Hakainde, how do you manage sleeping at night with people buying fuel at K34.19?

By Daily Revelation Editor

It is very difficult to see how Zambians are going to survive given the ever escalating prices of commodities in the country

Two days ago, the Energy Regulation Board (ERB) hiked the fuel prices for petrol from K29.98 to K34.19 and diesel to K32.15 from K29.69 and Jet A-1 will be K32.69 from K29.26.

These are no small increments at all. They are what we would call in football as going for a kill. The government has just relegated more and more people into destitution by this one act alone, because we can confidently state that the prevailing high cost of living will worsen people’s living conditions, as prices in the economy respond to the increment in the fuel prices. It’s such a crying shame that we are having to bear with such huge prices in fuel from the promise that we would be getting a liter of fuel at only K13 to now getting the same at K34 now.

In just the two years Hakainde Hichilema has been in office, he has scored a first as he often boasts, by increasing the price of fuel by 100 percent. We wonder what happened to the formula Y-C and the removal of middle men which was going to ensure that the prices were reduced from what Hakainde described as the highs of K17.

One of the fundamentals the ERB said contributed to this very high price was the continued depreciation of the Kwacha. Now we are also wondering what happened to that most unique magnet Hakainde possessed which was going to attract business confidence into the country, and by that ensure a supersonic appreciation of the Kwacha against other major convertible currencies. Alas the Kwacha, which embarked on this depreciation trajectory around October 2022 has been in free-fall, despite some very few short-lived appreciations here and there, it has fallen in auto-pilot fashion, as Hakainde would often say during his opposition times when he boasted that he would address such ‘elementary’ problems if he were given the opportunity to lead the country.

In one of the many recordings we have where he boasted about the same things he is now failing to address, Hakainde said about the depreciation of the Kwacha: “That cost you load it to the cost of doing business, including generating electricity. There are turbines there, you import those things. Because of your foolishness and lack of vision the Dollar exchange rate Mwanawasa left it at K5 you take it to K13. That’s a cost. It goes into producing electricity because of lack of leadership.”

That was just one of the many famous quotes from Hakainde. We don’t know what he will say now about his own leadership in view of the statements he was making.

Sad as the situation is right now, even the person who served as Hakainde’s predecessor and is eyeing to become his successor again, can’t seem to provide the solutions on some of the challenges the country is facing. Asked during the recent press briefing he held on how he would handle certain challenges the country was facing, former president Edgar Lungu responded that he was not the one in State House. We are wondering why he still feels that he should be entrusted with power again if he can’t provide solutions. Does he really understand his role as former president of this country?

It’s saddening we keep going around this vicious cycle where politicians want to take people for granted. Hakainde promised so much, but look at what is happening now. How does he feel going to bed at night in the knowledge that the people he leads are having to buy petrol at K34.19 per liter?

If the fuel and other prices are escalating on account of the weakened Kwacha, why are you still giving your main forex earner tax holidays? Why have you reduced mineral royalties from six percent to three percent when the copper prices are still reasonably high on the international market, almost similar prices at which the late Levy Mwanawasa imposed a windfall tax on the mines? Why are you sacrificing your own people in favour of the foreign investors?