Is Zambia a poor country?

I know the answer to the above question is obvious. Of course according to all the internationally agreed metrics for measuring wealth, our country is poor. Many of our country men and women live below the poverty datum line with little or no access to clean running water, medical facilities, housing and decent educational services. The situation has been compounded by the effects of the HIV/AIDS epidemic. Quite a lot of the economically active members of our society have been wiped out by the disease.
Having stated the obvious, it seems to me that if we looked at the country using a different set of metrics, we find that the country actually has a lot of natural and human resources which could be harnessed to improve the wellbeing of our people. For instance, we are constantly reminded that the mining sector is experiencing a boom similar to that of the 1970s. The price of Copper is probably at its highest since the 1990s and there is generally a high demand for base metals. However, the wealth from this activity does not seem to trickle to the common man on the streets. I am not sure my uncle in Kalingalinga or my grandparents in Shangombo have seen any benefit of the boom in the mining industry. I guess the question for GRZ is how to ensure that the general populace benefits from the mining sector without stifling the necessary investment. Perhaps a one-off windfall tax is justified! I am not in anyway advocating re-nationalisation of the mining sector.

There is also a general impression that GRZ does not use the little resources available prudently. This has somehow been proven by the revelations from the GRZ vs FTJ case in London. We are all used to reading about accounting irregularities in govt ministries in the annual Auditor General’s report. Why do we as a people and taxpayers accept a blatant misuse of public funds? This would not be allowed in the mature democratic societies such as the UK and US. It is time we started questioning some of the GRZ expenditures. A number of areas come to mind straight away: (a) Do we need such a larger cabinet? Is it really necessary to have two deputy ministers in certain ministries? (b) The endless conferences, workshops, seminars? They really needed (c) Overseas travel by govt officials. This has proved to be very lucrative for civil servants but no doubt expensive for the country. (d) Perks. Should we really be paying a ministers phone and electricity bill or providing a vehicle for the wife?

Address these issues and the country will be ‘rich’

The PANEL

Levy's legacy

Our current president is in the middle of his second and final term in office. It is at this point in time that most holders of similar postions start addressing the issue of legacy. What are people going to remember about Levy's presidency?
To answer this question one has to look at the legacy of KK and FTJ. KK built the infrastructure and was also a pan-africanist.
FTJ's rule is intersting. He no doubt empowered Zambians to own property and went some way in repairing the country's infrastructure. Privatization of the state owned companies is another one of his achievements. However, his rule is tainted by the fact that he tried to run for a thrid term which polarised the country and his own party (MMD). It is also widely believed that his rule was very corrupt and led to an abuse of public funds.

One would think that the stage was therefore set for Levy to be the man that cleaned up FTJ's mess. Wrong! His anti-corruption drive has only led to the arrest and imprisonment of Richard Sakala. All the other big fish are still free. We can therefore safely say the anti-corruption drive will not provide a strong legacy. What of the thorny issue of the constitution? Levy has once again mismanaged the constitution review process. He has at every stage ignored the will of the people. His arrogance over this issue is beyond belief! What of the low inflation and increased economic activity? The man is simply lucky. I have not seen any evidence to link any of GRZ's policies and intiatives to the low inflation and increased economic activity. This is really being driven by the high price of copper on the world market and the opening up of new mines in N.W province. What happened the oil in Chavuma Levy announced last year.

My guess is that we shall remember Levy as the man who was woken up at night by FTJ and offered the presidency on a silver platter.

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The Panel on Zed

I have been looking at starting a blog to discuss issues affecting Zed (Zambia) for a long time now and I am hoping I can kee this going for as long as possible.

The motivation for this is to simply provide an analysis of the news stories and events back.

The PANEL