OPEN LETTER TO REPUBLICAN PRESIDENT DR.EDGAR C. LUNGU.
Your Excellence Edgar Chagwa Lungu
President of the Republic of Zambia
State House
Att : HE Dr Edgar C Lungu
RE: Zambian Gold
Your excellence, I wish to draw your attention to the ongoing debate regarding the alliance between ZCCM-IH and Karma Limited that culminated into the formation of a Special Purpose Vehicle in Consolidated Gold Company Zambia (CGCZ) in favor of Karma Limited at 55% : 45%.
Your Excellency, as you are aware, our country is going through various challenges which we should have avoided or better prepared for as a country. Our Currency has depreciated by more than 300% since January 2015. Unemployment in the general population is a staggering 42% with youth unemployment at 50%. The country’s sovereignty is threatened by the unrestrained contraction of debt without due regard to the lines of the contracts nor properly done business and repayment plans. Not only is most of the debt unnecessary and ending up in pockets of those walking the corridors of power, contraction of loans is free for all for your administration making it difficult for Ministry of Finance to know the actual agreements of the loans and the total amounts as anyone can contract loans and commit the people of Zambia to a lifetime of bondage to liquidating the loans which hardly benefited them.
While God has heard the cries of the Zambian people with discovery of gold deposits, we have gone ahead to start mining the gold despite not having a well-structured strategic and implementation plan as a government which protects the interest of Zambians and safeguards this important national assert.
While all Zambians are expecting the gold industry to be a game changer your office goes ahead and partners with a firm which is foreign on face value for a paltry $3.5 million, ransoming the future of the youth and the Zambian people.
Your Excellence, I urge you to have a heart for the people of Zambia not only in words but in action too. The people of Zambia including myself voted for you as we trusted that you were in a better position to administer our resources responsibly on our behalf. We voted for you believing you were going to reduce inequalities unlike what we have seen where those in leadership and their friends have amassed wealth which does not correlate with their incomes, while the rest of the people have been made poorer than they were in January 2012.
Your Excellence, its time your administration delivered the resources back to the people of Zambia. You owe it to the Zambian voters and the people who gave you the decorum and authority over them to cancel and reverse the rampant theft of the resources by revoking the gold processing contract. As Democratic Party we are watching the development with interest and are ready for any possible action.
Zambians deserve a chance to own their economy. The hardworking Zambians deserve a chance to take ownership of the private sector economy. In the same manner that you have been destroying Zambian companies, we expect you to build the Zambian companies as well. We expect that government will facilitate US $3.5 million dollars for Zambian equity partners. Your office has already set precedence as you went to China to borrow money for Top Star a Chinese company to be operational in Zambia on our debt. If Government cannot source those funds then at least allow the Zambian people to raise the funds and become the partners.
We hope you can create a last-minute legacy by doing the right thing this time around.
I pray that the good Lord will prevail upon you and prompt you to do the right thing in the interest of the people of Zambia.
Have a blessed day and God bless the people of Zambia.
I thank you.
Harry Kalaba
President
Democratic Party.
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