Now Zambians know HH talks mountains and paradise but delivers stones, nothing – Chris Zumani

Now Zambians know HH talks mountains and paradise but delivers stones, nothing – Zimba

By Kholiwe Miti(The Mast)

IT is very difficult to predict where we are going, says former political adviser to Edgar Lungu, Chris Zumani Zimba.

He says now Zambians know that President Hakainde Hichilema talks mountains and paradise but delivers not only stones but at some point nothing.

In a conversation podcast last Thursday, Dr Zimba said it’s worrying that the current government still won’t listen to people even when they are told about corruption.

“To even have options of hope, because time is running and time is ticking. President HH was given a mandate for five years. This year, in the next few months he will be clocking three years. He would have crossed the middle line. Where we are it’s very difficult to predict where we are going in terms of hope, politically, economically, financially and socially as a country especially under a president who promised and has not delivered but he is still promising anyway,” he said. “For the first time this government and this President are still promising even when they are told that there is colossal embezzlement and corruption in your government. They are even told by foreigners like the Swedish Ambassador [Johan Hallenborg] who told them this (last) week [but] they go on the mountain to deny and denounce and demand for evidence. But you see these are diplomats, they are neutral. They have no interest in any politics. They are not partisan.”

He said President Hichilema while in opposition made a mountain of promises.

“He had made Zambia a paradise on paper and social media, so a lot of Zambians today are actively on social media. They followed a political icon. He promised the best in terms of fertiliser, fuel, electricity, mealie meal, maize – anything and everything in all sectors. President HH became a darling, he became a political messiah. And he found himself a Moses. He described whatever prevailed and existed into 2019 and before under the PF and under president Lungu as ugly, as evil, as negative. And he presented himself as a man that was the best skill to transform Zambia into a modern country and a modern economy. And his main campaign programme was ‘Bally Will Fix It’. And Bally had postured to fix everything in all sectors across Zambia. That was his campaign message. That is what made him popular and that is what made him win an election. Not that he was voted by UPND cadres because up to now UPND is not a national party,” Dr Zimba noted. “He was voted primarily by its citizenry that wanted change, whom he had given so much hope. Put it on record that not that PF had failed. Within a short period they governed Zambians they transformed this country. Zambia was a site of infrastructure development, everywhere in terms of roads, bridges, hospitals, clinics, schools name it. There is no district in Zambia where you will go to with no signature of the PF infrastructure.”

He said President Hichilema’s criticisms on his predecessor are “baseless and unfair”.

“The criticism that president Edgar Chagwa Lungu gets from President Hakainde Hichilema is baseless so to speak and it’s also very unfair but at some point it’s rhetoric and lies. I remember very well that president Lungu handed over power to President HH at Heroes Stadium, few weeks later the figures that HH gave in terms of what was the outstanding debt and later on his Minister of Finance Situmbeko Musokotwane… were two different figures. That was the beginning of trouble. That was the beginning of falsehoods and that was beginning of double standards,” he said. “And things have not changed to date. So that foundation is a rotten foundation in terms of governance and economic management of the state. Condemning the previous government of having over borrowed, in a space of two years this same President and this same government have borrowed more than $6 billion. You are talking about a government that governed Zambia for more than 10 years and left an external debt of less than $13 billion. And in the space of two years you borrow more than $6 billion. So you see political honesty is what is lacking in President HH. He doesn’t walk the talk. So the blame heaping on president Lungu who left US $13 billion debt cannot be justified by the mountain of debt he has given Zambia of more than US $6 billion debt in two years, meaning that in five years President HH is going to surpass the debt the PF left in 10 years.”

Dr Zimba said there is need to assess the President with his own yardstick.

“So the propensity at which he is borrowing is totally against what he promised and what he was condemning president ECL. So we need to assess President HH against his own yardsticks, against his own benchmarks. He lied and his still lying. You are talking about a president who is a chairperson of Industrial Development Corporation (IDC). The IDC is a baby, it’s an enterprise of the state that has got 34 parastatals in form of enterprises in 12 sectors. That is the path ECL wanted to take this country in terms of our economic troubles and challenges, in terms of addressing unemployment. In terms of upping industrialisation. President HH by virtue of position, any republican president, is a board chairman of the IDC. Where are they taking IDC and the 34 state enterprises? To the dogs. They are sinking the IDC as we speak. Under President HH as chairperson of the IDC, check the records, it’s going backwards. That is a vehicle we would have used to help us in mass job creation and industrialisation,” said Dr Zimba. “Let’s forget about the rhetoric of President HH and now Zambians know that he talks mountains and paradise but delivers not only stones but at some point nothing. So there is nothing much to compare ECL to President HH in terms of economic management. Unfortunately, empirically there is nothing. Under ECL, he is not an economist, what was the cost of fuel pump price? It was less than K17. This President is an economist, he promised he was going to reduce it further down, today where are we two years, three years later, it is double. Where is the price of mealie meal, our staple food? For God’s sake, mealie meal and maize is what every Zambian lives on. The PF and ECL mealie meal was left in 2021 at K120 to K90. Under the President who promised he was going to reduce the price of a 25kg bag to K50 mealie meal today is above K280 to K400 in some places.”