Some Insunko brands contain
cannabis, cocaine – Prof Goma

By Masuzyo Chakwe

ZAMBIA Tobacco Control Consortium chairperson Fastone Goma has warned that there will be a lot of problems in years to come which will cost the health system money to treat diseases if action is not taken to stop the use of insunko or tobacco.

And Professor Goma says there is a lot of obesity in Lusaka.

In an interview, Prof Goma said there was some ongoing research right now by two master students who are trying to find out exactly why women were using insunko.

“And we will hear from them very soon but the group that he has found is a group of women who are usually patronising kitchen parties, Chilanga mulilos and things like that … things to do with marriage. Their motivation seems to be some sexual pleasure that the insunko seems to bring though they are saying that it makes their bodies warm so that their men can enjoy sex better,” he said. “Now we don’t know how scientifically proven that is but because of that it seems like it’s very trendy among young women especially. Now I hear more and more teenagers are taking up insunko. And it’s a very increasing trend…I was talking to a woman who was complaining about this same insunko that she found it in the school bag of her grade six child… a grade six how old is she? She should be around 12, 13 years and at that age you are not really thinking of them getting to think so much about sexual activity but it very much looks like they are going hand in hand. So we are having young and younger girls being enticed into getting early sexual debuts which is very bad for them because you know early sexual debuts are related to cancer of the cervix and all sexually transmitted infections that come with it.”

The professor of cardiovascular health said insunko was just tobacco which was ground then add a few other ingredients to enable it to be well absorbed from the nose and mouth.

“Now in tobacco the substance they are going for is nicotine and nicotine exists in an acidic environment and in that acidic environment it gets poorly absorbed. And it seems these people know because in preparing insunko they put some ash or soda to make it a bit alkaline. That improves absorption of nicotine from the tobacco,” he said.

“But in doing that it improves absorption of other poisons as well. Tobacco is tobacco … it has more than 4,000 poisons in it and it gets worse when you try and burn it for those who smoke it. And we know more than 50 [of those poisons] cause cancer. And so people who sniff are very open to having cancer of the nose or having what we call rhinitis, a nose that seems to be predisposed to allergies so they constantly sneeze and you find in the nose there are some nasal bridges we call them turbinates they are constantly inflamed because of the sniffing of the tobacco.”

He said this was not good for health at all.

Prof Goma said for those who put the insunko in their mouth, it actually does more damage to the mouth.

“Of course they put because nicotine can get absorbed through the lining of the mouth. But in putting in the mouth it destroys teeth, teeth become very brittle. They easily break so if they try to eat chiwaya, the tooth will just break. And for some the teeth just become discoloured. And then they get very open to getting infections of their gums. Something that we call gingivitis and in the long run they are also open to having cancer of the mouth or throat. All these are bad effects that come from tobacco,” he said. “And what is worse with insunko is that tobacco does not only cause problems to the areas where it is exposed, it causes damage actually to the whole body. In the body we have an organ called a pancreas which produces insulin which takes care of sugar. It can actually get damaged by tobacco. And so someone can easily get sugar disease because of that.”

Prof Goma said another problem was that women were predisposed to diabetes because of weight problems which becomes worse with the use of tobacco or insunko.

“We have a lot of obesity in Lusaka. The last survey (The STEPS survey of 2010 and another one in 2017) we did I think… almost 40 per cent of women we surveyed were either overweight or obese. That’s a very high rate. It’s higher than those fat women you see in America. At one time every one was saying America had the most obese women in the world but I think some certain pockets in Zambia also have that. Now you can imagine people that are already predisposed to obesity then they put tobacco there,” he said. “It discourages the pancreas from doing even the little work it is able to do so they easily get into diabetes. It is very difficult to treat with tablets especially and most of them will need to go on to using insulin to treat the diabetes all because of insunko or tobacco.”

Prof Goma said it was very dangerous to insert insunko in their private parts because the private parts have very sensitive types of lining.

“The cells are constantly changing and there is need for a lot of hygiene in that area. And within that area we have an amount of bacteria which maintain the PH… maintaining the acidity of the environment to make sure the area is nicely prepared for sexual activity and more so for reproductive activity because for the sperms to manoeuvre through that area you need a certain environment and the body makes sure that environment is there under normal circumstances,” he said. “When you put tobacco there, the tobacco destroys that environment completely. I have told you they are putting several substances in this tobacco to make it alkaline so the whole environment then changes and those poisons kills some of those bacteria which require to keep that environment. And the problem is that those poisons irritate the cells and those cells either stop producing the fluid they are supposed to produce so that you start getting a dry vagina which will easily give you a disease called vaginitis. And in the long run you have a possibility of getting cancers as well. Even without getting the tobacco to the cervix of the womb… just by the body being exposed to tobacco it actually does cause cancer of the cervix. The commonest cancer you will find in women in Zambia and among the risk factors is tobacco use. So just by taking tobacco into the body you are already predisposed to having cancer of the cervix. Then you put tobacco directly onto the cervix itself meaning you are doubling the risk. Without us taking active action we are going to find a lot of problems in these women in years to come and it is going to cost our health system a lot of money to treat these diseases. And it is going to take away young lives all because of the ignorance that is there in them trying to do things that they don’t know are harmful to their health.”

Prof Goma said there should be adequate information sharing for people to hear about these harms of insunko.

“Unfortunately, these are not stories you hear being talked about among women. They just secretly trade in this insunko and nobody wants to tell the other that what they are doing is a poison and now in Lusaka I hear there are four brands of insunko – Rwandese brand, Burundi brand, Tanzania brand and the Zambian brand. And all of them seem to have different ingredients in them,” he said. “One of them I hear has cannabis in it. Another one I hear has cocaine so you can see how bad it is getting. So we need to find ways of getting these messages to women because they need to protect themselves against the harm. For those who are selling of course for them it’s business. Nowadays people want easy business and I hear the women who sell this insunko are having it very nice now because people actually go to get the insunko from their homes. They don’t have need to go and sell door to door as they did last time.”

Prof Goma said it was difficult to police the trade because it is personal and done at household level.

“So this control would be by the people themselves that they take it upon themselves to keep away from these vices. So if there is no demand, then the people making it will stop making it and that will be the end of the insunko trade,” he said.

Prof Goma said for those who use it to control blood pressure, the truth is that insunko just like any other tobacco causes blood pressure to increase.

He said it causes blood pressure to increase by tightening the blood vessels and making the heart to beat very fast.

“For those who already have blood pressure insunko is a very bad drug to take because they would easily get a heart attack or a stroke.

For those with low blood pressure, it’s not the best way of increasing their blood pressure,” warned Prof Goma.

HON.MILUPI ABUSING PPP PROJECTS

By Amb. Emmanuel Mwamba

Minister of Public Infrastructure, Hon Charles Milupi has announced that the Public Private Partnership Council has approved a 25-year Concession Agreement with a Private Company called Nkula Zambia in partnership with South Africa Business Development Forum to do roads in Western, North-western and Copperbelt Provinces.

According to this package dubbed “Development of the Western Province Trade Facilitation Routes inclusive of Resettlement Schemes and Border Facilities”, the Finance, Design, Construct, Rehabilitate, Operate, Maintain And Transfer Public Private Partnership Model, will cover a total of 2,208.5 kilometres of core road network.

Some roads will be neq construction while others will be upgraded to international bituminous standards.

Hon. Milupi listed the roads as follows;

1. Tapo – Kalabo – Sikongo – Angola Border Road (125km).
2. Sioma – Shangombo Road (175km).
3. Lufwanyama – Kankolonkolo – Kasempa Road (225km).
4. Kasempa – Kaoma Road – Luampa Junction (280km).
5. Luampa Junction – Machile – Simungoma Road (340km).
6. Livingstone – Katima Mulilo Road (225km).
7. Resettlement Roads (minimum of 500km).
8. Shangombo Bridge (approximately 8.5km).
9. Sikongo Border Post and Trade Hub.
10. Shangombo Border Post and Trade Hub.
11. Katima Mulilo Border Post and Trade Hub.

It is strange that a 25-year Concession has been given to a private company to build and run these roads in a non-competitive, opaque and non-transparent manner and whose value has not been disclosed.

The Concessionaire will seek financing and obtain a loan under the direct or indirect guarantee of the Republic of Zambia.

Looking at the roads, it appears that these are best done under public sector financing as they are non-economical but developmental in nature.

PPP roads are highly commercial and are financed by the private sector.

The return of investment is guaranteed by traffic volume that will help repay the loan through tolling or annuities.

Further, the value of the project has not been disclosed.

This is important as the private company involved will obtain the loan against the Republic of Zambia and the road assets and business plan on how to repay the loan, will act as collateral security or Government may issue a sovereign guarantee.

I noted that in South Africa, there are two models of PPP adopted for the development of national highways.

They are; Build–operate–transfer or, Build–own–operate–transfer.

This is a form of project delivery method, usually used for large-scale infrastructure projects, wherein a private entity receives a concession from the public sector to finance, design, construct, own, and operate a facility stated in the concession contract.

The mechanism to recover the investment is through BOT (Toll) or BOT (Annuity).

(a) BOT (Toll) Model: In the BOT (Toll) model, the Concessionaire recovers his investment by charging toll from the users of the road facility.

This model reduces the fiscal burden on the government while also allocating the traffic risk to the Concessionaire.

This is the model used for most of the projects and can be regarded as the default model for highway projects.

(b) BOT (Annuity) Model: Under a BOT annuity model, the Concessionaire is assured of a minimum return on his investment in the form of annuity payments.

The Concessionaire does not bear the traffic risk and the Government bears the entire risk with respect to toll income.

CONCLUSION

From the above, it is clear that until the terms and conditions are disclosed, and until the commercial viability of this project are demonstrated, this may be a conduit to obtain a large international loan on the charge of the Treasury.

Hon. Milupi or the Council of PPP should not abuse their offices.

They have a noble duty to disclose the value of this loan, and guarantees that Zambia is expected to give.

In my view, Hon. Milupi has chosen to undertake roads in his constituency and his province under an opaque process whose cost burden will be borne by the country.

If he genuinely wishes to do viable PPP projects, he should follow Zambia’s renowned trade routes such as the Lusaka-Chirundu, Lusaka-Livingstone, Lusaka-Ndola-Mufulira, Kapiri-Serenje-Mpika-Nakonde, and similar roads that are in extremely dilapidated state but are core to trade/sea routes of the country.

Kabushi Member of Parliament Bowman Lusambo has alleged that the New Dawn Government will be kicked out of power in 2026 by the people of Zambia.

Mr. Lusambo, the former Lusaka Province Minister, said the UPND Government has failed the people of Zambia in the four months it has been in power.

He said it is not too early to see that the UPND Government of President Hakainde Hichilema is not taking Zambians anywhere.

Featuring on a Radio Icengelo Programme, Mr. Lusambo said the UPND has u-turned on its many promises among them reducing fuel and electricity prices.

He said in the first four months of being in power the UPND Government has not set the base of ensuring that Zambia becomes prosperous.

Mr. Lusambo said the Government has made harsh decisions like the removal of subsidies on fuel and electricity that will affect the majority of poor Zambians.

He said many Zambians have been left frustrated by the harsh decisions being implemented by the Government.

Mr. Lusambo said the people of Zambia have not seen the value of changing the Government from PF to UPND.

“The UPND is going out of Government in 2026 because the people of Zambia have regretted changing Government. People can’t go into 2026 with UPND. I am happy that the people of Zambia are regretting because we told them that President Hakainde Hichilema can’t govern because he is only good at privatization,” Mr. Lusambo said.

“Zambians are doubting Thomases now they have seen for themselves. Mr. Hakainde has failed; this is the way people fail. Like I said in the 100 days foundation you can see whether there is progress or not. You can’t even tell whether this Government is going or coming. Failing can be seen even in three months. Just like building you can tell from the foundation that this structure will collapse,” he said.

Mr. Lusambo said he doesn’t agree with people saying it is too early to criticize the UPND Government.

“They were saying Barry will fix it. They were saying electricity and fuel will go down but we are yet to see that. People are not interested in increases in prices. People want cheaper fuel and electricity. This is a deceitful Government. If you go into the office as President, within 100 days you should set your foundation. Free education foundation, fuel reduction foundation,” he said.

Mr. Lusambo added that the UPND has also u-tuned its promises not to appoint political cadres into the civil service.

“Another lie, the UPND said they will remove politics from the civil service. We don’t want politicians to be civil servants now look at the list of appointed people. We have seen that Permanent Secretaries are cadres, deputy permanent secretaries are cadres and district commissioners are all cadres. They have brought new Permanent Secretaries and new deputy permanent secretaries and new district commissioners who do not know anything leaving behind directors who have institutional memory of these provinces and ministries. These new Permanent Secretaries and new deputy permanent secretaries are yet to grasp a thing so as we speak Government business is stagnant. These people are just watching each other in offices,” he said.

Meanwhile, Mr. Lusambo said the recent charges leveled against the arrested former PF Government Ministers won’t go anywhere.

“Zambia is a country of rule and law. In Zambia, we say there is no one above the law but what we are seeing, the arrests of people who served in the PF Government does mean they committed crimes. It is just these people being arrested that are giving pressure on President Hichilema. Many people talk about corruption, tell me anyone who was arrested and jailed for corruption in the previous Government. These are not corruption cases, what you are seeing is persecution. These cases are not going anywhere,” Mr. Lusambo said.

Former Foreign Affairs Minister Joseph Malanji, former Home Affairs Minister Stephen Kampyongo, former Water Development Minister Raphael Nakacinda, and former Secretary to the Treasury Dr. Fredson Yamba are some of the former PF officials recently arrested.

Mr. Malanji is charged with Dr. Yamba on charges of willful failure to comply with the law when they transferred over K154.2 million to the Zambian mission in Turkey without following the law on supplementary expenditure as provided by article 203 of the Zambian constitution.

Police have also arrested, warned, and cautioned Mr. Kampyongo for the offense of Endangering Safety Contrary to Section 8(f) of CAP 445 Safety of Civil Aviation Act of the laws of Zambia while Mr. Nakacinda has been charged with defamation of the President.

HIGHER learning institutions students’ bodies have described the first three months of the UPND government as very disappointing for the learners who had high expectations that have either been snubbed or ignored.

Copperbelt University Student’s Union (COBUSU) president, Lawrence Kasonde said that the student bodies have been very disappointed with the manner in which the New Dawn administration has handled student affairs.

Mr. Kasonde said that the students are disappointed that the government had lamentably failed to meet the aspirations of the students who turned up in numbers to vote for anticipated change.

He cited the recent government failure to secure resources to provide education loans to 8, 004 eligible first-year University of Zambia students for the 2022-2023 academic year as another blow to the student fraternity.

Mr. Kasonde further lamented that the government had ignored the cries of students who have continued to be denied a chance to write examinations because they owed the universities or colleges school fees.

He said that some students at a named university were not allowed to write supplementary examinations because they owed the school.

Mr. Kasonde said that this was brought to the attention of the government, but nothing has been done.

He also observed that the merging of the Ministry of General education and the Ministry of Higher Education had brought untold misery to the higher learning institutions.

Mr Kasonde said that higher learning institutions had their own challenges that needed a dedicated ministry that would attend to the challenges in a prompt manner.

He, therefore, advised the government to rethink its decision to merge the two ministries.

And Zambia National Student’s Union (ZANASU) general secretary, Issach Mambwe said that the failure by the government to secure loans for the over 8, 000 eligible first-year University of Zambia students threatens the country’s aspirations of becoming a prosperous middle-income economy by 2030.

He, therefore, appealed to the government to ensure that at least 50 percent of those left out are awarded loans by January next year.

He also appealed to the government to ensure that students in private colleges and universities are also considered in the government education loan scheme.

He said that vulnerable children were not just in public institutions and as such a need to extend the facility to private institutions.

By Alexander Nkosi

Many thanks to Ambassador Emmanuel Mwamba for finding time off his busy schedule to respond to my article. The background is that I shared an article entitled, “Discussing Revenue Leakages and the IMF deal with Ambassador Emmanuel Mwamba“.

In this article, I was responding to his suggestion that we should abandon the IMF deal and instead work on sealing revenue leakages which would potentially help us raise $1 billion.

In my response, I explained that the IMF deal is not all about the $1.4 billion concessional loans. I highlighted the following as the key benefits of the IMF deal:

1. debt restructuring hinges on IMF deal,
2. Increased access to concessional borrowing,
3. Attracting foreign investors who over the years lost confidence due to poor economic environment as revealed by BOZ and DBZ survey, and
4. The $1.4 billion concessional loan.

These measures are key to strengthening and stabilizing our currency so that the cost of importing machinery and raw materials required for production goes down. They will also help lower the prices of goods and services as we are predominantly import-dependent. Dealing with the performance of the currency alone can help lower the cost of living and the cost of production.

In the absence of the IMF deal, it will be hard to get debt restructuring, which would mean we continue to draw huge sums of dollars from our economy to pay the debt.

This will weaken the kwacha. The other thing is that in the absence of increased inflow of dollars through foreign investment, dollar supply on the market will be low leading to further weakening of the kwacha. We also need foreign investment to expand export in key economic sectors so as to further strengthen the kwacha. In a nutshell, in the absence of an IMF program, we risk seeing the kwacha trade above K25/$. When this happens, the negative impact on the cost of production and cost of living will be way too high compared to the removal of subsidies. We will actually have to borrow more at commercial rates to keep these same subsidies and we also have to clear over $700 million owed in the petroleum sector and $3.5 billion debt owed by ZESCO of which $1.1 billion is owed to IPPs.

In response to my article, Ambassador Mwamba proposed the following as alternative solutions to the IMF deal:

A) Zambia should use its natural endowment in copper, cobalt, emerald, gemstones, and gold to resolve its economic crisis.

B) Zambia should realize its huge potential in both agriculture and tourism to turn around these sectors for economic benefits.

C) Zambia should stop all financial leakages where government resources are plundered, pilfered, stolen in well-established defrauding procurement schemes.

D) Zambia should seal revenue leakages through tax evasion and avoidance by multinational corporations, especially in the mining sector.

E) Zambia should work on civil service reforms, addressing the wage bill that gobbles over 53% of our domestic revenue.

F) The appetite for new debt as shown by the government’s intention to borrow $4.2billion in one fiscal year, is also worrying as the current debt has not been restructured, re-aligned, or rescheduled.

My response to Ambassador Emmanuel Mwamba’s alternative solutions is that they can only be realized in the long term and will not help address problems were we need solutions now. In fact, most of these alternative solutions would only work well under an IMF program. Let me now address each suggested solution:

RESPONSE TO A: Ambassador Mwamba suggested that Zambia should use its natural endowment in copper, cobalt, emerald, gemstones and gold to resolve its economic crisis. Either government or the private sector should invest in exploiting natural resources to significantly increase revenue. This involves long term projects. It would take a very long time for locals alone to mobilize sufficient capital to venture into these huge undertakings and they too too need a good economic environment which the IMF program would help address as explained above. As for foreign investors, an IMF program would actually help attract foreign investments.

RESPONSE TO B: Ambassador Mwamba proposed that Zambia should also realize its huge potential in agriculture and tourism to turn around the sectors for economic benefits. This is again a vague solution as he has not explained how we can increase investments in these sectors under the current economic environment. It would be hard to achieve all this with our high debt levels unless we restructure and this is hinged on an IMF deal. We also need to attract both local and foreign investors.

RESPONSE TO C: Ambassador Mwamba suggested that we stop all financial leakages where government resources are plundered, pilfered, stolen in well-established defrauding procurement schemes. Fighting corruption is a key component of the IMF program. IMF emphasizes that resources are put to good use. So this isn’t an alternative, it is key to the success of our economic reforms.

RESPONSE TO D: Ambassador Mwamba suggested that Zambia should seal revenue leakages through tax evasion and avoidance by multinational corporations, especially in the mining sector. Sealing revenue leakages just like dealing with corruption is not necessarily an alternative but it is something we should work on even with an IMF program. This will incrementally boost our revenues. Good as it is, this is a long-term process and does not help address immediate needs like debt crisis and budget deficit. We will continue implementing this while on an IMF program.

RESPONSE TO E: Ambassador Mwamba suggested that the civil service reforms should address the wage bill that gobbles over 53% of our domestic revenue. This is indeed a huge problem. Discussing this in line with the proposed recruitment of teachers and health workers, it is important to note that the recruitment of teachers and health workers has not kept pace with the growing needs. While we cannot visibly see the impact of low recruitment of teachers, we saw this with health workers in the health sector when donors had to come to our aid to recruit temporal health workers during the pandemic. So government engaged IMF on this and will use part of our reserves under SDR to fund these recruitments. This was clearly explained by the Minister of Finance during the budget presentation. It would be interesting to hear what Ambassador Mwamba suggests we do with our current wage bill even before we include those to be recruited. Does he suggest we fire half the civil servant?

RESPONSE TO F: Ambassador Emmanuel Mwamba suggested that we cut down on borrowing. He argued that the appetite for new debt as shown by the government’s intention to borrow $4.2billion in one fiscal year is worrying as the current debt has not been restructured, re-aligned, or rescheduled. I find this whole alternative solution contradictory for the following reasons:

1. On one hand, Ambassador Mwamba wants us to fund expensive subsidies and on the other hand, he wants us to cut down on borrowing, where will the money come from as early as next month since our domestic revenue is taken up by debt service and wage bill?
2. He also talks about the need to restructure our debt before borrowing, but this same debt restructuring is hinged on the IMF deal he is opposed to, does he now understand why we need it?
3. Part of the $4.2 billion he has highlighted will come from drawing down on foreign reserves as clearly explained by the Minister of Finance. The other huge chunk is refinancing the Eurobond which will in a real sense not increase our debt stock. The remaining amount to be borrowed externally will mainly be on a concessional basis.

Our debt position won’t be as bad as he puts it and the structure of the debt is changing from large commercial to concessional which gives us room to pay in small bits over a long period of time.

In conclusion, I’m challenging Ambassador Emmanuel Mwamba to propose feasible alternative solutions explaining how we are going to deal with our huge debt, low investor confidence, and immediate needs without the IMF program. Let us work with figures and detailed alternative solutions and not broad statements. The measures he has proposed would work well under an IMF program.

THERE’RE THINGS WE MAY NOT HAVE COMMUNICATED WELL, BUT WE CANT COMPARE TO PF – MWEETWA

By Julia Malunga,

UPND Spokesperson Cornelius Mweetwa says no reasonable person can wish for the PF to return to power.

And Mweetwa has admitted that there could be things that the UPND may not have communicated well with the public but that does not get them anywhere near competition with the PF.

Commenting on remarks made by the former Defence Minister Davies Chama that Zambians were crying and wishing that they did not vote out PF, Mweetwa said the opposition leaders were in denial.

“How can Zambians cry after they decided to remove PF so resoundingly? It is just that the leaders of PF are in a state of denial. They never imagined [that] this would happen, they are still in a hungover of political impunity. But it happens in Zambia that once you are at variance with the wishes of the people, they get the opportunity to remove you through the ballot.

No reasonable person would wish PF can return to power except those that were directly connected and as beneficiaries of the activities of the PF. From the time the elections were over, have you seen any video footage of UPND cadres threatening violence? Insulting opposition leaders as it was under PF? This is the new beginning. Let us not return to violence and pangas, attacking media houses,” Mweetwa said.

“We managed, courtesy of the people of Zambia to remove PF. We were just instruments of change; the catalyst of change were the people. PF should not take Zambians for granted to begin to talk about Zambians regretting.

How can Zambians regret removing a tyrannical regime, a dictatorship, a government associated with corruption, no ways! Where you had ministers going round slapping people over the pandemic, is that what Chama is saying that Zambians are crying for? Let him enjoy their new found freedom in Zambia. Even those who are supposed to be in jail must enjoy their freedoms until they appear before the courts of law.”

Mweetwa said people should never again think of electing a political party with the “genre” of PF.

He admitted that there could be things that the UPND may not have communicated well with the public but that does not get them anywhere near competition with the PF.

“There will be peaceful campaigns in Kabwata and the best candidate will win. The era of political impunity where cadres wield authority over institutions of governance such as police is over. It has gone in the archives together with the PF. It is them when they were in leadership where cadres acted with impunity, they would be above the law, they would poke fingers in the face of the police officers.

They would enter offices of permanent secretaries, ministries, and begin to hound out civil servants accusing them of being in opposition. That is the history that all Zambians are running away from and that is why when we go to Kabwata, the choices are very clear,” Mweetwa said.

“Do you want to give PF authenticity that the kind of governance they had instilled in this country of cartels of political hooligans and thugs were in charge of the country that we must okay that by voting for them? No! I think that there will be no debate.

Here could be things that in the last four months, we may not have communicated well with the public or we may not get the favour of the public but that does not get us anywhere near competition with the PF. PF should go down in the doldrums of history and we should never again think of electing a political party with the genre of PF, divisive language, hate speech, tribal politics and nepotism.”

And Mweetwa disagreed with former Lupososhi member of parliament Bwalya Chungu that his party was averse to criticism.

“He is entitled to hold his own opinion as a politician. And we as UPND, we want to encourage members of the opposition to come out in the open and speak their mind because that is going to help us understand where the country is, where we are coming from and where we must go. We will not rush into criticizing the opposition, no.

The opposition is there to help the Executive to understand things. Respectfully, we disagree with him that we are very averse to criticism and targeting members of the PF. We have made it very clear that we will not get involved in issues that have to do with the law devoid of political interference.

I believe honourable Chungu is one of the cleanest ministers under the PF and it would be shocking for many to find that a person like him is being pursued by anyone. For now, his job is to speak for his friends because he has a higher moral ground,” said Mweetwa.

Credit: News Diggers

HAS THE PF CENTRAL COMMITTEE BREACHED ITS PARTY CONSTITUTION WHEN APPOINTING GIVEN LUBINDA AS ACTING PRESIDENT INSTEAD OF SG NICKSON CHILANGWA?

FIRST is to welcome the resignation of former president EDGAR CHAGWA Lungu as PF PRESIDENT after his defeat in August General Election.

This will enable the party quickly reorganise itself and rebrand, restructure and rebuild.

However, the appointment of a caretaker/transitional president by the members of the central committee leaves much to be desired as far as the respect of the party constitution is concerned.

One wonders whether PF has serious legal advisors both in the party and when it was in government.

The blatant breach of Article 53 of its party constitution without any person in its rank and file ringing the bell is amazing but not shocking.

It seems lawlessness in PF is part of its character and characteristic and contradictions in the provisions of its constitution is the daily bread.

According to ARTICLE 53 (RESIGNATION OR REMOVAL OF THE PRESIDENT OF THE PARTY), the party constitution is very categorical as who acts when the PARTY PRESIDENT RESIGNS or removed from office.

THE article guides in clause 1 that, in the event of the President of the Party resigning, or being removed from Office of The President of the Party, he SHALL cease to be President of the Party and the SECRETARY GENERAL SHALL act as President of the Party until the new President is elected in accordance with provisions of Article 52 of this Constitution.

ARTICLE 52 (ELECTION OF THE PRESIDENT OF THE PARTY) with clause 1 guiding that The President of the Party shall be elected at the General Conference of the Party

With the guidance from the above provisions, the appointment of Lubinda as acting President of PF is smells unconstitutionalism and illegitimate in the presence of the Secretary General.

The right person to have acted as President until a new president of the party is elected at the General Assembly is the SG of the party not the vice-president despite the seemingly contradictions in the provisions of the party constitution in some clauses.

In clause 2 of the same Article, the party constitution, stresses that:

in case of absence of both the President and the Secretary General of the Party, the President of the Party shall choose one from amongst the members of the Central Committee to perform the functions of the President of the Party until such a time as the President or Secretary General of the Party shall resume his duties.

Even if the SG and President were not there, the outgoing party president NOT the party Central Committee is mandated only to choosing one from amongst central committee members to Act as President of the party not to appoint a vice-president to Act..

Notwithstanding above arguments, ARTICLE 54 (VICE PRESIDENT FUNCTIONS AND DUTIES) guides in clause 1 that (1) The Vice President shall have the following powers, duties and functions:

-to be the principal assistant to the President of the Party;
-to exercise all such functions as may be delegated to him by the President;
-to act for the President in his absence;
-To exercise the functions of President in case of death or removal from office in terms of Article 53.

Note the contradiction between this Article and Article 53

However, reflecting and meditating on the provisions Article 54 seriously, it still gives the mandate to Act as President of the Party up until a new president is elected exclusive to the SG not the Vice president of the party.

An argument may be advanced that when Sata died, the SG did not act as President but the vice-president which was another breach.

Given Lubinda being a contestant in this PF presidential race should have been excused to level the play field for all candidates.

With this development, the other presidential hopeful may want to thinks twice as the game is twisted in favour of one contender.

I submit

McDonald Chipenzi

IMF DEAL- Responding to Alexander Nkosi

By Amb. Emmanuel Mwamba

I am glad to discuss a challenge thrown at me by my dear brother, Alexander Nkosi who wrote a piece; “Discussing Revenue Leakages and the IMF Deal”.

I have consistently argued that Zambia does not need an IMF deal whether this initiative was pursued by the Patriotic Front or has been achieved by the UPND Government.

This is because both our economists and policy makers appear to learn nothing from the country’s disastrous past association with the IMF and its imposed structural adjustment policies that saw our economy de-industrialised, emergency of ghost towns, rise of streets kids, rise in massive unemployment and widespread poverty.

The core programme such as the privatisation policy benefited foreign investors and foreign firms that obtained unfair tax concessions and long tax holidays.

Infact the IMF’s owned International Finance Corporation (IFC) also participated in the privatisation programme and scooped some lucrative shareholding in the newly auctioned companies.

The implementation of liberal and free market economic policies as prescribed by the IMF, relaxed foreign exchange regulations that saw huge capital flight from the firms that were purposely set up here in Zambia.

It troubles me when I see these economists and policy makers walk us into the same crisis pitfalls hoping that the IMF has changed and we, as a people, have changed!

HON SITUMBEKO MUSOKOTWANE’S BUDGET

The $10billion Budget was premised on an IMF deal. The Minister of Finance is expected to borrow up-to $4.2billion to finance the budget and he will open up another deficit to meet the obligations he intends to achieve.

Hon. Musokotwane has announced the employment of 41,000 teachers and health workers when Government is already spending 53% of its domestic revenue on salaries meeting the public service bill.

Infact,two items dominate the budget in 2021, it was the wage bill for public service workers and debt service.

On 3rd December, 2021, the IMF announced that it had reached a Staff-Level Agreement with Zambia under the Extended Credit Facility(EFC) for 2022-2025.

This Agreement would be taken to the board for approval and Zambia was expected to implement bold and ambitious economic reforms.

Following this agreement, the Minister of Finance announced that he will remove subsidies on fuel, will charge cost reflective electricity tariffs and will reduce the Farmer Input Support Programme(FISP) from 2.8% of GDP to 1%.

This is because the IMF has requested government to abandon spending on susbsidies that have been deemed to be inefficient public investment and poorly targeted subsidies.

Clearly the solutions offered so far will not inspire economic confidence that these measures will take us out of debt or grow the economy.

Blaming the Patriotic Front or hinging all hopes on the success of an IMF sponsored programme will yield nothing but more distress to the economy.

The apetite for new debt as shown by government’s intention to borrow $4.2billion in one fiscal year, is also worrying as the current debt has not been restructured, re-aligned or rescheduled.

CURRENT DEBT AND THE ROLE OF THE IMF

The World Bank Group assigns and classifies the world’s economies to four income groups—low, lower-middle, upper-middle, and high-income countries.

In the 1980/90s, Zambia had an unsustainable foreign debt of $7billion.

Zambia later benefited from a debt cancellation initiative.

The Jubilee Debt Campaign was a coalition that pioneered for the cancelation of all unjust and unpayable debts of the poorest countries.

Finally the G8 finance ministers proposed the Multilateral Debt Relief Initiative (MDRI).

The MDRI proposed to cancel debts of some of the world’s poorest countries owed to the International Monetary Fund, World Bank, and African Development Bank.

Zambia benefitted from this process and its foreign debt was substantially canceled in 2005.

Zambia left the Highly Indebted Poor Country (HIPC) group.

By 2010 the country had been posting economic growth of 6-10%, had accumulated adequate foreign reserves of four months cover, had stabilized its exchange rate and had a single-digit inflation rate.

Both the IMF and World Bank Group adjusted our classification.

We were now a low-middle income country by 2010.

There were ramifications, both lenders and grant-aid institutions including the IMF advised Zambia to go to the open market to borrow using and relying on our new sovereign rating.

Embassies that support poor countries left and we were literally left to ravages of the markets.

Yet our economy remained fragile and required more years of the stability recorded between 2005-2010.

The IMF facilitated Zambia’s and 12 other African countries’ path to the Eurobond markets.

With Africa’s and Zambia’s apetite for debt, we quickly accumulated a debt of $3billion from the Eurobond market alone in a period of five years.

We also accumulated about $5.8billion from China by 2020.

The other countries have also fallen to the same fate.

This was a disaster!

So when policy makers clammer for an IMF backing and solution, I shudder.

As both the SAP of the 1990s and the current experiments with market loans were programmes of the IMF!

Both our current economic crisis of high unemployment and lack of industries were spawned by IMF policies and the current foreign debt stock crisis is borne of their recent policies.

SOLUTIONS OUTSIDE IMF/WORLD BANK GROUP

We will remain members of both the IMF/World Bank Group like other 190 countries.

However, we don’t have to rely on their failed programs and experimantal policies.

Zambia should use its natural endowment in copper, cobalt, emerald and gemstones, and gold to resolve its economic crisis.

It should also realise its huge potential in both Agriculture and Tourism to turn around the sectors for economic benefits.

It should stop all financial leakages done where government resources are plundered, pilfered, stolen in well-established defrauding procurement schemes.

As stated earlier, Zambia loses an estimated $1billion annually through tax evasion and tax avoidance schemes by multinationals especially those in the mining sector operating in the country- (a Report; “Extracting Wealth-Extracting Minerals by War on Want”).

Entities such as Zambia Sugar and Glencore have been singled-out and have been quoted in these illicit financial flows reports.

The civil service reforms requires reforms and the wage bill that gobbles over 53% of our domestic revenue is unsustainable and unacceptable.

When will we serve the 18.2million Zambians if the 53% of our national income goes to pay emoluments for 200,000 people?

And these are not long-term policies as persuaded by lovers of the IMF.

IMF AS BASHIBUKOMBE

I have heard this arguement that because of our current public debt distress, we should engage the IMF to bring confidence to our creditors and impending foreign investment.

The IMF is being likened to a boy seeking to marry and employing the wisdom of elders.

I am afraid the IMF will take your wife-to-be.

We appear to assign the IMF a role that has in the past ended in disaster whether it was in Greece, Asia or Argentina.

Alexander Nkosi
DISCUSSING REVENUE LEAKAGES AND IMF DEAL WITH AMBASSADOR EMMANUEL MWAMBA

By Alexander Nkosi

Let me take this opportunity to applaud Ambassador Emmanuel Mwamba for his interest in discussing the IMF deal exhaustively. While we are on different sides of this debate, it is good to see leaders engage in issue based politics. Critical analysis and extensive debate is key to the success of our economic reforms.

Ambassador Mwamba is suggesting that Zambia loses about $1 billion in tax avoidance and evasion by multinational corporations, mainly in the mining sector, therefore Zambia should not pursue an IMF deal but simply put in place measures to deal with tax evasion and avoidance. I will address his suggestion in four points:

1. In our quest to move the nation forward, it is important to learn from the past and to achieve this we need to engage some key leaders from the previous government to help us understand some of the decisions they made, one such key leader is Ambassador Emmanuel Mwamba. I have a few questions: (i) if all we needed to do was to seal revenue leakages and ensure we don’t lose the $1 billion, why did we end up with $12.9 billion external debt, K189.7 billion domestic debt, and K46.9 billion domestic arrears? (ii) How much of the $1 billion annual leakage was recovered by the previous government? How did they do it and what can we learn from the success and challenges in dealing with tax avoidance and evasion?

2. The IMF deal is not all about the $1.4 billion concessional loan, there are four benefits of being on an the program: 1) Success of our debt restructuring hinges on us being on an IMF program. As of 2021, debt service and wage bill took up 118% of our domestic revenue, in the absence of debt restructuring it will be hard to move forward. 2) In his time in South Africa, Ambassador Mwamba did a commendable job in bringing investors in the agriculture sector, this means he appreciates the importance of foreign investment to our economy. According to a survey conducted by Bank of Zambia, ZDA and other key stakeholders, as of 2019 even before the pandemic, foreign direct investment declined by 50%. One of the key reason cited was the state of the economy. Being on an IMF program will help boost investor confidence. (iii) Over the past 10 years, the structure of our debt has significantly changed from being predominantly concessional to commercial, being on an IMF program will help increased access to concessional borrowing. (iv) The fourth reason is that the IMF program comes with a $1.4 billion loan which will help easy our deficit and balance of payment challenges.

3. Being on an IMF program does not stop us from strengthening domestic revenue mobilisation and sealing revenue leakages (tax avoidance and evasion). Infact it is one of the key measures in Zambia’s economy recovery plan. Hence, we will actually pursue both.

4. Before worrying about IMF conditionality, we have to ask ourselves whether we are managing. ZESCO has a total debt of $3.5 billion and owes IPPs $1.1 billion. In the petroleum transactions, we owe over $700 million. Overall we have $12.9 billion foreign debt, K189.7 billion domestic debt and K46.9 billion domestic arrears, do we need IMF to tell us this is unsustainable?

Thank you.

MDC UNVEILS NEW MEDIA DIRECTOR, A FORMER PF MOBILISATION MEMBER

The Movement for Democratic Change MDC under the leadership of its party President Felix Mutati who is also technology minister has officially unveiled past immediate Patriotic Front PF Mobilization member based on the Copperbelt as its new media Director.

Mr. Kafula Mubanga was unveiled as the MDC Media Director at a press briefing held at the party secretariat in Lusaka’s woodlands area.

Asked when he defected from the PF to the MDC, Mr. Mubanga explained that he joined the the party a month ago following his formal written resignation to his former party the PF who are yet to acknowledge receipt of his resignation letter.

According to him he has joined the MDC which which is in alliance with the UPND as it is the only party offering visionary leadership at the moment.

Asked about has changed about a government he vehemently attacked and demonized in the run up to the 2021 presidential elections, Mr. Mubanga declined to give a candid answer but only said, he has a Democratic right to join a party of choice as he enjoys the right to associate.

Also asked about his involvement in the blocking of the the opposition leader Hakainde Hichilema on the Copperbelt as he went to campaign, Mr. Mubanga explained that while he was within the vicinity when PF cadres and the police blocked the UPND leader, he did not physically participate in the blocking.

Mr. Mubanga replaces Mr. Thabo Kawana who has been appointed as Director Media at the Ministry of Information and Broadcasting services.

Before joining the the PF, Mr. Mubanga also saved as Media Director under Dr. Nevers Mumba’s leadership.

Mubanga also once served as Secretary General of National Revolution Party under party president Cosmo Mumba.

Having being appointed Media Director under the MDC it is expected that Mubanga will recruit his fellow PF cadres in the MDC with a view of penetrating the mainstream government to enjoy the spoils while real PF die hards continue wallowing in abject poverty

WHERE IS THE ECONOMIC RECOVERY PLAN?

By Sean Tembo – PeP President

1. There is little debate that our economy is in dire stress. It has been on a downward spiral for the past 2 years or so; partially due to the pandemic and partially due to mismanagement. Although economic pundits rarely agree on anything, l think we are agreeable that we need to turnaround our economy towards a path of growth, job creation, better standard of living and fiscal sustainability. Prior to the 12th August 2021 general elections, the then ruling PF administration put forward their Economic Recovery Plan (ERP) in December 2020. After reviewing the Government’s ERP at the time, we were not agreeable with it and on 21st January 2021, we unveiled the PeP Alternative Economic Recovery Plan for Zambia (PAERPZ). As we headed towards the August polls, we nudged the then main opposition UPND to unveil their ERP, especially given the fact that their President kept talking about his grand plan for turning around the Zambian economy. We wanted UPND’s ERP to be documented and shared with the public so that we could review it. But that never came.

2. Anyway, fast forward to the present day, UPND won the August polls and subsequently formed Government. They have been in office for slightly more than 3 months now. They have unveiled the 2022 National Budget in which there hasn’t been any significant economic policy shift compared to previous fiscal years, other than to give the mines a de facto tax holiday and to get on an IMF programme as well as embark on an expansionary fiscal drive which has seen the planned employment of 30,000 additional teachers and 11,500 additional health personnel in the 2022 fiscal year.

3. Our expectation was that the first thing which the UPND administration would do once sworn into office would be to develop an Economic Recovery Plan for Zambia. We expected such an ERP to have short-term, medium-term and long-term milestones, interventions and performance measures which would be implemented by Government with the overall aim of transforming our economy from the current downward spiral of economic stagnation, unemployment, high cost of living and general hopelessness to a new dawn of economic growth, job creation and lower cost of living over the next 5 years. We expected every subsequent economic policy by Government to fit into and advance the objectives of its ERP. We expected the 2022 National Budget and the national budgets of all subsequent fiscal years up to 2026 to fit into and advance the attainment of the ERP. We expected Government’s decision to get on or not to get on an IMF programme to be determined by whether such a programme would contribute to the economic recovery plan of our country. But where is the Economic Recovery Plan?

4. The failure by the New Dawn administration to develop an ERP means that there is no framework to guide the various economic policies and interventions by Government. When a country’s economic policies and interventions are not synchronized by a framework such as an ERP, they tend to be haphazard and in self-conflict. That means you will have one policy which is pulling and another which is pushing, with the net result being zero. But let us not speculate. Let us examine some of the recently implemented economic policies by the UPND administration and let us determine whether they have been consistent or in self-conflict.

5. One of the first things which the New Dawn administration announced to us after taking over the reigns of Government was that the coffers are empty. So if the coffers are empty, the natural next step is to fill the coffers, isn’t it? And the main way of filling our national coffers is by collecting tax isn’t it? And one of the few sectors of our economy which is doing extremely well at the moment, with copper at more than $11,000 per tonne, is the mining sector isn’t it? But instead of collecting as much tax as possible from the mining sector, why did the New Dawn administration give a de facto tax holiday to the mines? That is a self-conflict isn’t it? Whereby on one hand you are complaining that the coffers are empty and on the other hand you do not want to collect tax from the only sector of the economy that is doing exceptionally well and that is leaping supernormal profits?

6. Let us look at another example of economic policy conflict by the New Dawn administration. The issue of the cost of living. One of the main issues which the Zambian people have been complaining about in the past 5 years or so, is the high cost of living. Prices of commodities have been going up to much compared to people’s incomes. The cost of living is just too high and money is nowhere to be found. This cry is not only applicable to the low-income people in the compounds but even people mumayadi are complaining. Time and again, President Hichilema has sworn to reduce the cost of living for Zambians. But how do you reduce the cost of living by increasing the prices of key production inputs such as fuel and electricity? This is a self-conflict isn’t it?

7. Let us look at a third example. From a fiscal management point of view, the biggest challenge which our treasury has is the issue of the fiscal deficit. In simple terms, a fiscal deficit occurs when Government expenditure is larger than Government revenue. In fact, this is one of the main arguments put forward by the New Dawn administration for bringing in the IMF, so that they can provide fiscal support. But when you expenditure is larger than your income, you need to either reduce your expenditure or increase your income or both isn’t it? But for the New Dawn administration, they do the exact opposite. They increase expenditure by hiring 30,000 additional teachers and reduce income by giving the mines a de facto tax holiday. So how can Government expect to solve a fiscal deficit when their actions are actually increasing it?

8. All these economic policy conflicts which l have illustrated above, would not happen if the New Dawn administration had an Economic Recovery Plan to act as the main guiding framework for all economic policies and interventions. The failure by the New Dawn administration to develop an ERP means that their policy interventions are unlikely to be synchronized. They’ll implement a policy which pulls and another which pushes with the net result being zero. And in the midst of all this confusion, the Zambian people are suffering and getting deeper and deeper into poverty. And let us be clear about one thing here; these early failures by the New Dawn administration are not because they lack advice, no. We have always been very generous with our advice to this newly birthed administration from the word go. However, the biggest problem with the New Dawn administration is that they are too self-righteous. They think they know it all. However, their arrogance is not backed by competence. It is empty arrogance. The only question that remains to be answered is how long the Zambian people will tolerate this empty arrogance by the UPND administration in the management of national matters. Only the Zambian people themselves can answer that question.

/// END

SET 26.12.2021

Mweba TALABA
[On vending]

By Dr. Canisius Banda

Globalisation, when not carefully handled, destroys SMEs and such local entrepreneurial initiatives.
Nations thrive only when citizens thrive.

It would not be surprising to learn that Republican President Hakainde HICHILEMA is under pressure from imperial and globalisation forces to, inter alia, harass our much creative, self-reliant and beloved vendors.

Hakainde, please leave street vendors alone.
Even if you are NOT interested in staying in or retaining power, please let sleeping dogs lie.

Street vendors are entrepreneurs.
They do NOT rely on government support to survive.

They thrive themselves.
And the only difference between them and department stores/malls is government attitude.

Any government that harasses or mistreats vendors is veritably IDIOTIC.
And the UPND, which understands CAPITAL, should be the last to exhibit such retrogressive conduct.

Vendors are an integral and vibrant component of Zambia’s economy.
And without the involvement of citizens in the economy, income inequalities and poverty will remain.

Ever since I could speak, whether as an MMD NEC member or as Vice President to Hakainde in the UPND, I have always been on the side of vendors, I always speak in defence of vending.
The world thrive on vendors, trade.

As Vice President for Politics in the UPND, I illustrated what needed to be done about vendors.
In a nutshell, I said that street vending needs to be REGULATED.

One, register all vendors. Give them identification cards each with a bar code/TPIN.

Two, classify them [Foodstuffs, clothes, hardware, etc]. Colour code them if you like You can even require them to wear uniforms, further creating business linkages.

Three, build investment and entrepreneurship capacity in them by letting the Zambia Development Agency [ZDA], through workshops, teach them about cashflow management, credit access and banking.

Four, build public health capacity in them by ensuring the district councils, through workshops, teach them about food handling and hygiene.

Five, build capacity in them by letting the Zambia Revenue Authority [ZRA], through workshops, teach them about the need to and value of paying tax; and further create easy modalities for such payment.

Six, create or re-do the Street Vendors Charter which the district council inspectorates can then follow and enforce.

Hakainde cannot feed citizens.
And he does NOT intend to.

Citizens will always look after themselves.
And when they embark on ways to do this, the government must not STOP them but instead should engage them to facilitate the success and regulation of such activities.

Vendors are NOT thieves.
Vendors are entrepreneurs.

Take this,argument for instance, if Zambia had about one million vendors on its SMEs database, and each one of them paid one Kwacha per day as tax, Zambia [ZRA] would raise one million Kwacha every day, which money could then be re-invested in building primary schools, ablution blocks and market stalls, further uplifting the standards of life of the same vendors.
See?

Hakainde, please do NOT fix vendors.
If you do, they will FIX you.

Hakainde, whatever you do everyday should be of benefit to the people.
Be on their side always. Remember, Zambians come first.

Remove vendors today.
Trust me, they will remove you tomorrow.

On one hand, you raise prices of essential commodities.
On the hand, you want to remove the citizens’ source of income?

What economics is this?
Stop this anti-SMEs attitude forthwith.

Ma vendors ni banthu nawo.
Dziko ni lao.

Anyone who harasses a local entrepreneur, regardless of the size and nature of the entrepreneurship, is STUPID. Period.
And stupidity in government is NOT part of the Eighth National Development Plan [ENDP].

It is only when Zambians own the means of production that their poverty will end.
For as long as Zambians do not OWN the economy, for as long as they remain only PERIPHERAL actors in the economy such clerks or labourers, poverty in Zambia will NOT end.

It follows then that, Hakainde, as our Republican President, what you do every day must necessarily be focused on SHIFTING the ownership of Zambia’s economy from foreigners onto citizens.
Should you fail to do this, you will be a sorry national flop, you will only succeed in entrenching the interests of imperialists in Zambia, and subsequently, defrauding the very country you call your own.

Hakainde, do NOT fix Zambians.
Or is this the New Down?

Leave the vendors alone.
Or they won’t leave you alone.

Let Zambians become employers.
And foreigners, employees.

Zambia is for Zambians.
Afrika, twisebana!

A luta continua!
Indeed, the struggle continues!

Dr Canisius BANDA. Development Activist

Mweba TALABA
[On vending]

By Dr. Canisius Banda

Globalisation, when not carefully handled, destroys SMEs and such local entrepreneurial initiatives.
Nations thrive only when citizens thrive.

It would not be surprising to learn that Republican President Hakainde HICHILEMA is under pressure from imperial and globalisation forces to, inter alia, harass our much creative, self-reliant and beloved vendors.

Hakainde, please leave street vendors alone.
Even if you are NOT interested in staying in or retaining power, please let sleeping dogs lie.

Street vendors are entrepreneurs.
They do NOT rely on government support to survive.

They thrive themselves.
And the only difference between them and department stores/malls is government attitude.

Any government that harasses or mistreats vendors is veritably IDIOTIC.
And the UPND, which understands CAPITAL, should be the last to exhibit such retrogressive conduct.

Vendors are an integral and vibrant component of Zambia’s economy.
And without the involvement of citizens in the economy, income inequalities and poverty will remain.

Ever since I could speak, whether as an MMD NEC member or as Vice President to Hakainde in the UPND, I have always been on the side of vendors, I always speak in defence of vending.
The world thrive on vendors, trade.

As Vice President for Politics in the UPND, I illustrated what needed to be done about vendors.
In a nutshell, I said that street vending needs to be REGULATED.

One, register all vendors. Give them identification cards each with a bar code/TPIN.

Two, classify them [Foodstuffs, clothes, hardware, etc]. Colour code them if you like You can even require them to wear uniforms, further creating business linkages.

Three, build investment and entrepreneurship capacity in them by letting the Zambia Development Agency [ZDA], through workshops, teach them about cashflow management, credit access and banking.

Four, build public health capacity in them by ensuring the district councils, through workshops, teach them about food handling and hygiene.

Five, build capacity in them by letting the Zambia Revenue Authority [ZRA], through workshops, teach them about the need to and value of paying tax; and further create easy modalities for such payment.

Six, create or re-do the Street Vendors Charter which the district council inspectorates can then follow and enforce.

Hakainde cannot feed citizens.
And he does NOT intend to.

Citizens will always look after themselves.
And when they embark on ways to do this, the government must not STOP them but instead should engage them to facilitate the success and regulation of such activities.

Vendors are NOT thieves.
Vendors are entrepreneurs.

Take this,argument for instance, if Zambia had about one million vendors on its SMEs database, and each one of them paid one Kwacha per day as tax, Zambia [ZRA] would raise one million Kwacha every day, which money could then be re-invested in building primary schools, ablution blocks and market stalls, further uplifting the standards of life of the same vendors.
See?

Hakainde, please do NOT fix vendors.
If you do, they will FIX you.

Hakainde, whatever you do everyday should be of benefit to the people.
Be on their side always. Remember, Zambians come first.

Remove vendors today.
Trust me, they will remove you tomorrow.

On one hand, you raise prices of essential commodities.
On the hand, you want to remove the citizens’ source of income?

What economics is this?
Stop this anti-SMEs attitude forthwith.

Ma vendors ni banthu nawo.
Dziko ni lao.

Anyone who harasses a local entrepreneur, regardless of the size and nature of the entrepreneurship, is STUPID. Period.
And stupidity in government is NOT part of the Eighth National Development Plan [ENDP].

It is only when Zambians own the means of production that their poverty will end.
For as long as Zambians do not OWN the economy, for as long as they remain only PERIPHERAL actors in the economy such clerks or labourers, poverty in Zambia will NOT end.

It follows then that, Hakainde, as our Republican President, what you do every day must necessarily be focused on SHIFTING the ownership of Zambia’s economy from foreigners onto citizens.
Should you fail to do this, you will be a sorry national flop, you will only succeed in entrenching the interests of imperialists in Zambia, and subsequently, defrauding the very country you call your own.

Hakainde, do NOT fix Zambians.
Or is this the New Down?

Leave the vendors alone.
Or they won’t leave you alone.

Let Zambians become employers.
And foreigners, employees.

Zambia is for Zambians.
Afrika, twisebana!

A luta continua!
Indeed, the struggle continues!

Dr Canisius BANDA. Development Activist

RESPONSE TO CHUSHI KASANDA ON ALLEGATIONS OF RACISM, ISSUED ON SATURDAY 25th DECEMBER 2021: FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

1. As Patriots for Economic Progress (PeP) we are dismayed by the statement that was issued yesterday by the Minister of Information and Chief Government Spokesperson, Chushi Kasanda in which she alleged that we had issued racist remarks in relation to the DMMU Coordinator.

2. We wish to put it on record that at no time did we make any racist remarks. In line with our mandate and duty as an opposition political party in Zambia, we merely expressed concern about the inertia by the Disaster Management and Mitigation Unit (DMMU) to assist victims of the floods that happened in Choma about a week ago, which submerged Mbabala bridge. We were moved to comment on the poor performance by DMMU because of the many complaints that we received via Facebook messenger by the victims of the floods and the lack of assistance on the ground.

3. We further wish to state that suspected UPND members have created multiple duplicate Facebook pages for “PeP” and “Sean Tembo” and whenever we post a political statement on our page, these undesirable individuals paraphrase our post and make a similar but offensive post on the fake Facebook pages and then proceed to take screenshots of their offensive posts and circulate them. This is a matter that has not arisen today. We have been complaining about it for the past 3 months or so. To an average person, it is difficult to tell the difference between the fake pages and the official party page, unless they check the number of followers. Most of the fake pages have less than 500 followers whereas the official party page has more than 100,000 followers.

4. With regard to yesterday’s post about the DMMU Coordinator, we noted that a paraphrased and offensive version of the post was circulated by the unscrupulous individuals about 30 minutes after the official post was made. Barely 15 minutes later, the Minister of Information issued her statement quoting and condemning the fake post which was in our name. Given the speed with which the Minister responded to the fake post, we are made to suspect that the Minister is working in tandem with the unscrupulous people that make fake Facebook posts in our name with the aim of putting our name into disrepute in the eyes of the public. If this is the case, then it is extremely regrettable and we wish to call upon the Minister to desist from such underhand behavior.

5. As Patriots for Economic Progress, we wish to advise the general public to always counter-check the number of followers on the “Sean Tembo” page that they are browsing in order to confirm that it is the official page. It is unfortunate that according to Facebook rules, a name cannot be patented, hence we are unable to take action against those who have created duplicate pages in our name. Additionally, our requests to have our page verified by Facebook have not been successful due to the existence of these duplicate fake pages with a similar name.

6. Lastly, we wish to appeal to the Minister of Information and Chief Government Spokesperson to always verify her information before rushing to the media to make unwarranted accusations against opposition leaders. As PeP leadership, we do not have an ounce of racist blood in our veins. If the Minister was in a particular mood to condemn racism, she should have condemned her boss, President Hakainde Hichilema who not very long ago referred to the then Vice President His Honor Mr Guy Scott as “the most stupid white man”. This racist insult by President Hichilema to Vice President Guy Scott in particular and white people in general was widely carried by the media at the time. President Hichilema has neither withdrawn nor apologized for this racist insult up to now. Therefore, before making wild unfounded allegations against us, Chushi Kasanda should first condemn the racists remarks by her boss, the President. Otherwise she has no moral pedestal to stand on and prescribe a standard of conduct for opposition leaders in this country.

Issued by:

PeP Media Team
Party Provincial Headquarters
Chudleigh, Lusaka

CHRISTMAS MESSAGE

MESSAGE OF LOVE, UNITY AND TOLERANCE DELIVERED BY DR. CHISHIMBA KAMBWILI FOR THIS FESTIVE SEASON

Friday , 24th December, 2021

Goodevening fellow Zambians

I come before you to deliver a message that promotes love, tolerance and unity among all Zambians of all ages, from all walks of life.

This is the first Christmas we are celebrating without our founding Presidwnt and father, Dr. Kenneth David Buchizya Kaunda.

We however, remember him for the values he taught us, values that promote peace, unity and have helped create a nation united in its diversity, a One Zambia , One Nation.

This is the Zambia we have to continue to build, a multi-racial, multi-ethnic multi-religious, peaceful and a prosperous Zambia.

A Zambia practicing its civic and political affairs in non-vuioent manner, respecting the rule of law.

It is sad that we have ended the year with the increase of fuel which has sparked the increase of bus fares and subsequently, other commodities.

This fuel increase will see the cost of living continue to rise adding to the more difficulties our people are facing.

It is in this light that I hope and trust that the pending increase in electricity tariffs will be done in a gradual mannerb to give breathing space to Zambians who are already struggling with low or no income.

Although I found it unreasonable that government has decided to remove susbsidies on electricity and charge cost reflective tariffs, we should remember that our Lord Jesus Christ taught us to love one another and be a brother’s keeper.

I wish the new government success, I don’t wish the new government to fail
If they succeed, the benefits accrue to the Zambian people and their failure will impact negatively on them.

Let me emphasise that we are not in the Opposition to make the government to fail.

Our role is to offer checks and balances to help the government to succeed into programmes, projects and activities.

Merry Christmas to you all.

Merry Christmas to His Excellency fourth President of the Republic of Zambia, Mr. Rupiah Banda.

Merry Christmas to Zambia’s sixth President of the Republicof Zambia, His Excellency Dr. Edgar Lungu.

Merry Christmas to President of the Republic of Zambia, His Excellency Mr. Hakainde Hichilema.

Thank you and God bless you all.

VENDING VS. THE LAWS OF ZAMBIA: WHEN LAWLESSNESS BECOMES LAWFULNESS AND LAWFULNESS BECOMES LAWLESSNESS; THE CASE OF ZAMBIA

Street Vending and trading has been a flourishing business in Zambia esp in big towns.

However, previous and current administrations have allowed this illegal actvity take root and become a political matter to end.

Evidently, a few days ago, the Minister of Local Government and Rural Development caused public stir and debate when he told vendors on the streets of Lusaka that he did not come to “negotiate with them but to tell them to vacate from the streets with immediate effect”

Opposition and other leaders have taken to the public platforms to air their opinions for or against the removal of street vendors from the streets of Lusaka or Zambia in general which they have cited other previous governments tried but failed.

Then, Is street vending legal or illegal in Zambia? If illegal why has it been tolerated for years? Is it lack of legislation or enforcement or it is just politics at play?

Let us examine the provision of law as it now, Statutory Instrument No. 12 of 2018; The Local Government Act(Laws, Volume 16 Cap. 281) dubbed as The Local Government (Street Vending and Nuisances)(Amendment) (No. 2) Regulations. 2018

In exercising the powers contained in section 80 of the Local Government Act which empowers the Minister of Local government to make regulations, the Minister of Local government then under the PF administration made the below regulations outlawing vending i.e. sale of any merchandise on any street in Zambia.

(Street vending) which is the Sale of local produce in any street or in public place other than a market established by the council, except with the permission of the Councils is an offence and attracts the sanctions

e.g.—(a) selling food on the streets attracts 2,500.00 penalty units which is ZMK750 when convicted and (b) sale of any other item or produce on the streets attracts 2,5000 Penalty units (ZMK750) and this is provided for under regulation 9.

Other offences and penalties under the 2018 regulations are

1.Spitting or vomiting on, or along, a street or
prescribed road 333.332 ( K99.9 I.e. 333.333×
ZMK0.30 penalty units)

2. Throwing liter on, or along, a street or
   prescribed road (1,666.673 Penalty Units).
3. Urinating in any unauthorised place
   (2,500.004 penalty units).
4. Defecating in any unauthorised
   place (2,500.005 (ZMK750)
5. Plying trade by any licensed hawker within
   an area more thanfive days in a calendar
   month, in the same place for morethan
   thirty consecutive minutes or plying on
   two or more occasion during twenty-four
   consecutive hours in the same place.

For the purpose of this by-law “ place ” means a square having sides one hundred yards in length the Centre of which is the piece of ground actually occupied for the time being by the hawker in plying his trade (2,500.009 (ZMK750).

6. Depositing or allowing to accumulate or
   keeping upon any premises any dirt, filth,
   refuse, rubbish, or any offensive matter or
   matter likely….among other prohibitions.

Therefore, vending is an illegality that has been accepted as legal for a long time for political and Electoral expedience despite the law being in place.

The biggest problem and threat to Zambia’s restoration of rule of law is making laws that the country fails to respect and enforce due to political interference

To this end, the New Dawn government must know that its pledge to restore the rural of law in Zambia will be a tow order in a society and country where lawlessness (abnormal) has become a culture in that being lawfulness has become lawlessness (normal) and lawlessness has become lawfulness.

The Minister is right to want to see the vendors leave the streets because that is law as of now signed and crafted by the PF administration which though didn’t believe in laws but lawlessness.

However, the grrave mistake the minister made was to approach this entrenched practice/culture in a combative than educative one moreso that one of his ministry’s structuress-councils permitted the growth of this culture.

People need sensitisation and education first on the provision of the law moreso that these regulations were developed without their involvement and that the directive is coming without an alternative trading places designated by the councils being offered to the affected .

Many councils in Zambia have failed to involve the local communities in making up these laws and also in sensitising them when they make the laws.

As provided for under regulation 9 on street trading, the vending taking place on the streets seems to have full blessings from the councils as those vendors pay levy to the Councils.

So before removing them out of the streets at gunpoint, can the councils own up and inform and explain to the Minister, vendors and the nation where these councils have been taking the levies/money collected from these street vendors being vacated from the streets without the council voice to an extent of failing to provide these street vendors with decent trading places.

LUSAKA City market since its gutting in around 2017 has not been reconstructed despite the PF government collecting donations to re-erect the market while Simon Mwewa market has been slow at being completed.

Other markets such as Chibolya which was meant to decongest Soweto has been made a residential areas by PF cadres while Soweto remain as it has been poorly managed.

Under the political and economic circumstances, pursuasion not force will determine the success in the restoration of the rule of law in Zambia which is basically close to it being non existent.

I submit

McDonald Chipenzi

The Petroleum Transporters Association of Zambia (PTAZ) has backed the recent hike in fuel pump prices necessitated by the removal of subsidies on the commodity by the Government.

PTAZ is an association with a membership of 96 transporters owning over 800 fuel tankers that distribute fuel throughout the country and transporting fuel from the ports into Zambia.

PTAZ Secretary General Benson Tembo has branded the increase in fuel prices as long overdue.

The Energy Regulation Board (ERB) last week announced an upward adjustment of pump prices of petroleum products between 3 Kwacha 54 Ngwee and 4 Kwacha 47 Ngwee following the removal of subsidies on the commodity.

Speaking in Ndola, Mr. Tembo said the old fuel pump prices in Zambia were artificial and were only sustained for political reasons by the previous Patriotic Front Government.

“This bald decision made by the Government is long overdue. It has been eating on the progression of this country. We are in the fuel transport subsector and we have been involved in the movement of the product throughout the country and the movement of the product from the ports into the country,” Mr. Tembo said.

“We are aware of the activities that have been happening prior to this fuel price adjustment; I want to say that the price adjustment you have seen today would have happened in November, 2020. The oil marketing companies were demanding price adjustments at that time because of the landing costs.”

“As you are aware Indeni has not been operational since last January and all petroleum products in this country have been imported as finished products. And local oil marketing companies (OMC) were given import waivers to bring in these products so along the supply chain the landing costs went up and the OMC demanded that the Government increase the pump price but during that time the Government was hesitant to increase because of politics,” he said.

Mr. Tembo added:”Instead in January and February, the Government decided to suspend the VAT, excise duty and all other fees in the price buildup just to maintain the price up to August elections. Unfortunately that Government was booted out and we have a new Government, so today when there is this price adjustment what we are saying as critical players in this sector is that this was a very bold decision that will bring back the country on track, a decision that will bring back the country on economic revival.”

“If you look around, we have been transporting fuel from Beira (Mozambique), we pass through Zimbabwe. The product in Zimbabwe is expensive. We have been transporting fuel from Tanzania; we pass through Tanzania the product in Tanzania is expensive. The question has been why is the Zambian product cheaper? It is politics, politics and politics. Now that politics are over we expect the members of the public to rally behind the Government so that we can go to the other side where we will see progression.

Fuel price increment announced by ERB has sparked bus-fares hike confirmed by the Road Transport and Safety Agency (RTSA) on Monday.

UNDERSTANDING ZAMBIA’S FUEL SUBSIDIES from a taxman’s lens….

By Liywalii Kanyimba

In my last thought piece on fuel subsidies, I raised the question on whether or not fuel pump prices will further go up after after 31 December 2021. This is on the backdrop of the suspension of duties and VAT applicable up to the aforesaid date (unless there is an extension I am not aware of).

Since then, I invested my reading time and research to understand how subsidies work and what exactly we are talking about in the case of Zambia, building up on the statement by the energy regulator, the Energy Regulation Board (ERB), that ‘the increase in fuel pump prices was necessitated by the removal of subsidies on petroleum products to reflect the correct prices of the commodity’.

For context, subsidies in most analysis can be broken into two types, those given to producers of a given commodity and those to consumers. In the case of Zambia, the fuel subsidy is primarily a consumer subsidy, one which reduces the end price of petroluem products through government controls of the cost.

William Blyth, an expert in energy security and climate policy and author of a 2013 report on fossil fuel subsidies for the UK’s Environment Audit Committee stated as follows:

“Consumer subsidies are in fact often applied to products…..which only the relatively rich can afford. And that subsidy is coming from the tax base. So, in fact, what you see is that that subsidy is actually creating a transfer of wealth from poorer to rich people.”

With the context set above, what is the breakdown of Zambia’s fuel subsidy? Is the information disseminated on this very important issue accurate?

The Secretary to the Treasury, Mr Felix Nkulukusa brought into exposition in one of his thought pieces justifying the removal of subsdies that Zambia’s fuel subsidy is about USD 67 Million per month or USD 800 million per year, this according to him the National Treasury is losing. He further went on to say that “more than 60% of fuel in Zambia is consumed by the mines….with only less than 2% being consumed by ordinary and vulnerable people who are genuinely supposed to be subsidised”.

In my view, the real beneficiaries are the mines and those alike and accordingly, should be the ones not to be subsdised as opposed to the approach adopted to impact all including ordinary and vulnerable Zambians that the Secretary has acknowledged as being the ones that are supposed to benefit.

Information that has emerged so far in the public domain indicates that the above USD67 subsidy cost per month comprise of two things:- USD 26 Million price differential arising from the exchange rate fluctuation and balancing of world market prices; and USD 41.4 Million (more than 60%) lost because of suspend taxes (VAT at 16%, Customs Duty at 25% and Excise Duty of K0.64/ltr on petrol and K0.62/ltr on Diesel).

The above occurs clear that the recent K4 fuel pump price increase has only factored in the cost of exchange rate fluctuations and balancing of world market prices. This means the rest of the suspended taxes, accounting for more 60% of the fuel subsidy have not been adjusted for in the current fuel pump prices as these remain suspended to 31 December 2021.

It is therefore partially inaccurate as pointed out by the energy regulator that the increase in fuel pump prices is due to the removal of the subsidies to reflect the correct prices when the suspension of the taxes accounting for more 60% of the fuel subsidies has not been lifted.

When the suspension of the taxes is lifted since the government’s direction is to do away with the subsidies, inevitably the fuel pump prices will further increase. And maybe suggestions that the pump price per litre should be above K30 should be correct looking at the amount of the monthly subsidy yet to be removed.

This said and the immediate adverse impact a wholesome removal of subsidies has on the cost of living for ordinary Zambians, as confirmed by the Secretary to the Treasury that more that 98% of the fuel and electricity subsidies combined benefit the mines and those alike at the expense of ordinary Zambians and the vulnerable who deserve to be subsidised, it may be advisable that a targeted approach towards the mines and those alike is considered in the next subsidy-removal phase for the sake of managing the cost of living.

TIYE NAYO By Liywalii Kanyimba

LET KABWATA DECIDE WHO THEY WISH TO REPRESENT THEM WITHOUT MCC INFLUENCE
By Bizwell Mutale
The Kabwata by-election is an important litmus test for the Patriotic Front leadership. It will tell the nation whether or not the PF MCC has reformed from imposing unpopular candidates on constituencies to allowing the party grassroots to choose their popular representatives.

During the last general elections, the PF MCC imposed Mr. Danny Yenga on the people of Kabwata as a candidate for the Kabwata constituency, and Kabwata gave us strong feedback by rejecting Mr. Danny Yenga.

On the other hand, Mr. Clement Tembo and other aspiring candidates supported Mr. Danny Yenga in the spirit of unity and comradeship. Even with this support, we lost Kabwata. It should be a lesson learned.

Now, this time around we must win the Kabwata seat without fail. To achieve this we need to allow the people of Kabwata to speak freely and choose who they want to be on the ballot for the Kabwata Member of Parliament by-election.

It is a political error to repeat the imposing of Mr. Yenga on the people of Kabwata because the result will be the same, we will lose again. He must pave the way for Mr. Clement Tembo or whoever else the people of Kabwata want.

The PF MCC has learned that imposing candidates on constituencies, results in losses, and the people of Kabwata may resort to voting for an independent candidate or even UPND candidate. As PF, it is a politically strategic advantage to win the Kabwata constituency seat. This calls for an inclusive approach, listening to the grassroots, learning from past mistakes, and making better political decisions. Most importantly it calls for unity and love.

It will be wise for the MCC to focus on what the people of Kabwata want. This is an important step in rebranding the party by making people-centered decisions, going back to the people, and allowing for the grassroots to be heard.

Let us not allow the arrogance and greed that cost us in the August elections to continue in any of the upcoming by-elections. Let us demonstrate that we are a grassroots party, a pro-poor party, an inclusive party, a united listening party, and a transformed party. Mr. Danny Yenga himself can show magnanimity by allowing someone else to represent the party in the Kabwata by-elections. We are one party after all.

HH OPPONENTS ASHAMED TO ENGAGE IN CONSTRUCTIVE DEBATE – ANTHONY

By Oliver Chisenga

PRESIDENTIAL spokesperson Anthony Bwalya says President Hakainde Hichilema’s focus is not on re-election but on delivering the goods for the people of Zambia.

He accused opponents of President Hichilema of naturally being ashamed to engage in a constructive debate about successes already recorded.

In a statement on his Facebook page, Bwalya said opponents of President Hichilema are intent on scaling up their “poorly crafted propaganda” to shift the public’s attention away from the incredible works the President and his team are doing to the fortunes of ordinary people.

“Let us be clear: the President has only done a little more than 100 days in office. His focus is not on re-election but on delivering the goods for the people of Zambia on the basis of which they will decide and exercise their democratic rights in five years’ time,” he said.

Bwalya added that while the opponents focus on unproductive propaganda, President Hichilema and his team are focused on delivering a new decentralisation agenda with K25.7 million per constituency in 2022 among other areas.

He said President Hichilema is focused on paying all arrears for all pensioners and putting over 40,000 public workers in the education and health sectors back on the job.

Bwalya said President Hichilema was also fixated on enhancing access to quality education for all children by building 130 new schools and making education free from grades 1-12 and paying all outstanding CDF arrears and settling all Local Government Equalisation Fund arrears.

“Aggressively moving to restructuring our public debt as a means to boost and stabilise the kwacha against major convertibles, with the kwacha already 55 per cent stronger against the US dollar since August 2021, as well as unlocking support to critical social sectors and the return to the rule of law and law and order with markets and bus stations back to the control of councils and a 12 per cent salary increment awarded to civil servants, in addition to scaling up the tax exempt threshold for lower income brackets to K4,500,” he said.

“Compare this to the eight per cent mockery rejected by unions which the old regime awarded civil servants. These and many other constructive milestones were achieved in the first + 100 days of the President’s stay in office.”

Bwalya noted that opponents of President Hichilema would “naturally be ashamed to engage in a constructive debate about these successes because they had a whole 10 years to deliver for the people of Zambia but spent
their time in office engaging in leveraged corruption”.

“We urge the people of Zambia to keep the focus with us as we push the boundaries of possibilities and take the country to the next level,” said Bwalya.

STREET VENDING IS NOT A CRIME SAYS PF

….adds that UPND is chasing traders from the streets without providing an alternative.

LUSAKA, Friday, December 24, 2021 (SMART EAGLES)

The opposition Patriotic Front (PF) has bemoaned the move by the New Dawn Administration to chase vendors out of the streets.

PF Member of the Central Committee in charge of Information and Publicity Raphael Nakacinda has argued in an interview that street vending is not a crime.

MCC Nakacinda says the New Dawn Administration is prematurely chasing vendors from the streets without providing an alternative.

“Street vending is not an offense that is why it exists and is called street vending. The only thing is that in Zambia, we have failed to put in place mechanisms to make sure that our people that are trading on the streets. …it is conducive in terms of having facilities like for hygiene and many others,” he said.

“But in this case, the UPND government is prematurely chasing them out of the streets without offering them alternatives. We demand that that decision be rescinded until there is an alternative provided for our people on the street.”

MCC Nakacinda charged that the economy is in amess under the New Dawn administration. He implored President Hakainde Hichilema to be considerate to the people on the street.

“Because the economy is really ina mess under the new dawn and life is very difficult. Now you even take away the little that people are making through their trade on the streets without an alternative. Even when you are cold hearted, that is not right. May President Hakainde Hichilema find in his heart some humanity and be considerate to the people on the street,” he said.

“That fellow he is sending out there to and harass people on the street, Garry Nkombo with his arrogance, they are going to face the consequences. The President keeps on saying that cadres who are trying to interfere with the work of the police they will be on their own. Nowadays we don’t even believe, we don’t believe what the President says because he says one thing then his people act differently.”

The MCC added that so far, what President Hakainde Hichilema has been saying is sheer rhetoric.

“So we don’t know whether that is him to feed the public with rhetoric and then act differently when it comes to the real issues. So far, the evidence suggests that whatever the President says is just rhetoric because his people are acting centrally to what to what he says,” he said.

By ADRIAN MWANZA

THERE is nothing wrong with the raids that the investigative wings are conducting on former PF leaders because they were the ones handling public resources, UPND spokesperson Cornelius Mweetwa has said. Mr Mweetwa said that these people were untouchable when they were in power and people were scared to go after them.

He said it was pointless for the investigative wings to go after people who were in opposition like Gary Nkombo, Brian Kambita and Stafford Mulusa when they did not have links with public resources.

Mr Mweetwa said that the PF was in government and some of them might have done things that were at variance with the law.

“We were nowhere near the corridors of power and never had an opportunity to handle public resources that was at variance with the law,” he said.

He wondered how the investigative wings would follow innocent people just to show that they were not biased.

Mr Mweetwa said it was difficult to talk on behalf of the Anti-Corruption Commission and other investigative wings and there was need to ask them.

And Mr Mweetwa said that it was unfair that the government had been judged harshly over subsidies.

He said that the immediate and medium economy would hurt but it would have long term benefits for Zambians.

Mr Mweetwa said that the removal of subsidies in the long term would make the energy sector attractive to investments which have more players in the industry.

He said tough measures were not new as was the case in the new deal regime under Levy Mwanawasa.

“People should not just look at the current but the future benefits of what was to come.”

He said the country had regained international credibility from institutions like the International Monetary Fund which resulted in them giving Zambia a bailout.

Mr Mweetwa Said it was not there to appease people but to do the right thing which would benefit the general populace.

He said the fight against corruption would not have sacred cows and that all those that would be found wanting would be dealt with. Mr Mweetwa also called on critics like Mr John Sangwa to continue pounding on government’s doors on issues so that the country could forge ahead.

By Julia Malunga,

CHIEF Justice Dr Mumba Malila says he will ensure that judges and judicial officers perform their function with dignity and integrity, adding that those who are perpetually underperforming should expect to answer questions before the Judicial Complaints Commission.

And Justice Malila says his wish is to see a Judiciary where all staff is unquestionably properly qualified, competent, committed, ethical and honest.

Giving his inaugural address to adjudicators and support staff virtually, Wednesday, Justice Malila urged the adjudicators to bear with him if he appeared to slightly veer off from the footsteps of his predecessors, saying there was no room for misbehaviour under the guise of exercising judicial independence.

“There is a perception that judicial independence entails that the doings of individual adjudicators cannot be scrutinised without occasioning violence to the much acclaimed independence of those adjudicators. I agree that the judicial independence of individual adjudicators must be respected at all costs.

I urge you honourable adjudicators to boldly assert your own independence and this should be evident in the decisions that you pass. Lack of independent-mindedness and honesty compromises fairness, impartiality and integrity of the adjudicator. Develop a passion for what you do, for only then will you be devoted to it. Lack of dedication to duty goes hand in hand with absence of self- discipline.

Performing judicial functions competently, impartially and independently helps avert the creation of an impression that adjudicators collude with any party to litigation or other interested entities to deliver predetermined outcomes,” he said.

“Yet, there is also a view that impunity and unaccountability may have taken root among our adjudicators owing to what some people view as distant supervision. Please bear with me if I appear to veer off slightly from the footsteps of the eight previous occupants of this office.

I think that under both the Constitution and the Judicial Code of Conduct Act, there is no room for misbehaviour under the guise of exercising judicial independence and failure to perform properly the judicial function which the public has so heavily invested in and consistently voiced out on.

I thus intend to carry out actively and passionately, the responsibility entrusted in me as Chief Justice under Article 136 of the Constitution to ensure that judges and judicial officers perform the judicial function with dignity, propriety and integrity; that they perform their responsibility without fear, favour or bias. I urge all adjudicators to take heed.”

And Justice Malila said adjudicators with pending disciplinary proceedings would be expeditiously afforded an opportunity to clear their names.

“Those with pending disciplinary proceedings will be expeditiously afforded the opportunity to clear their names. In the same vein those who are perpetually underperforming or otherwise failing to deliver or to discharge their responsibility competently, diligently and with integrity can expect to answer questions before the Judicial Complaints Commission.

Curbing delays in the delivery of judgments may necessitate reforming our rules in order that the prescription of deadlines for hearing and delivering of quality judgments is also aligned to the Judicial Code of Conduct so that delinquent adjudicators are made to account.

Additionally a performance appraisal system based on the returns and the qualitative presentation of adjudicators’ work will be introduced so that adjudicators consistently performing badly do not escape the notice of supervising officers,” he said.

The Chief Justice noted that the Judiciary had lately been under massive and unremitting criticism from members of the public due to the manner in which some courts handled matters of immense public interest.

“Our justice system is today in substantial discredit for fairly fathomable reasons. And it is no secret that lately the Judiciary has been under massive and unremitting criticism from members of the public.

Very critical comments about the manner in which our courts, well some of them, have handled matters of immense public interest, especially those which implicate democratic governance and the rule of law, have been repeatedly ventilated publicly.

Pockets of the Zambian society, including our politicians, civil society organisations, lawyers, clergymen, litigants and accused persons, have not concealed their shrinking faith in the Zambian Judiciary as a sanctuary for the vindication of those principles which are prized in any true democracy namely, truth, justice, fair play and equality before the law.

Rightly or wrongly some members of the public have accused the judiciary of failing the Zambian people in its role of impartial adjudication and resolute constitutional guardianship; that the Judiciary has in some instances been complicit in undermining the rule of law and entrenching a culture of impunity,” he said.

“Times without number we have heard accusations that our Judiciary suffers political manipulation and compromise; that some judgments are motivated by considerations that are inconsistent with the judicial oath of office.

Other public criticisms against us, our decisions and processes, include our apparent lack of pace as manifested in sluggish or slow justice. Delays in the delivery of judgments and rulings and the long adjournments of cases have particularly infuriated litigants.

Declining standards of adjudication, inefficient registries, primordial courtroom facilities and procedures, substandard judgments which occasionally lack in clarity and are poorly articulated; the indiscreet use of authorities and the evident failure, in some cases, to keep on top of developments in the law, have in their own way provoked a degree of discomfiture amongst stakeholders.

And whether these allegations are founded or not is neither here nor there. The point is that much of what has happened over the years to dampen public confidence in the Zambian Judiciary is attributable to these very allegations.”

Justice Malila said his vision as Chief Justice is that of a transformed Judiciary that will reclaim public trust and confidence.

“And so the vision I have of the Judiciary under my charge as Chief Justice is that of a transformed institution that will reclaim public trust and confidence; an institution that is truly a co-equal to the other arms of government, consolidated in its independence, especially financial independence; an establishment that will prime the fair administration of justice for all anchored on the core values of impartiality, independence, accountability, ethical and professional practices, fair procedures and respect for human rights; a judiciary that society will identify with as a dependable ally in vindicating their rights and promoting the rule of law.

My wish, dear colleagues, is to see a Judiciary where all staff (adjudicators and support staff alike) is unquestionably properly qualified, competent, committed, ethical and honest; where they reflect on their performance and invest in their own professional development with the Judiciary affording them the scope and opportunities for this.

A qualified and competent adjudicator is oftentimes confident and independent too,” said Justice Malila.-News Diggers

President Hakainde Hichilema Embraces PF Plan To Run A 24 Hour Economy

“……………As we intend to run a 24-hour economy, security must be strong……….this will soon be a reality…..”

For Zambia to develop, it is important that those in power do not discard anything idea made by the previous administration, our team of Analysts are pleased to note that President Hakainde Hichilema, is picking up some positive intents such as running a 24-hour economy, a feature advanced by the Patriotic Front.

The Head of State made this reference when he officiated at the graduation ceremony of 1, 297 Paramilitary officers who underwent training at Sondela in Kafue, Lusaka.

During his address to the graduates, President Hichilema emphasised the need to protect life and property and also that time for citizens to be running away from officers is long gone.

“We want law and order in our country because without this, no meaningful development would be attained. It is a known fact that there is a direct connection between security and economic development. As we intend to run a 24-hour economy, security must be strong. Working together with our security wings, this will soon be a reality” he said.

Analysis

Another positive our Team of Analysts has picked out from Mr Hichilema, today is the cost-saving measure he has exhibited while carrying out his duties.

He officiated at two different pass out parades, first, he has attended the pass out of 290 Zambia National Service Cadets in Kafue. He later moved to officiate the pass out parade of 1,297 paramilitary officers still in the Kafue District.

Previously, such Presidential duties would have been done on two different dates each requiring specific details, budgets and a heavy convoy but not for “Mr. Fix it”, he has killed two birds using one stone, well done Mr. Hichilema.

Having said that, we are excited to see that Mr. Hichilema has not thrown out the 24 hour economy, which the PF had planned to implement had they won the 12th August, 2021 general election. This plan resonates with the UPND economic transformation agenda. In order to transform the economy, the wheels of commerce must keep rolling.

President Hichilema and his administration will have it easy because some groundwork was led by the PF, talk off of the digital national command centre, situated at Sikanze Camp, the centre almost complete will enable security personnel monitor on real-time, whatever activities are happening in the City, this will aid the transformation of the local economy. Our men and women in uniform will police smartly and be efficient in their duties.

The Speech Analyst

23.12.2021

The UPND Begins To Enforce What The PF Failed To Do

…….Vendors know that it is illegal to trade from the streets but the vendors have the backing of politicians who ignore their illegality because they want votes from the vendors………

UPND Deputy National Youth and Sports Chairman Kenny Ng’ona has welcomed the removal of vendors from trading in the streets saying street vending is illegality under the laws of Zambia.

Mr Ng’ona said that the removal of street vendors from the streets is timely as it has been long overdue.

He added that everyone should trade from designated areas of trading such as markets adding that those in markets are happy with the removal of vendors in the streets.

“In as much as we respect those that survive through vending. We ought to consider the fact that street vending is illegal under the laws of Zambia. This, therefore, means that there is no law whatsoever that backs Zambians in trading from the streets across the entire nation” he said.

According to Mr Ng’ona, both those in the markets and shop owners have been complaining of poor business because customers end up buying from the streets and never enter markets or shops.

“The removal of vendors from the streets of Lusaka and elsewhere is a welcome move. Thanks to Minister Hon Garry Nkombo for taking action. It was done in Kitwe and it can be done across the nation, vendors should just adhere to that which is legal and do the right thing by following directives which the ministry has set” he added.

The UPND member of the management committee explained that it should be noted also that those trading in markets across the nation is more in number than those that do street vending in selected towns in the country.

“Those in markets and those with shops are now happy, the vendors can go and find spaces in markets or can do their vending at markets. We as Zambians should be a citizenry that follows the laws of the land. Let the vendors follow the law by trading from areas they will be allocated for trading. The new dawn government shall endeavour to do the right things at all times” he stated.

Analysis

Our informal sector is one of the largest employers where jobless Zambians are earning a decent living amidst the harsh economic environment.

Since 2011, the government has failed to find a solution to street vending, when the PF formed government, Professor Nkandu Luo, as Local Government Minister then embarked on a campaign to remove vendors, but then and now late President Michael Sata objected to the removal of vendors without finding an alternative to the hundreds of vendors.

Fast forward to 2021, we are back to the drawing board chasing after vendors from the streets. Political willingness is key to finding a lasting solution to the problem of uncontrollable vending in the city. Without political willingness the vendors will be back the moment, they are removed from the streets.

Having said that, we know that this issue will be politicized for obvious reasons, and we cannot blame anyone for doing so because they have reasons, one of which is the vendors have families to take care of plus other bills. However, the vendors know for a fact that what they are doing, is illegality but the vice is aided by lack of political will to bring it to a complete end and failure by local authorities to ensure there is NO Vending.

We wish the UPND all the best of luck in their quest to clean the Capital City by removing the vendors and we hope local authorities will see to it that street vendors do not return to the streets.

The Speech Analyst

23.12.2021

Association of Vendors, Traders and Marketeers of Zambia (AVETMZ) has warned the government against agitating the hundreds of street vendors across the country by removing them from the streets without dialogue or providing proper alternative trading spaces in available markets.

Association General Secretary Musonda Mushota says it is contradictory of government to first hike fuel prices leading to an escalated cost of living and then tempering with peoples source of income abruptly by removing them from the street when there are no available trading spaces in markets.

Mr. Mushota is urging Local Government Minister Garry Nkombo not to declare a one-man war on the informal sector but rather engage stakeholders to find a proper solution including designating some streets for regulated vending.

He was reacting to Mr. Nkombo’s directive yesterday to all street vendors to vacate the Lusaka Central Business District.

And Association president Fredrick Tembo is urging President Hakainde Hichilema to intervene in the matter and this process halted for Lusaka, Kitwe, Ndola and Livingstone until new markets are complete to accommodate all the traders.

Mr. Tembo says there is also a need for a quick meeting between local authorities, the Ministry of Local Government and market associations to find a lasting solution to this matter as opposed to forcing matters while the economy continues to negatively affect street vendors.

Mr Tembo said that his association has strongly opposed the wholesale removal of street vendors in major cities such as Lusaka and that the removal of vendors from streets by the Government should be done gradually, adding that asking all vendors must leave the streets will have a negative impact on his members.

He said AVETMZ was aware that currently, Zambia does not have the adequate market infrastructure to accommodate everyone operating in the streets.

“As the Association of Vendors, Traders and Marketeers of Zambia we want to argue what the Honourable Minister of Local Government Garry Nkombo has said over the removal of street vendors. I think as at now if we look at the status of the economy, it is biting and people are complaining so if we are going to take that hard step that street vendors should be removed from the streets then we are going to add salt, I can rest assure you that there will be dust,” he said.

“Quiet ok we appreciate the Government’s efforts as at present they are constructing massive modern markets but the truth of the matter is that those markets should be completed. It is very important that the minister calls for a national indaba, we have a very big meeting with us, the union, the people who speak on behalf of these people. It is very important that they engage us; we gave them ideas to say Mr. Minister and your Ministry we can be moving vendors into markets in phases,” Mr. Tembo said.

“As we are talking right now, my brothers, my mothers, and my sisters who are on the streets are surviving from those K2s they are getting on a daily basis but if we are going to take a position to remove them, we are going to create what we call social problems. We will be experiencing increased prostitution, stealing and other illicit activities because of the decision to remove vendors from streets,” Mr. Tembo said.

“We are in the rainy season, and you all know that in the rainy season every individual complains about the status of living. My humble appeal even to the President of the Republic of Zambia, Mr. Hakainde Hichilema please let this thing be rested first. Let us call for a meeting, a proper one. Let the council come on board, the market associations and the Government. We sit down and plan,” he said.

21st December, 2021

His Excellency President Hakainde Hichilema
State House
Independence Avenue
Lusaka.

Your Excellency,

Greetings and compliments of the season.
I have decided to write you after a great deal of thought and dismay regarding some campaign promises you personally made and what has followed now that you are occupying the office of presidency after the 12th August, 2021, general elections.
(i)Freedom of Expression.

On many occasions while you were in the opposition and fell victim to the injustices frequently perpetrated against you by the PF government, you promised the Zambian people that when elected as president you shall guarantee all citizens freedom of expression as provided by the constitution which you later swore to uphold and respect.

One of the most obnoxious provisions in this area is the provision in the Penal Code which provides for the criminal defamation of the president. This archaic provision which has its roots in our colonial past to protect the British monarchy and not the British prime minister is not consonant with the tenets of the rule of law which you have continued to proclaim and the fundamental right of citizens to express themselves against the wrongs you are likely to commit or omit to do as head of state. This provision as you may know does not exist in the statute books of the United States of America.

I, therefore, wish to say this to you, that if you are truly a democrat as you claim to be, you should promptly have this provision removed as you are neither a monarch nor a saint but a mere mortal of flesh and blood who should be subject to criticism by our citizens without hiding under the protection of the realm of criminal defamation.
(ii)Rights of Suspects.

Our criminal justice system is anchored on the principle that a person is presumed innocent until proven guilty by an impartial tribunal established by law. Such a tribunal is represented by our courts of law.

Again as a reminder to you, you cried foul about the number of times when you and other UPND members were arrested while you were in the opposition without the police and other investigating agencies observing the due process of law. Again as president, you publicly proclaimed to this nation that the police shall not detain or keep in custody any person or suspect unless and until they have fully investigated the alleged offence committed by such a person.

However, what the nation has seen in the recent past is the complete opposite. We have witnessed the rights of politicians picked up as suspects being violated with gross impunity under your watch. We have seen suspects of bondable offenses remain in police custody for days for no good or justifiable reasons. If the police is defying your good intentions and instructions, why have you not taken actions or come out to publicly condemn these transgressions by the police? Your loud silence as president and commander –in-chief is beginning to translate into tacit acquiescence of such open injustices.

(iii)Political Cadre violence
It was overly mischievous and embarrassing for your party spokesperson during the Sunday interview edition on 19th December, 2021, to make a statement that the acts of violence perpetrated by UPND cadres at the radio station in Mpika recently and chelstone police station last week were isolated incidents. Where was the man when on more than one occasion you stated publicly that political cadre violence would have no place in Zambia under your government? I hope you realise that even the acts of violence we saw under PF started with what Zambians thought were an exception and not the norm as it later turned out to be. Since these incidents are to be treated as exceptions, please tell the nation when the citizens of this country should start counting and consider acts of political party violence by your cadres as systemic and a part of the UPND political culture which would necessitate your intervention as President as you promised the people.

Your Excellency, in the words of Thomas Hardy, “Character is fate,’’……..that our lives are determined in large part by our own attitudes and actions.’’

Yours faithfully,

Wynter M. Kabimba, SC, ODS.
General Secretary

Who will win Kabwata bye-election?

The Kabwata Parliamentary bye-election scheduled for 20th January 2022 is already causing a lot of excitement especially from the opposition ranks. But is it possible to try and predict the outcome of what is likely to be a highly contested poll? Here are some issues that may affect this bye-election;

1. Incumbency
By-elections tend to favour the ruling party for various reasons such as campaign resources and voters’ view that the outcome wouldn’t cause meaningful change and so voters opting to give the ruling party the benefit of the doubt. Although UPND is unlikely to abuse incumbency to the extent that PF did, they are still likely to benefit.

2. Stronghold
Whose stronghold is Kabwata between PF and UPND? PF held the seat for 15 years and UPND for 5 years before PF with the same MP Given Lubinda (under both parties) . Both parties have viable structures and presence in the constituency. Given this, it would be difficult to tell whose turf the constituency is. But we have to consider the fact that PF lost the seat by 28, 000. This is a huge flip looking at the fact that they previously held the seat. This shows that the former ruling party is much weakened in the constituency. This is more so that the UPND won the constituency with apparently very little effort and was virtually invisible (even SP was more visible than UPND).

3. The issues
For this to work for the opposition, the voters must really be feed up and bent on sending a message to the ruling party. In short, there must be general discontent. But there are really not many issues at this stage save the recent increase in fuel prices (and probably local govt minister Nkombo’s eyebrow raising stirring of the bees who are the street vendors). The extent to which the increase in fuel prices will effect the poll will depend on how wide-spread the price escalation will be by the time of the polls. So far this has only translated into a maximum of K2. 50 increase in bus fares. Also to what extent, in the voters’ view, is this increase mitigated by other New Dawn ‘positives’ such as 2022 budget, appreciation of the Kwacha, end of cadrerism, etc. Especially considering that its barely 130 days in a 5 year mandate.

4. Sympathy vote
Human nature dictates that the sympathy vote is likely to have a significant impact on the election. On this score, voters may allow the UPND to ‘replace’ Levy Mkandawire (MHSRIP) so that it continues with its programs for the constituency.

5. Vote splitting
It would appear that the race for Kabwata is between UPND and PF. However, should the other parties, DP, EEP, PeP, have some impact, they are likely to split votes from the PF. This conclusion is based on the fact that those likely to vote against the UPND are mostly those who voted against it in August this year. At this stage, it’s highly unlikely that most voters would have changed their minds.

6. Voter apathy
Voter apathy is likely to occur because, again, there isnt much to vote for in a bye-election. But this is likely to affect both sides in almost equal proportion.

7. The candidates
General elections are highly influenced by the presidential candidates. However, in a bye-election, this influence can be mitigated especially if there is a very strong candidate. I. e. strong party weak candidate and vice versa.

But as they say ‘anything is possible in politics’. Let us wait and see. See less

Comments
Enock Mwila
Memories of the brutal PF regime are fresh lawlessness, violence, intimidation, corruption, insults, police brutality, tribalism
· Reply · 2h
Francis Mukuka
Once children report to school without fee on January 10, it will be difficult to challenge upnd
· Reply ·

By Pamela Bwembya

WHY I THINK SEAN TEMBO IS A BIG LIAR

Sean Enoch Tembo was among the many Zambians that stood as a presidential candidate for PEP in our last general elections. The party emerged without a single seat in parliament, and not even a councilor at local government level.

Most political parties field their best members for the positions of member of parliament. This is important because MPs must sell themselves well to the constituents they seek to represent. I believe PEP identified men and women exhibiting good leadership skills and fielded them as members of parliament in the last elections. The duplicated article No. 1 of PART IV of the ill-formed PEP manifesto reads, “It is worth noting that with the exception of the Party President and Party Vice President, no other Party official will be a member of a PeP Government Cabinet. This will ensure that the governance of the country is separated from the politics.” According to the PEP manifesto, the elected MPs would not be the ones to be appointed to form the national cabinet.

The above statement is certainly in line with the aspirations of the Zambian people. Unfortunately, this would have only been possible if, from inception, Sean Tembo’s PEP pursued a national constitution review process for the sole purpose of legitimizing selection of his cabinet from outside parliament. It seems Sean is not aware that a lot of Acts of Parliament that guide operations of ministries and statutory bodies require the presence of a minister for them to serve their purpose. That is precisely why functions of the president are diluted during elections in the absence of ministers.

As an example, The Energy Regulation Board Act No.12 of 2019 has executive powers vested in the minister responsible for Energy. In the case of PEP, that would have been the proposed but nonoperational Ministry for Mines, Energy, Water and Environmental Affairs. The ERB Act deposits the power to prescribe a lot of activities in the minister through issuance of statutory instruments. While the board makes recommendations of necessary policy changes, the policy changes can only be made by the minister. The implication of this dilemma is that Sean Tembo would have had no vehicle to change anything under his arrangement in the absence of a constitution amendment.

Not even the policies governing the mining, local government, agriculture, tourism, or education would be changed in the absence of ministers. The constitution amendment was going to be the priority of PEP while the country struggled with its financial challenges. Changes to the current constitution requires publication of proposed bills in the government gazette for thirty days, and passing the constitution amendment Bill by at least two thirds of the members of parliament at the second and third reading stages of the parliamentary process. Implied in PEP’s attempt to overhaul the current constitution are prerequisite processes such as the sensitization necessary to gain consensus from Zambian citizens. The sensitization require lots of public debate and would possibly fail to take off without the existence of a cabinet and ministers to sanction them through executive decisions.

Just like the UPND were confronted with shocking revelations, a PEP government would have been greeted by shocking revelations of the extent of damage caused by the former PF government to our economy. The new party would have automatically inherited compromised institutions. PEP’s fight against corruption as stated in their manifesto would experience an interesting hurdle. Although heads of state institutions are currently appointed by the president and ratified by parliament. A number of them fall under individual ministries with Ministers at the top. Ministries, led by permanent secretaries implement government policy, but the policies are formulated by the executive and operationalized through statutory instruments issued by ministers. Under PEP, the ministries would have waited for the uncertain change of the constitution to drastically change the current system into what is proposed in the PEP manifesto.

The country would run for a very long time without a minister of finance until a successful change of the constitution. All this would be happening at the expense of resolving a ballooning debt burden through unpaid interest.

PEP promised through its manifesto to sell ZESCO, ZAMTEL, ZCCM-IH and all for-profit state owned enterprises, and disbanding IDC. All this was obviously ONLY going to be possible after a successful amendment of the current constitution.

Had Sean Tembo and his PEP managed to turn their zeroes into votes to make them instant heroes, they would have been faced with two choices; to keep the promises proposed in the PEP manifesto to the letter or to break the promises by appearing to LIE to the electorate by first continuing with the existing constitution until it was possible to amend the constitution for the implementation of the changes proposed in their manifesto. If we assumed Sean Tembo’s PEP had the 2.8 million votes that went to the ruling UPND this is what would have possibly happened.

1. STICK TO THE PROMISES
   The PEP government would have no choice but to prioritize the amendment of the current constitution to one that would allow for the appointment of ministers from outside parliament as proposed by the PEP manifestos. Part V of the PEP manifesto proposed an immediate replacement of all parastatal heads in government owned institutions, and permanent secretaries in all ministries. The manifesto further promised the abolishment of IDC, a body that owes its existence to the minister of finance under CAP 349. Permanent Secretaries with the help of Sean and his Vice President would paradoxically direct government activities in the absence of a cabinet to give the necessary policy direction until the constitution was amended.
2. BREAK THE PROMISES
   This approach would require the obvious continuation of the current constitution and maintain the current government structure with reorganization of ministries into the suggest 16 ministries as suggested by the PEP manifesto. This would require quickly appointing ministers and a cabinet to address important national challenges such as underperformance by poorly funded ministries and mobilization of resources to get the country to quickly and efficiently sort out its domestic and foreign debts. The challenge with this approach is that Sean Tembo would automatically qualify to be called a LIAR be causes it goes against the duplicated item No. 1 under PART IV of the PEP manifesto.

CONCLUSION

While most of us believe Sean Tembo is academically sharp, I personally fail to appreciate his ability to see things in their correct light. I believe Sean Tembo must keep quiet over accusations of apparent lies in the UPND process of driving towards the party manifesto’s objectives. It is evident that even PEP objectives, as contained in the party manifesto, are impossible to fulfill without first adopting existing structures and the current constitution that underpins them. Sean Tembo’s incessant attacks on measures taken by the current government to ultimately achieve its promised objectives over time are misplaced because no party can outrightly change existing structures or policies without falling back on existing models. Assuming Sean Tembo would NOT LIE to the people of Zambia is baseless because the PEP manifesto cannot be implemented without long processes of changing the current constitution. The assumption that the required two thirds majority to achieve such a change is as naïve as Sean Tembo himself.

PB …always in national interest.

*STATEMENT BY PATRIOTIC FRONT ACTING SECRETARY GENERAL HON. NICKSON CHILANGWA –MCC*

_Thursday 23rd December 2021_

*LEAVE THE VENDORS ON THE STREET UNTIL YOU PROVIDE A SOLUTION – DECISION BY UPND GOVERNMENT TO UNCEREMONIOUSLY EJECT VENDORS FROM THE STREETS*

The Patriotic Front is greatly disturbed by the decision by the UPND government to unceremoniously remove our street vending mothers, fathers, brothers and sisters from the streets.

President Hakainde Hichilema and his promise breaking administration are now showing their true insensitive colours. The elitist UPND gave fake promises to the poor masses just to win the vote of vendors and the poor masses.

Instead of fulfilling their promise to reduce the price of fuel and electricity, the UPND administration have broken their promise by doing the opposite of what they promised. They have instead removed the fuel and electricity subsidies that cushioned the poor, and hiked fuel prices and electricity tariffs. This has significantly raised the cost of living – particularly for the vendors and masses of our people.

And now to add salt to injury, the UPND is bent on taking away the little that is left of the livelihoods of street vendors whose life the UPND has already made harder with the increased cost of living brought on by the Hichilema administration’s decision to remove subsidies.
How does the UPND government expect our people on the street to survive without providing them an alternative?

We demand that the UPND administration leaves the street vendors on the streets until alternative and acceptable alternatives are found for them.

Unlike our capitalist friends in the UPND government, PF remains a pro-poor party.
PF is therefore greatly disturbed by this insensitive UPND injustice and we sympathise with our sisters, mother’s brothers and fathers.

As the Kabwata Constituency By-Election approaches, we note that there are street vendors who either come from Kabwata Constituency or are connected to the constituency in one way or another, and we call upon them and the people of Kabwata to signal their disgust for the many promises UPND have broken in such a short time, by voting PF.

*HON. NICKSON CHILANGWA –MCC.*
*PATRIOTIC FRONT ACTING SECRETARY GENERAL*

Leader of the opposition Patriots for Economic Progress Sean Tembo has condemned what he has termed as harassment of street vendors by the government through a short notice given for them to vacate the Central Business District.

Local Government and Rural Development Minister Garry Nkombo yesterday gave a short notice and ultimatum to street vendors to immediately vacate Cairo road, Chachacha road and Freedom Way and directed the Council to relocate them to designated trading places.

But Mr. Tembo said that the government should have first engaged the representatives of the street vendors before removing them from the streets.

Addressing Journalists at a media briefing, Mr. Tembo said this will increase poverty at household level especially that the prices of commodities have gone up following the adjustment in fuel prices by the Energy Regulations Board.

Meanwhile, Patriotic Front acting Secretary-General Nickson Chilangwa says the party is disturbed with the decision by the UPND government to unceremoniously remove street vendors from the streets.

“President Hakainde Hichilema and his promise breaking administration are now showing their true insensitive colours. The elitist UPND gave fake promises to the poor masses just to win the vote of vendors and the poor masses,”he said.

“Instead of fulfilling their promise to reduce the price of fuel and electricity, the UPND administration have broken their promise by doing the opposite of what they promised. They have instead removed the fuel and electricity subsidies that cushioned the poor, and hiked fuel prices and electricity tariffs. This has significantly raised the cost of living – particularly for the vendors and masses of our people,”.

And now to add salt to injury, he said, the UPND is bent on taking away the little that is left of the livelihoods of street vendors whose life the UPND has already made harder with the increased cost of living brought on by the Hichilema administration’s decision to remove subsidies.

Mr Chilangwa said “How does the UPND government expect our people on the street to survive without providing them an alternative.

In a statement, the SG demanded that the UPND administration leave the street vendors on the streets until alternative and acceptable alternatives are found for them.
“Unlike our capitalist friends in the UPND government, PF remains a pro-poor party.

PF is therefore greatly disturbed by this insensitive UPND injustice and we sympathise with our sisters, mother’s brothers and fathers,”he said.
He said “As the Kabwata Constituency by-election approaches, we note that there are street vendors who either come from Kabwata Constituency or are connected to the constituency in one way or another, and we call upon them and the people of Kabwata to signal their disgust for the many promises UPND have broken in such a short time, by voting for PF.

Patriotic Front (PF) Member of the Central Committee, Kebby Mbewe has described as unfortunate calls by United Party for National Development-UPND youths that his restaurant at the new Choma Bus station be closed.

This follows continued pressure from UPND youths in Choma to remove Mbewe’s business from the new intercity bus station – accusing him of being a cadre that was vulgar against President Hakainde Hichilema in opposition.

But Mbewe has challenged those saying he insulted Hichilema to produce evidence.

“So, for people to start thinking that I was insulting the President in opposition, I think it’s not a right thing to do because I can tell you to say that these are the politics we do and if I insulted the president before, let someone quote the words I used,” Mbewe said.

Mbewe, who says he has been doing business in Choma for 25 years has told Byta FM’s Joe Pandwe that the Southern Provincial capital is what has made him to be who he is today, adding that the bus station belongs to everyone.

“All what is happening is unfortunate, but not for me, if anything, I sustain that restaurant because it does not make money for me but for the people I employed there,” he said.

Mbewe reveals that he employs over 80 people in Choma through his businesses, noting that for the restaurant in question, he followed due process in acquiring it just as any Zambian would following advertisements.

“For your own information, it was my manager who pushed in the application for that restaurant and I did not have any influence in the process,” He said.

Meanwhile, Mbewe says that it is disappointing to see people bent on closing down his businesses in Choma following a recent move by UPND officials where his Debonair’s Pizza was briefly closed for not displaying the Presidential portrait.

“..am a human being and it’s very sad and painful that the brothers and sisters I live with can turn around and destroy the property I invested in without anybody’s money.

“To destroy properties that does not only serve me but the populace of this country and our town Choma, and to allow cadres to take the law in their own hands, to destroy properties of private people who support other political parties, it does not sit well with me,”Mbewe lamented.

He said he will not be bullied to join the UPND as a way of sustaining his businesses.