A LETTER TO THE PRESIDENT BY CATHOLIC FATHERS ON THE COPPERBELT….👇👇👇
Congratulations President Hakainde Hichilema on fixing issues which affected the operation of the Mine Mopani.
By Fr Emmanuel Bwalya
The world is increasingly becoming a global village with ever growing nation to nation interdependency on so many fronts. A nation, no matter how wealthy it might be, can not sustain it’s level of wealth without trading and cooperating with other nations. Zambia is no exception in this regard and for this reason, it is vital that we rethink and refine the way we conduct ourselves in regards to international business relations.
During Patriotic Front Party in Government, we failed to clearly determine what our strategic goals are as a nation and what we needed to achieve from engagement with foreign players in regards to our strategic goals.
There was lack of moral or ethical back bone by our PF officials and negotiators to insist on what is best for our country.
DR Congo is the richest country in Africa in terms of resources, has far bigger population than Zambia but can not attract quality investors because of their political challenges as a country. Zambia has less resources and market access than congo, but it has attracted more investment per capita than congo from the time you became President Sir simply because Zambia has offered a better business environment and security than congo. The opposition do not seem to understand what capital resources is, no wander we are seeing people like Fred M’Membe SP bitter about the money which was injected in mopani. But let them not distract you Sir as you produce good results!
Mauritius, Botswana and Rwanda were attracting better foreign direct investment per capita than Zambia under PF simply because they created a reputation as better managed countries than Zambia. Leadership was the issue back then.
Sir with your leadership our country will become the ultimate investment destination, I know within this year, your Government will take drastic steps towards being ranked in the top 5 African countries in terms of the rule of law, security, ease of doing business and tax rates.
May God Bless You President Hichilema!
There you have it. Mmembe and UKWA are busy hallucinating in Lusaka and gallivanting in western embassies painting our country black. All for vanity. Go to the copperbelt and interview people before you issue discordant statements. For me it too early to breathe I sigh of relief until I read the agreement and evaluate whether what has been agreed will be followed through. Shame on zambian politicians for being so shallow. What a load of self defeating naysayers!!!
Catholic Priests may look ordinary but they are the most educated and wise people who speak independently
They can make very good politicians but their calling is much higher than that of a politician
However, I feel that they must be invited to seat on organs involved in making local community decisions because they are very close to the people
Thank you Fr. Bwalya for echoing what I have believed in ever since HH7 emerged on the way to national leadership
It it is a milestone to come up with the current deal on the mines but the problem is to portray as if as as a result of this deal things have already changed. Mining is a process and as leaders it is our responsibility to prepare people for the future and not give the false hope, false hope is what results in unpopularity of leaders
Did Mmembe and his freinds take time to verify the share holding matrix ratio of the compnay he claims is owned by HH ? I do not think it is such a difficult task. Shooting in the dark is not good politics.
Let the current government lead carefully, let us be faithful and highlight the problems people are facing while actively resolving those problems, 2024 is gone, it will be very embarrassing to be booed as we hand over instruments of power to another person and that can easily happen if we are not tactifull with our leadership, people will see the good things that are being done but will emphasise the suffering they are going through as reason to vote you out. Lungu built infrastructure but people were not happy with his cadres and took that as a bullet to send him away, if it happened to him, it can happen to you, people out their are crying and most say apart from cadres and boastifull corrupt leaders, life was better in PF because people were able to afford basics, which is not the case now.
A bishop should really tell the people he is reading the truth and this one from coperbelt has done that which is right for this country, Hope these other bishops have also learnt something from this letter, not just criticising