By George N Mtonga
HOW THE WRONG PEOPLE DESTROY THE ECONOMY: THE CYCLE OR BOOM AND DESTRUCTION
Mwanawasa was called chi cabbage in his first term of office because things were tough for Zambians as the result of the dead economy he inherited from Chiluba.
From Mwanawasa’s first term there was wage freeze and employment freeze imposed on all government sectors and around 2005 we saw civil servants and medical personnel going on go slow or strikes because government would always delay paying the teachers and nurses on time
Things weren’t as good as someone born in 2000 would think.
Mwanawasa in his first term inherited a country with bad debt and cutthroat drought around 2004.
A lot of Zambians in urban areas thought Mwanawasa would not make it for his second term because of his tough economic policies that made the life of many Zambians especially in urban areas miserable.
Elections came and the rest is history. As expected Mwanawasa lost Copperbelt to Michael Sata. He lost Lusaka to Michael Sata and Hakainde Hichilema because these were the people affected by the tough policies Mwanawasa and Nga’ndu Magande introduced during their tenure to restore Zambia’s dead economy.
He won the 2006 elections. Lusaka and Copperbelt people were shocked and embarrassed seeing someone they didn’t vote for and thought would lose coming out Victorious in a highly contested elections.
By 2007 the economy was back on track all because of the tough decisions Mwanawasa and Magande undertook in 2001 when they won the elections. 2008 Mwanawasa died and couldn’t see the fruits that came out of his tough policies that he implemented to save the Zambian economy from complete collapse.
2011 came with the more ambitious PF for Micheal Sata. They inherited a good economy from MMD and Immediately after winning Michael and his team went shopping to Europe to borrow the whopping 700 million dollar eurobond.
HH being HH he raised a red flag as an opposition leader and warned Michael that the Euro bonds Michael is going for are the most dangerous and complicated type of debt one can get on the market. HH told Michael that the eurobonds he is getting will soon destroy the Zambian economy.
Michael rubbished off HH sentiments that HH is a bitter loser and a ka jonosi in Zambian politics.
A ka Jonosi in Tonga means a small bull. Michael continued with his borrowing but HH kept on warning the old Michael.
Without understanding consequences of reckless borrowing Zambians got excited by the ambitious development path the PF undertook.
Unfortunately Michael died in 2015 then came one Edgar Chagwa Lungu and picked where Michael left. 7 years of Edgar Lungu’s reign alone PF borrowed a whopping 14 billion dollars路. Yes 14 billion dollars and how this money was used only God knows.
It only took 10 years for PF to destroy whatever Mwanawasa built in 10 years all because of careless borrowing and grand corruption by PF.
By 2021 Zambia was back to square 1. negotiating on bad debt just like in 2001. HH inherited a dead economy just like Mwanawasa in 2001.
To turn around the economy HH and Musokotwane removed fuel subsides. Knowing the consequences of removing the fuel subsides HH and Musokotwane introduced free education and increased the money and the number of people on social security program.
HH and Musokotwane went further to restructure the most complicated debt in Zambia’s history.
To protect many Zambians from economic hardship they were about to face during the restoration of the economy HH and Musokotwane employed a whopping 45,000 teachers and 18,000 nurses all at once.
Just Like in 2007 Zambia is now back on track from the collapsed economy and fruits from the tough economic decisions President Hakainde Hichilema implemented have started bearing fruits.
Soon Zambians will be happy again and the only way this can be achieved is by protecting the gains achieved thus far by voting back HH back into office