Musokotwane borrows!- Amb. Emmanuel Mwamba
…he is the worst Finance Minister Zambia has ever had….
Amb. Emmanuel Mwamba wrote;
When Dr. Situmbeko Musokotwane took over from Ngandu Magande in 2008. He found a foreign debt of $500,000 as Zambia has just had a debt write-off of its $ 7 billion foreign debt.
Musokotwane also found earnings of $600 million from the mining sector due to the windfall tax policy on copper.
Without convincing justification, he also sold ZAMTEL, a giant telecommunications and communication service provider. Zamtel is now a shell of itself when competing private sector entities have grown and made billions of dollars in the last ten years.
By 2011, the foreign debt shot to $ 2.8 billion, and earnings from the mining sector dropped to negligible levels as he had abolished the windfall tax policy.
Musokotwane was borrowing for everything for roads, stadiums, and the infamous mobile hospitals.
Ten years later in August 2021 when he returned as Minister of Finance, he found a foreign debt of $11.9billion borrowed over a period of ten years( infact $9.1 billion since he left it at $2.8billion in 2011).
He has racked up the foreign debt to $14.7billion and rising.
He also found a local debt of K136 billion, which has shot up to K236 billion.
This year alone, Musokotwane informed Parliament that he is borrowing $ 600 million to support the 2024 national budget.
He has also put out an international notice that he is seeking $900 million in grants and loans for disaster and emergency support towards Zambia’s food insecurity.
He has already extended the IMF Bail-out loan from $ 1.3 billion to $ 1.7 billion. He has sought IMF approval already, and the fund has disbursed $ 570 million towards his request in July 2024.
Checking the records from Ministry of Finance, from his speeches and the National Borrowings Plans tabled and approved in Parliament, Musokotwane has borrowed in excess of $6 billion and rising barely three years since his return to the Ministry.
He found earnings from the mining sector of $1.1 billion per year since 2019 due to the non-deductible mineral royalty tax policy.
The revenue from the mining sector has dropped significantly to barely $300 million a year due to partly the abolition of the policy.
Pinning their hopes on Musokotwane is the fastest pathway to UPND’s their exit.
But similarly, President Hakainde Hichilema believes in granting tax concessions and unjustified incentives to the mines.
His hopes are also anchored in the IMF and its liberal policies.
Look at the Mopani Deal.
Look at the KCM deal.
Look at the First Quantum Minerals deal.
It is documented and audited that FQM stole $2.5 billion from Kansanshi Copper and Gold Mines.
ZCCM-IH started both criminal and civil court processes to recover the money and punish the Directors.
Together, Hichilema and Musokotwane have abandoned the court processes and have not provided a pathway to recover the $2.5 billion.
ZCCM-IH shares in Kansanshi have been sold and converted to an annual royalty payment.
These careless and dangerous decsions have been made at the time that Copper has been predicted to rise and rise and rise.
Copper is currently trading at $10,000 per tonne.
The economy is in free fall, has a volatile exchange rate market, rising inflation rate and debt, is experiencing the worst electricity load-shedding, has the the worst cost of living crisis on a bed of legacy issues such as poverty, high unemployment rate, diseases and under development with no discernible solution in sight.
Pray for Zambia, Pray for its recovery, Pray for a loyal and patriotic leadership.