ELIAS Munshya has discredited the PF campaign strategy of luring civil servants with a debt swap.

Munshya, a Canada-based lawyer, says with the debt swap trick President Edgar Lungu is playing not only with civil servants but also with the fiscal integrity of all Zambians.

On Friday, information permanent secretary Amos Malupenga and Public Service Management Division (PSMD) permanent secretary Bornface Chimbwali signed a paper to commit the government to paying civil servants’ loans for the next three months, with effect this month-end.

The signing event was witnessed by Zambia National Union of Teachers (ZNUT) secretary general Newman Bubala.

Shortly afterwards, PF-aligned social media pages and individuals hyped the debt swap, equating it to some sort of a god-sent measure.

But on Friday night, on his Facebook page, Munshya went live and reiterated that Zambia is under a serious fiscal challenge such that the government cannot disclose the country’s indebtedness – both to domestic and international lenders.

He is shocked that suddenly, a few days before Zambians go to vote on August 12, a highly indebted government is committing itself to clearing financial burdens for its workers.

“These are kelenkas (crooks). When I say these are crooks, don’t think I’m being unfair on them. No! They are actually kelenkas,” Munshya said. “This government owes banks, retirees. This government is completely broke – they have completely mismanaged the economy. When an idea is too complicated, ninshi nibu kelenka (then it’s about crookedness).”

Munshya said what the government is proposing is that: “dear workers, we owe you a lot of money.”

“’But what we are going to do is instead of giving you the allowances that we owe you, we are going to use these allowances to pay off people that you owe as government workers.’ That’s the first aspect of the debt swap,” he explained. “The second aspect of the debt swap is that ‘you government workers are owing these banks and several other institutions…If you owe all these institutions, we’ll pay on your behalf and then you are going to pay us back kuntanshi (in future).’”

He wondered how the Zambian government that is owing, and defaulting on its debts to China, India and the Western world could be benevolent enough to clear civil servants’ loans.

“And you can’t pay your retirees! How then are you going to pay money that civil servants are owing loan firms? It does not make sense! It is a lie; this is a government of liars. Simple common sense!” Munshya emphasised. “You haven’t paid retirees and, you’ve not paid doctors – they had to go on strike to make noise. So, where are you going to get this money that you say you are going to use to clear civil servants’ loans? Common sense tells you [that] these are liars. Niba kelenka!”

He further spoke about some of the relevant ways of civil servants borrowing money.

“One of the ways is that government payroll signs with a loan company, like Bayport, so that when a civil servant is paid, Bayport makes a direct deduction before the money goes to the bank account of a civil servant. Which means it’s the government that takes the money from your pay and then remits it to Bayport,” he explained.

“But because this government is broke, it has stolen all the money, what they were deducting from civil servants to go and pay to loan firms, they were not remitting. Ba Lungu baliya mukushita indeke nama tear gas (Mr Lungu went to purchase a presidential jet and tear gas canisters). That’s where that money went.”

Munshya insisted that debt swap is: “a kelenka (crooked) idea.”

“What they want to do is lie to the civil servants that suddenly they will pay. It’s a lie! This is an electoral gimmick of a broke lot. President Lungu is presiding over a government of liars. Very basic lies!” Munshya said.

He further highlighted why are civil servants’ unions are ‘endorsing’ the debt swap.

“They (civil servants’ union leaders) are extremely intelligent people. They know exactly what this means. They are signing that because all what they are looking at…They know that there is no way this is going to be sustained,” he noted. “They know it’s an electoral lie [and] so they are playing with this government. This is a situation of unions playing a trick on crooks. The unions know that this debt swap is a lie.”

Munshya also indicated that the civil service does not work overnight.

“They are saying they are going to do this debt swap immediately. But in actual fact, the wheels of the civil service take extremely long. There is something known as equalisation across the civil service. The policies must be standard,” he said.

“If you say that you are going to pay people that are owning financial institutions money, the question is that you must apply that uniformly to those civil servants who do not owe financial institutions money.”

Munshya continued, saying just to put a person on government payroll, it takes months.

“To remove a person on payroll, it takes months, to transfer a person from one bracket to another, it takes months. What makes you think that within three months this government will be able to implement all these changes in a uniform manner across the civil service?” Munshya asked. “These are liars! This is the last gimmick that the President is trying to play, not only with the civil servants, but with the fiscal integrity of our country.”

He added that President Lungu now lacks credibility before all financial institutions in Zambia and abroad.

“Ba Lungu inshita naipwa (Mr Lungu, it’s time up). Tampeniko ukulonga katundu (start packing up your luggage). You can’t be relying on lying, especially when you are an adult,” advised Munshya. “Ba Lungu balebepa (Mr Lungu is lying), ba Wina balebepa (Mrs Wina is lying), Simon Miti alebepa, Amos Malupenga alebepa. This is a government of kelenkas!”

 

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