The Anti- Corruption Commission (ACC) will soon effect arrests of some managers at Radio Mano Community Station in Kasama for alleged corrupt practices.
ACC Director General Nixon Banda confirmed the development in an interview with
Zambia News and Information Services (ZANIS) in Kasama yesterday.
Mr. Banda said investigations into the suspected corrupt practices by some managers
at the Radio Mano had been concluded and that the culprits would be arrested.
He expressed satisfication in the manner the ACC in Northern Province handled the
investigations at the Radio station and urged members of public to be patient as the
results would be evident once the matter goes to court.
Mr. Banda stressed that no amount of interference from any sector of society would
stop the Commission from doing its job professionally.
The ACC Director General has since urged management at Radio Mano to continue with
their radio broadcast without intimidation as the Commission had no intention of
paralysing their operations.
And ACC Chairperson Justice Valentine Chileshe commended Kasama residents for
reporting the alleged corrupt practices at Radio Mano and prodded them to continue
supporting the Commission in its quest to rid the country of corruption.
Justice Chileshe said ACC cannot adequately fight corruption alone but needed the
support of various stakeholders to succeed in its work.
He warned that ACC was a professional body which would not entertain interference in
its operations adding that anyone found obstructing justice would be prosecuted
forthwith.
In March this year, the ACC raided Radio Mano Community Station and seized various
documents after receiving reports of alleged corrupt practices at the Radio station.
The Commission has since established that more than K30 million was allegedly
misappropriated by some managers at the radio station.
Recently, Radio Mano Board suspended its executive director and station manager to
pave way for the ACC investigations into the matter. Â
Lawyer Gives State Thumbs up Over NCC
The Times of Zambia (Ndola)
NEWS
21 September 2007
Posted to the web 21 September 2007
Ndola
PROMINENT Lusaka lawyer John Sangwa has said Government is on the right track on the composition of the National Constitution Conference (NCC) and questioned reservations expressed by some people over the matter.
And Attorney General, Mumba Malila has assured the nation that there is no need to continue to be sceptical about the current Constitution-making process because the fears are unfounded.
Speaking during a discussion programme on ZNBC TV on Wednesday night, Mr Sangwa said it was hard for him to find a controversy on the matter.
Mr Sangwa who is also a lecturer at the University of Zambia said during the live debate sponsored by the Zambia Centre for Inter-party Dialogue (ZCID) that the Constitution-making process was on the right track.
“The argument of the composition has no base. I have looked at this matter objectively as a Law lecturer, not a person from Government as some are made to feel. I am non-partisan. Government this time is right, so far, on the composition of NCC,” he said.
Mr Sangwa said the Constitution-making process in any country could not be done in a vacuum without a sitting government putting an Act in place.
Mr Sangwa observed that the fears by the civil society that Government would have more members on the NCC were hard to justify, and so far he had heard no sound judgement to prove the alleged dominance of Government representatives in the NCC.
He cited police and the judiciary as representatives who would go to the NCC not as Government but as institutions nominating individuals to represent the interests of their groups.
On the same programme, Mr Malila said there should be no scepticisms about the process. He said the suspicions created by other stakeholders on the Constitution making process were not justified.
Mr Malila called for an end to bickering on the NCC and urged all stakeholders to ensure Zambians were given a better Constitution before the next general elections.
Press Association of Zambia (PAZA) vice-president Amos Chanda in his contribution earlier, said consensus was needed now than ever before to make progress on the Constitution making process.
A rather pre emptive approach i must say.Warn the perpetrators then arrest them.It sends mixed signals about ACC
For real # 2.How can u first announce b4 effecting arrests……shame
This is an old story why repeating. The manager misapprociated funds some months ago.
China opens coffers for minerals
China has signed a deal to loan the Democratic Republic of Congo $5bn to develop infrastructure and mining.
Infrastructure Minister Pierre Lumbi said the money will be spent on building roads, hospitals, health centres, housing and universities.
In exchange, China will get rights to DR Congo’s extensive natural resources, including timber, cobalt and copper.
A recent study concluded that China’s main interest in Africa is to guarantee supplies of raw materials.
This is the largest single loan to any African country of the $20bn that China has pledged to finance trade and investment in the continent over the next few years.
A first phase of $3bn will finance big transport infrastructure projects in the DR Congo, including a 3,400km (2,125 mile) highway between the northeast city of Kisangani and Kasumbalesa on the border with Zambia.
There will also be a 3,200 km (2,000 mile) railway to link the country’s southern mining heartland to the main Atlantic port of Matadi in the west.
Additional plans provide for the construction of some 30 hospitals, more than 100 health centres and two universities.
A further $2bn is earmarked for rehabilitating the crumbling mining infrastructure and setting up joint ventures in the mines sector.
The state mining conglomerate Gecamines went bankrupt in 1990 and since then there has been a free-for-all that sees hundreds of giant 36-wheel trucks plying the roads each day, carrying mineral-rich ores across the border to Zambia.
But some analysts argue that the return on China’s apparently-generous loan is likely to cost DR Congo dear.
New partnership with Africa
The official Xinhua press agency recently estimated there are at least 750,000 Chinese working or living for extended periods on the continent, a reflection of burgeoning economic ties that reached $55bn in trade in 2006.
Chinese trade and investment has galvanised mineral production from South Africa (manganese) to Niger (uranium), and from Sudan to Angola (oil).
Much of that activity reflects an intense appetite for the African resources needed to fuel China’s manufacturing sector, but big Chinese companies have quickly become formidable competitors in other sectors as well, particularly for big-ticket public works contracts, like the ones now proposed for DR Congo.
China is building major new railroad lines in Nigeria and Angola, large dams in Sudan, airports in several countries, and new roads almost everywhere.
One of the largest road builders, China Road and Bridge Construction, owned by the Chinese government, has 29 projects in Africa (many financed by the World Bank or other lenders) and offices in 22 African countries.
So China’s money may be going to Chinese companies to provide these big projects.
Hey gents and ladies did you see that foolish minister called mpombo kneeling before chuchu in yesterdays(friday)front page post newspaper, shame on that ***** foolish minister!!!!!!when did chuchu became God to be kneeled before? I don’t really understand what has gone wrong in our country, ask that minister to kneel in church he will say that will make his suit dirty but can do so before chuchu.Why are we not fearing God but exhalting pipo like chuchu?this is unacceptable
mpombo , you worship lpm, you have children at home, how can you sink so low to bow down to lpm , job sinker?n you make me sick, did you check the pic on the post, Good GOD I LILKE THE POST , BRAVO POST NEWS PAPER, OUR ONLY HOPE
Masebo orders 3 Kaoma council officials to pay…
A COUNCILLOR and two chief officers at Kaoma District Council have been surcharged a total sum of K54 million, which they allegedly misapplied from the Constituency Development Fund (CDF).
Minister of Local Government and Housing, Sylvia Masebo, said in Lusaka yesterday that she took the harsh decision to surcharge the trio following an auditors’s report on Kaoma central, Mangango and Luampa constituencies for the period August 1, 1998 to December 31, 2005.
“I am convinced beyond reasonable doubt that financial systems have broken down in Kaoma which has resulted in a free-for-all state of affairs,†Ms Masebo said in a letter to the affected officials.
The letter informing them of the action is dated September 17, 2007.
Those sanctioned along with a councillor are the council secretary and treasurer.
Ms Masebo said the amounts involved would be deducted from salaries and any other benefits the officers were entitled to.
She warned that any officer from any council would face the same consequences if they allowed any expenditure to incur as a result of their negligence or misconduct.
“If this kind of situation has been condoned in the past, I want to tell anyone involved in this that the honeymoon is over,†she said.
Earlier Ms Masebo received two vehicles worth US$20,000 from Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA) to send to Local Government and Housing offices in Eastern and North-Western provinces for capacity building under the decentralisation programme.
She expected the two provincial local government offices to undertake regular monitoring of council activities and furnish her office with quality reports.
She said she had been informed that some of her officers were involved in businesses and were using Government facilities.
“If anyone continues to divert any vehicles for private use, they will feel my weight and I will take appropriate action against them,†she said.
JICA assistant representative, Yuki Shibuya, said the vehicles were meant to strengthen the monitoring system in the provinces and appealed to the two beneficiaries to put them to good use and maintain them regularly.
This blog has become very childish. I wonder why some of you keep posting things under other people’s IDs. This last copy and paste posting is not my style. Please grow up
When LPM equated himslf to the Almight GOD,I thought it was the usual slip of the tongue but I think that maybe he demands to be worshipped either privately or publicly.Are we experiencing the LESA KUMULU LPM PANSHI?If bloggers can recall when KATELE resurfaced from the Chiengi bushes,he literally worshipped LPM during that public rally for him to be admitted back into the inner circle of BOOTLICKERS.Just recently at Livingstone Airport Mulyata embarassed himself by rolling on the dusty tarmac in reverence of LPM and now it`s the DISHONOURABLE MINISTER OF DEFENSE George Mpombo.We need to instill sanity into leadership because such positions these people occupy are supposed to HONOURABLE and not demeaned in this way.We`ve got to realise that these people have children and one would only imagine how their kids feel about all this mess.
why can’t Masebo fire the Kaoma chaps? This is now like a loan to them.
Chapi,
Have you dealt with your boss Sata because he is the Master human worshiper in that version. Approach KK or Chiluba and get back here with a manuscript to share. Sata even rolls his body on the floor before Presidents. Unless you deal with it in your Master’s life, your rhetoric vague, out of ignorance or hypocrisy. From 1987 to 1999 i worked under the KK and Chiluba administrations and challenge any politician and parastatal heads to publicly condemn Mpombo if they will.
#12 Ba SENIOR CITIZEN.Are you in support of MPOMBO`s behaviour?
Chapi,
Mature and objective people with a genuine spirit of admonition and correction don’t devote their lives vilifying a person who cannot defend himself where the rhetoric preoccupies invisible lives. George Mpombo is Defense Minister who is very much reachable by many channels. LPM is within your proximity in the heart of NY too easy for you across meet him there before departure next week. If you have substance and bone to chew with him you could go and face him with your question. Arrangements could be made so that all the insults and framings you have had could be delivered in his face.
Sata is the master in that kind of respect yet he remains your boss with whom in your eyes nothing is wrong with his approach to things. Then where do you get your moral duty to disparage Mpombo? My issue here is your hypocrisy and not how you expend your time under devotion on the blog.
#14 Ba SENIOR CITIZEN.In your desperate attempt to avoid answering my simple question in #13,why do you now want to impose SATA as my leader?Why are you chaps so myopic in thinking?Each time someone thinks independently,then automatically belongs to PF/SATA.I know you desperately want to divert attention somewhere else but not when you`re dealing exposed individuals.That`s why people on the blog call you a BOOTLICKER because you can`t even denounce the obvious like in this case MPOMBO`s behaviour.Every normal and objective human being has denounced such activities except the INDEE BWANA`s.Anyway,take care and have a nice weekend.Cheers I am done for the day.
#14 Senior Citizen
Ba Senior Citizen, don’t you think that pic of Mpombo with his fore legs up in the air gesturing some “eya mukwai bwana†depicts some insanity a man of his age ? By the way, why are you defending him? Limbi naimwe nimwebo ba “indee bwana te? You being easterner, you’re known for musungu anikonde and bootlicking. Read today’s Post Paper, the goat can’t think and he just awaits directives from chuchu, hence he washed hands thinking Mr Mutati has taken a wrong course of action. Ba Senior Citizen plz wake up before you’re soaked in the rat hole.
Ba Chapi,
It’s your way of dignity to keep shifting camps and denying allegiances whenever determined politicking clouds in uncertainty on your widely self declared platform. When false hope mounts, it’s Sata but when his feet are evidently mechanized on some political sinking sand, its independence-freelancing sycophancy. That is treacherous and dangerous flip flopping.
I pray you don’t behave the same way in your endured cohabitation with that old white concubine of yours Pragmatist timely revealed here you have taken romantic solace in her hands due to your years of economic pitfalls. If you have to be potential actor in national affairs rather than vain blogging consistency is an important variable in life. You have a lot to learn from Veteran UNIPists and die-hard MMD loyalists who stick their guns irrespective of shallow directed threats on their lives. Unlike those cosmetic UNIPists election 2006 attracted who changed 6 positions within the campaign season ending up with Sata and HH.
Bootlicking Senior Citizen,
Bakamba learn to know when you are supposed to use your heart and when to use your brain.
ba senior citizen maybe you are mpombo’s step son what else can we conclude?
mala – msana wandalama,
Have you just wined yourself from the age of breast feeding to blog without history? I have said it here Sata is founder and Master of human worship which is not expressive in Mpombo’s mere picture. Sata even rolls over the floor before Presidents he calls imfumu. KK and FTJ are living testimonies.Why have you found it normal ever since Sata entered politics but wrong to see Mpombo’s picture?. By the way what is this word of yours “Bakamba”?
You are free to think that way.
#11
That is the problem with levy’s gov’t. They are full of double standards, if it was another part of the country were such corruption is taking place, we would hear the ACC coming up with all kinds of convictions and punishments. And what message is Masebo sending out to these same corrupt individuals? That you can steal as you wish and all the gov’t will do is let you keep your job and just deduct whatever money you have stolen from your salary? Is this the solution to fighting corruption in Zambia? I’m sure there are a lot of other people in Kaoma that can do a better job and can use those allocated funds for the development of Kaoma.
Masebo should step down for practicing such double standards and promoting corruption.
#21 Are you sufferring from icipumputu as well? Here is the remedy for icimputu, when you go in the bush look for a cross roads and take off your clothes, dont talk be there for 10 hrs you will be healed and come back to reason with the young turks
14 September 2007
Posted to the web 14 September 2007
Dumisani Muleya/Augustine Mukaro
PRESIDENT Robert Mugabe clashed with Zambian leader Levy Mwanawasa at the recent Lusaka summit because he feared Britain was trying to use the meeting to push its own agenda against Zimbabwe, the Zimbabwe Independent can confirm.
Presidential spokesman George Charamba confirmed the clash, saying in any debate people were bound to hold divergent views.
“Summits by their nature are open to debate and often with divergent views,” Charamba said. “Maybe in this case the president said it in a strong way which people were not used to.”
Mwanawasa clashed with Mugabe after he tried to table the Zimbabwe crisis for debate during a closed session of the meeting. It is said Mugabe reacted angrily to the idea and he lambasted Mwanawasa before walking out in protest.
Charamba said Mugabe suspected that there were “foreign elements” who wanted to turn their budgetary support into political leverage over Zimbabwe.
“The British were pushing the Sadc states to deliver on Zimbabwe, and since most of these governments are funded 70% from donor funds, they are put under pressure. It is at that point that the president intervened and said it was now time to edit the Dar es Salaam agreement,” he said.
Charamba said Zimbabwe was not supposed to be discussed at the summit because all the issues that were set out at the extraordinary meeting in Dar es Salaam were still a work in progress. He said even the economic report was to be forwarded to finance ministers of the different countries to see what each economy could do to help Zimbabwe.
Charamba said the economic report by Sadc executive secretary Tomaz Salomao did not recommend any aid to Zimbabwe but advocated promoting partnerships and normalising trade terms.
This came as it emerged that Mwanawasa fired his vocal former Foreign minister Mundia Sikatana as a result of his explosive row with Mugabe, not because of failing health as officially claimed.
Diplomatic sources said Sikatana was fired by Mwanawasa after he tried to stop Mugabe’s delegation from leaving. Sikatana is said to have told the Zimbabweans to be patient with Mwanawasa because from time to time he experienced momentary concentration lapses as a result of a car accident.
It is understood Sikatana’s references to the occasional slip-ups by Mwanawasa was the real reason why he was dismissed days after the summit.
Mwanawasa and Sikatana are both critical of Mugabe, but the way they handled the Zimbabwe issue during the summit led to the minister’s removal.
The sources said after Mugabe stormed out of the meeting, Sikatana tried to ensure that the Zimbabwean delegation did not walk away for good and in the process explained that Mwanawasa could have acted the way he did due to his erratic behaviour and concentration lapses.
Last year Mugabe also left Lesotho in a huff after Sadc leaders tried to table Zimbabwe for discussion in a closed session. Mugabe is always opposed to the discussion of Zimbabwe at any forum, unless he is allowed to give his own version of events.
South African President Thabo Mbeki tried but failed to stop Mugabe from leaving. The sources who witnessed the dramatic clash said Mbeki tried in vain to restrain Mugabe from hastily leaving Lusaka.
Tanzanian President Jakaya Kikwete also tried to stop Mugabe from walking out but to no avail as well.
“After Mugabe had walked out of the meeting, Kikwete followed him and tried to convince him to come back. Mbeki also joined Kikwete to try to persuade him not to walk away, but they both failed to influence him,” a source said.
Sikatana tried as well but failed to stop Mugabe’s delegation from going. Mwanawasa’s office claimed Sikatana was unexpectedly removed due to ill-health.
“I very much regret that I am terminating your services as Minister of Foreign Affairs with immediate effect,” a statement from Mwanawasa’s office said. “At the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, you have been able to discharge your duties with distinction until recently when your health appeared to be failing.”
Sikatana recently refuted Mwanawasa’s allegation that his health was failing.
Sikatana, a vocal Mugabe critic, said he was very fit and revealed that he was forced out because of how he handled such issues as the Zimbabwe crisis. He said Mwanawasa was now backing down on his criticism of Mugabe.
#20 Senior Citizen, If you dont know what ‘bakamba’ means, tough, wont waste my time explaining to you, go and hung!
#24 Bapelete wesu, this is very serious even our neighbors now know that our President has loose nuts. Ine insoni.
Iwe ci Senior Citizen nesoni taukwete – we chikote wakanti we – stop wasting other pipo’s precious time and think b4ore you blog old man. Just becoz Sata rolls over the floor before past Presidents does not mean it should go on for ever. The nation has came to its sense long time ago, and has repented and realised that kneeling before a human being is idol worshiping and it died with one party state. You foolish old man, dont u know that we now only kneel to God and only him deserve that kind of worship. Tell ur bootlickers Mulyata and Mpombo to kneel only before God almighty.
hFhf3w comment5 ,
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