19/10/2025
Fellow Zambians, UPND is a disaster
By Larry Mujajati
The truth must be told. This government has declared war on local businesses. While UPND parades glossy figures of GDP growth and inflated budgets, the reality is that ordinary Zambians are being strangled.
President Hichilema himself once admitted that during his opposition days, he used to meet First Quantum Minerals (FQM) executives in public toilets to avoid scrutiny from the authorities of the day. The question every Zambian must ask is: what deals were signed in those toilets? Were those the secret negotiations to surrender our national shares in FQM for free—without a ngwee going into Treasury? Were those the beginnings of the tax holidays and sweetheart breaks we now see extended to foreign mines while local businesses are taxed to death?
Today, FQM and other foreign multinationals extract our copper and even our gold virtually for free. They enjoy uninterrupted electricity supply and cheaper tariffs, while our homes and small industries sit in darkness. Meanwhile, the government is busy borrowing and disguising it as “domestic financing.” Let us call it what it is: debt. Over K127 billion in domestic debt and $15.7 billion in foreign debt, yet nothing to show for it—no new hospitals, no new power stations, no major infrastructure beyond one NAPSA-funded road. Even the criminal PF we could atleast see construction everywhere from their borrowing.
And instead of dismantling the K28 billion in arrears UPND inherited, they have ballooned arrears to K84 billion. Who does that? And what does this mean in reality? It means our local contractors, local suppliers, and small businesses remain unpaid in fact they continue to do business with government minus being paid. These businesses are crumbling whilst FQM thrives on tax breaks, workers are being laid off, families are left in despair. Yet these same struggling businesses are the ones UPND wants to bleed dry in 2026 with more revenue demands to “grow the budget.” How can businesses pay more when they are starved of liquidity, unpaid for government contracts, and crippled by endless load shedding? Where is the logic?
The 2025 budget failed to raise 17% of its own projected revenue, yet instead of admitting failure, this government grows the budget further with no serious plan for revenue generation or business support. Instead, it continues to cushion foreign mining giants with tax breaks and power guarantees while suffocating Zambian enterprise.
And let us not forget—every single year, HH honours FQM with private retreats in Livingstone, state house meetings, and tours of their operations. But what about the Zambian people? Where are the dividends, the affordable mealie meal, the relief in fuel prices, the decent salaries?
When UPND says “the budget has grown,” what they mean is hardship has grown. There is no growth in salaries, no growth in mine revenue to Treasury, no growth in dignity for ordinary citizens. What has doubled under HH is not the economy—it is the cost of living. Prices of everything from sugar, to electricity, to eggs, to meat, to bread, to milk, have all more than doubled and this is why the budget appears to grow because everyone must now spend more yet receive less services including the Government and this is precisely what we voted HH and UPND to solve but rather they have made it twice worse!!!!
This government has chosen to be an agent of foreign capital while suffocating its own people. Fellow Zambians, we cannot remain silent. Enough is enough. Our minerals cannot be traded in toilets, our economy cannot be auctioned in retreats, and our people cannot be sacrificed on the altar of mining profits.
When they say “the budget has grown,” let us remind them: the only things that have grown are debt, arrears, poverty, and suffering.
John 8:32 "And you will know the truth, and the truth will set you free.”
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