“The Zambian government, President Lungu and honorable Mwanakatwe, working together as Cabinet know that what is best for Zambia and is what they have put across since November 26 when the President addressed the nation and outlined austerity measures.”
Speaking when he addressed the media earlier today, Mr Chanda charged that government blueprint on sustainable development is yielding positive results from from significant budget control and expenditure.
“…That program has been ongoing and it is yielding results, there is a significant control of expenditure, there is a string adherence to budget credibility and principles. The Zambian government does not need an outsider to tell us that we must remove subsidies, we did remove them without any problem. There is no worry in government whatsoever about the status of the IMF program,” explained Mr Chanda.
He emphasised that government is committed to working with credible programs that speak to the needs of the Zambian people.
Meanwhile, Mr Chanda revealed that the new Finance Minister Mrs Margaret Mwanakatwe will give policy direction outlining the control measures with regards to the Auditor General’s report, realignment and restructuring of debt with the Chinese government and the Chinese contractors , and the position of the IMF, Zambia negotiations with regards to the balance of payments support program.
“…But I know she will say the IMF negotiations with Zambia will have to be constructed on the basis of what Zambia thinks is right for the country. He added that whatever program that will be be agreed upon will be pro poor with strong emphasis on social sectors and social cash transfer program, health, sanitation and education.
“..the government does recognize that fiscal consolidation, realignment of the debt profile and planning for the debt repayment, especially when the bonds are due, as matters that will be of priority,” he said.
As a PF supporter, I really want to believe this but what’s on the back of my mind is how tendering procedures and contracts are negotiated…
All these haven’t inspired confidence at all… what has been resolved to stop this happening again?
Amos, Amos Amos please. where you born yesterday? Don’t be foolish. Zambia has always been dependent on foreign aid to balance it’s books and now that you guys have been spending indiscriminately the situation does not help. Who are you talking to? Your blind supporters or people like me. Amos you are stup!d beyond measure and I don’t have to go to the end of the world to prove that. Go away!
How come today imf has become the darling for our headless opposition.
No need to get the IMF engaged anymore. Margaret knows exactly what steps we need to take to render them even more irrelevant.
This is the same kind of stance you get from a secret lover when they realize they might soon be irrelevant … all of a sudden they start telling others you have a crush on them.
The smart people of the Zambian Enterprise are way ahead of the IMF and we are no longer in courtship because we have our own home grown strategies with the right remedies for our economic ills.
We are implementing them Zambian style and the IMF are trying to be relevant when the opposite is actually obtaining. That train has already left and IMF is not on board.
We are going to solve our own problems and we don’t need you … so just step aside and leave us alone.
Margaret Mwanakatwe comes to Ministry of finance as a failure and a drunk.She will not help Lungu at all, if anything as bad as Mutati was, he is much better than Margaret. She was fired at Batclays, she was fired in Rwanda and Ghana. Her husband was fired from Airtel and Zamtel. Together they fraudulently obtained a loan at CEEC and they defaulted. Their attempt at business was/is a disaster to extent of failing to pay school fees for their last born at Rhodespark. The High Court has nullified her Lusaka Central MP seat for cheating. Theis is the profile of your new Minister of Finance and B R Mumba Sr is so impressed with her. I feel sorry for Zambia
Abena Obatala … you are totally wrong and you know it. She never failed at Barclays!!! To the contrary she was moved around Africa to fix failing regions.
She was a great success and there are several reports from Barclays itself and reputable media to support that. Don’t insult our intelligence by thinking that as long as you keep posting unsubstantiated claims all of a sudden they will become true.
Now, I know of CEEC and her husband being removed as head of ZAMTEL by Bashi Chilufya. But what does my wife’s competence have to do with mine.
If my wife was a qualified Judge, for instance, would you say she is not good enough for bench because I lost my job as MD???
What kind of stup1dd thinking is that? And so what if they once failed to pay school fees, we all have rough…
Continued …
What kind of stup1dd thinking is that? And so what if they once failed to pay school fees for the kids? We all have rough patches in life sometimes. She is by far more competent than Felix but less elaborate for sure.
She will do a heck of a job and you will be ashamed of your statements pretty soon. One of our human frailties is that we like to look at people in the prisms of the past.
It’s also one of parenting’s largest flaws. Parents who look at their children as kids, never appreciate them when they become of age but those who look at them as future adults derive the best attributes from them.
People evolve and eventually self-actualize … there’s no better person to run Finance among those ready willing and able than Margaret.
Leave her alone, give her…
Continued …
Leave her alone, give her room to work and you will soon see for yourself what kind of material she is made out of … Let’s roll.
Zambia is too important for us to keep pulling each other down instead of pushing each other forward ~ B R Mumba, Sr.
Original Content, Copyrights Reserved …
@1.2 TO 1.6 I LOVE THE WAY YOU BELIEVE IN OURSELVES. THERE ARE SO MANY ZAMBIANS AND AFRICANS WHO STILL DON’T BELIEVE IN THEMSELVES AS BLACK PEOPLE OR JUST AFRICANS. IF WE DON’T BORROW MONEY FROM IMF (OR WORLD BANK), IMF IS MORE ON A LOSS THAN ZAMBIA. ZAMBIA’S RELATIONSHIP IS A SPECIAL ONE AND DID NOT START YESTERDAY BUT IN THE KK DAYS. ZAMBIA HEAVILY CAMPAIGNED FOR CHINA’S UN SECURITY COUNCIL SEAT. WHILE CHINA HELPED CONSTRUCT THE TAZARA IN THE EARLY 70s WHILE THE WEST REFUSED BECAUSE OF THEIR ECONOMIC/INDUSTRIAL INTERESTS IN THE APARTHIED SOUTH AFRICA. ZAMBIANS MUST BE REMINDED THAT ZAMBIA NEEDED THIS HELP TO AVOID UPLIFTING COPPER TO OVERSEAS WHEN APARTEID SA SLAPPED TRADE EMBARGO ON ZAMBIA DUE ZAMBIA’S SUPPORT FOR ANC. ZAMBIA MUST SIGN A MOU WITH FAVOURABLE AND ATTRACTIVE…
…ZAMBIA MUST SIGN A MOU WITH FAVOURABLE AND ATTRACTIVE CONDITIONS FOR BOTH COUNTRIES WHILE ZAMBIA ALSO CONTINUES TO BORROW FUND FROM AfDB TO KEEP THE WEALTH CIRCULATING WITHIN AFRICA. IMF SURVIVES ON IGNORANT SFRICA AND NOT ON THE WESTERN WORLD.
Ba Peter … sancho mukwai
Amos, Amos Amos please. where you born yesterday? Don’t be cruel to the less knowledgeable. Zambia has always been dependent on foreign aid to balance it’s books and now that you guys have been spending indiscriminately the situation does not help. Who are you talking to? Your blind supporters or people like me. Amos you are less intelligent beyond measure and I don’t have to go to the end of the world to prove that. Go away!
Amos Chanda is not an economist to start issuing empty statements. He should spare us as we wait to hear economic implications from experts not a state house based journalist no. Chanda ulenwa bwino chibuku and avoid issuing statement after state house bar closes at midnight.
Building the country on lies and illusions!!!!! Anyway time will catch up with them.
Amos you have mo idean what you talking about.shut up.
uubomba mwibala syndrome ..better say Government is yet to analyse the way forward with regards to IMF advice. However, no more acruing chinese loans until debt is reduced to a comfortable figure, meanwhile lusaka ndola dual carriageway is suspended and fire trucks be sold to MALAWI AT us$700,000 per wheelbarrow, mwanakatwe shall follow up policy measure Hon.mutati left infact mutati was doing a good job except we felt threatened that he was makiing money supporting MMD
It does sound to me like 1991. We seem to be hearding for trouble. Whoever does not give us money is an enemy of progress! We are short of ideas.
First they destroy the state budget with debt, then they say ‘we’ve been spending too much’… on social services, public works, pensions, etc.
This is just daylight robbery. However good luck trying anything else, because the IMF and World Bank support this corruption. They are the corrupting factor.
No the government seems to thinks it knows what’s best for Zambia when it is far from the truth. People have lost faith in the government because all it knows what do do is steal the nations reserves and split them among ministers. Enough is enough! Lungu’s day’s including those of these ministers are numbered. Mugabe is far gone followed by Zuma. It’s only a matter of time.
” Mugabe is far gone followed by Zuma. It’s only a matter of time. ”
Actually they both have been replaced by neoliberal stooges. Even if the UPND wins and replaces the PF, there are no new policies coming from the same party whose founding leader was called ‘Anglo’ Anderson Masoka. HH has no non-neoliberal ideas. And if he did, he would very quickly be replaced by someone more cooperative, like happened in SA.
Cyril Ramaphosa is a complete product of the system. He owns Coca Cola SA, shares in LonMin, etc. In Zimbabwe, Strive Masiyiwa is literally a Trustee of the Rockefeller Foundation.
Unless there is a mass movement supporting a truly leftwing candidate (leftwing at this point just means that Democracy works, and government does what people want), nothing is going to…
Ati IMF red flag on Zambia has no effect? Investors will flee and no institution is gonna be willing to bail out our dead beat economy you kachasu drunkard.
Ubomba Mwibala = Anyela musanga, azadyaka tuvi.
Wonder why I.M.F has ran to the hills, rather than give you Jokers Cash to embezzle?
GRZ just stick to the plan. Do not listen to naysayers! They have no interest of Zambia at heart.
Which plan you transgender arse l!ck!ng Imbec!le?
Amos, I don’t hold The President with very high regard. Sometime I feel that he has been drunk most of his Presidency!
These boys only realize they were foooools when they are out of office and unemployable
PF you have no plan exept building toll gates , taxing and selling assets to chinese……talk time kaponya jobs is what you provide while GRZ imports millions of uniforms and work attire every year including the just announced $62 million ZAF uniform import while we grow cotton and have millions of unemployed……corruption has consumed PF
Surely, this leadership has no heart for the suffering youths. Making those uniforms here in Zambia would have ensured that $62 million stayed here and helped someone in Kanyama or Chawama…. We have had tailors in this country since colonial days. Why now our tailors can’t do these jobs for our own government!!!???
It’s to always folly to ignore the advice of an expert at the personal level. It is reckless to do so at a National Level.
Amos, you have no idea what you are talking about. Based on your thinking it follows that $1.3 billion inject will not make the Kwacha stronger. Try running the economy without an injection of dollar.
It will be kwacha depreciation, higher fuel price, inflation.
Please do not be in denial. Peoples lives depend on doing the right thing.
What is true is that PF lacks the discipline to stay within the bounds of sound economic management. They think that infrastructure spending can go unabated without giving due consideration to its financing.
Good luck with that.
Contrary to Amos and B R Mumba’s statements that we have our home grown strategy for containing debt and maintaining growth the plans put in place were and are exactly what the IMF told zambia it had to do begore funds could be released. IMF releases funds in April and October. So forget about april.
B?R Mumba can you pleas tell us if we didnt need the IMF money why did we appproach them. IMF does not approach to lend. Before u start zambia ia a MEMBER of IMF . Does dununa reverse mean back to the economic past where we were in so much debt we needed the same economic community to FORGIVE our DEBT. Is the strategy Mumba snr to again embarrass ourselves to go begging for forgiveness.
Amos Chanda is a useless blubber mouth who talks loud on IMF + economic issues he has zero insight on.He has to look important/useful to his visionless masters .
But why do you keep going back to the IMF if you know that you are doing?
First Pf were trying their best to get Khongole from IMF …now that they have refused Ati we will go it alone and we didnt need it in the first place….
what sort of signals are you sending bwana Amos?
Forgive Chanda, he speaks anything to appear as if he is working so that he doesn’t lose his job whose life soan depends on Zambians will decide in 2021.
Efyo Na Kaunda started way back 88 ati we shall grow our own, heaven on earth navmwenye umo ati Shrichakuti…..mpaka twayamba ukuchula ukulatantamina fyonse. Echo twamutamfishe inchito KK, eieti wamuyayaya, ask him, epoachili. So don’t bring thisbcrap of we don’t need IMF.hpow old are you Chands?