President Edgar Lungu has proposed the Chishinga Ranch breeding Centre to be one of the items for discussion during his next week Monday Cabinet meeting.

Speaking when he toured the Chishinga breeding Centre in Pambashe area of Kawambwa District, President Lungu called for a discussion involving the Minister of Livestock, Luapula Provincial Minister and the two Permanent Secretaries from the ministry of Livestock and the Province to discuss the Chishinga centre required support for vibrancy.

President Lungu said Luapula is animal disease free, has favorable weather patterns with good rains and abundant water.

He said it is important to promote livestock breeding in the region because the conditions to support livestock breeding were available

The Head of State added that it is equally important to beef up staff at the Centre the animals to be managed well.

He is however disappointed that the Centre has an animal drinker facility which had been disused for the past three years.

Centre Acting Coordinator Moono Mayoba informed the President that the main borehole at the Centre is malfunctional because it needs a K5,000 sparepat.

Area Member of Parliament Ronald Chitotela was equally surprised that the Centre’s main borehole was malfunctioning just because of a K5,000 sparepart which he pledged in the presence of the Head of State that he will provide.

President Lungu is optimistic that the Cente has the potential to revive and regain its initial vision of breeding animals for sale to the locals for onward breeding purposes.

Mr. Chitotela explained that the Centre was started in the UNIP Government with 100,000 hectares of land until when the MMD took over power in 1991 when it was re-demarcated to offer the former employees benefits which has only left 44,000 hectares of land at the moment.

Speaking to journalists before his departure to Luapula today, President Lungu said democracy dictates that he consults with stakeholders who in this case are the Zambian people before making decisions.

President Lungu said he believes in widespread consultation with stakeholders as the right path to govern.

He said he would not dictate to Zambians what they should adopt with regard to the country staying or pulling out of the ICC.

The African Union (AU) wants its member states to pull out of the International Criminal Court (ICC).

This is a message to the international community to stop “harassing” Africans, the AU said.

The decision was arrived at in a closed session of the African Union Summit in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia on Tuesday.

However, Nigeria, Senegal, Ivory Coast, Mali, Burkina Faso, Tanzania, Tunisia, Cape Verde, Botswana and Chad want to remain members of the court.

The summit adopted a withdrawal strategy which had been circulated to members beforehand but was overshadowed by the elections of AU Commission leaders.

The document says: “A growing number of African stakeholders have begun to see patterns of only pursuing African cases being reflective of selectivity and inequality”.

Member states also agreed to press for a reformed United Nations Security Council. African countries have no permanent representation in the council. The council can refer cases to the court, yet it is not a UN court.

Meanwhile, Veteran Politician Vernon Mwaanga has said that the International Criminal Court (ICC) has failed to live up to the expectations for which it was set up for.

In an interview with ZNBC News in Lusaka, Dr. Mwaanga said frustrations by some African leaders to pull out of the ICC is understood because of the manner it has discriminated against smaller states, poor nations and African countries. Dr Mwaanga said that the ICC pursues arrest warrants for African leaders with a lot of vigour.

Dr. Mwaanga has however stated that the decision by the African Union to pull out of the ICC is not binding as member countries can still decide to stay on or not. Dr Mwaanga further said that welcomed the planned consultations by President Edgar Lungu on whether Zambia should stay or pull out of the ICC.

And The Opposition Forum for Democracy and Development (FDD) has said that Zambia should stay with the International Criminal Court -ICC- as the country seeks to improve its judicial system.

FDD Spokesperson Anthonio Mwanza said that the idea of being within the jurisdiction of the ICC works well when the country has to deal with complicated cases.

Mr. Mwanza ssaid that Zambia like other African countries should strive to build much stronger judicial systems that will satisfy expectations of the masses.

He was speaking in an interview with ZNBC News in Lusaka.

When ‘Spider’ Kapeya Kangolo visits bars and restaurants, he is not ‘here for the beer’. His mission is to collect bottle tops, as they are an essential ingredient in his art, design work and business.
It was in 2015, when after reading an article in one of the newspapers, Corporate Affairs Director at Zambian Breweries Ezekiel Sekele decided to follow through and meet Kapeya at his working place at the Arcades Sundaymarket. From there, the business was interested in supporting Spider’s project as it was promoting recycling, which is one of the initiatives undertaken by Zambian Breweries.
Kapeya Kangolo’s talent involves the use of bottle tops, wire, and pieces of metal to turn what might have ended up in the recycling bin into pen-holders, toothbrush-holders, book racks and magazine-holders. He also makes earrings, bar counter stools, lounge chairs, tables and picture frames.
This has been a way of life for Kapeya popularly known as Spider, for nearly 20 years. He credits his former boss with inspiring him to start up his bottle-top activities, and he has now received sponsorship from Zambian Breweries under its Kick-Start, a Youth Empowerment Programme (YEP), which has come on board to help him purchase the machinery that he needed for the manufacture of his products.
“Some people come with their own designs and I make for them whatever they want,” he says, citing bar counter stools as the best sellers, with demand for them at around K300 each. Lounge chairs cost about K600, tables come in at K750, and a vegetable rack fetches K250.
“I get the bottle tops from bars and restaurants. I go to these places and tell the owners not to throw away the bottle tops. I collect the bottle tops on Mondayand I sort them out, and those for Fanta, Sprite, Mosi etc, I put separately. I have made collecting bins and placed them in some restaurants so they keep the bottle tops in them for me,” he said.
Spider hopes to expand his business to other parts of the country in addition to the tourist capital, Livingstone, where he currently sends his products.
He claims that from the bottle top business he manages to support his family. He sells his products at the Arcades Sunday market and at the Dutch monthly market in Kabulonga.
He encourages youths to venture into entrepreneurship and start up a business to earn income instead of waiting, expecting opportunities to come to them.
Spider’s next venture is making products out of plastic bottles. He has pointed out that there are many plastic bottles lying around on the streets which would be useful to someone with his skills. He is in some way contributing to keeping the environment clean by picking the bottle tops that could have been making the city dirty.
Mr Sekele said that the company was happy to help young people in Zambia and to expand their businesses in order to earn a living: “Our dream is to bring people together for a better community and country. We want to impact positively on livelihoods. We believe that when our people prosper then our business will in turn grow sustainably. We want to help many small-scale businesses to grow also their families. For Spider, we empowered him with the tools that he needed for growth,” he said.

The Mongu High Court has since set February 24, 2017 as the date for the commencement of hearing the case in which Lozi traditional leaders want the court to compel the Litunga to abdicate.

The Litunga upon arriving in Barotseland on Tuesday summoned area Indunas on Wednesday at Limulunga Royal village in traditional and the Highest Kuta, the Mboo Kuta and the meeting was chaired by senior Induna Mukulwakashiko’.
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According to information from Limulunga, out of 23 area chiefs, only nine managed to attend the meeting with 15 village Headmen and thirty 30 ordinary people who wanted to confirm whether it was true The Litunga has been summoned by Zambian court.

The Indunas were unanimous in supporting Litunga’s immunity from persecution and they vowed not allow the summons be served on Ngambela or Litunga.

Lozi traditionalists namely Nabiwa Imikendu, Litia Charles Mutemwa, Mukubesa Ilukena and Mumbisho Liswaniso stated that they were Zambians and traditional loyalists with vested interest aimed at ensuring that the Lozi tradition and custom was upheld, promoted and sustained for posterity and cultural heritage.

They stated that a wider majority of Lozis, averaging 92 per cent, was in open disapproval of his Litungaship and would want him to vacate the throne.

The applicants stated that ever since the Litunga ascended to the throne on October 13, 2000, he had been sneaking out of the palace to attend to his businesses around and outside the jurisdiction of his chiefdom without prior notification thereby putting his advisers and subjects in an awkward position.

“That under the reign of the now respondent, the Lozi traditional norms of decency and integrity have heavily been compromised with corruption, indiscipline, dishonesty and irresponsibility within the rank and file with substantive key positions in the hierarchy unfilled,” read part of the motion.

The applicants stated that the Litunga had been a stumbling block to development in Western Province.

The applicants alleged that the Litunga’s failure to seize positive opportunities of government policies in a timely fashion had continued to cost Barotseland and the entire province of the much sought after chance to “dig ourselves out of the myth associated with extreme poverty”.

They also accused the Litunga of hoodwinking unsuspecting well-wishers to donate huge sums of money and gifts towards the Kuomboka ceremony even when he knew that the event would not take place after all.

The petitioners alleged that the Litunga’s actions bordered substantially on fraud and abuse of authority of office.
They also submitted that the Litunga had neither been in touch with the people nor updated the ever-anxious masses over the Barotseland Agreement 1964 and lamentably failed to seize the rare gesture by the government taking into account the recommendation contained in the interim Report of the Mung’omba Constitutional Review Commission, which provide as follows: “The Government and the Barotse Royal Establishment must show political will to finally resolve the outstanding issue of Barotseland agreement by initiating negotiations between two parties to the Agreement.”

“It is our reasoned view that Edwin Lubosi Imwiko as such reigning Litunga of Western Province has lamentably failed in virtually all spheres of governance; WHEREFORE acting for, and on behalf of more than 90% of the Lozi people have an equitable interest of this matter at heart, DO HEREBY pray this Honourable Court to find in our favour and DECLARE that the said Edwin Lubosi Imwiko voluntarily abdicates, failing which the applicants together with the people of Barotseland be at liberty to invoke options of customary nature open to the Lozi tradition to remove the said Edwin Lubosi Imwiko on the grounds of gross incompetence and abuse of authority of office,” submitted the applicants.