Pressure on Zambian leader

President Levy Mwanawasa's plea was ignored by the strikers

Zambian MPs are set to debate an opposition motion to impeach against President Levy Mwanawasa.

The motion, supported by some members of the ruling Movement for Multi-party Democracy, accuses Mr Mwanawasa of bad governance and violating the constitution.

For the impeachment process to succeed, two-thirds of the 150 MPs need to vote in favour of it.

The debate comes on the second day of a three-day strike by tens of thousands of civil servants who are protesting about unpaid housing allowances.

On Monday, the civil servants union said that the strike had brought the government to a standstill.

Strike

"We have paralysed the whole government system. All workers have gone on a three-day country-wide strike," said the general secretary of the civil servants union of Zambia, Darison Chaala.

Mr Chaala said that if the government failed to come up with a plan to pay the arrears within three days, it would face an indefinite strike from next week.

On the eve of the strike, Mr Mwanawasa said his government did not have the money to pay the backdated allowances, and warned that industrial action would worsen Zambia's economic problems.

"We are under pressure to print money and make payments, but this will worsen our economic problems because printed money is not real money," Mwanawasa told a public meeting on Sunday.

The International Monetary Fund has been withholding payments to Zambia until the government deals with a growing budget deficit.