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| Euphoria at Sata's inauguration on September 25, 2011 |
By Nyalubinge Ngwende
The euphoria of winning the September 20
elections two years ago by the Patriotic Front seems to be quickly evaporating.
The abilities to smoothly manage Zambia politically and economically by
ensuring these are done in an orderly manner and ensure respect among the
people seem to be eluding President Michael Sata and his ruling Patriotic Front
party.
These are difficult facts to realise by the
ruling inner-circle and accept as truth, but a few critical moments can reveal
this.
President Sata said a lot about the
constitution, promising to deliver it in 90 Days, but done so little thus far.
Already
the technical committee drafting the constitution has differed with the Justice
Minister Wynter Kabimba over the document. Kabimba wants the committee to sign
and release ten copies of the constitution to President Sata, a request that
the committee members have refused demanding that the government should first
give them a road map on how the constitution shall be distributed and adopted. I
do not find any piece of order in all this.
Earlier, the government had refused to
extend the period of the constitution making due to lack of money but the
technical committee insisted it would work without asking for any personal
benefits apart from administrative expenditure. Now the government is paying
for those same allowances. At the same time, Kabimba has backtracked on his
government promise to the people of Zambia that the constitution will be
adopted through a referendum, instead he says that is not an assurance because
there is no money.
Although President Sata has insisted that
his government will deliver a constitution it promised, the fact that Sata has
a soft spot for Wynter sends wrong signals about his assurances. This alone has
a potential for political anarchy soon to come because the very basis agreed by
Zambians for revising the constitution was to ensure the country changes the
mode of adopting it and also the inclusion of a 50+ one majority vote clause
for electing a President. Wynter, as Justice Minister, has strongly opposed the
inclusion.
Zambia Episcopal Conference (ZEC) General
Secretary Cleophas Lungu, who is also the Oasis Forum Spokesperson has
condemned the idea by Sata and Wynter to only print 10 copies that should go
the President, Fr. Lungu wants the constitution draft to be simultaneously availed
to the President and the public at the same time rather than making it a
preserve of a privileged few.
The priest fears if Zambia will even hold a
referendum because according to the independent estimates, the exercise is
supposed to cost K500 million while government has only made available K44.2
million in the 2014 budget.
That is not all, the fabric that held the
Patriotic Front as a cohesive, disciplined political movement in the opposition
leading to election victory three years ago is dishevelling, with every thread
of unity falling off each moment of the day. Violent fighting between the
factions that have arisen in the ruling party, leading to the death of its own
member last week, has brought to the fore how difficult it has become for
President Sata and his senior leadership to ensure order in the discourse among
those holding different views in the party.
It proves how those among senior leaders of the party have little
respect for the President and how he [Sata] has failed to prove that he is in
control.
One deduction from all this disorder is the
failure by the top leadership in the ruling party to appreciate the orderliness
of democracy, allowing the party to settle disputes using the principle of one
man one vote that ultimately entails the majority carrying the day and everyone
respecting the outcome.
Sata himself
has never allowed general members to elect their top leadership; the fashion is
that he has to appoint those leaders himself. A question in point is how
recently it is understood his son Mulenga Sata assumed the ruling party
chairmanship of Lusaka District in bizarre disorder. Sata allegedly asked
Robert Chikwelete to assume the district chairmanship, displacing Goodson Banda
who was duly elected by the rank and file. After a civil war erupted between
the two about who is the chairman, the confusion benefited Sata Jr. who it is
now understood is in-charge of the party in Lusaka district.
In government, the manner in which people
are being appointed and discarded throws into doubt if President Sata has any
knowledge of the specific abilities and purpose why he appoints these people.
Or is he doing things anyhow that he cannot wait to see what they are capable
of contributing to his government? Could that be another meaning of disorder?
Planning and budgeting are the bases of
delivering good economic development. Is President Sata hitting these codes
perfectly? I doubt big time and if I am wrong about it, I will not hesitate to
apologise next time around.
One simple flaw about how poor planning has
engulfed the major projects that President Sata and his government has
massively launched came to light when one stretch of the L400 road project through
Mandevu and Kabanana stalled this week for two reasons. Reason number one: the
road has to cut through two farms on each side and the owners have refused to
let go of their farmland. Reason number two, at one point the road must have
six lanes, but that means ripping down people’s houses and displacing them.
Newly appointed Lusaka province permanent secretary Wamunyima Mwana was at the
spot to check the road and laughed loud at the poor planning: “These are the
problems that were supposed to be addressed when the surveys were being done
for the road and not now. Anyway we cannot look back as we need to find a way
for the contractor to finish the work.”
The crunch is: the President launched the
L400 when not all the technical paper work and cost implications were done. It
is expected the L400 will now cost Avic International, the company that is
financing the road and has undertaken the construction works, more than US$400 it
has already loaned to government for the project. Technical hitches in projects
do not signal good planning and is costly.
The poor planning has further been proved
by President Sata’s appearances at projects that he is intended to launch, only
to abandon the launch and leave in frustration. On a number of occasions Sata has
exhibited in public how he hardly sits down with his ministers to plan what
must be done about infrastructure. This lack of planning is either stressing or
embarrassing him as he has been publicly heard grumbling—tongue lashing his
ministers and District Commissioners to the extent of calling them half-wits.
We as a country we are spending more money
than we are able to raise in the country’s budget and doing so on some projects
whose merits may turn out to be more about people liking the President,
praising him than producing tangible economic benefits.
The cost of paying back loans for these
projects might just turn out to be more costly on the economy, than what may be
produced to make people’s livelihoods better than they are today.
Already warning signs are that Zambia is
quickly sliding back into huge debt—increasing the total government borrowing
from 1,667.6 million US Dollars in 2010 to 3,179.6 million US Dollar as at the
end of 2012.
Naver Chayelela wrote on his Facebook page: “Talk
about lack of consistency, coherence and rational analysis of policy
formulation and implementation! If Zambia is allowed to continue on this path
of public policy and governance decision-making, based on the random and
arbitrary personal whim of individuals rather than on fact, logic and reason,
the country risks being taken backwards to the Stone Age!”
The fact that a cross-section of people
have condemned the awkwardness in the manner the country’s politics are being
managed under Sata, and economists have warned about senseless borrowing,
exudes little confidence among the enlightened general public whether the
President is suited for another tenure in office when the country returns to
the polls in 2016.
NN
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