TAKE HEED: LIFE IS GETTING WORSE AND THE FEAR OF POPULAR PROTESTS IS REAL
We have consistently reminded Mr Hakainde Hichilema about the sad reality of the hunger, poverty and despair currently prevailing in the country.
In doing so, we have also warned Mr Hichilema on how the rising cost of living is hurting the citizens and has become a national security issue.
We have said it time and again that the sadness, brokenness and desperation, which the rise in cost of living has brought to our people is heartbreaking, painful and difficult to comprehend and later on articulate in a way that best reflects what is currently happening in our society.
The increase in the cost of living is more than an economic squeeze: it is both a public health emergency and a national security matter with wide- ranging negative impacts if not addressed urgently.
It is in fact the first experience of such sharp and sustained cost of living increases since the 1980s. Prices are sharply rising everyday whilst the earning power remains stuck in a rut.
The cost of living has increased steadily and relentlessly over the past two years and there don’t seem to be quick political fixes our people were promised. No one today is saying “Bally will fix it” – not even Bally himself.
The situation keeps getting desperate and it is spiraling out of control. We have noticed that Mr Hichilema and his corrupt puppet regime is panicking. They are scared about how the people will react to all this. They don’t want anyone to talk about it – hence the attempt to silence key opposition leaders and critics.
They are scared that talking about these issues may spark protests, hence the attempt to silence, intimidate the opposition with all sorts of ridiculous charges and gestapo style policing tactics. But this will not work.
The fact still remains that this uncontrolled daily increase in the cost of living is a time bomb. Therefore, silencing critical voices and capturing critical institutions of governance like the judiciary, parliament and so on and so forth won’t do – it will be an exercise in futility which is bound to backfire. And without opposition or critical voices, the explosion of this time bomb may be uncontrollable.
What we are saying here is nothing new, even the Economic Intelligence Unit (EIU), in its November 2023, political and economic outlook for Zambia has highlighted a dire economic view and warned of popular protests against the regime owing to the rising cost of living.
“An uptick in popular protests is likely,” warned the report in part.
We socialists are patriots who love our country and would not want to defeat Mr Hichilema on the back of national failure. We therefore, urge him to heed our call and that of many others on this important matter, and urgently address the distressing challenges facing our people before it’s too late.
Fred M’membe
President of the Socialist Party
Of course Life is getting worse especially for the staff whose NAPSA you stole.
They can’t even do a partial withdraw because you stole their money. Mr Munyengo Mmembe, do you still have a conscious, sir? You’re the worst enemy of your former employees. You stole their money for you to buy yourself a Hammer and live in luxury.
At the same time you’re mocking them by complaining about the cost of living; are you normal Mr Calumny Mmembe?
Right now, nobody trusts you and just be reminded that you’ll never ever be a President of Zambia. We don’t want a convict to rule our country. Lungu was the first and last convict to rule our country.
Macende bako, Fred Mmembe! Just go to hell and piss yourself off.
With the level of sanity among Zambians nobody is hitting the streets to completely kill the economy as per your wish. Zambians as much as you see them listening to your trash from you and your fellow myopic opposition they very well know how and why we are here both economically and cost of living. And you wish ll never be attained.
Wishful thinking at its best, if are people are not demonstrating in Malawi, Zimbabwe or DRC, what is there to demonstrate for in Zambia where we are many times better off than our neighbors. Don’t incite people for your selfish hidden agenda, we have a listening and responsible government and have already done something on mealie meal and we remain optimistic that we go over our challenges very soon, God is on our side.