The African Union elections for Commissioners has yielded a Zambian delegate.
AU Commission for Trade and Industry commissioner has been scooped by Zambian Ambassador Albert Muchanga.
Muchanga is Permanent Secretary at Cabinet Office in charge of Parliamentary Affairs.
Muchanga is also a former Ambassador to Ethiopia with extra accreditation to the African Union.
However Dr. Austin Sichinga(Commissioner for Agriculture and Rural Development) was not successful.
Earlier the Summit elected Chad’s Foreign Affairs Minister Faki Mahamat has been elected as African Union Commission Chairperson.
Ghana’s Kwesi Quartry was elected Vice .
Mahamat won with 38 votes against Kenya’s Cabinet Secretary for Foreign Affairs Amina Mohamed’s who got 26 votes in the hotly contested elections held on Monday at the African Union headquarters in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia.
The AU Summit has accepted the application and also readmitted Morocco as a member of the African Union
And the 28th ordinary session of the African Union (AU) Heads of State and government officially opened today in Addis Ababa Ethiopia. President Edgar Lungu was among Heads of State and government that attended the official opening ceremony.
In her opening remarks, Chairperson of the African Union Commission Nkosazana Dlamini Zuma congratulated President Lungu on his re-election as President of Zambia and called on him to work hard and uplift the people of Zambia and Africa as a whole.
“A special welcome to excellences, members of the assembly whose mandates were renewed and to the newly elected Heads of State. President Edgar Lungu of the republic of Zambia, congratulations on the renewal of your mandate,” she said.
Dr. Dlamini Zuma said in one of the Zambian languages (bemba) that “Abantu benu mu Zambia nabena Africa bonse, balefwaya mu bombe na maka uku basumbula mu mikalile yabo , ukukosha ichibote, nokwimya ubukta bwa Zambia na afrika yonse,”
( This translated into English means that,” the people of Zambia and all Africans, want you to work hard to uplift them, to strengthen peace and to raise the dignity and wealth of Zambia and Africa.” )
The Chairperson of the African Union Commission also welcomed President Nana Ado Dankwa akuffo ado as following his election as Republican President of Ghana.
And United Nations Secretary General Antonio Guterres said commended African countries for being generous to host refugees and pledges to work closely with the African union.
Mr. Guterres said he was looking forward to working with the AU in empowering women because when you empower a women you empower the whole world.
He also commended African countries for the role they were playing towards peace keeping by sending peace keeping troops to war torn countries.
President Lungu today faces a busy schedule as he is expected to chair a high level working breakfast meeting on the implementation of Africa’s common position on ending child marriages, among others
Iam already sure that it will be PF bandit Kambwil’s goats to be traded first!
The Skeleton Key
~206~
Congrats Ambassador Muchanga and Bravo to mother Zambia for putting up a convincing pitch!
Congrats Albert.
Congratulations
Congratulations Mr Muchanga. I worked well with you at MFA. We need more Zambians in these International Organisations. And I am from one of the major Political Opposition Parties in the country but I want to also Congratulate President Edgar Lungu and his Government for having worked so very well to win this for Zambia. It is not easy really. I remember the opposition that we went through when we were campaigning for another illustrious Zambian for the AU Chairperson position. Congratulations Excellency Lungu and Hon Kalaba but work extra hard internally to improve the economy of Zambia.
Congrats PS Ambassador Muchanga…… Hard luck Dr. Sichinga!!
Why did the AU chairperson speak in bemba this is tribal politics! ahahahahaha!
Now bembas have even penetrated the AU back to Kola.
Kkkkkk
she is from northern province. These bembas are giving me sleepless nights. ooh no she is from Chipata – wako ni wako.
kkkkkkkkkkk, ukafwa uledandaula iwee mamblala
The Mbekis were our neighbors in Chingola and am sure this lady could have also spent time on CB where she could have picked up these words.
A more credible explanation is that there’s a Bemba functionary at AU who is pitching Bemba as the only Zambian language and offered to write a congratulatory message for Mrs Zuma.
@Buck Teeth Lungu
Remember Nkosazana Zuma lived in Zambia with husband Jacob Zuma for close to twenty years. She is fluent in Zambia’s major language, Bemba. It’s therefore not shocking to hear her reprimanding chakolwa Lungu in the language he understands well.
@3.5 Buck Teeth .. that COULD be a reason BUT also that the functionary COULD be pitching BEMBA AS THE MOSTLY WIDELY SPOKEN LANGUAGE in ZAMBIA which even most foreigners tend to HEAR MORE OFTEN than others! This language has been propagated so well on CB,line of Rail and is almost at par with Nyanja in Lusaka urban and it is getting inroads in NW!! So of the things are better left unfought as they are really not worth a fight! If a language is spread out mere acceptability by people with out force and written rules, then why create an unnecessary against it?
@ 3.0 Power to Mundende. You can google/YouTube few Bemba words “Bonse Aba mupokelela” or “Takwaba uwaba nga yesu”. I was shocked to find that these two Bemba songs are sang across the globe.
Congratulations to the Newly elected Zambian Commissioner and the AU Chairperson. Hope the Youth aspiration of the YOUTH ENVOY will be honoured
AU is a useless IMPOTENT organisation that has NO relevance to the African People.
It serves a talk-shop for despots showing off their oratory skills & legitimization of their fraudulent ascent to power.
What impact does Commission for Trade and Industry have on the trade in Zambia or any country in Zambia?
These are the worthless organisations Donald Trump’s administration won’t be funding.
*any country in Africa.
I THINK WE SHOULD MAKE BEMBA NATIONAL LANGUAGE IF AU CHAIRPERSON COULD EVEN RECOGNISE THAT. BRAVO MR. MUCHANGA
Ask Trump want he thinks of such talk shop good for nothing gatherings. I saw a bunch of our useless ministers in ethopia
…so Mugabe is the only one being closely guarded just in case he falls…no strength to even move the chair…how embarrassing can it get to be among the age mates of your children….
Scrutinizerer~ Dictator Mugabe can’t stand up for more than 90 seconds~so he needs a second human chair~bed in case of a fall…&….Visionless Lungu is next seating himself to his ~papa~Mugabe. The place where the big & mini dictators are seating is congested like its a beehive.
The Skeleton Key
~206~
Congrats Ba Albert. From AU, let some get to UN bravo Zambians
What??!! Bemba monkey language in AU? Now UPNDonkeys may not be too amused with Dr Zuma for trying to export monkeys to the rest of Africa. But cool down, its all Africa baasa and banene, dont take it tribal or regional as they politely say it in Zambia.
My president weldone a plus for zambia go albert go
Congratulations mr Muchanga
I’m not Bemba but we should be proud when our country is projected in such positive light. Bemba is one of our local languages and we should be proud of it. Sometimes we spend so much time bickering over s.t.u.p.i.d tribal issues as if they matter so much. Everyday our women are killing us with knives and guns and you are here poking fun at Bemba being spoken at the AU. Does your tribe matter when you don’t even know whether you will wake up the following morning without your wife or girlfriend sinking a knife into your back…! What has this world come to!
Besides nobody prevents another person from expressing themselves in their own language. Bembas are just proud of their language and are not ashamed to speak it anywhere. Nobody should hold that against them.
@ WANTANSHI – You are absolutely right. And by the way that Bemba pride is a positive attitude of being proud of one’s culture, and I have seen that positive attitude reach most parts of the country due to people travelling around and learning from each other. That is a positive energy I would like us as Zambians to tap into and exploit. This country is a great country, just ask people who are not Zambians they will tell you – they envy us. We are a great people and we need to use this greatness to surge forward positively. Sometimes we spend too much time bickering instead of quickly learning lessons and moving on. I’m very proud to be Zambian and I never take it for granted. When a Zambian achieves something, we must learn to congratulate them and appreciate how he/she is…
@Kobili Masipha
You said it.
Congratulations to Ambassador Muchanga. We should all be proud when our people get elected in these positions. For a long time it was our brothers and sisters from West Africa who got all international and regional jobs, Well done
congratulations HH all!!!!! sorry unaluza kikikikiki.
Congrats Ambassador Muchanga
Where such news is reported, it will lovely to include a brief of each candidate’s achievements i.e. cv. That would be informative and could direct young ones too.
I reiterate, please improve in your reporting!
Somebody here told me LT doesn’t need to follow journalistic standards, as long they can put words onto paper, that’s all they need. It’s the new Zambian way of doing things. The president of the country doesn’t need to know anything about governance, as long as he is accepted as one of the masses. On these terms Lungu excels.
Congrats Muchanga!!!plus am too happy that my language -bemba is being spoken at AU!!!its high time tongas knew that nobody in Zambia can do minus BEMBAS just like in Russia,nobody can achieve anything minus RUSSIANS!!!HH OPEN YOUR EYES!!!EDGAR LUNGU SPEAKS BEMBA AS IF ITS HIS NATIVE LANGUAGE AND THERE HE IS IN STATE HOUSE!!!
It is good to hear our politicians speak in languages other than their mother tongue during campaigns. I remember how late President Sata would speak in Tonga on radio programmes. I also remember how Hakainde Hichilema would also use Bemba in his campaigns. We should be hearing more of other politicians speak in Lozi and other Zambian languages other than their own. We should all be proud of all our Zambian languages and learn to promote them as part of our diversity.
The chorus of the South African national anthem, Nkosi Sikelel’ i Afrika, is seRotse i.e. “Mulena buluka sicaba sa hes”. Imagine if this was Bemba or Bisa just how many trees some monkeys here would be jumping over celebrating theirs was an intiernational language? Lesotho, South Africa, Botswana and Namibia all speak seRotse related dialects, I do not understand why Bembas are ashamed of embrassing their Kasai pygmy brethrens from kuBuluba eko ba fumine. Anyway, Nkosazana does not speak Bemba, she was just reading it for the benefit of Kabila, Denis Sassou Nguesso. It was Muchanga who wrote it for her and she rehearsed it. She knows very well that Lungu is Ngoni not Kasai.
@Zedoc,
Sata never spoke Tonga ka ch.ikala iwe. It was him who called us “ifitundu”, ali mambala saana Mnwacusa ulya!
Congratulations Albert. May the Almighty hold your hand strong. Represent all the people and do great things for Africa. I know you will.