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Former Zambian diplomat, Emmanuel Mwamba, has criticised President Hakainde Hichilema’s reappointment of Situmbeko Musokotwane as finance minister, saying the decision signaled policy continuity rather than a shift in the country’s economic direction.
Mwamba said Musokotwane’s previous periods at the Ministry of Finance were characterised by increased borrowing and what he described as favourable treatment of mining companies at the expense of domestic revenue.
In a statement issued in Lusaka on Tuesday, Mwamba said Musokotwane, who first served as finance minister from 2008 to 2011, abolished a revenue-sharing mechanism introduced by his predecessor, Ng’andu Magande.
“Sadly, he brings more of the same. When he became Minister of Finance in 2008, he abolished Ngandu Magande’s Windfall Tax, a profit-sharing mechanism that was earning Zambia $600 million a year,” he said.
Mwamba claimed that Zambia’s foreign debt rose from $500 million when Musokotwane took office in 2008 to $3.8 billion when he left in 2011.
He also criticised Musokotwane’s handling of mineral taxation after returning as finance minister in 2021, saying the government reversed a policy that made mineral royalties non-deductible and reduced the mineral royalty tax rate from 6% to 3%.
Mwamba claimed the changes reduced mining companies’ taxable income and government revenue from the sector.
“Zambia, which had began to earn an average of $1 billion a year since 2019, began to earn only about $250-300 million per year from direct taxes from the mines,” he said.
Mwamba said Zambia was failing to benefit sufficiently from high international copper prices and predicted that the government would continue relying on borrowing.
“So he will rely on more borrowings! Like he did in 2008 and now 2021, he will do the same,” he stated.
He claimed Zambia’s foreign debt had increased from $11.9 billion in 2021 to $17 billion in 2026, while domestic debt rose from K178 billion to K252 billion over the same period.
“He will reschedule more debts to a future government and openly steal the economic future of young people by laddening them with reacheduled debts and fesh loans payable in their future,” Mwamba said.
Hichilema reappointed Musokotwane as Minister of Finance and National Planning in the first Cabinet appointments following his inauguration for a second term.
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