By Edwin Mbulo in Livingstone
WE’RE going to get fair taxes from mines and deploy that into agriculture to create employment opportunities, says Dr Fred M’membe.
The Socialist Party leader, in an interview, said, “You cannot give away taxes. You are giving away three to $4 billion in taxes to go and borrow $1.4 billion under very stringent conditions! It does not make sense. It’s nonsense. It’s ridiculous.”
Dr M’membe wondered why Eastern Province was enduring poverty levels of up to 70 per cent when it produces cotton, tobacco, maize and groundnuts which should be processed in the province instead of being exported.
“We have to think outside the box. If we continue pushing the same policies, we are going nowhere. We have to target on where our people are most deployed and the greatest workforce of our people, the 54.8 per cent are deployed in agriculture and that is where we must target our resources if we are to create more employment and improve the living conditions our people,” he said. “So for us our main target will be on agriculture. Whatever taxes we are going to get from the mines, and we will ensure fair taxes, we will not allow transnational companies to get away with tax havens. You cannot give away taxes. You are giving away US $3 to four billion in taxes to go and borrow US $1.4 billion under very stringent conditions! It does not make sense. It’s nonsense. It’s ridiculous. We need to come up with policies which will enable us get fair taxes and pump that into agriculture.”
Dr M’membe said Eastern Province was the fourth poorest province in Zambia despite its agricultural potential which simply needs value addition.
“Why should Eastern Province endure poverty, they grow cotton which within months is exported by transnational companies to China and our people are becoming more and more poor? We need to create textile industries in Eastern Province. We have to create factories to make shirts, dresses and caps. Cotton has seed and oil can be produced from that seed and later stock feed. And employment can be high,” he said.
“It is the same even with tobacco. There is no attempt to produce some cigar. Cuba generates US $5 million per annum from cigars when they don’t even have minerals. A country without minerals has a GDP (gross domestic product) of US $107 billion per annum. With our minerals we barely hit $24 billion.”
Dr M’membe noted that Southern Province can do better by growing its cattle population through cultivation of hay so as to reduce the cost of beef production.
He added that Zambia’s water resources can help the country address climate change effects of drought by constructing canals to irrigate most parts of the country especially Southern Province.
Asked if the UPND government was listening, Dr M’membe said the ruling party only listens to transnational companies such as Anglo America and its foundations.
He indicated that the UPND was pursuing the same neo-capitalist policies started by UNIP and adopted by the MMD and later the PF taking Zambia to the high poverty levels being experienced today averaging 76.6 per cent in rural areas.
Dr M’membe warned of increased urbanisation rates of up to 2.8 per cent per annum.
“We are about 15 million now or thereabout and in the next 15 years we will be 30 million plus. Where are the jobs going to come from? How is the issue of water, sanitation, electricity, food, health, education going to be? We are not catering for these. We are not even factoring that the population of this country is going to double in 15 years. In some areas it is even going to happen very fast because of the high population density and the high fertility rates in these neighbourhoods,” he said.
Dr M’membe said despite these indicators, the UPND government was not talking of an economic growth rate of over six or 10 per cent but was instead projecting growth at four to five per cent.
“That cannot give us the economic growth rate that we want. It is an illusion,” he said.
Dr M’membe said if a country’s 54.8 per cent of the workforce was producing only 7.5 per cent of GDP, even if new mines were opened, employment won’t go up because of the new technological advancements.
He added that these technological advancements have also filtered to the road construction sector.