Thursday, March 28, 2024

Council of Churches appeals to government to reconsider wage freeze

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The Council of Churches in Zambia (CCZ) has cautiously welcomed government’s expressed desire to limit the overall fiscal deficit to 4.6 percent of the countrys GDP in the 2015 national budget.

However the CCZ has appealed to government to seriously consider lifting the wage freeze imposed on the public service.

Speaking in Lusaka this morning during a media briefing, CCZ President Alfred Kalembo says the church mother body is of the view that government should continuously decrease domestic borrowing to avoid crowding out private sector borrowing from commercial banks which will consequently limit employment creation.

Reverend Bishop Dr. Kalembo said that while CCZ appreciates government’s intention to achieve a real GDP growth of above 7 percent in 2015, such increase in GDP indicator has not facilitated the transformation of the economy and the lives of the poor people especially those in the rural areas.

He said in view of the many challenges the country is currently facing such as high poverty levels, lack of access to health services and lack of access to income, the CCZ hopes that government will design subsidiary policies and programmes that will ensure that the proposed GDP works for the poor.

Reverend Kalembo said CCZ also advises government to ensure that inflation is maintained at the lowest levels and reflected in low commercial interest rates to encourage increased investment and employment creation.

The CCZ president added that his organization has taken note with keen interest the redesigned tax regime for mining operations in which will see mineral royalty based on either underground or open cast mining operations.

He said the church mother body commits to interrogating the redesigned tax regime, and that its initial reflections are that this measure takes into consideration the various costs associated with a type of mining operation.

On Agriculture, Reverend Kalembo said the CCZ is concerned that in the last decade Zambia’s budgetary allocation to the sector has been below the 10% of total budget target as outlined in the Maputo Declaration on Agriculture and Rural Development.

And Reverend Kalembo has observed that Zambia’s poverty levels dictate that in order to uphold dignity for all, more people need to qualify for various social protection interventions, but that this is however not possible from the paltry K1.3 billion allocated in 2015 national budget to social protection programmes.

He pointed out that an allocation of only K180.6 million towards social cash transfer and another K50 million for the food security pack is also unimpressive as far as enabling more people qualify for various social protection interventions.

3 COMMENTS

  1. Reverend we dont need salary increament with debt at K55 billion and massive constructions All we need is to farce our govt to start buying oil from Angola and reduce electricity price these will affect production of goods and services

  2. Labor relations are not the best area of Church intervention. The conflict between labor and capital can be a dragon without tail nor head. It is better to do soul healing and charity while listening to government programs and opposition criticism.

  3. the trouble in africa is everything is politics and people want the government to do everything for them. Most public servants just go for work to show their attendance and do little in actual meaningful work. They contribute nothing to the nation development. The govt can only do so much from its budget. How can people surely expect gvt to sponsor all Uni and college students and pay for the following: ARVs, fund for medicines in hospitals, buy maize from all farmer, pay allowances to constitution commissioners, fund occer, sports & NGO. The list is endless. Even in corporate companies pay freeze is praticed. In fact gvt should consider retrenching or reducing its work force for it to be sustainable. Time to stop the rot of everything gvt.

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