By Laura Miti
Accolades abroad discontent at home? This is my view:
To evaluate the HH presidency, one has to divide it into two distinct parts.
1. How is he doing in fixing the vehicle whose engine was almost knocked by the PF?
2. How is he doing on issues that have nothing to do with getting our broken down vehicle back on the road?
Another 2 questions:
3. If he had been handed a runner or at least a car whose issues were 4 punctured tyres and a need for wheel alignment, how would he be doing?
My sense is that, no matter how much we say we do not want to hear this anymore, it is terribly flawed analysis to not face the fact that the difficulties Zambians are facing, and that are taking up a lot of the President’s time, are largely, if not all, the result of the stunning mess PF left behind.
We might as well be coming out of a war: an empty Treasury, a mountain of debt which was mostly stolen by powerholders, the said debt whose repayment takes up so much money it’s a miracle we still have services, a corrupt civil service, historical corruption that people want addressed, absolute lawlessness etc etc ad infinitum.
So, what has this President done about that mess?
There is an astounding return to normalcy, given what a violent, lawless mad house we had become.
We have made progress on debt restructuring talks – slow though they maybe. Impressive is that the restructuring is not being held back by our total financial indiscipline, like it was before. The Zambian government has done an excellent job in getting a handle on our fiscus. There is nothing more required of us. What is delaying the restructuring is no longer in our hands. Our creditors agree with each other on terms.
Next question is what has President Hichilema’s government done on matters not related to mopping a floor flooded by others:
1. Introduced free education.
2. Increased CDF.
3. Overseeing a CDF that is disbursed to all constituencies at the same time😮.
4. Delivered transparent recruitment of teachers and nurses.
5. Introduced a Tantameni that went to Private school.
One that does not steal public resources but still puts money in the economy – NAPSA partial withdraw.
6.The return of meal allowances though that is probably part of question 1.
7. Social cash transfer is being paid to with no drama.
8. For the first time in years, expenditure mirrors the budget appropriated by Parliament – impossible to overstate what a change that is.
8. All information on what is happening in our finances is on the MOF website. ALL of it!
9. Been firm with his caders.
10. Regained Zambia’s international respect.
11. Brought back decorum to the presidency.
What are his weaknesses and failures?
1. Some eyebrow raising appointments.
2. Refusal to fire when he must.
3. Failure to make the Electoral Commission non-political.
4. Last year’s disaster of a farming season on the input front.
5. Wobbly corruption cases.
On the balance of things, this a President whose ahievements thus far, far outweigh his weaknesses. The truth, though, is we citizens are free to be unhappy and expect heaven. It’s a democracy.
What I cannot wrap my head around is that we allow the PF to go from radio station to radio station to whine, probably buying airtime with money stolen from us.
We let them, that did the defecating all over our floor, to lead us in complaining that someone else is not cleaning their piles of excreta which are stinking up citizen nostrils, fast enough.
Come on people!