The opposition FDD has described the 8% and 5% fuel reduction by the Energy Regulation Board as pure window dressing which will not have any significant impact on the country’s economy.

Commenting on the announcement by ERB that it has reduce fuel by K1.20 Petrol and K0.68 Diesel FDD Spokesperson Antonio Mwanza explained that the reduction was too little to have any impact on the cost of goods and services.

He said government should instead have restored the pump prices to the original prices which was there before they increase by 30%.

“The reduction in pump price of fuel by ERB won’t have any positive impact on the economy because it is very insignificant. The prices of fuel were recently increased by over 30% hence the 8% and 5% reductions respectively are too insignificant to cause any real positive impact on the economy.

“The reduction is too minuscule to cause a reduction in the cost of production; the cost of essential goods and services, the cost of doing business and indeed the cost of living. Prices of essential goods and services and the cost of doing business will continue to rise.

“If Government was serious in reducing fuel prices they should have restored the prices to the initial amounts that were there before the increments. That would have had a real positive impact on the economy. Otherwise, this is purely window dressing and it won’t help matters,” he said.

The country’s Energy Regulatory Board to announced that prices for fuel have been reduced effective midnight.

The new pump prices are Petrol which was at K13.70 will now be sold at 12.50 after seeing a reduction of K1.20, Diesel will be at K10.72 from the previous K11.40 after a reduction of K0.68 while Kerosine will be at K6.81 from K8.03, Low sulphur diesel will be at K13.01 from 13.69.

The Movement for Multipary Democracy (MMD) says there is need to demolish cartels that have been formed within the Civil service so as to enhance service delivery to the people.

Speaking when he featured on Pan African Radio, MMD National Secretary Raphael Nakacinda alleged the country’s Civil service is riddled with cartels formed within it for the purpose of enriching themselves.

Mr Nakacinda said government workers have developed systems which they are using to enrich themselves when their job as civil servants should be to better the lives of the Zambians.

“Along the way people have even devised a system through which they use their positions in government which they use to enrich themselves. We need to demolish cartels that have been created with the civil service,” he said.

He explained that those who are in the civil service to enrich themselves should live their government jobs and start businesses.

“Each one of us has a choice either to go and do business in the private  sector, if you desire to get rich and wealthy you go to the private sector, we have liberalised the economy, of course this one of the hall marks of the MMD government therefore anybody can start a business but if you chose to to join the Civil service in principal you have committed yourself to service  the public because it is not by force.

“These days simple things like procurement for example, why is it that when it comes to procuring goods for government there are always three to four times higher than the market price? The inflating of prices is because there has been developed within the system,” he said.

He further suggested that government considers a shakeup at departmental level so as to make individuals more productive.

“Maybe we need to transfer certain individuals, maybe they have over stayed in one office so they are doing the same things over and over, maybe you take them somewhere else so that they shakeup and become more productive.”

Recently the FDD said government should get rid of non productive Civil servants as they a were drain to government resources.

Prof Luo said government is developing systems that will ensure that both public and private universities are ranked according to excellence.

She said the move is part of measures aimed at improving the quality of education being offered in higher learning institutions in Zambia.

Prof Luo said government is concerned that some of the universities operating in the country are offering substandard services.

The Higher Education Minister was speaking this morning when she featured on the Lusaka Star radio programme on UNZA Radio.

“It is very worrying that in some of these universities mushrooming in the country, you will find a person with a first degree teaching someone in a Master’s Class. That is unacceptable anywhere in the world. We have to put a stop to this,” Prof Luo said.

She added, “The grading system will soon be introduced and right now we are working on systems. We need to do the rankings and publish these based on set criteria, we need to know the best university in the country and the worst.”

Prof Luo said university rankings is a common feature of higher education in most developed countries.

“When you are in England for example, they will tell you how Oxford is ranked, how the Cambridge is ranked or even the ranking for University of London. This is what we want to introduce in our country,” she said.

Prof Luo further said, “Most of us believe that the University of Zambia is the best in the country, maybe that is not true anymore.  It could be a false assumption. So we need to put UNZA to a test and the results will reveal the facts and these tests will be done on all the universities we have.”

She said the rankings will also help prospective students pick the right universities for their studies.

And Prof Luo has dispelled reports that a good number of first year students awarded bursaries to study at UNZA and CBU for the 2017 academic year are children of Ministers serving in the PF government.

Prof. Luo said she is not aware of any recipient who is a child of a Minister and urged Zambians not to demonise Ministers and their children.

Zambian born  violinist , Caitlin De Ville released the video of the electric violin cover of Clean Bandit hit song “Rockabye” that features Sean Paul and Anne-Marie. The video was shot in Kitwe,Zambia .

BY KAPA187

A team of Zambian and South African police officers has impounded some courier trucks in South Africa, which reportedly belong to the Post Newspaper in Liquidation.

The trucks allegedly concealed are parked at South African Freight Forwarding Limited premises in Germstone area.The trucks were discovered after the Zambian and South African crack squad carried out an operation.

Post Newspaper in Liquidation Manager Robert Chawinga who accompanied the crack squad said the Liquidators are determined to recover all the assets.Mr Chawinga said the assets will be sold to offset the debt owed to creditors.

And South Africa’s Freight Forwarding Company Chief Executive Officer Robby Forbes said the trucks have been parked since July last year.Last year, a dozen Post Courier trucks were impounded in Shimabala area where they were reportedly concealed.

The Post Newspaper Ltd was placed under receivership and the process of placing the newspaper under compulsory liquidation was started last November.

The newspaper was shut down last year by the Zambia Revenue Authority for failing to pay millions of US dollars in back taxes.

The Post Newspapers is owing over K 187 million to creditors.According to a creditors list released by Post Newspapers Provisional Liquidator Lewis Mosho of Lewis Mosho and associates, the newspaper company owes among other entities Investrust Bank Plc, NAPSA, Development Bank of Zambia and the Zambia Revenue Authority.

The Patriotic Front (PF) is full of cowards and should not drag Southern Province traditional leaders into its agricultural failures, says chief Mukuni.

Chief Mukuni said it was sad that PF could drag traditional leaders into its inefficiencies.