HH SHOULD NOT USE DEBT RESTRUCTURING AS AN EXCUSE FOR FAILED DELIVERY – LUBINDA

HH SHOULD NOT USE DEBT RESTRUCTURING AS AN EXCUSE FOR FAILED DELIVERY – LUBINDA

PF faction Acting President Given Lubinda says President Hakainde Hichilema should not use debt restructuring as an excuse for “failing” to deliver to Zambians.

On Tuesday, President Hichilema told the UN team, which had paid a courtesy call on him, that he was unhappy that debt restructuring took so long, causing the country to lose three years of his first term.

Commenting on the remarks in an interview, Wednesday, Lubinda wondered why the President was complaining about debt restructuring when government had celebrated achieving it in 2022.

“What this brings to mind is that we’re being led by a very inconsistent man and a very inconsistent government. Zambians still remember how President Hakainde and his UPND government celebrated in 2022. They were celebrating that they had arrived at a debt agreement in a short time, they were saying ‘within a year we have managed to arrive at a debt agreement with the IMF and the PF government failed over a long period of time’. How can he now be complaining that it had taken him so long to negotiate debt, when in 2022 he was celebrating and saying ‘we have taken such a short time to agree with the IMF, it took PF a long time?’ How can a man be so inconsistent?” Lubinda wondered.

“So, his statement to the UN is just a symptom of a condition of inconsistency, the man forgets what he says just after he has said it. He has forgotten, he says it and the next moment he contradicts himself. What was it that he was boasting about in 2022, if now he is saying it has taken him three years to negotiate debt? What was he telling us in 2022? In 2022 he was bragging that he had managed to arrive at a debt restructuring deal with the IMF and other creditors. He can cry as much as he wants, but the Zambian people are comparing his performance against his promises. The yardstick that the Zambians are using are his own words, his own promises. They are not going to buy his excuses, no, they are going to use his performance as the yardstick against which to measure what he had told the Zambian people he would do”.

Lubinda also recalled that during his campaign, President Hichilema promised that he had friends ready to provide $25 billion to boost the country’s economic progress.

“The Bembas say insoni ebuntu, remorse is a virtue. President Hakainde during his campaign promised the whole world that as soon as he would be elected, he had friends abroad [who] would give him $25 billion, they were waiting for him to be elected. He did not tell us that he was going to spend time negotiating debt, he didn’t.

He told the Zambian people that there was money, his friends were waiting to give him $25 billion for him to put Zambia on a progression trajectory. It is therefore a mark of total lack of a sense of shame for him to come out now and say ‘I have an excuse for not delivering development in the manner that I promised and it is because of the negotiation of debt,’” said Lubinda.

“That is a mark of lack of shame and lack of sincerity. So he should explain first what happened to his promise about raising $25 billion upon being elected. That’s what he must explain, he must not give excuses. Unless he wants to tell you the Zambian people and tell the UN that ‘sorry I misled the Zambian people when I said that I would raise the $25 billion upon being elected”.

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