‘Stop cheap talk’ …Don’t use cheap politics to debate economy, opposition warned

By KETRA KALUNGA

OPPOSITION political parties must not use politics to debate the economy, politics is cheap and the economy works in principle, says Party of National Unity (PNU) president, Highvie Hamududu.

Mr. Hamududu who is an economist said it was sad that the sale of Mopani to the government by Glencore was being politicised by the opposition because the government engaged various stakeholders to arrive at its decision.

He said in an interview that it was dangerous for politicians to always politicise economic issues because unlike politics which are cheap, the economy was real and revolved around principles and realities among other facets.

“When it comes to the economy, there are a lot of stakeholders, there are the unions, you can’t ignore them and the interest of unions were considered in this issue.

“Therefore, the decision that the government makes regarding the operations of the mines is in consultation with other stakeholders,”  he said.

Mr. Hamududu bemoaned the fact that there is so much politics around the economy and urged politicians both in the opposition and in government to let the economic decision be founded on evidence and tested principles.

He advised politicians not to politicise every decision made by the government as doing so would cheapen the debate on fundamental economic issues.

“We must de-politicise business, we must de-politicise the economy because politics and economy can’t mix, the economy will be defeated because politics is cheap and the cheap thing always defeats the real thing,” Mr Hamududu said.