Maravi

Musokotwane urges government to harmonise statements

Musokotwane urges government to harmonise statements
By Ernest Chanda
Sun 08 Apr. 2012, 13:29 CAT

SITUMBEKO Musokotwane says the government should harmonise their statements to avoid confusing the people. And Dr Musokotwane has urged commerce minister Bob Sichinga to stop confusing the public with unrealistic statements about the status of the kwacha after rebasing.

Dr Musokotwane, the immediate past finance minister in the Rupiah Banda regime, said there was also need for the government to give a clear policy and economic direction of the country.

He said if leaders did not harmonise their statements before issuing them to the public, they risked confusing the whole nation.

"Of course it's important that leaders every often can communicate to the public so that the public have a clear perspective of where the leaders are taking the country in terms of economic direction; that is the minimum. And of course as they discuss they must harmonise because without harmony there's a danger that the President will say this on one topic, the minister of finance on the same topic will say something different as we saw on the issue of fake money," Dr Musokotwane said in an interview on Thursday.

"And then the minister of commerce also and indeed any other minister on the same topic will say something different; so, the public gets confused. Yes, we look forward to getting briefs from them, but we also look forward to getting briefs that are well coordinated so that they don't confuse us and the public, more especially the minister of commerce and the minister of finance."

And reacting to Sichinga's statement recently that once rebased, the kwacha's strength would be equal to the dollar like it was just after independence, Dr Musokotwane said that was not true.

And early this year, Sichinga told the nation at a public forum in Kitwe that the MMD administration printed about K3 trillion fake money in China, which was still in circulation.

However, his statement was refuted by the Bank of Zambia and Finance minister Alexander Chikwanda.

Dr Musokotwane said unrealistic statements from the commerce minister could confuse the entire nation.

"Mr Sichinga should not confuse people by saying that when the kwacha is rebased then it will be equal to one US dollar like it was just after independence. This is not true because even as the pound which was the major currency was one kwacha to one pound, it was not because of rebasing. But even then if we look at today's situation where the pound is costing the Kwacha about K8, 400, the kwacha will not be equal to the pound after rebasing," he said.

"So it means that when you rebase or chop off three zeros, the pound will cost you eight kwacha forty Ngwee. Now the exchange rate Bob was talking about in the 60s, it was one pound equals one kwacha. So, in rebasing the kwacha, how then can he expect that the kwacha will be equal to one pound? After simply chopping three zeros, the pound will still demand that you pay K8.40, not the one kwacha that he's talking about."

Dr Musokotwane said just as money was a measure of value, there would be confusion in its absence.

"If one pound is going to be equal to one kwacha as claimed by Mr Sichinga while the pound is going to be equal to eight kwacha forty ngwee as logically explained by the Bank of Zambia people, then clearly Mr Sichinga is now confusing people; because there will be people after rebasing who will say, ‘okay, now that you have rebased for every new kwacha that I have I want to go to the commercial banks and buy pounds because there will only be one kwacha per pound. When they reach the bank, the bank will tell them, ‘sorry, if you want the pound you produce K8.40. So, now there will be confusion in society and this is undesirable," said Dr Musokotwane.

Labels: ROBERT SICHINGA, SITUMBEKO MUSOKOTWANE

posted by MrK @ 4:00 PM