Maravi

Growth claims amid poverty immoral, says Kumwenda

Growth claims amid poverty immoral, says Kumwenda
By Misheck Wangwe
Tue 19 Apr. 2011, 04:00 CAT

IT is immoral for President Banda to continue claiming that the economy is growing when majority Zambians are facing extreme poverty, says Dr Ricky Kumwenda.

In an interview, Dr Kumwenda who is the Civil Society Campaign Against Poverty coordinator said people who were calling on government to take necessary steps to mitigate poverty were not politicking because the poverty situation in the country among the rural population was alarming.

Dr Kumwenda said the government had failed to attend to the plight of the majority poor because there were no tangible efforts in the fight against corruption which had brought misery in the lives of many poor people.

He said Zambians were in need of leaders that would recognise that corruption within the government system was the source of high poverty levels.

“What Zambia needs is a government that would clean up the governance system. The reports that are released by the Auditor General have continued to reflect alarming levels of corruption through misappropriated or unaccounted for funds but nothing is done to stop this rampant abuse of funds. Corruption will always remain a dream without the required intervention,” he said.

Dr Kumwenda said the removal of abuse of office clause from the ACC Act was of evidence enough that the MMD government did not attach great importance to the fight against corruprion.

He said it was distressing to note that President Banda's campaign messages were centered on infrastructure development and job creation while ignoring the demands of the majority poor who simply wanted the government to create an enabling environment for them to live decent lives.

Dr Kumwenda said it was immoral for government to claim that the economy was growing when the majority were living on less than a dollar a day.

He said it was sad to note that reports of people not having enough to eat were now looked at as normal by leaders.

“Unfortunately, today in Zambia, when we talk about poverty, there is no much attention from people holding government power because it has eventually become a song for them. They think when their families have enough that's the situation everywhere; this is dangerous for Zambia.

As the country goes to the polls, people must begin to identify leaders who have empathy, leaders who will share the pain of poverty with the majority poor and take appropriate steps to address these challenges,” he said.

Labels: GDP, POVERTY

posted by MrK @ 4:05 AM