IF YOU DIDN’T UNDERSTAND MWANAWASA, YOU MAY NOT UNDERSTAND HAKAINDE HICHILEMA
Good evening, Zambia.
Many people said exactly the same thing during President Levy Mwanawasa’s first term. They mocked economic indicators. They argued that people could not eat graphs.
They even ridiculed him personally, calling him “Cabbage”, but while many were laughing, his government was restoring fiscal discipline, restructuring the economy and laying the foundation that would eventually take Zambia to debt relief and later to middle-income status. The rewards did not come overnight, but when they came in his second term, every Zambian could see the difference.
History has a way of repeating itself. Today, some dismiss economic growth, stronger reserves, debt restructuring, improved investor confidence and other economic indicators as meaningless. They ask, “Can people eat graphs?” They are asking exactly the same question that was asked over twenty years ago.
That is precisely why many people are failing to understand what President Hakainde Hichilema is doing today. Just as President Mwanawasa first repaired the foundations before the visible prosperity arrived, the current administration is rebuilding the economic fundamentals upon which lasting jobs, higher incomes and sustainable national prosperity are built. Those who approach economics through the lens of Kapanyanomics, the belief that borrowing and spending alone create prosperity will always struggle to understand this process.
History has already answered this debate once. The question is whether Zambia is willing to learn from its own history.
Zambia Forward, Together in Unity. One Zambia, One People, One Future.
Saviour Chishimba
President
United Progressive People (UPP)
UPND Alliance Partner
