Transport and Communications Minister Brian Mushimba has said that he is engaging the Ministry of Finance over the release of 50 million Kwacha to recapitalise Zampost. Dr. Mushimba said that government wants to also help Zampost to collect 20 million Kwacha that it is owed.

He told ZNBC News in Lusaka that the recent go slow by workers at Zampost and TAZARA is retrogressive and explained that Ministry of Transport Permanent Secretary Misheck Lungu has been to both institutions to engage managements over the go slow.

Last week, the strike action by Zambia Postal Services Corporation workers entered the second month with no signs of them returning to work.

On 18th March, Postal Services workers countrywide downed tools demanding that they be paid their six months’ salary areas.

With most of them evicted from their houses due to failure to pay rentals and others struggling to pay school fees according to Union Leaders, the workers vowed never to resume work until they are paid their salaries.

A check at selected post offices in Lusaka found the Offices locked with a few customers mostly those that have had their goods stuck at the Post Offices hoping for the opposite.

Customers who use Postal Couriers talked to indicated that they have had their merchandise stuck at the Post Office due to the strike action taken by the workers.

And when contacted, a Union Leader who spoke on anonymity for fear of victimization vowed that the workers will not resume work until they are paid their now seven months’ salary arrears.

He said the workers feel insulted after management offered them K500 to go back to work when most of them are owed over K25, 000.

The Union Leader challenged Transport and Communications Minister Brian Mushimba to help them collect the K20 million the company is owed as most of it is owed by Government Ministries.

He said the refusal by government to bailout the company is surprising especially that they are partly the cause of the financial problems.

Renowned HIV and AIDS Activist Manasseh Phiri has died. Dr. Phiri who was also Prostrate Cancer Campaigner and Educator died this morning from the Cancer Diseases Hospital in Lusaka. His Elder Brother, Chris Phiri has confirmed the death to ZNBC News in Lusaka today.

Mr. Phiri said Dr Phiri’s wish is that within 24 hours after his death, his body be cremated. The cremation is expected to take place at 15 hours today at St Anne’s funeral parlor in Lusaka. He said Dr. Phiri also wants the family to hold a Memorial Service in his honour at his Farm. Mr. Phiri said funeral gathering is at his Musa farm in Kafue.
Dr. Phiri also served as Zambia National Broadcasting Corporation -ZNBC- Director General in 1993.

ZAMBIA’S foremost HIV activist, prostate cancer campaigner and educator, Dr. Manasseh Phiri has died.

Dr. Phiri, 68, died at the University Teaching Hospital Cancer Diseases Hospital around 04:00 hours this morning.

Dr. Phiri was evacuated to South Africa in January 2019 to receive specialist treatment at Awryp Medical Centre in Johannesburg. However last week, he returned to Zambia as his condition was believed to be terminal.

In 2016, Dr. Phiri announced that he had been fighting prostate cancer since 2014 and the cancer was in remission. Dr. Phiri also founded the Prostate Cancer Foundation of Zambia (PCFZ) and joined hands with late veteran broadcaster Chanda Chimba III to raise awareness about the cancer.

And the Zambia National Broadcasting Corporation (ZNBC) is saddened by the death of its Former Director General and renowned HIV and AIDS Activist Mannaseh Phiri.

ZNBC Corporate Affairs Manager, Yvette Chanda says the corporation has learnt of the death of Dr. Phiri with a deep sense of regret and loss.

Mrs. Chanda says Dr. Phiri, who was also a Radio and television personality, trained, advised and inspired a lot of current and former members of staff at ZNBC.

She says Dr. Phiri was an accomplished professional who continued to be a reliable expert on HIV and AIDS and Prostate Cancer issues and was always available whenever ZNBC reporters and producers called on him for his expert analysis, even after he left the Corporation.

Mrs. Chanda in a statement to ZNBC News said the Corporation will greatly miss Dr. Phiri’s professionalism, which contributed to the production of high-quality radio and television programmes at the Corporation.

Dr. Phiri had been part of the ZNBC for many years even before he became Director General in 1993, as he was involved in presenting several Radio programmes on a part time basis.

Among the people he worked with is current ZNBC Director General Richard Mwanza. Mrs. Chanda said ZNBC wishes Dr. Phiri’s family God’s comfort during this trying period.

The Patriots for Economic Progress has noted with concerns happenings in the opposition UPND which culminated in the suspension of the Vice President for Administration Geoffrey Mwamba.

Party President Sean Tembo however says he has full confidence in the ability of the UPND leadership to deal with this matter conclusively, given the fact that UPND is a seasoned and experienced political party that has dealt with greater turbulence in the past.

Mr. Tembo says he also has reason to suspect that the current situation in UPND has an invisible hand of the ruling PF, as part of their wider programme to destabilize opposition political parties in Zambia.

He said these machinations by the ruling PF will not achieve their intended objectives because the opposition enjoy the goodwill and support of the majority of Zambians who are fed up with the corruption, incompetence and infinite arrogance of the PF and its Government.

Mr. Tembo said his party believe that the timing of the sponsored confusion in the Alliance partners UPND and NDC is designed to coincide with the attempts by the ruling PF to amend the Constitutional through the illegal and unconstitutional National Dialogue Forum.

He said the plan is to keep the opposition occupied with artificial internal wrangles while they sneak amendments to the Constitution and other related legislation, which are designed to disadvantage the opposition in the 2021 general elections.

He said his party expect the PF underhand efforts and attempts at undermining the opposition to increase as Zambia head towards the 2021 general elections.

Mr. Tembo whose party is in an Alliance with the UPND said these underhand methods will take the form of arbitrary arrests of opposition leaders on flimsy grounds, sponsored defections of senior opposition members, unconstitutional amendments to various laws among others

Socialist Party 2021 Presidential candidate Fred M’membe has called on Christians to join what he termed as a socialist revolutionary cause and fulfill Jesus’ call to change the world, a life-changing book filled with challenging examples from saints and martyrs of the past.

In an Easter Message posted online, the Socialist Candidate said that Jesus came into the world to launch God revolution, adding that Zambia is on the verge of moral , social and economic collapse.

M’membe said that Zambia need a Jesus-based cultural revolution that will recover the fear of God, the respect of honour, the dignity of family, and the beauty of morality, adding that if Christians had continued the revolution begun by Jesus, Socialists would have nothing to do today.

Below is the full Message.

Socialist Easter Greetings!

Jesus came into our world to launch God’s revolution – a kingdom revolution, a revolution of the Spirit, a world-changing movement that would overcome evil with good and hatred with love. And Jesus himself was the most radical revolutionary leader who ever lived.

All too often, however, we look at Jesus as the founder of a “lovely home and garden religion,” called Christianity, a harmless spiritual leader who left behind some lovely platitudes and inspirational thoughts, a man whose memory we celebrate at the annual Easter egg hunt.
But that is hardly the Jesus of the New Testament. His message was a threat to the religious establishment. He called for dramatic, sweeping – yes, revolutionary – change. He taught his followers to pray radical prayers like, “Your kingdom come, your will be done, on earth as it is in heaven” – meaning, the displacement of the corrupt kingdoms of this world by the perfect kingdom of God. He called his disciples to revolutionary commitment, urging them to leave everything and follow him, and in his platform message, he promised freedom to the captives (Luke 4:18–21).

That is the language of a revolution, and that is the language we must recover today, as our nation teeter–totters on the verge of moral and social – not to mention economic – collapse. We need a Jesus-based cultural revolution that will recover the fear of God, the respect of honour, the dignity of family, and the beauty of morality.

Join our socialist revolutionary cause and fulfill Jesus’ call to change the world, a life-changing book filled with challenging examples from saints and martyrs of the past.

“We socialists would have nothing to do if you Christians had continued the revolution begun by Jesus,” these words were spoken by a leading socialist in the 1920s. Yet more than 90 years later, they remain foreign to many Christian ears. What “revolution” did Jesus begin? And was Jesus in any sense a “revolutionary”?

As Dr. Martin Luther King warned decades ago, “If the church does not recapture its prophetic zeal, it will become an irrelevant social club without moral or spiritual authority.”
Let’s accordingly examine our present methods of leadership against the biblical grid.

There is reason for great hope. As expressed by the Vernon Grounds, “A Christian who… becomes a revolutionary will serve as a revolutionary catalyst in the Church; and by the multiplication of revolutionised Christians, the Church will become a revolutionary catalyst in society; and if society is sufficiently revolutionised, a revolution of violence will no more be needed than a windmill in a world of atomic energy.”

Wishing you a Happy Easter!

Issued by Fred M’membe on behalf of the Politburo of the Socialist Party

Suspended UPND Vice President for Administration, Geofrey Mwamba has said that he has not received official communication from the party about his suspension. Reacting to the news of his suspension, Mr. Mwamba said that he welcomed the move if indeed the party has suspended him.

Mr. Mwamba said that he will hold a press conference next week Tuesday to inform the nation his next move and that it was insensitive of the UPND to be issuing irritating political statements during Easter, before adding that he is a strong Christian believer who would not mix the Easter period with Politics.

According to reports, the UPND National Management Committee (NMC) suspended Mr Mwamba for allegedly issuing derogatory statements against the party and forming parallel structures.

At a meeting chaired by UPND leader Hakainde Hichilema, the NMC, through a secret ballot, voted overwhelmingly by 75 votes to 0 to suspend Mr Mwamba for issuing derogatory statements against the party and forming parallel structures in the party.

Earlier in the week, UPND youths gave n their leaders a 24 –hour ultimatum to discipline Mr Mwamba for allegedly insulting Secretary General, Stephen Katuka, or face unspecified action.

“We are giving the national management committee a 24-hour ultimatum to discipline our vice president Geoffrey Mwamba because no individual a bigger than the party,” UPND youths have demanded.

UPND national deputy youth chairperson Gilbert Liswaniso said the door was open for GBM to leave if he thought he was untouchable as it was wrong for him to start insulting his fellow leaders in public.

“When you are wrong, the best thing to do is to ask for forgiveness but if you, as an individual, you think you are untouchable because you are called GBM, the door is open. This is a bitter pill to swallow, but we need to move on as one people.

“We cannot allow one individual all the time to continue insulting our leaders. You cannot insult the SG of the party. You cannot insult Mr. Hichilema in public. We have meetings where such issues must be resolved. We have tried our best to counsel, manage, and rehabilitate this individual but he has become a problem to us,” Mr. Liswaniso said.

He said there was nothing tribal about UPND demanding that GBM should be disciplined because as an institution, it will be difficult for it to run if it feared to take action against people from certain provinces on the pretext that people from such provinces would rise against the party.

“We cannot run an institution in that way. When you have made a mistake, you need to be disciplined. So, discipline will start from the vice president and now I want to appeal to the national management committee that we are giving them 24 hours to discipline GBM,” he said.

Today’s Scripture

“And who of you by worrying can add one hour to [the length of] his life?”
(Matthew 6:27, AMP)

Refuse To Worry!

God doesn’t want you to live worried and anxious about anything. He knows that worry is counterproductive. It steals your peace and joy and affects every area of your life, even your sleep! Have you heard the saying, “Don’t worry yourself sick?” Yes, worrying will actually make you physically ill. You won’t ever gain anything by worrying, in fact it causes you to lose precious moments that you can never live again. The good news is, God has promised to bring you victory over worry. When you make the choice to put an end to worry, God will give you His peace.

Decide today to put an end to worry in your life. Don’t feed worry by focusing on bad news all the time. Sure, we should be informed, but we should be most informed of the truth of the Word of God. Choose today to feed your faith and fill your heart and mind with God’s promises. Declare every day, “My God shall supply all my needs. He makes a way out of no way. He is a Restorer and Redeemer.” As you focus on God’s Word, you’ll drive out worry and fill your heart with faith and expectancy. You’ll be filled with hope and joy and move forward into the blessings God has in store for you!

A Prayer for Today

“God, I am weary from worrying. Please help me to stop the soundtrack of needless worry that plays over and over again in my head. I want to place my fears and concerns in Your hands and live in peace knowing that You will fulfill all of your precious promises to me.”