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A Non-governmental Organisation, Dziwa Science and Technology (DSaT), has called on government to ugently table the repealed 1996 Science and Technology Act before Parliament for further scrutiny and possible enactment.
DSaT Executive Director, Veronica Mwaba, wondered what had derailed the process of tabling the repealed law before Parliament following the approval and recommendation by Cabinet.
Mwaba told Zambia Monitor that, government should strengthen the science and technology system in the country by updating the law.
She said the law in its current status was discouraging home grown solutions which are supposed to be done through research and development.
“There was limited exploration of the innovation as a result of the current law that need to be repealed to conform to the current situation,” Mwaba noted.
She commended government for expediting the repealing and amendment process, however questioned why the repealed law had taken long to be tabled before Parliament.
Mwaba emphasized that currently the African Union (AU) was encouraging all African countries to spend about 1 percent of their Gross Domestic Product (GDP) towards research and development of innovations.
“We keep talking about the science and technology agenda because we believe this should be at the centre of national development, however one would call on government to expedite the process of tabling the repealed law before Parliament,” she stated.
Mwaba added that other countries had moved on to develop laws that were looking at modern challenges and encouraging innovations but that Zambia’s law was inhibiting this.
She also called on government to increase resource allocation towards science and technology research in order to encourage innovations among researchers and developers.
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