WHAT IS ZAMBIA’S REAL DEBT FIGURE?
…should we listen to President HH or Musokotwane
Dear Editor,
THE Minister of Finance, Dr. Situmbeko Musokotwane, has given a different figure, USD 14.48 Billion, as Zambia’s debt. This is a contradiction to what President HH earlier said. As NDC, we had advised the UPND that saying that the PF had left empty coffers and that we had secret debts were serious allegations, so we urged them to add those two critical issues to the presidential speech but that was never done.
So now, the Minister of Finance has finally spoken on this issue, and figures are significantly different. We were getting convinced that maybe its true Zambia had US$ 35 billion and we were just waiting for proof of that, but instead we hear $14.48. Clearly the president gave us a wrong figure.
So we now advise the UPND to do the following:
Tell us ALL the debt that the PF left and confirm that what they have given is the final figure.
Tell us who the creditors of the secret debt are.
Apart from the exact amount, we want to know when the debt was contracted.
The UPND is in Government now and they can surely provide us with this simple information above. If they don’t, then we shall conclude that the current government lied about Zambia’s debt to paint their predecessors black and also to lay a foundation on which to give all manner of excuses when they fail to deliver on their campaign promises.
SABOI IMBOELA – SI
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