Socialism best economy- Kabimba

Fri, 07 Apr 2017 11:51:58 +0000

By CHARLES MUSONDA

 ZAMBIA can only develop through socialism because capitalism has been tested and failed since 1991 when the MMD came to power, says Rainbow Party leader Wynter Kabimba.

In an interview with Millennium Radio on Wednesday, Mr. Kabimba said more Zambians, especially the vulnerable, had slid deeper into poverty because they did not participate in national economic activities despite the country’s abundant natural resources.

“MMD sang a capitalist hymn and everybody was told things would be better than under UNIP and certainly the evidence is that that was not true. What has happened is that instead we have seen abject poverty among our people especially the poor in compounds and in the countryside

“A capitalist system is the one that is defined as a system that creates poverty in the midst of abundance – major contradiction. You have so much natural resources, you have so much human capital, you have water bodies, you have fish, wild animals and minerals more than five countries in Europe put together but you are still poor.

“Surely we must start interrogating that question. The problem is simple:  for as long as the majority of the Zambian people do not participate or are not allowed to participate in the economic activities of this country, for as long as we think that the development framework should remain exclusive and put these people out, it can’t work, hence the alternative is socialism,” Mr. Kabimba said.  He said socialism provided for a development process of dealing with issues of inequality, social exclusion and injustice.

“The PF constitution proclaims socialism as its fundamental ideology. Look at the PF manifesto, it is ideally a socialist manifesto. So if you followed what I said when I was PF secretary general, I insisted that every Government department must be in possession of the PF manifesto as a blueprint for our development framework. I have never flipped, I have been consistent,” he said.

Asked if that made it possible for him to work with the PF today, Mr. Kabimba said not in the PF’s current form both in terms of individuals in the ruling party and its economic structure.

“I can’t fit in there,” he said.