Today's letters

Wed, 29 Mar 2017 12:21:50 +0000

Zambians are not stupid Garry Nkombo told

Dear Editor

The video of a Policeman brandishing a gun apparently after an altercation with Mazabuka Member of Parliament Garry Nkombo is a very poor fake news attempt.

Whoever recorded the video should not think that Zambians are so stupid as to accept any junk that is dumped on social media with the idea of misleading simple minded people.

The video  that has gone viral attempts to show that the cop was drunk and therefore unruly.

A careful examination of the dialogue shows that the video was a very bad attempt at tarnishing the image of the Police officer because it was a manipulated recording which did not show the genesis of the entire event.

That officer was manhandled hence the unkempt and perhaps incoherent nature of his speech.

There is no way that Nkombo could have sat back after being challenged by a policeman who was within his rights to inspect the vehicle which he found to be suspicious.

The recording is manipulated to keep out Mr. Garry Nkombo who obviously did something to provoke the policeman into the state he appears in the video.

By keeping out Nkombo the video does a disservice to the people of Zambia because it only gives a partial story of what transpired that night at Petroda Petrol station.

I would like to appeal to the Police command to undertake a vigorous and very thorough investigation to bring out the truth of what really transpired on that particular day.

Alfred Mwenda.

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Congratulations to management and board of IDC

Dear Editor

I would like to congratulate management and the board at the Industrial Development Corporation and indeed the government of the Republic of Zambia for successfully signing a $100million deal to manufacture tractors and other machinery with a Polish firm Ursus.

We were not part of the system but we knew what was going on in the background and we had to knowledge of every effort and sleepless nights that went in before the contract was signed.

That deal will be the biggest contract Ursus will be signing with an African country besides the $40million dollar contract the firm is sitting on.

The Polish will be celebrating the whole of this week but some of us started celebrating the success of that contract from Friday through Sunday by drinking all the café-late and Malawi Shandy at Chicagos and Rh’apsody’s.

The technocrats at IDC have succeeded in sealing that deal within a record five months were Tanzania has had difficulties in clinching that same deal for five years now. Special gratitude should go to number one and two at IDC.

The signing of that contract coincides very well with the government’s policy on industrialization which will contribute towards wealth and job creation.

I will however, would like to caution the main players behind the signing of these deals in Zambia that they endeavor to strike very juicy deals with the European Union in the wake of the protectionist approach by the United States government and by the move by Britain to leave the EU.

As Britain will be signing divorce papers with the EU as stipulated in article 50 of the Lisbon treaty more and more countries in the EU(multilaterally and bilaterally) will be looking to Africa for trade deals and our focus should be the manufacturing sector. The European Union under the leadership of Angela Merkel and not necessarily bureaucrats in Brussels will be looking for economic solace in Africa and Zambia should move fast in ensuring that we create a conducive and enabling environment.

I therefore advise that Zambia should immediately put on two sets of eyes.

One eye should be centered on ensuring that we institute structural and institutional reforms because every inch of reform adds economic value to our economic impetus .

This is against the backdrop that most foreign investors (and the most valuable ones) are very sensitive towards issues such has a “civilized” regulatory framework, universal freedoms, a free press, an independent judiciary, flexible labour laws, a strong skills base, cheaper sources of energy and finance and such important things as the fight against corruption and political intolerance.  As our technocrats are scrutinizing these “million paged” contractual documents another sub-eye should be focused on recommending  external structural and institutional reforms that act as impediments towards both local and foreign direct investments.

As a country we should aim to be number one and not feel content with second place.

I reckon the inter-ministerial set as espoused in the current Board of the IDC is sufficient enough to pursue what I am talking about.

The second eye should be focused on all impediments that make it difficult for us to export to our neighbouring countries including the Great lakes region. Just like Western developed countries have cleverly used South-Africa as springboard to penetrate the rest Africa; similarly the European Union can use Zambia in this particular case to make a similar entry.

The third eye should look at policies that will help us cut off the South African export base.

In this particular sector government might want to look at many other things like perfecting the capacity of institutions such as the Bureau of Standards.

That is the first strategy that South Korea employed in wooing back its citizens who were based in foreign countries such as Thailand, Taiwan, Hong Kong and mainland China.

The fourth but equally important eye should focus on ensuring that we have intelligent economic diplomats based in the European Union whose primary role will be sniffing out very lucrative deals.

Zambia, though being a landlocked country is strategically located and should use her God-given privilege to churn-out very lucrative deals like the Ursus deal, which will contribute towards wealth and job creation.

John Noel Lungu.

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Vegetable, fruit import retrogressive

Dear Editor

I was very disappointed to learn that Government is again allowing the import of fruits and vegetables for our foreign chain stores.

This is a great drawback to Zambian growers who have been inhibited by the lack of markets. There is no fruit and vegetable that will not grow in Zambia, even apples are grown here. What is required is a steady market to which local suppliers will provide their crops.

It is not easy for farmers from outlying areas of the country to travel to towns in order to sell their produce, to the extent that there is little motivation for farmers to produce some of the more exotic crops such as red and yellow peppers which can only move in large quantities in supermarkets in town.

The ban of imports was going to provide a very clear and available market. Now this opportunity has closed again.

I hope the Government can reassess the situation to determine those items that can be imported and those that should be left to local farmers. This is what all countries do to promote their own people.

Even under international agreements Government must identify those areas which should be left to the vulnerable and potential production centres.

Our Government must also examine if cabbages, tomatoes, rape and other vegetables should be imported into Zambia. If so why?

Concerned farmer.