THE Non-Governmental Gender Organisations’ Coordinating Council has appealed to President Edgar Lungu to take deliberate measures to provide leadership that is premised on inspiring, uplifting, listening and nurturing all citizens towards unity of purpose.

Reflecting on the year 2018, NGOCC board chairperson Mary Mulenga said the post-2016 general elections period continued with the volatile atmosphere laced with tensions still evident owing to the delayed national dialogue process.

She said political violence which characterised by-elections was one of the factors that deterred women from participating in politics.

“The political landscape also witnessed the eligibility case in the Constitutional Court, which was to determine whether President Edgar Lungu was eligible to stand for elections in 2021. This was presided over and the court gave is verdict. By and large, the country remained in an election mode with a number of by-elections held during the year 2018, both at local government and parliamentary levels,” Mulenga noted. “The by-elections were necessitated partly by the death of incumbents and the creation of new districts by government. Despite heavy police presence during the by-elections, political parties continued to clash, notably in the Chilanga by-elections where several people from both the Patriotic Front (PF) and opposition UPND were left injured.”

She implored the governing PF to take deliberate measures to ensure the country moves towards embracing the true “One Zambia, One Nation” motto, which she said was slowly eluding the country.

“NGOCC condemns, in the strongest terms, political violence, which is one of the factors that have deterred women from participating in politics and inevitably discriminating them from positions of decision making. We implore the Electoral Commission of Zambia (ECZ) to strengthen the implementation of the Electoral Code of Conduct to ensure that perpetrators of violence are disqualified from participating in politics. Without doubt, the 2016 General Elections left the country very much polarised than ever before,” she said. “We have also been alerted of some sad occurrences where some people have lost employment in the public service on the basis of their tribe or perceived political affiliation. As we close the year 2018, we would like to appeal to our Republican President Edgar Chagwa Lungu to take deliberate measures to provide the needed leadership that is premised on inspiring, uplifting, listening and nurturing all citizens towards unity of purpose.”

Mulenga said 2018 was a difficult year, not only for an ordinary citizen, but also for business entities (both formal and informal) and the development actors.

“According to the Central Statistics Report titled ‘Zambia in Figures, 2018’, poverty in 2018 was recorded as being at 54.4 per cent in urban areas with rural poverty rising to 80 per cent. The increase in the fuel prices in the third quarter of 2018 just worsened this situation,” she said. “The depreciation of the Kwacha also particularly from third quarter onwards, with inflation rates around 7-8 per cent also contributed to constraining economic activities. Statistically it is usually evident that poverty has a feminine face and hence perpetuating the vulnerability and marginalisation of women and girls in national development.”

Agreeing with the November 2018 Jesuit Centre for Theological Reflections (JCTR) Basic Needs Basket (BNB), Mulenga noted that a family of six in urban areas needed about K5,324.40 to survive in a month.

She said it was clear that very few citizens could afford K5,324.40 and worse still, those of the Zambian women and men who did not have any sources of income.

Mulenga said all this was happening amidst unemployment levels, which stood at 32.2 per cent in urban areas and 50.8 per cent in rural areas with the national average standing at 41.2 per cent.

“NGOCC remains deeply concerned with the high public debt which Zambia has accumulated over the last two years and thereby crowding out expenditure to the social sectors like education and health, which have a substantial bearing on the realisation of women’s economic empowerment,” she said. “According to the Ministry of Finance quarterly reports, the domestic and external debt stock increased from US$8.7 billion as at end of December 2017 to US$13.8 billion as at end of September 2018. In addition, the country has seen the Kwacha depreciating with exchange rate of around K12 to one US dollar, inflation rate at close to eight per cent, increased taxes and high interest rates. It is NGOCC’s considered view that urgent measures be put in place to bring our country’s debt portfolio under control for us to realise meaningful economic growth. While we note government’s efforts at mitigating the risk of sovereign debt default and dealing with the slower economic growth, we wish to urge government to ensure that they engage widely and seek more local expert input. This will ensure that people-centred interventions are put in place with regular information flows made to all citizens.”

Mulenga urged the Anti-Corruption Commission to be more proactive in investigating all reported cases of corruption without fear or favour.

“The year 2018 was characterised by increased reports of alleged corruption in the public service. Corruption is a cancer that takes away resources from the public by a few selfish individuals to the detriment of sustainable national development. The impact of corruption is that it deprives majority of our citizens who should have benefited from these resources,” said Mulenga. “It is unfortunate that the Anti-Corruption Commission (ACC) has seemingly not been able to effectively deal with the reported cases of corruption activities in government institutions. This is despite the various revelations in the Auditor General’s reports that point to gross misappropriation of public resources. While some positive strides have been noted like the suspension of officials at the Ministry of Education, we need more punitive actions to deter other public service workers from abusing or stealing public resources through corruption.”