Zambians have now become beggars eating crumbs that are dropping from the rich man’s table says former Secretary to the Cabinet Dr Sketchley Sacika.

And Dr Sachika says politicians in Zambia have engaged in meaningless politics because they don’t know what’s good for the country.

Speaking to News Diggers! in an interview, Dr Sachika who is former Secretary to the Cabinet, observed that by placing the country’s economy in foreigners’ hands, government was directly telling the whole world that our leaders are incapable of managing anything.

“Fifty four years ago, we decided to be masters of our own destiny. We took over the government of our country and decided to bring the economy under our control. We took over the mines and brought all major means of production under our control. But its seems we are reversing all our independence gains. We have given away our mines to foreigners, we sold Zambia National Commercial Bank. Our economy is now firmly in the hands of the foreigners and we Zambians have become beggars, eating the crumbs that are dropping from the rich man’s table. By our government’s actions, we seem to be telling the whole world that we are not capable of managing anything. The decision by government to sell Indeni to foreigners does not come as a surprise. It merely confirms what has been happening in our country,” he said.

Dr Sachika wondered why government had failed to run Indeni oil refinery when the process of refining petrol and diesel was simple.

“At one point we failed to run Zambia Railways and concessioned it to a private company which made a complete mess of our railway system. We are failing to run Tazara, where the workers are now being paid from the central treasury because the company is insolvent. We want to re-establish Zambia Airways but we want it to be run by a foreign airline. The refining of petrol and diesel that you use in your motor vehicles is being done by informal sector operators running crudely constructed refineries in the bush. Which means the process of refining petrol and diesel is a simple one. Now how can we fail to run Indeni when the process of refining petrol and diesel is so simple?” he asked.

Meanwhile Dr Sachika observed that having a Zambian President and ministers in government was not “independence” if they were not in charge of anything.

He added that politicians in Zambia had engaged in meaningless politics because they did not know what was good for the country.

“Having a Zambian President in state house, having Zambian ministers in government is not independence if these people are not in charge of anything. Unfortunately our young politicians do not seem to know what is good for the country as a result they are engaged in playing meaningless politics. They can not see that we are loosing our country to foreigners because of the policies that our government is taking. They do not see that we have failed to build capacity to manage our own affairs,” said Dr Sacika.

“The young politicians must reject or you the young ones must reject what’s going on. You must reject neocolonialism or re-colonialism of our country by foreign interest. And you must rekindle the independence spirit. What made Zambians fight for independence? And forge ahead to create an economic and political system which is under the control of the Zambians themselves. You must therefore reject the idea of outsourcing the running of our country to foreigners. Expecting foreigners to do things for us.”