Chikwanda should admit his budget has failed-Nawakwi

OPPOSITION Forum for Democracy and Development (FDD) leader Edith Nawakwi says Finance Minister Alexander Chikwanda must be bold and admit that his first PF national budget has busted. Nawakwi said Chikwanda must go back to Parliament and present a fresh mini budget and admit that his budget has collapsed mid-way through the financial year. She said the removal of subsidies on fuel and food was a sinister move aimed at raising additional funds outside the national budget. “What we have here is a situation where my elder brother at Finance has burst his budget and he has to look elsewhere for additional financing mostly to finance programme that were unbudgeted for such as new districts and bye elections,” Nawakwi said.  Nawakwi observed that the removal of subsidies will send many Zambian families into poverty. “People will not eat GDP, people want affordable food. You cannot postpone your hunger because somebody wants to build roads and bridges.” She said no amount of positive publicity or propaganda on subsidy removal will change the public’s rejection of the move. “They are sending Ministers and their Deputies to explain the alleged benefits of the subsidy removal. You know, what is good is good and what is bad is bad. You don’t need all those Ministers to go and tell the people what is good about this subsidy removal.” The FDD leader also criticized comments by US Ambassador to Zambia Mark Storella who supported the removal of subsidies. “I find it insincere for the American Ambassador to support this issue when the US is well known for subsidizing its agriculture with heavy subsidies. This move will affect the poor the most.”  Nawakwi was speaking yesterday morning when she featured on a live Burning Issue radio programme on 5 FM Radio. LVNews