IN the run up to the 2021 general elections in which the United Party for National Development (UPND) emerged victorious, beating the Patriotic Front (PF) by over one million votes, the vanquished PF were reminded time and again about the manner they were mismananging the economy.
Here we go back in the archives and bring to light some of the advice they were given and UPND Deputy Chair for Policy and Research Joseph Lungu in his write-up of Thursday, 4th February, 2021 cautioned the then government about some of the economic atrocities they committed.
OUR economy is in a mess. All the pre-2011 developmental gains that the Zambian economy had registered under the MMD government have been completely wiped out by the PF. The majority of our people are suffering at levels which most of our younger population have never seen before. We are deep in debt, have defaulted, we cannot meet our interest payments and now have the world’s second worst sovereign credit rating. The interest payments alone, at 44 per cent of total government revenue, are the second highest of any country in the world. At the same time, our budget cannot adequately finance the public wage bill and meet the much-needed social expenditures and the value of our once rising kwacha is now severely eroded.
All in all, we are now saddled with loans that have delivered very little benefit to the Zambian people, but an awful lot of benefit to corrupt politicians and corrupt government officials. So, when they ask us to “Sonta” they are actually asking us to “Sonta” the few that have benefitted from the loans.
The PF administration has now come up with an Economic Recovery Plan. At least we can give them credit that they now acknowledge they have messed up our economy and need a plan to recover. But do we seriously believe that they can dig us out of this mess? Do we really buy into any of their plans when they have destroyed the economy in the first place through their own greed and incompetence? Does greed and incompetence just disappear overnight? Or do we believe they are doing anything to rid themselves of their greed and incompetency? No, we can only remove it through the polls later this year.
We would like to share our immediate (short term) actions to lift our economy to the pre 2011 levels:
- Our immediate task will be to engage our creditors to restructure our debt on terms mutually beneficial to our country and our creditors. At the same time, we will engage our multilateral partners to re-establish investor confidence in our economy.
- Develop and implement medium to long-term strategies to improve government revenues. This will be anchored on reforming both our tax policies and administration by reducing the number of taxes and focusing on a few but with enhanced capacities to generate higher revenues through improved compliance. In the short term we will address the currently rampant wastage in government spending and promote accountability among government officials (politicians and civil servants) to ensure every ngwee counts for the benefit of the majority of our people.
- Resolve the deteriorating business environment in the mining sector and develop a policy framework anchored on stability for investment and local participation in the mining sector. Everything required to lift productivity in our mining sector is available and ready to go and all that is required is a government that is capable of creating a conducive business environment for investment in the sectors. Copper prices are at their highest annual average rate since 2012, and yet many of our mines are either under care and maintenance or operating at low levels of production. We will improve engagement with key players in the sectors in the formulation of policies.
There is urgent need to leverage the mining sector to drive economic transformation for our country. Mining is by far Zambia’s largest industry, tax contributor, and employer (direct and indirect, formal and informal employer). It is critical to boost its performance while at the same time looking to diversify the economy to reduce the country’s reliance on the success of the mining industry – which PF have failed on both counts in their time in government. Under PF, key policy shifts in connection with the mining sector have been happening on average, every 18 months, thereby frustrating key investment decisions. For example, there are two new proposed investments in the mining sector of over USD $1 billion each and 17 significant projects in Zambia currently at the second phase of exploration, which financiers are reluctant to progress further due to the current government’s policies, policy record and mismanagement of the economy. These projects could bring significant direct and indirect employment as well as tax revenue if they progressed and came on board.
For providing a stable business environment and for supporting investment in the sector, we will expect in return improved compliance in terms of labour, environmental and tax laws. Tax Evasion will be dealt with full force of the law to ensure the Zambians benefit from their natural endowments.
Our ultimate and critical goal is to increase participation of Zambians in this sector, not as suppliers of labour, goods and services but as owners. President Edgar Lungu says that Zambia needs greater control over its own mining resources. We agree, but this greater control should not be for the benefit of a few and should not come through ignoring the rule of law and illegally grabbing private property without compensation. If an investor has broken the law or terms of an agreement, we should seek redress under the provisions of the law rather than through illegal acts of retaliation orchestrated by the state. Critically, allowing greater control of the resources to Zambians requires a well-articulated strategy and not ‘chipante-pante’. - Immediately re-instate the powers and mandates of our institutions set up to promote good governance (including riding the police of PF cadres and restoring control of the service to the professional police command and staff). Corruption and lack of accountability are never associated with
broad based economic development. The UPND government will not tolerate corruption. To set a solid foundation going forward and establish the operating philosophy for the UPND government, all misappropriation of public resources allowed by the current PF administration with impunity will be brought to justice. Make no mistake about this.
Looking at the mess that PF have created in this country, it will not be easy to turn around our economy, but we are ready and have the strategies to rebuild and transform our economy. Our strategies, contained in the soon to be released UPND manifesto 2021-2026, are targeted at lifting a respectful percentage of our people out of poverty and not at simply constructing symbols of development (roads and flyover bridges and airports) that lack broad based economic impact and are trojan horses for corruption that do not benefit the majority of citizens in anyway. We have the solutions and there is hope for this country, but the only way for those hopes to be realised so that we can turn this country around and create an economy that benefits ALL Zambians and not just a small handful of corrupt politicians, government officials and politically connected individuals, is by all going out to vote wisely on Thursday 12th August 2021.
Bally and UPND will fix it because Zambia deserves better! BALLY WILL PUT FOOD ON THE TABLE.