FINANCE and National Planning Minister Situmbeko Musokotwane has said Patriotic Front (PF) leader Michael Sata is afraid of facing President Rupiah Banda in next year’s presidential elections following landmark achievements recorded in the last two years by the current Zambian leader.
Dr Musokotwane said Zambia’s ranking in the global economies as the 10th most improved in the process of doing business in the past year was among factors sending the opposition leader into panic.
In an interview in Lusaka yesterday, Dr Musokotwane said the Government had “swept Mr Sata off the carpet” with an easy entry into the 2011 presidential election campaign on the back of a record bumper harvest, single-digit inflation and growing international recognition.
He said the Government was delivering development at a pace that had never been reached before and that the opposition parties were finding it hard to accept.
“We are addressing all the social challenges decisively and they are obviously panicking because of the elections. They are stunned with the record pace at which we are constructing schools, health centres and roads,” Dr Musokotwane said.
He said during the period of the global financial crisis, the opposition and analysts aligned to the opposition had condemned the Government for alleged failure to address the challenges posed by the economic downturn, but facts now suggested that Zambia was among the few countries that were successful.
Dr Musokotwane said with the 7.3 per cent annual rate of inflation for the month of October, the Government was optimistic of better performance before the close of the year.
Dr Musokotwane also said the Government remained optimistic that the projected copper output of 720,000 tonnes would be reached this year.
“So they will continue to do politics but we will continue providing development to the people of Zambia,” he said.
[pullquote]“We are addressing all the social challenges decisively and they are obviously panicking because of the elections. They are stunned with the record pace at which we are constructing schools, health centres and roads,” Dr Musokotwane said.[/pullquote]
The minister said the high ranking by the World Bank resulted from the Government’s well-focused policies that included the opening of the one-stop-border post at Chirundu.
He said the Government had drastically reduced bureaucracy in the processing of business licences and importation, and that was responsible for the growing economic activity in the country.
Last week, World Bank acting director in charge of global indicators and analysis, Neil Gregory said Zambia and Cape Verde had risen 10 and eight spots, respectively, with Zambia grading 76th in the doing business 2011 index.
Mr Gregory said at the launch of the 2011 Doing Business Report that Zambia had performed well in easing the business start-up by eliminating the minimum capital requirements.
Well done MMD under the wise leadership of RB and team .Keep it up zambia will trully never be the same again .we are in a hurry to develop this beautiful unique country not just empty insults and false demonic promises of more money in the pockets in 90 days.
mr sata is a not so smart businessman all out to make money using PF. the presidency is just a ruse and sata is least intrested. while his followers have been hoodwinked to think sata is gunning for presidency the fact is sata has amassed untold wealth during the period he has been PF leader. Sata says PF starts and ends with sata. ask kapata, mumbi or lubinda. why do you think lubinda has fallen out of favor
To say Mr. Sata is scared is an understatement. Mr. Sata knows he cant win the 2011 elections. He has failed on council level. He cant even perform a simple task such as garbage collection or building some drain-ages in Kabwata. What makes him think he can govern a nation of 12 million people.
#1 yaya and #3 mr capalist 3Es right on. PF controole councils have failed lamentably. lusaka pf mayor was given 10billion kwacha by local govt to do drainages in kanyama todate they havent delivered. all they do is embezzle council funds. If these bums can fail to run councils and their small pact how do you entrust them with national affairs. sata is just out to make money for his many children including those he has with catholic bishop tresphore mpundu’s sister
Lets ignore kitchen sink politics of sore losers and their armchair critics in the tabloid industry. Keep our eyes as a country transfixed on the big ball of unlocking prosperity in the country. Armchair critics like Sata are nothing but irrelevant deviants armed with useless menus of insults. I applaud seasoned diplomat and statesman RB for providing a pragmatic leadership that has deafeningly ignored all acts of aberration losers turn to instead he is tenaciously delivering national development. The country has prosperity for every hard working ingenious Zambian on the ground. PF kaponyas will degenerate into poverty because they have vested their productive time in fantasy and utopia of imaginary more money in the pocket from Sata the Frank Bwalya way.
I too have realised that PF is just another business or cash cow for Mr Sata’s other businesses.
Those who know my blogging will know that I try to use mild and reasoned arguments, but please allow me one indiscretion…the only word I can use when it comes to Mr. Sata is “CLOWN” the man is not fit to be a President. He just talks and talks about anything, but if you analyse he has actually said nothing…increible that people would actually consider him for State House.
Sata is a businessman. He sees the endless flow of money coming into PF as his personal money. He knows that he will never make state house. Its there for all to see. I am glad I belong to the Mighty Men for Development. #6 u are so right. PF is a cashcow business.
Zambians should learn from the USA, little progress of RB is nothing. People must be angry and choose differently but how many are informed.
Who is cheating you 1-7. You know it yourselves that RB is damn scared of SATA. 2011 is around the corner. And how does SATA come in anyway. We shall see.
Whereas I tend to agree that Sata cannot deliver to our expectations as a President in this era, I also have a problem with RB and his team. RB’s team seems to have very low standards. They celebrate low achievements. When you talk about bumper harvest, who are you comparing yourself with? A country like Malawi (one of the poorest) has a much bigger harvest this year & no one is singing about it. With less than a seventh of Zambia’s agricultural land Malawi beat us by far. And to think we have over 40% of the water in the whole of SADC & yet the least utilised for agric and other water uses. I really can’t hear these MMD songs!
Musokotwane should leave politics to politicians? Both RB & Sata should be sent to their respective villages to rest.
I just wonder why Zambians think they owe those two old men doing chibuya at national expense.They both dont have substance in their speeches
# 11 & 12 u are spot-on. These two leaders RB and Sata have set very low standards in Zambian politics and have consitently embarrassed Zambians.OOh GOD we honestly deserve better!!!
I WONT STOP WAITING FOR MAGANDE!!!
we shall still vote for MC SATA viva PF
All our leaders have failed to deliver, be it Sata, RB, or our very own under 5, HH. No need to finger point. Since RB was elected into that higher office, he has done absolutely nothing other than flying all the time like a bird. though a bird is slightly better.
I can’t understand Musokotwane, coz he is speaking as if he stays outside zambia, Chi Musokotwane pipo of zambia have tried that man Mr. RB and they have all the reasons as to why they want to change leardership in zambia,, I’m not saying Sata is perfect NO! but we are in this situation where we have no other option. RB, is just walking in on what the late Mr. LPM projected….
11 ba vera, no one is comparing Zambia’s bumper harvest with other countries. We are interested in OUR stomachs. We are comparing with what has been achieved before in THIS country. It was a MONUMENTAL ACHIEVEMENT for which any sensible Zambian should be proud. If your daughter passed her final exams with a credit, are you telling us that you would not celebrate with her because other people’s daughters scored distinctions? Learn to appreciate what God has given you, or he will take away the little that he has given you.
It’s funny that everyone blogging apart from #14 Sir G is a person who is likely to vote and knows the status of our country because he is on the ground and can’t see the bread and butter sweet talk coming from RB and Musokotwane. It’s not all about doctored inflation figures of 7.5, easing business to suit the corruption few, removing the ACC abuse of office law so that they plunder our money. So all you “foreigners” don’t support blindly just because you have food on your tables. Go back to Zambia and enjoy your so called MMD achievements if you won’t come naked running to your “toilet” jobs! Atase!
My vote is for RB and the MMD. Lets not pretend as if we are blind as said by our mighty lady Dora Siliya. A lot has been done in Zambia worth noting and the more reason why RB needs another five years in office.
I rest my case
can musokotwane mention the schools, roads and health centres which have been started and completed only in the last two years? he knows he is lying because all these projects started under LPM. this is how cheap he has become – just another headless cadre. the inflation he talks about has very little to do with what govt does or does not do. it is subject mainly to market forces, which are generally free of govt intervention in our current economic model. i would give more credit to the farmers themselves for bumper harvest. about praise from world bank – if he was smart he would be more concerned about being praised by zambians themselves, who are the voters. but i wouldn’t expect him to realize this going by the levels of stupidity he exhibits.
We can surely expect more trash from Musokotwane especially after it was claimed that he is 10 times better than Magande. The man is slowly but surely reducing himself to the level of William Banda and that is very worrying. Mr Musokotwane must operate like a professional and maintain some integrity and leave bootlicking to desperate job seekers.
I agree with bloggers that say both Mr Sata and Mr RB are out of touch, too old and irrelevant to 21st century politics and must permanently go into oblivion.
19 Lets not pretend as if we are blind. Pretend and as if means the same thing. Any way i don’t blame you instead, i blame your former Lozi engish teacher.Lol
Number 22, do you agree or disagree with the data provided? I am saying this because even your sentence “Pretend and as if MEANS…” is wrong, instead MEANS should read MEAN because you are referring to two things. Even ‘i’ should be ‘I’. lol Take care dear.
I wonder how our learned minister should even waste his time discussing these rankings. Zambia has been ranked this or that before but does it translate into anything when it comes to poverty levels in the country? And who does these rankings by the way?
Musokotwane please! We know you owe RB for the “ten times better” compliment. Why didn’t you make this comment before your boss alleged that u are beta than Magande? Scratch my back I scratch yours?????
Obviously
Ha ha ha, Musokotwane and the cheap politics. what is a bumper harvest? do you people know about the entitlement theory of economics? even in a bumper harvest some people infact many Zambian will continue to go without meals because they don’t have the financial capacity or assets to convert into an entitlement for food. How many times have politicians talked about recording the bumper harvest? we even see these cheap cadres who on empty stomach rush to the press to talk about bumper harvest. I feel for most Zambians i visit friends in Hospitals like Kitwe Central and other clinics and i tend to wonder why the facilities are terrible. lets not talk about who shd take over first things first, is our economy ok? are we genuinely happy with the health and other sectors? Analyse your problems
Analyst @25. i like your thinking. Who has ever put single digit inflation pa table to eat. Has the buying power of the kwacha improved. these economics gymnastics don’t translate into anything. its like trying to convince a hungry person that statistically and economically you are satisfied
Ahem, isn’t everyone forgetting that little matter about the human development index?
a cobra is afraid of a tripper pig….?! LOL
The difference between the PF/UPND and the Movement for Mass Destructors is the action. To start with Musokotwane’s signal digit imflation is simple rhetoric, he can not translate that to stable or improved purchase power on the citizenly. Its kind of funny but were investigating cases where MMD has been using the bumper harvest rethoric as a way of stealing our money and fundraising. There instances where farmers who supplied 200Bags found they hace been entered to having supplied 2000, and MMD wants to steal the balance. There adding an extra 0 to the actual values. This dual minister needs to understand that in malaysia, you have your business/ company setup on 1 desk, ie far much less than in Zambia. Now how does registering a business got to do with government providing quality…
1-7 u are just cheating yourselves and wasting precious time to praise RB and his minions!! why cant u just stay in your offices and do something valuable? 2011 we come and u will go with shame and yo RB & company..have not u observed that pipo are hungry for change?
Hold your peace we need change as zambians and not RB and Company again!!!!!!!!
Zambians? let me tell you something about zambians.we are all just full of shit you hear people talk about other people who are actually trying at something and call them names ,when all you do is just drink and talk shit enjoy the little freedoms you have and shut up.all you suckers are talking about is something you heard from somebody else no ideas of your own if given a chance to do something about the Zed situation you spineless twats won’t even lift a finger grow the f$@k up.the country is already sold and you are doomed to slavery.read between the lines…………….
#32, you are very useless.What have you done about mother Zambia yourself. Who sold Zambia? why didnt you stop them or you expected someone to do it for you? dont insult people with analytical minds who are simply trying to exchange and air their views please.
#32 I totally agree wit u. we are busy bloging while our zed is being sold piece by piece. #33 you are an *****, ukaye kumushi chi color. Musokotwane nao acha. RB this Sata that, HH this Mulupi that, honestly are u not tired of being foolish spectators and do think aba bafi color they care about u and me? there conduct says to the contrary, ichikwaka bachimwena ku ma palanya. lets hold these zed smooth criminals we call politicians accountable. Its high time we got some respect as citizen of this great land. As for those who want to be blind and tribal cadres you can lick you sticking ass-holes Zambia doesnt need your madness and cheap talk..