Start fulfilling promises, Chiputa urges PF government

COMMENT - The only way they can do that, is by introducing the windfall tax, so they will have the money for their projects.

Start fulfilling promises, Chiputa urges PF government
By Agness Changala
Mon 19 Mar. 2012, 11:58 CAT [

UNZA lecturer Dr Euston Chiputa has advised the PF government to get to work and do what they promised Zambians during election campaigns.

In an interview yesterday, Dr Chiputa, who is also University of Zambia Lecturers and Researchers Union (UNZALARU) president, said the PF's five months of being in office was enough for the new government to settle down and end its excitement.

"It's five months down the road; they must have settled down. The excitement must have ended; they should sit down to serious business. They should implement their manifesto and leave behind a changed Zambia," he said.

Dr Chiputa said PF should not forget its manifesto and begin to listen to people whose ideas were not part of the thinking before PF got into government.

"And when they get derailed, they will fall into the same trap that MMD fell in," Dr Chiputa said.

He said if PF departed from its manifesto, it would start implementing other people's agendas which may not have the interests of Zambians at heart.

Dr Chiputa said the Zambian people looked at the PF manifesto critically and voted for them on the understanding that they turn the country around and make it a prosperous nation.

Dr Chiputa said Zambians were looking up to the PF to provide leadership that would lead to the country's prosperity.

And Dr Chiputa said his members had rejected the recently recommended four per cent salary increment by the government to all grant-aided institutions.

He said the UNZALARU members were of the view that the government should borrow what is in ruling party's manifesto.

"…Which says that when the PF forms government, it will ensure that conditions of service for academic staff in public universities will be equivalent to those in the universities of the sub region," he said.

Dr Chiputa said even if the staff were offered 20 per cent, it would be far from what is obtaining in the sub region.