Neef was created to reward loyalists

My lord, the more things change the more they remain the same is more than a cliché we usually draw on to express the happenings in Nyasaland politics and its governance narrative

Before you slaughter me for being a pessimist at heart because I appear as somebody who doesn’t believe there is anything good that can come from Nyasaland, my lord, give me an opportunity to explain myself.

My lord, I think our failure as Nyasas to bring significant change in the manner we administer our affairs is founded on the entrenched culture of abuse where authorities create systems for political expediency.

But we should not obsess ourselves with politics of convenience rather we should be preoccupying ourselves doing what is right itself. 

Where am I heading to? My lord, there was a lot of fanfare when Tokha Are Liars conceived Nyasaland Economic Empowerment Fund (Neef) to replace the controversial Nyasaland Enterprise Development Fund (Nadef), which Mapuya and his People’s Demagogic Party (PDP) .

We know how Nadef declared at least K8.9 billion worth of loans as money it was not going to recover; hence, something that ought to have been written off.

My lord, we know the beneficiaries of the loans were the people with connections to the PDP and they included cadets, Mtambomtambo Women Group and other politically connected people.

My lord, how on earth did we allow ghosts with fake phone numbers, fake identity cards and fake locations to access the loans as an audit exposed?

Only that there weren’t ghost beneficiaries, but PDP members who were being rewarded for being loyal to the party with loans sponsored by poor taxpayers  they were not going to have an obligation of paying back under any circumstances.

My lord, whoever thought that Tokha were being sincere in formulating Neef to improve the status of small-scale businesses must have been high on perhaps cannabis sativa.

Tokha perfected the art of rewarding party loyalists through Neef with the same tactics of PDP.

The sad part about this loan facility is the fact that only K3 billion that was disbursed translated into genuine loans while K6 billion was shared among Tokha loyalists like some tomato.

My lord, with the 2025 general elections in sight, who would have the courage to ask party members to pay back what they owe taxpayers? 

My lord, just as was the case with Nadef, no government official will be taken to task for such a colossal loss of taxpayers’ money as per requirement of the Public Finance Management Act because this was a State-sponsored act.

Regards,

John Citizen.