Nawakwi, others are frustrated voices seeking space for relevance – Mutati

Nawakwi, others are frustrated voices seeking space for relevance – Mutati

By Edwin Mbulo in Livingstone(The Mast)

EDITH Nawakwi and other opposition leaders are frustrated and lonely voices seeking relevance, says Felix Mutati.

Featuring on Millennium Tonight recently, Nawakwi accused the UPND government of being shrouded in secrecy.

“You see, first the President [Hakainde Hichilema] says it is done and dusted, which is a lie. It’s a complete lie. They have agreed on a framework and they say subject to both parties agreeing on the legal frameworks. I mean exchanging notes and in the nitty-gritty of documentation anything can happen. And we have celebrated before, he arrived at the airport and says ‘oh done and dusted’. You know they even closed the schools to go and receive him. Done and dusted. One year down the road we’re still done and dusted,” Nawakwi said. “The West will never develop our country. The future of our country lies in our hands When IMF and their cooperating partners and their friends start to praise you, you should understand that it’s not for Zambia. It’s for themselves. For me this is for the foreigners. The question is, what is our local programme? For me I ask one question, how valuable is this postponement of the debt?”

She challenged finance minister Situmbeko Musokotwane to explain how the government would mobilise money to pay debt when it’s time to pay back.

“From when UPND came into office

they found that the debt had been defaulted on. They have been collecting money from toll gates, for what? They’ve not spent a single kwacha to try and pay the debt. They have been fighting to get it written off, sheduled, restructured – meaning postpone the problem to my grandchild. If you read those documents, the first payment is due in 2024 $184,000,000. If you haven’t been paying that, how are you going to pay because this government found a stream of income from the mines close to $13 million which was being earned from the royalties. That money which they carelessly handed over to the mines and ‘say oh, we reduce your taxes’. That is the money which we would have been using to reduce our indebtedness, to invest in other activities which would have brought in money,” said Nawakwi. “Don’t ask me to love these people. I hate them with passion.”

But Mutati, who is technology and science minister, answering a question from The Mast during a press briefing on the sidelines of the Information, Communication and Technology Association of Zambia (ICTAZ) 15th Annual General Conference at Avani Hotel on Thursday said the opposition is jealous because President Hichilema was making progress.

“We have our eyes on the ball and our audience is the people of Zambia. The debt restructuring first of all creates confidence and makes Zambia a destination of investment. So our colleagues in the opposition are jealousy because we are making progress and they want to distract us. And we are saying, say what you want to say, our eyes are on the ball because we want to change the lives of the ordinary people,” he said. “We are keeping our our eyes on the ball and we shall remain focused. They (opposition) will be in line when it begins to rain in terms of progress. When the goodness begins to rain on the Zambian people, it will also rain on them. They will fill it in their pockets and that is what debt restructuring is all about. For now they are seeking the space for relevance.”

Mutati said the money that is being saved from debt repayment will be redeployed to change the lives of the Zambian people.

“They are the ones that matter. Not the lonely voices that are frustrated,” he said.

Mutati said President Hichilema’s leadership has accomplished and deserves kudos from everyone especially the opposition for making Zambia the first country under the G20 Framework to be able to achieve “what has never been achieved before on debt restructuring”.

“That is why he has been rated among the top five leaders in Africa. It’s not by accident and that is why here in Livingstone President Masisi of Botswana said ‘I am proud of you for your prudence and economic management’. That is what matters for us when others are recognising that yes we are managing prudently others continue shouting,” said Mutati.