HICHILEMA FEELS THE POWER OF SOCIAL MEDIA
And unleash his anger against youths…
By Antonio Mourinho Mwanza
It is laughable that a man who used social media to win the presidency is today complaining against the very platform that made him President.
President Hakainde SAMMY Hichilema has complained that ‘Zambians are spending too much time on social media complaining’ about the economic hardships they are going through.
He says Zambians must stop being on social media and ‘invest and become entrepreneurs’.
How, just how will young Zambians become successful entrepreneurs when;
1. Sammy and his Government have denied youths capital injection to invest and start up small businesses
2. Sammy and his Government have denied Zambians access to government contracts.
Sammy and his Government are giving all the major government contracts to his friends and foreign investors. He has cut out all Zambian owned SMEs from government business.
3. Sammy and his failed IMF economic policies have skyrocketed the cost of doing business. He has increased the cost of fuel, transport, electricity, storage, water, materials etc making it hard for SMEs to survive the harsh economic conditions.
4. Sammy has squeezed out liquidity in the economy. There is no money. Everyone is complaining. Further, him and his buddy Denny Kalyalya at Bank of Zambia have completely tightened liquidity by increasing the Statutory Reserve Ratio (SRR) and the Monetary Policy Rate (MPR).
It is hard to get a loan from the bank and even if you manage to get one, the interest rates are too high. People are losing their property to banks for failing to payback the expensive money they borrowed.
5. The cost of living has become too high; people are failing to meet basic needs. The Basic Needs and Nutrition Basket (as measured by the JCTR) for a family of 5 in Lusaka has jumped to over K9,200 per month.
How many people in Lusaka get 9000 as their net salary or net income per month?
No wonder crime and prostitution have terribly increased in Lusaka and other towns. It is because of hunger and pressure ya ma bills.
6. Sammy has refused to pay local suppliers and contractors, denying them the very revenue they need to survive and grow their businesses
7. Sammy is denying indigenous Zambians the opportunity to participate in Government business by refusing to float public tenders to the public, instead he is single sourcing all huge contracts, from fertiliser to medicine and giving these to foreign companies and his business-connects.
7. Sammy is giving Tax Holidays and other tax incentives to foreign companies but he is denying local businesses the same tax breaks or tax incentives for them to survive and expand.
As we speak, ZRA is busy suspending and cancelling tax certificates of local SMEs for the so called ‘non-compliance’ but they are failing to do the same to huge mining conglomerates who are externalising and robbing Zambia of billions of dollars annually through tax breaks and illicit financial flows.
ZRA is quick to punish small local businesses but they are scared sick to punish mining giants. In fact, ZRA has to get clearance from politicians for them to make the big boys accountable for non tax-compliance.
We are losing over 3 billion dollars annually from the mining sector alone through tax breaks and illicit financial flows. In total we are losing a staggering 7 billion dollars annually from major foreign conglomerates through illicit financial flows and tax breaks.
8. Ordinary Zambians who are struggling just to put food on the table or pay the landlord or pay hospital bills or manage to take their children to a decent school are paying more taxes combined than foreign multinationals combined.
Why is Sammy punishing Zambians with taxes but giving huge tax concessions to foreigners? Why does he care so much about foreigners and detest his own people? Why why why?
If Sammy wants the youths to stop being on social media 24/7 like he used to be when he was seeking their support then he should;
1. Lower the cost of doing business
2. Create a conducive environment for business by removing all inhibiting taxes and ZRA punitive measures on local businesses. Further he should revise downward the MPR and SRR.
3. Pay all outstanding arrears government is owing local suppliers and contractors
4. Give tax breaks and tax incentives to local and struggling SMEs
5. Give local SMEs preferential treatment when awarding government contracts
6. Give youths substantial capital for start-up projects
7. Bring down the cost of living. People have no purchasing power. No business can survive when no one has the money to buy.
To the youths, Nankwe-nankwe. Continue hammering him. Don’t turn off your social media, use it to the max until he delivers and if he doesn’t, kick him out of office in the next elections.
He wants us not to complain when things are bad just because him yali balancer. He is enjoying everything using our hard-earned taxes.
Now that he is in State House he doesn’t want us to use the same social media he was using 24/7 to win elections. Aikona man.
