There Should Be No Time Where We Give Up – HH

The elections on 12th August 2021 are looming ever closer and as campaigning has begun, Zambian’s are starting to consider their future for the next five years.

Will it be economic collapse with a side of authoritarianism, as President Edgar Lungu has demonstrated over the last few years? Or are citizens seeking change which will only come from a free and fair election?

United Party for National Development (UPND) President Hakainde Hichilema told The Africa Report that Zambians are desperate for change in the country. That change, he said, will only come with a new government who are voted into power through a free and fair election.

He told the interviewer that, in order to edit the current dire financial situation which the country is experiencing as a result of corruption, the debt mountain which the government have obtained as well as excessive printing of cash within the country, a new government must be brought into power.

An edited version of the interview is as follows:

There should be no time where we give up. Giving up is the equivalent of democratic suicide and handing over the country to dictators.

Despite the authoritarian way of behaviour by the government in office…we see a silver lining in the sense that the profile of the new voters has a larger portion of the youth, the young people who have registered to vote for change. Therefore, we believe that we are winning the election as studies that have been conducted show people want change. We are therefore pushing for a free, fair and credible election on the 12th August.

We want to make sure that international observers are there [at the election], as well as local civil society and monitors. We want to see 100% coverage at the 14,000 polling stations. This should also help to fend off the violence that will come on the 14th August because that is the way that the environment is primed by the PF, to bring about violence.

When it comes to those violence practices, do you have any support from SADC or any other regional players on electoral abuses?

Not at all unfortunately other than one or two lone voices which come out of SADC heads of state. As an organ SADC is weak, which is unfortunate to say. There is a tendency within the organisation for “you scratch my back, I’ll scratch yours” when it comes to electoral practices. Or, indeed, just turn a blind eye at what is happening in neighbouring countries.

How do you feel economic hardship currently afflicting Zambia will affect Lungu’s electoral standing?

The economy is collapsed…it is no longer a debate whether the country’s economy is declined, it is a fact. You see it in high levels of unemployment, falling standards including inclusiveness in education. You see it in the collapse in the health services delivery sector where the government are even using and buying expired medicines.

We have never seen such levels of corruption, it is unprecedented.

There is an argument saying the decline [in the economy] is because of COVID-19. The truth is that the PF inherited an economy that was growing at 6%+ in 2011. By December 2019, they whacked this growth down to 1.9% when there was no COVID. So, the argument being used that the economy has collapsed because of COVID, it is not true. COVID found a collapsed economy because of poor leadership of the PF.

So, yes, there has been an effect on voters. Yes, the voters are pushing for change. I am very clear that our assessments of Zambia, over 60% of the population want change away from the current government.

Will you be campaigning on the cost of Lungu’s presidential jets which has missile launchers, as I understand it, and might not be a priority for the country?

It is not a priority for us at all. No Zambian is benefitting from that Gulfstream [jet], it is an embarrassment. One calling themselves the President of Zambia at this time, when the economy is collapsed, when there are no jobs, when there is no oxygen in hospitals for coronavirus patients. Why would anyone justify a Gulfstream which has been bought at $130 million which was paid for by taxpayers?

Can you imagine? We can put oxygen into every province, we can send children to school, we can support agriculture and entrepreneurship interventions that will put our people on the road to dignity and self-employment with that money.

Yes, the overall prudence of expenditure control and large debts, we will be campaigning on those.

Zambia, according to various official resources, is very far from securing a bail-out deal from the IMF. What do you hear?

You can’t have an IMF programme under the current economic environment; under inflation, unstable exchange rate, high interest rates. So, the fiscal and monetary policies must be in tandem.

The economy is going down, but the streets are washed with cash which PF party cadres are holding on to. So, it appears that there is a printing of money going on.

The PF are buying expensive cars and helicopters. It smells of corruption. The debt mountain is going up and the economy is collapsing, where has the money gone?

How can the IMF come in when lavish expenditure is happening within the government?

The IMF programme will come after the new government comes in, the UPND government.

We have figures suggesting total public debt might be as high as 166% of GDP, others estimate it at 145%. What figures do you have?

We have always been taking about $21 billion but even that figure was being argued against. The lack of transparency over the total cost shows the mess in which we are. You cannot ask the PF to dismantle that debt and reconstruct the Zambian economy.