Africa-Press – Zambia. We attended a court judgement in Pretoria and returned home safely by the grace of God Almighty.
The judgement of course shocked many of us. And it did excite some; as social media can testify. But it also introduced and or clarified some speculations. Whether this is about perceived or actual need for some rituals or about Judge Kulya. Public conversations may follow.
I will leave this for the future.
We came back home to our country where government had suspended export duty for copper concentrates.
What a poor and unpatriotic decision – this is!
I am reminded that the same government has introduced new taxes to micro businesses in the middle of the year. This has included the increasing of withholding tax on government securities.
Government has made these tax increases on small businesses in order to fund an expansion of reckless consumptive spending.
The aspect of recklessness is also one to detail at a later stage.
My concern for now is about the suspension of export duties on copper concentrates. And I have a few desperate questions as follows:
Is government really serious with promoting value addition and thereby increase jobs? If government is serious about value addition, how on earth are they able to embark on promoting the exportation of mined earth without doing any value addition to it?
This is more like exporting lithium through silica (sand).
Haven’t most Zambians condemned our perpetual export of copper cathodes? Don’t our people say add more value to it in order to increase export value and create more jobs and business opportunities in the process?
How does government find it attractive to promote the downgrading of export to copper ore from copper cathodes and anodes?
Is this forward thinking or backward thinking? Who is promoting this kind of thinking? How can cabinet appreciate and approve this sort of decision?
Of course some cabinet throughout are gravely concerning to some of us. If I consider Bill 7, Bill 13, Cyber Security Act, Cyber Crimes Act and Closed Circuit Act – I deeply wonder what cabinet scrutiny there is in its value system.
But see, exporting earth needed in another country for value addition is really poor for Zambia. More so for which content goes without any analysis whatsoever.
Do you know how much gold and other byproducts will leave the country in those concentrates being exported?
Do you really care about knowing what is going out? Do you care about what you are losing? Do you care about what the Zambian people are losing?
This is truly Stone Age thinking for a government whose national budget is significantly funded by debt. The borrowing to be settled by the same Zambians who resources are being indiscriminately exploited and carelessly exported.
At the very top of all the actual and opportunity losses being incurred, government says no thanks to export taxes; huh!
This is a No No please!
Let government start being patriotic for once. We complained about electricity exports. We complained about maize exports. See now how far this syndrome has led us to.
A complete mindset transformation is needed. Otherwise – generations to come will suffer lifelong joblessness and poverty.
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