Africa-Press – Zambia. 100 Days- Hesitant Slow or Careful Start? President, Hakainde Hichilema has clocked 100 days in office. In politics, the 30, 60, 90 and 100 days are great milestone.
But there has been no major pronouncements and statements commemorating these periods and relating or marrying them to political campaign promises. Infact after 100 days in office, government appears to be only settling, with key appointments yet to be made.
We know Rome was not built in a day, but the work must begin in earnest. President Hakainde Hichilema has no reason to fail as he has six past presidents to learn from, their mistakes to avoid, challenges to overcome and hind-sight wisdom to help him avoid certain paths.
It appears that President Hichilema will pursue liberal economic policies that might have a bearing on the direction of state-owned enterprises and mining policy.
From his major statements made so far and discerning from the national budget presented in the National Asembly, he will rely heavily on the IMF, foreign direct investment and foreign debt to resolve the current economic crisis. Which may not be the ideal solution.
My concern is that we need to pick lessons from the 1990s where such policies were aggressively pursued with the supervision of the IMF, which left our industrial base decimated, companies liquidated and sold without recourse to national interests.
Todate, Zambia remains de-industrialised with ghost towns plaquing us. Despite effecting deregulation and free market policies, this left Zambian investors and local businesses highly disadvantaged. Despite setting base for future national economic prospects, the country is yet to recover from such policies.
Lastly there are issues that affected the last elections that include; high youth unemployment, poor state of the economy, foreign debt, heslth and education, cadrerism and political violence, rule of law and governance, and corruption and impunity.
Government must show demonstrable strides to resolving these issues beyond political rhetoric. Wish you a happy 100 days in the new dawn government. Whats your view of the last 100 days?
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