Africa-Press – Zambia. Former Zambia’s Ambassador to Ethiopia Emmanuel Mwamba has opposed the Government’s decision to hike fuel prices amid the removal of subsidies on fuel and electricity.
Petrol has been increased by K3.54 ngwee per liter from K17.62 to K21.16 while Diesel has been increased by K4.56 from K15.59 per liter to K20.15. Liquefied Petroleum Gas -LPG- have also been increased by K4.47 while prices of Kerosene have remained unchanged.
Speaking when he featured on the Friday’s edition of the “Let the People Talk Programme on Phoenix FM” on Friday, Mr. Mwamba questioned why the UPND Government is not reducing fuel prices as it promised during campaigns.
He said President Hakainde Hichilema, when in opposition on many occasions, explained how he would facilitate the reduction of prices of essential commodities.
“President Hakainde Hichilema spoke to Zambians many times telling them how he would reduce prices. You have seen in a video how he was calculating fuel price reduction. There are many videos, twits and facebook posts showing how President Hichilema would reduce fuel prices,” Mr. Mwamba said.
He also spoke against the Government’s decision to deal with the International Monetary Fund. Mr. Mwamba alleged that some of the solutions the government has instituted to the country’s economic challenges will leave the country into worse troubles.
He said Zambia has the potential to find solutions to its economic challenges without involving the IMF. Mr. Mwamba said economic challenges Zambia is currently experiencing were caused by the IMF who downgraded Zambia and other countries to a middle-income country in 2017.
“The trouble from the IMF is that as Zambians we don’t seem to learn from our critical relationship with the IMF. The IMF in the 1990s where we lost the industrial base because they imposed on us the privatization programme. It is the IMF programme that took us to the Eurobond,” Mr. Mwamba said.
He added:”We wanted us to be borrowing with the IMF and the World Bank and they took us to the market. Ten years later they are blaming us for accumulating the debt yet they are the ones who sent us to the woes.”
Mr. Mwamba said the PF objected to some of the conditions given by the IMF such as the removal of electricity and fuel subsidies when it almost clinched the IMF deal last year.
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