Prince Ndoyi the young politician from the opposition and former ruling party MMD in his latest posting has commended the new ministers of Finance and his counterpart from Higher Education for listening to concerns from stakeholders.
Ndoyi said barely a week after reshuffles Brian Mushimba announced the reopening of Copperbelt University while his Finance counterpart on Friday moved a motion where he withdrew the controversial sales tax bill, moves he said were responsive to the concerns of the public.
He noted that the development in the two ministries have demonstrated that the reshuffles were worthwhile in repositioning government to being responsive to the needs and concerns of the public.
“Brian Mushimba announced the long awaited re-opening of Copperbelt University and the uplifting of suspensions and expulsions thereof. On the other hand, Finance Minister Dr. Bwalya Ng’andu last afternoon moved a motion in Parliament to withdraw the notorious SALES TAX BILL (N.A.B Number 7 of 2019) from the current sitting of Parliament.
“These are good developments, only goes to show that the reshuffles were worthwhile in repositioning government in being responsive to what people are saying. Just as many stakeholders have said CBU should have reopened a long time ago just as for the Sales Tax should not have even gone to parliament to start with,” he said.
And Ndoyi has urged the minister in charge of Higher Education to go a step further and bring back student Union bodies in all higher education institutions as well as engage the students on matters related to their institutions.
“In view of the foregoing, we want to to appeal to the Minister of Higher Education to bring back students unions at all high learning institutions and adopt an open door policy for all university related matters. He must restore the mutual relationship with students unions and lecturer unions. It is his duty as minister to demonstrate President Lungu’s resolve to prioritize education in Zambia. We are hopeful that he will succeed,” he said.
To the Finance Minister Ndoyi appealed to him to actualise President Lungu’s promise of creating more jobs for the youths in the country.
“Also to the new minister at Finance, this move to quickly withdraw the sales tax is commendable. This will give him sufficient time to address the many concerns from stakeholders raised during the consultations concerning Sales tax. With the budget almost in sight, we want to appeal to him that as he prepares for the budget let him actualise President Lungu’s promise to create jobs for the youth. Youth empowerment, education and agriculture must be allocated more monies if we are to see growth figures next year.
“The new Finance Minister must also forestall investor confidence and re-energize our relationship with the cooperating partners and the donor community on Zambia’s commitment to improve the economy and uplift the living standards of the people.
“The Zambian people want a listening government and these efforts by the two ministers will go a long way in redeeming and renewing public trust in government. When consultations are inadequate the consequences are always disastrous,”he said.
He has since called on the other ministers to emulate their counterparts.
“We can only encourage even other ministers to be proactive in resolving policy difficulties by adequately consulting and listening to the people and stakeholders without whom these ministers would not exist. Let them help President Lungu deliver to the expectations of the people.
“If such and many other reform efforts continue on their current trajectory especially in the economy, then President Lungu will be closer to meeting the high expectations of the Zambian people. Much remains to be done.”
Only retarded people will celebrate about this. Those universities in Zambia at so useless and better off closed. They are a breeding ground for thieves and useless leaders like lungu. Anyway elisa my white Swiss wife was adamant that we take our kids to private school in Europe and university here in Europe. Am glad I listened to her as if I put them in unza they would be graduating with the iq of a cadre
LT please block this N.e.e.z comments. He is childish not making mature comments. We need constructive comments and not insults as well as useless personal issues.
Why waste time publishing this…these are the morons who are quiet when these CBU was closed and Sales Tax was about to be implemented yet they are applauding as if the govt as done a strategic move yet all these should never have been tolerated in the first place…how an you applaud someone for wasting time and money!!
True jay, it also tolerating these guys to continue making bad decisions then applaud them when they reverse those decisions. We need to hold them accountable instead of applauding nonsense, doesn’t this carder know that time, money and resources has been wasted by parents and poor citizens who now have to sacrifice a lot again while the politicians goons get rich and do nothing to improve anything
Zambian politics and commentary very childish…..” man builds wall (problem) to block development…NATION condemns man, the same “man” breaks wall (problem) he created = (now solution) to problem he created….???????????? NATION applauds same man as “genius”= (foolishness)….. some people are born geniusly dull. How do one really save such people (scholars) from their du?lness? I rest my case…. It’s really a non starter
Problem with our people is inability to grasp and understand matters at hand either because we unable to research or that we see everything in the partisan lens. ZRA have repeatedly published figures that show VAT is an open ended sink hole thru which businesses literally fall over each other to milk the treasury. According to ZRA net claims against treasury magically jumped from monthly K500ml to K1.2bn after announcement of sales tax! And this on the back of reduced economic activity due to draught and the mines engaging in power tussles with Govt over tax changes. How in the world can one applaud Vat continuation in light of these statistics? Who bewitched us? This aint about Lungu or pf, its about the country bleedind to death. We needed to act decisively to cut off red ink now…