President Hichilema has Failed Public Service Workers
Amb. Emmanuel Mwamba Wrote;
In 2021 it was recognised as a deep crisis crippling public service workers, causing su!cides, divorces, desertion and alcohol addiction.
Many public workers face severe salary deductions—often leaving them with negative or minimal take-home pay—due to high-interest znd predatory loans from microfinance institutions and multiple off-payroll borrowing.
Debt Swap as a Solution
An intiative, the civil servant debt swap was designed as a government-backed financial restructuring initiative designed to rescue public workers trapped in predatory microfinance loans.
It involved transferring salary-backed loans from commercial creditors to a central government scheme to offer workers more affordable repayment terms.
President Hichilema immediately abolished the initiative and abandoned the public service workers to the throes of crippling debt.
Similarly he punished small and medium enterpises, contractors and suppliers by refusing tobpay or dismantle the debt owwd to them. The local debt now stands at K252 billion ($13billion) from K178 billion in 2021.
Public procurement accounts for an estimated 10% of Zambia’s GDP and typically consumes the largest portion of discretionary government funds.
For example within the K253.1 billion of the 2026 National Budget, Government earmarked upto $3billion for procurement of Goods and Services.
This money largely goes to foreign entities or foreign- owned companies supplying large-scale procurements such as fertiliser and fuel.
Such a large a sum is never used to empower Zambians…Aliko Dangote confesses that his business and wealth was largely created from government contracts as Nigeria was deliberately granting and supporting local businesses with government-backed contracts to supply rice, fuel and fertilisers.
But President Hichilema has refused to hlep.public service workers, has failed to help businesses and has NOT restructured or resolved the domestic debt while prioritising resolving the foreign debt.