B Flow released the video for his song  “MAMA (Genesis Of My Story)” Directed by Adam “bttags” Battaglia and Stacy Fong From Hollywood, Joel ‘DMV Tatoos’ and George Okudi From Washington DC, QBick, Lawdak (N.X.T Solutionz) and Terence “Pictures” Sampa from Zambia.

“Losing a mother is the most painful experience ever, especially after you work so hard in order to make her life better than before. Every mother deserves to enjoy and celebrate the successes of their children. So what is success if it cannot be shared with our mothers?”

Zambia Red Cross Society has continued to receive refugees in need of humanitarian assistance from the Democratic Republic of the Congo.

In the Month of January 2017, the National Society has attended to about 54 asylum seekers in Mpulungu, Kaputa and Nsumbu transitory camps while Kipushi, Kakoma, Chiengi, and Nchelenge transitory camps have recorded none. The majority of the asylum seekers recorded in the month of January are coming from South Kivu and Katanga region of the Democratic Republic of the Congo. The National Society has since repatriated all the 54 asylum seekers received in the transitory camps to the main refugee camp in Meheba.

Since December 2016, the National Society has been providing humanitarian assistance that includes Food aid and Non Food Emergency Response Materials such as blankets, mosquito nets and immediate medical support to the refugees in the transitory camps before they are taken to the main refugee camps.

The National Society remains on high alert in all seven entry points bordering the Democratic Republic of the Congo to render humanitarian assistance to in-coming refugees before they are finally taken to designated refugee camps.

The National Society is working with the Government of the Republic of Zambia and the United Nations High Commission for Refugees (UNHCR) to effectively render humanitarian support to asylum seekers.

PRESIDENT Lungu says some people are mischievously using his name to intimidate permanent secretaries into doing wrong things and has warned that he will disown such controlling officers.

The President said out of fear, some controlling officers have made wrong decisions which are against the law and regulations.

“Several people have made decisions in my name against the law fearing that the President will fall on them like a tonne of bricks. I am not that type of President because I know what is good and what is wrong,” President Lungu said.

He said this at State House yesterday after swearing in eight controlling officers.

Those sworn in are Mushuma Mulenga as national coordinator, private sector development, industrialisation and job creation at Cabinet office; Juliana Chilombo as permanent secretary, parliamentary business division in the office of the Vice-President; and Dick Shichembe as Accountant General at the Ministry of Finance.

Others are Ministry of National Development Planning permanent secretary for development planning and administration Chola Chabala and Ministry of Tourism and Arts permanent secretary Liya Mutale.
The rest are Commissioner of Lands Wilfred Muma; Copperbelt permanent secretary Elias Kamanga and Northern Province permanent secretary Jobbicks Kalumba.

President Lungu said some people falsely tell controlling officers that he had issued instructions, and out of fear they (controlling officers) implement wrong decisions.

He advised them to simply look at the rules, the constitution, financial regulations and all the relevant statutes and the policies that Government has made.

“The buck stops at you. When auditors come, it is you they query. So, reflect and cross-check. If I want to give you instructions from State House, I will call you and interface with you and say this is how I feel it should be done.

“Don’t let the name of the President make you tremble and do wrong things because I don’t instruct anyone to do wrong because I know the law,” President Lungu said.
The head of state advised permanent secretaries to cross-check things and even tell their ministers what the rules say.

“I am holding you accountable. If anyone does something wrong in a ministry, the buck stops at you. Even your ministers tell them ‘sorry honourable minister, the rules are these’. You can only go that far.

“Provide leadership. So help us to provide the best for this country. Zambians are not wrong to have trusted PF. We won three times in five years. We have won elections because people have confidence in us and I also have confidence in you. If you let me down, I will let you down. You have been hired and so you can be fired. Place yourself in a position of relevance and do the right thing,” President Lungu said.

And the head of State has urged controlling officers to be courteous to people.

He said good manners are also part of good leadership.

“Please be nice and courteous to people. Be kind. Even the letters that you write, use polite words. Be civil. We are where we are because of them. You shut the door in their faces, bang the phones on them, that is not good,” he said.

Meanwhile, Mr Kamanga has praised President Lungu for appointing young people to leadership positions.

Mr Kamanga said his appointment as permanent secretary consolidates President Lungu’s vision for the youth.

He was speaking in an interview at State House shortly after being sworn in.

“Young people are no longer leaders of the future. We are leaders of today. Even my minister (Bowman Lusambo) is a young person. This solidifies President Lungu’s belief in young people,” Mr Kamanga said.

He said the Copperbelt is important to Zambia and the President has appointed young people to head it.
“President Lungu has done what many Presidents have not done – to believe in young people,” Mr Kamanga said.

Home Affairs Minister Stephen Kampyongo says work permits given to expatriates were brought in by investors to train Zambians hence the halt.

ZANIS reports that Mr. Kampyongo says the process had been abused as some ‘ unscrupulous ‘ Zambians connived with some investors beyond the stipulated period of the permits.

A Committee has since been put in place to re-organise to ensure that the abuse of the permits was eradicated.

The Minister said this in Pretoria, South Africa when he addressed diplomatic staff.

Mr. Kampyongo said the measure was meant to increase the availability of employment opportunities and empower Zambians who were able to take-up positions that had been unduly awarded to expatriates.

“ The renewal of work permits for expatriates would remain suspended while a framework that would benefit Zambians was being devised, “ said the minister.

He affirmed and is determined that the decision is observed in ensuring that there were no more excuses from companies to have their expatriates handover positions to their understudies after the conditional period expired.

Mr Kampyongo said he has had prior consultative meetings with various stakeholders before the decision was finally made.

He directed that officers enforce it for the betterment of the Zambian people.

“We have talked about empowering Zambians for a long time and it’s now time we were practical. We must walk the talk. It is so unfortunate that we’ve had some Zambians colluding with investors and in the process disadvantaging skilled Zambians,” the Minister sounded.

This is contained in a statement issued today by Press Secretary at the Zambian High Commission in South Africa,Nicky Shabolyo.

Meanwhile, The Minister has disclosed that President Edgar Lungu has constituted a new Citizenship Board mandated to start looking at processing of applications for dual citizenship.

Mr. Kampyongo said following inclusion of the Dual Citizenship clause in the new Republican Constitution, appropriate amendments have been made to the Act governing this provision so that it could be operationalized while procedures were being worked on.

He said a Statutory Instrument to this effect will be issued soon.

Mr. Kampyongo said priority would be given to Zambians who had lost their citizenship by virtue of acquiring citizenship of other countries through various ways such as marriage or birth.

“We are now set to start looking at applications and have come up with procedures for this process which we will share with all our mission abroad as well as other stakeholders,” he said.

The Minister further announced that Government has introduced a new digitalized issuance system of national registration card (NRC) to be piloted in Lusaka, Chongwe, Kafue and Chilanga districts.

The new system requires NRC applicants to input their biometric data and stored at a central computerized location.

He said the aim was to turn the National Registration Office into a reservoir and a national data collection Centre which will take stock of all citizens’ statistics.

He said the new system once fully implemented would help deal with weak security features on various Zambian identity documents.

On the common between Zambia and Zimbabwe, the minister revealed that a new visa, known as the Kaza UNIVISA has been introduced to allow tourists to travel with a single document in the neighboring countries adding that this was pegged at US$50.

The Kaza UNIVISA project had been piloted prior to introduction and the two countries were satisfied that this was one of the tools through which tourism could be marketed.

In another development, the Minister has taken a swipe at Mazhandu Bus Services management for allegedly exhibiting lack of seriousness in observing safety measures.

He said Company has experienced a lot of road traffic accidents in the last few months when other transporters such as Euro Bus Services which has been in operation for a longer period have had far less road traffic accidents incidences.

Zambia’s High Commissioner to South Africa Emmanuel Mwamba commended Mr. Kampyongo for finding time to brief staff on policy developments in his ministry.

Mr. Mwamba said there have been a lot of immigration issues affecting Zambians in South Africa and that the meeting with diplomatic staff was timely.