President Edgar Lungu has defended his appointment of Margaret Mwanakatwe as Minister of Finance stating that she is capable of overseeing the country’s economy.

President Lungu said he has confidence that Mrs. Mwanakatwe is equal to the task and will steer the country’s economy and meet the expectations of the market and the Zambian people.

ZANIS reports that the Head of State said this at Kenneth Kaunda International Airport shortly before departure for a two day state visit to Rwanda.

President Lungu said it is unfortunate that people have gone to the extent of causing turbulences in the market in order to show that Mrs. Mwanakatwe is not the right person for the portfolio of Minister of Finance.

President Lungu said people criticized his own election and cast doubt about his capacity to government the country.

He said though not everyone agrees with his decisions and choice of ministers, people will have to accept and respect his judgement.

The President urged Mrs. Mwanakatwe to ignore her detractors and work hard to shake off the turbulences in the market and stabilize the economy.

“When you reshuffle cabinet the way I did, there is bound to be turbulences, politically, economically. I feel sorry for her because people are saying so many poor things about her. I can only encourage her to work hard, she is equal to the task, I have no doubt,” said President Lungu.

Recently President Lungu made some reshuffles at Cabinet level that saw among others Margaret Mwanakatwe become Zambia’s second female Finance Minister replacing Felix Mutati who was transferred to Ministry of Works and Supply.

The Head of State said he expects his ministers and Members of Parliament to be on their toes and ensure that they serve Zambians by taking development to the people.

The President said he remains convinced that the task force of cabinet he has appointed to oversee completion of infrastructure will deliver following the recent reshuffles and inspection of infrastructure development projects.

“If I wasn’t confident, I wouldn’t have appointed them,” said President Lungu.

And President Lungu said his visit to Rwanda is cardinal in strengthening bilateral relations and has demonstrated unwavering friendship and brotherhood.

President Lungu said there is need for Zambia to share and return gestures of goodwill from the region.

He said Rwandese President Paul Kagame has visited Zambia on several occasions and it is only fair that he reciprocates by visiting him and explore ways of cementing relations for the social and economic benefit of Zambians.

The President said it will be folly for Zambia to ignore countries that desire to improve relations and trade with her.

“I have an obligation to reciprocate to friends in the region who have goodwill for Zambia, President Kagame was here when we lost our President, he was here for my inauguration, so it’s only fair that I reciprocate , ” said President Lungu.

President Lungu was seen off by Vice President Inonge Wina, PF Secretary General Davies Mwila, Defence Chiefs, and some Cabinet Ministers, senior government and PF party officials and members.

President Lungu is expected back home tomorrow Thursday February 22, 2018.

This stage of life, It’s hard, you guys.

I’m talking right now to you moms who are in your late 20’s to mid 30’s. You have kids. Likely two, three, maybe four of them. They probably range in age from newborns to 7 or 8 year-olds. (Give or take a few, on all of the above mentioned stats).

In this stage of life, you are dealing with exhaustion. Mental, physical, and emotional.

In this stage of life, you are dealing with teething. With ear infections. With stomach viruses. You are juggling nap schedules, and feeding schedules and soccer, dance, or cheer schedules. A million balls you are juggling, and you probably feel like you are dropping most of them.

In this stage of life, you are dealing with guilt. Guilt over having a career, and not spending enough time with your kids, or guilt over staying home with your kids, and not doing enough to contribute financially. Guilt over being too harsh with your kids. Too lenient. Guilt that your house is clean, but your kids were ignored, or guilt that you enjoyed your children all day, and now your husband is coming home to filth. Guilt.

In this stage of life, you are bombarded daily with a whole host of decisions. Some of them life-changing, some of them not. None of them with clear cut answers. Do I vaccinate my kids? Do I not? Do I send them to public school? Homeschool? Charter school? Do I continue to breastfeed? Do I blow the budget so that I can buy all organic? Do I force my child to apologize, even though the apology will be insincere? You don’t know the answers to ANYTHING, but you feel constant pressure to figure out EVERYTHING.

This stage of life is less and less about watching your friends get married and have babies, and more and more about standing by and witnessing your friends struggle in their marriage, and even get divorced. It’s a stage where you’ve got to put in the time and the effort and the work and the energy to make sure your OWN marriage stays healthy. And that’s good, but it’s hard, too. At this point, you or someone you know has experienced infertility. Miscarriages. Loss of a child.

It’s a stage where you are buying houses, selling houses, remodeling houses, packing up houses. And then you do it all again a few years later.

It’s a stage where your hormones are all out of whack. I mean, you’ve basically been pregnant, postpartum, or breastfeeding for the last ten years, right?

It’s a stage where you are struggling with identity. Is my entire identity “mommy”? Is there anything even left of me that isn’t about mothering? Is there something more glamorous I could have/should have done with my life? I LOOK like a mom now, don’t I? I totally do.

It’s a stage where you are on a constant quest for balance, and can never find it.

It’s a stage of life where you are overloaded. Constantly. You are overloaded with questions. Your children never stop asking them. You are overloaded with touch. Someone is constantly wanting to be held, holding on to you, hanging on to you, touching you. You are overloaded with to-do’s. There is so much to do. It never ends. You are overloaded with worry. You are overloaded with THINGS. Your kids have way too many toys. You are overloaded with activities. You are overloaded with THOUGHTS (thoughts about how to not be so overloaded, perhaps?).

It’s hard.

So….what do you need to do to survive it all?

You need to ask for help.

You need to accept help when it’s given.

You need to not neglect your marriage. You need to put your kids down for bed early. Sit outside on the back porch with your husband, drink a glass of wine, and have a conversation.

You need girlfriends.

You need your mom.

You need older friends, who have been there and done that. Who can reassure you that you AREN’T screwing it all up as badly as you think you are.

You need to not feel bad about using your kids nap time every now and again to just do whatever the heck you want.

You need to lower your expectations….then probably lower them again.

You need to simplify. Simplify every single part of your life, as much as it can be simplified.

You need to learn how to say “no”.

You need to practice contentment

You need to be ok leaving your kids overnight, and going away somewhere. Anywhere.

You need to do something you enjoy, every day, even if it’s for no more than 15 minutes.

You need to pray. Girl, you need to pray.

You need a coffee you love, a wine you love, and a bubble bath that you love.

Finally, and maybe most importantly, you need to remember that…..

….this stage of life is beautiful, too. Like, really really beautiful. This is the stage of life where every single older person you ever meet tells you, “you’re going to miss this”. And you already know it’s true. It’s the stage where your kids love you more than they are EVER going to love you again, for the whole rest of your life. It’s the stage where they can fit their entire selves into your lap to snuggle…and they want to. It’s the stage where their biggest problems ARE ear infections and teething and stomach viruses, and you’re not having to deal yet with things like broken hearts or addiction or bullying. It’s the stage where you are learning to love your spouse in an entirely different….harder…..better…. way. The stage where you are learning together, being stretched together, shedding your selfishness together, and TRULY being made into “one”. It’s the stage where you get to see Christmas, Halloween through your kids eyes, and it’s so much more fun and magical than it would be just through your own eyes. It’s the stage of life filled with field trips, class parties, costumes, swim lessons, bubble baths, dance parties, loose teeth, and first steps. And those things are so fun. It’s the stage where you are young enough to have fun, and old enough to have obtained at least SOME wisdom. It’s SUCH a great stage.

But, man it’s hard.”

Source: Ladies Pass it on

The Minister of Finance Margaret Mwanakatwe will today issue a statement on the performance of the economy in 2017. According to statement released to the media yesterday by Ministry of Finance Spokesperson Chileshe Kandeta, Mrs Mwanakatwe will also provide the outlook for 2018, which will be her Ministry’s focus going forward.

Yesterday, Mrs. Mwanakatwe held her first strategic visioning meeting with top management in the Ministry of Finance.

During the meeting, the Minister commended the team for ensuring that economic stability was attained. She reiterated the consensus of Cabinet to improve domestic resource mobilisation.

Mrs. Mwanakatwe asked her top management team to ensure that the actions and performance of the Ministry of Finance met people’s expectations.

Those in attendance at the meeting were Secretary to the Treasury FREDSON YAMBA, Permanent Secretary for Economic Management and Finance MUKULI CHIKUBA, Permanent Secretary for Budget and Economic Affairs Dr. EMMANUEL MULENGA PAMU, Accountant General Dr. DICK CHELLAH SICHEMBE, and Controller of Internal Audit JOYCE SUNDANO. Others in attendance were Treasury Counsel KAWAMA GOMA-SIMUMBA, and Director [HRA] JOYCE NYAMA.

“We have an economy to run, we have an economy to protect, we have an economy to grow,” she said, adding that “we have to intensify our domestic resource mobilisation while at the same time developing sustainable plans for concessional, cost-effective, and value for money external resource mobilisation.”

The Minister requested her team to formulate a plan for offsetting domestic arrears in a systematic manner in order to help dismantle the K9 billion domestic debt. She also directed the team to develop a sustainable plan for timely payment of salaries to public service workers.

Mrs. Mwanakatwe reiterated governments concern with the perception of corruption in some public offices and urged her team to ensure that the Ministry of Finance “demonstrated and practiced transparency and accountability in the discharge of treasury and economic management functions” in order to augment the public confidence in the trustworthiness of the Ministry to mobilise, manage, and keep custody of public resources “without raising credibility and governance red-lights.”

“This Ministry is key and must play its role in assuring the public that the perception of corruption which has been appended to some public offices will be addressed,” she said.

Mrs. Mwanakatwe called for hard work at all levels of the Ministry to ensure that the country reaches Growth Domestic Product [GDP] in excess of 5% and so that “in the near future” the benefits of growth begin to trickle down to the citizenry.

Speaking during the same meeting, SECRETARY TO THE TREASURY FREDSON YAMBA disclosed that the Ministry of Finance was formulating a plan to deal with the obligations that the country will have to fulfill as the Eurobonds fall due. Mr. Yamba assured the Minister that plans were also underway to dismantle domestic arrears and timely pay public service workers.

Health Minister Dr Chitalu Chilufya has maintained that he sees nothing wrong with the procurement of ambulances which many critics have maintained that the price was inflated.
But political activist Gregory Chifire has challenged Dr Chilufya to show the nation just one ambulance that has been so far delivered despite the fact that payment was made in December 2015.

In a statement, Dr Chilufya cautioned Zambians against perceiving corruption in public procurement.

He said the project to purchase ambulances is not new and that it was concluded by his predecessor late Dr Kasonde in March 2015.
Dr Chilufya said he has also reviewed the deal with a professional mind and that he sees nothing wrong with it.

The Health Minister says the Ministry’s need for advanced life support ambulances was not arrived at as an afterthought adding that there was and still is a need to have ambulances with Intensive Care facilities.

He said the need was necessitated by the PF’s decision to embark on a robust transformation agenda to provide access to health services for all Zambians.

“Custom-designed intensive care units are a lifeline for seriously compromised patients. Critically ill patients often need to be urgently transferred between hospitals so that they can receive highly specialised, often lifesaving care at the most appropriate facility. Such patients are often so compromised that they require an intensive care environment while en route between hospitals to ensure that they remain stable and safe throughout their transfer. Is it wrong for government to extend this service to ordinary citizens?”

Dr Chilufya also wondered where people got the highly publicised $288,000 per ambulance when the total cost of the project was $11.5 million.

“This alone should tell you the motive behind those who are stuck to this story. You should not even be misled into dividing $11.5m by 50 because the $11.5m package awarded to the successful bidder Savenda Management Services included a lot more than just the purchase of ambulances. It included training 200 people to support the operation of the ambulances which was 100 paramedics, 50 doctors and 50 mechanics. Apart from the training of the people manning these highly advanced ambulances, the package included the provision of spare parts for five years regardless of mileage,” Dr Chilufya explained.

He added, “When my Ministry bought 9 mobile clinics in 2010, we paid $3,3m on spare parts for a maximum of 2 years. The cost of getting technical support and training medical staff was $5.2m and we spent $6m on medical appliances and medicines. The 9 mobile clinics themselves cost us $36.3m. This sort of equipment is very expensive and this is why when my Ministry decided to buy these highly sophiscated life saving machines, the procurement was taken to the ZPPA and it was a very competitive international public tender that attracted no appeals from any losing firms when it was awarded to winning bidder Savenda with an $11.5m bid.”

Dr Chilufya has since urged Zambians to desist from bringing politics into issues surrounding the lives of the people.

He said there is justification in investing in basic life support ambulances such as the Toyota Landcruiser ambulances purchased with the help of the Swedish government, in intermediate life support ambulances and in advanced life support ambulances like the Mercedes-Benz ambulances being supplied by Savenda because any of these can save a life at any time under different circumstances.

“Therefore the issue of cost should not deter the Ministry from investing in equipment that will save our people. It’s sad we have resorted to toxic politics at the expense of development. Nobody deserves to die and my Ministry, in line with the PF manifesto, will value every life irrespective of one’s perceived standing in society,” he stated.
But political activist Gregory Chifire has challenged Dr Chilufya to show the nation just one ambulance that has been so far delivered despite the fact that payment was made in December 2015.

Mr Chifire said, “All I stated is that us as citizens questioned the government decision to buy an Ambulance at $288,000 per unit. Dr Chitalu Chilufya responded that it was not $288,000 but $230,000, a figure that is still within what we said. You can Google for yourselves fellow citizens if the ambulance attached here under, brand new from show room can cost even half of the amount as given by our Honourable Minister.”

He added, “As if stealing from the people is not enough, the payment for the ambulances was made in December 2015, I challenge the Minister to show us just one ambulance that has been so far delivered.”

“The Minister claimed that the cost includes training and spares. When did Savenda start training medical personnel or mechanics, Mr Savenda himself doesn’t even know how to handle a syringe, now what useless training can he give to our well trained medical personnel? If there is form of training, it is done by the manufacturer, not Savenda. When did Savenda start dealing in ambulances? Don’t think we are gullible. Whether its $288,000 or $230,000, the cost is too high,” he maintained.