• Government must clean up the sector by removing all illegal timber dealers.
• Government should not have any interference in any business in the sector.
• Timber producers should be allowed to cut and export the commodity.

Timber Producers Association of Zambia (TPAZ) says it expects government not to interfere with the wood forestry sector.
Speaking in an interview with Money FM News, Association President Charles Masange said the new administration should instead help by sealing up all the lacunas in the sector.
Mr. Masange stated that government must clean up the sector by removing all illegal timber dealers because most people who have been selling timber are not traditional timber producers as some are government workers and politicians.
“If anyone wants to compensate cadres for what they have done, they should not use our sector because we have companies, workers, families, and we service loans depending on the sector. So we expect the new dawn government not to have any interference in any business in the sector like the wood forestry sector.”
“The change we would like to see in the new government is whereby instead of interfering in the sector, they ensure that they help us to seal up all the lacunas which were going on like ZAFFICO selling Mukula alone, if they are banning Mukula they should tell us why they are banning Mukula,” Mr. Masange said.
He stated that the Association expected the Head of State to make a pronouncement on how the sector can be cleaned up.
And Mr. Masange urged government to ensure that cadres do not benefit from the sector but allow timber producers to cut and export the commodity.
“We expected the current Republican President to have first pronounced how this sector can be cleaned, it is not enough to just say we have reserved the timber to Zambians alone. The people in the sector have suffered for too long and the sector should not be an opportunity for any cadre to benefit,” he added.