ECL LEFT VERY HEALTHY ECONOMY WHICH HH HAS MESSED-UP, Sean Tembo
By NewsMakers
PATRIOTS for Economic Progress –PeP President Sean Tembo says the United Party for National Development –UPND took over from former President Edgar Lungu, a very healthy economy.
Speaking on Live Radio today, Tembo said President Hakainde Hichilema’s government has messed up things which President Lungu left.
Tembo said “ the mines were able to operate when copper prices were $3,500 per metric tons adding that, now when copper prices on the international market is $11,000 per metric tons there is every reason that mines would be making super profit”
“We are supposed to be swimming in dollars right now. The kwacha is supposed to be appreciating, it’s supposed to be approaching 10 Kwacha if not K8 because we are supposed to be having so much Forex into the economy. The question is why are things not the way they are supposed to be?”
Tembo said the reason why Zambians are not benefiting from high copper prices is due to gross mismanagement by Hichilema and his administration.
“UPND administration and Hakainde Hichilema cannot give an excuse that they inherited a poor economy. To the contrary, they inherited a very healthy economy from Edgar Lungu.”
And Tembo refutes claims by Hichilema’s administration that they inherited a broke treasury.
“When you look at national reserves at Bank of Zambia, they inherited about $3 billion in national reserves. That is the highest in the entire tenure of the previous regime, you understand? When the Pf went into office in 2011 they inherited $2.4 billion from the MMD government and the Pf passed over $3 billion to the UPND government. Those are statistics which are readily available. You go on the bank of Zambia website, you search, you can put a search gross national or rather gross foreign reserves, it will show you the figure for each of the month, it shows on a monthly basis. So when they say a broke government, what are they talking about?” He said.