornered the market on patriotism.
Why is Mundende acting CEO? Not competent enough or Tonga who are not entitled to lucrative positions in Zambia?
If you ask me, PF is doing much better than the MMD did. MMD spent almost twenty years in power and can hardly point to anything substantial that justifies their years in Govt. If PF continues on this trajectory and completes even half of the projects they have so far initiated, Zambia will move leaps and bounds into the 21st century.
By the way, you HAVE TO SPEND in order to create jobs and develop the economy. Massive infrastructure building is expensive anywhere in the world. And countries that have achieved any meaningful and sustainable development, deficit spending has always been part of the national budget. Even in so called developed world, this is a very common practice—proper management is the key though. As for the Constitution, where have you been lately?
Dear Mr President be more strategic, it is not possible to borrow your way out of poverty. If this was the case every person who have borrowed their way out of poverty. What PF led govt is doing is to heap the credit or debt on the future generation. This country will be faced by the vulture fund issue soon and Zambia will never be the same thereafter. Borrowing only makes sense if there is a sound plan to pay back within one’s capacity.
@ZedpoorPeople: Yes you can borrow your way out of poverty. The issue really lies in what you decide to do with the money/resources you borrow. That’s what differentiates RICH people from POOR people—unless you inherited your riches.
Look, imagine your household is financially stressed. You go to your next door neighbor who is willing to lend you some money, you take the money and go to Kafue to buy bundles of fish to sale. Consequently you double the amount you borrowed and pay back your neighbor. With the profit, you continue the fish business and eventually the business grows. Now, although you started with a debt, today you can afford to send your children to school with a smile on your face. That’s called wisdom. This is what Lungu is talking about here—INVESTMENT!
Give this man a chance. Let him prove himself. He is the president.
Mr. YambaYamba- Be honest at time. You can live beyond your means. Zambia is borrowing more than it can sustain. Even you in Canada you don’t get every credit card that comes your way or is offered to you.
if your logic is right, why don’t you borrow as much in canada and come put up “tu midadada” flats in Zambia as investment?
Modest borrowing is okay, not over borrowing simply because you can. Remember what caused the 2008 Economic crisis, it was due to borrowing because they could (mortgages)
@yambayamba from your fish business logic, it seems you are contradicting yourself here. If we follow your simple logic why would your Govt invest the Eurobond, make profit and in-invest the profit to other projects? But what are they doing, borrowing for each and every project, not even sure how profitable these investments are.
You say MMD did bad, but you forget that at least they balanced their books at the end of it all. They even left a supplus of funds in the cofers which PF would have started from to invest.
The problem PF wants to develop very fast and carelessly loosing money and getting in a debt hole they will never come out of.
JUST ENJOY CANADA while those in Zambia will suffer more, trust me.
@Force: I wish you read my post below @2.1 before posting. You could have seen that I caution against excessive borrowing. Sure, it would be foolish for me to get each and every credit card on offer. And I get plenty such offers everyday in the mail. But if a bigger need arises, I would probably opt for a much substantial loan from the bank than a credit card.
Nonetheless, if you are fair, you will notice that my post is a response to this statement; “it is not possible to borrow your way out of poverty” by @ZedpoorPeople. My contention is that YES borrowing (e.g a MORTGAGE) has always worked to get people out of poverty if done properly—ALWAYS.
I can assure you, even people like GBM and HH engage in borrowing to finance their business operations—standard practice!
“President Lungu urged Zesco to ensure that the plant first served the villages, clinics and schools in the area.”
Let all the power stations do the same and ensure that the local communities are benefiting from the electricity generation within their areas unlike the situation where power is being used to feed villages that are far from where the electricity is being generated.
@peterB:
Quote: “If we follow your simple logic why would your Govt invest the Eurobond, make profit and in-invest the profit to other projects? But what are they doing, borrowing for each and every project, not even sure how profitable these investments are.”
I am not sure I follow what you are trying to say here. Are you saying that the Govt shouldn’t have invested the eurobond or what? And what do you mean by “in-invest”?
And yes, the Govt actually invested the eurobond in projects which will soon start bearing fruit. Power generation through ZESCO is one such area. There are others too. And you surely don’t expect such huge investments to turn a profit overnight, do you? Not even in private businesses do things work out that way.
@peterB: conti…
Quote: “…you forget that at least they balanced their books at the end of it all. They even left a supplus of funds in the cofers which PF would have started from to invest.”
No, I didn’t forget. But what good are fake “surpluses” and “balanced books” if they don’t affect lives of citizens in any real way? Yes such might have impressed agencies such as Moody’s & Fitch, but what effect did that have on ordinary Zambians in real terms? Very little, sorry to say!
Try this with your family: Don’t invest in your children’s education, don’t buy your children clothes for a while, skimp on groceries too, and if one of your children gets sick, don’t bother seeing a doctor. Then watch how good your balance sheet will start looking—that was MMD for you!
Thank you for the posts above and to the point in all the cases. Yes, it is possible to borrow one’s way out of poverty, but that is only if he/she has plans to pay back through prudent investment and fiscal discipline which is lacking with PF altogether. Hence the term for them, PF, that they will not borrow their way out of poverty in the face of poor planning and poor fiscal discipline of theirs. PF rejoice in induced by-elections, blotted govt and other bad financial practices. Again I repeat it is not possible to borrow a country out of poverty without a sound plan to repay the loans. Currently Zed is in trouble with these loans being borrowed at every other hour.
Its good to have these projects being completed and rolled out. Great job. But in borrowing we should remember the future of our children….debt problem. The problem in Zambia is that leaders (except Mwanawasa govt) want to leave a legacy *development* and leave govt with empty coffers. Nobody seems to care how much debt the country has. I don’t agree with the statement that we ‘continue borrowing for development’
@Much Mob, I agree with you that we should be careful not to borrow excessively and leave such a big hole for the future generations grapple with. But what I don’t agree with is the idea that a country like ours, underdeveloped and economically weak, shouldn’t incur international/domestic debt at all. That kind of thinking can only be termed as living in a FOOL’S PARADISE.
When reality on the ground dictates otherwise, we can’t simply be lying to ourselves that Zambia can develop solely dependant on our own financial resources. Yes, Zambia is rich materially, but until we reach a stage where we have built up our own capacity to exploit our natural resources, borrowing and external debt will always be necessary. Yes, we have to be careful how we spend the money we borrow!
@ Much Mob
What did Mwanawasa do that you should exclude him from the rest. All he did was persecute those who had put him there and fight corruption selectively. He also just rode on the outcomes of hard actions his colleagues had undertaken. Oh , of course he also appointed a lot of you bantu botatwes to jobs in Govt and Lambas, and off course took more development to Lamba land.
Ifintu ni Lungu chapwa.We love you
there is nothing wrong will borrowing as all modern economies are built on ,but you must also be strategic as we don`t know when another great mind like Mwanawasa will come along to sort out the debt levels……. in anycase if your going to buy please also stop paying all those ghost workers in goverment
What was great about Mwanawasa? Chiluba did the donkey work and mwanawasa just found himself in the right place at the right time.
He did nothing special
Always remember that the more you borrow the more you put the young generation in dire straits. From what EL is saying, he is not even looking at the critical figures which he can borrow to avoid another debt problem, he is just borrowing for today and the future he assumes will take care of itself. One thing to realise is that there is poverty out there and people need a lot of safety nets. Families are being dismattled because of having no enough money to support the depedants. The issue of the constitution should never be underplayed for the rest of us bank on it. The country is divided as things are, we hope the new constitution will address this arnomaly. Just mare saying ÖNE ZAMBIA ONE NATION’on TV does not solve anything, but this should be translated into integrated governance…
Its good to have a president who knoz wat he is doin and what is expected of him,its better to borrow for development
No vision man will continue borrowing.. I cry for my children…
The great Thomas Sankara would have slapped some sense in this lazy bums Edgar and shot his finance minister.
So what happened to the Me-Too January 2015 by-election promises to reverse the retirement age, enact the new constitution before 2016, have free education, not to freeze wages and recruitment to civil service, reinstate the fired nurses etc etc. You get the drift? They were all lies! Nothing has happened. Lungu and PF say one thing and do something else.
This Changwa and his KK airport cabinet don’t know that a borrower is a slave to the lender. even after seeing wghat is going on in Greece, they together with Chikwanda want Zambians to swim in debt while they will all be long gone. Chikwanda has been the worse Financial minister Zed has ever know. Changwa is also following into the footsteps of Sata as worse presidents with no vision for Zambia’s future.
You call Sata worst president? You must be blind, the whole Country except SP have seen that sata has done more in three years than MMD in 20 yrs. that’s why they voted for chagwa in the midst of internal squabbles in the PF
This Chagwa likes bickering, always complaining about this or that, yaba, grow up man you are supposed to unite the nation.
Wake me up when Lungu grows up!
Mr Lungu should take no pride in borrowing monies which Zambia will fail to pay back and thus leave huge problems for future generations. The worrying problem is borrow to pay civil servants’ wages and also fail to account to the last ngwee the borrowed monies, for example, the
Eurobond.
On Zesco, we hear of
more borrowing and
delivery of giant generators from India to end load shedding but nothing has changed for the better, just talk, talk and more talk and the PF ‘walk the talk’ is rhetoric.
Mr Lungu is also in the habit of talking too much about not wanting to be criticized, what a big mistake he is making! Can he mention any world leader that has been free from criticism? Obama and the rest are always criticized despite their efforts while Mr Lungu boasts to commission MMD…
@12 above,
The last sentence should end by ‘boasts of commissioning MMD projects’.
….every country does borrow but the difference is…. they also have a strategic plan for servicing the very debt…their national budget do not have ‘foreign grant’ components….corruption levels are insignificant….with very sound GDP….
I guess its kinda okay to borrow in order to INVEST in projects that will assist in repaying the debt. I do not completely agree with this statement from the President, “I will not borrow to buy me a suit but I will borrow to develop Zambia”.
The above quote is very subtle. We need to ask the President what type of development he is referring to. In this case it is pretty obvious that its about Electricity projects. However, his statement is general; to borrow for any type of development.
I feel we have borrowed enough already. Maybe we should focus on completing the projects that have already been started, for instance, the unfinished roads, schools, hospitals, airports, rail system, etc.
Proverbs 22:7(KJV)
The rich ruleth over the poor, and the borrower is servant to the…
Proverbs 22:7King James Version (KJV)
7 The rich ruleth over the poor, and the borrower is servant to the lender.
“walk the walk” when you are not the one going to pay it off but your grandchildren…what lazy visionless empty tin this silly man Edgar is…when it’s time to pay they are sleeping comfortable in Embassy Park!!
@JAYJAY please write sensible things at times,Govt has technocrates well placed on issues of financial mgt than you and are advising on the limits of borrowing,we as zambia are still within and can borrow for development especially now cautiously .You may even go a similar place to embassy park earlier than those you preach day in & out.
Fellow bloggers, I am hearing “no strategy” etc. Does any blogger know the strategy paper of government by the way? Could you educate us on its state as well as the shortcomings you are so confidently asserting in your postings? Would be more interesting to learn that.
What strategies? Nobody knows or wastes their time formulating any. This is Zambia, nobody sticks to any planned path. The strategy is to vest all powers into and everything revolves around the president. It is executive decisions all the way.
@ kalok
These bloggers kants are college/uni students who can’t have a faintest idea about the strategy paper for the government. All they know is criticize and insult and they are comfortable by that.
Its amazing to notice that many Zambians don’t know that we are far beyond the Greece scenario. Though symptoms are starting to show put the real problem is big under there. It will just erupt like a bowel(Chipute).Zambia is sick and soon she will be on its knees .Our children are being innocently being sold in slavery to China and European countries were we are borrowing heavily, without having a payment plan.
Zambians who voted for PF and Lungu are like ticks in a sick man’s pants, will continue to suck the man even if he is sick,they don’t care even if they suck diseased blood. The ticks will remain sucking even when the man is dead and lastly they will be buried together with the dead man. They will eventually be dead together with the man. Zambians tribal voting sucks me.
OF COURSE BORROWING FOR INFRASTRUCTURAL, AGRICULTURAL, TOURISM DEVELOPMENT IS SPOT ON. GRZ, PLEASE BORROW AS MUCH AS WILL BE ADEQUATE FOR SUCH DEVELOPMENTS.
The true manifestations of being visionless. When someone does not bring forward revenue generating ideas and only says ‘we will continue borrowing’ that only shows that these people will make no effort to use their brains to broaden the revenue base of the country as long as they know that money will always be available from lenders at exorbitant interest rates. Almost all projects being borrowed for do not have any material returns. They actually need more money pumped into them for operational reasons. A president with a brain would identify places were most of those monies could be invested in, even chunks of equity from international companies to have at least a money return and not this hopeless nonsense. PF have always been and will always be a bunch of clueless people.
Yes! Every country borrows but there should be a plan put in place of how to repay these debts, not just carelessly borrowing without any plan put in place of how to repay these huge debts! We already have enough unfinished projects which this PF government is struggling to complete because this PF govt is broke, and why start new projects when you don’t have money and relying on borrowing. Let’s be honest, Sata left this country in a mess for obvious reasons (illiteracy) and we expected a change from ECL but he is taking the same route as his predecessor! Truely he has no vision! PLEASE DON’T JUST START UNSUSTAINABLE PROJECTS TO PLEASE PEOPLE AND ALSO AS A WAY OF STEALING MONEY BY CADRES THROUGH CONTRACTS!
But I thought electricity is key driver to development and am sure the chimbwi condemning this noble cause is the loudest to smear mad when there is no electricity to high demand outstripping generation.
Do some research guys and you will see that NO country has developed without massive investment in developmental projects including electricity.
Just take a late night flight into a world class city and peep through your window as the plane descends for landing and you will stop this petty jealous or ignorant ranting.
PF under ECL knows what its doing and I can only encourage the President to focus and continue on his wise path of systematic development agenda.
Look at the Link 8000, after appointing the project monitoring team, contractors are back in top gear. Viva ECL!!
How can a project like constructing a sub station be a waste of resources? Maybe other people are not sure how zesco operates.
@ mulenga mwape @ sido mark others
If students like you can know that before you borrow you need to have a repayment plan, what of phd, mba holders and experts at ministry of finance? Dont you think that these guys know and understand alot of things like you who just know how to yap and insult?
@Spong Bob I am a holder of an MBA first class and a masters in communication for development .A degree in development studies and two diploma in project management and Business strategy. I am currently wind up my doctorate in development Economics. I have a strong military background with vast exposure in criminal psychology. Those guys at ministry of finance are working under difficulty conditions ,under PF dunderheads.
Hang on! stop that pursuit of those useless degrees…please go back to grade 7 and do a lot of english classes! Your writing is pathetic!
WAKE ME UP WHEN ITS ALL OVER
IN 2016 WHEN NEW PRESIDENT WILL BE RULING NOT THESE OSTRICH ON FIMO FIMO
MAN OH MAN
ZAMBIA A BEAUTIFUL CONTINENT
ELO LWANYA CONTINUITY WITH SATAS MAN HOOD
TRUE PF STAND UP
ALL PF STRUCTURES TO BE REPLACED BY RB STRUCTURES
The visionless people are those revealing other people’s medical status. The Germanwing air crash has made people consider revealing pilot medical status ONLY if it has the potential of affecting the safety of passengers. Tell me how ECL HIV status will affect Zambians when he can live long like others on medication such as Magic Johnson. ARV treatment is free in Zambia. If they hoped to distance him from voters by revealing his HIV status they have failed miserably. He is human after all. Have we forgotten how we borrowed to have free mealie meal? Sata removed subsidies on mealie meal and fuel but the same people promised to bring back cheap mealie meal. I fear he may succumb to them on at least mealie meal.
Magic Johnson pays for his ARVs, but most of you want tax payers money to buy your ARVs and thats the problem.
James, yes, most of us would have not become senior citizens it was not for free ARVs. On paper there are free but to get them it is a hassle.
Gen,you must be an 1diot. Chiluba was just bent on stealing and buying suites. I know that where you come from stealing DNA-nized. I you don’t steal, you not a man.
@ sido mark
You now agree with me when I said that you are a student. My friend being in class and office are two different things. We all believe in the importance of education but unfortunately the same education we aquire make other people become !d!ots znd am afraid thats the route you are going. Theocrats and technocrats should be responsible always in what they say and how they say it. Thats how we differentiate an illiterate from elites. The way you and others have exhibited in the way you articulate issues leaves much to be desired.
Chagwa i dont blame you. we’ve got so much levels of illiterate people in Zambia who unfortunatly are the majority voters.
Why does the West prescribe economical medical treatment to poor African countries which it cannot swallow itself? America, the mother of all capitalists, spends more than it collects, resulting in a “deficit” which is added to its debt. America has the largest debt burden rapidly approaching $18 trillion, a debt-to-GDP ratio of 101%. It is, therefore, not unreasonable to conclude that America has developed its infrastructure on the back of debt financing. What moral grounds do the Americans have to advise us not to borrow to finance our infrastructure development? An online publication has already hinted that GRZ intends to print more money. What is wrong with it except that it is called debt financing in the West? Can the loans be used prudently? That is the $ 1 million dollar question.
@28
Don’t believe in what zwd prints because hh funds that media to discredit Pf govt. They use a little bit of truth and explode it in a big lie. Boz periodically do recycle print notes to replace the heavily soiled and damaged note from the system not printing extra notes to saturate the the economy. If the grade 12s at zwd can understand the adverse effects of such things What more the PhD Denny kalyalya.
IMF is worldwide organisation serving the worlds countries, loaning for development, that includes the richer ones.
America borrows from China. It’s what you do with the borrowed money that counts. If the developments pave way for more business growth, home and international then it’s a win.
Your Excellency, we are not listening to the nay Sayers. Forward always.
@ Sido Mark
If you hold all those certificates as you claim, then am afraid education has left you much worse off than you were when you joined the military because of being a good runner and not on merit! I pop around once in a while to check what blogers post on this site and I must confess that more often than not you NEVER make sense! Even Bowman Lusambo can articulate economic issues far much better than you. So, free advise from me, don’t please enegage in topics that you least have knowledge in. Silence is golden. By the way who says that you cannot use your mother tongue on this site? Dr John Phiri has introduced that in Primary Schools. What you post normally is not in English!…dullard!
Borrowing is something no one can run away from, lets face it. When I got my job after graduating, I went into a rented house. After I did my calculation, I strategized to own my house. I disciplined myself to the extent of just spending on what was necessary for me to live a normal life and SAVE the disposable. After I accumulated enough, I borrowed the difference to ensure I complete my house project.
I immediately, I embarked on a vicious project of building my own house and today I am in my own roof and saving again to acquire more wealth for my children. Basic economics tells us that when you borrow for development, it the best thing you can ever do. My then landlord couldn’t believe I told him I was leaving.
President ECL is an intelligent man unless one opt not to see this!!
@ secret code
Unfortunately, your “intelligent man” lacks intelligence or necessary candor to explain how he and his followers are going to repay any future long terms loans when they are now forced to borrow in order to service current loans?
Mr Lungu has got a short memory, we have been down this road before with Kaunda and it had disastrous consequences, we entered HIPIC, and eventually Zambia was declared bankrupt, when creditors took a 90% haircut. He must be ashamed to talk about borrowing as if it is the only option available to raise funds. You can borrow, we know it is going to fill the bottomless pit, Zambia Railways, Zesco, your medical trips etc.The money you are bragging to borrow is other people’s savings, I wonder if you knew that. You should be talking about creating your savings through reforms, fairness and broad based development. You supposed to carry out constitution reforms, to provide legal and social foundation. Government reforms by reducing expenditure, broad based tax reforms, not just the mines,…
The difference is that the money was spent on consumption and mealie meal being the biggest culprit and the party and its government, the PIG. You had district and provincial party officials, District Governors with official vehicles, some provinces had two provincial political secretaries in additional to the provincial ministers. The list is endless and the members of the central committee in addition to cabinet ministers with perks such as servants, free water, personal to holder vehicles and so on. But in the meantime the infrastructure deteriorated. Driving on roads like Chilimbulu road was a nightmare. Now who has the short memory?
economic reforms such as diversification, social reform such as social security. It is a never ending process. These measures will create savings for your government and the funds you are talking about. Free advice.