Compensate vendors - MNT leader
By SIMON MUNTEMBA THERE is need to compensate vendors following the cholera epidemic that saw them ousted from the central business district, the Movement for National Transformation (MNT) has demanded.
MNT leader Daniel Shimunza said the best way to empower ordinary citizens for economic participation and for equitable market economic benefits was through compensation.
“We need a limited nationalisation and modernisation policy to empower Zambians for economic participation… including vendors and the general private sector in both accessibility, facilities, land policy, and investments by promoting Zambians first, not foreigners,” Mr Shimunza said.
He added: “We must reform our capitalist private enterprise economy to curb inequalities, poverty, and unemployment, and stop a foreign driven macro-economic policy direction, which is outward looking…
“We must respect and recraft the Presidency, as a Constitutional office, for advanced competencies of a mature transformative leadership, not transactional crisis management. We must also modernize and upgrade urban shanty compounds, rural areas, markets, bus stops, play parks, and community public infrastructure to create a conducive environment for vendors, and a cholera free Zambia, through aggressive public health reforms,” Mr Shimunza said.
He said State crafting required a high pedigree of collective presidential thinking, and carefully selected teams of state crafters and advisors, with national interests.
Mr. Shimunza also said there was need to contextualize and develop a mature democracy that starts in intra-party term limits for presidential and parliamentary candidates.
He added: “No nation has been built by foreigners, but its own citizens, determined to advance the vision of its founding leadership. When that foundation is weak, development tarries, and the nation remains chronically palliative.”
Mr. Shimunza urged government to transform the foreign policy beyond economic diplomacy, to a more holistic first world agenda in Zambia’s bilateral and multilateral relations with other countries.
He said Zambia must develop a competitive, modern cost effective, corruption free road, railway and air transport systems that must benefit Zambians and not foreigners.