Nalumango: no reserves to cushion fuel prices, and opposition withdrawals could hand UPND 2031

Vice-President Mutale Nalumango told the National Assembly on Friday that the government has no plan to use the country's US$6.5 billion in foreign reserves to cushion fuel prices, and that the opposition cannot expect the ruling party to make political space for it. She was speaking during Vice-President's Question Time. On fuel, she said the reserves are a security buffer, not spending money. "It's a security resource that you don't use," she said, adding that Zambia is doing better than other countries on pump prices and that even coastal countries pay more. She was answering a question from Imenda, who asked whether part of the reserves could be used to bring fuel costs down. Ms Nalumango pointed instead to the budget and to programmes such as free education, social cash transfers, the Farmer Input Support Programme and Cash for Work as the government's way of easing the cost of living. On the structure of government, she assured MPs that creating five new ministries will not need a supplementary budget, because most of their functions already existed under other ministries and are simply being moved. The President has restructured Cabinet into 30 ministries, including splitting the energy portfolio into separate ministries for electricity and petroleum, and Parliament has approved the new arrangement. On politics, Ms Nalumango said the opposition must be strong and disciplined and should not wait for UPND to open the way for it, because democracy is about competition. She said that if opposition parties keep withdrawing from political contests, UPND can comfortably declare itself the winner of the 2031 general elections. Her remarks come after three opposition candidates withdrew from the Mandevu parliamentary by-election, leaving the UPND candidate as the only one on the ballot. ## Why it matters Fuel is the price that moves every other price, from minibus fares to the cost of mealie meal delivered to a compound shop. Annual inflation rose to 6.3 percent i