THESE MINING DEALS ARE A BETRAYAL…they will last only as long as the UPND govt lasts, warns Ng’uni

THESE MINING DEALS ARE A BETRAYAL
…they will last only as long as the UPND government lasts, warns Ng’uni

By Margaret Malenga

FORMER deputy finance minister Newton Ng’uni says IMF managing director Kristalina Georgieva has turned Zambia into a bad case study of “how not to negotiate deals with creditors”.

He also says “all these deals being made in the mining sector are a betrayal of our national interest and they are simply setting up foundations for their future reversal. Even those investors agreeing to enter into such deals must know that the future of such investment is impaired. They will last only as long as the UPND government lasts”.

Ng’uni highlighted Georgieva’s advice to Ghanaian President Nana Akufo-Addo to keep national interests in mind when negotiating deals with creditors and avoid being arm-twisted like what was done to Zambia.

“Is this not betrayal? The IMF has been touting Zambia as a good example of frugal managers of national debt and debt restructuring icons. But the IMF MD statement in Ghana means only three things; Zambian negotiators did not take into account national interest when dealing with bondholders hence the bad results of those negotiations, Zambia is incapable of resisting arm-twisting by international creditors and Zambia has reached bad agreement with bondholders, and she blames the country for such bad deals (the type that Ghana must avoid at all costs),” Ng’uni wrote in a Facebook post. “But how can this be when we have hired best international transaction advisors to lead our negotiations with creditors, including private bondholders and other commercial lenders? So our money has been wasted?”

He called on Zambian leaders to learn to listen to the nationals on matters of national importance.

“You lose nothing and you have everything to gain. The IMF MD knew all along that our debt-restructuring efforts lacked the most important ingredient, defence of our national interest. We have just been obsessed with reaching agreement without regard to consequences, simply to show that we are better than those who contracted the debt in the first place!” he said.

Ng’un called for a reversal of the current trends within the mining industry before it reaches a critical point.

“Everything being done in that sector is devoid of defence of national interest. The Mopani, KCM and Kansanshi Mine deals are all devoid of care for the future of this nation, care for the needs of our future generations. We don’t need the IMF and the World Bank to use us again as a case study of bad investment negotiators,” he said. “All these deals being made in the mining sector are a betrayal of our national interest and they are simply setting up foundations for their future reversal. Even those investors agreeing to enter into such deals must know that the future of such investment is impaired. They will last only as long as the UPND government lasts.”