President Hichilema’s greatest achievement
has been on the economy- Laura Miti

Laura Miti writes:

This is an indisputable fact – President Hichilema’s greatest achievement has been on the economy.

Stopping the free fall it was in, and somehow managing to keep Zambia running, is something no one who stood in 2021, or is currently putting their hand up for 2026, would have achieved.

There is a paradox, though.

It is probably harder for a good part of everyday Zambians to get their daily plate of nsima under this government, than it was under President Lungu’s PF.

That is especially true, if one  operates in the informal and semi formal economies in the urban areas.

This is the reason.

Under President Lungu, the government was borrowing like lenders were Santa. Most of that borrowed money was stolen, in the millions of dollars, by leaders and their connected.

The stolen money was then being thrown around, like happens to most money not worked for .

So, if you had a carwash, there were loads of cars for you to wash. If you had a bar, big buyers emptied your fridge, allowing whoever wanted to, to drink themselves motherless.

Builders were rolling in money from people who did not care if cement was stolen.

Houses in Salama area of Lusaka  were in high demand, rented  at  thrice the market rate for connected men’s multiple girlfriends.

Yes, money felt easier to have.

But it was that money that sunk our economy. Had the PF stayed in power, and continued treating public money as though it came from a bottomless pit, we would have crossed over into a combination of Zimbabwe and Somalia.

A collapsed economy in which a few people are super wealthy and violently silence everyone else. Rough would not have begun to describe what life for ordinary citizens would have been.

With all that in mind, observing the absolute delight with which opposition leaders have responded to the riot by illegal miners in Chingola, yesterday, both amuses and disgusts me.

You see, most people in opposition, now, either created the mess we are in, or have absolutely no idea how to sort it out.

Back to this government.

That we have a country that has no idea the smokey engine it complains about could have been knocked, with vehicle on stones, is crazy.

That’s mostly the fault of the incompetent communication function President Hichilema holds on to, but hey. That has been said.

I will end by saying – there is a lot about HH’s presidency to criticise, and most of it is his politics.

Maybe, the people scrambling for State House can suggest they would do better on that count.

The  economy though – banama. Put together – they are not half HH, and his Team, on the economy.