IT IS FOLLY FOR LUNGU TO SUGGEST HE LEAD A BETTER GOVERNMENT
Astro Television Editorial
15 August, 2024
To suggest that Mr. Edgar Lungu presided over a better government than that of Mr. Hakainde Hichilema in his first three years is rather folly and utterly dishonest and we will elaborate why we feel that way in this editorial.
On his Facebook page, Lungu said he was a proud former President because his PF government left a better legacy in general terms as compared to the legacy of the UPND Government so far after their three years in office.
He went on to compare prices of commodities as at 2021 and those of today, which had generally doubled over the years.
Fellow Citizens, we are not fools, are we?
The most fair comment from Mr. Lungu would have been him acknowledging that this country finds itself in this position entirely because of his reckless and senseless borrowing that has seen the UPND Government fighting an uphill battle from day one in their bid to clean up his mess.
This country is grappling in untold debt beyond what it can pay. If you recall dear citizen, it was Mr. Lungu’s government that became the first government in Africa to default on a Euro bond payment of US$40million despite them spending a similar amount on second hand refurbished Fire Trucks earlier. They failed to pay and plunged us into a non-credit worthy country.
Our country today is battling with about US$18billion worth of foreign debt, a bill which substantially disappeared into individual pockets.
To bring this into perspective, first President, Dr. Kenneth Kaunda (KK), accrued a debt of about US$7billion, a debt which made this country to be part of the countries deemed ‘Highly Indebted Poor Countries (HIPC).’ This is the debt that KK failed to pay leading to the Privatization of the mines under Dr. Frederick Chiluba (Edith Nawakwi as Finance Minister), and led to the HIPC Completion point under Dr. Levy Mwanawasa (Ng’andu Magade as Finance Minister) in which the country begged for forgiveness of our debt. The program was continued by Dr. Rupiah Bwezani Banda (Dr. Situmbeko Musokotwane as Finance Minister) after the untimely death of Dr. Mwanawasa. From independence, we had accrued $7billion and battled with it until 2011 when Dr. Banda handed over a debt of only US$0.5billion to the PF government, literally zero debt.
In ten years, the PF took us back to a debt higher than we had ever gotten as a country, $18billion. At such high debt burdens, we cannot continue to live lavishly as a country as some belts will need to be tightened.
That much money was pumped into the country by the PF government but we can not see what it really did. Had it been invested into cash generating ventures, the debt would be paying itself off today, but no, the PF government spent it on over priced, non-revenue generating projects and pocketed the rest.
We are like a household overburdened by debt brought in by an Uncle who keeps mocking the brother for eating only vegetables without cooking oil while the brother is trying to pay off the debt he brought against all sensible advise.
Upon assuming office, Mr. Hichilema has done nothing but try to renegotiate the external debt terms, in what has been coined as Debt Restructuring. He continues to push for this program to be actualized because it is the only solution that will save a little money in the country to revamp our economy.
Mr. Lungu should be the last to speak at this table. He presided over one of the most corrupt and most reckless governments to date since independence.
We have only spoken about debt, we haven’t even touched on caderism brutality, Police inefficiencies, removal of bursaries, gassing, City Market gutting, grand corruption, and many other negatives scored by PF government, these are stories for another day.
To stand on the podium and claim he did a good job is insulting to his successors who are trying desperately hard to mop after him.
This, fellow citizens, is why we say it is folly for Lungu to claim he presided over a better government than Hichilema.