21/12/2022
Fertiliser delay a result of protracted negotiations with ranking suppliers – Mweetwa
By F***y Kalonda
UPND spokesperson Cornelius Mweetwa says President Hakainde Hichilema has saved a lot of tax payers money by his prudent management of his foreign trips.
And Mweetwa says the delay to start distribution of fertiliser was a result of protracted negotiations the government had with ranking fertiliser suppliers.
“The President has been accused of spending a lot of tax payers money on his foreign trips. My response is very simple. This is one President who has saved a lot of tax payers money by his prudent management of his foreign trips. Number one, by travelling on many occasions on commercial flights meeting a cost which is less than 10 per cent of what the actual cost have been if he was flying in his presidential jet and go and park in Washington for one week, two days, three days, and be able to pay parking fees for the plane. And also, the President moves with a lean entourage like he’s in Washington. I think he’s just with the Minister of Foreign Affairs and maybe just the Minister of Commerce,” he said. “Two, if it were other governments we have seen before, particularly, the previous one [the PF], it would have been a huge team on arrival at the airport. It would have been bigger than the team arriving at the World Cup in Qatar, because a number of ministers and many of whom have nothing to do with those transactions would be there.”
Mweetwa, at a briefing on Sunday, noted that some prophets of doom citing PF presidential aspirants Brian Mundubile, Geoffrey Bwalya and Citizens First leader Harry Kalaba “will continue to paint a gloomy picture about the prospects of a better Zambia”.
He said if what the UPND “has done in one year can replicate itself in the next three to four years, this is a government that would have fulfilled” its electoral commitments within its given mandate.
“We therefore expect that prophets of doom like honourable Mundubile, GBM, Harry Kalaba will continue to paint a gloomy picture about the prospects of a better Zambia. But even the freedom they have to hold press briefings, to occupy all radio stations like they did last week on Thursday, is an example of things that have changed in this country,” he said. “…He (President Hichilema) saves money and perhaps what we could say is that persons like my elder brother honourable Geoffery Bwalya Mwamba are envious that hadn’t it been for their political miscalculation, they may have been the ones that now that the President is in Washington, he should have been acting president and indeed vice-president of the republic of Zambia. But you see, political miscalculation is costly. That is why it is important to have foresight particularly to listen to what the citizens are saying and not what your fellow politicians are saying. Because sometimes we as politicians our view is blurred as to what the people on the ground really want. That is why we as UPND we are very mindful not to take citizens for granted whatsoever. We shall continue to listen to the citizens but more importantly so, we shall continue to do the right things for the nation in accordance with our electoral commitments one of which was to ensure prudent economic and national resource management in government like President HH is doing now with his international and foreign trips.”
Mweetwa wondered who would believe that President Hichilema has done nothing from the time he was elected into office.
“I think that we would like to urge the nation through the media not to be swept by this kind of political propaganda that is hovering around the country. The citizens need to take note that there is competition of identity particularly in the Patriotic Front ahead of their expected national convention where the leader of the opposition in parliament and presidential candidate for the presidency of PF honourable Mundubile, GBM and others have literally got no issues whatsoever to take government on seriously other than peddling propaganda. Who in Zambia can believe that President HH has done nothing in this country in the last one year and some months? I think without going through the catalogue of domestic issues that have been resolved, one can just see that those comments from GBM are laughable. They are politically motivated to try and make himself visible by seemingly attacking the government of the day,” he said. “From his statement, I think a number of you have read it. The only thing I personally picked was that whoever his speech writer is, wrote some quite good English but without substance. That is what I picked from the statement by GBM. As of my colleague Hon Mundubile who is alleging that the nation should prepare and brace for lawlessness, between 2023 and 2026 by the UPND, those statements are unpatriotic and dangerous to investment. Those statements coming from the leader of opposition are capable of frightening foreign direct investments because investors they begin to think twice that in the next few years to go Zambia will be politically unstable. Hon Mundubile will do well to remind himself that the leadership of President HH is anchored on the rule of law and not the lawlessness that they and them as PF orchestrated when they were in government. The only way, it would appear, PF knows governance is through lawlessness and violence and that is why he is positioning himself as a prophet of doom. But we are not surprised because even before President HH could be sworn in, even before the first UPND budget could be put into practice, Hon Mundubile and his colleagues had already predicted that UPND was a failure and started concocting a narrative that UPND would be a one term government.”
And Mweetwa said the government would continue to perfect the systems over farming inputs and ensure this year’s situation does not happen again.
He said he met with the ministers of information and agriculture to ensure the challenges in the collection and disbursement of agro inputs in Southern province are ironed out.
“Going forward starting Monday, I would like to encourage farmers to go to their various points of collection and smoothly collect their inputs, those that have not yet collected. Out of the 27,000 farmers for instance in Choma district, more than 20,000 have already collected. But we want every farmer to collect. That is why even where the majority have collected, we shall continue to perfect the systems to ensure that 100 per cent collect. I would also like to indicate that that scenario was caused by government’s desire to clean out and rid out ghost beneficiaries from FISP. That is why the system went electronic through Smart Zambia but technology as we know it has its own challenges, that is what caused the delay,” he said. “Going forward, it is expected that farmers will collect their inputs on time before the planting window closes. The planting window ordinarily closes on the 15th of January, so we are still within the planting window. But we are being mindful that because of climate change challenges, of sometimes unpredictable weather and rainfall patterns, it is better that our farmers get the inputs early for the season. Let me also clarify this, that the delay to have started the distribution of fertiliser was a result of protracted negotiations that government had with ranking fertiliser suppliers. The metric tonnes that are required to satisfy national fertiliser demand was initially pegged at US $553 million, at the prices that the suppliers then had pegged their commodity. And government had to grind its negotiations slowly until a savings of a US $123 million was met. Actually, 153 million dollars was saved. So you can see this amount of money which was saved…”
Mweetwa added that he has a dossier ready to be presented to the country should President Hichilema fail to address the country before the New Year as expected.
“…so this amount of money that was saved if government had rushed into exorbitant contracts...We thought as a party this should be enough and we are aware that the government is putting in place mitigation measures to ensure that this scenario of this year does not repeat itself. Two things, one government is encouraging local production of fertilisers and you have seen brand new companies opening. Number two, it’s to proactively be able to engage into the importation of fertiliser without…because as you know it takes more than 10 months to transport fertiliser from the Middle East to Zambia. And so Zambia, the Zambian government was in a difficult situation negotiating for these prices because if we did not buy, the suppliers, it would have taken another 10 months to wait for that fertiliser but your government is doing their best as demonstrated…” said Mweetwa. “So progress is being registered in various sectors and I am aware that the President of the Republic of Zambia may address the nation before we start the new year…In an event that the President gets held up, I have a dossier which I want to present to the nation before we go to 2023 so that we take stock of what has happened in 2022. What the government of the people has done, where success has been scored. Where challenges have been observed. What we expect to do in the year ahead…”
