PeP PLANS TO STAGE PROTEST

Dear Editor,

. AS Patriots for Economic Progress (PeP) we have resolved to hold a series of street protests against the appointment of Dr. Situmbeko Musokotwane as Minister of Finance by President Hakainde Hichilema.

The primary basis of our proposed street protests is that the new Minister of Finance does not possess the requisite credibility and integrity, having been at the centre of various scandals during his tenure as Finance Minister under former President Rupiah Banda’s administration.

These scandals included the sale of Zamtel which is a national asset, to Lapgreen of Libya for a song. Other notable scandals include the purchase of non-functional mobile hospitals at an exaggerated cost to the nation of US$53 million.

2. We strongly believe that it is wrong for President Hichilema to put at the centre of his administration people whose hands are soiled. It must be noted that a Minister of Finance is not only a senior member of cabinet but is liable for all the decisions taken by a cabinet, under the principle of collective responsibility.

Therefore, Dr. Musokotwane cannot be divorced from the several scandals that took place under President Banda’s administration. He was an active participant in these scandals that deprived the nation of millions of dollars in taxpayers’ money. If Dr. Musokotwane did not agree to these scandals, he would have resigned his position as President Banda’s Finance

Minister, but he did not. He stayed on until Zambians got fed up with the corruption and economic mismanagement that was going on and decided to vote Mr Banda out of office together with Dr. Musokotwane.

3. We have no doubt in our minds that by appointing Dr. Musokotwane as Minister of Finance, President Hichilema is taking this country back to the days of corruption and economic mismanagement that we witnessed under the Rupiah Banda’s administration.

As patriotic citizens, we cannot allow this to happen. Zambians have just graduated from a very corrupt and incompetent PF Government. We do not expect the new UPND Government to give us another dose of corruption and incompetence so quickly. We deserve some reprieve.

That is the reason why we have decided to hold a series of street protests until such a time that President Hichilema rescinds his appointment of Dr. Musokotwane as Minister of Finance.

4. We also wish to take this opportunity to advise President Hichilema to consider constituting his team of Presidential Advisors before proceeding to make any further cabinet or related appointments.

Without a team of official Presidential Advisors, the President is working alone and is prone to mistakes such as the appointment of Dr. Musokotwane.

No matter how brilliant one might believe they are, they need a team of advisors to help them to refine their decisions and widen the horizon of choices. As things stand at the moment, President Hichilema is restricting his appointments to the people in his phonebook, which is retrogressive to the nation.

5. We further wish to extend an appeal to the various civil society as well as democracy and good governance activists who provided checks and balances during the PF administration to wake up from their slumber and continue to provide checks and balances to the UPND administration immediately.

Instead of providing checks and balances, it has become evident to us that these so-called civil society and democracy and good governance activists are now busy clapping for and cheering the UPND government. Consequently, we cannot help but wonder whether these individuals that were very active during the PF administration are really activists or they are UPND cadres that disguised themselves as activists.

If they were really activists then their activism for democracy and good governance is expected to continue even under the new administration. They are not supposed to become surrogates of the new UPND Government, otherwise they will be doing this nation a big disservice.

SEAN E. TEMBO, President, President, Patriotics for Economic Progress.