IMF CONDITIONS DESTROYED INDUSTRIES IN ZAMBIA REVEALS KABUSHI LAWMAKER
….as he urges the UPND Government to engage China for sustainable development to the benefit of all Zambians.
LUSAKA, Saturday, April 9, 2022 (SMART EAGLES)
BRINGING the International Monetary Fund (IMF) programme into the country is like shifting the war from Ukraine to come and kill the Zambian people, former Lusaka Province Minister Hon Bowman Lusambo has said.
Hon Lusambo who is also PF Kabushi lawmaker says memories are still fresh how IMF conditions grazed to the ground most companies in Zambia in the 1990s especially on the Copperbelt leaving thousands of people jobless.
He said the IMF came up with programmes such as privatisation in the country, a situation that saw most state owned companies collapsing.
He said people literally started roaming the streets to beg because their lives had been ruined by the IMF.
“For instance, in Ndola we had Dunlop and other companies. We are not opposed to the UPND employing. We are opposed to the IMF, bringing IMF is more like bringing war into Zambia to come and kill the people,” he said.
Hon Lusambo has since attributed the increase in squatter compounds to the adverse effects of the IMF programmes experienced in the 1990s.
He added that the IMF is a dirty programme that will leave most people in abject poverty than is the current situation.
“I hate IMF because the compounds we are seeing today, it is because of IMF, Kaunda and his go back to your land policy was abandoned. After the Kaunda regime, we lost a lot of jobs , because of that, people failed to go back to their various Villages,” he said.
He said the PF pursued the IMF Programme with an open eye and that President Edgar Chagwa Lungu wanted to protect the interest of the Zambian people.
Hon said the IMF deal should collapse because it has got no meaning to the Zambian people.
He has encouraged the President to go to China and get better deals that would benefit the Zambians.
Meanwhile, Hon Lusambo has rubbished alleged propaganda statements perpetrated by the UPND that it inherited empty coffers from the previous regime.
He said had that been the case, activities in the new dawn Government would have reduced.
He said empty coffers statements are a non-starter as the President Hakainde Hichilema has travelled more outside the country than in his own country even to events which do not benefit the Zambian people.
“Contrary to the word that they inherited empty coffers, we have seen President Hichilema going from country to country. Even to unproductive events which are not benefiting the people of Zambia. He went to launch a book, those are the signs that the government inherited a lot of money when they went into power,” he said.
With regards to the alleged persecution of political opponents using state machinery, Hon Lusambo said there is need for law enforcement agencies to work independently.
He said the issue of fixing political opponents must come to an end because it is not only political figures who commit offences in the country.
“When I become President, all this nonsense of following political figures will come to an end. The institutions such as Anti Corruption Commission, DEC and the police , I will let them work professionally.
“Me as President I will not even have anything to do with ACC, DEC or Police. That is why as President, I will change the Constitution so that the Law enforcement agencies will be appointed by an independent body. Not what we are seeing today, that Bowman is tall, let us fix him nooooo!!!,” he said.