We are dominated by a cold, cruel, profits addicted, autocratic and psychopathic capitalism
By Azwell Banda,
We are living at a time when the world capitalist system is churning out and is dominated by cold, cruel, profits addicted, autocratic and psychopathic leaders.
As I write this, my mind is saturated with the unadulterated, naked evil bloody violence Benjamin Netanyahu’s Israeli Defence Forces have unleashed in Gaza, West Jerusalem, Lebanon, Iran, Syria and Yemeni – all at once – politically supported, financed and armed by the US and its key Western allies. Coldly, wantonly, and without any restraints, Netanyahu is freely assassinating Iran, Hamas and Hezbollah leaders as he continues his bombing raids in all these countries.
A full land invasion of Lebanon is well under way, by Israel. On Tuesday Iran fired about 180 missiles into Israel in retaliation for Israel’s assassination of Hamas and Hezbollah leaders. We are told “many were intercepted” but not how many hit their targets. Netanyahu says the Iranian missiles did not cause any serious damage but Iran would be punished for the attack. The leaders of the US and Britain swiftly reaffirmed their “ironclad” support for Israel’s right to defend itself, even as they made useless and lukewarm pleas for de-escalation, cease fire and an end to the violent conflicts in the Middle East. Meanwhile, we all know their military, defence and finance sectors are salivating at the continued massive profits the expansion of the war in the Middle East portend for them.
In Sudan, a historic humanitarian catastrophe is unfolding, as more than 10 million internally displaced poor Sudanese try to flee from the ongoing civil war. Hunger and famine threaten to kill millions of people in the ongoing civil war, in Sudan. It is women and children most affected, of course. Harrowing videos of emancipated children in war torn Sudan are making the rounds on the internet. The war in the East of the DRC has displaced many civilians, killed thousands and rages on, unabated. Again, cold, cruel, profits addicted, autocratic and psychopathic military and political leaders callously waste human lives in the DRC.
“Madam Speaker,” proudly intoned Dr Situmbeko Musokotwane, our Minister of Finance and National Planning last Friday the 23rd of September 2024, as he made his 2025 budget address in the National Assembly, “this Government has turned the drought tragedy into a positive force by empowering communities with funds with which to buy food. In other words, communities are being given the opportunity to earn money as they perform works that are important for their areas.”
Of all the 180 paragraphs in Musokotwane’s 2025 budget address, this paragraph best captures the dystopic, thoroughly out of touch, cold and aloof stone deaf attitude of the UPND to the plight of the majority of Zambians today! To think that the miserable small sums of money given to a tiny fraction of the desperate millions of Zambians who are struggling with hunger in exchange for carrying out some manual work for government is proof that the UPND government “has turned the drought tragedy into a positive force by empowering communities with funds with which to buy food” is the most cynical and uninformed view by any UPND government official, about what the majority of Zambians think about the performance of the UPND government over this extremely difficult time, in the lives of the majority of Zambians.
Dr Situmbeko Musokotwane knows very well the ratio of Zambians who can access these “opportunities to earn money as they perform works that are important for their communities” to the total number of Zambians in urgent need of food, but cannot access even these humiliating opportunities. Why did he choose not to publish, in his 2025 budget address, the figures of both the amounts paid to such hungry and desperate Zambians, and how many Zambians are accessing these so-called “opportunities”? In his weird mind, Musokotwane, by not putting figures to these “opportunities” seeks to portray the UPND as a caring government that is at once taking care of hungry Zambians while offering them opportunities to be useful in their communities.
In his usual, boring, flat tone, Musokotwane continued: “Madam (Speaker), early indications are that both the Social Cash Transfer and the Cash for Work are being implemented and communities in the areas affected by the drought have received them well. As we speak now, young men and women engaged in the Cash for Work Programs in Lusaka, for example, are clearing drainages and cleaning streets. No doubt, this will assist in reducing water borne diseases in the coming rainy season. In Mbabala Constituency, young men and women are clearing culverts. In Luola and Ng’unyama Wards of Liuwa Constituency, canals are being cleared.”
We are supposed to believe that “…have received them well” means beneficiary communities are very happy with the Social Cash Transfer and the Cash for Work. Again, no evidence of such “happiness” is proffered: we are merely meant to take Musokotwane’s word for it.
This is the most calculated and hypocritical way of concealing the extreme mass hunger, helplessness and sheer desertion by the UPND government of the more than 10 million Zambians who desperately need food help: paint a picture in the National Assembly of a UPND government on top of the situation and having turned it into a “positive force” for good, in the communities! Which Zambia does Situmbeko Musokotwane inhabit?
“Madam (Speaker), the severe power shortage that the country is going through now is partly a result of our nation’s opposition to what energy experts have been advising us for decades. In warning against over dependence on hydro electrical power the experts have, over decades, advised us to have an energy mix that included non-hydro power sources in order to avoid the risk of the very problem that we are going through now. As a nation, we have not taken heed of this advice because it would result in the cost of electricity being higher since non-hydro power tends to be more expensive. But clearly this opposition has been short sighted because now the loss of power is proving to be more expensive compared to a situation where power was available even at a higher cost than hydro power tariffs. People are struggling in business because either they have no power at all or they are forced to run expensive gen sets,” said Musokotwane in the National Assembly last Friday.
“Madam Speaker, this experience is a clear lesson that the country would have been better off to attract investment in alternative energy sources by implementing cost-reflective tariffs. Even though power would be more expensive than it is now, at least, it would be available and there would be no requirement to run expensive generators. However, this should be done together with a framework that guarantees affordable electricity for households on power consumption within an agreed limit per month.” There is that greed for profits even at the risk of consigning Zambia to pre-colonial days in terms of national coverage of electricity! “It is better to have expensive electricity than to have no electricity at all,” is the gist of the argument advanced for privatising our national electricity policy and provisioning.
Profits, you see, are superior to people, among our dominant, cold, selfish, greedy capitalist politicians in government today. They see in every crisis an opportunity to make money, to make profits in the same way that coffin makers must be very happy with our quite high death rates, including that of babies: coffins these days sell fast! And yet, fuels, electricity, water, housing, education, health, digital communication, transport and many other goods and similar services are “public and universal goods and services” in today’s world: every human being needs then, to be human. And governments all over the world have a duty to make these goods and services accessible to their people, all of them, not a few of them especially by not using fake and shallow “cost-reflective” arguments!
Dr Situmbeko Musokotwane and his UPND friends won elections, and are in government precisely because they promised to reduce the prices of fuels, electricity, rent, food, and so on, not through “cost-reflective” greedy profiteers fake mechanisms! In government, without any shame at all, they are essentially telling the majority of Zambians if they want to have consistent supply of electricity, they must allow the rich to make profits out of their need for electricity. There is something morally sick and quite perverted with this kind of political behaviour: it is impossible to respect such liars and expensively dressed political conmen and women.
“Madam Speaker, the enhanced CDF has proved to be a game changer. It is improving infrastructure, providing employment and income opportunities for many of our citizens especially in rural areas. I, therefore, propose to increase the allocation for CDF to K5.6 billion in 2025 from K4.8 billion in 2024. This will increase the allocation to each constituency to K36.1 million from K30.6 million in 2024. Earlier in my Address, I did indicate that I had some good news regarding feeder roads. The good news is that CDF has increased by K5.5 million per constituency. Of this increased amount, K3.3 million is earmarked for treating feeder roads. This is in view of Government’s realisation that while constituencies have bought road making equipment, they are struggling to raise funds to buy fuel. It is imperative, therefore, that these funds are specifically reserved for this purpose. Constituencies who have not yet bought their equipment are encouraged to collaborate with neighbouring constituencies who have the machinery,” said Musokotwane.
Why not tell us, in figures, how much CDF has thus far been allocated, actually been spent, and what enhanced CDF has so far “bought” for the whole country? Surely this must be easy: trot out the numbers of schools, clinics, bridges, roads, school scholarships, jobs and so on, CDF money has “bought” since the UPND government “enhanced it”. Instead, we get the warning: “Madam (Speaker), a stern warning is appropriate at this stage to officials involved in the administration of CDF, especially those managing councils. In spite of the efforts already made to eliminate red tape and other legal sources of delays, the implementation of CDF projects remains painfully slow. In addition, audit reports have in many cases cited abuse of CDF funds. The vices are totally unacceptable and, therefore, it will not take long before Government takes strong measures against erring officers to bring things in line.”
Rarely, in history, does such budgetary foolery happen to a people who are dying from self-induced hunger because politicians in government too greedy for profits squander staple food reserves. The 2025 budget squeezes money out of Zambia’s hungry and poor people in order to pay government debt, that’s all. It is one of the most remote, useless budgets any government ever produced in the midst of a life and death crisis, such as Zambia is facing, right now.
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James Ngungi
Chihana (Azwell Banda) was the worst UNZASU president of all times