HON. Lucky Mabenga Mulusa
SOME 60 YEARS OF LESSONS NOT TO FORGET IN ORDER TO CHANGE OUR NARRATIVE BEYOND THE INDEPENDENCY ANNIVERSARY
As your older generations, we made mistakes. Please do not repeat them. Guard yourselves against them. Here they are:
1. 27 YEARS OF KAUNDA
a. LESSONS THAT SHOULD HAVE BEEN LEARNT: We put ourselves in a position where the donor community dictated state policy. This was made possible by mainly internal factors driven by political interference in the management of the state’s participation in the economy thus leaving our parastatals operating very inefficiently and at 40% capacity by 1989. Change was therefore at the instigation of foreign sources.
2. 10 YEARS OF MMD UNDER CHILUBA
a. LESSONS THAT SHOULD HAVE BEEN LEARNT: Reckless privatization in which a parastatal privatised yesterday got stripped and plant and machinery relocated abroad leaving previously dependable jobs taken away but we went ahead to privatize the next parastatal.
b. The aim of privatization we were told was to increase efficiencies in the economy, grow our industrial base, create employment, reduce poverty and grow human development. Every single day, we reaped the opposite and never cared to change course. Monitoring and evaluation eluded us. Today we are way below the industrial base we once had achieved.
3. 8 YEARS OF LEVY PATRICK MWANAWASA
a. LESSONS THAT WE SHOULD HAVE LEARNT: State capture of the fight against corruption programme by agents engaged to take that noble task. No accountability of assets or funds confiscated, personalization of proceeds and simply blatant abuse of a noble cause. Giving away of state assets in unbeneficial development agreements (KCM), and unnecessary tax incentives that got abused by benefiting investors. Result? Fight against corruption costed more than results accomplished.
4. 3 YEARS OF RB
a. LESSONS THAT SHOULD HAVE BEEN LEARNT: State capture of a seemingly well run administration leading to citizens’ frustration finally leading to an unnecessary regime change despite excellent economic performance indicators.
5. 3 YEARS OF SATA
a. LESSONS THAT SHOULD HAVE BEEN LEARNT: Clear vision to modernize the infrastructure of the country previously done by 1975 meant to make Zambia more competitive in terms of reduction in the cost of production of goods and services through reduced cost of transportation as a percentage component that sat at 60%. Politically instead of economically driven project prioritization in the Link Zambia 8000 thus robbing ourselves of the benefits of the project cross-subsidization from the well thought through programme.
6. 7 YEARS OF ECL
a. LESSONS THAT SHOULD HAVE BEEN LEARNT: Efforts of continuing with Sata’s vision were faced with high tides and relentless efforts for state recapture thus leading to many officials falling prey to the past evils and consequently leading to regime change which citizens now wish to reverse.
7. 3 YEARS OF UPND UNDER HH
a. LESSONS THAT SHOULD BE LEARNT: Lack of prioritization and patriotism in policy formulation coupled with taking advantage of lacunas in the constitution, subsidiary legislated laws and in accompanying policies and procedures for personal enrichment.
b. Lack of respect for legislated planning thus rendering national plans so exercised as mere exercises of compliance.
c. Failure to respect and uphold true separation of power among the three arms of government.
KEY NOTES
1. We need to give hope to our future generations. We need to grant them opportunities of a life that does not reflect personal, family, society and national suffering from child to adulthood if at all, one makes it to that stage.
2. There was a time in Zambia when we had more jobs than the available local candidates to take them up. There were times when graduates had more than one job offer at graduation but today, there are no jobs or opportunities at every exit point of schooling, sometimes, for the entire life of an individual. There is a serious problem of unemployment and juvenile delinquency leading to increased crime levels among many other vices.
3. We have an eight billion global market, a one billion African market, and close to half a billion regional market which we keep on surrendering carelessly to the rest of the global society without ever taking advantage of, when all we need is, simply doing things the right way.
4. Our biggest mistake from government to government has been our overly optimistic view of the state’s carrying capacity and as a result, we overburden the fiscus due to politically, rather than economically motivated developmental initiatives.
5. Some behaviors have been nimbly projecting good character but not influencing systems changes. Brigadier General Miytanda for instances, would ensure that he accounted for all the imprest given but then presided over a government team that did the opposite and some such as Hon. Mpombo, MHSRIP and Hon. Mandandi found themselves on the wrong side of the law for the same deeds the General promoted and practiced. The question is, what did he do to help stem the practice? That is the question. Let us not go into government to take advantage of lacunas in the laws but help at the least sustain, protect and defend the system so found.
6. Just do the right thing and the nation will move in the right direction from the 60th birth year. Nature follows being! Good practices from the lessons learnt will drive our country into the positive phase of where we want to be – the Vision 2030.
HAPPY 60TH INDEPENDENCE DAY CELEBRATION TO ALL MY BELOVED CITIZENS