ABOUT POVERTY IN A LAND OF PLENTY: A CASE OF ZAMBIA
By Sean Tembo – PeP President
1. Good morning fellow citizens. Oil prices and copper prices are always positively correlated, meaning that the factors that cause one to go up generally cause the other to go up as well, and vice versa.
2. Since the value of our monthly fuel imports make up less than 20% of the value of our monthly copper exports, any increment of oil prices on the world market is supposed to be off-set by the additional revenue generated by Government from increments in copper prices on the world market. Meaning that we are not supposed to suffer any upward price adjustment at the pump even when world oil prices go up as they have recently due to the Ukrainian war.
3. The reason we are feeling the pinch of high fuel prices is because Govt has given the mines a de facto tax holiday, so we as a nation are not benefiting from high copper prices. The new dawn administration gave mining houses this de facto tax holiday because these mines have been funding the UPND campaigns since time immemorial, so they are now paying back the debt.
4. However, this is being done at the detriment of Zambian citizens. With the copper prices being at a record high, we were supposed to be recording a huge budget surplus right now, our foreign reserves at BOZ were supposed to be growing exponentially, our foreign debts which the current Govt inherited were supposed to be liquidated at a fast pace, but none of that is happening.
5. To the contrary, Govt is broke. They are failing to even hire the 11,000 medical personnel and 30,000 teachers which they promised. Contractors have not been paid for months resulting in huge loss of employment and high levels of suicide among them. Hospitals have no medicines and the cost of living is unbearable. These are problems which are supposed to be there when copper prices are at rock-bottom not when they are record high.
6. As painful as it might be, Zambians of all creed, regions, provinces and tribes need to accept that the man whom we entrusted with the job of running the affairs of this nation on 12th August 2021 does not have the national interest at heart. He has put his personal interests and the interests of his UPND party above the interests of the nation. Instead of collecting the tax that is due to the nation from the mining sector while copper prices are at an all-time high, he would rather give them a de-facto tax holiday so as to pay back the debt that his party has accumulated over the years while in opposition from these mines.
7. As painful as it might be to accept, there is little question that our man is a saboteur. He is sabotaging our country in favour of foreign and corporate interests, all at the expense of the common Zambian. Instead of bringing hope and help to the people as promised during campaigns, all he is offering the Zambian people are shallow excuses which become more and more incoherent by the day.
8. Five years is too long a time to wait to correct this situation. By that time, our country would have been destroyed beyond repair. Something must be done now to rescue our country from the hands of this saboteur. The question is what should we do?
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10.03.2022