The United States Government has given a K39 billion grant to Zambia under the new five-year Country Development Cooperation Strategy.

And President Edgar Lungu says government appreciates the support rendered by the United States of America in different sectors of the economy.

President Lungu has cited health, education and social protection as among the key sectors of the economy that have received tremendous support from the US government.

The Head of State made the remarks when United States Embassy Charge d’Affaires, David Young paid a courtesy call on him at State House today as part of the celebration of the new five year Country Development Co-operation Strategy agreement between the United States Agency for International Development (USAID) and the Zambian government.

“The United States of America’s support has been essential in complementing the Zambian government’s efforts in preserving lives, particularly human resources required for economic development,” he stressed.

“More recently, the United States pledged $14.5 million to Zambia for the COVID-19 response. The support has been earmarked, among others, towards the purchase of medical equipment, such as oxygen machines, testing equipment, and other supplies aimed at combating the pandemic,” added President Lungu.

The president emphasised that the health sector has been the greatest beneficiary of the support from the U.S. government especially in the fight against HIV/AIDS, Malaria and Malnutrition, among others.

Meanwhile, U.S. Embassy Chargé d’Affaires (CDA), David Young explained that the K39 billion represents a renewed commitment by his country towards Zambia’s journey to being self-reliant.

Mr Young has stated that the long-term strategy will benefit more than 2.5 million citizens in the areas of health, education, economic development, and democratic governance.

“Subject to continued availability of funds from the U.S. Congress, the agreement signifies the total amount of planned funding the United States has pledged over the next five years to implement development assistance and programmes in support of the work of the U.S. Agency for International Development, which serves as a blueprint on how the U.S. government will help Zambia ultimately end its need for development assistance,” Mr Young underlined.

And speaking later in a discussion with cabinet ministers, Mr Young pointed out that the new USAID strategy helps support a road map towards Zambia’s self-reliance, aiming for a time when the country will no longer need to rely on foreign assistance.

The U.S.Embassy Charge d’Affaires affirmed that his country’s vision aligns with and supports Zambia’s Seventh National Development Plan and vision 2030 that aspires that the country attains its middle income status.

“Over the next five years, through USAID, the United States is committed to working with the Zambian government, its citizens, the private sector, and other donors to improve health, literacy, and food security for the most vulnerable Zambians,” Mr Young added.

In response, Finance Minister, Bwalya Ng’andu disclosed that the K39 billion grant that was signed in July this year, will go a long way in improving the health, education, water, sanitation and hygiene sectors.

Dr Ng’andu has assured the U.S. government of prudent use of the resources as enshrined in the Public Financial Management Act of 2018 that provides for an institutional and regulatory framework for management of public funds through the strengthening of accountability, oversight, management and control of public funds in the public financial management framework.

Cabinet Ministers that attended the ministerial discussion with Mr Young include Ministers of Agriculture Michael Katambo, General Education Dennis Wanchinga, Foreign Affairs Joseph Malanji and Presidential Affairs Freedom Sikazwe.

In 1977, the U.S. government first established the USAID presence in Zambia.

Since then, USAID has invested more than K80 billion ($4 billion) towards Zambia’s economic, political, and social development, and helped the country respond to major crises such as the HIV/AIDS pandemic, periodic droughts, and the current coronavirus disease.

National Democratic Congress (NDC) leader Dr. Chishimba Kambwili has been jailed for 1 year.

This is in a case where Kambwili was charged with three counts of forgery, uttering a false document, and giving false information to a public officer.

It is alleged that in October 2013, with intent to defraud or deceive, Kambwili allegedly forged a ‘No change return’(companies form 71) purporting to show that it was genuinely signed by his son Mwamba when it was not.

Lusaka Principal resident magistrate David Simusamba has since jailed Kambwili 1 year for forgery and another year for uttering a false document.

Magistrate Simusamba ruled that the accused person was behind the fictitious person called Mwamba Chishimba and therefore found him guilty of the charge

Kambwili has however been acquitted of the charge of giving false information to a public officer.

The two sentences will run concurrently, meaning he will only serve a year.

Magistrate Simusamba further said the excuse that the accused signed under a power-of-Attorney when Mwamba Chishimba was fictitious can not stand.

His lawyer, Musa Mwenye State Counsel pleaded with the magistrate to exercise leniency on Mr. Kambwili as he is a family man.

Dr Kambwili was accused of tampering with evidence in a case in which the latter was facing three counts of forgery, uttering false documents and giving false information to a public officer.

The Zambia’s Economic and Equity Party (EEP) Leader Chilufya Tayali, who was a key state witness said during the trial that it was for a fact that Kambwili uttered with the documents which were the board resolutions signed by the accused as chairman of the meeting that sat to utter the records at PACRA.

Mr. Tayali has maintained that the fact that Kambwili had chaired that meeting confirmed that he caused the alteration of the documents even though he did not physically file them at PACRA.

“By the fact that he chaired the meeting that resolved. I confirmed that he chaired because the board resolutions were filed with other documents at PACRA which counsel brought out when I was being cross-examined,” he said.

“Sometimes, like in this case, people made a resolution to file documents at PACRA but they did not themselves to PACRA to file the documents. However, they sent someone else to go and file. And from my knowledge, this agent acts on behalf of the people that have sent him. Therefore in as much as they did not go to file physically by themselves, I concluded they filed in the documents to utter the records at PACRA.”

The EEP Leader further said he had lodged the complaint against Kambwili because the records from PACRA that he was shown by the police, were different from what he had testified earlier in magistrate Simusamba’s court.

Mr. Tayali added that he was concerned because if anyone went to PACRA to get a print out of the records, they would be different from what he had testified earlier.

Mr. Kambwili has alleged that it was State House victimizing him through EPP leader Chilufya Tayali, adding that the EPP leader reported him to State House that he uttered documents at Patents and Companies Registration Agency (PACRA) in 2013.

The Zambian Government has informed its creditors including Eurobond holders that it will not be able to meet its obligations if they do not agree to its proposed interest payment holiday on debt.

Government announced last month it was seeking about $120 million in deferrals from holders of its $3 billion in Eurobonds for six months, while it works on a debt-restructuring strategy.

In a statement, Secretary to the Treasury Fredson Yamba says all creditors have been asked for similar relief, after some non-commercial creditors agreed to a payment freeze under a G-20 plan.

Mr. Yamba explained that due to governments’ limited fiscal space, it will be unable to make payments and therefore, fail to forestall accumulating arrears.

He said the only foreign-currency debt that Zambia will continue to pay on time is to multilateral agencies and debt for a few priority projects that have an immediate economic and social impact.

Eurobond holders are due to meet on 20th October 2020 to vote on the proposal, and a group of holders already said they could not vote in favor without further assurances and transparency from the Zambian government.

Below is the full statement

COLLABORATIVE AND CONSTRUCTIVE DIALOGUE WITH CREDITORS

Lusaka, 13 October 2020 – Following the presentation by the Minister of Finance Dr Bwalya Ng’andu, MP, to Creditors on September 29th 2020, the Government of Zambia and its advisers (Lazard Freres and White and Case) have received a number of questions from creditors asking for further clarification on the Republic’s debt strategy, notably in respect of how it intends to approach the servicing of its external debt in the current environment.

As explained in the Minister of Finance’s Presentation to the Creditors, Zambia is confronting considerable challenges and liquidity difficulties compounded by the impact of the COVID 19 pandemic that has led the Government to request the cooperation of all its creditors. In this regard, the Government is negotiating debt service suspension agreements under the G20 Debt Service Suspension Initiative (DSSI) with all its official creditors and has requested comparable treatment from commercial creditors.

In that connection, the Government has sought the consent of the holders of Zambia’s outstanding Eurobonds to a standstill on debt service for a period of six months until April 2021 while it finalises its Debt Sustainability Analysis (DSA) and seeks to put the country’s debt on a sustainable trajectory.

In view of the urgency of the current situation, the Government has determined to ask all its external creditors to agree to debt service suspension on the same terms. The only FX denominated debt that Zambia will continue to pay on a current basis is debt from multilateral agencies and debt for a few priority projects that have an immediate economic and social impact. More information about the perimeter of such priority projects will be provided separately. To be clear, such suspension will apply to all scheduled payments of principal and interest, including accumulated arrears, for a six-month period while it completes its DSA.

Should Zambia fail to reach an agreement with its commercial creditors (including holders of its Eurobonds) on the terms of the appropriate standstills, as previously stated, the Republic with its limited fiscal space will be unable to make payments and, therefore, fail to forestall accumulating arrears.

The debt service suspension period that the Government is requesting will allow us to work, with the assistance of our financial and legal advisors, and in cooperation with the IMF, and all our creditors including the Noteholders and their Ad-hoc committee, to design a sustainable and equitable debt management strategy. Our common objective will be to normalize our relationship with our valued financial partners as soon as circumstances allow and to orderly address Zambia’s debt challenges. We remain committed to ensuring equitable treatment of all our creditors and ensuring transparency in our engagements.

Should the Noteholders consent to the standstill, we will recognize interest accruing on deferred coupons in the restructuring process, at a rate to be determined in good faith with Noteholders.

The Government would like to take this opportunity to reiterate its strong desire and willingness to use this standstill to engage, with the assistance of its financial and legal advisors, in a collaborative and constructive dialogue with all its creditors to design a sustainable debt strategy in the weeks and months to come.

Issued by:
Fredson K. Yamba
SECRETARY TO THE TREASURY

Socialist Party presidential candidate for the 2021 elections, Fred M’membe, has dismissed assertions that he was instrumental in ushering the ruling Patriotic Front into the Government using his now-defunct Post Newspaper.

Speaking when he appeared on Hot FM radio’s Red Hot breakfast show on Tuesday to discuss numerous issues, Dr. M’membe said that he did not create PF and that it is over the top to give him credit for late President Micheal Sata’s victory in 2011 elections.

Dr. M’membe, who was Post Newspapers editor-in-chief and managing director for over two decades, refused credit for catapulting the PF into power in 2011.

“I did not create PF and it is an over credit to give me all the credit for Michael’s victory in 2011. I don’t think I deserve that credit,” Dr M’membe noted, when a caller told him that a monster (the PF) he helped to create has now turned against him.

“If I could put Michael into government in 2011, then it would be very easy to put the Socialist Party in government next year.”

Dr M’membe was, however quick to point out that n government is permanent when asked if there was wind of change in the country.

“Nothing is permanent in life – everything changes. Even our bodies are changing every second; the cells are replicating themselves. No government is permanent, no system is permanent,” Dr M’membe answered.

He said capitalism, like colonialism, would crumble.

“Humanity started living under primitive communalism where we were just hunters and gatherers. Then we came to the slave-owning society which lasted thousands of years, then we came to the feudal society and then we entered the capitalist society,” he explained.

“The capitalist society is not permanent; it’s just about 600 or 700 years old. It will go away and be replaced with another system. There was colonialism in this country and we never thought it would end. [But] it ended. There was the one-party state which was so powerful and we never thought it would end. [But] it ended. Nothing is permanent; everything is under motion. Everything is undergoing change.”

He told socially and economically distraught Zambians that: “It gets dark sometimes, but the morning comes. Don’t give up! Don’t despair. A better society is possible but we have to struggle for it. It won’t just come like manna. Good things don’t come easy, they don’t come by themselves,” Dr M’membe said.

“We have to work for them. Let’s work for a better society where children can have access to education, to health services, to food, and grow up in a dignified way.”

And Dr M’membe has observed that the Electoral Commission of Zambia (ECZ) will breed problems if it does not build consensus on the electoral process and cautioned that without building sufficient consensus on what the ECZ was doing, “we’ll have problems”.

“Firstly, the way ECZ is composed; the people who are appointed to be the commissioners, the chairperson, the vice-chairperson, others of the ECZ are appointed by our competitors in elections. Our law is such that today the President appoints all those people single-handedly, without consulting other stakeholders,” he said.

“Yes, there is ratification in Parliament but that’s a Parliament they dominate as well, and they just need a simple majority to do that. The other stakeholders have no say in who the referees, the match commissioners are.”

Dr M’membe pointed out that it was for that reason that whatever ECZ officials try to do, “no matter how good it is,” was viewed with suspicion.

“The amount of work that they need to bring consensus and [to] bring acceptability, is much higher than they are doing right now. They are not approaching issues in a manner that will result in maximum consensus,” he noted.

“Without building that consensus, without adequate consensus over everything that they do… Some of the schemes they are coming up with are questionable. I don’t know how they will manage to register nine million people in 30 days. And what does the law say? It requires continuous voter registration. Every citizen who is 18 years should not be denied the chance to vote.”

He stressed that the ECZ would have many problems in 2021.

“The resources available to ECZ to conduct next year’s elections are limited. The government is broke! We don’t know if there will be donors to fund our elections next year,” said Dr M’membe.

“There will be challenges! We are used to expensive elections [but] next year money will not be available. It’s not easy to build consensus.”

Defence Minister Hon Davies Chama has said that President Edgar Lungu will bounce back into office next year because he possesses resilient and innovative leadership skills.

Hon. Chama said that the President, who is also Commander in Chief of Armed Forces, is transforming Zambia from greatness to greatness, adding that PF Government, since 2011 has been committed to transforming Zambia to lay a foundation for better things to come.

The Defence Minister was speaking in Parliament today during the resumption of debate of the 2021 National Budget in the Fifth Session of the Twelfth Assembly.

Hon. Chama said that it is wishful thinking for the opposition to state that this is the last budget for PF because, in September 2021, the PF government will present another budget.

Hon. Chama said that Zambia is bigger than some countries yet it has developed from Livingstone to Nakonde when other countries only develop in capital cities, adding that the PF Government considers improved roads as vital for the transformation of the country and called on Zambians to individually get involved in the production capacity of the country.

And Foreign Affairs Minister Hon Joseph Malanji has said that it is sad that some politicians are determined to sell Indeni Oil Refinery in Ndola in the unlikely event that they formed government.

Hon. Malanji said that the Patriotic Front (PF) Government is aware that population growth creates demand for more infrastructure.

The Foreign Affairs Minister was speaking in Parliament today during the resumption of debate of the 2021 National Budget in the Twelfth Assembly.

He says the power deficit in Zambia is partly because of limited infrastructure developed in the Kenneth Kaunda era for a sizeable population and that government is responding to the need by investing in infrastructure expansion.

Hon. Malanji says Zambia has recorded unprecedented challenges such as drought and the Coronavirus pandemic which the opposition deliberately want to blame on Government.

He says the 2021 National Budget of no tax threshold for K4,000 earning will see more resources in people’s pockets.

Hon. Malanji says Government is working with a smaller budget in a pragmatic approach to achieving more.