Maravi

Corruption tag hitting MMD hard - Mutati

Corruption tag hitting MMD hard - Mutati
By Kombe Chimpinde
Tue 21 Feb. 2012, 12:01 CAT

THE corruption tag is hitting the MMD hard, says Felix Mutati. And Mutati, who is leader of opposition in the House and an MMD presidential aspirant, said that there was a serious decline in foreign and domestic investment in-flows.

In an interview, Mutati said the MMD would not be revived for as long as the party continued shying away from addressing corruption.

"For as long as we shy away from confronting those issues of being labelled as corrupt, we are not going to solve the revival of the party. So those that are being investigated, let them cooperate and deal with those particular issues. Let us be ready to answer the questions," Mutati said.

"If we are found guilty, let us step aside and let the people that are not guilty carry the party forward. We cannot have legal processes through a political mechanism. Let us fight this through appropriate mechanisms and that is fundamental."

Mutati said the loss of the Msanzala by-elections shortly after the Nakonde by-election was painful.

"Any loss will remain for a long time to come. What it must tell us as a party is that we are still fighting the euphoria generated from the wings of our friends in September. People are still excited," he said.

"So we are fighting against a big wave. This loss doesn't help the party particularly from the motivation perspective, from having a sense that the party will be able to re-energise going forward."

Mutati said the loss had set the MMD backwards as it heads to a convention to elect a president.

"The amount of work we have to do as a party to convince the people that we still have leadership within the party that can re-energise has now become harder because they are looking at a party that can't perform," he said.

"So far we are at the nexus as a party where we further need to search ourselves and see how we can forge ahead. Maybe we become real and face reality that the challenge we have is significant. It is hard and this is not going to happen through rhetoric or engagement of government in a political fight without understanding the fundamentals."

Mutati said every generation had its season and this, perhaps, was a season for the younger generation.

"We have to learn from the mistakes we made for the party to go forward. I believe MMD has still got a sore. It's hurting but it's still got a sore," he said.

And Mutati says he is concerned that the country was not recording both foreign and domestic investment in-flows.

"The budget that we approved in 2012 on fundamentals being the containment of the exchange rate in 2012, the containment of inflation, increased investment coupled with expansion of public expenditure with an absolute target that we need to achieve growth of at least six per cent by the end of 2012," Mutati said.

"What we have since September 20 is that the levels of investment have actually declined in particular this year. We have not been able to record any major single investment. Now you know confidence is generated when people see significant investments inflows. When that doesn't happen, others hold back and jobs as you know are created through investment. So both domestic and foreign investments are on the decline."

Mutati also raised concerns over the decline of nontraditional exports which he said largely accounted for job creation.

"There is a decline of almost 10 per cent in non-traditional exports. It could be for two reasons; one associated with productivity but also uncertainty in the labour market. Your arithmetic will tell you that with a weakened exchange rate, we are supposed to see a positive and increased trade balance so our trade balance has continued to decline month on. Traditionally, we have depended on NTE's as key generators of employment because these are associated with areas where we employ big numbers of people."

Mutati said there was need for the Bank of Zambia to quickly come up with measures to strengthen the kwacha.

Labels: FELIX MUTATI, MMD

posted by MrK @ 5:18 PM