$33BN DEBT LIES EXPOSED
SUGGESTIONS that the Government has contracted US$33Billion debt, has been described as a complete fabrication.
The US$33billion debt disclosed by the World Bank, according to Ministry of Finance Permanent Secretary, Mukuli Chikuba was a combination of amounts owed by the Zambian government and private sector including mining companies, corporates and the banking sector.
Zambia’s public debt, he said, remained at US$11 billion as opposed to some speculators who have misinterpreted the 2021 World Bank’s International Debt Statistics report.
He regretted that most people were reading the WB report without understanding the details.
According to social media report, the World Bank indicated that Zambia's actual external debt was US$27 billion as at 2019 and US$33 billion if combined with local debt and arrears.
In response, Mr Chikuba emphasised in an exclusive interview that Zambia’s debt was not US$27 billion as reported by some speculators following the release of the World Bank report.
“So Zambia’s public debt is not US$27 billion and the report has clearly indicated that the debt is US$11 billion and that is what Government has been reporting.” Mr Chikuba said.
Mr Chikuba indicated that US$14.735 billion was private sector debt which was contracted by mining companies, Zambian corporates and the banking sector.
The public debt as contracted by Government as at 2019 is $11 billion.
He explained that: “they are adding private sector debt and public and publicly guarantee debt to show that Zambia’s debt is higher than what we are reporting. No!
The World Bank report is very categorical. There is a break down and this is what Government has been reporting.”
Mr Chikuba insisted that one would understand that the Ministry of Finance and the World Bank were providing the same figures, only that the report was very categorical.
“This is a report that the World Bank issues annually so the first report was issued last year and the Minister (Dr Bwalya Ng’andu) did comment on it, when there was a claim that Zambia’s debt according to the World Bank was far higher than what we were reporting.
“The World Bank data and the Ministry of Finance data is not any different,” Mr Chikuba said.
ZAMBIA must immediately address destructive political rivalry and heal the wounds before the campaigns are set in motion in about two months.
Politicians must only differ in opinions and debate national matters without any tinge of malice and diatribe as has been the case in previous elections, some of which had degenerated into violence.
It appears that the August 12 elections are a “do or die” affair for some politicians, the reason why they will go to any length to claim victory.
Already, the political temperature is rising in many constituencies and across the country as political parties select their preferred candidates while others are still preparing to go for intra-party polls to usher in national leaders and their presidential candidates.
The Patriotic Front (PF) will be going for the general conference on April 10-11 while the United Party for National Development (UPND) has already held theirs virtually.
Embattled National Democratic Congress (NDC) leader, Chishimba Kambwili, has announced that his party is going for an elective general congress in two weeks’ time while New Hope MMD is preparing to go for a national convention.
While time is fast ticking away, political leaders ought to reflect on previous performance and the violence that has marked by-elections.
In most instances, political leaders have simply set rampaging youths on the opponents to intimidate them while in other cases political cadres have clashed as they criss-crossed constituencies during campaigns.
The most dangerous politicians are those who organise, plan and execute violence to intimidate opponents. This is draconian!
They firstly “fete” youths with intoxicating liquor and detail them to attack political nemesis; many people have been mugged.
Therefore, political leaders must meet to denounce violence and commit themselves to peaceful campaigns and elections.
It will be prudent to involve the Church, Civil Society Organisations (CSOs) and the Zambia Centre for Inter-party Dialogue (ZCID) to spearhead dialogue among political players.
However, only credible CSOs, Church and political players should be involved in this process as some organisations are politically inclined.
Evidently, some church organisations and CSOs have lost credibility in the eyes of the public because of their apparent bias and should not be allowed anywhere near political talks.
Many a time, some church organisations and CSOs have greatly contributed to the collapse of inter party dialogue because of their careless and provocative utterances.
For sure, political parties must get to the round-table and thrash out sticky issues in good faith and with mutual respect.
Yes, some of the issues such as the application of the Public Order Act should have been resolved had the Bill10 been passed, but sadly the opposition killed it.
However, even under the circumstances politicians can still meet and agree on some matters before getting into the campaigns.
Politicians from the UPND, PF, NDC, MMD, FDD and other political parties must just agree to meet for the sake of the larger Zambian population.
All politicians must reject toxic debate!