Governance Analyst David Kapoma has described the current prevailing situation in Zaambia as confusion.
In a statement to Zambian Eye, today, October 29, 2016, Kapoma has observed that leaders in Zambia are taking advantage of the people whom he says easily forget.
Below is the statement:
The things that are happening in our governance system indicate that we have confusion in our midst. Many times I think that our leaders must be very happy that our people don’t have a reading culture and that we actually forget very fast. If we had the character of reading and holding our leaders accountable, am sure by now the ordinary citizens could have stated asking some difficult questions. Yes some people are beginning to sense danger but only talk when under the blankets due to paranoia.
I have spent the last few weeks observing and trying to understand where we are going as a nation. My feeling is that one can’t tell whether we are going forward, backwards or sideways. The only thing I know for sure is that our head of state is being told a lot of lies by those close to him or he himself is not interested in sorting out the mess we found ourselves in.
Just a reminder, currently every Zambian citizen owes the international lending institutions that provided us with the loans approximately 800 USD (ZMK 8,000) through the debt we have accrued in the last four years or so. We are expected to start paying back this debt in 2022, meaning that as we are‘pretending’ to be feeling the pressure now, we may only be able to feel the real heat starting from 2022 and beyond. The problem our country is faced with therefore is not a small matter that our MPs will just laugh and joke about in parliament.
When opening parliament, the president stated as I quote “Our efforts to move the economy from its current heavy dependence on copper, to one based on agriculture, livestock and fisheries and their entire value chain will continue in a more robust manner”. This statement means that as a country we will put our focus on improving and strengthening the country’s agriculture sector. Many people including some senior citizens have argued that Hon. Dora Siliya is better suited to be the minister of agriculture. Their logic I don’t understand.
I find it strange that after making such a powerful statement regarding making Zambia a food basket, the president went ahead and appointed Hon. Siliya as minister of Agriculture. This is someone who does not even understand whether ZAMBEEF keeps cattle or not. For heaven’s sake we are talking about a person who won’t dare step in the mud with her high heeled ‘skuna’ and yet we put her in charge of the dustiest ministry and expect that she will perform miracles. Did we really have a shortage of individuals who can man that ministry properly? Am I wrong to suggest that it is a contradiction to think that we can make the agriculture sector the backbone of our economy and yet we get a minster who I believe is better suited under ‘pencil’ministries?
“My government will continue to undertake austerity measures to stabilise the macro economic situation and build greater investor confidence. Further, we will ensure that our macro-economic policies are consistent and predictable, to enable the public and private sector plan effectively in the medium and long-term”. This is a direct quotation from the speech the president presented to parliament.
The term ‘Austerity measures’ refer to official actions taken by the government during a period of adverse economic conditions, toreduce its budget deficit using a combination of spending cuts and or tax rises. With this pronouncement, the president went ahead and created four (4) more ministries, an indication that he either did not understand what he meant by ‘austerity measures’ or such pronouncement was just another political rhetoric. Creating new ministries does not show signs of seriousness by government to reduce government expenditure as stated by the president himself and the Minister of Finance. At a time like this unfortunately it becomes very difficult to believe what our leaders say.
Almost two (2) weeks ago, the Energy Regulation Board (ERB)announced a sharp rise in fuel prices. Petrol increased to K13.70 from K9.87 while diesel was increased to K11.40 from K8.59. The ERB attributed the upward adjustments to the volatility of the kwacha which has fallen by 30 percent against the US dollar since the last price adjustment was announced in July 2015. On the other hand, government stated that the increase of fuel was as a result of the removal of subsidies. So far we don’t know who is telling the truth and who is lying, all we all is that the price of fuel increased and the ministers got more money in their pockets through their fuel allowances. The increase is despite government signing a very good oil deal with Saudi Arabia, a deal that was initially going to drop the price of fuel to at least K 5.5 per litre. Such is life and I believe we better get used and get going.
Before the August elections, load shedding reduced and even ended in most parts of the country on the premise that Maamba Collieries had started the generation of about 150 MW electricity. A statement was made to this effect on July 25 2016 indicating that load shedding was going to be the thing of the past by December 2016. Again this must have just been another statement since the exact opposite is now happening. We have more load shedding and no one is issuing a long statement to tell us whether Maamba Collieries plant has collapsed or we have new challenges in the energy sector altogether.
Good governance with good intentions must be the hallmark of the government. Implementation of policies with integrity should be the core passion of our leadership. The fact that we are going through a crisis is an opportunity for Zambia to be more coordinated and more integrated. There never is a good time for tough decisions. There will always be an election or something else happening that prevents politicians from making the right decisions. President Lungu must therefore pick courage and do the right thing. He must stop listening from those telling him ‘Boss’ things are okay because things are not okay, our people are suffering in the communities. Governance is about taking tough and sometimes even unpopular decisions. We don’t need a bloated cabinet when the country is going through real hardships. This is no time to please everyone but time to do the right things and shake up the heads.
If the president does not change his style of conducting business then this country is headed nowhere. There is real need to show leadership and President Lungu must surely rise up and be that leader. Not what we are seeing. I call the status quo‘CONFUSION’
God Bless Zambia.
We Zambians deserve this shit because we are cowards. We see the politicians looting and messing up but no one not even the NGOs is standing up to defend the poor.
As a matter of fact the issue is not so much about Dora being the Minister. Rather, it is how the President’s speech will be interpreted in the way programmes and other interventions will pan out. The starting point is the national budget. The level of funding and the actual destination of those funds is what will inform on whether indeed agriculture is being positioned to become the engine of economic growth in this country. In this case, I am not sure if technocrats, in all sectors for that matter, are critically aligning the planned budget lines for 2017 to the President’s speech. Otherwise, the President’s speech will be rendered meaningless rhetoric.
The Zambian economy is so disconnected. Sectors do not relate to each other. In other words, policies in energy, for example, have no correlation with what happens in other sectors when there is a shift in energy policies. That is why you find policy makers make pronouncement about policy changes in one sector without considering what will happen to the rest of the economy. I do not know if authorities at the National Planning Ministry are seized with the issue of ensuring that the entire economy is mapped and an appropriate planning matrix is developed. This is the way to go, not this ad hoc type of policy formulation, it will take us nowhere.
;Austerity Measures…Uwakulangile umusula,Bamumwena kumatako.lcikwanka,Bacimwena Kumampalanya.TULEMWENAKO tiye nayo LUNGU…..
https://youtu.be/xBLsB2oYAPA. How to defeat the dictators
What happened to all those idiots who were very confident that that heardsman and madumbo would win the elections?
I thought he won didn’t he. Why did the Concourt refuse to tell us whether he won or not? ECL atunama at I a nawina. Boza
Kulibbe a na wina. We are waiting for the courts to tell us who actually won. Pembela. Wins a Zalila
Why indeed give us this boring speech verbatim? Are you scared of doing your job as reporters? Heed the call above and go for training
Chagwa, is the causer! No vision, what do you expect if you have people like museven and Mugabe advising Chagwa, Zambia is no longer a country you can put on the map, shame to the one on the driving. Seat. I am better off in Canada.
Changes is full of confusion. No vision
Editor, the issues you are raising are not new. Accountability is the issues at stake. Zambia is at cross roads for one main reason. Constitutional democracy, which is the pillar of accountability, has been thrown out of the window.
President Lungu and his henchmen are the main culprits of this treasonal crime.
As long as the executive, legislature and the judiciary do not uphold and respect the rule of law, all the adverse issues being experienced by the Zambian economy will continue.
My argument is premised from the following:
A. Zambians should not expect government to observe or implement any austerity measures when the President and judiciary blatantly decided to ignore the the constitutional prescripts to have the president hand over power when the opposition successfully logged in a petition. There is no greater crime that can be committed by a sitting president for not upholding a constitional provision. Talking about austerity measures of any kind or form is not an impeachable crime. Therefore to state the issues of the creation of additional ministries, Dolls wearing high heels, appointing Given as minister of Justice or Kapanta as minister of lands when both are not a lawyers are not issues that a president is answerable to the Zambians.
The debate among Zambians now should be the issue of constitutionalism. What should happen when the President abrogates
his constitutional duties. How do we hold the judiciary to account when (concourt, supreme court and high court judges) are found wanting. Once we resolve the above, I can bet my bottom dollar that every will fall in place. As long as as the three wings of government behave as if they are above the law, forget Zambia as sovereign democratic state.
Zambia may be confused when it comes to constitutional democracy.
People this is not the way you write a news story. Please come to the UK where I live for free lessons. The news reader doesn’t want to be bored with long intros to an issue. He wants to go directly into the issue. After attracting us with a very sensational headline I must say, you journalists should have saved us the trouble of reading the first four wordy paragraphs here and gone on to write like this:
Governance analyst David Kapoma thinks President Lungu is not serious about diversifying the economy to agriculture. This because of Lungu’s appointment of Dora Siliya as agriculture minister.
Defining Austerity measures is something you could have left to what we call a box story inside your main story. Some of your readers do not want to be bored with that so you the journalist must do the job of removing the drag out of a story. The long and short of it is that the story needs to be interesting. What you have posted above is not interesting
Its too late the mistake was made when voting.Let’s sufer piecefully.
This confusion has been there from the time Sata stepped into state house. Its only now that it has become so evident with the current leadership having no clue whatsoever where they are taking the country. If you think this is confusion at its highest, then you will be in rude shock when the confusion reaches there.
PF stand for Punish fools and the fools are the people of Zambia who are fooled by telling them that tribe is what governs. no wonder PF has been using divisive language to side line people who are bright and have potential not to be in governance. That has worked so well for them because its an opportunity for them to steal from us. already we are made to pay for the money they stall through loans and forcing everyone to pay through hiking the prices for essential commodities. ni imbwa zabanthu nthawi ikakwane.
I agree with the author. There is total confusion very few people in government today who are patriotic and have interest of this country first but most of them are just there to enrich themselves hence, it’s so difficult for the President to be advised accordingly.
Another F00l will soon stand up and say, what is happening in Zambia is GLOBAL! I hate the idi0t Kambwili for also preaching tribalism.
No need to ask where we are going –
Luck of political will to confront economic issues is what has made our beautiful country to be where it is today –
Robert you surprise me, are you serious when you are asking where are we going. I am sure you were around when we all were dancing to a popular tune “dununa reverse.
To answer you, we chipuba we, we are going kunuma.