Zambia has started to reduce short-dated Treasury Bills and is issuing long-term instruments as it strives to cut its huge domestic debt, Finance Minister Ng’andu Magande said on Friday.
Magande said in a statement that the 8,9 trillion Zambian kwacha domestic debt would be reduced by eliminating outstanding debt that had built up over a number of years.
He added that the government would maintain its debt loads at sustainable levels by “observing a strict reduction strategy for domestic borrowing and curtailing the accumulation of new debt while clearing existing arrears in a phased approach”.
Zambia has this year received $77,1-million (about R558,2-billion) in new loans after multilateral lenders and western donors cancelled the bulk of the country’s debt in 2006 as part of a global plan to reduce debts owed by some of the world’s poorest nations.
The International Monetary Fund (IMF), World Bank, African Development Bank (AfDB) and Western donors provided Zambia with massive debt relief last year.
Zambia’s strategy for managing debt is to regularly allocate funds in the budget to the reduction of outstanding debt through the Medium Term Expenditure Framework (MTEF), a government economic management strategy for the 2007/09 period.
“In the case of government securities, the strategy in the medium-term is to manage domestic debt through prudent cost and risk management rather than reduce it,” Magande said.
“In managing the risks, the government is restructuring the domestic debt by reducing short-dated instruments, such as 90-day, 180-day, 270-day Treasury Bills and increasing long-dated instruments such as 7-year, 10-year and 15-year bonds,” he added.
Commercial bank officials say the government has stopped issuing 28-day Treasury Bills.
The concessionary loans from the AfDB and World Bank have terms of repayment of 40 years after a 10-year grace period and a commitment fee of 0.05 percent per annum, Magande said.
The loans received this year will help fund road rehabilitation and maintenance, poverty reduction programmes and improvement of water supply and sanitation.
Zambia’s external debt stood at $957,4-million at the end of 2006. A total $562,4-million of that amount was owed to multilateral creditors, while $395-million was owed to bilateral creditors.
I want to see all those who were emitting “Bad Energy” in their comments prior to the Zambia – RSA game.
You are all guilty of conterminating our environment with bad gases. We have shamed you!!
Zambia 3 RSA 1 at their home soil
Long live Zambia
A 25-hour trip by train
By Jack Zimba and pictures by Eddie Mwanaleza
Sunday September 09, 2007 Print Article Email Article
I knew that my journey to Livingstone by train was not going to be a pleasant one, but nothing had prepared me enough for what I was about to experience.
Perhaps the bad omen for the journey came in form of a power blackout on the night before departure on Friday, August 24 at the Railway Systems of Zambia (RSZ) station in Lusaka. That power outage had lasted until the following morning.
It’s 04:26 hours and I walk under a blanket of darkness towards the ticket sales window where a lady is sitting with a flickering candle before her. My photographer has already bought his ticket, which comes with a 60 grammes packet of Chico biscuits – not a bad incentive considering that the fare to Livingstone is only K16,500. Our train only has one class – economy. And this one is really economical.
“The tickets are finished, but you can still buy on the train,” the ticket lady assures me.
When I get onto the carriages, the scene is more depressing than I imagined. We walk from coach to coach looking for a place to sit. But never mind the seats – there is hardly space to stand. The coaches are all filled with tired-looking men, and women and their crying babies.
A palpable concoction of smells fills the coaches.
After excusing our way from one coach to the other through the narrow crowded passage, we are finally offered seats on a coach called ‘Durban’.
Each of the coaches sits 96 passengers, but by my head count there are 113 people on this one. The seats themselves, which are arranged back-to-back, are hard and offer very little comfort. I seat next to Joe.
Joe is only 12 years old and has a calmly unforgettable face radiating with hope. Joe plays position seven for a football team, which bears a name befitting a pop music band – Blue Heavens. The team is from Lusaka’s Garden township and is travelling to Monze to play in a tournament organised by Right to Play.
The boys are a noisy but well-behaved lot.
In the doorway a young couple sits on their bags as they snuggle in each other’s arms. Amos and Namtandadzi are barely a week into their marriage and are travelling back home to South Africa. But even for a newly-wed couple still basking in love, disappointment is deeply etched on their faces.
This is not what they expected.
“We decided to travel by train as part of our honeymoon, but things are not the way we expected them. It’s a sorry sight we are just packed like cows,” complains Amos.
It’s 05:38 hours and our train breaks the morning silence with a long-sounding honk that sends people on the platform scurrying onto the coaches. Suddenly there is excitement as the train’s heavy steal wheels begin rolling.
The train we are using is a U15C, and he is a battered greasy fellow from the 1970s “he” because all passenger trains are male, while freight trains are female according to the Canadian system, which Zambia also uses.
But even at his age, he still has a lot of muscle – 1,700 horsepower – and is a real guzzler requiring 2,500 litres of diesel to cover the 473 kilometres from Lusaka to Livingstone.
Before, he could reach a top speed of 80 kilometres per hour (km/h), but a bad track has cut that to 30km/h.
Not everyone is a passenger on the RSZ train. For many, the train has become a source of livelihood – a huge market on rails. What with over 1,000 people confined in one place, some for three days. And so young men wobble from coach to coach with all sorts of merchandise dangling from their hands – from bread rolls to women’s underwear.
There is even a self-styled pharmacist who sells a wide range of painkillers. Henry Simushi visits every coach with his bag slung over his shoulder.
“I know that many people fall ill while travelling on this train and I have the drugs to take care of their headaches and running stomach, which are common,” says Henry.
When we reach Kafue, passengers stream out and make a dash for the tap at the station. There is no water on the train. Women and children with containers scramble for water. Many also use this long stop at Kafue to perform their morning rituals.
A man stands at the window brushing his teeth and spits the mouthwash without caring much where it lands. On the other window, a woman holds a broken piece of a mirror at an angle while she meticulously draws lines to accentuate her eyebrows.
The RSZ train may be slow, but it definitely does not wait for anybody. And so at Mazabuka it leaves me behind while I go to Shoprite, which is about 100 metres away, to buy some refreshments. The minutes that follow are a mixture of anxiety and hope. Hope that I will catch up with the train when it makes its next stop at Monze.
But as the minutes tick away, my anxiety suddenly outweighs my hope. It is now 30 minutes since my train left the sugar-growing town at 11:15 hours and I am still on a bus going to Monze, whose crew is taking their time waiting for the bus to fill up. And my anxiety quickly turns into frustration.
It is 12:13 hours when we finally start off and I take advantage of the comparatively very comfortable bus to rest and have my lunch.
I am still panic-stricken when we arrive in Monze at 13:11 hours and I quickly find my way to the train station, but when I reach there, I am more disappointed than relieved to learn that my train has not yet arrived. I wait for more than an hour before he slowly makes his way to the platform. If I had believed that the RSZ train travels at a maximum speed of 30km/h, I would not have panicked.
As the day wears off, it seems we have all accepted our fate and try to make the best of every moment of the time remaining aboard the train.
Behind me, two boys loudly discuss a biology paper with one trying to outdo the other in knowledge.
In the other row, three kids in their early teens sing gospel songs, seemingly oblivious of the other people around.
And then there is the old couple sitting next to each other and occasionally leaning towards each other to engage in short conversations.
For the old man, time seems to have long stood still. Everything about him seems to have seen good days. And there is a newspaper cutting sticking out of his pocket jacket – not for reading, but for his tobacco. He also carries an old potable radio, which is hanging by a string around his neck. But his efforts to enjoy it are defeated by the poor reception and he just switches it off.
In one carriage, a man stands in the doorway passionately puffing on his cigarette, ignoring the “No Smoking” sign on the wall. In the next one, a dreadlocked man with fearsome looks stands by the window smoking a joint of cannabis.
Later, I meet Lawrence Ngulube who is on his way back to Hwange, Zimbabwe, where he works in a coal mine. Lawrence has lived in Zimbabwe his entire life and speaks English with a characteristic Ndebele accent.
Lawrence brought his family to Zambia because he could not manage to feed them due to the economic situation in that country. Despite that, he is still optimistic things will change.
His story reminds me of Hugh Masekela’s song Stimela in he sings about miners travelling by steam locomotives to far away lands to work on coal mines, leaving their families behind.
For Lawrence, today is his second day on the train and he is seething about his experience.
“I feel very dirty after spending two days on the train with no water and without a bath. I’m lucky I’m a man but I really feel bad for the women,” says Lawrence.
It is Sunday 01:33 hours and our train comes to a gradual halt at Livingstone station.
But what has gone wrong with the once vibrant and efficient railway system?
Those within the company point to lack of investment by the new owners of the railway firm.
John not real name has been working for the railway system since the 1980s and speaks passionately about its deterioration.
When I visit the Livingstone station, I understand why, yet union leaders in Kabwe insist things are a lot worse than they look.
In June at a dinner in South Africa, President Levy Mwanawasa described the operations of RSZ as a “disaster.” But a few days later he backtracked on that statement.
However, John insists that the President was “100 per cent right when he made that statement”.
“The management of the railway system in Zambia is ‘tragic’ for lack of a better word. We have asked RSZ to hand the railway network back to us so that we can look for another investor who can manage it properly,” he had said.
President Mwanawasa said the railway line, which stretches from Livingstone to Chililabombwe, was better before it was concessioned to RSZ from Zambia Railways.
A rusty stump of what used to be a signal stands as a grim reminder of how the system used to work during its hey days not so long ago.
Throughout the Lusaka-Livingstone stretch there is not a single signal working and communication is by radio or cell phone.
The warehouses and sheds that were once used to store various components of the railway line now lie a ruinous waste surrounded with overgrown grass. In some places, the railway looks abandoned and disused. It is hard to believe that this is the same rail we used hours earlier.
The date of manufacture on one of the rusty rails could make an interesting subject for discussion in a history class – 1915.
In some places, the wooden slippers have outlived their lifespan and break easily in my hands while the rails are not firmly held in place. Even under my 77 kilos they shake slightly, and I wonder how they have survived tonnes upon tonnes of metal that roll over them daily.
#2 Pelete:This is very sad reading I dropped tears brothers and sisters there is agent to do something in this area. As the authors say in the 1980s I knew I would make it to Lusaka within hours. The only congested times were when schools closed or opened and were four days in a year. Its painful to learn that there are even now mobile pharmarcies on the train. Selling of food was only at railway stations. I have used Luangwa and Kafue trains before which far much faster than this 1915 locomotive. If I wanted comfort I would choose the coach to be in either standard or economy to some extend one could book a sleeping room in case the journey is longer. # GLUCO who is runing SRZ and you said he has been given a contract of 25 years. For Zambia this problem should be included on the MDGs as an objectives. You cant subject humans to such conditions. The last time I used the train was in 1997 but becuase it arrived late at the my destination I found that all hotels rooms were full booked.
Hello,
Sorry If I’m off topic
———————–
I’m a young Zambian male studying in Guangzhou, China. I would like to meet other Zambians in Guangzhou to socialise with. I would appreciate if someone can tell me if they know any Zambians in Guangzhou. I speak fluent Chinese so if anyone needs an interpreter (Chinese to English or English to Chinese), I’m available for business.
Thanks.
Yes i accept.#1
Pelete #2. Good job. That is advocacy.
Easy #3, the economic is growth you read about is in MOF offices. The owner of RSZ is an Israeli. I’ve forgotten his name. Something is got to be done on RSZ. Imagine at what speed will be moving at 20yrs from now. 0km/hr. In short it wont be there. We need serious investors not crooks.
#16, Zambian in Guangzhou, China, This is not a meeting corner. We have a topic above to discuss. You are even a right person to shade some light on the low wages that the Chinese subject you to when you work for them during your holidays. Do you think they are good investors to come to Zambia?
#4 how did u get to china?
#8 I flew into China Wanyanya. I think that is how most people travel when they are going overseas.
#7 I did apologise for going off topic. Regarding low wages, it is typical of chinese people simply because they are just too many people therefore you tend to find cases of people getting low wages. In terms of chinese investment in Zambia, I personally think we can learn from the chinese in certain areas like construction and having access to alternative cheap and affordable technology. I think it’s about how we do business with the chinese rather than asking if we should do any business with them. They are too big to be ignored.
Regarding my request to meet other Zambians, I don’t want to mix with west africans. The are too ciminally minded and they are giving a negative image about africans or black people in general because of crime. I would rather know fellow Zambians. It may be hard to believe but Zambians think and act differently from west africans or just other africans.
#9 Brother, Will you please shade more light on ,”cheap and affordable technology”.
SUPERSPORT WEBSITE
Posted on Sunday, September 09, 2007 – 22:53
A fuming Carlos Parreira, coach of the South African soccer team, threw water bottles and chairs in the Bafana Bafana’s dressing rooms as he ripped into his players at Newlands on Sunday.
“I have never lost a home match in this manner,” a dismayed Parreira said after his team had lost 3-1 to Zambia in an Africa Cup of Nations match.
The South Africans produced what was probably their worst performance since Parreira had taken over as coach.
“It’s the first time in my life that I’ve lost a home match by such a margin. I never experienced such a defeat when I coached Brazil,” he said.
Parreira confirmed that he had torn into the players at halftime when the Zambians were leading 3-0. Asked whether he had thrown water bottles and chairs, he said “yes”.
“One needs balls to play this game,” he added. “It was a nightmare start for us. We did not concentrate; we lost focus.”
Zambian captain and striker Chris Katongo scored a hat-trick within ten minutes and Parreira said afterwards, “No team can make so many errors and expect to win.
“International players do not make such mistakes. We gave the match to them.”
Parreira replaced Papi Zothwane before halftime after the player’s mistakes had contributed to two of Katongo’s goals.
“I’m not the kind of coach who takes players off the pitch within the first 25 minutes of the match, but it was necessary. Things were becoming even worse.”
The coach did have some complimentary words for striker Benni McCarthy, who scored the home team’s only goal to equal Shaun Bartlett’s record of 29 for South Africa.
“I am only sorry that Benni’s return coincided with our worst performance,” he said.
Parreira must understand African soccer before he can start throwing bottled water. It gets hot in Africa, he may need that water when he meets the likes of Egypt or Nigeria. By the way, let this coach understand that we in Africa do not take chances lightly. Its high time he learnt the African ball game.Anyone can coach Brazil but not anyone can coach South Africa, besides Brazil needs no coach, they are all a crop of talented players.I just pray that Chipolopolo meets Bafana bafana in the finals.Parreira will not have the job by 2010,South Africa will look for the likes of Jose Mourinho.
Good job Chipolopolo.We`ve taught these chaps(BB) a lesson that will be engraved on their minds for a very long time.Benni who?This isn`t the EPL young boy were they let you loose to terrorise defenders.Parreira was clearly out coached by our own master tactician Patrick Phiri(PP).Do we honestly need a foreign coach when our own patriotic PP clearly out thought a world cup winning coach in the name of PARREIRA.VIVA ZAMBIA VIVA CHIPOLOPOLO.
Now we are Even with Bafana Bafana. You remember the 3- 0 they beat us at FNB? From now onwards we should put these chaps behind us. Guys do you remember when we used to beat Nigeria ,egypt and morocco? I think we are getting there. Finally the Kalusha amnaesia is over.
i normally have an explanation for things, but Zambia’s victory has left me speechless !!I’d love to say it was luck but after reading the reviews it apparently wasn’t !! Our team apparently just outplayed Bafana Bafana.Who said miracles no longer happen ?? Teddy Mulonga seems to have a knack of having good results whenever he has been president of FAZ….an interesting coincidence !!
SDA Varsity Breeds Initial Graduates
The Times of Zambia (Ndola)
NEWS
8 September 2007
Posted to the web 10 September 2007
By Margaret Mangani
Ndola
SUNDAY, September 2 was a momentous and joyous occassion for 80 students graduating from the Zambia Adventist University (ZAU).
The students, immaculately dressed in their gowns, were beaming with joy as they gracefully walked to the podium to receive their honours after accomplishing their academic four-year study programmes.
In a landmark occasion which will remain etched in history for many years to come, the 80 graduants became the first batch of students to graduate from the newly established Seventh-day Adventist institution of higher learning in the Southern Province town of Monze.
Minister of Education, Geoffrey Lungwangwa who graced the occasion, urged institutions of higher learning in Zambia to produce graduates of relevance to the development of the economy.
Among notable personalities present at the function was first Republican president, Kenneth Kaunda, who spoke highly of the institution saying it had produced students, some of whom were now influential people in society.
Saying many institutions had produced graduates of good academic credentials, Prof Lungwangwa said it remained incumbent upon such graduates to prove their relevance to the real Zambian situation.
“We are tired of graduates who are not practical and productive. Zambia is in a hurry to develop and cannot afford to have people who think in terms of their credentials instead of proving their relevance and be of service to others,” the professor said.
He said, with the liberalised education system, the Government had created an environment for partnerships and the challenge was for the private sector, individuals and the corporate world to invest in education by way of establishing schools, colleges and universities.
Prof Lungwangwa said the wide range of general education and courses offered would help broaden the minds and perspective of the students and prepare them for practical situations.
“We need to help our people to be practical, versatile and broad-minded, universities are the centre of intellectual capital development with the potential of lifting Zambia higher on the ladder of development,” he said.
At the same function, ZAU vice-chancellor, Mwenda Mulundano, said that it was gratifying that the Government and other partners were firmly in support of the development of education in the country.
Mr Mulundano, however, emphasised the need for more support towards the development of the ZAU which is currently under expansion.
He described the graduation ceremony as a step ahead in the history of the university, with 80 students graduating in various fields and academic levels.
The vice-chancellor appealed to the Government to consider creating employment opportunities for the graduates while providing bursaries for ZAU students because they were not any different from those in state institutions who enjoyed the facility.
The ZAU is located at the historic site of Rusangu Mission, some 16 kilometres South of Monze town and four kilometres off Lusaka-Livingstone road.
Monze lies about 200 kilometres south of Lusaka and about 300 kilometres north of one of the world’s wonders – the famous Victoria Falls, otherwise known as Mosi-oa-Tunya in Livingstone.
The history of the ZAU is closely linked with the missionary work of W.H Anderson, who crossed the mighty Zambezi River in 1903 from Solusi Mission in Zimbabwe to set up the Rusangu mission in Zambia in 1905.
From this mission emerged Rusangu Primary School, Rusangu Secondary School and in 1975, the Rusangu ministerial school which in 1993 changed its name to Zambia Adventist Seminary.
A year later, in 1994, the seminary was closed to pave way for re-organisation.
In 1997, plans to re-open the seminary brought the idea of the Zambia Adventist College that would offer other courses in addition to theology and pastoral training.
Subsequently, an in-service programme for serving church pastors began in the year 2000 at Riverside Farm Institute in collaboration with the Solusi University of Zimbabwe.
With the full development of the Zambia Adventist College, the pastors’ programme finally moved back to the historic Rusangu Mission in May 2003.
Rapid developments have since given birth to a full-fledged Zambia Adventist University which is approved and registered as a private university under the University Act 11 of 1999 of the Government of the Republic of Zambia.
A master-plan has been drawn for a new, modern university campus to be developed on Farm 269 in Monze in five phases estimated to cost US$12.6 million.
Phase one facilities are already in place, including lecture rooms with a library and two hostels while construction of an administration block, to house offices and additional lecture rooms is in progress. This package will cost an estimated US$1.9 million.
Seventh-day Adventist Zambia Union Conference president, Cornelius Matandiko disclosed that plans were underway to expand the university from the current 600 capacity to 2,500, but said the only limitation was lack of space.
“The infrastructure is not big enough, we are in the process of constructing more classroom blocks and phase one which is almost complete includes the library,” Dr Matandiko said.
Funding for the university project is purely coming from the Adventist Church itself, but the man of God said the body was ready for financial, material or any form of support from well-wishers towards extension works at the institution.
“We are getting funding from the Church structures, but my appeal is to well-wishers and all those who are interested in supporting education to come on board and assist us advance this noble cause,” he said.
The ZAU was created with the objective to offer another dimension to studies with a spiritual touch different from the two circular universities – the University of Zambia and the Copperbelt University.
Study programmes include:
FULL TIME programmes
– Bachelor of Arts Degree
Communications and journalism, English language and literature, music, religious studies, secretarial, science, social work and theology.
– Bachelor of Arts Degree with Education
English language and literature, history and religious studies.
– Bachelor of Science Degree
Agri-business, Environmental health, family and consumer sciences.
– Bachelor of Science with Education
Environmental health /science, family and consumer science, geography and mathematics.
– Bachelor of Business Administration
Accounting, human resources management and Management information Systems.
PART TIME Programmes
– Bachelor of Education
This is a three-year special programme, offered on block releases during school holidays, designed for already serving teachers with a secondary school teacher’s diploma or a teaching certificate .
Areas of concentration are Agriculture, Business studies, English, Environmental science, family and consumer sciences, Geography, history, mathematics, Music and religious studies .
– Bachelor of Arts in Theology
This is a special programme for serving pastors offered once a year and 16 weeks at a time for five years.
Enrollment into the university is extended to all grade 12 students as long as they meet the minimum required qualifications mandated by all institutions of higher learning, the only condition is that being a Christian institution, students must uphold high Christian values and moral standards.
“Enrollment is not restricted to Seventh-day Adventists alone, but extended to all Zambians and non-Zambians as long as they meet minimum required qualifications.
The institution has just received applications from Lesotho and Kenya, while it hosts students from Botswana.
The University runs on a quarter system with the first quarter starting September to December, the second quarter runs from January to April and the third from May to August .
ZAU’s vision is to give students a holistic approach to education with an emphasis on developing the whole person spiritually, intellectually, physically and socially.
Restructing debt in this way is obviously offering short term relief but certainly mounting our long term debt. We need a strong strategy for reducing our long term indebtedness.
#13 Ba Chapi, there you go again. Commenting on every topic on the blog. Bwana Blog Chairman, don’t you have anything else better to do.Your addiction to the blog is very frightening.Spare some time for your wife if you have one or has she left you.You are a jack of all trades and master of none. Zwa Ba Chapi
#17 Francis, its seems many here have not understood what Magande is trying to put across. Even I am confused because almost every month we have new figures. This has brought my moral to analyse the statements made by this man. However I am not for long term credits but for long term planing. For me this means we are credits which the next generation will have to pay which is disadvantage. As the figures stands soon we shall have $1 Billion USA and this means indebtedness for life. Its sading to hear countries like Singapore, Kuwait, China etc have surplus funds. A country like Zambia with so much natural resources its a tantamount to have an expenditure base on debts. I was looking at the IMF report on revenue for Zambia for 2006 which states that 46% revenues comes from the different sectoors of the economý. This means 44% is still coming from debts which is not good. Its a pity a time when other nations strive to be debt free we are accumulating new credits. I dont think ….
Magande strategy is working well. He has said the debts obtained are meant for Road infractrastures, I think health and education should priority number one. Roads can be useless when the nation is sick and it cant find health services in there closest locations.
#18, Fact I think its okay for this Chapi old man who runs a machinery firm in USA to write a few lines on this blog it keeps him going. Last time he said he planing to come back to Zambia.
#16 Is not my posting. FACT ,Veteran AKA Ngugi. live Chapi alone. Each time you use my ID the first person you adress is Chapi. This clearly shows that you have failed to match what chapi has to offer. Just stick to being blindly loyal while we offer objective views.
#10 Wanyanya,
Regarding alternative cheap and affordable technology, say ZESCO gets privatised before the Rural Electrification Programme covers the whole country and you discover that your mbuyas somewhere in the rural areas of our great nation were not touched by the R.E.P., you can simply say why don’t I contact that young man in Guangzhou who was doing blog advertising on LT so that he can source me some affordable solar panels so that I can help my mbuyas and the villages in the surrounding area with free energy from the sun instead of my mbuya getting subjected to high unpredictable rates to now foreign owed ZESCO. If you are enterprising like me you can then expand your market to cover Zambia and then the rest of SADC and so on. This is just one example. Here in Guangzhou I can get anything that is manufactured in China. I can also find markets for products that you might want to supply (legally) into China. Lets develop Zambia, E-mail me: zambianinterpreter[at]yahoo.com. at=@
#18 FACT.Football brings people together across tribal,political and social lines.Zambia scored a major victory against Bafana and brought joy and happiness to the entire nation and yet you`re attacking me for celebrating such success.I find your negativity and personal hatred against me to be so childish and isn`t worth any response.VIVA ZAMBIA VIVA CHIPOLOPOLO.
Zambia vs S.Africa: There could have been foul play
Publication date: Monday, 10th September, 2007
By Dennis Ojwee
THERE could have been foul-play in the football match between Zambia and South Africa. South Africa’s Bafana-Bafana probably decided that Zambia beats them so as to make it difficult for the Uganda Cranes to qualify for the Nations Cup finals. This is probably why Kaizer’s Club Chiefs were until Wednesday insisting that Uganda’s star David Obua was unfit to play in the Uganda vs Niger match.
Obua was quoted to have said: “They (Kaizer chiefs) are not convinced that I am ready (healed) and want me to stay. But if I am not released by Wednesday (three days to the game), then I will forcefully come on Thursday because for me, the Niger match will be the biggest in my football career.â€
This showed that Obua’s South Africa-based club (Kaizer Chiefs) was not prepared to have Obua play for his country because he posed a big threat to their scheme.
Why were Obua’s bosses insisting that he had not yet healed when he persistently said his thigh injuries had healed and he was fit for his nation’s international duty?
This raises suspicion that there was conspiracy between Bafana-Bafana and Zambia that led to the 1-3 score. For South Africa to be walloped by Zambia at home is unbelievable.
Another unpleasant scenario was the controversial penalty the Senegalese referee awarded to Bafana-Bafana denied Uganda entrance to the pervious Nations Cup finals. A second incident was when Cranes’ goal was cancelled in a first leg with The Eagles in Nigeria.
Last month, Uganda’s national coach Csaba appealed to the Confederation of African Football Association (CAF) to fix the Uganda Cranes’ qualifier against Niger on the same day with that between South Africa and Zambia, but was not taken into account.
Csaba might have smelt the rat long before and indeed it happened.
Cranes players also stand to blame for squandering chances. They messed us up in the first 45 minutes when they missed targets inside the net. Players like Massa fired three open shots over the crossbar to squander Cranes chance of qualifying straight away. Imagine what the situation would be had the first penalty kick gone outside!
The Saturday match should be a lesson to the Cranes to sharpen their attacking force and look for goals early.
What??????
PUBLIC MEDIA SHOULDN’T CRITICISE GOVT – MULONGOTI
By Chibaula Silwamba: Monday September 10, 2007 [21:00]
Journalists from the public media should not criticise the government and its leaders because they have jobs to protect, information minister Mike Mulongoti has said.
And Mulongoti said the United States government has asked the African Union (AU) to find a country where it will set up a military base in the continent.
Meanwhile, MUVI Television director of programmes Augustine Lungu said they were privileged to have two of their journalists included in The Post’s training programme.
Officiating at the fourth training programme of 25 journalists at The Post offices in Lusaka yesterday, Mulongoti said journalists in the public media that want to criticise the government must apply for jobs where they can be allowed to exercise that freedom.
“It will be extremely frightening to find the Times of Zambia attacking me. Will that be in order?†Mulongoti asked. “But if The Post did that, all I can do is cry. I can’t threaten to fire Mr Malupenga Post managing editor because his mandate is different. I can tell you, if I saw the Daily Mail and Times of Zambia attack the Vice-President…no, that is unacceptable. They can report facts about things that went wrong but they should not be seen to be attacking government.
“Journalists at Times and Daily also have wives and children, they have jobs to protect, don’t forget that. Before they write anything against me, they will think, ‘what will the minister do? Will I be in the office tomorrow?’ These are worries that come but we expect them to be factual and to report truthfully.â€
Mulongoti said although he never directed managing editors of the Times of Zambia and Zambia Daily Mail, they were required to exercise self-restraint in the stories they published.
“They are not created to be critics of the government,†he said. “If they think they want to exercise their freedom to write, they must apply for jobs where that freedom can be exercised. If you want to attack us don’t go to Daily Mail, I can assure you, the story will be killed.â€
Mulongoti said public media were there to tell members of the public about government programmes and policies while the private media were expected to criticise the government. He said, therefore, that those who wanted to read about criticism against the government should read The Post or other private newspapers.
“This is what I also do,†Mulongoti said.
And Mulongoti urged journalists to accumulate knowledge about everything, interact freely and prepare themselves before going to interview their sources.
“Don’t come to me when you are not ready and don’t know what you are looking for,†he said. “You should also be able to interact because you will be dealing with people of status and others without status. If you came to my office, I am worshiped there and you start addressing me as somebody who has no status, you think I will be too happy with you?â€
Mulongoti urged the trainees and journalists in general to endeavour to work had and be on top.
“You can get to the top, all of us have the ability to get to the top,†he advised.
Mulongoti also urged journalists to be truthful and incorruptible.
And commenting on US Ambassador to Zambia Carmen Martinez’s statement that her government has never asked Zambia to allow them set up a military base in Zambia, Mulongoti said the US government has made a request through the AU.
“The issue of a military base by the Americans is an issue that was given to the AU so if the AU said the base must come to Zambia, what would you do? The President Mwanawasa has made it very clear that even if the AU receives that offer from America and they said it should be based in Zambia, the President has already said it will not be based in Zambia,†Mulongoti said. “AU would want to set up a centre where we can control our operations within Africa and the President has clearly said ‘it will not happen in Zambia, go and set it in Malawi or Kenya or elsewhere’. That is all the President said. He did not say ‘you Americans don’t ever talk to us about it’.
He has simply stated a position on behalf of Zambia. You know the consequences of having an American base in Zambia. If you ask a big and powerful man to live in your home, he will beat you if you argue. We want to maintain our sovereignty and remain who we are but we would like the friendship with America to continue without necessarily having them to come and live in our house.â€
Mulongoti also said he would not want to continue in public office beyond 2011.
“As an individual, I would like in 2011 to get out of politics and do something else,†he said.
Mulongoti observed that most politicians were a sad sight after they left politics because they did not have options beyond their political careers.
“What I must encourage you as well is that ‘don’t glue yourself to one thing,†he said. “Find something you can do in case of anything.â€
On opposition political party members joining and rejoining the MMD, Mulongoti said those that did not have hope in their party were free to join the MMD especially that the Republican Constitution allows people to exercise their freedom of association.
“I was in MMD, I went to FDD and came back to MMD. If I had remained in FDD, would I have been a minister today?†Mulongoti said. “People have personal visions and hopes. There is no one dangling carrots. When you hear that, it’s a lie. There are no carrots being dangled. It’s just that people who are hungry move around with their mouths open. The carrot will drop in there since the mouth is open. So you don’t blame the person carrying the carrot. No. You think they can squeeze the carrot in your mouth if you can’t open it, it drops there when your mouth is open. So don’t be cheated.â€
He said every politician wanted to belong to a good party.
“You don’t know how it feels to have a flag on a car. People want that so they will move when they see that their parties cannot form government,†Mulongoti said in an apparent reference to ministerial positions.
Mulongoti also said people that told lies were bad politicians.
“As a politician, you must always endeavour to tell the truth. If you are unable to say the truth, keep quiet. It is safer that way but if you are going to lie then you are a bad politician,†said Mulongoti.
And Augustine Lungu said Muvi TV management requested to have some of their journalists included in the training programme because they admired the way The Post excelled in championing professionalism and media freedom in Zambia.
“We are very privileged that some of our staff have been attached to the training,†Lungu said. “We expect professional output from our staff after the training.â€
Lungu said MUVI TV and The Post had certain things in common considering that they were both privately owned.
Post managing editor Amos Malupenga said the trainees undergoing a three month training programme were already qualified but were being oriented to The Post’s’ style of reporting, among other things.
“We consider this year’s training to be more important because we have our colleagues from MUVI TV who have joined us so we can share our their skills and knowledge with them,†Malupenga said. “We have a deliberate policy to share everything we possess; be it resources, skills or knowledge with all those in need.
The invitation for our colleagues from other media institutions to join us whenever we have trainings like this has always been there and open from the time we started re-training or orienting journalists. We are happy today that MUVI TV has taken the first step,†said Malupenga.
who appointed this retard as a minister? what a shame!
#27 Iwe uleipusha imbwa ngeifwele, tawishibe at nichi Chuchu munsholowa , shameful to Chuchu for appointing a his fellow retard minister.
Mulongoti is got some grandiose. As far as he’s concerned, he is a god.
Man, 49, admits impregnating minor, 13
A 49-YEAR-OLD house servant yesterday admitted in the Ndola
Magistrates’ Court to charges of defiling and impregnating a 13-year-old daughter of his employer.
Before magistrate Ikechukwu Iduma was Mkandawire Sandamenya who told the court in his defence that the girl had asked him to make love to her after he gave her a K5,000 to buy a pencil case.
Mkandawire told the court that he had sexual intercourse with the
minor on two occasions, the first time being in April this year.
He told the court that he accepted the responsibility for the pregnancy and the charge of defilement.
However, Mkandawire insisted that the minor had encouraged him and led him to her room.
But the 13-year-old girl told the court that Mkandawire threatened to bewitch her and kill her if she refused to make love to him.
The minor narrated that Mkandawire entered her bedroom when she asked him for a tin of floor polish.
She told the court that Mkandawire threatened to break the
herb he had shown her so that she could die if she refused to make love to him.
The minor told the court that Mkandawire kept on threatening her with death if she revealed to her aunt about the pregnancy.
Magistrate Iduma set September 25, 2007, for judgment in the matter after finding the accused with a case to answer.
Particulars of the offence are that Mkandawire allegedly defiled a
girl below the age of 16 on June 1, 2007, at his work place as a house servant.
[Daily Mail
ECZ orders Golden Bridge Hotel construction to stop
By TENDAI POSIANA
THE Environmental Council of Zambia (ECZ) has ordered developers of a hotel on Lusaka’s Great East Road opposite Zesco head office to stop construction until an environmental impact assessment (EIA) is done.
ECZ public relations officer, Justin Mukosa, said the construction of the hotel would not proceed if developers did not comply with ECZ regulations.
“We demand an environmental impact assessment from the developers of the hotel,†Mr Mukosa said.
He said in an interview in Lusaka that it was up to the developers to go on with an EIA or have the construction stopped immediately.
Mr Mukosa said the construction of the hotel did not comply with the Environmental Protection and Environmental Pollution Control Act.
He said he had issued a notice to the developers of the hotel to do an EIA under the ECZ.
Last week the Lusaka City Council (LCC) also said it was not aware of a building permit having been given to the developers.
LCC public relations manager, Chanda Makanta, said in Lusaka that the council had no business with the Chinese contractors of the hotel to be known as Golden Bridge Hotel.
Ba Pelete(31), this is an alarming piece of news !! LCC have not given building consent,ECZ are involved first before the council ??? I smell a rat !! The order to stop construction should have come from the council.Something is not right here.More info is needed.
Is this another lands scandal? Who issues lands permits for construction? LCC or Lands Ministry? It is amazing that LCC doesnt know about this when they know about illegal plots in Kanyama and Msisi. What kind of circus is this? ECZ has done a good job if there are any risk or environmental pacts well ECZ is on the right track.
#30/31 Are you the old Veteran our Ngugi he had a tendency of paste and copy.
Ba Easy Pelete is different from Veteran,actually that story in #30 is centred on Veteran, his real names are Mkandawire Sandamenya,I used to tell him not to get hooked on Mutototo, now have seen where the urge has driven him to? Child abuse? Maule yali bwee mu Lubuto him he opts for ka moye.Shame on you Veteran,the law must visit you with hard labour.Stop imitating Rupiah Banda
#34 EASY.VETERAN/FACT who claimed that to be an EDITOR at TIMES of ZAMBIA has been warned by Mulongoti that if he ever tries to criticise the gov then he`ll be out of employment.I feel sorry for VETERAN that he`ll just continue bootlicking indefinately.I know I`ve had my differences with VETERAN but I think Mulongoti has overstepped his boundary for him to infringe on Veteran`s freedom of expression the way he`s done.Mulongoti is a danger to society and should be tamed and also realise that Zambia is a democratic nation.Freedom of expression should be protected and not just interested in the ‘indee bwana’ people surrounding him.Fellow bloggers be geared for an onslaught of PASTE and COPY because someone has a job to protect and a family to feed.POOR VETERAN!!!!!!
#35 Pelete so this Veteran nifwiti and child defiler. Someone tried to defend him that he is Japan and he has blogged some weeks now. In Japan dont they have internet. Too sad for this turn of events that Nyanja boy has resolted to minors. What is going wrong in our society hardly a week passes without a scandal of defilement.
Over the spokesman to threathen the public media is a very unfortunate situation. We seem to go back to the times of Idi Amin Dada. If he doesnt want to be critised he must leave office an go back to the land no one will follow him. Mr. Mulongoti must be reminded that he is just a govt employee like a post orderly in any ministry.
Ba Chapi(36), if what you say is true, Mulongoti has every right to say what he did.Times of Zambia is an official and wholly owned govt paper….how can you criticise the owners of the paper ?? Which newspaper owner have heard of who allows its employees to criticise them in their own print ?? We have to be VERY careful when we champion certain freedoms becoz in certain situations you have none!!!
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