By CHILA NAMAIKO –
. SHAKAFUSWA
UNITED Party for National Development (UPND) Katuba Member of Parliament Jonas Shakafuswa has challenged opposition politicians to explain the current global economic crisis to party members unlike blaming President Edgar Lungu over the economic shortcomings.
Mr Shakafuswa, an economist, charged that it was naive for some opposition politicians to solely heap the blame of some challenges facing the economy on Mr Lungu.
“It’s been a trying moment for him (Mr Lungu) because he took over when the economy was already faced with problems from external forces.
“Right now, there is a global economic phenomenon which can’t be attributed to being caused by Mr Lungu,” he said.
He said that despite the challenging economic outlook Zambia was experiencing now, the President was making positive efforts to revive the economy.
In an interview yesterday, he said some challenges the economy was faced with were largely triggered by external shortcomings which could not be attributed as having been brought by Mr Lungu.
He said politicians should not forget that Zambia has for many years, been exposed to global economic shocks and manipulations including at the period President Lungu took over.
The former Finance deputy minister in the MMD regime said the country’s problems have built up over the year’s right through to Mr Lungu, who has only been in office for a short period.
He said since Zambia’s economy largely depended on the mining industry, the shrinking copper prices on international market have also affected the country.
This follows a significant reduction of copper prices, which was Zambia’s major foreign earner as well as low demand of the commodity by China, the country’s major market.
“As politicians, we know these global economic issues, let’s stop finger-pointing. We need to come together, give solutions and also help to explain these global natural causes to our party members to understand how our economy is being affected,” he said.
Mr Shakafuswa appealed to Zambians to remain firm and explore valuable solutions to foster more economic development as the country goes to the polls.
The Bank of Zambia (BoZ) last week also projected positive economic growth in 2016 despite the challenging economic outlook the country was experiencing currently.
