Zambia’s Poor Foreign Policy Decsions Chocking the Zambian Economy
Amb. Emmanuel Mwamba wrote;
I know the issue of Foreign Policy is a matter for the Chief Diplomat, the Head of State.
But his key Ministers on this matter; Minister of Foreign Affairs, Hon.Mulambo Haimbe, Minister of Finance and National Planning, Dr. Situmbeko Musokotwane and Minister of Commerce, Trade and Industry, Chipoka Mulenga and their teams are failing the country lamentably.
Look at this;
● Zimbabwe; Zimbabwe has imposed a $21,500 transit fee per truck. This is against trade protocal and amounts to imposition of trade and non-trade barriers contrary to COMESA and SADC trade protocals. So far we have not seen an aggressive engagement with Zimbabwean authorities or with SADC or COMESA to ensure that Zimbabwe lifts these illegal transit fees.
Even the seemingly simple issue of surrendering and extraditing Petauke Central Independent MP, Emmanuel Jay Banda from Harare to Lusaka, was thwarted and caught up in these knots affecting the Foreign policy.
● Mozambique; Hundreds of Fuel tankers and trucks stranded in Beira and Nakala. Zambia was registering a large number of voters to participate in the Mozambican general election.
Even when we raised concerns, the Zambian authorities did not bother or demonstrate that the country hosts such a large number of Mozambicans in Zambia.
Today the outcome of that election has brought chaos and civil unrest in Mozambique.and has disrupted trade, rail and road transport.
There are hundreds of trucks carrying Zambian fuel caught up in this post-electoral conflict and instability currently occuring in Mozambique.
We have not seen Zambia push for quick resolution of this conflict or demand for an emergency and extraordinary SADC meetings to bring the belligerents together.
To overcome the power crisis that Zambia has faced as a result of the 2023 drought, ZESCO signed an agreement with Mozambique’s state-owned energy firm, Mozambique Electricity (EDM), to import 300 megawatts.
This has also been affected by the civil unrest and tensions taling place in Mozambique
● DRC; the perennial crisis at Kasumbalesa is back with over 1,500 trucks stranded. There is never a good explanation for this frequent crisis.
But there are issues.
Zambia collected an advance of $15million on the export of $50m worth of maize to the country.
Minister of Defence, Ambrose Lwiji Lufuma informed the nation that Government had received the upfront payment. This was in addition to the ZNS and murky importation of tonnes and tonnes of GMO mealie-meal imported from South Africa by Zambia and destined to the DRC.
These multi-million dollar transactions were suspicious.
● Tanzania; Protests at Tunduma Border in Tanzania that has seen another set of large numbers of fuel tankers destined to Zambia stranded.
In June 2024, Tanzania had also signed a contract to supply and deliver 650,000 tons of maize to Zambia.
But Tanzania has suspended the maize exports to Zambia due to non-payment issues, with the Tanzanian National Food Reserve Agency citing Zambia’s failure to fulfill contractual obligations regarding payment for previously supplied maize.
FRA has failed to submit letters of credit and has delayed in implementing new payment proposals. National Food Reserve Agency, has notified Zambia of the suspension of maize exports until outstanding payments are settled in full!
Zambia is a land-locked country, and the issues affecting borders, mivement of goods and services and trade must never be compromised as their failure may cause shortages of goods and services in Zambia and therefore spark civil unrest in Zambia.
Strangely, all we are hearing are press reports from the immigration department of Zambia’s escalated mass deportation of DRC, Rwandese, Mozambique and Zimbabwean nationals.
In diplomacy, occurrences are not happenstance!
Let us therefore get to attend to the concerns from the issue of AFRICOM, to sectional trade interest some powerful people in Hichilema’s government have taken in DRC, and Tanzania.