Political violence will hurt economy – ZUFIAW
The Zambia Union of Financial Institutions and Allied Workers (ZUFIAW) has warned that the recent rise in politically motivated violence will hinder the country’s ability to attract investment and in turn disrupt job creation and economic development plans.
ZUFIAW president Ackim Mweemba says the country risks losing its coveted status as a peace haven in Africa and as a result, investors will shy away and seek to take their investment elsewhere.
He noted that the peace the country has enjoyed for over 50 years is an envy to most countries in the region and the world and that if the violence is left unchecked, Zambians will find themselves in the midst of turmoil with nowhere to run to.
“Investors have favored our country in the past due to the fact that Zambia provides a safe environment for investment and growth and this has helped economic expansion and citizens have been able to find employment in this country. We are jeopardizing all this with the political violence currently obtaining in the country,” Mweemba said in a statement.
“Investors take into account political stability when making investment decisions. The empirical analysis of investment inflows shows that foreign investors will take political violence into account when they make investment decisions. As long as firms have no perfect foresight of all political violence-induced risks, their investment plans shall not be implemented. Violence provides information regarding possible future government intervention or market disruption, causing a downward revision of the expected stream of revenues. Hence, unanticipated incidents of political violence force investors to consider their flow of investment in order to ensure the sustainability of their investment, such that a country may no longer be chosen as an investment site or the amount of future investment can be rreduce,” he added.
He noted that the country has the collective responsibility to come together and remedy this situation for the sake of peace and development.
He castigated Republican President Edgar Lungu and opposition United Party for National Development leader Hakainde Hichilema, calling them “an embarrassment to the country” and accusing them of taking the country 50 years backwards. He told the two political leaders to rise above board and stop the barbaric acts being perpetuated by the youths of their political parties.
Mweemba further called upon other stakeholders to emulate the law association of Zambia in condemning this atrocity with the seriousness it deserves, noting that it is very worrisome that instead of dealing with the root causes of the vice, the political players are concentrating on accusations and evading taking the responsibility of addressing this matter head on.
“We are confident that if these two political party leaders took a bold stance against violence and judiciously dealt with the perpetrators within their ranks, the violence shall come to an end. Leaders have the responsibility to control the individuals they are leading and this violence is reflecting very negatively on them and their political parties. It is rather unfortunate that innocent people are being caught up in the middle of this violence and losing their lives over trivialities which can be avoided,” he said.
He accused Inspector General of Police Kako!a Kanganja of exhibiting high levels of incompetence when dealing with political violence, considering the resources at his disposal.
“Political violence can be orchestrated and prevented by leaders and it is incumbent upon them to take the lead in fighting this vice. The police have also not helped matters to stop the increase of violence in the country. The Inspector General of police has shown the highest level of incompetence, the issue of manpower does not arise, he has two training centers with men and women capable of maintaining law and order. As ZUFIAW, we are on record condemning the ‘militarization’ of carders and the hate speech within our political space because we anticipated this problem. Other nations have paid dearly for perpetuating this vice and we should all guard against it if our country is to grow and continue in its quest for ddevelopmen.”