PRESIDENT Edgar Lungu has directed Finance Minister Felix Mutati to increase funding to the Ministry of Gender to spur the involvement of women in economic activity.
“Minister of Finance, Honourable Felix Mutati, ensure that adequate resources are allocated to the Ministry of Gender for implementing the PF manifesto’s vision of gender and women’s empowerment programmes,” President Lungu said. “I’ve heard reports that you are treating the ministry like a cinderella ministry; that should not be the case.”
Mr Lungu said the Ministry of Gender was as important as any other Government department and Mr Mutati should prioritise its funding to enhance its relevance as enshrined in the Patriotic Front (PF) manifesto.
The President said this at the Lusaka Showgrounds yesterday during commemorations to mark the International Women’s Day, with a minute of silence being observed for victims of gender-based violence (GBV), prior to his address.
The event was held under the local theme ‘Promoting inclusiveness in economic participation as a means of attaining sustainable development’.
The Head of State also directed all ministers to integrate gender in their sector plans and budgets as gender mainstreaming demonstrated the Government’s commitment to sustainable development by allocating equal resources to men, women, boys and girls.
President Lungu expressed sadness at incidences of GBV against both men and women as well as children, which should be stopped at all costs.
Mr Lungu said the Government had put in place a legal framework to allow for an equal principle in land allocation between men and women.
He directed Lands and Natural Resources Minister Jean Kapata and her Local Government counterpart Vincent Mwale to ensure that barriers in accessing land by women were eliminated for the female folk to fully own the resource.
President Lungu urged women to transform their mindset and get involved in agriculture to the point of value-addition to enhance the country’s productivity in the sector.
He suggested sectors such as livestock re-stocking and fish farming, which the Government is promoting to increase self-employment opportunities for all Zambians.
The President appreciated the significant contribution of women to national development and peace building, saying the female folk could not be ignored on any score.
He said the Government had this year engaged 14,000 girls from 16 districts in the country on the scheme dubbed ‘Girls’ education and women empowerment in livelihoods (GEWEL)’.
Mr Lungu envisaged that the project would guarantee the number of girls completing secondary and tertiary education.
It would also reduce the girl-child’s vulnerability to early pregnancies and child marriage as improved school attendance propelled the social and economic well-being of girls and women.
The Head of State urged stakeholders engaged in gender and women empowerment schemes to partner with the Government in creating awareness and implementing the new Gender Equity and Equality Act of 2015.
The law not only promotes gender equity and equality, but seeks to stimulate productive resources and opportunities for men and women.
It also eliminates all forms of discrimination against women and girls.
Meanwhile, President Lungu said the Government would not at any time soon hold a Referendum on the Bill of Rights due to financial constraints.
Mr Lungu said the country had held two costly elections in the last two years and now was time to channel resources towards alleviating the plight of Zambians.
Does Lungu know that the budget allocations proposal stage is over? Or maybe he doesn’t even know that the budget was already presented in parliament.
What about ministry of upnd women.?
Iwe Edgar! Which money and from where? The country is struggling to pay off kaloba
So Mr. Lungu is indirectly telling us that women love money – and he’s trying to buy their attention despite there not being a provision in the current budget?
Ukubuta Ba Lungu he doesnt know that budget is already in place. When people say the guy is at sea and incompetent abantu ati ni lungu twikwite… NOW people are paying with their lives to get mealie meal even when its free…… The petition should be heard so that a serious person who won leads the nation not imigalato shakwa Rb and his nephew chulu.
Awe ECL nafilwa and how long will he delay the enavitable….. Handing over power to a person who won
The who article is full of silly directives even ordering the Dull Jean Kapata to be issuing land to women…really sad..myopic leadership
This is an example of a dysfunctional cabinet. One would expect that such budget issues are discussed in cabinet meetings and not giving directives through the press.Travelling too much and no time for normal government work. And directives are being given without complex thought on overall impact. Just to show us that he in control. No sir, for those who can read through do understand that this is not the proper way to manage country affairs, always through directives without deeper analysis and discussion based on facts. It’s either the minister of Gender affairs is weak to fight for his ministry to get the proper budget allocation, in that case, should be removed. But don’t resolve budget issues via directives
I wonder whether UPND supporters have ever asked HH what was in his mind when he was generating those preliminaries as a delay tactic?
Or do these UPND supporters assume that HH had no idea what the constitution says regarding his petition in terms of timeframe?
Or, did UPND think they were fixing ECL by willingly expiring the petition?
Now, Mumbi used the word ‘disingeneous’ when referring to HH’s behaviour, while Amos used the term delusion when referring to the same man.
Do you think they were wrong or correct? Give reasons for your arguments.
In any case such things are told to the finance minister in private. Yes during his preparation for the budget of next fiscal year
Man without a vision is hearing about his “Cinderella” ministry of Gender engulfed by PF bandits.
The PF banditry cadres have been terrorising innocent citizens & PFolice joined in assaulting women~like Mutinta Mmembe.
Blind Lungu is mute about the fracas caused by his PF bandits at former Gabon Disaster Stadium now Heroes stadium.
Even the mealie meal stampede of a day ago, Lungu is quiet. Why? No vision, he can’t see that nyala yanyokola with fruitless global trottings.
How much is mealie meal today a~Lungu after your “fruitful meeting” with the millers 3 months ago?
Where is the 500,000 jobs?
When is load shedding ending since your pronunciations of insinuating that it will end in 2016? Wake up early from slumber visionless Lungu’s PF.
What are you doing about the…
Cheap politicking here president Lungu. This was the time to allocate money to ZESCO, implementing alternative forms of power generation. When HH is facing renewed calls of being a UPND dictator, the president could have used his energies wisely.
You keep sharpening the UPND, While your FDD is going down the drain, he who criticizes you loves, thanks for the unsolicited free consultancy services.
Dont expect anything from visionless man,he was just hallucinating.First we want that cheap fuel from saudi arabia before u continue to deceive our lovely women.Ba lungu awe sure
Lungu does not understand how govt budgets and allocates Revenue to finance total expenditures. Cabinet has a collective responsibility to plan expenditures and find the money to finance those expenditures. If Gender is now a priority and requires more money than budgted for it means Mutati has to either re-allocate revenue or introduce new Tax Measures or increase govt borrowings or do both. We wonder if Visionless and Clueless Lungu understands govt’s Fiscal Policy? These issues are beyond Lungu as he is more comfortable with his Chipantepante approach to everything. How can a Financially Literate President direct his Minister thru the Press? Lungu thinks money grows on trees and u can just pluck it like leaves and spend it like confetti. Lungu’s approach to Fiscal Policy is allien to…
Ati “allocate more money to ministry of gender” ??? Isn’t being male another gender too?
Imagine the President being so dull that he doesn’t even know that ‘gender’ means either male or female. Where did this drunkard go to school kanshi? Is this the caliber of lawyers UNZA was producing during ECL’s times. Is it true that ECL entered UNZA with 32 points (division two as it was called then)?
Just listen to this, we are in maningi trouble with this imbecile we have as president:
“I’ve heard reports that you are treating the ministry like a cinderella ministry; that should not be the case.”
Koma pali Lungu enafye twabwelapofye, eeeish!
Then zambia has money. If you are increasing the budget to gender politics you indeed have money. Don’t worry people.
This man is a pillock. A big clueless rat
This lazy f00l wants women to venture into agriculture but he has never even known what farming is all about. ECL has never practiced farming himself. The only thing he knows is drinking and running taverns. He should at least lead by example. This is why I miss Levy Mwanawasa and this is one of the major things where HH completely beats Lungu.
This is the fiscal indiscipline we keep talking about! This is also typical of one who has no agenda for the country. Is he not aware the budget has been passed? Does he consult before saying certain things? Is this when he has woken up to gender issues? When he store from widows and orphans, did he understand the gender injustice he was perpetrating? As a Lawyer, he should know better! Anyway you can forgive the man. It is our people who have no vision. Even when there was overwhelming evidence of drunkenness and theft, our people gave him a blank check. Surely, you had options among the many candidates – Sinkamba for example. With the current financial indiscipline, we should expect a much higher budget deficit and its consequences! A Lawyer should show intelligence! Embarrassing!
PF comes before GRZ??
If there’s any woman who believes what VISION-LESS LAZY says, then they deserve the poverty they r going through.
– LAZY said fuel price would be reduced to K5 after Saudi trip, today price is more than double that amount
– LAZY said Mulungushi textiles would reopen in 2 weeks. 6 months later the company is still closed
– LAZY said load shedding will soon be a thing of the past. 6 months on it’s still there
– LAZY said price of mealie-meal would drop after agreeing with millers. 2 months have passed with no sign of a price decrease
– LAZY said corrupt ministers would be dismissed. Today DORA is rewarded with a trip to israel even after her involvement in the Malawi Maizegate.
– LAZY proclaims he’s a christian, quotes verses in front of Jesus’s tomb, yet he has thousands of…
CONT’D…
– LAZY proclaims he’s a christian, quotes verses in front of Jesus’s tomb, yet he has thousands of UPND cadres political prisoners without bail.
LAZY lies for breakfast, tells more lies for lunch & finally tells bigger lies for supper.
This Lazy Bum has no shame at all…where is Mutati going to get more funding when he can not even balance the budget? This is clearly a man with no vision and out of touch with reality
Even worse that he has no time to meet his cabinet ministers at least for them to give him some information how the budget is created. He approved the budget, now it’s evident he did so without understanding, the worst thing he can do is not to consult with those who do, instead, he goes public giving directives.
Shame !!!
But the President should be careful, they is priority allocation of money, if this country needs to develop economically certain ministries MUST be given more allocation but not this ministry, am not saying that it should not be given but strategic ministries like, Ministry of infrastructure, Agric, mines, energy,water development and many more. In economics we usually look at choices and those choices should give you maximum utility, in this case development of this nation economically.
AND SURE, HOW DO YOU HAVE YOUR FINANCE MINISTER OPPOSITION GONGA PRESIDENT, DO YOU THINK HE CAN SERVE YOU BETTER. I RECOMMEND WATER THERAPY FOR YOU. MAY GOD HAVE MERCY ON THIS COUNTRY.
Lungu’s directives are just politics and deep down he knows that Mutati has no where to turn to for money let alone the nation. How about revisiting his corruption mission against those ministers he knows are corrupt. Deal with them and get the money back and then put it in the gender ministry. Some talk, and some rocket science you making out of this….talk is cheap Lungu, do something right for once. Enough of this rubbish!!
Dunderheads at it again, the president knows quite well that the budget has already been done with. what he meant is that Mutati should not ignore this ministry when allocating or giving money to ministries which has been allocated to them not to create another budget but to be serious to take note that this min. is also important like other ministries. “Gender” the president did not exclude any one after all he said men, women and children please read it again. who knows better that the president about all these issues, the president who is the custodian of Zambia where every body reports..
If you read carefully the first two paragraphs the President specifically mentioned women’s empowerment programmes and his desire to see them getting more involved in economic activities.So it is about women benefitting more than men
you are just proving that you can communicate better than ECL, if he meant what you have said, he wouldn’t be giving directives to the Finance Minister at this point. Instead, this would have been a budget discussion at cabinet level in preparation of 2018 budget. You mean he did know how much was allocated to this ministry in preparing for this year budget? Are you telling me there was no budget allocation discussion when this ministry was being formed? It’s a government that need to work in harmony and not led via directives.
You don’t need to be UPND or PF to ask such questions. So don’t misuse party affiliation, just be objective.
WHERE IS A MINUTE OF SILENCE FOR THE MEN THAT WERE KILLED BY WOMEN
May be the Min. of Gender had complained to the President of not being funded in time, it might have been the reason why the President said it in public for the Min. and the concerned to hear. As you in Zambia something to do with women comes second, just as you have already started complaining about Gender not knowing that when you empower a woman you save the all house hold.
Slit: “Forgive me Mr Preez for I have sinned.”Preez: “What have you done now?” Slit: “I called a man a son of a bitch.” Preen: “Why did you call him a son of a bitch?” Slot: “Because he touched my hand.” Preez: “Like this?” (as he touches her hand). Slit: “Yes”
Press: “That’s no reason to call a man a son of a bitch.” Slot: “Then he touched my breast.” Perez: “Like this?” (as he touched her breast). Perez: “Yes.”
Preez: “That’s no reason to call him a son of a bitch.” Slit: “Then he took off my clothes.” Perez: Like this?” (as he takes off her clothes). Slit: “Yes.” Preez: “That’s no reason to call him a son of a bitch.” Slit: “Then he stuck his you know what into my you know where.” Preez: “Like this?” (as he stuck his you know what into her you…
…. you know where.”
Preen: “Like this?” (as he stuck his you know what into her you know where)
Slit: “YES SIR, YES SIR YES BWANA!!!”
Preez: (after a few minutes): “That’s no reason to call him a son of a bitch.”
Slit: “But Sir, he had AIDS!”
Press: “THAT SON OF A BITCH!!!”
lemba you live on a budget and should know that you can’t starting altering your budget allocation after it has been decided, then the budget you made becomes useless. Eve your spending becomes haphazard that is what people are complaining about. Also what gender programs are you funding, we have far more important issues to tackle than just gender.