By Sean Tembo – PeP President

1. During campaigns, Hakainde Hichilema made a solemn promise to the Zambian people that if he is elected as President, he will create employment and reduce the cost of living. Believing his promises, the people of Zambia elected him President. The majority of those who voted for him are not UPND members but just ordinary independent citizens who want a better Zambia.

2. After he was elected President, Hakainde Hichilema told the people that his economic turnaround plan was premised on the IMF bailout loan. And that as soon as he gets the IMF bailout loan, he will be able to deliver on his promise of employment creation and reducing the cost of living. The Zambian people patiently waited for him to get his IMF bailout loan.

3. Last month, President Hakainde Hichilema finally got his IMF bailout loan, amidst pomp and fare among his fervent supporters. The President used the occasion to boast of how the IMF and other multilateral institutions have faith in him compared to his predecessor. However, what the President omitted to explain is how and when he will begin to reduce the cost of living, now that he has obtained his IMF bailout loan?

4. Some of us have disagreed with President Hakainde Hichilema’s economic management practices from day one. Just when he was inaugurated, we told him that an IMF bailout loan cannot be used as a vehicle for reducing the cost of living and creating employment for the people. We told the President that as a matter of fact, putting the country on an IMF programme will bring about the exact opposite; the cost of living will go up even further due to removal of subsidies, and jobs will be lost due to the expected reorganization of our parastatal companies.

5. We advised the President that if he expected to deliver on his promises to the Zambian people of reducing the cost of living and creating employment, he needed to formulate a homegrown economic turnaround plan as a vehicle for achieving those goals. That he must forget about the IMF bailout loan as it will not take this country anywhere. We further told the President that the formulation of such a homegrown economic turnaround plan must not be a preserve of a few technocrats at Ministry of Finance, locked in their offices, but must be a product of sincere multi-stakeholder engagement.

6. We further advised the President that the first step to turning around our economy should be to avoid additional borrowing whether by domestic debt, external debt or domestic arrears. And that the nation needed to leverage on the high copper prices on the world market to collect as much tax revenue from the mining sector as possible. That we needed to fund our national budget with internally generated resources without borrowing.

7. However, in the past 12 months or so, President Hakainde Hichilema has done the exact opposite of what we advised him. Instead of collecting as much tax revenue from the mines as possible, he has decided to give the mines a defacto tax holiday which is costing the country billions of dollars per annum in lost tax revenues. Instead of making the national dress according to the size of the cloth available, he developed a bloated 2022 national budget, 46 percent of which needed to be funded by debt. Since he could not acquire any more foreign debt, apart from the IMF bailout loan, he proceeded to utilize domestic debt and domestic arrears to fund the 2022 national budget.

8. When the PF administration left office in August 2021, the country’s domestic debt (government bonds, treasury bills etcetera) was about K80 billion. As we speak right now, it is about K190 billion, an increase of K110 billion within 12 months. In fact our foreign debt bondholders recently told off the IMF that the Fund cannot only talk about restructuring Zambia’s foreign debt while they remain mute about the domestic debt. Suffice to say that this K110 billion increase in our domestic debt within a short period has the overall effect of crowding out the private sector because banks, insurance companies, pensions and other institutional investors would rather lend to Government that lend to the private sector.

9. In essence, President Hakainde Hichilema has further killed the private sector in Zambia. With a dead private sector, one cannot expect to reduce the cost of living or create employment. The hiring of a few thousand civil servants such as teachers, medical personnel, police officers etcetera is just a facade. Real employment creation can only be achieved by the private sector, which has been killed.

10. Lastly, it is necessary to mention that the type of economics which the President and his team practices is very questionable. They are under the illusion that if they use our foreign reserves to reduce the exchange rate, then the prices of goods and services will automatically come down. That only works on paper, in reality it does not work like that. So far, the Bank of Zambia has pumped in more than $300 million to try and support the Kwacha exchange rate, but despite the exchange rate hovering around K16, there is no evident reduction in the prices of goods and services. To the contrary prices have continued to rise. This re-echos the advice that we gave to the President about a year ago that the only sure way to turnaround our economy, create employment and reduce the cost of living is by facilitating the growth and expansion of the private sector and collecting all the tax revenue that is due to us. IMF bailout loan + tax holidays + high domestic debt + killing the private sector = high cost of living and high levels of unemployment. The good thing however is that it is not too late for President Hakainde Hichilema to reflect on the advice that we give him. He must put his ego aside, change course and do what is right for the Zambian people.

By Prince Bill M. Kaping’a Political/Social Analyst

Warm and fraternal greetings!

The results coming out of Luangwa are obviously painful and disappointing. However, this doesn’t come as a surprise to some of us; firstly, this is a PF stronghold and secondly, we seem to have taken a ‘white collar’ approach to this game (politics) which is essentially a contact sport. We aren’t shy to confess we saw it coming. Our sixth sense told us we were going to lose this Mayoral seat, just as we are likely to lose Kabushi or Kwacha constituencies.

Why do we say so?

During the last 7 years of PF in power, our leaders became accustomed to showing off money in public and handing it out to ‘desperate and starving’ citizens like Santa Claus would handout sweets to excitable children. In this case, we are referring to vulnerable people in society who would endure the scorching heat in winding queues to cast their votes in diverse places as Chibolya, Marapodi, Chipulukusu, Ipusukilo, Maiteneke…….like that old woman who rejected a chitenge from the Republican Vice president Mutale Nalumango in Kabushi, recently.

If you consider the two constituencies which are up for grabs – Kabushi and Kwacha respectively, there’s no semblance of development to write home about – acute shortage of water is the order of the day, the roads remain impassable, social amenities are non-existence whereas crime is equally rife. Going by the level of support the immediate MPs command in the constituencies, it seems the duo put “tantameni” to greater effect!

Make no mistake, the brilliant policy of free education hasn’t yet taken effect in such areas. It seems the language they best understand is “tantameni” – accruing direct benefits from the politicians such as 3 pieces of silver to buy Shake Shake or Pamela and indeed covering their funeral expenses such costs of a hearse, coffin, transport and food among others. At the end of the day, this would have guaranteed unshakable loyalty……….no amount of persuasion would sway them away, no matter what. Recent events demonstrate that providing services to our citizens in a structured way isn’t appreciated by many. Do you know the reason why opposition party leaders have now taken to echoing the mind-numbing “UPND government yakaso” mantra?

Last night we had chance to watch, a video clip of controversial Nigerian cleric Seer 1. He wasn’t the excitable and loud person that we know. He was rather sad and downcast. He warned that if PF bounces back in power, they would first begin by imprisoning President Hichilema whether he has a case or not before extending the dragnet to others. Edgar Lungu himself revealed this evil ploy a few weeks before elections. What happened in Luangwa must serve a case study to better understand why the people of Luangwa didn’t vote for UPND.

When you talk about the black mountain for instance, it’s only a privileged few benefitting from the proceeds leaving out the poor. By the way, there a lot of youth trekking from Kwacha daily in search of opportunities at the black mountain. Alas, it’s only a few selfish leaders in a hurry to catch with PF thugs in terms of accumulating wealth enjoying the spoils! Within the blink of an eye, you see them driving impressive SUVs straight from the showroom and acquiring mansions in upmarket suburbs as the youth from vulnerable households watch from the sidelines. Sadly, most citizens are equally fast losing confidence in the idea of forming cooperatives as a panacea to their economic woes as the money is taking long to reach them or some senior party and government officials have formed cartels to exclusively access this money for their own selfish benefit.

One may argue that the loss of Luangwa is a minor setback; it isn’t Mr. President. You may be keen to learn that most Cabinet ministers, MPs and DCs have totally insulated themselves from the very people that gave them power – they no longer pick up phone calls and move around in tinted vehicles at high speed. Not everyone may appreciate that the New Dawn Administration has gone out of the way to deploy thousands of civil servants countrywide as they are used to “tantameni.” This is the basic language they seem to easily understand in the shortest term. It is common knowledge that PF leaders wasted no time dipping their hands into the treasury. They went away with huge chunks of cash which is now stashed in their homes and farms. They are now eager to use this ‘loot’ to reclaim back power buoyed by generous contributions from Mafias and criminals hibernating under the shield of the corporate world.

As late veteran politician Daniel Munkombwe once confessed, most people are into politics to eat, including our very own party officials. In the recently suspended Kwacha constituency parliamentary by-elections, for instance, I recall reports of how some party officials were pocketing money meant for campaigns or the incessant complaints from the foot soldiers about poor diets at command centers and paltry allowances whenever they go out engaging would be electorates. They saw their colleagues in PF eating and they also want to eat. It’s not too late Sir, try to work on some of the issues highlighted above