Commerce Minister Felix Mutati has been challenged to apologize for saying that Zambians don’t understand windfall tax.
Chingola Central Member of Parliament Wilber Simusa has said that Mr. Mutati insulted Zambians for alleging that Zambians don’t understand windfall tax.
He said that it was unfortunate that the Minister of high caliber could issue such a statement on behalf of the government.
Mr. Simusa believes that Zambians understand the windfall tax unlike what the Minister said this week.
He said that Zambians wanted to seriously benefit from the mining activities that were taking place in the country.
He said that it is quite unfortunate that the Zambian government had failed to clearly explain on the proceeds it made from the mining activities.
He added that it was a must that the Minister of Commerce Trade and Industry apologize for the comments he made.
QFM
Felix you have been my inspiration, do not disappoint me. Do a serious audit of your statements before going to the press. Remember, Z is a politically volatile nation and the windfall tax issue is getting emotive. Men like you command respect. But do not lose it with carelss talk. You’re forgiven.
This is the second time you are issuing statements to demean the wider and greater public. That bloated ego will not get you far in politics where the greater and wider population are the electorate. If your average education ( so many young zambians now have equivalent education) can not make you humble yourself, the people will!
I’m sorry miss jackson ooh i am for real, didn’t mean to make your daughter cry, i apologise a million times
Can someone enlight me, how far has Mr Mutati gone with his education? He seem to be bigheaded and very shallow in thinking. He doest have any leadership skills at all. development in zambia will remain a dream with this kind of behavior frm da readers! – Zambia will only develop when the lord comes, not these …
Another debate on LT, oh no. Hon Simuusa, please use Parliament to obtain that clarification, facts, or apology. A Ministerial statement will do just fine and then we can read the facts for ourselves if there is anything new at all. It would be good for you too, Hon Simuusa, you are one of the MPs that are not heard regularly in Paliament.
Mutati is too talkative with little understanding of issues. The guy is a traditional accountant with very narrow perspective on issues. This guy says Zambia will lose investors if windfall tax is re-introduced and yet he is the same person who voted for windfall tax under Mwanawasa, how many investors left?
No 1 I agree with you Mutati has been an inspiration to many young Zambians but the turn of event in his recent remarks is very dissapointing. Because what is prevailing in the mining industry is very clear even to a common lay man on the streets. Zambia is the only country in the world that is not benefitting from the copper prices.why cant our leaders learn to face the truth. we are fed up now. It pains me very much to see my home town Chingola which used to be the cleanest town in Zambia now being the dirtest, i am even ashamed to mention its name. What has KCM done for the community other than the huge open pit holes they have been digging using there foreign contractors. So where has the money been going if the government has been collecting enough?
There are many economic terms that we dont seem to understand very well. I remember Hon Msokotwane,Minister of Finance articulating the issue of fat cat tax very well on ZNBC in May 2010.Acoording to the Minister, this tax is paid on top of many ordinary taxes based on abnormally huge profits. The issue is politically very sensitive because if investors find it hard to do business in Zambia, they will relocate to somewhere else leaving Zambian mine suppliers and job seekers stranded giving rise to hungry and bitter people. Guess what would happen during a general election? May be honourable Mtati and Hon Msokotwane should help many of us to understand the tax regimes well.
Mutati has really disappointed many of us here.He has been the best minister MMD has had for years.I even thought RB would appoint him as deputy.This shows he is actually deteriorating.Zambians are calling for windfall tax and this has even been echoed by th American ambasador to Zambia.Mutati should know that there are more educated Zambians outside GVT than in GVT.As MPs representing th people the onus is on Mutati and his fellow ministers to heed to the call of the people.Zambian belongs to us and not to the foreigners
If a minister can issue statements to say Zambians don’t understand, what does this mean? It means the GVT thinks Zambians can not advise them on the affairs of the country, it means only politicians knows it all. No wonder so many important programmes recommended to the gvt by NGOs and other concerned citizens are ignored.
Bwana Minister Zambians dont understand anything!? They didnt understand privatisation; they dont understand the 50+1 vote; they do not understand money laundering; they do not understand abuse of office – no they do not!!
Yes windfall tax is complicated, yea? Shame!!!!#:-s
When one speaks off the cuff, they tend to speak with what they inherently believe – he has shown his true colors on two occasions now. On both occasions it has been him trying to explain economic/accounting words which should be second nature for he is an Accountant who worked for ZESCO, his qualifications maybe genuine, however his caliber left much to be desired, I believe. He was elevated into politics by friends such as Griever Sikasote. He has indeed been careful to tread the political landscape, but with the backdrop of majority of MMD politicians making gaffs day in day out, he has appeared as an angel. He hasn’t been tested to be a leader, more of a follower that avoids falling into the potholes other seem more inclined to.
It is indeed the second statement in which he’s saying most Zambians ”will not understand.” I think he tends to generalize and this goes against him. He is certainly not a politician but he is well educated and a very hard work.I read above someone saying he’s a ”traditional” accountant,there’s nothing like traditional accountant,he is a fully qualified chartered accountant,it doesn’t come better than that! Ask any Human Resources Manager who they would prefer between an accounting degree holder and a chartered accountant and you will know the difference. Mutati is just not a politician and he’s bad at speaking in public otherwise he knows what he’s doing and talking about except he must fully explain instead of saying people won’t understand.
#8 the argument that investors will go elsewhere if we genuinely ask what is due to us in royalties & taxes, is a well known scaremongering tactic. Investors want what we have, they are capitalist business men who know how to squeeze blood out of stones. The fact is, even if they went away, our mineral resource will still be with us & gaining value becoz as resources elsewhere are depleted & become expensive to mine, ours will be cheaper to exploit, we just need a govt that will articulate & obtain the best for Zambians. Remember AngloAmerican left ZCCM in limbo, BUT WE STILL HAD THE RESOURCES, OTHERS HAVE STILL COME FOR THEM – so don’t just panic & accept scraps for what is worth much more.
The world is a dangerous place. Not because of the people who are evil; but because of the people who don’t do anything about it.
Next year Vote wiseley folks,you’ve seen how these people have become drunk with power that they can say anything and do anything anytime anythow they feel like it.
15 depends what the alternative leadership is, certainly not the noise peddling incoherent chaff that you have presented before us so far!
13 Hon Mutati also holds a university degree in accountancy. Most organisations ask for both qualifications these days. Does that change your perceptions? If you ask some degree accountants who are also chartered they will claim that university education gives a deeper perspective and understanding of issues, rather than just number crunching.
Mutati has been one of the judas scaliot of Mwanawasa(MHSRIP).He supported mwanawasa on windfal tax & economy improved the so called investors never left.now these capitalists have threatened Rb that they will leave & they are frightened.We need people like the late & magande with big hearts.
Even if windfall tax is introduced,it will just go towards financing vultures and a small clique of thieves.Tax administration and implementation has been a thorn in flesh for the current govenment.The government collect tax but it serves no purposes.One needs not to argue more about this issue.Hospitals are more the same like NAZI concentration camps.Schools are in delapitated situation and yet tax is collected.Unless, a tangible way of administering tax is found,it will continue being used for presidential trips.Tax is not used for it’s intended purpose.It is mostly used to please cadres and finance dubious activities at the expense of a poor Zambian.I feel collection of windfall tax will not change anything as long as our government’s attitude toward resource management does not…
As far as Mutati is concerned you Zambians are F.O.O.L.I.S.H with no brians to understand what he explians to you about Tax and other things, mind you this is not the first time this chap is insulting Zambians?
Mutati judas escariot, stabbing us in the back as Zambians once more.
@ Kamwendo you need to be my minister of commerce when I am president. You put into light a wise notion most Zambians will surely miss. Africa’s resources are needed because everywhere else the have been overmined and depleted.
they are chewing, RB and his boys are being paid big time by some mines for not introducing the windfall tax. this is a top secret believe it or not bloggers. we are just wasting our precious time writing all the sensible things.These guys have been compromised by the investors .The investors know that our politicians are poor and have no morals . its too bad, ZED is really corrupted believe it or not brothers. look at the way the finance Minister and minister of mines Mwale gets upset when people ask them about windfall tax. They defend foreigner investors with so much passion as if they were relatives. they are chewing from mines.we have information.
The problem we have is that the people who join politics do not understand issues , firstly look at they people who vote for them its the uneducated Zambians who not understand issues. Thats why the MMD claims that they win from rural areas because they think like villagers whom the manipulate everyday by giving them fertilizers and it ends there. They build 1x 3 classroom block for them without books, no teachers houses and they get votes. The rain makers and the play makers are villagers in zambia and this will take a long time to change. they determine who goes to PLOT 1 …these are zambian villagers . We need to change our thinking and starting going back to our villages and pump sense into villagers.
It looks like this is not the first time Felix has made similar remarks about his fellow Zambians. What has gone wrong for a learned man like him to utter such nonsense? I hope he has realised once more that he has blundered and a quick apology will go a long way; so long as he does not fall into a similar trap in the future. We shouldn’t be telling him to APOLOGISE; do the right thing man!
he is just a cadre like the rest of them!
Bo Felix is highly educated, has been systematic and objective in many aspects befiting a potential Presidential candidate. However, probably he needs political quarantine to prevent infection of careless outbursts common among many politicians.
However, some of you should stop insulting him. He is elderly. In Barotseland its a taboo to insult leaders. We uphold respect for leadership; (likute kwa manduna ni mulonga). Learn to uphold moral values and appologiz too.
#27 what do you mean he is elderly??
It is taboo to insult elders everywhere! What isn’t thou is criticism!!
Presidential candidate my foot!! You better be asking people at ZESCO – don’t judge “books by their covers!!” – ever come across that saying??
This guy isn’t thick skinned, so just like last time he will apologise publicly – that is becoz he knows that’s how to win support & forgiveness for the same people who deep down his heart, feels this subject is just too above their heads to understand – it is not like the guy was indisposed/or drunk when he made the comment.
To error iz human, and there iz wizdom in retracting an offensive statement. But when one repeats an error, and in a short space of time, there iz cauze to worry.
# 28 kamwendo . Please enlight some of the bloggers. Felix Mutati is no Presidential material. Ask how he left Zesco. The problem is we have alot of uneducated MPS/Ministers hence we tend glorify the few who have been to school. Some of these learned chaps have basically failed us as a nation. They also behave like iliterates.
With the comments coming out on this blog, Mutati is right.
I though may be Hon Felix Mutati made a slip of the tongue. It very scandalous for a man of his standing to think that Zambians could fail to understand the arithmatic of Windfall Taxes. Its his and his colleagues in cabinet who are failing to interpret the simple arithmatics involved. Perhaps one would assume that they are getting kickbacks in their off shore accounts or as we go towards the elections they mining companies are going to backroll their political campaigns.Yjey ve become dead blind even despite free advise from IMF, World Bank, Ambasadors and Civil Society. They cve eyes they cant see, they have ears they cant hear, they have noses they cant smell.Who is not failing to understand simple arithmetic. The guys are busy building universities etc and reinvesting us we are indwee.
We ve many guys who are paper tigers who fail to interpret simple facts. Education is nothing if the community in which is located doeas not benefit from such social investment. We had the FTJ cabinet full of graduates what did they end doing to the nation nothing 90% lining their pockets. Even the current Cabinet we have wlell educated men and women including RB. But what are they advising each other on important matters like windfall taxes. THey should learn from Chile. It diversified. God made our copper & other mineral resources and these are wasting assets.Once they are exhausted then future generations will be doomed to poverty. We not investing in science & technology. Forty 47 down the line as independent Zed, what can we show the world as our own invention, not even a needle