Today's Letters
Thu, 27 Apr 2017 12:51:49 +0000
ZRA commissioner general walks the talk
Dear Editor
I write to commend Kingsley Chanda, the ZRA Commissioner General for his resiliency to help businesses to be tax compliant much as his major obligation is to collect tax.
The tax amnesty ZRA has given to all registered businesses on penalties and interest as from 24th April 2017 is really good for most businesses that were choked with the penalties and interests making it difficult for them to continue doing business.
This will surely be another step of actually encouraging businesses to be compliant and start afresh to not only grow the economy but also have room to do business correctly.
I should say from the time Mr Chanda was appointed Commissioner General for ZRA, he has really worked boldly to grow the treasury.
It is now up to various businesses to take this opportunity and put their records straight and own up to the cause.
We as a nation need such people who think outside the box to help the general populous that are grappling with business challenges continue being of service to the nation than suffocating them into extinct.
Well done ZRA.
Happy tax payer
LAZ must justify paying for M’membe
Dear Editor
The executive of the Law Association of Zambia owe the Zambian people an explanation over their decision to pay legal fees for the defence of a lawyer defending Fred M’membe.
I would also like the Catholic Bishops who are defending LAZ to explain how a membership organisation can use its funds to pay legal fees for a person who was earning US$100,000 a month?
I agree with Counsel Tutwa Ngulube that the executive abused their authority by undertaking this exercise which was not only obscene but an abrogation of the transparency requirement which every professional body must show.
Time has come for our country to reset our moral code. Those who aspire for leadership in politics or indeed media must display a befitting conduct conducive with the role they want to play.
Let this be a lesson to Zambians that those who claim to be clean are nothing more than cheap crooks who will use every opportunity to acquire wealth and power.
The Government should take this matter very seriously and investigate the various linkages, deals and activities that took place from the time the cartel emerged to date. What else did they do?
I am for a commission of inquiry.
Benard Muhunga
The clergymen can do better
Dear Editor,
I write to appeal to the clergymen to help Zambia by not being partisan in the way they conduct themselves, lest they lead their followers in total abyss.
We all know that clergymen should be a source of wisdom and therefore their conduct and accurate counsel is of paramount to unite the nation.
Even the bible is very clear that you cannot seek forgiveness if in the first place you don’t accept wrong doing.
Why should the elite be allowed to break the law with impunity with the support of some clergymen and tilt the blame on totally different people or institutions?
Are we losing the calling to uphold the values that border on obedience and respect for laws?
I therefore feel the clergymen can do better by sitting down and actually counselling the wrongdoers however wealthy they are than lecturing President Lungu.
He is the head of state for God’s sake and his paramount obligation is to look into the welfare of each and every Zambian, not those who want to break the law with impunity.
Wisdom Muyunda,
CHINGOLA
PresidentLungu spot on
Dear Editor,
I write to commend President Lungu for his directive to the Mayors, Council Chairpersons and District Commissioners to be of real service to the general populous to advance the welfare of the common people as enshrined in the pro-poor PF manifesto.
It surely does not make sense for those in leadership to always amass wealthy at the expense of the general citizens who put them into office.
Why should a few always have access to resources when most Councils are struggling to pay its workers who most times are actually in arrears?
If President Lungu can forego some of his remunerations and divert it to the poor, why should the above always travel at the expense of council workers?
Let it not be the animal farm dynasty where the rich become richer while the poor become poorer, yet they are the most used when it comes to political office ascendance.
The Conference at Chrismar Hotel in Livingstone has seen some Councils spend a lot of money on a few people that have travelled to attend the Conference while the Local Authority workers are in salary arrears in some cases.
Where is the justification?
WM
Govt wants to turn UNZA into University Colleges? Dear Editor
The story of government wanting to turn UNZA into University Colleges as carried by Lusaka Times on social media on 25 April, 2017, may make sad reading to many Zambians, but I can’t be one of them.
One thing I am beginning to love about the PF government is that, they are slowly opening our eyes, making us to begin to see/know who we really are and where we are. As a country, we have lived a lie for far too long. What of Zambia not having won the AfCON Cup?
But surely knowing where we are, I bet, is the only way Zambia will begin to move forward.
Fellow countrymen, women, and youths, let’s not even point fingers. We are all in this together.
I am sorry to say our hands are termites; whatever we have touched in the past has been eaten including Schools, Colleges, Hospitals, Sports fields, Roads and other infrastructure; they are all eaten. Even more Saddening is that the people who complain about inefficiencies, corruption or/and adultery turn out to be the most inefficient, most corrupt or/and the most adulterers in areas where they serve.
To this regard, I would like to suggest that we bring back foreign experts even in our schools as we have done in the Mines. That is, if we are serious about moving forward. Let me also take this opportunity to salute His Royal Highness in the area where I come from, for not being too keen about the idea of government awarding Zambian contractors to do projects in our area.
May be Zambians can be engaged to do maintenance later after the structures are put up.
Mukuka Chilufya
Chambishi Mine Township
M’membe’s US$100,000 salary scandal
Editor,
Where are the civil society organizations that condemn inequality in our society? Surely if this one salary was used to pay the Post Newspaper tax liability it would not have gone into liquidation. The worst part is that nobody will ever know where this money went apart from the fact that not all the workers participated in this extravaganza by the socialist.
Edward Chulu
Is US$100,000 salary legal?
Editor,
Was it legal for Post Newspaper owner Fred M’membe to earn US$100,000 per months in foreign currency and then have the company also pay the taxes? What is going to happen now that the company was in tax default? Who is liable the company or the person who did not pay taxes in the first place?
BM
The tyrants in UPND
Editor,
The sadists in the UPND leadership qualify to be tyrants and dictators who do not have mercy for the poor. Tyrants always treasure havoc, mayhem, intolerance, lies and confusion. Tyrants do not have regard for the rule of law and have no respect to the authority. Even chiefs and the nation at large. Tyrants do not smile but mostly grin at people and always want to get what they dream of. Tyrants are always not generous but just pretend to be. They give themselves hefty salaries at the expense of the unpaid workers. They care less by grabbing land from the poor.
CLZ, Lusaka
Unruly conduct deserves
condemnation
Editor,
Did the Bishops see the clip on Limulunga road? What about those insults made on the President by UPND cadres, What do they mean to you? Do they mean respect and love? I am a strong Catholic but very disappointed with the statement. My Church was not neutral during the elections and has continued to do the same.
Citizen
We miss our Archbishop
Editor,
We miss the Archbishop Merdado Mazombwe in our church (MHSRIP). Now we are just left with one who talks without thinking. God help us.
Citizen
Do all Catholic Bishops
agree?
Editor,
I know that it is not all Catholic Bishops who agree with the thinking expressed by Archbishop Telesphore Mpundu. It is all clear that he hates the PF government for the reasons he knows. He is also against the erection of a national prayer house.
Staunch Catholic, Lusaka
Police should stop alerting arsonists
Editor,
The police should stop informing the nation that they have stepped up patrols in the markets. By doing so, they are alerting the people who are committing arson. Work quietly to the catch these evil people.
Rabson Zulu
Tutwa Ngulube right
Editor,
It is unlawful for any employer to punish an employee who is not charged and brought before a disciplinary tribunal to defend himself so Tutwa Ngulube is right to defy the decision of his employer (19th April Daily Nation). If the party in power leads the way in flouting labour laws, who would protect workers when handling labour disputes? The Ministry of Labour and Trade Unions are there to be consulted where employers are not sure of what to do.
Mulenga, Kabwe
