WHAT PF DID TO ZAMBIA IS LIKE SOMEONE WHO GOES TO POO, AND THEN SAY: THE NEXT PERSON WILL COME AND FLUSH

WHAT PF DID TO ZAMBIA IS LIKE SOMEONE WHO GOES TO POO, AND THEN SAY: THE NEXT PERSON WILL COME AND FLUSH-Now, the one who comes to clean the mess never forgets, that’s why HH and the UPND finds it difficult to stop talking about PF because they know how paying back someone’s debt stinks.

Yes, just like in the case of a toilet; when it’s left dirty-finger pointing starts. The one cleaning the mess will always reprimand the one who went there first.

I can never tell anyone what to do with their voters card, but only someone suffering from a disease called, ‘severe ignorance’ would wish PF back into power. Actually, we are clapping for ECL for the infrastructure development, yet it’s HH doing the actual paying/negotiations of payments today.

Most of the projects we saw during PF if not all, were done for the future to come and pay. They used borrowed money and they borrowed carelessly.

One would even wonder, just how we found ourselves in so much debt when we had debt cancellation in 2005.

It is even on record, that after benefitting from Heavily Indebted Poor Countries  (HIPC) debt cancellation in 2005, the Zambian government went on a borrowing spree in the years between 2010 and 2020, borrowing heavily from international financial markets and from non-traditional lenders, including China.  Funds were used to finance several infrastructure projects with unclear returns, or with returns that would only materialise long after the debt matured; but also general government consumption.

For example, over 40% of the USD 750 million 2012 Eurobond was disbursed to ZESCO to finance the Kafue Gorge Lower Power Station project, and to Zambia Railways to support track rehabilitation and the purchase of new rail track materials respectively. The Kafue Gorge project was only commissioned in 2023, a year after the Eurobond matured. And the poor commercial viability of Zambia Railways was already a clear sign that the investment into the company was never going to realise significant returns, let alone pay back the initial financing. As conditions worsened, by November 2020, Zambia became the first African country to default on its debt. For argument sake, this information is available and further explained on the World Bank website.

The above information speaks more about Mwanawasa’s leadership, at the same time questioning the leadership of RB,  Sata and ECL. It also speaks volumes why ECL’s practicing license was suspended by LAZ in 2010.

As debt levels soared in 2015, the government’s response was to stop publishing debt reports or mentioning the overall debt levels in their speeches and official documents. Some numbers were provided, but they were never aggregated. It was left to the reader to solve the puzzle.  Annual debt reports were last made public on the Ministry of Finance website in 2012, and since then, no quarterly debt reports have been published. Since 2012, the only published debt numbers have been found in government speeches and other economic reports. That’s according to the World Bank’s report of, 2017. The PF Government, was in fact actively limiting public disclosures on public debt.

Otherwise, until 2023, Zambia did not have a law that provided for citizens’ rights to access public information, making it very difficult to request data from government when this was not proactively made available. This made PF government borrow money secretly, as the law even further permitted the Minister of finance to borrow without parliament’s approval.

Today there’s is transparency, all financial reports you can find them on the Ministry of Finance page or website.

Otherwise, I doubt if PF even knew how much they had borrowed when they were leaving power. Nonetheless, I also sense misappropriation of funds as a result of a number of elections in between 2010 and 2020-the period measured by World Bank. Loans were carelessly contracted.

Anyway, I guess you now know where the high cost of living is is coming from? Most of our money in the budget, goes towards paying debt (debt servicing).

To date, Zambia’s debt to China alone is estimated to be $2.6 billion. Making China, Zambia’s biggest creditor, accounting for 14% of the country’s total external debt.

Let me briefly, show you some of the projects during PF and their funding;

1. The $360million loan from the Exim Bank of China for the Construction (modernization) of Kenneth  Kaunda International Airport. This project, the Zambian government only contributed about $25 million and it was constructed by China Jiangxi International. This loan was signed in September 2014, it had a grace period of 7 years. The principal payments worth $110 million were due in 2020 but we defaulted.

2. In 2016, the Ministry of Home Affairs entered into a contract with Mikalile for the supply and delivery of police uniforms and equipment at a contract sum of $59.9million. Following the non-availability of funds, the Ministry of Finance further signed a Supplier Credit Agreement with Mikalile Trading Company Limited of Hong Kong. That’s on record, in the Auditor General’s report.

3. The Auditor General’s report on Zambia’s external debt stock  for the financial years ended  December 31, 2006 to 2022 revealed that in October 27, 2017, the Ministry of Education signed a contract of worth US$401.8million with Mikalile Trading Company  for the supply and installation of school materials and equipment. Another source is Bloomberg, identifying Mikalile’s company as Mikalile Trading Company LTD of Hong Kong. This loan was due in December 2021, but the government defaulted as Mikalile had pending issues with ACC; citing that the contract was overpriced by US$59.8million.

4. In 2021, PF Government had gone back to Stephen Mulenga Mikalile; through his company, Mikalile Trading and borrowed $300million. This loan was confirmed by the 2021 Ministry of Finance report, as part of the country’s foreign debt: meant to finance projects.

These are just 2 examples of the many foreign lending institutions Zambia borrowed from. The payment of this debt is underway as on the other hand-debt restructuring deal is at 94% and almost concluding. This, if concluded; would make Zambia an attractive investment destination. And as it stands, the way the current government is treating debt, we might end up having our debt cancelled.

This is my prayer for Zambia.
May God see us through as a nation, as we go towards elections, may he open our eyes to see; to help us, make an informed decision even before August 2026. May we not allow to be taken for granted again. We know that others are gifted in talking despite leaving us in so much debt; father we know that they’re good actors, I pray that may we not fall for their lies

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