Call for commission of inquiry on Zambia’s debt is bogus – Antonio
By Thomas Ngala ( The Mast)
DEPUTY Socialist Party general secretary Antonio Mwanza has said the call for a commission of inquiry on Zambia’s debt is bogus, a distraction and waste of publicity funds.
Mwanza charged in a statement that President Hakainde Hichilema’s modus operandi in the discharge of his duties comprise blaming the opposition PF for every single thing that goes wrong, among other strategies.
He said President Hichilema never takes responsibility for his own words, actions or failures.
“He always finds someone else to blame. The President lacks humility and sincerity to accept and take responsibility when he is wrong,” he said.
Mwanza said whenever the country is going through difficulties, instead of providing leadership and hope to the nation, President Hichilema almost always comes up with something unrelated, trivial and meaningless just to divert people’s attention from the pertinent issues the country is grappling with.
“For instance, instead of providing solutions or clear policy interventions that his government has decided to implement in order to reduce load shedding, the cost of living, poverty, hunger, insecurity and youth unemployment, the President uses every opportunity he gets with the media to attack his opponents, call people names, praise himself and say stuff that just takes away people’s attention from what really matters to things that really don’t add any value to Zambia and Zambians,” he noted. “Despite spending 15 years in opposition criticising and attacking presidents [Levy] Mwanawasa, Rupiah [Banda], [Michael] Sata and [Edgar] Lungu, President Hichilema is himself very averse to criticism. The man can’t stand criticism. He wants all of us to turn into praise singers who should be singing praises for him even when there is nothing really that he has done that merits that praise. He uses threats, the police and other law enforcement agencies to intimidate and silence any critical voice against his incompetence and mismanagement of the country’s economy.”
And Mwanza said the Ministry of Finance, parliament, the treasury, and the Attorney General’s office have all the details regarding Zambia’s government debt.
“Barely two months ago, the Auditor General released a report on the Audit of External Debt Stock of Zambia for the financial years ended December 31, 2006 to 2022. The Report is detailed and provides all the necessary information one may require. Further, the Ministry of Finance, Parliament, the Treasury, the Attorney General’s office have all the details regarding Zambia’s government debt so why appoint a commission of inquiry? What information will a commission of inquiry come up with which the audit by the Auditor General has not already published? What will be the primary source of information on debt that the intended commission of inquiry use other than the Ministry of Finance, Parliament, the Auditor General, the Treasury and the Attorney General?” he asked. “Clearly this appointing a commission of inquiry on debt will be nothing but a waste of public resources, an academic exercise and a mere distraction or diversion from the important economic issues facing this country.”
He said President Hichilema must focus on finding solutions to the economic challenges such as the high cost of living, load shedding among others that people are going through.
Mwanza said President Hichilema should implore the Auditor General to issue a report on all the debt that the current administration has contracted showing the amounts and how the money has been used.
He said the President should ensure the reported corruption in the procurement of fertiliser, fuel and the single sourcing of many other government contracts is probed and curbed.
“By now the President should have put down his foot in ensuring that our law enforcement agencies move in full swing and act on the damning FIC (Financial Intelligence Centre report. FIC disseminated 810 intelligence reports in the first quarter of 2024, compared to 450 in the first quarter of 2023, with estimated outflows of kwacha equivalent to K61 billion which have gone missing,” noted Mwanza.