Tuesday, March 19, 2024

Zambians should not be scared of the IMF bail out package-Felix Mutati

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Felix Mutati
Felix Mutati
Felix Mutati says Zambians should not be scared of the IMF bail out package because it’s not as bad as some politicians have said it will be.

Mr Mutati who is a former commerce Minister in the MMD government said the bail out is good for the nation because of the economic hardships that the country has faced in the recent past.

He said that the IMF will come with their proposal and big English words but that what is important was for the government to strike a deal which will not hurt the people more than they are already hurting.

He was however quick to mention that people should expect to make some adjustments economically as there will be some sacrifices which will be required from everyone so as to take the country on the right economic path.

He said people will need to sacrifice on the cost of electricity, transport and other areas.

He said the country will also need to interrogate whether perpetual subsidies was good for the nation or the current fuel procurement system is good for the country among other things.

He said having been in government before MMD knows that it made some mistakes and the PF have made some mistakes but that working together as a united front no challenge is insurmountable if people worked as a united front.

The country is expected to strike a deal with the IMF in the next few weeks to help the nation recover from its economic challenges a scenario that has the public worried as it is generally expected that the economic situation for households will negatively be affected.

On the political fortunes of the former ruling party, Mr Mutati says he anticipates former members who left for “whatever reasons” returning to their party.

He said the party will start talking to them as soon as possible so as to try and convince them to return though he was quick to mention that he anticipates negotiations to be hard.

The MMD did not filled in a presidential candidate but supported the candidature of President elect Edgar Lungu.

46 COMMENTS

  1. What Zambia needed in this situation was a leader who understands the direct implications of these IMF programmes and decide how far we go with them. Unfortunately, the current leaders just put in office will just go with the big words and send the country into chaos. The first recommendation by IMF is to privatize ZESCO and remove subsidies on fuel. At the same time IMF will recommend freezing of public services salaries. Question is, how many Zambians will afford fuel at K16 per litre, electricity at K2/kw, one chicken at K80, mealie meal at K150? Zambians are set to know the real cost of roads they have been boasting about.

    • Mutati only now is when you speak the truth after celebrating victory. Ok bring on the IMF my people are made of hard stuff they will overcome anything. I advise HH to withdraw the petition, give PF the work of demolishing. Maybe in 2021 we can put up a different well planned and built structure.

    • Zambia Opposition Leader Signals Strong Support for IMF Bailout
      Matthew Hill
      mattstephenhill
      Taonga Clifford Mitimingi
      August 8, 2016 — 6:28 AM EDT
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      Hichilema says he will back any bail-out conditions set by IMF
      Zambia needs competitive mine tax system, Hichilema says

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      Zambia’s main opposition presidential candidate, Hakainde Hichilema, said there was no doubt Africa’s second-biggest copper producer needs help from the International Monetary Fund to shore up its ailing economy and that he will support any preconditions for funding set by the Washington-based lender.

      “We are singing from the same hymn sheet as the IMF,” Hichilema said…

    • what does sacrifice mean?
      -retrenching govt and govt company workers ,of which they will go on for years without being paid their dues,
      -removing and possible sale of govt assets
      -poverty levels will be high and unfortunately loss of lives due to depression and lack of medicine.

  2. WHAT DOES THIS DUNDERHEAD KNOW ABOUT ECONOMICS & THE IMF???????
    His a.r.s-e at ZESCO USED TO BE SERVED BY HIS JUNIOR OFFICERS, when he was MINISTER, WHAT DIRECTION DID THE ECONOMY TAKE?????????
    DUNDERHEADS LIKE HIM SHOULD BE KEPT AWAY FROM POWER WITH A BARGE-POLE!!!!!!!!

    We await CON-COURT whilst such tu “kunkubitis” continue ukubuta!!!

    I thank you!!

  3. Mutati just knows how to place figures in the debit and credit column. He is not a qualified economist. He should leave economics to real economists. Show me a country on an IMF programme whose people did not suffer.

    • You are too young to remember that when KK decided to go it alone and do away with the IMF the economy got worse under what was call “Grow from your own Resources”. With cap in hand FTJ had to go to the IMF and we had to swallow the bitter medicines of SAP and HIPC and several years later the economy started growing at a breathtaking rate. Zimbabwe has tried to do without the IMF and you have 3m people in the diaspora running away from battered economy. Ask the Angolans and Nigerians what it means to suffer under a mono economy depending on one commodity of oil. We still have ka 2% GDP economic growth.

  4. Mwanya bane. You voted for a vision less lungu. Everything will be expensive. So my advise is stock up now. This PF lied and the lies are catching up with the voters unfortunately.

    • @4 Mwanya Bane, this program was going to come whoever was going to win! Nigeria,Ghana,Mozambique and many other commodity based economies have gone on this type of programs. Angola is still negotiating and there are rumors that S.Africa may just do that. This is an issue arising mainly from unanticipated low commodity prices which includes our copper. Economic management is not dependent entirely on the President alone but on a team of experts assembled to carry out the task in this case in negotiating the IMF bailout package. You will be surprised that some opposition figures like Dr.Musokotwane could have been incorporated into such a team since this is a matter of national interest! Leadership is about that rather than know it all!!We shall survive and we are not the only ones!

    • Yes according to bwafya

      You can have a reckless convict as president as long as you have advisors also you could have a clueless shop manager as long as the workers know what they are doing…..

  5. Welcome to ‘dununa reverse’ Zambia! There may be some good news for those of us who are in the diaspora. The price of property such as houses and farms will get low as Zedians sell the little they have to survive. Hunger knows no tribe bane 🙂 I guess ‘ifintu ni Lungu’

    • How many properties do you have in Zambia?? If you are banking on some situation to buy property forget. Continue living on credit without cash. You have to work hard to buy property no just talk talk….

  6. Some f00ls had their tails between the legs when Sata was borrowing twice in a day. And today they want to look like champions. You know very well how we reached such debt levels and UPND contributed. So any one trying to educate should not be insult as upnd is skilled in insulting. Mutati said there will be sacrifices to be made which I can translate as suffering will be there whether Upnd won or lost this would have happened because of one uncontrollable dead man.

    • ECL had a chance to start turning around things by taking measures but he didn’t due to political expediency he continued on the same suicidal Path …. The bottom line if this carelessly spending government does not discipline itself from a fiscal end and continue on this path, then no matter what words we use we are all screwed. When IMF moves in its mostly due to the fact that you have been Bad at resource management and have failed to run your expenditure and Income. PERIOD!

    • @Zambia Decides…Don’t worry your wish is going to come true very soon. Lungu’s fairy godmother (IMF) is winging her way to Zambia right now as I am typing this.

  7. Wondering why he didn’t say that during the campaigns,or maybe he was trying to hoodwink the PF cadres,because us the UPND already knew about that that’s why we wanted to bring in a man who could solve that problem without putting the country into shambles.Unfortunately,it is too late,tizakaula as a nation,some of us shall be made to pay for the sins of our ignorant brothers.

  8. The man without integrity speaketh. You have lost my respect baba. you are not as intelligent as i thought. You need luck though

  9. All i can say is my father is among the many victims of such inimical IMF program of the 1990s. He has not recovered from it because he has not even been paid in full what he worked for for many years. Mutati is asking citizens of this country to sacrifice. Its the same sacrifice my father and others made then, hoping the future would be better than bitter for him, his children & grand children. All these years, he has lived with the hope that one day he will get his money and Zambia become a better place. I appeal to fellow citizens to discuss/debate this objectively and advise wisely before Govt commits to such a program. Otherwise, history can repeat itself. As some say ”experience is the best teacher”.

  10. This is when the Zambians will know the real cost of “Sonta” which PF used to blind them. Sonta was well designed to blind the poor ignorant Zambians to easily but temperately forget about the cost of living and other economic challenges. Zambians who voted for this PF team forgot about load shedding, fuel shortages, the rapid rise in the prices of a number of goods and services. Very soon it will be time to pay for the reckless borrowing to construct poor quality compound streets. Now IMF will give us conditions among others, such as Pravitasation (most likely ZESCO), removal of subsidies on electricity, fuel, Maize and freezing of wages for public workers. The implications of the above are high cost of power and loss of employment at ZESCO, expensive mealie meal, expensive fuel which…

  11. Lazy Lungu himself will not utter such words as the BUM wouldnt know where to start…he is too reckless and visionless!!

  12. Watch the FISP that Given Lubinda promised to include a million farmers DISAPPEAR FAST!

    All these promises made by Lungu and his PF are already LIES before he is even sworn into office!

    IMF will have this on the very top of the long, long list.

  13. it’s pay back time …even those who sang Dununa reverse are now waiting for there share.
    Tomato,tomato balunda.
    Survival ni kondo.
    Vamahala Vinata kale achimwene.

  14. Zambia should never get kaloba from this company! We have been there before! The Finance Minister is aware of it and implications! Their kaloba NEVER ends. Ba Felix go home and sleep!

  15. @PAT, Zambians were not blinded! They are not as deluded as the one tribe party! They knew what they were voting for – progress of the nation! These guys have worked very hard and have transformed Zambia! Keep on being negative and stereotypical – the usual you and your people! Go and join those who love to watch dogs in Zambia site! You send the wrong message to outsiders while the true loving Zambians have appreciated the development that Zambia has undergone through! You never understand that there are stuff that are externally induced and sometimes you cannot do anything about them! We need to dununa many more people especially on this site if Zambia has to soar high.

  16. Why return to IMF so soon after having tatested the bitter pill of SAP? The fact is PF mismanaged the economy in the short time they have been in charge. Brace for more excruciating hardships. There is no better way to put it.

  17. @Asogoleli, I had also sacrificed and ended up scorched! We know better where we came from. This guy wants to plunge Zambia into misery

  18. Some leaders want where they can lean amatako! That is why the Under 5 loser kept writing people outside and trying to sell Zambia! You need to be logical and implement your own policies and sell yourselves to voters if you want to win! Please don’t begin to send signals so that you can begin to get support from those who supported the loser!

  19. There you have it. Mutati just told you what will be increased first. BTW what about the African Development Bank. Don’t they give loans for countries? Wasn’t the idea for African countries to create their own bank so they could have reasonable interest rates and no structural adjustment programs?

    • @23 Zamule, for your own information the main shareholders of the African Development Bank (AfDB) are also the main ones in the World Bank and control the IMF. Among the main shareholders in the AfDB is the USA,Canada,some power European countries and probably Japan! The lending terms and support programs from the AfDB carry to much larger extent the African and are abit different from those of the World Bank. However,we need to always remember that we far from economic emacipation which will take long as western powers are so well entrenched in global economic structures to govern international finance and trade!The IMF’s role is different from that of WB and AfDB,the IMF deals with financial management rather development financing. But we need to be much more smarter not just as a…

  20. Mr. Mutati

    Your are a big fool, don’t bring your failures here. Last elections you supported UPND and we saw you running away from these thugs and today you are supporting shame to you selfish and poor minded old man

  21. African politics can be so annoying.Making mistakes for how many years now?You have really taken us backwards.At a time like this when we need economic emancipation as Africa,you are taking us back to IMF and we should be smiling?We are a country that has copper and we don’t know what to with it.And like cry babies we are always blaming the global economy and copper prices.MMD is the worst thing that happened to us after UNIP!Twenty something years of trial and error.No clear policy to diversify the economy.No song apart from liberalization of the economy which has only favored South Africa Investors.My conclusion is that Black Africans CANNOT run their own affairs.Thank you.

  22. “The MMD did not filled in a presidential candidate but supported the candidature of President elect Edgar Lungu.” But Nevers Mumba was always with UPND!

  23. Mutati the thief who is reported to have stolen a plot in Chilanga is also an opportunist. He has been promised the Ministry of Finance and is now positioning himself to show as if he understands anything! The country is going to the IMF because of poor management of the economy in the past 5 years, namely:
    1. Visionless leadership
    2. Reckless borrowing for infrastructure to facilitate plunder
    3. Corruption
    4. Thefts on a scale that would even scare Lucifer

    • @26 T.Peters, while that could have some truths in it the problem is that no body took a serious step to bring to book the perceived culprits in this alleged corruption and plunder. So far only William Harrington has shown seriousness and leadership in holding to account some Ministers for their abuse. If at all it happened, Mutati was not part of them in PF but were GBM,Guy Scot, Masebo, Sampa,Atanga,Sichinga and the ilk who have been very well celebrated in UPND! So it is better to let Mutati talk as he sees it since he is not painting the picture of “holier than thou” but has acknowledged mistakes committed now and earlier on!

  24. @ James, maybe you were a toddler, or not yet born, IMF is coming! brace for more hardship. all subsidies on fuel, electricity, ubunga, feterliser etc, bingo!!! will be knocked off. Wage freeze, job cuts, the devaluation of kwacha, awe sure, Less somone, wait!!! fili ukotuya! Privatisation, and above all the resurrection of The Post, IMF will demand that the post be opened for the sake of checks and balances! see how our minister outbursts will be softened. You must get it Boma ilibe ndalama!! the same way you crawl kubakaloba when you are in dire needs, is the same way our government will be treated! fasten you seatbelt for a crash lending.

  25. We have better and great leaders and among them Tongas, they ruled Zambians in Zambia .
    Elijah Mudenda
    Mainza China
    Harry Nkumbula
    Kenny Musokotwane
    Levy Mwanawasa

    Remember your school lessons guys. Stop fighting over one man HH.

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