MONTHLY Socialist SOCIALISTPARTY ISSUE 13, AUGUST 2021 A newsletter published by the Socialist Party, Lusaka, Zambia FREE OF CHARGE This month’s elections #Zivotele give us a chance to change everything and build a more just and caring society FRED M’MEMBE, incoming president, offers #realchange with the Socialist Party’s policies based on jus- tice, equity and peace. Manifesto download details and info about how to join the party are on our back page – Page 12 Zambia’s poverty is like hell on DR FRED M’MEMBE Earth, Fred INCOMING PRESIDENT M’membe says •Reflections P2 •Profile P4/5 •Virtual rallies P3/6 – Page 3 JUSTICE • EQUITY • PEACE Voting for PF is REFLECTIONS Fred M’membe ‘suicidal’ and will finish us off Govt plunged us into financial crisis salaries, K4 billion for grant-aid- Socialist staff reporter “As a result, we see fiscal defi- Socialist Party president Fred M’membe: cit, which basically is borrowing ed institutions and K7 billion for I know there is a very rough road ahead to finance the budget, increasing government operations you have a of us . I will do whatever I can to end it IT WILL be suicidal for Zam- from an average of 2.5 per cent of budget deficit of K43 billion. GDP per annum, when the PF took “When Zambia was classified bians to vote back Mr Ed- in glory. It took my comrades a year and four gar Lungu and the Patriotic over, to an average of 5.4 per cent as a middle-lower income econ- We didn’t choose slavery, months to convince me to accept to lead the party Front, Socialist Party Fred of GDP per annum under Mr Sa- omy, we went to what is called and be the presidential candidate of our party in ta’s reign, to 11.7 per cent last year frontier market to borrow money capitalism chose it for us this coming election. M’membe says. under Mr Lungu’s PF government. to bridge our financing gap as a In the course of years, influence and prestige, THE story of our integration into the capitalist “A vote for Mr Lungu and the “The ideal of massive infrastruc- country as opposed to the tradi- instead of gradually turning me into someone PF will be a vote to finish off system is very, very sad. conceited, a vain person or something along ture development was right in and tional Paris Club members. While I feel deeply on this subject; I cannot help whatever little life still remains of itself but was not well thought some of our debt to China is bilat- those lines, has, I think made me less vain each it. Let’s take a little glance at the history of the day, less pretentious, less self-sufficient. It is a in this country,” he said eral, most of it is either quasi gov- out from the very beginning. It was African. It seems to me that the story would melt battle against one’s instincts. I believe that only “Why have I come to this con- irrational. The World Bank and the ernment or commercial. This has hearts of stone. This capitalism that some of our education, a sincere and tenacious education clusion? A few months before the IMF, among many others, advised very serious consequences: people defend so strongly, that they brag about, of the self, can change an animal into a human PF came to power in 2011, Zam- them to rationalise their infrastruc- l It has made Zambia become is not something we got into voluntarily. We got being. into it because we couldn’t help it. bia was reclassified as a lower ture development expenditure but a Highly Indebted Poor Country Given a bit of influence and prestige, people Our ancestors were captured in our jungles become vain and want to make use of it. I believe middle-income country. For the they were not ready to listen. again. Excessive borrowing has in- and on our plains, captured as you capture wild first three years of the PF’s reign creased Zambia’s public debt from in people. I have never felt the sensation of in- beasts, torn from their homes and their kindred, gratitude. And people don’t like to recognise what under Mr Michael Sata, it managed 20.8 per cent of GDP when the PF Prudent loaded into capitalist slave ships, packed like they owe others. It is a universal law. to maintain the same economic took over government in 2011 to sardines in a box, half of them dying on the growth trajectory. However, eco- “There was need for equitable more than 100 per cent in 2021. ocean passage; some jumping into the sea in nomic growth, which averaged 6.4 distribution of projects coupled l The PF government has ba- their frenzy, when they had a chance to choose The basis of true leadership per cent at the time, immediately with prudent fiscal consolidation sically put Zambia on the world death in the place of capitalist slavery. They were bought and sold as slaves, to work without pay – ONE CANNOT be a leader in the true sense of map for the wrong reason, being started a downward spiral when Mr so that every province of Zambia they were commodities on the capitalist market. word without caring for the people, without love Lungu took over the presidency. can benefit and the country only the first country to default on its They were subjected to all this for generations. for the people. “From a growth of 7.6 per cent spends money that it has. How- debt service post COVID 19. The The great grandmother of our first vice-presi- If I’m going to be a leader I’ve got to be where in 2014, for instance, economic ever, the PF government went into high debt has resulted in higher dent and general secretary, Dr Cosmas Musumali, the people I am leading are. I’ve got to be able to growth plummeted to 2.9 per cent high-gear borrowing for projects costs of debt service which the was a run away slave. She was captured while be with them, spend time with them overhearing in 2015. And it has since been dete- that only benefited a few areas at a PF government unfortunately has collecting firewood and taken to the Atlantic their truths, and really being able to see and share their pain without it being filtered to me through riorating year in year out, reaching very expensive cost. now failed to manage. For the first coast in Angola. She escaped from captivity the way she was captured. While waiting for the ship other people or through tinted windows of auto- 1.4 per cent in 2019 and negative “For example, statistics from time, the country has defaulted on to return from the Americas to come and take mobiles. 4.2 per cent last year. the Ministry of Finance show that its debt service obligations. them, they were sent to collect firewood and she For us, the greatest delight in life is the feeling “On the fiscal side, Mr Lungu by end of this year – 2021 – debt l Zambia’s sovereignty is at escaped. It took her three years to get back to of being near and necessary to people. We will do and his government threw away service costs will have increased risk because no one knows under home in the western part of what is now Zambia. our very best to provide this type of leadership. fiscal prudence and replaced it with to US$3.3 billion, which is equiva- what conditions the commercial But it was not only those who were captured reckless borrowing. This was done lent to over ZMW70 billion at the Chinese debt was contracted. as slaves who suffered. Those who were not The common good is our aim in the name of infrastructure devel- current exchange rate of K22/US$. “This is certainly not a recipe captured as slaves suffered too. They lived in opment when we all know that the So if your domestic resource mo- for the revival of our country’s perpetual fear of being captured as slaves. THE GOOD of each of us in the long term is se- A human being living in perpetual fear has economic fortunes. It’s also not a cured and promoted by the common good. Failure ulterior motive has been to create bilisation capacity is at K65 billion no peace, and loses self-esteem, creativity and to do so can only precipitate social instability and expenditure lines for corruption. then you factor in K27 billion for recipe for governing well.” productivity. And the consequences of this life of threaten the wellbeing of all, rich and poor. fear are transmitted through the DNA to genera- History abounds with instances where the rich tions and generations of Africans, even long after and powerful have brought about their own down- the classical capitalist slavery has ended. fall by refusing to recognise in good time the le- Today the African is still a human being with gitimate demands of the poor. And as long as this ‘We will prioritise job creation relatively very low self-esteem, creativity and gap remains at its current scandalous level, the productivity. It requires a struggle, a revolution- future of our country is at risk. If the gap between ary transformation of the human being and the the rich and poor is unacceptable, then so, too, is country to come out of this.