By Merlyn Mwanza
Mines minister Paul Kabuswe says what Zambia is going through is synonymous to one who has a big boil which is being squeezed out.
Featuring on Prime TV, Kabuswe said it will be painful for Zambians during the process of “resetting “, saying resetting something is always a challenge.
Asked on the high cost of living in the country, with mealie meal at record prices since the founding of the nation, Kabuswe said the UPND administration inherited an economy that was debt ridden.
He said the UPND first had to deal with debt restructuring which was choking the economy, saying the process the administration was in now was to ensure that benefits of the restructuring begin to trickle down, something he said would not be easy.
“I said what the country is going through chikaba kwati ichipute (will be like one having a boil). I have given that analogue a lot of times. So when we are removing the puss from the boil it’s going to be painful at some point … because this country was living a lie,” Kabuswe said, adding that the UPND administration came in so that people can live the truth.
“The process is gonna be painful,” Kabuswe said, arguing that the courageous leadership of the UPND has come in to “press this boil.”
He said people could not say the UPND was a failed project when they renegotiated debt restructuring, employed over 30,000 teachers, over 11,200 health workers, increased CDF from K1.6 million to over K28 million, including providing free education.
He said there were no pangas during elections now, something which of course is an overstatement as there have been several incidences of violence mainly occasioned by UPND cadres during elections periods.
Kabuswe said the government has now introduced a mining commission that will ensure compliance in mining, saying people who said just because Zambia has huge mineral resources therefore that could be used as leverage to repay the debt, were taking a simplistic view as the minerals have to be mined from the soil.
He said the country has not been doing exploration.
But one of the contributors, Sikana Andrew Sumbwa, submitted that the “so-called artisanal licensing is not working” as young people are dying in the gold mines, wondering why ZCCM-IH could not do the mining.
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