By Angela Moonga
Paramount Group founder Ivor Ichikovich says he hopes his country’s President Cyril Ramaphosa can sit down with President Hakainde Hichilema to find out what it was like to be investor friendly and to address the basics that people need.
Ichikovic made the remarks when he featured on BizNews.
At the start of the interview, BizNews founder Alec Hogg, started out by mentioning that Hichilema was introduced to them by South African opposition leader Mmusi Maimane.
Hogg asked Ichikovich about the situation in Zambia and the recent past election.
In response, Ichikovich said President Hichilema inherited an economy from the PF that was a complete disaster and completely bankrupt.
He said Zambia was the first African country that effectively went into debt restructuring after the COVID-19 pandemic.
Ichikovich said President Hichilema turned the country into one which investors could trust in again.
He said it was a lesson for the continent and the world that if people had the right leader they could change things overnight , something he said President Hichilema managed and for which he felt he should be celebrated.
Ichikovich said while the youths in Zambia were forward looking and looking forward to a promising future, those in South Africa were not.
He urged his President Ramaphosa to take a leaf from President Hichilema on matters bordering on investor friendliness and what it was like to address the basic needs of people, and what it was like to “look at your country like a business.”
Ichikovich said the majority of the Zambian youth felt safe to walk on the streets because they trusted the police and they felt that they were equal before the law.
On the just ended elections in Zambia, Ichikovich said that the “election was peaceful”, and was declared “free and fair” by all the election monitors, by African standards.
”The opposition like oppositions do came out with a very strong opposition and now there is a legal process underway in Zambia because the opposition, obviously went to protest the results. And it was the normal shenanigans where the opposition leader came out and kind of declared victory ahead of the results, and all the kind of normal nonsense that comes with these kinds of elections,” said Ichikovich. “But overall, the result was obviously clear, overall it was peaceful and it was declared free and fair by almost all the election monitors to a model election by African standards.”
