According to a staff memo issued by UNZALARU General Secretary Kelvin Mambwe, management held a meeting with the three University of Zambia unions over the delayed payment of March salaries.

Mr Mambwe said the meeting started around 16 Hours and lasted for about two hours.

“In explaining the reasons for the delayed salaries, Management informed the unions that it has no capacity to pay workers because the Government has for the past two months failed to remit to the University the monthly grants as well as the tuition fees for those students sponsored by the Government,” Mr Mambwe wrote.

He said this position has consequently affected Management’s ability to pay salaries, as the internally generated resources are insufficient to address the problem.

“Unfortunately, there is no hope that the Government will honour its obligations this week,” Mr Mambwe added.

He said in the same meeting, Management requested the unions to give it up to Monday next week to lobby the Government to release the much-delayed grants and outstanding tuition fees.

“We will issue another update on this matter early next week or earlier,” he said.

President Edgar Lungu has commended the Patriotic Front (PF) on the Copperbelt Province for conducting peaceful campaigns, ahead of the Roan parliamentary by-elections.

ZANIS reports that the President said this upon arrival at Simon Mwansa Kapwepwe International Airport, ahead of his scheduled campaigns in Luanshya district.

The President called on the PF members to continue holding peaceful deliberations until the close of campaigns on Wednesday, April 10th, at 18:00 hours.

President Lungu said the PF is aware of the strategy by opposition political parties, adding that the PF will however stick to their mandate and distance themselves from any form of violence.

And speaking earlier, PF Copperbelt Province Chairperson Nathan Chanda assured the Head of State that the party was strictly adhering to his instruction of conducting peaceful campaigns.

Mr Chanda explained that the party has decided not to concentrate on the opposition, but rather confine themselves to issue based campaigns.

The Provincial Chairperson also revealed that the party on the Copperbelt has resolved to ensure that they vote for President Lungu back to state house come 2021.

Meanwhile, Copperbelt Minister Japhen Mwakalombe who led hundreds of Ndola residents to Simon Mwansa Kapwepwe International Airport to receive the President, said people in the province are elated with the transformation that is taking place.

Mr Mwakalombe SAID Copperbelt residents have witnessed numerous developmental progress which include works on the Ndola/Chingola dual carriageway.

He added that people in the province were happy with the water reticulation that is taking place and has since created jobs for the locals.

President Lungu is in the province to drum up support for the PF candidate in the Roan Parliamentary by-election, Joel Chibuye, slated for Thursday April 11, 2019.

Opposition political parties contesting the Bahati parliamentary by-election have praised the people of Mansa for conducting peaceful campaigns ahead of Thursday’s polls.

UPND Chairman for Elections Garry Nkombo says Bahati is likely to be an example to the whole country for conducting peaceful campaigns.

Mr Nkombo, who is also Mazabuka Central Member of Parliament, says the Zambia Police Service has played a huge role in ensuring peace in Bahati.

He has told ZNBC News in an interview that the Luapula Province Police Command has been very impartial and professional in its execution of duty.

Mr Nkombo said the fact that ruling and opposition supporters can been seen campaigning and dancing side by side is a good sign that peaceful campaigns are possible in Zambia.

And United Prosperous and Peaceful Zambia -UPPZ- Bahati Candidate Clement Mwila said the One Zambia One Nation slogan has inspired political parties to avoid political violence in Bahati.

Mr Mwila has told ZNBC News in an interview that his campaigns have been devoid of bitterness, insults or name calling which usually perpetuates violence.

Meanwhile, People’s Alliance for Change -PAC President Andyford Banda said his party is contesting the Bahati by-election in order to give alternative leadership.

Speaking when he featured on a live phone-in program on Radio Yangeni in Mansa this morning, Mr Banda said PAC wants to empower the people of Bahati when it wins.

He said sinking of boreholes and job creation are at the top of his candidate’s agenda in Bahati.

Former Zambia Manufacturers Association Executive Director Maybin Nsupila has warned that Zambia would be in contravention of World Trade Organisation principles if it goes ahead to pass the Goods and Sales Tax Bill.

Mr Nsupila noted that the Goods and Sales Tax Bill goes against the National Treatment Principle of the World Trade Organisation.

He warned that Zambia’s trading partners will drag Zambia to the WTO if the country passes the Bill into Law.

“So we decide as a country to draft legislation which goes against our commitments at the World Organisation under the National Treatment Principle which says “Once a product has paid customs duties and enters your territory, it should be given the same treatment as the locally produced good”.

Mr Nsupila said the 16% and 9% Sales Tax rates go against this provision.

“Should the Bill become Law in this form, all our trading partners will take us on at the WTO on this one. We cannot escape,” he warned.

He further warned that the Bill if implemented into Law will seriously adversely affect the competitiveness of the local manufacturing industry.

Mr Nsupila said this is so because the vast majority of the inputs are imported.

“16% tax on inputs will kill the local industry. Although there is provision for goods to be exempted, there will be complications in administration as some goods can be both inputs and final. So producers will spend more time fighting with Ministry of Finance to have their inputs, intermediate goods, added to the list of exempted products,” he said.

“When you factor in 70% increase in the cost of electricity, more than 50% increase in user fees by agencies supporting industry, and other things, I fear for our economy and our diversification agenda. In the end, it’s viva trading and smuggling and hello to loss of manufacturing jobs and manufacturing capabilities,” he predicted.

UPND President Hakainde Hichilema has assured miners in Zambia that his government shall improve salaries poorly paid miners, pay all the formers miners and all retirees in the Civil Service who have been neglected by the Patriotic Front.

Mr. Hichilema who was addressing thousands of UPNDC supporters in Luanshya on Monday was drumming to support for the NDC candidate Joseph Chishala as an Opposition Alliance partner.

He said the Patriotic Front was a merciless government which did not care about the miners welfare, Civil Servants and many retirees in Zambia.

The UPND leader said it was every government’s responsibility to ensure workers were well looked after by employers and ensure retirees were timely paid by former employers including government.

Mr. Hichilema said most people were suffering in Roan Constituency because they were either fired to favor PF Cadres or not paid all the money they worked for in under Mpelembe Drilling, Ramcoz and the current mining employers.

He said the miners in the country should count on the UPND for the improvement of their salaries and conditions of service because it was the only party with a best agenda to better their livelihood.

Mr. Hichilema said synchronizing and standardizing Miners’ salaries on the UPND priorities.

Meanwhile at the same campaign rally the National Democratic Congress leader Dr. Chishimba Kambwili condemned PF government for having allowed the Luanshya Copper Mines to put it’s workers on recess and ask them to reapply for them to go back to work.

Dr. Kambwili said it was unthinkable how the PF was allowing foreign investors to abuse and disadvantage the Zambian workers.

He lamented that the owners of the mines in Luanshya put workers on recess.

“Instead of recalling them they were subjected submitting fresh applications a process which was by the Luanshya Mayor and District Commissioner to import PF Cadres from Kitwe, Chingola and Chililabombwe to take up jobs for the people of Roan Constituency,” Dr Kambwili said.

Meanwhile NDC/Opposition Alliance candidate Joseph Chishala pledged to ensure most youths all former miners of Roan Constituency were employed by the mining companies in Luanshya.

President Hakainde Hichilema and NDC leader Dr. Chishimba Kambwili combined forces to campaign for Joseph Chishala in Roan Constituency at the Kaunda Square in Roan Township and Mpatamatu Stadium on Monday April 8th, 2019.

The Standard Bank Group which trades in Zambia as Stanbic Bank has forecast that foreign exchange reserves in Zambia could decline further to US$1 billion before the end of June.

And the Standard Bank Group says in order to raise the funding required to repay Eurobond maturities, presuming that refinancing is not an option, Zambia would easily sell some of its assets.

Bank Head of Africa Research Phumelele Mbiyo said the tentative forecast is based on discussions that the bank officials had with the Bank of Zambia during a recent visit to Lusaka.

In the report titled Déjà vu, the Bank says the amount of external debt service payments was sufficiently large to suggest that foreign exchange reserves could be closer to US$1.2bn or even US$1.1bn by the end of March.

“What was conspicuously lacking was a plan to quell this persistent drain. Of course, operationally the BOZ would buy Forex from the market in order to accumulate the Forex it requires to continue servicing external debt. We were left with the impression that policymakers are bemused by the market’s obsession with whether the government would seek an IMF-funded program,” the report read.

The report stated that it is clear that the government does not see the level of the fiscal deficit as an issue and neither has it ever seen it as a key lever with which it could arrest the deterioration of the Balance of Payment.

“Indeed, during our discussions with the Finance Ministry it was clear that the government is still keen to borrow as much as  is feasible, whether domestically or externally, in order to continue with the government infrastructure development program. However, during our meetings last month the Finance Ministry conceded that the persistent decline in Forex reserves, combined with mounting external debt service payments, raised the probability that a liquidity crisis might develop” it read.

The Bank said setting aside the fact that actual debt service payments in 2018 exceeded the budgeted number, it is worth pointing out that budgeted debt service payments in 2019 are nearly as much as the level of Forex reserves at the end of 2018.

“Having conceded the increasing likelihood of a liquidity crisis, the Ministry of Finance did not leave us with any confidence that anything is being done to avert such a crisis. Of course, there has been much reporting in the media that the government might be engaging Chinese lenders to restructure some of the loans that the government obtained from them. However, while acknowledging these media reports, representatives from the Finance Ministry could not confirm that anything of the sort is being worked upon. Neither did representatives at the Bank of Zambia,” it said.

The bank said over the past 4 weeks, they visited Zambia on a few occasions, meeting policymakers and some businesses.

“From the meetings we left with a rather strong conviction that a reacceleration of economic growth was unlikely to materialise in the next 2-3 years. Notably, in a lot of conversations with businesses, be it small enterprises or large corporations, the topic of government arrears kept coming up. Many businesses are clearly feeling the pinch as a result of working capital challenges that government arrears have brought about,” it said.

“This is either directly for those that are owed VAT refunds or indirectly for those supplying to small and medium enterprises that are themselves supplying to the government, and have not been paid. From a policy perspective, it seems as if there is a broad acknowledgement of the difficult BOP adjustment that the economy is going through. Strangely though, there is hardly any discussion of any policy measures being taken to end the erosion of external buffers,” it observed.

And the Bank says in order to raise the funding required to repay Eurobond maturities, presuming that refinancing is not an option, Zambia would easily sell some of its assets.

“As pointed out above, the government acknowledged the shocks that hit the economy between 2014 and 2016. In response, it crafted an economic program that it sincerely believes is addressing the consequences of that shock. Investors questioned the Finance Ministry on how it would fund the maturities of the Eurobonds, with the first maturity due in 2022. The Ministry pointed out that while a liquidity problem might develop, there would not be a solvency problem,” it said.

“The government has plenty of assets, including ownership stakes in mining companies, whose value far exceeds the value of its liabilities. In order to raise the funding required to repay Eurobond maturities, presuming that refinancing is not an option, it would easily sell some of its assets. This was the first time that we heard policymakers raising the possibility of asset sales to repay maturing debts” it observed.

The Bank also charged that the IMF program still looks highly unlikely in the near term.

“We have not been convinced that this was likely to materialise anytime soon. Following our trip, we are still not convinced that the government sees any economic problem that would be solved by an IMF-funded program. Clearly, given that the core objective of Zambia Plus was resource mobilisation and well targeted spending, an IMF-funded program is irrelevant. After all, the IMF would insist on the government addressing the imbalances that fiscal policy conduct has exacerbated.”