Former Finance Minister Situmbeko Musokotwane says the current economic challenges that Zambia is experiencing were predicted to happen as early as 2011.Dr. Musokotwane said that the PF government has in the last four years failed to encourage expansion output of the private sector.
He said this has consequently led to the country not having increased revenue from taxes.
Dr. Musokotwane has advised that government should in this case ensure that the private sector grows if more tax revenue is to be encouraged in future.He has also advised government to slow down on spending especially that there is no one that is holding a gun to its head that it must to do all roads in the country.
Dr. Musokotwane who was cabinet minister under the previous MMD government says the PF government should also realize that over spending is one of the factors negatively impacting the exchange rate.
He said this means that much as roads are needed in Zambia, expenditure on road projects should be sustainable.
Dr. Musokotwane said over spending and in addition, how the mining sector has been mismanaged,is causing disequilibrium in the foreign exchange.
Dr. Musokotwane has dismissed as untrue accusations that the current power crisis in Zambia has come about because of failure by previous governments to invest in the power sector.Dr. Musokotwane said it is in fact the PF government that is to blame for the crisis because it has delayed projects that the MMD government left for more power generation.He referred to the 750 Megawatts private sector led project at Kafue Gorge lower as one such project that was needlessly delayed by the PF government which cancelled the tender for no valid reasons.
“Dr. Musokotwane has advised that government should in this case ensure that the private sector grows if more tax revenue is to be encouraged in future” The objective of private sector growth should not be to encouraged government spending.
Government behaves like women, whenever there is money in the house it has to be spent. NO
Sata was a good man in certain areas but also very bad in other areas. Let’s move on bane
What makes women behave that way Jeko?
I think you did not understand his point..
PF Carders can not understand this.
Am really getting tired of these articles on advising and condemning the president on the economy all day everyday by every Jim and Jack. Typical African mentality! Experts in everything but useless in deeds! Any dam-ned F00L can recognize a problem the responsible ones find solutions and do something about it!
Disgusting sexist comment
Disgusting sexist comment
I’d say for every woman who spends money irresponsibly by going vanity-shopping, there are 10-20 men who spend money irresponsibly on booze and womanizing.
The point he was making is that PF concentrated on spending while the income side did not grow. That’s why PF had to increase borrowings substantially. Now even the mines that were being squeezed are collapsing.
agreed there my friend
bravo Dr musokotwane. this is what we want to hear. we are desperate to know why things are bad but grz leaders are running away from us. no one has addressed us to help understand what is going on. we are desperate even to hear from lunatics may be they know smthing. any press conference please
Not only were the current challenges predictable, but Zambia was WARNED… over and over, by many people and organizations. Only rather than pay attention to the advice, this “listening government” accused all those who spoke up of being bitter and full of hatred. Worse, they are still at it.
Ng’andu Peter Magande- Minister Finance, Situmbeko Musokotwani- Secretary Treasury, Caleb Fundanga- Governor BOZ & their teams. Hmmm!
This country has a number of these brilliant brains but a pack of wimps led by a drunk can’t utilize them because they are scared of brilliance.
President Lungu is not Afraid, his appointments have been great. The BOZ governor can easily ask for information and advice from his predecessors. Knowing Zambian leader ship, they are too head strong for that.
Viva President Nawakwi.
The Kwacha free fall dents the current BOZ governors resume no matter that reasons are beyond his control he joins the opinion held of the Minister of Finance.
If is time for Bembas and Ngonis to eat and they will not allow other Zambians near the pot.
Very good analysis Doc. What I fear going forward is the capacity to maintain the massive infrastructure being propagated all over the nation. The Zambian attitude of “if it ain’t broke don’t fix it” is our certain undoing. We fail to heed advice because we are fixed on the “opposition”, the “enemy” and “natural acts” (like drought). With so much natural and human resources in the nation most of our suffering is needless and purely man-made at wrong policy level.
So if the 750 Megawatts private sector led project at Kafue Gorge lower was not canncelled, would we have power twenty four seven today? Just asking ba Doc.
Do the maths yourself: what is the current shortfall and if we had 750MW from Kafue Lower would the shortfall remain the same? PF also cancelled the Turkish project to expand KKIA. Four years later and after $25m was stolen by Sata and his tandem of thieves, there’s still nothing on the ground.
Doc, Where are the bicycles you had during your 2011 campaign?
There you go – spoken like a true “listening” protege of PF. Surely the bicycle thing is far more important to comment on than what he is actually saying….
Great, huh?
Bicycles? This man can feed your entire village of thieves for 1 year. You can even stop stealing and eating monkeys for 1 year
@Spuds
For your own information, am not PF am a supporter of UPND. So don’t fool yourself.
@Spuds
Mind you am a full supporter of UPND.
Then in your case, Brown I stand corrected and apologize for jumping to conclusions.
Only, with due respect, the rush by so many on this board and elsewhere to ignore comments like Musokotwane’s because of unrelated past allegations doesn’t exactly fill me with confidence for the future under any party. The bicycle issue, for instance, is not the matter at hand and should not disqualify Musokotwane from commenting on the economy. Surely, far better would be if people can address the issues at hand than look for excuses to dismiss someone or undermine their character and not the points they are making. To put it differently, was he saying government should only build roads for him and his friends to ride their bicycles? I think not.
In any case, my friend – cheers.
Nothing can be done until copper prices pick up and load
Shedding stops. Even if copper stays low and load shedding stops, Zambia exports next to nothing and will continue to hemorrhage dollars. PF can’t stop building those expensive roads, that is where they steal from. If we had a more responsible GRZ, not filled with thieves, they should have rejected those prices to begin with.
“Developing roads as if there is a person holding a gun to your head” No plan.No priority .No nothing
I agree with you on all the issues you have raised but I do support on the mines. The PF increased the mineral royalty tax immeditely they took power while you and RB scrapped the windfall tax that Levy had left in place to benefit the country in times of high copper prices. The PF tried to maximize revenue collection from the mines and you voted unanimously (opposition &ruling party MPs) for that bill in Parliament to scrap corporate tax and raise the mineral tax to somewher 20% for open cast mining and 12% for underground. When the law took effect you turned around and started castigating the PF for the same law you voted for in parliament and used it as a too to win funding for presidential campaigns. Mines saw how unpatriotic and divided we are so they capitalized on that and held…
But why as a citizenry have we left them with their nonsensical infrastructural developments.We are the ones feeling the pain.We support these *****s in everything they do.Why sit back and watch the country being raped?Where is our inept opposition?Why cant they even organise pipo to demonstrate?Or I forgot it is a country of *****s who can see themselves being raped and they shout “ifintu ni lungu”.
…Continued: Mines saw how unpatriotic and divided we are so they capitalized on that and held ground till government had to return to old taxation albeit with a higher mineral royalty rate which some within the opposition ranks are still opposing and baiting the mines with for campaign funding. I believe the PF has demonstrated desire to collect more from the mines than MMD under RB and Dr.Musokotwane. The only thing they need to do is to manage their expendure well and enhance their planning since not all roads can be important all of a sudden!
Vioneni…… Dr. Situmbeko tell them go to thir offices and advise them
As we discussion, that mis-educated guy Chishimba Kambwili is drafting another *****ic statement which shall condemn Dr Musokotwane for stating the obvious.
Even as we discuss, that mis-educated guy Chishimba Kambwili is drafting an *****ic statement in response to what Dr Musokotwane has said. This Kaponya filled government has no respect and use for technocrats like Prof Saasa, Dr Musokotwane, Magande and the like.
KK is the one who destroyed the economy of Zambia. In 1965 kwacha was 1 to 1 with the British pound. In 1991, it was something else….
waiting for a response from Chishimba Kambwili
Comment:Can wait for October 18th 2015 otherwise God is still saying something you can only reap what you saw. For the past 50years what have we been planting. Thank you Jesus. In everything give thanks says the lord.
Its good proposal and advise from the DR its well thought but how do you avoid a slap in the growth of economy whose expenditure is 70% Government to avoid the slow down to economic recession exceptionally on the think that private consumption should drive the Economics That gradual transformation in the structure of the economic must be managed carefully like in NDPS to avoid breaking the back born Its like a Transition not sudden in rebalancing well managed
I have my voters card….ba PF am voting against you.
If all but ONE Zambians make a repeat grave error to vote PF , that one vote against will be mine.
Then You will also need to see what determines the Value of currencies like kwacha and critically examine What framework to use to effectively address without being at variance with World Trade Organisation and Financial Provisions by Supranational Financial Entities in these times of the kwacha to ensure its managed You will need to know correctly which policies will support you from Administered pricing in the kwacha to market forces on the kwacha, the rational expectations of participants including the arbitrage behaviour happening currently
All economies from Malaysia with worst currency to others in Euro and Asia are feeling the heat from slap in Commodity Prices and…
Volumes especially driven by China If you see the Purchasing managers Index in China as a mark of performance of manufacturing sector You will See the reasons why you need to have regional diversifications in trades and capital The rates decision in the US has for now worked in our favour especially having accessed the markets earlier Its something we can use to work on and See gains in those bonds at this Time of stiff markets
No matter what you say, you have very little to control on productions and pricing of the metals to effectively have a major effect on the Kwacha On this point I agree with Bo Situmbeko on some SAVINGS within the Budget Growth Framework…
Try to punctuate your sentences if they have to make sense.
You see also that you creaed the expectation “‘that the economy will grow about …….. in real or nominal terms locking in the expectations of the people If you revise or downgrade the REASONS in the outlook should be so well crafted to avoid SENTIMENTS that often have no fundaments otherwise
The NOISE could influence the real sentiments and expectation to being much more risk averse further compounding the correction of those same markets in the KWACHA either in ASSETS or RISK management like the other time on ZNBC that Director from Badex was explain There will be no time when it will be all rosy for the kwacha in the world of Business decisions There…
has to be some risk management or allocation of ASSETS to INVEST in Markets well diversified to gain in times like this especially having the Proceeds of the BONDS which other countries may not have at our disposal in markets turmoil’s like these
afudukele bane
I also find some encouragement in the rollout of badex I watched interestingly on ZNBC interview on how Sustainability in markets can be achieved given reforms in the Bonds and securities and their T+3 type of settlements for example in settlements including the Old brokerage type of trading
The BADEX interview was good to follow at ZNBC though the depth and liquidity in those contracts will be an insure to activate
The concept is correct
I can’t agree more, surely this was predictable and has happened. However Lungu has chance to make mends.
To a knowledgeable person this was predictable especially that the growth and spend was based on robust copper investments productive and premium prices that where forecasted on the international markets
Now everyone knows that all commodities and assets go through a cycle from boom to burst and the careful ones SET growth at near numbers and store gains in periods of BOOM to support that BURST in the ASSETS before correction with WORKABLE alternative markets well capitalised to insulate and absorb some of those shocks Reinsurancing or Hedging when too much appropriately
But if you revise rebase or downgrade the growth MAKE sure you give the correct SENTIMENT to avoid giving your markets as “‘forecasted”‘ any indication of permanent impairment in that GROWTH TRAJECTORY
I have my voters card….ba PF am voting against you.
The die is cast.
If all but ONE Zambians make a repeat grave error to vote PF , that one vote against will be mine.
Youths who are not employed who were promised jobs don’t dare vote for these selfish directionless liers! Whatever they will promise is just lies and they know that but they don’t care! All they want is to retain power and continue abusing resources. Graduate teachers mark my wordz, these plunderers will not employ you now! They will employ a small number just before the election next year and not the 5000 they are preaching! Ask yourselves, why haven’t they employed you from june when recruitments were announced but they have kept on pushing dates forward to date! Vote for them at your own peril! The drunkard is busy enjoying himself in NY at the expense of a very sick economy! PF cadres want a weak leader whom they can esasily push around (manipulate) and not someone focused like HH.
When Sata was alive you could see Chikwanda was under pressure and was on his toes but since the demise of Sata, he is not in any hurry to do anything and he is always smiling and sipping his favorite wine! He now behaves as if the economy has picked up all of a sudden! He is on record in that secret recording of having told his friends that, ‘kalya kala kolwa and kapanga ama decisions ninshi na kakolwa’. From that language we are able to tell to say, this man cannot fear anything about the president coz he knows the man can’t do anything to him! He can even go to the office and read the newspapers the whole day!
When Sata was alive you could see Chikwanda was under pressure and was on his toes but since the demise of Sata, he is not in any hurry to do anything and he is always smiling and sipping his favorite wine! He now behaves as if the economy has picked up all of a sudden! He is on record in that secret recording of having told his friends that, ‘kalya kala kolwa and kapanga ama decisions ninshi na kakolwa’. From that language we are able to tell to say, this man cannot fear anything about the president coz he knows the man can’t do anything to him! He can even go to the office and read the newspapers the whole day!.
Iyoo na lunya lutile na pwaaaa! Just bought bread today and PNP has increased bread again from K5.95 last Friday to K6.20 today.
It is becoming too much. I don’t vote, but this time I have registered. PF is leaving power whether they like it or not!
they had actually been predictive since the 1970s crunch