YOUR MINISTER OF FINANCE HAS FAILED-SEAN TEMBO
By Sean Tembo – PeP President
1. The cost of living was very high prior to last years’ general elections, and that’s one of the reasons why Zambians decided to usher in a new administration. The hope among many Zambians was that the new administration will reduce the cost of living to affordable levels.
2. Ever since Bally and his new dawn came into office, the cost of living as measured by the JCTR basic foods basket, has gone up by approximately 37%. This is causing untold misery and anxiety among the Zambian people.
3. What makes many citizens even more worried is the fact that Bally and his administration do not currently have any economic turnaround plan which they are implementing to try and reduce the cost of living. Further, they have not spoken about formulating any such plan. The Government is currently not driving our economy in any direction. The economy is driving itself haphazardly all over the place. It is on autopilot while facing a storm. If left on its current trajectory, the economy will soon crash.
4. We appreciate those who argue that we need to give Bally and his administration enough time. That he has only been in office for 5 months. But our contention is that as a minimum, the new Dawn administration should have conceived an economic turnaround plan by now, and should have been implementing it. Their failure to even conceive a turnaround plan is what is disappointing more than the failure of any such possible plan to achieve its intended objective. The PF had the Zambia-Plus Economic Recovery Plan which they unveiled in 2017. It wasn’t a great turnaround plan, but at least it was a plan. The UPND have nothing.
5. Remember that lives are being lost due to the increasing poverty and squalor, our hospitals still do not have medicines and poor people are being given prescriptions to buy their own medicine. The youths still do not have jobs, and despite some of them completing grade 12, they are not able to go to college or university due to lack of funds. Some of the more fortunate youths who managed to complete their tertiary education are still unable to get jobs and are still languishing at their parents’ homes.
6. Surely, this is an urgent economic crisis which requires urgent intervention by the Government to try and turnaround our economy onto a path of job creation and reduced cost of living. But 5 months along the way, Bally and his team still do not have a plan. Of course even when such a turnaround plan has been conceived, there is no guarantee that it will work, but at least we shall be pursuing some kind of a plan. The lack of a plan has brought hopelessness among the people of this nation. When there is a plan, there is hope.
7. Our sincere advice to the President is that he should consider firing the Minister of Finance and appoint someone who is more vibrant and energetic. Someone who can develop an economic turnaround plan for the country. Or if the President does not want to fire the Minister of Finance due to their long-standing business ties, he should consider transferring him to a less-consequential ministry. For me, l have been opposed to the appointment of Musokotwane as Minister of Finance since day one. He is simply not the right guy for the job.
8. Sooner rather than later, the President will have to choose between his friendship and long-standing business ties to Musokotwane or turning around the Zambian economy so as to create jobs and reduce the cost of living. If he chooses the former, then he needs to be ready to face the wrath of the Zambian people. Indeed, Bally may soon realize the truest meaning of the phrase; “a hungry man is an angry man”.
/// END
SET 16.02.2022