By Kamuti Muyambela
President Hakainde Hichilema was in South Africa on a private trip, as a guest at the launch of a book titled “Expensive Poverty” by Greg Mills, according to the AFP.
The AFP’s Susan Njanji caught up with the President in South Africa, and stated in the article that the President was in that country on a private trip.
“He was in South Africa on a private visit, as a guest at the launch of a book titled “Expensive Poverty” by Greg Mills. He also held talks with President Cyril Ramaphosa on Wednesday,” she stated, in the story read by Daily Revelation.
President Hichilema also said that his government was in the fast track of restoring Zambian’s credibility and creditworthiness after inheriting an economy strapped for cash and crippled by debt, saying previous governments had failed to unlock bailouts in tough talks with creditors in 2020, leading to the country becoming the first in Africa to default during the Covid pandemic.
The President talked about the $1.4 billion, three-year credit line from the International Monetary Fund (IMF), as a breakthrough, telling the AFP that the deal was evidence that the copper dependent economy was at last starting to turn around.
“Inflation — at 15.1 percent, according to official figures — is now the lowest in nearly two years, and the local kwacha currency has appreciated for the first time in 17 years,” he said, according to AFP, but this is not true as the Kwacha has appreciated and depreciated at several intervals during the period being referred to.
AFP quoted President Hichilema saying “The debt crisis is one that would have sent a new leadership into a crisis” but “we went on to manage that default quickly,” adding that the previous governments tried “for seven, 10 years” to enter into an agreement with the IMF, yet his team had concluded it within a few months.
“It was about ‘credibility, seriousness, walking the talk, there’s no question about that,’” President Hichilema said.
The President also said retired public workers, he said had not been paid for 20 years, received a first payout last month despite his government inheriting a “largely empty treasury.”
AFP said the President’s victory spurred hope for opposition parties elsewhere in Africa, where incumbents routinely rig elections, saying despite being a “new kid on the block… I’m learning at the same time, I’m sending a message to colleagues that we can do better.”
“As a continent, we can be defined differently. We shouldn’t be defined by military coups” but by “constitutionalism, respect for human rights, democratic space, inclusion, not exclusion,” the President said according to AFP
https://news.yahoo.com/zambias-leader-says-turning-around-171828277.html
