Zambia Media Critique

By Bruce Chooma THE biggest test for Edgar Lungu’s presidency is how he will manage the economy. The Zambian economy has suffered not only from political uncertainty but also from policy inconsistency. His decision to retain Alexander Chikwanda is an indication of continuity on the same path of economic management. Zambia’s economy has continued to grow in a broad sense. Finance Minister Alexander Chikwanda in his end of year statement for 2014 stated that preliminary real GDP growth of 6 percent was recorded in 2014 making Zambia the seventh and tenth fastest growing economy in sub-Saharan Africa and the world. The truth he forgot to mention was that the 2014 growth rate was lower than the target government had set. In addition to that the inflation target was also missed despite falling oil prices on the international market. Zambia would have attained a higher growth in GDP had it not been for policy inconsistency. It is desirable to have continued growth in the economy b...

Edgar Lungu. Picture courtesy of AP ZAMBIA’s sixth president   Edgar Lungu was sworn into office on 25 th January, 2015 after winning by a whisker the snap poll caused by the death of his predecessor Michael Sata in October, 2014. Edgar takes over an increasingly divided country with voting patterns revealing what can be interpreted as worrying deeply entrenched levels of unhappiness in certain regions of the country with the performance of the Patriotic Front government. Why were Edgar and his Patriotic Front rejected so decisively and overwhelmingly by over 52% of voters? The Electoral Commission of Zambia said Mr Lungu won 48.3 percent of the vote to his nearest rival Hakainde Hichilema’s 46.67 per cent. A total of 1.67m people voted in the election, of 5.1m registered to vote, with the low turnout of 32 percent. Hakainde had campaigned on the premise of “Zambia United” having realised that socio-economic exclusion was reversing Zambia’s gains in democracy and affec...