NEW Generation Party (NGP) president Humphrey Siulapwa has appealed to donor countries that have withheld funding to the Ministry of Health to reconsider their decision because the Government has taken appropriate action on the matter.

He said at a Press briefing yesterday that it was not good for the donors to withhold funding to the health sector because it was the ordinary Zambians who were suffering.

Mr Siulapwa said the donors could only withdraw their support if all efforts to correct the situation failed. He said that since the Government had launched investigations and some officials were appearing in court, the donors should rescind their decision in the interest of the ordinary Zambians. He also supported the Government's decision not to pay civil servants for the period that they were on strike.

Mr Siulapwa said it was unacceptable for the workers to stay away from work when their leaders had signed the 15 per cent salary increment offered by the Government. He said although the workers had a right to go on strike, the action should be within the confines of the law which states that workers could only withhold their labour after declaring a dispute.

Mr Siluapwa said it was sad that some politicians even supported the civil servants even when they knew that they were on an illegal strike.

He also said that President Rupiah Banda's revelation that 50 per cent of the national Budget was consumed by civil servants was a serious anomaly which should be corrected. Mr Siulapwa advised University of Zambia lecturers to reconsider their position and return to work because as educated people, they were better placed to know that there was a global economic recession.

He further advised his fellow politicians not to engage in politics of insults but respect each other because Zambia was a Christian nation. He also demanded that Government should not pay Members of Parliament their mid-term gratuity this year as a way of ensuring that everybody was making a sacrifice during the economic downturn. On the Patriotic Front and United Party for National Development pact, Mr Siulapwa said it was not a threat to his party, adding that it was bound to fail because the two parties had different manifestos.

He said that the sole agenda for the pact was to remove the MMD from power when Zambians were interested in other things.