Opposition Movement for Multi Party Democracy presidential spokesperson Muhabi Lungu says it is ridiculous for the Patriotic Front government that has no capacity to finance its budget to suggest that they will finance the formation of the Industrial Development Corporation.
And Patriotic Front Central Committee member Fresher Siwale said if the process was going to be political then it would fail at conception.
Featuring on Muvi Television’s The Assignment programme, the MMD Director of Communications Muhabi Lungu said the ministers in the Patriotic Front have no capacity to stand up to President Michael Sata even when wild ideas are being broached up.
Lungu said under the current environment the idea of INDECO could not work in Zambia.
“To suggest that the government of Zambia which has no money and is borrowing to finance a budget will create a sovereign wealth fund (INDECO) is completely and totally ridiculous,” Lungu said.
“We say this as MMD; it is a fallacy and [only] trying to delude the many millions of young people who voted for them. It is about time young people stopped listening to people who are going in the past to look for solutions. We need new ideas and we can provide them.”
Lungu said the idea was against the capitalistic policies that Zambia had been pushing for the last 23 years.
“The first reason is that of principles of economics and this other people may call it ideology of economics. It is an anathema for an economy that has been operating by way of the private sector for the last 23 years to go back to the situation where the state begins to make decisions for the private sector or individuals,” he said.
“INDECO is not a new thing whether you call it IDC or INDECO, it is something that this country has already gone through and we know what the outcome was. There is empirical evidence, historical evidence that it failed then and it will fail again because the circumstances are the same.”
Lungu said the PF government had shown that they have no capacity to effectively run the economy.
“The PF administration in the last two years has not demonstrated that they have the capacity to manage an economy by integrity, by corporate governance by the rules that you require for the economy to be governed. The IMF recently made a publication in which they were questioning their capacity to do this,” he said.
“They have not been clear on what sort of INDECO that this will be. In the most recent statement they said it is going to be a sovereign wealthy fund. A sovereign wealth fund is not the same as a national development fund. If you are going to have a sovereign wealth fund then you have to talk about where you get the money to inject in that sovereign wealth can when your reserves have been depleted over the last two years.”
Lungu also said that the PF was abusing former President Kenneth Kaunda by using him to bring back failed policies.
“KK is in April going to be 90 years old when Mandela reached the age of 80 years he decided to fade out,” he said.
“I know that no matter how talented and gifted you are when age begins to catch up with you there are certain things which you cannot put in their correct perspective so if it true that it is Dr Kaunda influencing President Sata to go back to these ideas then it will be very sad for the country. I love the old man but I think that when a society has no forward looking ideas.”
He said the PF Ministers had no capacity to check the excesses of President Sata.
“And the way our president behaves and the way the ministers behave towards him if he decides that I am the chairman of this IDC or whatever you want to call it that he has created and he decides that they are going to come up with a shoemaking factory in Lundazi where I come from, no one will challenge him,” he said.
“The people of Lundazi may be very happy and excited but has feasibility been done? It is going back to where President Kaunda says we are going to have a motor assembly company in Livingstone no feasibility was done, no market was done, no export capacity was there just because it was a wish people celebrated they were happy.”
Lungu said,” The ministers in this PF government have got no capacity and courage to override what President Sata says and therefore any wild ideas will not be defended. Honourable Guy Scott has got no capacity to say no to President Sata that is why we will go exactly where we are coming from. Where the President thinks he is super, he thinks that he is an emperor and literally frightening.”
And Siwale said there were a lot of confusing statements coming from the implementers.
“If it will be a political organization I will be uncomfortable then it may not serve the interest of the ordinary citizens but I am sure with much advice and prodding maybe the parameters could be changed so that it begins to serve the interests of Zambians,” he said.
“If INDECO is coming to manage the strategic interests of the country then yes but if it coming to run a grocery no. Every country has an institution that takes of strategic national interests like energy, oil or water where a private company.”
Siwale said: “The problem is there are a lot of confusing statements from the implementers of the INDECO.”
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