By Jane Chanda
Zambia’s former permanent representative to the United Nations Mwaba Kasese Botha says the current state of affairs in Zambia should offer the whole world a lesson on how not to run a country.
Speaking with Daily Revelation, Dr Botha said it was time for global governments to learn from Zambia’s mistakes and avoid similar “misrule.”
“The current state of affairs in Zambia is a lesson to the world on how not to run a country,” Dr Bota stated. “It’s time for us to take responsibility for our actions and work towards creating a better future for ourselves and future generations. We need to learn from our mistakes and find a way forward. The global community should take note of Zambia’s experiences and avoid making similar mistakes.”
Dr Bota, expressed disappointment with Zambia’s current state, citing the collapse of all social services, economic growth, and development sectors.
She said the problems have been further exacerbated by a severe energy crisis that has left the country with an average of only 360 hours of power in 12 months, equivalent to just 15 days of power.
She stated that this had never been seen before in modern history, and no government had ignored the importance of electricity in development to this extent.
Dr Bota emphasised that the government’s failure to provide adequate electricity had severe consequences.
“The current state of affairs in Zambia is a lesson to the world on how not to run a country,” she stated, highlighting the gravity of the situation.
She also pointed out that farmers in heavy rainfall areas received only 6-8 medas of a 10 meda bag of fertilizer, which was insufficient to address the country’s food insecurity issues.
Dr Bota also criticised the current state of the education sector, noting that children in schools were sitting on each other’s laps due to overcrowding, with 150 pupils in a class of 4 by 4 and one teacher.
She highlighted that this had resulted in teachers being unable to give homework as they could not manage to check 150 books at a goal consistently.
“Even in class, teachers cannot manage to check who they are leaving behind due to the unsustainable pupil-teacher ratio,” Dr Bota stated.
Dr. Kasese-Bota also added that the current education policy had a devastating impact on the country’s young minds, effectively turning naturally gifted children into non-learners.
