Days of Our Lives: Prestige, Poverty and Plunder

By Hjoe Moono

Travelling through much of Lusaka and other cities in Zambia, there is a sharp and disturbing contrast that characterise our nation. The city is filled with ‘mega’ projects aka Pave Zambia, Link Zambia worth millions of US Dollars, executed on borrowed funds and contracted to Chinese contractors. At the same time, you see the sight of extreme poverty living side by side with prestige.

Indeed, Zambia has a huge deficit in infrastructure, and with the rumoured poor state of Kariba dam, one can only imagine whether the country would be able to venture into any such mega project if maintenance alone has to be through borrowed funds. The deficit in infrastructure indeed has to be addressed, but its address should not ignore the dire needs of society.

The spending priorities of a democratically-elected government in a developing country or any country for that matter ought to be conditioned by the availability of budgetary resources, urgent needs of the people and limits of the constitution.

[pullquote]the majority of our people cannot afford to drive, yet, when we build roads, we do not leave room for them to walk[/pullquote]
In Zambia, our budgetary resources are inadequate, and we have to rely on borrowing, and even with borrowed funds, we have more than planned for deficits. Our constitution, despite gulping huge amounts of money since 2011, has remained elusive to enact, and the urgent needs of the people are clearly not being heavily prioritised. What are these needs: More jobs. Better jobs. Better health care. Better living conditions through improved water and sanitation to all and above all, better quality education for the future of the nation. Our priorities have been towards prestige—our poor do not drive. Our poor do not fly. Yet, our priorities are to the very services they do not need.

Our government’s perception of economic progress seems to involve building megaprojects like multi-lane motorways, modern airports and a network of ring roads and inter-city bullet trains as proposed by Prof. Clive Chirwa and Prof. Atanga. By focusing on high-profile and expensive projects, our leader seems to disregard the fact that the majority of the people live in mud houses built around dusty and unpaved roads travelled on foot if in the urban areas, or on oxcarts if in the rural areas. Indeed, we have seen over and again some of the oxcart ambulances being used by our rural population.

Even in Lusaka, the majority of our people cannot afford to drive, yet, when we build roads, we do not leave room for them to walk. Our priorities even in the transport sector are elitist. The majority of our people are having a hard time properly feeding and clothing their families due to sharply rising prices of everything with shrinking employment opportunities and falling real incomes due to inflation. And yes, with the wage and employment freeze in place, there is very little hope for any college or university graduate to earn a decent living until such a time as it pleases our government to employ.

Forgotten promises

With the PF’s huge and noble ambition of rural and industrial development, perhaps it would be only prudent that the huge expenditure on some of the prestige construction projects, which have been coupled with plunder in the awarding of contracts and lack of transparent and accountable oversight, could be better utilised to build a network of farm-to-market rural roads that would promote agricultural and industrial development.

Alternatively, the budget deficit could be kept low by avoiding such extravagant expenditure in order to ensure relative price stability. Yes indeed, some people have argued that Mr. Sata is bringing infrastructure development that can only be compared to that seen under the KK’s UNIP era. And yes indeed, we shouldn’t forget the gross fiscal mismanagement and indiscipline that characterised KK’s regime, crippling Zambia from one of the fastest and middle income countries richer and wealthier than South Korea to a highly indebted and poor country with ‘white’ elephant prestige projects dotted around the country. The PF should be aware that it is such blind prestige ambition, cumulatively, which made UNIP unpopular and led to its downfall. The people’s needs should not be neglected. Never!

It’s been a while since I read the PF’s promises but it would seem that the government has forgotten its election promises to reduce unnecessary expenses and instil accountability and discipline in the management of government affairs. Building megaprojects as a symbol of national prestige by begging and borrowing is disgraceful for Zambia as a nation. Most importantly, it shows a regrettable lack of sensitivity to the grinding poverty of the majority of the people.

Throw the begging bowl

The country needs to chart a new course in economic management. It should let go of the habit of carrying a begging bowl to foreign countries and agencies and excessive borrowing on the new found sources of debt, the euro-bond. It is all the more important not to do so to finance high-profile ‘prestige’ projects.
In the 2015 budget, Mr. Chikwanda will have to do more work than mere rhetoric to instil confidence in the Zambia people. Everyone is now looking up to him for salvation. The Zambians will need a government that is disciplined on the expenditure side and does not tax the poor by heavily relying on indirect taxes and inflation. There is a clear need to undertake tax reforms and establish expenditure priorities that meet certain well-established criteria aimed at reducing poverty. With a high rebased GDP, out tax to GDP ratio has reduced, and this shows our inability to adequately capture the taxes due and thus our vulnerability as a nation to debt dependence.

Priorities should move from luxurious lifestyle of politicians to Education and Health

On such an important day as Labour Day when our nation’s population is surviving with employment and wage freezes, spending on the luxurious lifestyles of politicians and bureaucrats and importation of prestige cars for the use of VIPs and similar other wasteful expenditure must be stopped. The most productive expenditure is educating and imparting skills to the youth. A healthy people will prove to be very productive. Our expenditure priorities must, therefore, be changed to increase allocation to education and health.
Let us note that quick-yielding development projects that facilitate investment, production and trade should be preferred over ‘prestige’ projects that are usually money guzzlers. Expenditure on building farm–to-market roads, provision of better seeds and cheap agricultural inputs and ensuring regular flow of water, electricity and other inputs would promote economic development and build up our national image better than high-speed trains, multi-lane highways and glittering airport buildings. This is where we should start from.