Opposition leader Hakainde Hichilema has bemoaned the lack of clean water in Eastern Province particularly in Milanzi Constituency.

After seeing people of Milanzi and surrounding areas sharing dirty and contaminated water with animals, Mr Hichilema pledged to sink one borehole and repair all those with faults.

The UPND President has also promised the people of Eastern Province of better and improved agriculture policies as his time to rule nears.

He further encouraged the people of Eastern Province and Zambia at large to unite for one common goal of restoring Mother Zambia’s dignity and true One Zambia One Nation motto.

” This Patriotic Front (PF) government has neglected you, the roads and bridges are impassable”, said Mr. Hichilema.

Mr Hichilema is in Eastern Province druming up support to all opposition candidates participating in the forthcoming local government by- elections slated for 12th February, 2019.

The UPND leader wrote on his Facebook page, “Held a fruitful meeting with 26 headmen in Kamusimbi village of Milanzi constituency, Katete district of Eastern province on Wednesday afternoon. We discussed agriculture and rural development for our people across the country.”

He added, “Later we addressed residents of Kamusimbi village in Chindwale ward at which we emphasised the need for development in rural areas. And having heard the concerns of lack of safe and clean drinking water from both the village headmen and the residents, we pledged to sink water boreholes, repair those not working with immediate effect and begin setting up dams for cattle in the near future as all these are life supporting necessities.”

He said, “We are on a journey to making Zambia great for all and this we told our brothers and sisters as we drummed up support for our local government by-election candidate Jennifer Phiri taking place in Chindwale ward slated for 12th February, 2019.”

“We will together as a people take love where there is hurt, create jobs and business environment because there is non now, offer quality healthcare and education for all. Eastern province is beautiful but we will make it even more beautiful by among others developing the tourism sector in the area which will in turn create jobs for our people.”

“We are one people brought together by God, almighty for one purpose and that is to develop this land. Tiyende pamodzi ndi mutima umodzi, kuti tipeleke ziko latsu kusogolo.”

And in Nyimba, Police blocked the UPND President from greeting people who had gathered by the roadside.

The Police were however advised to act professional by allowing Mr Hichilema to extend his greetings.

Speaking on behalf of people Nyimba’s Kavuma village headman told the Police that Mr. Hichilema is a Zambian son who needed no passport to visit and share his vision with the people of Eastern province.

And the UPND President told the Police officers that he is not fighting them but fighting for them and their conditions of service to be improved.

Mr. Hichilema added that he was aware of the Police’s action to threaten and arrest UPND members and citizens believing in the party’s vision but that this should not be the case.

“Thank you to our mothers, women and youth who rushed to the roadside along the Great East road, particularly in Nyimba and Petauke districts of Eastern province,” he said.

“Seeing the elderly and the young running towards us shows how comfortable you feel when in our arms. We can assure our people in Eastern Province of greater times ahead full of better and improved agriculture policies.”

“To the Police, we say: allow citizens to enjoy their democratic rights. Remember that Hakainde is not fighting you but fighting for you and under our government your conditions of service will improve.”

The Young African Leaders Initiative (YALI) has demanded that Minister of Justice Given Lubinda gives a clear roadmap and time frame in which the governance reforms will be tabled.

Speaking at a media briefing in Lusaka on Thursday, YALI president Andrew Ntewewe said his organisation was happy with the response from the Minister on their call to have the drafts bills before parliament but that time was ticking towards 2021.

Ntewewe said the reforms that the country needs should take place before the 2021 elections and that with the confusion that has engulfed the dialogue process government should show leadership and continue with the reforms in parliament.

“We are satisfied with Government position that it has no intention to relegate the governance function to either NGOs likes ours or our friends, the church or the ZCID. We also find it right that government will, in due course, issue its position on the reform program which is expected to give direction to the disputed matters which have been subject of a national political dialogue.

“We however want to remind President Lungu, his Minister of Justice and the entire administration that time does not wait for anyone and it has continued to tick towards 2021,” he said.

He explained that if the bills are taken to parliament and the opposition decides to shoot them down then they would be accepting to hold the 2021 under the same legal framework they are fighting to improve.

He said the Church leaders are not knowledgeable to make reforms.

“We must underscore the point that making of laws is the sacred function that we, the people of Zambia, have entrusted into the hands of our members of parliament. We thus base our calls for government to act now and send the bills to parliament than wait for the church – most of whom are not knowledgeable on law reforms – to hold meetings that will not bind any of the three arms of Government, that is, our national assembly, the executive and the judiciary. Little wonder that the three arms of government stayed away from the launch of the dialogue process as they truly understand nothing that comes from it can legally bind them,” he said.

Further Ntewewe said his organisation agrees with ZANASU on the call to realign the dialogue with the 7NDP.

And Ntewewe has reiterated his call for the Church leaders to be open about their funding something he said has been a source of conflict between them and the ZCID.

“As we conclude, we want to comment on the stalemate between the church and ZCID. Over the last few days, our friends from among the clergy have told us how they are still debating over the wording of the MoU which should be signed between these two groups. It appear the mistrust between the church and ZCID still remains especially that the church has been elusive in having a joint bank account for management of funds meant for the national dialogue.

“Our questions still remain, why is the church averse to having a joint bank account with ZCID? Who has funded the church that they do not want their friends to know how much money will be spent on the national dialogue? It is common knowledge that the UPND and its Alliance partners have come out strongly warning against those who ask these questions to the church but even this kind of defence raises a lot of suspicion on who must speak on behalf of the church,” he said.

Ruling PF Ndola District Youth Vice Chairman Geoffrey Chulu together with eight other party affiliates have been arrested for soliciting for bribes from mealie meal smugglers.

Just last week, Ndola District Youth Chairman Oscar Himanga was also arrested for smuggling mealie meal to the DRC.

This morning, police picked up Mr Chulu and eight other party members and arrested them for soliciting bribes from mealie meal smugglers.

They are detained at Kawama police station.

The arrested officials have been accused of pocketing K35 per K25 bag of smuggled mealie meal.

The mealie meal is now fetching around K180 per K25 bag of breakfast meal.

Investigations have shown that the arrested officials have been using the name of the party in running the smuggling syndicate by telling police officers on the check out that the funds raised will be used for party operations in the Province.

And some party insiders in Ndola have appealed to PF Secretary General Davies Mwila to immediately dissolve the District Executive before more harm is done to the people party.

They want Mr Mwila to step in and bring sanity to the party by dissolving the entire executive and organizing fresh elections.

The members who spoke on condition of anonymity have also accused Provincial Police Commissioner Charity Katanga of misleading President Edgar Lungu on security matters in the province.

They stated that Mrs Katanga failed to provide adequate security checks on the suitability of the arrested officials before they were elected in the district structures.

“We are left wondering why Madam Katanga has been failing to tell the President the truth about these characters. If the President knew that these characters had criminal records, we believe they could not even have been allowed to stand for those positions “ the sources said.

They added, “ Most of the police stations in Ndola have records of some criminal cases involving all the officials including the District Chairman Benjamin Chitondo. We challenge Madam Katanga to deny this.”

“This Chitondo does not deserve to be District Chairman because of his criminal record. We now understand why Kabushi Member of Parliament Bowman Lusambo was against these people to be elected because he knew they are not fit to hold those positions.”

They said the party needs proper cleansing failure to which it will cost its victory in the 2021 elections.

The members feared that the PF will become unattractive ahead of the 2021 elections if the levels of criminality are left unchecked.

The members have also called on the party to launch investigations against District Commissioner Cannon Chisulo who has been signing Police Bonds for these officials whenever they are picked up by police.

“D.C Chisulo should come out in the open and state his interests in these criminal cases. Why does he find it so easy to sign Police Bonds for these people, maybe he is accomplice,” they wondered.

Election or by-election time always bring forth the best or worst part of our political discourse. I will not deal with the senseless violence which our police service seems incapable of preventing but deal with the issue of political deception.According to Merriam-Webster deception is “the act of causing someone to accept as true or valid what is false or invalid” or as Hugo Grotius ( On The Law of War and Peace) put it, saying something completely false either to make others laugh or to mislead them.

There is no doubt that apart from a few political actors like Tayali who may say things that are completely false for amusement, deception especially by the ruling elite is used for political expediency

There is no doubt that apart from a few political actors like Tayali who may say things that are completely false for amusement, deception especially by the ruling elite is used for political expediency and carefully crafted for the maintenance of political power and stability for as long as possible. The late former Vice President Kunda once said the MMD would be in power for 100 years. Similarly some PF leaders have said PF will be in power for eternity! Of course this is not true but is said anyway because in their belief voters have “infant-like response to lies and if they say something often enough people will believe it” (Machiavelli).

Listening to the PF Director of Media, Sunday Chanda’s incessant propaganda one cannot but see deception by omission, deception by saturation and deception by spin at work as elaborated by Carlo Kopp ( Considerations on Deception Techniques used in Political and Product Marketing).”

All these techniques are designed to create a misperception of reality by either excluding unpalatable facts or encouraging the (reader or listener) to devalue or disregard the unpalatable facts by accepting the spin on the issue”. For example, the outbursts against Prime TV by PF Secretary General Davies Mwila are explained as a “simple misunderstanding” and that the “PF and its government have championed freedom of the press and the right for journalists to practice without fear or favour”!

According to Kopp, deception by omission or concealment seeks to create a misperception of reality favourable to the presenter by trying to induce the public to form a picture of reality based only upon what the attacker presents. This may explain why successive governments have been at great pains to push through the Access to Information Bill because of fear that adverse policy outcomes or reports are not disclosed to the public.

Deception by saturation seeks to inundate the public with messages, most of them redundant or irrelevant ( like “under the wise leadership of His Excellency, The Commander in Chief of the Defence Forces”) so that the public cannot gather information which might contradict the attacker’s message. Deception by saturation also seeks to hide information behind a deluge of messages which have little or no information content.Is it any wonder that the public readership of the “public” press has drastically gone down not to mention the loss of interest by many in ZNBC news where the first 20 mins is predictable!

Deception by spin is a form of subversion attack which presents an unpalatable or other acknowledged or accepted fact by encouraging the public to assess that fact from a perspective which is less damaging to the attacker. Consider the spin over the “Ubomba Mwibala” or the “6/10 criminals are Bemba”.

It appears to me quite obvious that the focus of the so-called political media institutions has shifted from truthful and factual information to the public to lying and deception for the maintenance of political power. In “When Presidents Lie – A History of Official Deception and And Its Consequences” Eric Alterman argues that deception invariably exacts a price later and that that even though it may appear that “the ability to lie convincingly had come to be regarded as almost being a qualification for holding public office”, honesty in government is in fact the best policy.

By G Soneka

Swish releases his first single for 2019 titled “Casanova” which features the lovely songbird Katongo.
This song talks about a guy that is in pursuit of a girl and is not afraid to take any chances with her love whereas the girl assumes that he is a Casanova.

The Zambia Revenue Authority (ZRA) has said that the extension of the Tax Payers Identification Number (TPIN) is to allow everyone to get registered and ensure tax-compliance.

Speaking in an interview with ZANIS in Lusaka this week, ZRA Communications Manager Topsy Sikalinda said that the deadline has been extended up to June 30, 2019 in order for more people to register.

Mr Sikalinda however, noted that the extension only applies to the banking sector while other sectors such as the Road Safety and Transport Agency (RATSA) and ZESCO still stands.

Mr Sikalinda explained that people will be unable to access services from RATSA or ZESCO if they do not possess a TPIN.

Mr Sikalinda stated that the TPIN registration process has been simplified and can be carried out by anyone online.

He said the process has also been decentralized to all banks across the country.

‘Anyone is now able to register at their local banks in a short period of time as the commercial banks have been given the mandate to register TPIN”, he explained.

Mr. Sikalinda has since appealed to members of the public to take advantage of the extension and ensure they comply with the law.

Mr. Sikalinda added that the process is on-going for those below the required 18 years of age.