Nawakwi questions source of IDC's K20m allocation
By Henry Sinyangwe
Sun 02 Feb. 2014, 14:01 CAT
EDITH Nawakwi has wondered why President Michael Sata has allocated K20 million not budgeted for in the 2014 national budget to revive Indeco when the country is beset with poor health delivery and shortage of farming inputs, among other problems.
In a posting on her Facebook page, Nawakwi, the Forum for Democracy and Development president, also criticised the introduction of the Industrial Development Corporation (IDC) which would replicate the works of INDECO.
"One wonders where His Excellency President Sata got the K20 million he has allocated to Indeco when such a colossal amount of money was not budgeted for in the 2013-2014 national budget. Why use such an unbudgeted for expense on Indeco when the country is bleeding with poor health delivery, shortage of farming inputs, desks and other learning and teaching implements in our schools? Why start a new war when the old ones are still raging?" she questioned.
Nawakwi warned that the consequences of the misguided policies would be catastrophic to the lives of the majority Zambians for many years to come.
"In any case, the Zambia Development Agency (ZDA) is the appropriate body to use in ensuring the appropriate state involvement in running of public enterprise. Indeco is taking us 50 years back to the days of nepotism and patronage and wanton pilfering of state resources by political elites and their friends and relatives," she stated.
Nawakwi observed that the solution was in looking at the human, natural and capital resources of the country.
"We vividly remember the pomp and splendor with which those at the helm of political power abused INDECO, MEMACO and ZIMCO, entertaining themselves and their friends and relatives to extravagance and self-aggrandisement. We remember going through ZIMCO building, where a lift was a preserve of the political elite. Even the foreign exchange allocations were only given to preferred individuals, including well-known criminals who had political connections. What about DC-10 with only five paid-up passengers and the rest of the seats being occupied by the elite from INDECO, MEMACO, ZIMCO and the ruling party for free! It was such abuse that grounded Zambia Airways," Nawakwi posted.
She stated that the anger over the looting of public resources through ineffective and inefficient parastatals such as INDECO quenched all manner of reasoning, hence the reckless privatisation that led to untold misery of joblessness and poverty.
"The exclusion of Zambians from the mainstream economic programme is what has caused poverty and destitution in our country," Nawakwi stated.
She stated that the solution to Zambia's economic malaise was not the uncoordinated and ill-thought polices such as the re-introduction of loss-making ventures like Indeco.
"The solution is to look at the human, natural and capital resource that we have as a country. Such an enormous undertaking as the re-introduction of Indeco needs extensive national dialogue through people's representatives in Parliament. Good governance entails active people's participation in national issues, hence there is need for Parliament to debate the re-introduction of Indeco," Nawakwi stated.
She stated that Parliament should actively be involved every time the government wanted to introduce major social, political and economic changes.
Nawakwi observed that such a policy shift needed to be reflected in the national budget.
Labels: EDITH NAWAKWI, INDECO
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Why is MMD opposing Sata's indeco idea?
By Editor
Wed 08 Jan. 2014, 14:00 CAT
The MMD leadership is questioning the rationale behind the re-introduction of the industrial development corporation. It is not difficult to understand their problem. The MMD in government blindly pursued
neoliberal policies which have
not brought any meaningful development to the country for the
two decades they were in power.
What meaningful benefits have their capitalist policies brought to the poor of this country?
Let us not be carried away with labels and ideological prejudices and objectively face the challenges before us. We are living in a very different world. This is the first thing we need to understand.
Furthermore, the world we live in today is globalised, really globalised. It is a world dominated by the ideology, the standards and the principles of neoliberal globalisation.
The leadership of MMD should realise that when we speak of "the economy" or "an economic system", we are speaking of policies and plans which control the wealth and resources of a country, about how resources are distributed between people, and about how the means of production - such as land, factories and technology - are owned and controlled. It is sometimes suggested that economic laws, like the basic laws of nature, are beyond human control; that we can no more influence them than we can defy gravity or stop the motion of planets.
Therefore, it is argued, the existence of poverty and unemployment, and the inequitable distribution of wealth, are the result of inescapable economic laws, and must be accepted as such. When suffering and even death flow from these "inevitable facts of economic life", that is simply unfortunate, it is said, just as it is unfortunate when suffering and death result from a natural disaster. Although we sympathise with the victims of an earthquake or a flood, we do not consider such natural occurrences unjust or immoral. In the same way, the argument continues, we should not regard an economic system as unjust or immoral, though we regret the suffering that may be part of such a system. Some people will be poor and some rich, inevitably and unavoidably, just as some will be the victims of earthquakes and floods, and some will not.
This argument must be rejected because it fails to take into account the fact that economic consequences come about as a result of human agency. At the heart of every economic system lie human needs, human abilities and human decisions, and it is the choices which we make in addressing those needs, sharing those abilities, and making those decisions, that determine the justice or injustice of an economic system. The more powerful our economic position, the greater our freedom of choice, with the poor and the marginalised having very little effective choice in their economic decision making. There is thus a moral quality about an economy, a quality which has its roots in the morally correct or incorrect choices by people; and it is the moral quality of the economy that enables us to make judgements about whether or not it is a just economy.
We are not surprised that President Michael Sata's decision to re-introduce a developmental state through the industrial development corporation is being opposed by a political party that for two decades presided over the plunder and abuse of our people and their resources. Michael's approach to economic management from the viewpoint of the poor and suffering, his condemnation of their suffering and his unambiguous call for bold and profound changes in the political and social structures that perpetuate that suffering, was destined, from the beginning, to generate opposition and conflict from other sectors of our society that seek to maintain the status quo or even to increase their share of economic and political power. It is time we converted both our hearts and our institutions to respond to the cause of the poor by searching for effective strategies to transform the structures that are the root causes of their suffering.
It is important to emphasise right from the beginning that we do not think this opposition to Michael's industrial development corporation is going to end in some form of reconciliation in the foreseeable future. When one identifies with the interests of the poor, one will undoubtedly come into conflict with the interests of other sectors of society and their allies. It is therefore important in these initiatives of Michael to emphasise the virtue of fortitude - the refusal to abandon the poor in their sufferings. And these same poor - by what they give and what they ask - should inspire Michael and his comrades with that fortitude, the strength to remain steadfast in whatever they do.
When a system ceases to promote the common good and favours special interests, we must not only denounce its injustice but also break with the evil system. We must be prepared to work with another system that is more just, fair and humane and more suited to the needs of the day.
If what Michael is suggesting to do is socialism, and if what Dr Kaunda and UNIP did was socialism, then all persons of goodwill cannot but go along with this; they cannot help but rejoice over the appearance of another social system that is more just, fair and humane.
It is surprising that the same people, the same political party, that declared this country a Christian nation favour greed and oppose policies that are more just, fair and humane. Tomorrow's Christians must follow the lead of Michael and KK, retracing the Christian roots that lie behind the moral values of solidarity and fraternity.
Christians must show that authentic socialism is Christianity lived to the full, in basic equality and with a fair distribution of goods.
Instead of opposing it, we must learn to accept joyfully a form of societal life that is better adapted to our times and more in tune with the spirit of the Gospel. In this way, we will prevent people from equating God and religion with those things that oppress the workers and the poor: that is capitalism and imperialism. These inhuman systems have spawned other systems that proposed to free peoples, but ended up oppressing them.
We must always side with those who seek to build a more equitable and fraternal society among the family of God's children. We should therefore, with pride and joy, greet the new initiatives Michael is coming up with, which do not honour money accumulated in the hands of a few.
It is primarily up to the poor to effect their own betterment. They must regain confidence in themselves. They must educate themselves and overcome illiteracy. They must work zealously to fashion their own destiny. They must open their ears to those who can awaken and shape the conscious awareness of the masses and, in particular, listen to progressive politicians like Michael and the apostle of our independence struggle, KK.
Changes must be made to the way we manage our economy; present conditions must be improved.
The people are hungering for truth and justice, and those who are entrusted with the task of teaching and educating them should do so with enthusiasm. Certain erroneous viewpoints must be wiped away without delay.
We cannot claim to love God without loving our fellow humans. If some try to monopolise for themselves what others need, then it is the duty of public authority to carry out the distribution that was not made willingly.
In like manner, we cannot allow rich foreigners to come and exploit our impoverished peoples under the pretext of developing commerce and industry; nor can we allow rich nationals to exploit their own nation. These things incite the exasperating strains of excessive nationalism, which is hostile to meaningful co-operation and collaboration.
It is high time that the poor, supported and guided by their legitimate government, defended their right to live. When God appeared to Moses, it was said to him: "I have seen the miserable state of my people in Egypt, I have heard their appeal to be free of their slave drivers… I mean to deliver them" (Exodus 3:7). Jesus took all humanity upon himself to lead it to eternal life. And the earthly foreshadowing of this is social justice, the first form of brotherly love. When Jesus freed humankind from death through resurrection, he brought all human liberation movements to their fullness in eternity.
We should direct all our efforts to work together toward the construction of a society in which all persons will find their place, and in which they will enjoy political, economic, cultural and religious equality and liberty.
The present situation in our country, as in many countries on our continent, calls for some radical change.
Every human being of goodwill should be committed to changing a social order that is cruelly unjust. To refuse such commitment would be to make oneself an accomplice of injustice. If we do not commit ourselves to changing a system that prevents most persons from achieving personal fulfilment, then we are not helping our people to live out their vocation and attain union with God.
The poverty situation, we feel, is a product of unjust socioeconomic structures. Faced with this situation, we have no choice but to support the changes that will help better the living standards of our people. We do realise full well that we are the product of a society that has taught us to look coldly on the impoverished plight of our brothers and sisters. Our actions must be inspired by real love, not by the standards of a society that tends to maintain the present situation.
Our organisations must somehow get close to the poor, because only close experience will teach us the great magnitude of the problems that afflict the majority of our people. We must therefore reform the structures of our organisations so that such contact really takes place.
We ought to sharpen the awareness of our duty of solidarity with the poor, to which charity leads us. This solidarity means that we make ours their problems and their struggles, that we know how to speak with them. This has to be concretised in criticism of injustice and oppression, in the struggle against the intolerable situation that a poor person often has to tolerate, in the willingness to dialogue with the groups responsible for that situation in order to make them understand their obligations.
We should openly express our desire to be very close always to those who work for and struggle with the poor in order that they always feel our encouragement and know that we will not listen to parties interested in distorting their work.
What has been said before and the experience lived by our people lead us to reject neoliberal policies that were imposed on our people by the successive MMD governments; we reject capitalism, in its economic expression as well as in its ideological basis, which favours individualism, profit, and the exploitation of humanity by humanity. We should therefore aim toward the creation of a qualitatively different society. By this, we understand a society wherein the willingness of justice, of solidarity and equality reigns, one that will respond to generous aspirations and the search for a more just society and where values which will guarantee the integral development of our people will be realised.
In order that this kind of society be developed, it is necessary that the education of all people include the social and communal meaning of human life, in the total context which includes culture, economics, politics and the whole society.
Labels: CORRUPTION, INDECO, MICHAEL SATA, MMD, NEOLIBERALISM
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Support indeco, Chitala advises Zambians
By Allan Mulenga
Wed 08 Jan. 2014, 14:01 CAT
DR Mbita Chitala has urged Zambians to support the re-introduction of the industrial development corporation, saying that all countries have advanced on the basis of revamping parastatals.
Commenting on MMD acting president Michael Kaingu's statement that establishing indeco would take the country backwards, Dr Chitala said the government intervenes in the market to safeguard the public good.
"There are two views in academia; the first view, which is correct, is that when there is a market failure, the state always intervenes and put up a company or project to ensure that public good is implemented. For instance in our case, the problem of the Railway Systems of Zambia, it required the government coming in and intervening and providing a public good on which all other sectors of the economy will enjoy," he said.
"The Railway Systems of Zambia was completely collapsing but now it has been revitalised. So, in the area of industry and commerce, I think we should learn from what has happened in other countries such as South Korea, which has advanced on the basis of parastatals."
Dr Chitala urged the government to manage indeco professionally.
"From the point of theory, there is nothing wrong in the government getting involved in the management of parastatals whenever there is a market failure. The challenge on the state establishing indeco is the challenge that all countries have, that there must be professionalism for the sake of national development," he said.
"The state should only come in where there is market failure; where the market cannot efficiently and equitably operate. The same way I have said about Zambia Railways, where there is so much money required to revamp it and it is only the state that can do that."
Dr Chitala, however, said Zambians were afraid that the establishment of indeco would breed nepotism, and bad governance, as was the case in most parastatals during the days of the one-party state, may be coming back.
On Kaingu's assertions that Dr Kenneth Kaunda was influencing President Michael Sata to make certain policies, Dr Chitala said there was no need to discard all policies UNIP formulated.
"The bottom of this matter is that what UNIP did was not all bad. Certain policies of UNIP were good, of which our politicians must be magnanimous enough and learn from. They may have managed the parastatals badly, but there was professionalism in the manner they were handled," said Dr Chitala.
On Friday, Kaingu, at a press briefing, urged Zambians to reject the re-inrtoduction of indeco, saying it would take the country backwards.
"We are wondering, what is this government trying to do? What ideologies is this government following? Is it socialism? Is it capitalism? Does it want to prioritise the mines again? Does it want to enter the private sector and get shares? Does it want to nationalise again? These are the questions that everybody is asking. What is this indeco about? Tomorrow it will be Zimco, then Mindeco," said Kaingu.
Labels: INDECO, MBITA CHITALA, MICHAEL KAINGU
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(LUSAKATIMES) Re-introduction of INDECO is long overdue – Chitala
Time Posted: January 4, 2014 9:37 pm
Political activist Mbita Chitala has observed the reintroduction of the Industrial Development Corporation (INDECO) in the country by government is a long overdue venture.
Dr. Chitala says government’s idea to reintroduce a parastatal company such as INDECO to coordinate government enterprises is progressive as it will help mange companies that were left in abeyance and uncoordinated after the state privatized some of the public institutions.
Dr. Chitala has told Qfm in a telephone interview that INDECO will bring about the professionalization of management of government business the reason why people in the country should support government’s plan as it is progressive.
The Political activist says this is also why government should quickly and properly implement its idea of bringing back a new INDECO as it will also help the public sector to strive as much as the private sector is currently growing.
He says what government should however first do is to ensure that it comes up with a legal framework by taking a bill Parliament on which INDECO should be established.
Dr. Chitala says a good legal frame under INDECO should exist will further bring about good governance in its operations.
However Lusaka business man Maurice Sokoni has said that plans by the Patriotic Front (PF) government to re-establish the UNIP parastatal, the Industrial Development Company-INDECO will not economically benefit Zambians.
Sokoni said that the move to re-introduce INDECO is aimed at taking the country back to the Kaunda era of authoritarian control of socialist economies.
Sokoni told the Daily Nation that pronouncements made by President Michael Sata in his New Year address to the nation that it will help create jobs is far from the truth.
Sokoni said that the government wants to destroy everything that Zambia had built in the past 20 years by re-establishing INDECO.
He said re-introducing INDECO was the same as re-introducing inefficiency in the private sector.
Sokoni said the plans would only promote patronage adding that it would kill individual initiative which private companies have enjoyed in the past 20 years.
Sokoni further said the plan should be condemned by all well-meaning Zambians who understood how INDECO failed during the Kaunda reign.
He said it was unfortunate and surprising that some economists were supporting the government’s plans of the re-establishment of INDECO.
Labels: CAROLINE SOKONI, INDECO, MBITA CHITALA
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Govt to establish indeco
By By Joseph Mwenda
Wed 01 Jan. 2014, 14:00 CAT
PRESIDENT Michael Sata has set a 2014 national development roadmap focusing on job creation, industrial growth and intensified corruption fight. Addressing the nation on New Year's Eve, President Sata described the two years of the PF in power as peaceful owing to the support from the citizenry towards government's development programmes.
He said in 2014, the government would prioritise employment creation and uplifting the standards of living among people in rural areas.
"Employment creation remains our government's top most strategy for ensuring the stability of society and overall growth of the economy. To this effect, our government will in the New Year establish the industrial development corporation (indeco) which will focus on developing labour intensive industries and enterprises in the key areas of agriculture, construction, manufacturing, tourism, science and technology," President Sata said.
He said the government would continue to promote an open economy to attract investment and to expand the country's export opportunities through the accelerated development of multi-facility economic zones.
"Furthermore, steady progress is being made in infrastructure development such as roads, airports, rail and hydro-power stations in order to favourably compete in the global economy and create jobs. We are determined to revolutionise the infrastructure sector thus opening up this country in an unprecedented manner, thereby creating a competitive business environment and maximise economic growth activities," President Sata said and thanked Zambians for their support.
"As I address you on this New Year's Eve, I would like to thank the Almighty God for His continued blessings and mercy upon us. I would also like to thank the people of Zambia for their continued support to government and for maintaining peace and unity.
"After two years of the Patriotic Front in office, it is imperative for us to reiterate the goal of our government to accelerate progress in closing development gaps between our brothers and sisters in rural and urban areas, thus creating better opportunities for all."
He also promised an accelerated electrification of rural communities through the rural electrification programme.
"Looking forward in 2014, government will confidently accelerate the implementation of programmes such as the rural electrification programme whose focus is to connect rural communities to the power grid and will also commence an extension programme of mobile communications services to cover previously un-serviced rural areas in order to improve the people's living standards," President Sata said.
He pledged the government's commitment to ensuring more and affordable access to financial services among people of various income levels.
"This will promote the development of small-scale rural industries and improve agricultural production. In the same vein, we are determined to decentralise functions in our local government system to promote citizen participation and effective delivery of services in order to alleviate poverty," he said.
On education, President Sata said the government had placed a high priority on education and vocational skills development of youths as well as providing more Zambians access to quality health care services in a quest to create a better Zambia for all.
"In this regard, our government will in 2014 increase investment in the construction of schools, universities and trades institutes as well as the building and rehabilitation of health infrastructure across the country," he said.
President Sata further pledged to ensure that social justice continued to be at the core of government's policies.
"Our government is determined to take a giant step forward to raise our people's incomes, consumption and living standards. In 2014, we will continue to strengthen and uphold our democracy and good governance credentials as they are essential for national development," said President Sata.
"The fight against corruption remains one of the top priorities of my government's good governance agenda for next year and beyond. I wish you all a happy and prosperous New Year."
Labels: DEVELOPMENT, EMPLOYMENT, INDECO, MICHAEL SATA
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