OPEN LETTER TO MR HAKAINDE HICHILEMA PRESIDENT OF THE REPUBLIC OF ZAMBIA AT PLOT ONE, LUSAKA, ZAMBIA
Dear Mr. Hichilema,
This open letter aims to remind you that the currency of a country is not strengthened by what you termed as confidence in the president of a country.
The background is that in 2016, on a date I cannot remember, you featured on the Lusaka based Joy FM radio as leader of the United Party for National Development (UPND). Among the things you said on the live programme hosted by Kunda Kunda was that the Zambian Kwacha was going to appreciate upon your election as Zambia’s republic president.
You claimed that your election would inspire confidence in the economy of Zambia and make the Kwacha become strong.
I managed to call in on the programme and made a contribution. I argued that what you said was not a sustainable way to improve the value of our Kwacha. I anchored my contribution on the common knowledge that what contributes to the strengthening of a local currency includes reducing dependence on imported goods while increasing exports. Value addition on exports also plays a major role. Therefore, I insisted that what you were saying was not realistic because lack of confidence in the president at the time was not the cause of the depreciation of our currency but other factors, some of them historical.
In your response, you essentially maintained that confidence in your leadership was going to give the Kwacha a bullish character. You disparaged my contribution in the manner that painted me as lacking the capacity to understand what you were talking about. You effectively branded my contribution as ignorant.
Now that the Kwacha has depreciated further with you as president, I will not make the mistake of attributing it to lack of confidence in your leadership. I maintain the same reasons I gave during that radio programme. However, I wish to humbly advise that you shallow your pride and make it clear that you misguided yourself. Failure to do so will make many people think that you knew very well that your election will have no positive impact on the value of the Kwacha. As such, people will be convinced that it was another campaign lie.
Regarding the contemptuous manner in which you responded to me on that radio programme despite my valid points, it is my prayer and I am sure that it is also the prayer of many Zambians, that you have realized that you inflated the value of your leadership. However, it is clear that you are yet to learn to humble yourself before the collective intelligence of Zambians. This can easily be seen in the manner you have been making public statements, the latest being your address of Parliament recently. If you refuse to change, our people will teach you the hard way by rejecting you with even more numbers than you won the 2021 presidential election.
Yours truly,
Frank Bwalya
Spokesperson – Socialist Party Zambia
2nd March, 2023
