Dr Canisius BANDA Development Activist
ANYONE who rejoices at Zambia’s mere contraction of more debt is an idiot. Much needs to be done, much more, both in terms of thought and deed, is required of us all citizens if Zambia’s economy is to recover and become sound.
Ebullient, Hakainde HICHILEMA, to me: ‘Dr BANDA, it is wrong to borrow for consumption. It is foolishness itself.’
We were about 15, 000 ft above sea level in a helicopter on a campaign trail, chatting, the lush green of Zambia’s vegetation, full of promise, visible beneath us. Wallace CHAKAWA, Hakainde’s cousin, a Ukwa bag between his legs, was silent, as if not there. My ears keened, and I agreed. We must borrow for INVESTMENTS, my eyes, probing, looked into his, seeking agreement. Hakainde HICHILEMA nodded in agreement.
Dr Denny KALYALYA, Zambia’s Bank of Zambia [BOZ] governor informed the nation that this phased USD 1.3 billion IMF bailout will be used for two reasons. One, to strengthen Zambia’s central bank foreign RESERVES’ status. Two, it will be used for BUDGETARY support. Through budgetary support, this means that some of this money will go towards consuptive expenditure – Zambia’s social cash transfer scheme and the management of the bloated Civil Service wage bill, which now stands unsustainable, at over 60 per cent of GDP. This, clearly is borrowing for CONSUMPTION.
My mind boggles. Yes, granted, the health and education sectors are forms of investments but their returns are NOT immediate and direct. What happened Hakainde HICHILEMA? All this is happening when you yourself vociferously stated that that the borrowing space for Zambia had been exhausted. You said that the debt ceiling had been reached, and that you would NOT borrow anymore, that anyone that did so risked giving away the country.
Tsono lomba dziko lapita
One year on, Situmbeko MUSOKOTWANE’s policy shift of making mineral royalties tax deductible to recover the economy has FAILED. Two key assumptions formed the backbone of the premise for his hope. He expected copper PRICES to remain high at over USD 11,000 per ton and PRODUCTION to rise. The OPPOSITE has now happened. Copper prices have fallen to about USD 7000 per ton, and a few weeks ago, the Zambia Chamber of Mines [ZCM] reported a critical fall in production. The NET effect of this dire turn of events is that Zambia PRESENTLY is now losing more than the budgeted-for/projected loss of USD 188 million annually. You see, Pilgrims, global lending is biased, my friends. The West doesn’t view Zambia well. The West is discriminatory. It’s financial support behaviour towards small black States such as Zambia is RACIST. Look, in just about 184 days of the war, the West has given over USD 14 billion in aid to Ukraine. Grants, you see, NOT loans. Billions are given in merely monthly economic support, about USD 1.4 billion to be exact.
And yet for Zambia, a decrepit and backwater community of black people with very limited GEOPOLITICAL VALUE, it struggles to get mere crumbs as a ten-year, emasculating/painful loan. This is a classical example of IMPERIAL self-interest determining aid. Zambia is on its own. It is only Zambians themselves that will secure, survive and prosper Zambia. The sooner Zambians realise this, the better. Zambia must neither look WEST nor EAST for its security, survival and prosperity. It must look within ITSELF. It must remain SOVEREIGN, a self-determinig country, and never trade off its ownership rights of the country for money.
Now, sadly, the USD 1.3 billion bailout has now ERODED this expected and sacrosanct position. A measure of Zambia’s s sovereignty has now been ceded to the IMF/West. If you were wondering why the IMF managing director Kristalina GEORGIEVA strangely sounded like Chushi KASANDA, a government spokesperson, and why the British High Commissioner to Zambia, Nicholas WOOLLEY and the UK minister for Africa, Vicky FORD were over the moon about this bailout, rejoicing as if they had just acquired Zambian citizenship, this is why. They now have [the West has] a FOOTHOLD in the management of Zambia, as if elected and permitted to do so by Zambians. You see, one of the conditions of this bailout is that there shall be JOINT OVERSIGHT for its implementation, veritable usurpation of Zambia’s governance power by the IMF. Truth be told, Zambia’s priority for the recovery of its economy should be its insistence that the world must practice FAIR TRADE. USD 1.3 billion is a small amount of money for any country.
FQM, a mere mining company in Zambia, and NOT a country, was able to borrow a similar amount of money using Zambia’s own resources as collateral. See? Now a country rejoicing over the contraction of such effeminating debt is a source of EXTREME SHAME for many of us nationalists in the know of things. To prosper, Zambians must own the means of production in Zambia, over 70 percent of the economy, in annual turnover terns, must be ther hands of citizens. Through such POLICY EMPHASIS, Zambians themselves would then make billion of dollars through trade, and the overall forex receipts for Zambia would then improve, the currency would truly appreciate, the economy would grow and be buoyant, the Civil Service wage bill would be sustainably serviced, poverty would end and our sovereignty would be preserved.
Lomba Hakainde HICHILEMA wapititsa dziko kwa azungu.
Today, 2 September, I direct you our Republican President His Excellency Mr Hakainde HICHILEMA to begin to put your travel documents in order. You must leave for China soon. I could even escort you. The Chinese, you see, know and remember me as an offspring of Dr Kenneth KAUNDA, that venerated Commandant. China is the largest economy in the world today which is both sound and imposing.
You see, phone conversations alone with China won’t do. Such an attitude of yours with economic elders is non-serious and offensive. If you are constrained, I will pay, as a sacrifice for my country, for your passage to the People’s Democratic Republic of China. Yes, go there with debt restructuring/relief in mind, my man, debt restructuring/relief in an economically sustainable manner. For example, go and plead with Xi JINPING that fractions of Zambia’s debt to China, sector by sectir, is converted to shares/equity, so that, as a mere illustration, the managers of the KOWLOON International Airport in Hong Kong begin to run the Kenneth KAUNDA International and the Ndola International airports, in an entrepreneurial way.
Perhaps, ypu can toss in the Harry MWAANGA International Airport as well. As a generic management template, with Zambia retaining overall ownership of these national assets through the National Airports Corporation [NAC], this joint management venture would then run for a limited/set time only to facilitate debt repayment. Such a development would then see an increase in traffic at these airports, as some aircraft would be re-routed from the Jomo KENYATTA and OR International airports. Subsequently, jobs would be created, more people would visit Zambia, more forex would flow in, and there would be more money in ordinary people’s pockets.
Let us not become comfortable with begging. We ain’t beggars. We are wealthy people, a rich nation. We are potentially the second richest country in the world after the DRC. Let us just focus on the translation of our natural resources, human and otherwise, into money/tradable derivatives through fair trade to end our abject poverty, secure our national sovereignty and consolidate our unity.
Fact, the ENTREPRENEURSHIP of citizens is the solution. And not the IMF. The IMF is the organisation, through its bungled, rushed and brutal Structural Adjustment Program [SAP], post-1991, that mortally destroyed Zambia. The IMF DE-INDUSTRIALISED Zambia, and since then, Zambia has never been the same. Lest we forget.
Tiliko na tulo mwe.
May the spirit of Simon Mwansa KAPWEPWE guide and redeem our nation, we pray.
Aluta continua!
