MINISTER of Justice Given Lubinda is upset with the Zambia Institute of Advanced Legal Education (ZIALE) council for its alleged failure to adhere to his directives regarding the continued poor student pass rate at the institution.

Mr Lubinda has since summoned the ZIALE council to meet him today and explain the problems it has because he suspects there is something “terribly wrong” at the law school.

He said in an interview in Lusaka yesterday that Zambia cannot afford to see such poor performance by students at ZIALE.

“This low pass rate does not only reflect the poor performance of the students but also the lecturers and the institution at large,” he said.

The minister said in October last year, he directed the ZIALE council to give him strategies on how it hoped to improve the student pass rate but that nothing has been done to date.

“I don’t think there is any lecturer at ZIALE who should be feeling proud today that their mid-year examination student pass rate is only two percent,” he said.

This is in view of the results in which out of over 300 students who sat for the 2017 mid-year examinations, only seven cleared the 10 courses, representing a two percent pass rate.

Mr Lubinda said this is unacceptable because this poor pass rate does not impress him in any way.

The minister said he is upset and feels let down by the fact that despite his directive in October to give strategies to improve the pass rate, the council has allegedly not done so.

“The two percent pass rate is unacceptable because even if they are mid-year exam results, the exam is meant to assess the performance of students, lecturers and the institution itself,” he said.

Among the issues Mr Lubinda will discuss with the council are reports that some students are allegedly favoured.

The low pass rate in the mid-year examination comes barely a few months after Government expressed concern about a situation where only 16 out of 238 students qualified in 2016.

A check at ZIALE yesterday found the results and names of students who had sat for the legal practitioners’ mid-year examinations stuck on the notice board.

The list showed that out of 332 students who wrote the 10 courses, majority failed to clear all.

Recently, Mr Lubinda said Government would take measures to improve the pass rate at ZIALE to ensure that the country has sufficient lawyers to meet the growing litigation demand.

But when contacted for a comment, ZIALE director Ann Malata-Ononuju said the mid-year examination results do not necessarily reflect the outcome of those who sat for the final examinations.

Ms Malata-Ononuju said she is confident that the students will work harder and do better in the final examinations.

“Our analysis of the results shows that most students only failed in one course, meaning they can catch up and do better in the final examinations,” she said.

Ms Malata-Ononuju said the students who failed to pass all the 10 courses will be motivated to study harder.

“I already saw some studying in groups and they need to be encouraged to do better,” she said.

Speaking during the people’s Debate Program on Pan African Radio, National Restoration Party (NAREP) Lusaka District information and publicity Secretary Richard Malilwe has challenged the Siavonga District Commissioner to give reasons for picking Southern Province out of the ten provinces in Zambia.

And Malilwe has accused the Siavonga DC that he only wants southern Province to be divided owing to his ethic group agenda which will not be a good move for Zambia.

“Lovemore Kanyama only wants southern Province to be divided due to his ethic group agenda which will not be a good move for Zambia” Malilwe said

MMD President Nevers Mumba has written to Finance Minister Felix Mutati seeking the truth on Zambia’s true debt position.

In a letter dated July 31st 2017 addressed to Mr Mutati and made available to the media, Dr Mumba is requesting Mr Mutati to state the final position on Zambia’s debt position after he issued conflicting figures in Parliament.

The MMD leader now says his party intends to further raise this question of clarification on the floor of Parliament where your statement was given.

“Arising from your address in parliament when you announced the national debt figure as $7.2 billion after your initial figure of $17.2 billion was corrected by your office, we have embarked on a long search for the truth. Attached to this note is the outcome of our research, which actually reveals that your earlier figure of $17.2 billion is closer to the truth than your last figure of $7.2 billion,” the opening statement of the letter read.

Attached is the letter by Dr Mumba to Finance Minister Felix Mutati

When Rose Sibisi started her own firm five years ago, she only had a vague idea of running a business.
“I had no entrepreneurial background and no business plan to talk about, which is why I sort of went into what I already knew to do,” she says.
Ms Sibisi, a customer communications specialist, gained extensive experience working with top brands in Zambia and South Africa, including DHL Zambia, Multichoice Zambia, MTN Zambia, Sony SA, Samsung SA, BMW SA, as well as Charities Aid Foundation. Over her 25-year corporate life, she gained wide experience in event management, branding, social and corporate communications.

So, she started her firm, Style With Roses, an events management and communications company, in 2012 even though she only had a vague idea of running a business. “It was a question of timing and how I was going to put the concept together, and having the strength and courage of putting something together,” she says.
Today, Style With Roses has morphed into a lifestyle brand that has launched a TV talkshow. The TV talkshow is geared towards teaching, inspiring and challenging viewers across the African continent to pursue their purpose and fulfill their destiny. This informative talk-show aims to motivate and sprout a blossoming pan-African social fabric, driving national and economic impact by showcasing self-made women entrepreneurs, women game changers, women trailblazers and women innovators.
The show features compelling interviews and profiles personal biographies of upcoming, successful and inspirational women personalities or collaborative initiatives across Africa. It is a visual mentoring and learning tool that inspires change, to add to social and economic development across the globe; starting with Africa.

In December 2016, a popular DSTV Channel, Zambezi Magic, which broadcasts in six African countries asked her to provide them with the episodes she had so far recorded. In March 2017, the talkshow premiered on the channel and has been fantastic since. But Ms Sibisi is not comfortable with where she is, and wants to move levels higher.
Recently, Ms Sibisi was part of a group of more than 20 women entrepreneurs who received top-class entrepreneurial training under the auspices of Stanbic Bank’s Anakazi Banking, a banking proposition that seeks to empower women entrepreneurs by giving them access to capital, education and business mentorship.

Anakazi Banking focuses on both increased access to finance and capacity building activities for women entrepreneurs. These platforms include training, mentorship and networking events to build knowledge in business management and access to markets, as well as assistance in business formalisation.

“When I was invited for the training, it was absolutely mind-blowing and phenomenal. The training was about equipping us with the leadership skills and the knowledge we need to make critical decisions for our businesses as well as to identify new opportunities. The information we were given is information you’d not ordinarily access. If you had to pay for this information, you’d pay a lot of money but here we are, we got it for free,” she says.

Mazabuka Central Member of Parliament Garry Nkombo has challenged Government to justify why Food Reserve Agency (FRA) will buy a 50kg bag of maize during this year’s marketing season at K60.

FRA recently announced that only 500,000 tonnes of maize and 2,100 tonnes of paddy rice and 20, 000 tonnes of Soya Beans will be bought at a total cost of over 900 million kwacha.

And the Mazabuka lawmaker has alleged that the Patriotic Front led Government is bent to destroy the agriculture sector in Zambia.

Nkombo said Government should have subsidized the nation at production level and not at consumption level.

“We challenge Government to justify why Food Reserve Agency (FRA) will buy a 50kg bag of maize during this year’s marketing season at K60” Nkombo said

Author: News Editor, Barotseland Post

Sensing imminent defeat in the ongoing cases of ‘Seditious intention to secede Western province from the rest of Zambia’ and ‘Seditious practices for unlawful possession of seditious material’ respectively, Zambia police now seek to arrest Muleta Kalaluka indefinitely using Edgar Lungu’s declared state of emergency.

On 21st July, 2017, a dozen Zambian police officers were reportedly dispatched to search for Muleta at Litoya, going from village to village, until Sunday 23rd when the police heard Muleta would be attending a church service at the Libala new apostolic church in Senanga.

“Police officers, armed with guns, stormed the church and started to question some parishioners about Muleta’s whereabouts. The whole exercise looked so dehumanizing,” reported a parishioner who wondered what crime Muleta had committed to warrant the desecration of a divine service in that manner.

Muleta Nawa Kalaluka is already before a Zambian court after he was arrested together with ‘Rocky’ Lubinda Nyambe in March 2016 on two counts, seditious intention to secede Zambia’s western province from the rest of Zambia and seditious practices for unlawful possession of seditious material – whatever that means.

His case was transferred to Kaoma, more than 200 kilometers away from Mongu for unknown reasons, but underwent continuous adjournments until November 2016 when the Zambian state finally enlisted two police officers as witnesses against him.

However, it would appear that the police are no longer confident of Muleta’s conviction but now seek to arrest and detain him indefinitely under president Lungu’s declared draconian emergency rule.

“During cross examination, the testimony of the two state witnesses was so shattered that it became very apparent that Muleta and his co-accused would be acquitted on the next court sitting scheduled for 24th July 2017.

“This might have prompted the fresh police manhunt on Muleta to have him re-arrested indefinitely under president Lungu’s state of emergency. There are also reports that they may wish to arrest him for speaking to foreign and international media about the current situation in Barotseland.” revealed a source close to the case.

When the case came up for possible ruling on the 24th of July, however, the state prosecutors informed Muleta and his co-accused around 12:00hrs that their case would not be heard that day but the next morning on 25th July 2017, a move many sympathizers alleged was meant to not only punish Muleta who stayed many miles away in Mongu, but that the police wished to possibly effect his arrest at the court premises.

Muleta, whose whereabouts are currently unknown, is a well known critic of Zambia’s administration in Barotseland without the pre-independence Barotseland Agreement 1964, which the Zambian government unilaterally abrogated in 1965.

In the famous 2013 treason trial that involved over 83 Barotse activists charged with treason for celebrating Afumba Mombotwa’s publicized Oath of Office as head of a transitional government in Barotseland, Muleta publicly challenged a Lusaka court to prove its LOCUS STANDI on Barotseland citizens in the absence of the 1964 agreement which was the only instrument that would grant such.

He and other Linyungandambo members then had threatened to subpoena Zambia’s first president Kenneth Kaunda to speak under oath why Zambia had continued administrating Barotseland illegally.

The Zambian government then abruptly discontinued the case against the over 83 Barotse shortly after Muleta’s court challenge was publicized in various national and international media; notwithstanding that the state claimed the trial would rattle some unnamed national public policy if continued, thereby acquitting all accused on Nolle prosequi.

Source:Barotseland Post

President Kaunda was young. Simon Kapwepwe was young. Mwinikayumbwa Sipalo was young. Peter Matoka was young. Julia Chikamoneka was young. Chibesa Kankasa was young. Mutumba Mainga Bull was young. Chieftainess Nkomesha was young. Cairo Road in Lusaka was young. The Zambezi River was young. My parents were young. My brothers and sisters were young. My uncle and my aunt were young. All my friends were young. Zambia was young. University of Zambia was young. I was young.

I had just triumphed in my long struggle to complete my B. A degree at the University of Zambia in the Capital City of Lusaka in 1976. I pounded Cairo Road, Chachacha Road, and Freedom Way in search of a job. A few weeks later I was fortunate enough to land a job as a Training Officer in the Personnel Division of the Parastatal National Agricultural and Marketing Board (NAMBOARD). The massive national headquarters occupied four floors of Kwacha House in the North-End of Cairo Road. I walked half an hour to work every day from my Uncle and Aunt’s house in Northmead.

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The Nyanja would call her “chiphadzuwa” (sun killer), the Bemba would call her “chipeshamano” (one who kills a man’s brain)

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After I had been working there for a few weeks, my boss sent me on my first field assignment. I was to inspect all the dozens of NAMBOARD depots scattered in the entire Western Province and to submit a written report after my return. My boss gave me a plane ticket with instructions that Mr. Imasiku would meet me at the Mongu air strip. When I went home that evening I told my uncle and aunt that I was very excited. I was going to visit a different part of Zambia; Western Province. My aunt’s response was to ask me to bring back some dried fish. I was so excited that night I could not sleep for fear that I would over sleep and miss my plane at the then Lusaka International Airport.

The 2 propeller Hawker Sidley 35 passenger Zambia Airways plane smoothly took off from the Lusaka International Airport heading west. It was a pleasant November day with such clear blue skies that I could see as far as the eye could see through the comfort of my window seat. After about an hour we landed at Mongu airstrip.

Mr. Imasiku looked about 50 with a slightly bald head and a mix of dark and some grey hair. He had a wonderful broad grin, sparkling small eyes, and reassuring deep calm voice. He was the NAMBOARD Assistant Provincial Personnel Manager. Beside him was a brand new cream Land Rover which was one of the dozens of brand new Land Rovers NAMBOARD had bought that year that had just been distributed to all the provinces. The young driver was Mundia who looked 20 wearing smart well ironed trousers and a shirt; no doubt in readiness to meet me the big official boss from Kwacha House NAMBOARD headquarters in Lusaka. They both welcomed me and we drove to Lyembai Hotel.

The next two days, I visited the offices of the NAMBOARD provincial headquarters. Behind the office building was a large storage yard that had high piles of bags of fertilizer, ox-driven ploughs, agricultural pest control chemicals, seeds, storage tents, empty sack grain bags, pesticide sprayers, chains, ropes, irrigation equipment, pumps, and all kinds farm equipment spare parts. I attended part of the provincial depot manager’s workshop that was in progress. As I was walking through the offices, I heard loud heated raised exchanges of voices between 2 female personnel. They were speaking back and forth in SiLozi; until one of them said to the other in English:

“…….I don’t know why you expect me to do this! This is not my mother’s NAMBOARD !!”.
Since I did not understand any SiLozi, Mr. Imasiku later explained to me that the conversation wasn’t anything unusual as the two employees were having a normal disagreement among workers.

Since I had to learn some SiLozi, I asked Mr. Imasiku how do I ask for water and beer in SiLozi. In my own mind I assumed that if ever I was in danger of dying, these were the 2 things I would absolutely need to know how to ask for. He told me; asking for water was“Nikupa mezi” and asking for beer was“Nikupa bucwala”. Although I might have learned many other phrases, these were the most important phrases at the time which I still remember to this day many decades later.

That evening, Mr Mundia dropped me off at the nearest watering hole which was about two hundred meters from Lyembai Hotel with the expectation that I could walk back to the hotel at my ease after whenever I felt I had successfully “inspected” the Sinjonjo Bar watering hole that evening. Half way through my third Mosi, I saw what many men live for; a woman. She was not just any woman, she was a very beautiful woman standing next to the bar next to other people; she was stunning. Thirty seconds before my eyes landed on her, the drinking establishment had been boring with rather dim lighting. But suddenly there was a beautiful glow of light all around the bar and her like a halo.

She was wearing a fabulous bright yellow dress, oh! and a curvaceous figure that made me salivate, large white sparkling eyes, and she was smiling in my direction. I quickly glanced around to see if her attention was to someone behind me. There was no one. My mind and body both panicked together. The Nyanja would call her “chiphadzuwa” (sun killer), the Bemba would call her “chipeshamano” (one who kills a man’s brain). I was immediately drawn to her like inswa insects are drawn to a bright light in pitch dark tropical night Zambia in December. The momentum of my confused body took a few fateful steps toward her and stammered:
“aaaa….b-w-anji?!!!” (…how… are you?) I asked in my Lusaka Nyanja. I stretched my hand toward her. She actually touched my hand in a split second handshake.

“……something… something.. Kaonde.” She replied smiling with a beaming face and sparkling eyes; that special inviting smile every man dreams of in his sweetest dream; a stunningly beautiful woman who is so obviously reciprocating the attraction.
“ eehhh…manje…what’s your name? Zina.. lanu?” I pointed at her as I stammered with my heart beating very fast. “..nachoka ku Lusaka…(I have come from Lusaka)”. I was anxious to create a strong impression that I was a sophisticated city man; and not one of the Sinjonjo bar locals.

“…something —something Kaonde,” she replied again with her bright smile.
We obviously were not communicating. I looked around frustrated. Where was Mundia the young man when I needed him? At that instant I wished I knew more SiLozi than “nikupa bucwala”. I probably needed to know some ChiKaonde too, may be Lunchazi, Chokwe, ChiLovale, may be Chi Lunda. How could I know what she was speaking as my mind was racing for an urgent solution? This was a do or die emergency.

“Nikupa bucwala? Do you want a beer or a drink?” I desperately asked again reaching into my pocket for some money; even though I knew that was probably botched or poor conversation SiLozi even in a watering hole.
“….something …something Kaonde,” she replied again with a bright smile.

At that point some man, who did not approve of what she was doing with me walked to her and they had a heated argument either in Kaonde, Luchazi, Lovale or SiLozi. I couldn’t tell. He grabbed her by her stiff arm as she resisted and pulled her away from me as she protested. She wanted to talk to me. I felt so helpless. Was the man her husband? Ex-boyfriend, cousin, relative? I knew that if that was her lover or husband, I would already be dead on the ground after his left hook landed on my jaw. Part of me wanted to intervene. But something in a split second held me back. It was my father’s voices when I was young about how to handle fights and other dangerous altercations in bars. My father’s voice was saying: “Walk away, walk away, walk away”. But my other voice was saying” “Be a man, get her from the beast of a man, she is stunningly beautiful, she loves you! You are young and strong. You could throw in a few punches. Be a man. Defend her against that animal of a man!”

I saw her in the corner of the bar in a full blown animated argument with the wretched man who was ruining my dream. I continued to finger my mosi on the bar counter as I waited like a coward for them to settle the argument. My thinking was she would soon come marching back to me. It did not happen. The man dragged her by the hand out of the bar as she was resisting. I waited. Later, I looked around for her outside the bar. She was gone. I walked back to Lyembai Hotel dejected. I could not sleep. What was her name? What language was she speaking? Where does she live? Who was the man? Things had happened so fast in the bar that I did not have time to ask all these questions.
Early the following morning, Mr. Imasiku, Mr. Mundia, and I drove 190 miles (306kms) in the Land Rover through the November dry, hot and sandy Zambezi flood plain to Kalabo to inspect a NAMBOARD depot. Soon after leaving Mongu, we used the pontoon to cross the Zambezi River. There was so much thick sand that the road was just tracks of sand which our vehicle followed. I had never seen so much sand in my life let alone travel on it. The sand was so thick and deep that our brand new Land Rover could only drive a maximum of 35 miles per hour (56 km per hour) where the sand was less deep. Otherwise we drove at between 15 to 25 mph (24 to Km per hour) using four wheel drive during the long, hot, and slow 5 to 6 hour drive to Kalabo.

There were virtually no large trees in the sandy flood plain.
All along as we drove and made conversation, my mind was with the woman chiphadzuwa. I had to find some way of meeting her again. But how would I solve the language barrier?

At noon we pulled from the track and parked the Land Rover under the shade of some short bushes for lunch. We ate some buns and coca-cola. After lunch, I called Mr. Mundia our driver behind the Land Rover away from Mr. Imasiku’s ear shot.
“Mr. Mundia,” I said. “I met a woman at Sinjonjo Bar”.

Mr. Mundia began laughing holding his hand to his mouth leaning down while excitedly trotting away from the Land Rover as he clapped his hands together repeatedly.

“Bo Tembo,” Mr. Mundia smiled as he walked back toward me. “You have to watch out at Sinjonjo Bar. It is a dangerous place. I could see that you mind is somewhere else today.”

“Can you do me a favour?”
“Yes, sure. What!” Mr. Mundia paused.

“Tomorrow night when we return to Mongu, can you come to Sinjonjo with me? If she is there, you can translate for me. I didn’t know what language she was speaking”
“Ok, no problem,” Mr. Mundia replied. “We can go there. And I will even tell you if she is one of our local girls, Bo Tembo.” He laughed again.

“Hey Mr. Mundia,” I whispered as I tapped his hand. “But don’t tell your boss Mr. Imasiku because he might not understand since he is older.”

……To be continued……

By Mwizenge S. Tembo, Ph. D.
Professor of Sociology

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