Another squandered opportunity: Sata’s mickey mouse speech

By Patrick Sikana

As President Sata droned on with his speech in Parliament on Friday last week you would be forgiven for thinking it sounded familiar – and you are still in the dark.

This morning, in fairness to the President, I got to read the full speech, including what he was unable to read (as I am presuming he could have read everything had the circumstances permitted). The complete speech contained 3,251 words, roughly 9 pages.

Here is a quick word count to give you a sense of what the speech contained: Construction was mentioned 18 times, infrastructure 10, Roads 11, Jobs 8, mining 4, agriculture 3, constitution 2, tourism 1, women 1, workers 0, youth 0, inflation 0.

The speech, largely uninspiring, barren of any poetry or great quotes as usual, was weak on detail and provided no sense of the earnestness and planning being put into efforts to unlock economic potential and move the country forward.

Typical of the PF regime, the president’s speech this year didn’t acknowledge his promises from last year except for a cursory reference to the achievements in infrastructure on which he presented a rather bloated report-back. As widely expected, on the other hand, there was no departure from the routine of making new promises and directing ministers without linking to or reflecting on previous undertakings.

One hopes that the president’s massive emphasis on infrastructure is not just for the sake of mere infrastructure building.The massive investment in infrastructure must leave more than just district offices, power stations, dams and roads. It must industrialise the country, generate skills and boost much-needed job creation. That does not come organically. It must be intended, deliberately.

If I may be allowed a braising dose of cynicism here, infrastructural development is one area where pillaging, pilfering, kick-backs and wanton corruption are rife. Anyone who has ever gone into a building contract knows what I’m talking about. The picture even becomes more untidy when one thinks of where the government will get the money to fund all of these projects, apart from borrowing, borrowing and more borrowing?

As you may have noticed, the PF’s appetite for infrastructure development is a debate into which I have jumped with both my feet. To be clear,I think infrastructure development is one of the important drivers of growth and investment, and if President Sata’s government got it right, it really could be the thing for which his presidency is remembered. But he also has to please several sectors that are playing out against each other and leaving a much more impoverished population behind.

The role electricity will play in making it possible for this infrastructural expansion to go ahead, and to stimulate economic activity is critical—but the president casually ignored the power crisis the country faces. Apart from skin-deep references to the Kariba North Bank project and a 50 mega-watt project in Ndola, the speech was completely mute regarding the question of rising electricity tariffs (and other prices) and said nothing about alternative measures (apart from raising prices) to ensures that ZESCO and the industry remain financially viable.

In addition little was made of the need for private sector players in this respect. Government’s limited policy planning and ZESCO’s monopoly in the market are exactly some of the reasons why the country is experiencing the current endless load shedding problems.

The questions left unanswered last Friday could continue to make the Sata administration vulnerable to criticism. There was no substantial content on addressing Zambia’s embarrassing and sagging rankings on the transparency, poverty and nutrition indices.

There was nothing explicit and precise on the big themes of the economy and employment creation. On the contrary, the speech contained a lot of the usual rhetoric without the substance. I’m extremely disappointed. He didn’t answer any of the important questions. I don’t think he levelled with the Zambian people. This may be the last time he had to get it right, and by all indications, he squandered it big time with his dry humour.