By Edward Chisanga
In order to explain the late President Banda’s economic performance, for which I remember him, I show below in Figures 1, 2, 3 and 4 economic growths under Presidents Kaunda for a limited period of time, and Chiluba, Mwanawasa, Banda, Sata and Lungu for all the years they presided over Zambia. I don’t have data for the whole period that President Kaunda ruled.
President Chiluba
When President Chiluba took over the Presidency in 1991, Zambia’s economic growth was down to minus 2.0% which was inherited from President Kaunda’s economic downturn from 1980 shown in the Figure 1 below. Despite hitting unprecedented growth of 6.8% in 1993, growth under President Chiluba came to tumble to its lowest peak of minus 8.6% under his rule the following year. Perhaps a carryover from President Kaunda.
Notwithstanding this one year-drawback, and save, 1998 when growth again shrank, the remaining years of Chiluba’s Presidency show a magnificent trend of GDP growth, stretching from 1999-2002. Chiluba’s economic performance is little or not even talked about, yet statistical evidence clearly shows that the economy he presided over then was growing luxuriantly and moving towards improvement.
After all, the most powerful trade unionist Zambia ever had was not as bad as some of his enemies would like us to believe. He was also not an economist yet he did so well.
President Mwanawasa
But the best performer of the Zambian economy, in terms of growth was the President who was equally not an economist but a lawyer. For that reason, I show in Figure 2 below only the period of Mwanawasa’s rule, 2002-2008 in order for the reader to see clearly what I’m talking about.
Using the period under review, GDP growth under President Mwanawasa reached a very high peak of almost 8.0%. Not only that. Consider annual average growths from 2002-2008. Between 2003 and 2008, growth had leapfrogged to an unprecedented annual average level of almost 7.0% shown in Figure 2 below.
We can make an assumption that if God had not taken our lawyer President away, and if the economic growth trajectory had continued as shown in the Figure below until he left office officially, perhaps the economy would have played a major role in improving lives of Zambians.
President Banda
I know turn to President Banda’s time, 2008 to 2011 and wish to ask readers to refer to Figure 3 below, showing GDP growth under his rule. For the three-year period shown, it is clear that Mr. Banda’s Presidency demonstrated robust economic growth reaching the highest peak during the period under review.
In addition, it also shows that Mr. Banda’s growth performance of 10% in 2010 was as high as President Kaunda’s in 1972. We can applaud the Banda Presidency for exhibiting strong economic growth which may not have been exposed to public media.
At the same time, we are cognizant that a black cloud hangs over Mr. Banda’s Presidency. Between 2010 and 2011, his miraculous economic performance of 10.3% in 2010 went crushing down to 5.6% in 2011 when he left office. The fortunate thing is that this is not negative. Therefore, to me, if Mr. Banda’s Presidency had continued, perhaps growth would have continued handsomely and contributed to prosperity. I don’t know what educational background the late President had, but his performance was outstanding.
PF leaders
The period 2011-2020 was Patriotic Front’s (PF) rule and here is why it makes President Banda’s rule superior. As Figure 4 below shows, PF took over when economic growth was outstandingly 5.6%, and the following year 7.6%. After 2013 growth degenerated to 5.1%. Since then, we see that GDP growth slumped massively to reach almost minus 3.0% in 2020. In terms of economic growth, these numbers show that PF was no match for Mr. Banda even though they beat him in elections.
Finally,
Oh my God, by the inconceivable power of your Mercy, let President Banda who died on Friday enter your kingdom even if he sinned like all of us. Friday is the memorial of your bitter agony on the Cross. Because your mercy is inconceivable, the angels will not be surprised at this.
Stellar economic growth was one thing i emphatically loved about Rupiah Bwezani Banda’s era.Then PF embwas came to spoil the party.
Chisanga has got a short memory. Banda surely was a good man, with his integrity 100% in tact. But he couldn’t believe that his own civil servants were as crooked as they were, starting the MoH corruption scandal which is ongoing while we speak. Banda ignored corruption, and this stance was of course inherited by Edgar China Lungu and his band of thieves. Banda was a good man but a not so good president.
I rate president RB almost the same as PLM………..
He was a very underestimated intelligent president………..
Then came the……..
” money in your pockets in 3 months ”
Band of tribal theives and hergmonists who were mostly sponsored by a clique of theives , making sure the same clique looted the Zambian economy while in decline………..
Numbers don’t lie……….
The economy under Banda was affecetd by the GLOBAL economic downturn in 2010. Levy-RB and RB-Kunda were the best teams to have ever ruled Zambia. It was then that Levy softened his tone against his arch rival Sata and no one was arrested for politics. The worst combination was Lungu-Wina.
If Nevers Mumba was to be truthful, he should say his true fillings about Rupiah Banda and his attitude towards Democracy. It is on record that Nevers has blamed it on Banda for his failures to manage MMD after Banda left. Why lie about him just because he is now dead. Just call a spade a spade.
RB was an accidental president. More like ECL. Of course, he had his own issues like the US$11 million oil deal, National Airports procurement, his kids were deep in influence peddling, etc. As well as KK removed him as Foreign Minister in 1976 for alleged doing deals against the Leadership Code and misleading on certain foreign affairs issues.
“Misleading KK” I meant to state
The standards set during the Mwanawasa time were high, Banda was a reasonable custodian after Levy. The Zambian economy was always going to slow down in terms of growth partly due to the decline of copper prices from record highs. With the mass mismanagement of the economy under the PF, one can only appreciate Rupiah Banda now. With Banda, Zambians grew to love him because there was no malice. The longer the was out of office, the more the country warmed up to him. All in all, a statesman, a good man, a unifier.
LT where is my posting?
Instead of looking only at GDP and who was President present a broader view of what else was happening at the time. That is how you analyse. For example the lowest GDP growth of 2020 that you compare with others was grossly affected by the Covid 19 global shutdown. Also one doesnt have to be an economist to be a succesful president like you imply. One of Africa’s success stories is Rwanda led by Kagame a diploma holding business manager. Ghana also doing well is led by a lawyer. Ronald Reagan whom americans view as a great president was an actor. The President of China, the world’s fastest growing economy, Xi is an engineer.
Thanks to all comments. But if only we could limit comments to the subject. The author is talking about economic growth here using numbers. He is not talking about corruption or politics.
regards
Chisanga
LT, the elections passed and your preferred candidate won. Do you still have to block my posts
@ Chisanga that is like saying let’s talk about the army but not the weapons it has
Too much censoring
What was amazing about that?
Mwanawasa did very well. Infact he was the best performer. Rupiah Banda came to ride and gallivant in Mwanawasa’s achievements. Sata’s PF came in and overborrowed and that’s how Zambia’s economic performance came crashing down with Edgar Lungu’s PF taking it to the ICU
He did very well and I recall defending him on this platform when most people called him Nyama soya and corrupt. He left us a surplus and a pretty decent standard of living. It’s KK, LPM, RB and the rest for me, although double HH is climbing up the ladder very fast.
BY THE LOOKS OF THINGS EVEN THE IMPOSTER KZ
WILL BE MADE A NATIONAL HERO
DO WE SUFFER LONG TERM MEMORY LOSS
SEEMS SO
RB was an economist.. He was a superb president. The problem is that he ruled wrong people who believe in rumors and lies. That is why he lost. He could not lie and would call spade spade . Then came PF under great Sata,, Sata know how to lie if he wants to get something or peoples vote. They teamed up with one hateful person Fred M’membe. They spent 24/7 for three years just mad sliming poor RB. I was so surprised why M’embe hated RB so much
Genuinely a good person and a good President, the gangsters who took over from 2011 are the ones who grounded the economy
RB(MHSRIP) did far better than the 10 years of FP. Sata(MHSRIP) may have done better as well had he continued to rule up to last year. Only God knows why he had to take him from us eralier. But for this one, this one from nanikani, who some FP die hards were trying to portray as the Father of Corruption, oh sorry, Father of Nation, his rule was terribly terrible. Yes terribly terrible.