NOBODY asked donors to help Zambia

NOBODY asked donors to help Zambia, President Rupiah Banda charged yesterday.

Answering questions from journalists at Lusaka International Airport upon arrival from Namibia, President Banda said donors must not blackmail the country.

President Banda said donors chose for themselves to assist Zambia in the road and health sectors.

“So they should not use that as blackmail against our countries. One day when you have grown enough and you are leaders of this country, you will know how it feels that a diplomat comes from another country, instead of coming here and appreciate the hospitality which the Zambian government and the Zambian people give him, he is busy trying to threaten us.

We are an independent state. We are very grateful for whatever help they give us but we will not be turned into their puppets.”

The President was reacting to the story that broke last week that the Global fund to fight Aids, TB and Malaria was suspending $300Million worth of support. We all know that there are/were serious issues surrounding the abuse of funds at the Ministry of Health and a number of cases are before the courts. The president should have offered a more dignified response by reporting what government is actually doing to combat such corrupt practises. There is no point in disguising the facts.

As a Zambian living in one of the European donor countries, I am mindful of the sacrifices being asked of taxpayers in these countries. At a time when the UK government has announced cuts to public spending of about 25% across government departments and increased VAT and some other taxes, there is need for countries in receipt of aid to demonstrate accountability and transparency. People in Europe are not making these sacrifices for Zambian politicians and civil servants to line their own pockets.

A number of Zambians in the Diaspora remit funds back home to meet a variety of purposes. Sometimes the funds are tied to specific projects. E.g. one can send funds to pay for school fees or rentals for a relative. At other times, funds are sent with no strings attached. For funds that are marked for specific use, the recipient is surely under obligation (by virtue of accepting to receive the funds) to ensure that the money is actually used for the intended purpose. If this is not done, the sender has a right to be ask why the instructions have not been carried out and demand the return of the money or impose some other sanction (e.g. stop sending further funds). The donor community have taken a similar stance which is wholly understandable.

A couple of months ago, the POST newspaper run an editorial entitled “A nation in hopelessness”. At the time I thought the piece was way over the top. Here is a paragraph from the article.

We all know that our country has been going through many difficulties. We have suffered, from a critical failure of leadership. The people that we have put in office to show the way and lead us to the realisation of our full potential have failed us. People who should be working for the common good have chosen to work for their personal and family aggrandizement. This irresponsibility has condemned a lot of our people to a perpetual state of hopelessness. This is what happens when leaders abdicate their responsibility to lead and allow the country to drift.

I was not a big fun of the late Levy Mwanawasa but at least he seemed to understand the anger people felt towards the plunderers. Yes the pursuit of the plunderers had its own problems and some of them are still walking the street of Lusaka and London but the man showed a lot of leadership in this area. Mr. Banda on the other hand does not seem to share Levy’s vision. Under his watch, the cancer of corruption seems to have returned with a vengeance. Perhaps we are indeed a nation in hopelessness!

We call upon the President to issue a statement to clarify his reported comments and stress the fact that his government will continue fighting corruption and protect donor funds from potential plunderers.

The PANEL

National Blackout

I have just been informed that the ZESCO Electricity grid has gone down once again and there is a national blackout.

Power Engineers out there would be quick to realise the seriousness of the situation. Perhaps the government should privatise ZESCO while they still have the appetite.

I also think it time we started looking at implementing a Smart Grid for region.

The PANEL.

Counting the cost of the African World Cup

Last week millions of Africans sat in front of TVs watching the opening ceremony of the World cup in South Africa. Many of us thought we would never see this global event take place on our continent in our life time but thanks to the FIFA policy of rotation this become a possibility. I must say South Africa has done us proud! Many people thought the facilities will not be ready and I am told FIFA had a plan to move the event to the USA just in case the “Africans failed to deliver the event”.

BUT (there is always one) as I sat down listening to the constant noise from the Vuvuzelas I could not stop thinking about the cost of the putting up such a spectacle. A quick search on Google revealed costs between $2.5 and $4 Billion. The South African Government had projected that the World cup will have a gross impact of about $12 Billion with approximately 600 000 jobs being created by the tournament. However the number of World cup tourists has been hit by the recession and it is doubtful if the projected financial benefits will be realised.

So what is the benefit of spending huge public funds on an event that may not bring about positive financial returns? Lets be clear that South Africa does not have a savings account with $5 Billion waiting to be spent on the a major event. SA like many other African countries has some of its citizens living below the poverty datum line with no access to clean water, housing, education and health. So why spend this amount on an event that will last for a month when there are more pressing social/economic issues? I do not have an answer! However the answer could lie in what is known as “the feel good factor”. Same reason the UK government spent millions on the Millennium Dome when they knew very well that it did not make financial sense or the city of Montreal facing financial ruin after the 1976 Olympic games. So what is this “feel good factor”? The MacMillan dictionary defines it as “the feeling that people have when things such as the economy are going well”. I guess politicians hope that the feel good factor will ignite the economy and stir people into identifying opportunities. Unfortunately past experience does not seem to support this.

So it seems like we just have to sit back and enjoy the games while listening to the ever present Vuvuzelas. Forget about the cost and legacy. Enjoy a pint of Castle while at it!

The PANEL.

Difficult questions for the UPND/PF Pact

There are some worrying questions emanating from the appearance of Mr. Hichilema on Radio Phoenix and reported in the POST. The main issue that threatens the existence of the pact revolves around leadership. Who is going to be the Presidential candidate for the pact or are they going to field two candidates? In a recent blog we asked the pact to resolve this issue as a matter of urgency. Below are some interesting extracts from HH’s appearance on the radio programme.

Asked about who would head the alliance in 2011, Hichilema answered: “That question has been asked several times. We said that the Pact is here to stay and we reiterate that. The Pact is here because the people of Zambia wanted it. The political map of Zambia has been pretty drawn. People are fatigued with divisions, that’s what the Pact is here to resolve. To unite the people to take out the divisions that have been too obvious. This pact is being structured on that basis of unity of purpose. Ethnicity should never divide us. We must organise this pact, learn the lessons of the past.”

He said people in the Pact were not fools and they understood what MMD wanted.

“Why are they driving us to give them a candidate? When they are squabbling whether it’s Ng’andu Magande, whether it’s George Mpombo, whether it’s Rupiah Banda and whether MMD will have a convention.

A caller from Ndola, a Mr Mizhi who described himself as Hichilema’s traditional cousin asked if he was ready to serve under Sata.

“I want you to tell me the truth from the bottom of your heart. The pact that you have entered in with Mr Sata the writings are on the wall no doubt about this. It is Mr Sata who is going to be adopted as a presidential candidate from that pact. Now badala, again I repeat tell me the truth from the bottom of your heart. Are you ready to serve under Mr Michael Chilufya Sata?” Mizhi asked.

But Hichilema maintained that the Pact had not decided on the candidate yet.

“…That Mr Sata will be adopted candidate, that’s not true, absolutely not true. If you say it’s Hakainde, that is not true also because we have not decided and we have explained this several times. What we are saying is not really basically …if you like to dodge the questions, there is no dodging the questions. We have set a process, we have set a procedure,” Hichilema said.

I fully understand that this is a very delicate and difficult issue to resolve. However, the pact is now carrying hopes of many Zambians at home and abroad who see this as a credible opportunity to rid themselves of the corrupt MMD regime. We therefore urge the leadership of the UPND and PF to bang their heads together and come to a workable solution. It is said that a chain is as strong as its weakest link. As long as the leadership of the pact is not resolved it will be weakest block in the pact and enemies are going to be hammering on this until a fracture occurs. Many progressive Zambians do not want this to happen. Mr Sata and Mr Hichilema please resolve this matter before it is too late!.

The PANEL

Court sentences Fred Mmembe to Four Months with Hard Labour

Post Editor-in-Chief Fred Mmembe has been sentenced to four months imprisonment with hard labour after being found guilty of contempt of court together with the Post Newspapers by a Lusaka magistrate court.

Mr M’membe has also been sentenced to four months simple imprisonment on behalf of the Post Newspapers, after Magistrate David Simusamba set free Post Human Resources Director Rueben Phiri was standing in for the Newspaper.

The contempt case arose from an article authored by US-based Zambian law Professor Muna Ndulo titled: ‘The Chansa Kabwela case: A Comedy of Errors’, and published in the paper on August 27, 2009.

I am not a legal expert but the sentence seems harsh. However, we have to understand that the original case only came to the courts after intervention of the President (remember he termed the pictures pornography).

I hope sanity will prevail and Fred will be released on bail pending an appeal and that the courts will be left to deal with this case independent of the politicians.

The PANEL.

Honour among thieves

More than a week after being convicted by the courts, Katele Kalumba is still National Secretary of the rulling MMD. Yesterday we had Mike Mulogoti pleading for people to feel sorry for Katele and this morning Michael Mabenga is saying the National Executive Committee of the MMD will soon meet to decided whether the disgraced MP should step down from his position or not.

THE National Executive Committee (NEC) of the MMD will determine whether national secretary Katele Kalumba should resign from his position or not, party national chairperson Michael Mabenga has said. Speaking in an interview in Lusaka yesterday, Mr Mabenga said the issue of whether Dr Kalumba should resign from his position or not would only be determined by NEC and advised outsiders to desist from commenting on the matter that was purely internal.

“This is a NEC matter and I don’t know how many times I am going to talk about it. The NEC will soon meet and it will be discussed, it’s only NEC that can determine such a matter,” Mr Mabenga said.

I sense that the MMD do not realise how angry people are with the plunderers. As a party they seem to take a very sympathetic view of thieves. The current Chairman (Michael Mabenga) was recommended for prosecution after the high court found that he had abused Constituency Development Funds (CDFs) and yet the MMD found him to be the best person to be Chairman. And now the most senior officer of the party is a convicted criminal and the MMD needs to hold a meeting to determine his fate. Surely Katele should resign on his accord failure to which strong messages should be sent to him in private or public to make it very clear that the MMD do not want him to continue holding the position of National Secretary. He should also be encouraged to resign his seat as MP so that the people for Chiengi are given a chance to vote for an MP not tainted by scandal.

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