COMMENT - Gee, I guess this means we can't
'borrow more'. Why is anyone asking this corrupt loser for his opinion anyway? Bicycle Man is just a mouthpiece for the World Bank.
Downgrading of economic outlook saddens Musokotwane
By Kombe Chimpinde
Mon 05 Mar. 2012, 11:59 CAT
DR Situmbeko Musokotwane says he is very saddened with the downgrading of Zambia's economic outlook from stable to negative by global rating agency, Fitch.
Commenting on Fitch's downgrading of Zambia's economic outlook from stable to negative, a few months before the country's maiden US $700 million Eurobond is issued, Dr Musokotwane said as immediate past minister of finance, he was saddened by the outcome as it had a considerable amount of repercussions on the country's economy and urged the current government to examine their attitudes and change the course of the economy.
"By the outlook being considered to be negative from being stable, what investors are saying is they are not sure about the safety of investments in Zambia and to reverse this, it takes a long time because people are always nervous about the safety of their money," he said in an interview.
Dr Situmbeko said the lack of predictability in the economic environment necessitated by policy shifts would continue to erode investor confidence if not dealt with.
"There is no rocket science about it. Investments for us are very critical because it is through them that we get jobs to be created, industries to be thriving, agriculture to be going, so it is investment that is very critical.
[Neoliberal idiocy. - MrK]
But the most important thing is that this investment is secure. No one wants to take investment to a country where you commit millions of dollars or thousands of kwacha, then you are told the following day, ‘sorry, we have taken away your investment'," he said.
"Government, however, has a chance to re-examine the attitudes and change the course. They must be a government that is responsible and avoid making careless mistakes. No one stops them from investigating corruption and fraud; that is the responsibility of every government."
Dr Situmbeko said any elements that threatened investor confidence must be taken seriously.
"If that (investment) is missing, you may have your minerals in the ground but there will be no finance to dig the minerals out. You may have your wildlife but there will be no finance to build hospitals and other infrastructure required by tourists. The end result is poverty," said Dr Situmbeko.
[And when 'financing' comes from abroad, who then OWNS those minerals, wildlife, hospitals and other infrastricture? Oh I remember, in neoliberal world, it doesn't matter who owns them. How could I forget? - MrK]
And briefing journalists in Lusaka on Friday, former commerce minister Felix Mutati said Fitch negative rating of Zambia's economic outlook should be seen by all Zambians as a point of great concern.
Mutati, who is also head of the opposition in Parliament, said the economic fundamentals that have propelled the country for some time had began to erode.
"This means the economic and investment environment which in part is based on how a country is rated will be negatively impacted," said Mutati.
"Some of the reasons that the ratings will be negative is from a policy perception in the implementation of policies…"
Fitch rating which provides issuer and bond ratings last year assigned Zambia long-term foreign and local currency Issuer Default Ratings (IDR) of B+.
In its latest outlook released last Thursday, Fitch downgraded Zambia's ratings from stable, citing concerns about the direction of economic policy in the southern African state.
"The revision of Zambia's rating reflects the agency's concerns about some of the government's recent actions and announcements, which bring into question the direction of economic policy," Fitch stated.
The agency affirmed Zambia's short-term issuer default ratings at ‘B' and the country ceiling at ‘BB-‘.
Fitch stated that Zambia's recent decision to reverse a privatisation deal could undermine property rights, while planned reforms of the mining and banking sectors could negatively impact investment and consequently macro-economic stability.
It stated that the government's decisions to reverse the privatisation of Zamtel and investigate the privatisation of Zanaco represent "perhaps the most worrying recent development".
Labels: DEBT, FELIX MUTATI, NEOLIBERALISM, SITUMBEKO MUSOKOTWANE, STUPIDITY
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COMMENT - Ok, so the West's handpicked puppet doesn't know Zimbabwean electoral law... even though he is running for President. And no one else in the MDC could have tipped him? Anyway, the relevant clauses to the Electoral Act of 2004 are listed at the end of the article.
" 110 - (3) Where two or more candidates for President are nominated, and after a poll taken in terms of subsection (2) no candidate receives a majority of the total number of valid votes cast, a second election shall be held within twenty-one days after the previous election in accordance with this Act. "Tsvangirai 'unaware' of run-off clause
17/10/2011 00:00:00
by Staff Reporter
MORGAN Tsvangirai was ready to step in as President and drew up a team of his ministers after the March 28, 2008, election because he was unaware of a 2004 Electoral Act amendment requiring the winning candidate to obtain at least 50+ percent of the total vote.
The MDC-T leader won the first round with 47,9 percent, trailed by the incumbent President Robert Mugabe who polled 43,2 percent and Simba Makoni who was a distant third with 8,3 percent. Tsvangirai's numbers fell below the threshold necessary to form a government.
Election results were not announced until May 2, and during the delays, Tsvangirai says his party was sure he had outpolled his rivals.
“I started to prepare an alternative administration,” Tsvangirai reveals in his recently published memoirs, ‘At the Deep End’. “I had a transitional team devising a transitional mechanism and suggesting various departments and ministries. All that was left were firm appointments and taking over the government.”
But Tsvangirai says he soon sensed a change of mood in the defeated Zanu PF, and his fears were confirmed when South African president Thabo Mbeki announced “there was going to be a run-off in the presidential election long before the results were announced”.
He adds: “I wondered where their information was coming from. Mugabe soon joined the run-off chorus. How did he know, when ZEC [Zimbabwe Electoral Commission] was still holding on to the official results? How did Mbeki know? What was this run-off business all about?
“I was unaware that the law had been changed to deny a winner without 50 percent plus one vote to take over government. It must have slipped my mind at the time when it went through parliament. I did not know that in such an event, a run-off would be needed between the two leading candidates.”
Tsvangirai’s admission that he was ignorant of provisions of the Electoral Act will surprise some of his supporters.
The provision was introduced into the Electoral Act in 2004 as part of a raft of amendments ahead of the 2005 parliamentary elections. It sailed through parliament without opposition from MDC MPs.
A presidential run-off was called for June 27 of the same year but Tsvangirai pulled out after Mugabe’s supporters, he claims with the backing of the military, swept the countryside in a reign of terror which left over 200 MDC supporters dead.
Tsvangirai became Prime Minister in a unity government formed in February 2009 after pressure from regional leaders. Mugabe stayed on as President.
The Prime Minister's memoirs, 'At the Deep End', are published by Penguin Books in South Africa.
***********************
Here is the relevant part of the Electoral Act of 2004:
CHAPTER 2:13
ELECTORAL ACT
Act 25/2004
The run-off principle is spelled out in 110 (3).
110 Determination and declaration of result of election to office of President
(1) Where only one candidate for President is validly nominated at the close of the day on which a nomination court sits in terms of paragraph (a) of subsection (1) of section one hundred and three, the Chief Elections Officer shall declare such candidate to be duly elected as President without the necessity of a poll.
(2) Where two or more candidates for President are validly nominated, a poll shall be taken in each constituency for the election of a President.
(3) Where two or more candidates for President are nominated, and after a poll taken in terms of subsection (2) no candidate receives a majority of the total number of valid votes cast, a second election shall be held within twenty-one days after the previous election in accordance with this Act.
(4) In a second election held in terms of subsection (3) only the two candidates who received the highest and next highest numbers of valid votes cast at the previous election shall be eligible to contest the election.
(5) If, after a second election held in terms of subsection (3), the two candidates referred to in subsection (4), receive an equal number of votes, Parliament shall, as soon as practicable after the declaration of the result of that election, meet as an electoral college and elect one of the two candidates as President by secret ballot and without prior debate.
Also interesting, because the NGOs/UK/US governments always like to talk about 'Mugabe's elections', and other spin.
http://www.kubatana.net/docs/legisl/elecact050121.pdf
102 When election to office of President to be held
(1) Pursuant to subsection (3) of section 28 of the Constitution, an election to the office of President shall be held within ninety days—
(a) before the term of office of the President expires in terms of section 29 of the
Constitution; or
(b) after the office of President becomes vacant by reason of his or her death or resignation or removal from office in terms of the Constitution.
(2) In an election to the office of President, every registered voter shall be entitled to vote.
Labels: 2011 ELECTIONS (ZIMBABWE), 50 PERCENT PLUS 1, MORGAN TSVANGIRAI, STUPIDITY
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Maybe dr. Musokotwane is the dumbest individual on the planet. The Windfall Tax doesn't 'tax 90% of profits'. He says "I draw technical expertise from IMF and World Bank" - the same organisation that told Edith Nawakwi that copper prices would not rise in her lifetime, back when they were $2,000 per tonne. This guy should just resign for being too stupid to be a finance minister. Apparently the concept of progressive taxation escapes him. Wow.
Windfall tax an illusion, says Musokotwane
By Ndinawe Simpelwe
Wed 09 Mar. 2011, 04:01 CAT
THERE is no need to worry about the increase in external debt because the economy is growing, according to finance minister Situmbeko Musokotwane.
And Dr Musokotwane has described the windfall tax on mines as an illusion that would never work anywhere in the world. Speaking on QFM’s Monday Night Live radio programme, Dr Musokotwane said foreign debt now stood at US$1.2 billion.
However, the US $1.2 billion figure given by Musokotwane is contrary to data in the Fifth National Development Plan, which indicates that Zambia’s total foreign debt stood at U$3.4 billion as at October 2009.
He said the debt had risen at a reasonable rate compared with the way it had increased in the past.
“We need to worry about reckless borrowing. But so far the borrowing has not been reckless. The debt has grown, but it should not worry us because the economy is also growing. There is no harm in borrowing if the economy is growing,” Dr Musokotwane said.
Dr Musokotwane said the treasury was expecting more growth in foreign exchange which would help settle some of the country’s debt.
Before attaining the Highly Indebted Poor Countries completion point in April 2005, Zambia’s debt burden stood at US$7.1 billion, a figure accumulated since independence.
Dr Musokotwane said the windfall tax was an illusion and its reintroduction was not under consideration. The orignal tax was an error by those who signed it.
“It is only in Zambia where we still have the debate on the windfall tax. There are a lot of mining countries in the world but none of them is using the windfall tax . . . People should admit it was an error and has been corrected,” said Dr Musokotwane.
“I draw technical expertise from IMF and World Bank, which do not support windfall tax. If you are taxing mining companies about 90 per cent of their profits, it means there is no incentive for them. That is what a windfall tax does to the mines.”
Labels: SITUMBEKO MUSOKOTWANE, STUPIDITY, WINDFALL TAX
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COMMENT - What a retard.
Government maintains stance on windfall taxes
Tuesday, March 8, 2011, 8:13
Government has maintained its stance that it will not re-introduce the windfall taxes on mining companies. Finance and National Planning Minister Situmbeko Musokotwane said the windfall tax was an illusion and a mistake on the part of government.
Dr. Musokotwane said
the scrapping off of such taxes on mining companies has been
done in the best interest of the mining sector in the country. The minister said the move will
in the next five years trigger about one third of government’s revenue collection from the mining sector.
He has assured Zambians of a fair share of wealth in the mining sector through other taxes that exist adding that it will not be fair to impose exorbitant taxes that no other country in world charges.
Dr. Musokotwane said government will be creating a problem by overcharging mining companies as this will discourage investment in new undertakings.
The minister was speaking last evening when he featured on a QFM’s Monday Nite Live program.
QFM
Labels: SITUMBEKO MUSOKOTWANE, STUPIDITY, WINDFALL TAX
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Where are the patients who were on the floor?
By The Post
Thu 09 Sep. 2010, 04:00 CAT
It is said that it is better to “mask no difficulties nor claim any easy victories”. It is better to admit failure than to mask it. Before we know what is happening, the people will find out what the truth is. We are saying this because of what happened at the University Teaching Hospital yesterday.
The acting Minister of Health Dr Brian Chituwo went on a visit of the University Teaching Hospital which seemed calculated to show that what we have written about that hospital may not be true. It seems that from the time that we showed those pictures of people lying around in pathetic surroundings, the University Teaching Hospital management decided to move those people.
That is not a bad thing, assuming those people have been moved to better facilities and are receiving the kind of medical care that their conditions require. What is unacceptable is the attempt to mask the crisis that engulfs our country’s medical sector and particularly the University Teaching Hospital. It is good for a minister such as Chituwo to visit the hospital and to get a first-hand impression of what is actually happening.
This is not about politics, this is about the lives of the people that have elected them to provide the kind of service that the University Teaching Hospital is supposed to provide. Pretending that the University Teaching Hospital does not have problems of congestion and inadequate medical care will not change the truth on the ground.
It is wrong for a public institution to try and address a serious crisis using cheap public relations gimmicks.
It is clear that since the publication of those pictures, people have scampered to move patients around and one hopes that no atrocities were committed in the process. It is nonsensical for people to do this kind of thing instead of addressing the underlying problem.
It is a well known fact that the University Teaching Hospital is not adequately equipped. And it is not uncommon for people to sleep on the floor. It is also not uncommon for the place to stink due to lack of cleaning materials and disinfectants necessary to keep the hospital clean.
These are not things that we are manufacturing. These are things that people who use the hospital or even just visit relatives who use the hospital will know very well. It is shameful for the government to try and mask this problem in any way. The management at the University Teaching Hospital should also not be allowed to mask this problem. Can anyone say that the University Teaching Hospital is functioning the way it is supposed to?
We say this because it is clear that the reason the press were called was to give an impression that all was well at the University Teaching Hospital. The management ensured that people had been moved which is even a more serious indictment of the institution. Why were people not moved before we published the information that showed the pathetic conditions under which our people were being kept?
The acting managing director of the hospital wants to blame the congestion on nurses who he claims were not transferring people to admission wards. What kind of nonsense is this? Is he telling us that the management of the hospital did not know that people were sleeping on the floor? Is he telling us that the management are not supposed to know when such things are going on? Who is managing the University Teaching Hospital then?
This is what happens when there is a total failure of leadership. Rupiah Banda and his government are not truly concerned about what is going on in our hospitals. And because of that, they either do not know and worse still, they do not care to know what is going on in these places.
If they were interested, the management would know that they would not get away with that kind of sloppy behaviour. But more importantly, if they cared, they would make sure that the hospitals were adequately resourced.
But they know that when they are sick, an air ambulance will whisk them away to some five-star hospital arrangements in South Africa. There is no real concern for the health of the whole nation. As for the projects to build hospitals and other facilities, there is no doubt that those works are engulfed in massive corruption.
And when they are finished, so much over-expenditure would have happened. This or that commission would have been paid to someone. This is the interest that the government has in these facilities. This is the same interest that is there in the procurement of mobile hospitals.
There is need for our leaders to be compassionate towards our people and their suffering. If they are going to build hospitals, let them make appropriate structures which cost the nation reasonably.
These projects should not be opportunities for corruption. In that same spirit, let them find the resources to improve hospitals that already exist so that our people don’t have to buy wheelbarrows with which to carry their sick, chasing Rupiah’s mobile hospital wherever it may be anchored for the time being. People like Chituwo are deliberately missing the point that our people are making about the nonsense that Rupiah’s mobile hospitals are.
No one can deny that the hospital infrastructure around the country has collapsed or tottering on the brink of collapse. Even major hospitals like the University Teaching Hospital, Ndola Central Hospital, Kitwe Central Hospital, Livingstone General Hospital and others are in a sorry state of disrepair.
Against that background, does it make sense for people to fail to provide resources for the University Teaching Hospital to operate properly and yet be prepared to bring container hospitals which they are calling mobile hospitals? The crisis at the University Teaching Hospital is merely symptomatic of what is going on in the whole medical sector.
No amount of public relations will change that situation. Rupiah and his friends should stop the corruption that has denied our people medical services for a long time and start addressing the systemic malaise that has crippled the health sector. We need to be able to start somewhere. And the University Teaching Hospital is not a bad place to start from.
Chasing people from the floors where they were sleeping at University Teaching Hospital has not dealt with the problem that our country has with medical care. The crisis of the medical sector will not be sorted out by a few Rupiah Banda-driven tenders. These problems require real leadership; selfless leadership that goes to the root of the problem.
It is disappointing that the only solution that the government could find to the problem of congestion at the University Teaching Hospital seems to have been chasing some patients and probably hiding some of them away from public view. We need to look at this problem of healthcare honestly and sincerely.
It is only when we do that that we can hope to find genuine solutions. Maybe the first place where we should expect some honesty is on the question of where those patients who were sleeping on the floor have gone. The government needs to tell us.
Labels: BRIAN CHITUWO, HEALTHCARE, STUPIDITY
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Patients on floors moved into wards as Chituwo tours UTH
By Agness Changala and Moses Kuwema
Thu 09 Sep. 2010, 04:04 CAT
UNIVERSITY Teaching Hospital (UTH) management has moved out the patients that were sleeping on the floor in the hospital wards.
This move follows a story and pictures that were published last week on Sunday, which depicted the desperate situation at the hospital where patients were found lying on the floor.
An on-the-spot check at the Filter Clinic and D block ward where the pictures were taken revealed that the floors were free of patients and no mattresses was found in the corridors.
Acting health minister Dr Brian Chituwo toured the Filter Clinic and other wards at the hospital.
Dr Chituwo said his presence at the hospital was not planned, but he merely passed through on his way to the office to interact with the members of staff.
After the tour, Dr Chituwo said the government had finished upgrading clinics around Lusaka and that UTH would be decongested once these clinics are commissioned.
“We don’t believe as a health institution we have anything to hide, we are going to fix the problem with management at UTH and if it would be beyond them, there are linkages with the Ministry of Health headquarters that can be ventured into in addressing this problem,” said Dr Chituwo who is science and technology minister.
UTH acting managing director Dr Luckson Kasonka explained that the congestion was created by the nurses who transferred patients to the admission wards every two hours instead of 30 minutes.
Dr Kasonka said in future the hospital would work towards having two or more nurses tasked to take the patients to admission wards so that the Filter Clinic is left free.
However, Dr Kasonka said it was difficult to de-congest the place completely because a lot of patients needed to be attended to at once even with the shortage of manpower.
But sources talked to before Dr Chituwo’s visit said the story and pictures that were published in The Post prompted the minister to visit the institution.
They said the order that was seen yesterday at UTH was temporary and they commended The Post for bringing it out the problem.
“Although some people were in trouble after that story came out, it is good. You people are doing a commendable job but we know this won’t last because very soon, it will get back to congestion,” one of the sources said.
They explained that the sister-in- charge, who was on duty that day, was accused of wilfully allowing the media to take pictures of the congestion at the wards.
Meanwhile, Dr Chituwo said people should not judge the failure or success of mobile hospitals before they see the benefits.
He argued that the government’s decision was aimed at reaching people who could not access services in health centres located several kilometres away from their homes.
Dr Chituwo said the government should only be challenged after the initiative fails.
He further observed that the fertility rate in the country was very high especially in the rural areas.
Dr Chituwo said as a result of the high fertility rate, the dependency population had also increased.
“For instance in rural areas you will find a young girl with a pregnancy or a baby behind her back, this creates high dependency levels and when you have a high dependency population then you have a problem,” Dr Chituwo said.
He said in rural areas people did not only have one wife but three and each of the wives could have as many as five children.
Dr Chituwo said the high fertility rate added more agony in the provision of heath care in the country.
[Brian Chituwo couldn't find his behind with both hands if the population of Zambia was 6 million, instead of 12 million. Blaming population growth is the last refuge of the incompetent and the retarded. There is money in the mines, go and get it. And stop blaming outside factors, like demographics. - MrK]
Labels: BRIAN CHITUWO, HEALTHCARE, STUPIDITY, UTH
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