UPND hits back at Chama’s ‘foolish’ statement on debt restructuring
THE UPND media team has responded to PF national chairman, Davies Chama’s assertion that it is foolish for the UPND government to celebrate the debt restructuring deal because the country will still be required to repay it at a later stage.
In a statement, UPND deputy media director, Cheelo Katambo stated that the reasoning of Chama, a former Minister of Defence under Edgar Lungu’s reign, is that of someone who is choking witb envy, due to the UPND government’s scores.
“We understand Davies Chama and his friends in the Patriotic Front are choking with envy that Zambia is today regarded as an example of prudence both locally and abroad. Was Davies and his friends against debt restructuring? The answer is NO. Actually, they wanted this debt restructured so much that they had to pay a French company Lazard a whooping $5 million to help them restructure,” Katambo stated.
“Did they manage to do so? No, they didn’t. They did not have the capacity to convince the international community that they mean well. Nobody wanted to play ball with them because of their level of crookedness, which had become so known across the world.”
He stated that the UPND finds Chama’s statement very unreasonable, especially that it came from a man whose political party moved the country’s foreign debt mountain from $1.9 billion in 2011 to more than $13 billion in 2021.
According to Katambo, the barbaric behaviour being exhibited by some PF members is only because the UPND has provided too much freedom of speech, to an extent that they have lost all their senses of shame, and think that Zambians are gullible to allow them to be their spokespersons.
He added that Chama has no right to mock the UPND government and the Zambians over the successfully restructured debt, because the PF wanted it as much but could not manage to do so because the lenders saw no seriousness in them.
“In Mr Chama’s wisdom, it is foolish for the UPND to celebrate the debt restructuring of almost half the foreign debt owed using home-grown solutions and negotiations but wise to borrow recklessly. We remember how the PF celebrated and asked the nation to join in celebrating the first $750 million Eurobond, whose proceeds ended in their own pockets,” stated Katambo.
Katambo further stated that from the background of Zambia’s debt, Chama had no right at all to gather Dutch courage, and ill-talk the debt restructuring deal in the media.
By Buumba Mwitumwa
Kalemba