While addressing a political rally in July, 2018, Republican President Edgar Chagwa Lungu said “there is no position in politics which is worth shedding blood for.” This has been a consistent message from the Republican President, especially as Zambia head to the 2021 General Elections.

The hearts of most peace-loving Zambians will remain heavy after the happenings of yesterday when two people were shot dead in unknown circumstances around Cabinet Office when a commotion ensued between unruly cadres of United Party for National Development (UPND) and the Zambia Police Service.

One of them is the State Prosecutor from the National Prosecution Authority while nothing much is known about the second victim.
A few days ago, the Zambia Police Service and the Minister of Home Affairs, appealed to the conscience of the UPND leaders not to bring along their supporters, commonly referred to as cadres, when their leader Hakainde Hichilema was to appear at the Zambia Police Service headquarters for an interview in a matter which in which the Economic Equity Party leader Chilufya Tayali, reported Mr. Hichilema for various alleged offences.

While many politicians will be shedding crocodile tears over the death of innocent citizens and members of the diplomatic service have already started issuing statements on the deaths that could have been avoidable.

As a matter of fact, none among these entities, especially diplomats whose countries have maimed tens of thousands of Palestinians, Iraqis has a fair understanding what the families to those deceased Zambians are going through.

For diplomats, the deaths are nothing more than an opportunity for expressing shock or diplomatic rhetoric in the name of citizens’ constitutional rights while for politicians, this is a political campaign issue.

People have been killed like chickens in Palestine, Syria and the rest of the Arab world, and none of these diplomats have taken any responsibility at all. Only British and Americans lives matter.

The actual people feeling the pain of these tragic losses Zambia suffered yesterday are the children and families to the deceased who saw their loved ones leave home only to receive the news later their loved ones are no more.

For our part, we need to say this loud and clear: the mysterious assassinations of innocent citizens which happened this morning appear to have been carefully premeditated by those who contributed to the deaths.

We begin by taking note of the insistence by UPND leaders to accompany Mr Hichilema to his police interview.

These UPND leaders knew that their supporters, who have the shameful record of disrespecting our courts and actually disrupting court proceedings, would do their utmost to force the police to use force. As we saw, the UPND leaders had their intended results, sacrificing a few innocent souls in whatever manner possible.

If these diplomats were honest with themselves, they would have advised Mr Hichilema to avoid going to the police in the company of his cadres – unruly or otherwise, and the tragic losses of life would have been avoided.

These diplomatic statements will not reverse this heartbreaking history, but their words of restraint to Mr. Hichilema, would have prevented it. These diplomats are the only people that Mr. Hichilema listens to, for well-known reasons.
What has happened today appears to have been well-calculated move to achieve the result which the UPND have gotten: the deaths of two innocent Zambians.

Mr Hichilema is not the first person to be summoned by the Police, but no politician such as Mr. Kambwili, the late Mr. Sata or many before them, were ready to sacrifice the souls of their members, as does Mr Hichilema.

We wish Mr. Hichilema was like Kambwili who faces his alleged misdeeds alone and does not sacrifice other people’s souls for his own sake. But that is expecting too much of Mr Hichilema.

We in fact doubt that the two victims were shot by the Police. We think those killings of innocent citizens were premeditated for political reasons.

If the police had intended to cause the death of unruly UPND members, they knew exactly where those members were gathered. They would have shot straight into them. In this case, none of the cadres were targeted.
Surely, who killed those two victims in such a targeted manner? The killings are very highly suspicious to us and they need to be investigated thoroughly.

We are given to understand that both victims died of shots to the head. We cannot help but wonder how a man inside a restaurant, would have been shot in the head just like the other unfortunate victim on Independence Avenue.

These killings seem to have been well calculated and targeted and call for a deep and detailed investigation. In the meantime, our hearts are with the families of the deceased persons who have lost their loved ones.

Author Unknown

By Father Alex Muyebe, S.J., JCTR Executive Director

A few days before the year 2020 comes to an end, it is an opportune time to look back at the last few months, reflect and look ahead to 2021. The year 2019 closed with a focus on two policy pronouncements; the increased fuel pump price and an upward adjustment of electricity tariffs. Stakeholders from all corners of the country echoed concerns on the detrimental trickledown effect that these two policy pronouncements would have on the economy in the year 2020. The two policy pronouncements resulted in increased prices for both goods and services and particularly saw the cost of living as measured by the JCTR rise from K6,600 in December 2019 to K7,410 in January 2020.

The year 2020 on the other hand closes with some key highlights; the enactment of the Planning and Budgeting Bill, the launch of the 2020-2023 Economic Recovery Programme, a favourable copper price of US$7,964 and a bumper harvest of over 3.4 million tonnes of maize in the 2019/20 farming season. For one, the enactment of the Planning and Budgeting Bill provides for an integrated national planning and budgeting process and gives opportunity to capture citizens’ aspirations and needs in national budgets and to attain people-centred development.

The nation however, closes the year with a negative growth rate, double digit inflation and a depreciating currency (opened the year at ZMW14.6 and closes at ZMW21 to US$1) that continue to erode citizens incomes, rising public debt, a US$42.5 million default on its Eurobond, high poverty rates and compounded supply and employment challenges due to COVID-19. Admittedly, a fiscally constrained space limited government’s ability to respond to the needs of the most vulnerable in society, most of whom cannot afford basic necessities.

The cost of living for Lusaka as measured by the JCTR Basic Needs and Nutrition Basket stands at K7, 126.62 as at November 2030 a K635 increase compared to the November 2019 basket. A high cost of living threatens the wellbeing of household’s right to good health and life as their basic requirements are unattainable given the prevailing economic situation. Thus, the country’s dream of attaining prosperous middle income status by 2030 seems bleaker with each passing year. According to Zambia’s Vision 2030, the last decade of the plan should have seen 10% economic growth between 2021 and 2030, inflation of 5%, a national poverty headcount of 20% and reduced income inequalities.

JCTR has in 2020 endeavoured to bring to light key socio-economic issues that affect the dignity of the person, and facilitated dialogue between rights holders and duty bearers in all its work. JCTR is alive to the fact that people should be the end and the means in every development undertaking. The Centre continues to call on the leaders of this nation to have the wellbeing of every Zambian at the core of every development agenda. Particular focus on the poor and vulnerable cannot be overemphasised as their lives are highly compromised in a challenging macroeconomic context.

As we move into 2021, the Centre wishes to call on Government to implement the many plans that we have set out as a nation. The Economic Recovery Programme was preceded by the Economic Growth and Stabilisation Plan whose aspirations have not seen the light of day. The Medium Term Debt Strategy-2017 to 2019 also outlined excellent debt management plans that should have seen sustainability in the debt facet. While the 2021 Budget has planned to register some improvements in the nation’s macroeconomic indicators and considerably increase allocations to a number of social sector budget lines, the 2020 budget macroeconomic indicators and expenditure outturns particularly for the social sector remain way below projected figures. Evidently, the need for Government to effect economic growth centred and pro-poor policies with a focus on climate smart agriculture, energy supply, private sector led growth and commitment to effective debt management in 2021 is paramount.

As we close 2020 and look ahead to 2021, JCTR calls on all Zambians and all state and non-state institutions to ensure peaceful and fair elections in 2021. Though threatened and shrinking, democracy and constitutionalism remain critical pillars of development, and we all must work tirelessly to safeguard these for the betterment of the lives of all the Zambians.