HAKAINDE Hichilema and UPND are worried that the huge external debt of over US $33 billion makes all 18 million Zambians, including babies born today owe foreign lenders about K37,000 each.
UPND national chairman Mutale Nalumango in a statement yesterday said the Patriotic Front government of President Edgar Lungu has borrowed more in six years than UNIP and MMD borrowed in 47 years in power.
She said her party was extremely disappointed by Vice-President Inonge Wina’s recent claims that the PF administration has never received documented advice from anyone on how to fix Zambia’s bleeding economy.
Nalumango said Zambians were fully aware that the economy was in a mess not because the PF administration lacked advice from well-meaning Zambians but because listening seems not to be the PF’s greatest gift.
She said Hichilema was on record advising the PF against reckless borrowing as “this would have future devastating effects on the economy”.
“From the onset, the PF shunned all reasonable advice on how to desist from excessive external public borrowing, claiming that they were within the threshold of their capacity to continue contracting debt,” she noted. “Whenever the UPND raised the red flag, the PF arrogantly dismissed our concerns and accused us and our party president, Mr Hichilema, of being bitter because we were not in government.”
Nalumango said the “choking loans” were borrowed without parliamentary approval, which was a very serious breach of the Zambian Constitution.
She said as a patriotic citizen, Hichilema consistently shared, in writing, through various media platforms, his advice to the Zambian government on how debt contracted on behalf of citizens should be invested in productive sectors to help repay the loans over time.
“For instance, on the issues of the Eurobond, he had advised the PF government against borrowing from private individuals but his advice was ignored. UPND members of parliament have also consistently debated and advised the PF government on the floor of the House while Mrs Wina was listening but probably never took the debates seriously. All parliamentary debates are documented. Today, because our government is openly begging the lenders for deferment of debt repayment, they can now shamelessly turn around and say they never received any documented advice from anyone,” Nalumango stated. “Is this not ridiculous? As the UPND, we cannot claim to have been the only ones who advised this government on how to address the crippling debt. There were several other people and eminent citizens, including former Bank of Zambia governors, ministers of finance and commerce, and presidential economic advisors whose advice on how to handle the debt, nose-diving Kwacha and the economy in general was rubbished.”
Nalumango said former Bank of Zambia governor Caleb Fundanga, former finance ministers Ng’andu Magande, Dr Situmbeko Musokotwane and Felix Mutati, former commerce minister Dipak Patel and former economic advisor to late president Levy Mwanawasa Dr Mosses Banda wrote a letter to President Lungu and Dr Ng’andu expressing concern over Zambia’s current debt position.
“Their advice was dismissed as being nonsensical. The Vice-President should not take Zambian as fools because they have lived first-hand the misery brought by her administration,” she said.
“According to the World Bank, today, within six years of being in office, the PF regime, led by President Lungu and Vice-President Wina, have plunged the nation into a huge external debt of over US $27 billion. When internal commitments are added, the debt comes to US $33 billion, translating to 122 per cent of GDP or USD 1,833 or K37,000 per citizen. The maximum recommended debt position for a resource based developing economy like Zambia is 40 per cent of GDP.”
Nalumango noted that MMD’s last full year in power (2010) saw Zambia’s economy growing at 7.3 per cent, which made Zambia attractive to receive loans – a position PF exploited.
She said in 2019, Zambia’s growth was at 2.0 per cent but the PF government borrowed to overspend on failed infrastructure projects that had not delivered economic returns.
“Even the so-called road projects they embarked on are just being used as conduits to siphon public funds. To put it simply – they have failed the Zambian people miserably and saddled the country with debts that will take at least 50 years to pay back,” Nalumango said.
She said the $33 billion debt the PF, under Edgar Lungu, has plunged the nation in exceeds the combined loans previously contracted by MMD and UNIP in their combined 47 years in power.
“What worries President Hichilema and the UPND the most is that, with this huge external debt of over US $33 billion, going by our current population, now estimated at about 18 million people, each Zambian citizen, including a baby born today, owes our foreign lenders approximately $1,833 or Zambian Kwacha 37,000,” said Nalumango. “Had the PF regime opened its ears, Vice-President Wina would, today, not be using the scapegoat of lack of documented advice as the reason for ruining a potentially vibrant economy.”
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