By STEPHEN KAPAMBWE –
FOREIGN Affairs Minister Harry Kalaba says politicians in Zambia have a lot to learn from leaders in Britain who decided to put aside partisan interests for the sake of national interest during the recent power transition.
“We need to take a leaf from such kind of level headedness and love for the country,” Mr Kalaba wrote on his Facebook wall recently.
Like many countries across the globe, Zambia followed with keen interest developments in Britain that necessitated the referendum vote for the country to leave the European Union (EU).
Britain’s exit (Brexit) vote for the country to leave the EU was followed by the dramatic resignation of Prime Minister David Cameron and the swift assumption of power of Theresa May who has since formed government.
Following the Brexit referendum, Mrs May was earmarked to become the new Prime Minister in Britain after she was substantially crowned leader of the Tory party.
Mrs May said she was “honoured and humbled” to succeed Cameron after her only rival in the race withdrew.
This came after another day of dramatic developments in the political world when Andrea Leadsom unexpectedly quit the two-way Conservative leadership contest, saying she did not have the support to build “a strong and stable government”.
“What captures my heart is that Mr David Cameron was scheduled to tender his resignation in September and not now.
“However, on account of the impact of the continued uncertainty in the economy on account of the Brexit vote which has left the Pound struggling and caused some economic volatility, Mr Cameron and all the former competitors of Mrs May have chosen to put national interest first by Mr Cameron resigning earlier and competing leaders of the Tory Party stepping aside to allow one candidate take over and stabilise the rising tides in the country for the good of all,” Mr Kalaba wrote.
He urged politicians in Zambia to learn from the patriotism of the leaders in Britain.
“We must put behind the callous spirit of rejoicing when the ruling party is facing rising tides such as the collapsing copper prices, falling Kwacha or unstable energy supply, competition (in politics and leadership) is necessary but not just for the sake of it.
“True magnanimity consists in identifying our common problems and aggressively joining hands to save our country from embarrassment by contributing our best, rather than slandering the virtues of our common agenda as a people,” he wrote.
Mr Kalaba paid tribute to the politicians in the United Kingdom (UK) for their exemplary leadership.
Political campaigns in Zambia have exposed deep rooted differences among politicians who are jostling for power.
Some opposition political party leaders have used the country’s challenges to woo support from the electorate. They claim the ruling Government has failed the country and pledged to provide better
leadership.
Zambia is currently facing a power deficit that has resulted in incessant power cuts as the power utility company in the country rations electricity nationwide.
It has been argued that failure to plan and build new power stations by previous governments is what has led to the prevailing shortage of power.
But in addition to that, the Government has encountered other factors that have contributed to the power problem.
Poor rainfall in the 2015/2016 season, owing to climate change effects, reduced water levels in among other places, the Kariba Dam which houses one of Zambia’s major hydropower plants.
In September, 2015, Zesco warned of increased load shedding following a reduction in daily electricity production capacity at the power station from 500 megawatts (MW) to 305 MW due to reduced water allocation by Zambezi River Authority (ZRA).
ZRA’s reduced allocation was arrived at following a quarterly review based on water levels at Kariba Dam.
In the first quarter of 2015, ZRA revised water allocation to Zesco and Zimbabwe Electricity Supply Authority (ZESA), which runs Kariba South Bank power station on the Zimbabwean side, from 45 billion cubic metres to 40.2 billion cubic metres citing low water inflows into Kariba Dam during the 2014/15 rainy season.
The reduction in water allocation meant electricity production capacity on the Zambian would drop to 500MW from about 800MW, leading to increased blackouts.
As at June, 2015, Zesco had 4,996 Giga Watt Hours (GWh) available for generation up to December 2015. The reduction left Zesco with 1,158GWh available for generation from August to December 2015.
That meant on average, the power utility would only generate up to 305MW from Kariba North Bank from about 800MW which the station normally generates.
The opposition has used this power problem to accuse the Government of incompetence and failure to plan ahead in order to amicably address the problem.
The Government has also been battling the falling value of the local currency owing to falling metal prices on the international market which means that Zambia, which mainly depends on copper to sustain its economy, is earning less form its copper exports.
The slowing down of the global economy has also meant reduced demand for metals, such as copper. So Zambia is exporting less copper and getting less revenue as a result of reduces prices.
The low commodity prices have also impacted on the profitability of running the mines locally. As a result, some of the mines had to cut down of their workforce. This meant some miners had to lose their jobs.
The job losses became another opportunity for some of those running in the August elections who blamed the Government for failing to prevent the job cuts.
But rather than be bogged down in accusations of what some Government leaders have called armchair critics, the Government has been working around d the clock in trying to counter internal, external as well as natural factors that have best the country.
In dealing with the high cost of the staple food, President Edgar Lungu mooted the presidential solar milling plants initiative which aims at ensure that in the next five years, the price of mealy meal isreduced to reasonable levels.
The milling plants being which are being sourced from China are solar powered and hence would produce mealy meal at a cheaper cost.
“This is something we can achieve and we will achieve it. Very soon, the solar milling plants will help us reduce the mealy meal prices,”
President Lungu said when he launched the party manifesto.
The Government has also been working hard to increase food production and achieve food security by increasing the number of families that receive agriculture input support as well as by delivering farming inputs as early as possible.
As a result of the Government’s agriculture policies that are supportive of farmers, Zambia is the only country which produced surplus food stocks that will even carter for the country’s export markets.
The bumper harvest has been recorded in a year when southern Africa faced the worsed drought in 30 years.
The Government is further working on addressing the power deficit by initiating new hydro power generation projects as well as thermal and solar power initiatives that are aimed at not only stopping blackouts, but transform the country into a net exporter of electricity.
The construction of thermal power plants in Maamba and the recent launch of the scaling solar initiative at the Lusaka South Multi Facility Economic Zone (MFEZ) are some of the new projects that would end the power deficit.
The Maamba project will generate 300 mega -watts of electricity when complete while the solar initiative is meant to provide up to 600 mega- watts.
The Government has also been carrying out major infrastructure projects aimed at improving transport, communications, the cost of living as we as that of doing business in the country.
Government has been working on the construction of roads under various projects like the Link Zambia-8000, and the upgrading of township roads countrywide.
The projects include the C-400 which is targeted at upgrading roads on the Copperbelt, the L-400 for upgrading roads in Lusaka and the Pave Zambia initiative.
The Government has also been building markets, health posts, clinics and hospitals.
Government has built over 100 primary and secondary schools countrywide, besides colleges and trades training institutions.
5,000 teachers have been recruited each year to reduce the teacher-pupil ratio.
In the area of, 650 health posts are being built across the country in an ambitious programme aimed at taking health care as close to communities as possible.
In addition to that, new hospitals are being built and existing ones are being expanded and furnished with modern equipment to improve health delivery.
Livingstone general and Kitwe Central hospitals as well as Ndola Central and University Teaching Hospital (UTH) in Lusaka are among health facilities where new modern equipment has been put in place.
Government is further building hubs across the country to ensure effective distribution of essential drugs countrywide.
In addition, 6,000 health workers have been recruited since 2011 to improve health service delivery.
Government has also increased budgetary allocation to social protection initiatives, such as the Social Cash Transfer. It has also scaled up women and youth empowerment programmes besides expanding the school feeding programme to encourage under privileged children to attend school.
Government has also created an additional 33 district to improve provision of basic services like post offices, police and courts across the country.
“Our vision for the next five years is to make Zambia more industrious, united, prosperous and stable,” President Lungu said.
Like Britain which is emerging from what some have called a tumultuous Brexit vote followed by power changing hands, Zambia goes to the polls on August 11, 2016 to choose a President, Vice President, members of Parliament, local government and civic leaders, besides voting in a national referendum to expand the Bill of Rights.
After going through a period of heated campaigns, the country will need to be united under the leadership that will emerge after August 11 in order to deal with the prevailing challenges.