Calls for Mwanakatwe’s dismissal ridiculous - Kamba
IT IS ridiculous and mischievous for some opposition political parties to call for the dismissal of Finance Minister Margaret Mwanakatwe as if it is the first time Zambia is going through economic challenges, the PF in Lusaka Province has said. Yesterday, Republican Progressive Party (RPP) leader, James Lukuku, asked President Edgar Lungu to fire Ms. Mwanakatwe if she could not resign on her own over the country’s economic challenges and replace her with either former Finance Ministers, Ng’andu Magande or Situmbeko Musokotwane. Mr. Lukuku said it was not right to keep Ms. Mwanakatwe at the ministry when both the local currency and the economy were nose-diving as she had no capacity to manage it. “We have not run out of brains as a country for us to let the Kwacha nose dive. Situmbeko Musokotwane was economic adviser at State House and Ng’andu Magande was Minister of Finance when they contained both the Kwacha and the economy during the time of Levy Mwanawasa,” he said. “We have seen in USA where the Government has recalled retired generals to control the situation as the case was during the time Colin Powell was recalled by President George Walker Bush. President Lungu can do the same by “outsourcing” Mr. Magande and Mr. Musokotwane to help stabilise the Kwacha and our economy,” Mr. Lukuku said. But Lusaka Province PF secretary Kennedy Kamba described Mr. Lukuku’s demands as hogwash and baseless as the same people he was projecting as “economics saints”, had led to the country being graded as among the Heavily Indebted Poor Countries (HIPC) during their term in office. Mr. Kamba wondered why the opposition was targeting Ms. Mwanakatwe who was only a year old at the ministry when the same people said nothing about her predecessor. “Notwithstanding the fact that Mr. Magande performed well as a Finance Minister, he also had flaws. We were first rated as one of the HIPC countries during his tenure but where was Lukuku to call for his resignation or dismissal? Ms. Mwanakatwe has done extremely well in trying to stabilise the economy which was already going through some turbulence and results are there to show,” he said.
Mr. Kamba wondered why the opposition was targeting Ms. Mwanakatwe who was only a year old at the ministry when the same people said nothing about her predecessor.