MAGANDE RAILS AGAINST POLITICIANS…they have all become meaningless and personalised, they are not campaigning on issues affecting the country.
By Patson Chilemba
All the political parties in Zambia have become meaningless and personalised that they are not campaigning on issues affecting the nation, says former finance minister Ng’andu Magande.
Speaking with Daily Revelation, Magande said what should be concerning politicians right now was not about telling people how bad their opponents were, but what they would actually do for the people once elected.
He said the critical issue affecting the country right now was the unsustainable debt levels of over US$12 billion and the domestic debt of around US$6 billion, saying whoever is elected President, member of parliament or councillors would be confronted with the same issues of debt, and therefore the people must demand from their leaders to explain in tangible ways how they would address this matter.
Magande said it was impossible for Zambia to move forward without first addressing the debt situation.
“They should tell us what they are going to do with the debt…this debt requires foreign currency. They should tell us how they are going to repay this, not through borrowing again,” Magande said, adding that the focus should be on harnessing the country’s abundant resources like in theatre of agriculture. “They should tell us where they will get foreign currency, we can’t continue to be beggars when we have plenty of resources.”
Magande said even in the copper mining, there were still abundant copper deposits underground as various studies have shown, which required harnessing through proper investment.
He said despite talk of repeated bumper harvests, Zambians still ranked among some of the most stunted people, simply because people did not have the money to buy the food.
Magande also said the pandemic needed urgent attention so that it did not to get out of control.
He bemoaned the tendency of distributing money, especially to the young people during campaigns, instead of providing ways through which they could be employed, and demanding to get viable projects from the youths, which could then be sponsored in order to address the root cause of poverty.
“Engage people to say ‘what do you want’? Stop dishing money to Zambians. A beggar is a disgraceful person. We don’t want the Zambian community to be made up of beggars, because those with money are so few,” he said.
He said some of the developments that had been embarked on did not sit well in terms of project planning, because they did not have the input from the people on what they really wanted.
“You go and build a hospital, when what the people need is fertilizer,” he said.
Magande said he was hearing the same misplaced message from those who were campaigning like on the issue of fertilizer, where they were all saying that they would provide fertilizer on time.
“They are all saying we are going to provide fertilizer on time, but is that what the fisherman in Nchelenge wants? All these political parties have become completely meaningless. They are so personalised that the don’t campaign on the real issues affecting the whole nation,” Magande said. “Why should you say that this one is bad instead of saying I’m better in this way, and the other one is better in that way, but I am better overall because of this and this?”
Magande said instead of focusing on providing solutions, some politicians have majored in being professional nomads, moving from one party to the other just because their interests had more been fulfilled in their previous party.
“They even go about saying I was in that party and this leader is like so and so. People have crossed parties so many times. A good leader does not expose what they saw in the other environment,” said Magande- Daily Revelation