About 3 000 Zambians turned up on Friday for a demonstration against the International Monetary Fund (IMF) for proposing tax reforms to the government, which are widely seen as biting for the poor.
The demonstrators, mainly from the country’s largest opposition Patriotic Front, marched from the city centre to the Ministry of Finance where they handed over a petition to the minister in charge.
“We don’t need IMF to run our country,” said Michael Sata, a controversial opposition leader who led the peaceful procession.
Sata, a populist politician who lost to President Levy Mwanawasa in last year’s general elections, has made the fight against high taxation his campaign cornerstone and is attracting huge crowds to his rallies.
The slogan-chanting protesters, who were joined by members of one of the big trade unions, also staged a protest outside the head office of Zambia’s biggest commercial bank, which has been sold to Rabobank of the Netherlands.
“The sale of the bank is not in the interests of the country and the workers,” said Joyce Nonde, president of the Frederation of Free Trade Unions in Zambia.
She accused the IMF of having pushed the Zambian government to sell the state-run Zambia National Commercial Bank (ZNCB) to the Dutch bank as part of the conditions for donor support.
“We shall not allow Rabobank to rob our bank,” Sata said when he addressed the protesters outside ZNCB head office in downtown.
Rabobank acquired a 49% stake in ZNCB two weeks ago in a deal that has been widely opposed by Zambians, especially trade unions who fear massive job cuts once the new owners takeover management.
But Finance Minister Ngandu Magande assured the nation that workers will not lose their jobs at the bank despite the sale because government will retain some shares.
“I want to assure the workers that they will not lose their jobs despite the sale,” Magande said when he addressed demonstrators outside his office.
He said IMF officials had helped Zambia and there was a need to dialogue with them as opposed to calling them names. — AFP