Government has liquidated about K130 million owed to various contractors since November last year.

Housing and infrastructure development minister, Ronald Chitotela said government owed contractors about K190 million as at November 1 last year.

Mr Chitotela assured that government government is expected to clear the remaining K60 million by end of February this year.

ZANIS reports that the minister said this in Ikelenge district yesterday when he, accompanied by provincial minister, Richard Kapita, inspected Mwinilunga-Jimbe road and government housing units for Ikelenge district.

Mr Chitotela said government committed to open up the border between Zambia and Angola and exploit the potential trade opportunities between the two countries.

And Mr Kapita said government is determined to demonstrate commitment to deliver development to all parts of the country.

He said at the same event that people are now able to see that government means business and not merely making promises.

Mwinilunga-Jimbe upgrading project to bituminous level was awarded to FRECA mining at a total cost of 105 million United State of America dollars.

FRECA contracts manager, Vennie Tilimboyi assured that the company expects to upgrade the road to bituminous standard by the end of this year.

Mr Tilimboyi further said that they aim to completed bush clearing up to Jimbe in a week’s time.

Another case of spousal killing has been confirmed in Lusaka where a 22-year-old woman was stabbed to death by the boyfriend after a dispute on Sunday night.

This brings the number of such murders to two one night after businessman Reeves Malambo had his life cut short by the girlfriend after a dispute.

In the latest case, police say Raphael Mumba aged between 22 and 24 is reported to have stabbed to death his girlfriend identified as Stella Moonga aged 22 of Kaunda Square stage 1 and her son identified as Mark Mumba aged 1 year 8 months after a quarrel.

Police Spokesperson Esther Mwaata Katongo said this happened on 29 January, 2017 at about 19 30 hours in Lusaka’s Kaunda Square.

“The victims were stabbed several times using an unknown sharp instrument and they sustained deep cuts on the bodies,” Mrs Katongo said.

“The accused person is currently on the run and a man haunt has since been launched while the bodies of the victims are in UTH mortuary.”

–Authorities at Chikankata mission hospital have made a passionate appeal to Government to come to the rescue of the institution which gets cut off from the rest of the country once it rains.

Mission director Frazer Chalwe says the mission which also host to the nursing training school, the Biomedical training college and the secondary school cannot be accessed by road once it rains as vehicle get stuck on the road.

He said transportation of emergency referral cases  from the hospital to the University Teaching Hospital in Lusaka is currently impossible as the ambulance gets stuck in the muddy and slippery gravel road owing to the deteriorated condition.

The mission director said operations of the hospital have been seriously affected by the worsened state of the Kasamu-Chikankata road.

He was speaking when southern province minister Edify Hamukale visited Chikankata mission  to familiarise himself with the challenges the institution is facing.

“We are further disturbed that the contractor who was engaged by government to work on the road has demobilized without any  explanation”, he told the minister.

And Dr Hamukale who was accompanied by provincial permanent secretary Sibanze Simuchoba acknowledged that  road is in a disgraceful state and that government is not happy with the situation,

He said he will immediately engage higher authorities because the road does not only link the Salvation Army church run mission but is also servicing a huge number of farmers who are involved in production of high value crops such as irish potatoes.

“As your number one servant in the province, I will do my best to bring your issues to government. This is indeed a worrisome situation which cannot be allowed to continue,” said Dr Hamukale.

The African Union has congratulated President Edgar Lungu for his re-election in the 2016 general elections at the official opening ceremony of the 28^th ordinary session of the African Union today.

And the African Union has also applauded Zambians and its leadership for the continued peace that the country has enjoyed for a long time now.

ZANIS reports that Chairperson of the African Union Commission Nkosazana Dilamini Zuma recognised and hailed President Lungu in her opening remarks during the official opening of the summit.

And President Edgar Lungu has held talks with the President of Togo Faure Gnassingbe in Addis Ababa Ethiopia.

The two leaders met on Monday and exchanged ideas on various issues affecting their countries.

President Lungu said Zambia has for a long time depended on copper as its main economic activity but now is diversifying the economy to other areas such as agriculture.

The President proposed an agenda which would look at ways in which both the Togolese and Zambian business men and women, technocrats and government officials can share notes.

He said the move will open up new economic investment opportunities and expand those that are already in existence.

President Lungu called for the two countries to cooperate and strengthen their relations for the benefit of the people in the two countries.

He said he was looking forward to meet with the Togolese President to discuss how best the two countries can exchange notes  to push the development agenda forward.

 “We also want our people to also come to Togo and explore possible areas of investment, because as government we don’t create jobs we just provide land, policy guidelines and law. I don’t see why outsiders should invest in Africa we can have Zambians invest in Togo and the Togolese people to invest in Zambia. And I think this is the way we should build our pan Africanism” said President Lungu.

He said Zambia has had challenges in the energy sector owing to its dependence on hydro powered electricity hence the country is now exploring the area of solar energy

And President Gnassingbe told President Lungu that his country wants to learn more from Zambia in the energy sector especially solar energy.

He said the rate of access to electricity in Togo was as low as 36 percent in urban areas and six percent in rural areas.

“We want to learn from Zambia in the solar energy because most people in the rural areas have no access to electricity,” he said.

President Gnassingbe said the only way Togo can improve access to electricity and agriculture activities was through solar energy and that half of the power comes from Nigeria and Ghana.

He added that his country is also into mining phosphate and lamented that the prices of the mineral on the world market fluctuate.

President Gnassingbe said his country like Zambia is also exploring the idea of diversifying into the agriculture sector and that his country depends more on integration with other countries

President Gnassingbe said he wanted Zambia and Togo to exchange notes and learn from each other on how to harness a vibrant civil society which can work with the government without necessarily undermining the authority of the state.

He pointed out that African needs to reach a consensus on how to deal with certain issues

The Togolese President told President Lungu that West African countries such as Mali, Niger Nigeria, and Chad face a lot of security challenges.

President Gnassingbe said if left unchecked all the resources channelled towards development would go towards addressing issues on security.

He said he also wanted to learn more from Zambia on the issues of private and public sector development as governments can only provide an enabling environment and a good framework.

President Gnassingbe said the move may result into job creation for the people of the two countries.

President Lungu is the current chairperson on the Security Council of the African Union

A Lusaka businessman has become the latest victim of a spate of love/hate murders that have hit the country in the last 12 months.

Reeves Malambo aged 48 of Ibex Hill  and owner of Autoforce, was allegedly stabbed  at the back side of the upper part of the body using a knife by his alleged  girlfriend  identified as Shabu Benos aged 38 also of  Ibex Hill

Police spokesperson Esther Katongo said the incident happened in the early hours of Monday and died from excessive bleeding.

“We recorded a case of murder which occurred today on 30th January 2017 where a male adult identified as Reeves Malambo aged 48 of Ibex Hill was allegedly stabbed at the back side of the upper part of the body using a knife by his alleged girlfriend identified as Shabu Benos aged 38 also of ibex Hill,” Ms Katongo said.

The victim was is alleged to have been stabbed during a fight which happened on 29th January, 2017 at about 2300 hours.

Circumstances that led to the stabbing are unclear, but its believed the two had a dispute over night.

There are several men who have recently lost their lives at the hands of girlfriends or wives.

Most of the bushmeat from poaching is sold out of the area as people interviewed indicated that 85 per cent of their food supplies was sourced from crops and not wildlife.

73 per cent of poachers use military firearms while 13 per cent used wire snares. It had been established that poachers access of firearms both legally and illegally.

There is also illegal hunting which is also conducted by licensed hunters. Licensed hunters harvested twice as much as the allocation of the quota. This had been attributed to monitoring which had been compromised due to poor salaries which were also irregular.

Despite the poachers indicating that the risk of being arrested was high, actual arrest were low.

Poached meat was mostly traded in Copperbelt, Livingstone and Lusaka. Other contraband go as far as neighboring countries such as the DRC where demand was very high.

Despite consumers being aware that most bush meat was illegally sourced and associated with health risks, they had continued consuming it.

And the in another development, DNPW has since normalized the issue on operational funds to allow a team from the Department had travelled to check on the rhino’s that were being brought in from Zimbabwe.

Police public relations officer Esther Katongo said the officer, identified as Sergeant Katontoka, has been charged with discreditable conduct under the Police Act.

Ms Katongo said a tribunal would soon be set up to hear the case, and disciplinary action may follow.

She said the misconduct is not dismissible but the tribunal may recommend that Mr Katontoka be demoted, or that he forfeits half of his salary to the State.

The tribunal may also either verbally admonish him or give him a written warning.

Ms Katongo, however, said for now Mr Katotoka would continue working.

The video that showed Mr Katontoka dancing in his police uniform while pumping his fist in the air and displaying a PF T-shirt worn under his uniform shirt did rounds on social media last week and elicited an immediate reaction from police, who condemned the behaviour.

Meanwhile, MONICA KAYOMBO reports from Ndola that police have recovered a body of a man believed to be in his late 30s or early 40s who is alleged to have taken his life after losing his job.

Copperbelt commissioner of police Charity Katanga identified the man as Christopher Mulenga of Lubuto township in Ndola and that the corpse was picked from his vehicle on Friday.

“The deceased is alleged to have committed suicide after he lost his employment. His body was discovered on Friday in his Toyota Hiace registration number ACX 5514 at 14:00 hours on President Avenue,” Ms Katanga said.

She said the deceased worked for a named pharmacy in town but lost his job after he recorded a loss.

Ms Katanga said Mulenga’s body was discovered with some white foam on his mouth near a car park opposite Zambia Revenue Authority offices.

She said preliminary investigations indicate that Mulenga went into depression and behaved strangely after losing his employment at the pharmacy.

Police assistant public relations officer Levy Lilanga said in an interview yesterday that lack of complainants coming up to testify is negatively affecting the investigations.

“No victim of the alleged sexual abuse has come forward to help with investigations and this is what is affecting the investigations though they are ongoing,” he said.

He appealed to victims of the alleged sexual abuse at the police college to come out in the open so that the truth is known.

Mr Lilanga said that once the victims turn up, then investigations would go on smoothly and the truth may be known.

Recently, Minister of Home Affairs Stephen Kampyongo said Government had instituted investigations into alleged sexual abuse.

An unnamed retired officer claimed on social media that he slept with hundreds of female police trainees.

Mr Kampyongo said he had continued receiving queries and phone calls regarding the claims, adding that allegations and innuendos that were being peddled concerning the alleged sexual abuse at the police college were meant to destroy the credibility of the police training college.

He said that it is surprising and dramatic that someone can come out in the open and confess to be a molester and abuser.

“We shall get back to the public and inform them about the outcome of this investigation. And we are not going to spare those behind the wrong if it is found to be true,” he said.