President Edgar Lungu has revealed that Zambia lost an average 276,021 hectares of forests per year between 2000 and 2014 due to forestation.

President Lungu attributed the high rates of deforestation to agricultural expansion, uncontrolled wood fuel and timber extraction, bush fires, mining and infrastructure development.

He said he is also aware that there is a lot of illegal harvesting of timber across the country resulting in reduced forest cover.

President Lungu said destruction of forests, coupled with excessive settlement and other human activities, lead to uncontrolled severe soil erosion, high sediment load and subsequent siltation of hydroelectric dams and decreased river flow.

President Lungu was speaking in Lusaka during the National Tree Planning ceremony held at Kabulonga Girls High School.

“If we harness this resource properly, it is capable of creating wealth and jobs for our citizens particularly the youth. we will therefore, as a responsible government, pursue this path of development through both internal and external avenues,” he said.

President Lungu said government is committed to ensuring that the country’s forests are well conserved for them to become a viable resource for the country’s socio-economic development.

“It is for this reason that my government adopted the national forestry policy in October, 2014 and the Forests Act no. 4 of 2015 was also enacted to ensure effective implementation of this policy. The new policy and legislation provide for the establishment of private and community forests,” he said.

President Lungu said government’s position is to promote value addition in order to avoid export of unprocessed and semi-processed timber.

He said this will significantly contribute to wealth and job creation and consequently improving the living standards of our people.

“In this regard, for us to promote forest conservation and reduce the pressure on forests as a source of wood energy, we must encourage the use of alternative domestic energy sources and sustainable charcoal production techniques. I wish to direct the ministry of lands and natural resources to ensure that all timber extraction and other forestry-related activities are conducted within the provisions of the forests act of 2015. perpetrators of illegal forestry-related activities must be brought to book,” he said.

“Let me underscore the need for to take keen interest in environmental protection by planting trees at least one tree every year. Let us get involved: the youth, women, men, that chief executive, that minister, that member of parliament in planting a tree today.”

PF National Chairperson Dr Ngosa Simbyakula has urged PF members across the country to work hard in popularising the development agenda of the ruling party so that Zambians can appreciate it and choose to support the party.

Dr Simbyakula who was speaking this morning at a meeting at Fringilla in Chibombo district as part of the PF Secretary General’s tour of Central province stressed the need for effective strategies to make PF attractive in areas where it is not strong.

“We can stay in power for a long time and change the lives of our people and the face of our country.

But for us to succeed we need to devise strategies to make our party not only attractive but effective in delivering development” said Dr Simbyakula.

And speaking at the same meeting which was attended by PF officials from the two constituencies of Chibombo district namely Katuba and Keembe, PF Secretary General Davies Mwila guided the officials on how to fill positions that fall vacant in the party structures.

“If a position falls vacant for any reason including disciplinary reasons before the next party elections, such vacancy should be filled by those in the immediate lower structure” said Mr Mwila.

He warned against picking people outside structures to fill vacant positions.

He urged the members to learn something from their failures and move forward in strengthening the party.

Young Women Christian Association (YWCA) regional President Phosile Sichinga has said it is illogical to publish the Auditor General’s Report without action.

Mrs. Sichinga said the Auditor General has been publishing reports since the Movement for Multi-party Democracy (MMD) usurped power in 1991 adding that the environment is enabling all the irregularities.

She has noted that each year the Auditor General highlights increased anomalies in public offices because culprits go scot-free.

Mrs. Sichinga has urged all well-meaning Zambians to unite and ensure that the institutional Governance system pursue the disturbing Auditor General’s Report with intense interest.

“It is illogical to publish the Auditor General’s Report without action” Mrs. Sichinga said

The United States Ambassador to Zambia Eric Schultz yesterday paid a courtesy call on Information and Broadcasting Services Minister Hon. Kampamba Mulenga in her office at Government Complex in Lusaka to discuss various governance issues.

The matters discussed during the meeting included press freedom, digital migration, media capacity building and the role of the media in national development.

In her welcome remarks, the Information and Broadcasting Services Minister and Chief Government Spokesperson said Government under the leadership of His Excellency President Edgar Chagwa Lungu, values a free press.

Ms. Mulenga said Government recognises the role that a free press plays in national development.

Ms. Mulenga said Government will soon bring both Government and Privately owned media to a round table to dialogue on how the media in the country can play its full and rightful role in national development as well as national reconciliation.

“As Government, our mandate is simply to promote press freedom so that the media operates freely. We have levelled the media playing field and we will soon be having an indaba where we will call all media in the nation to discuss the role that the media can play in this environment,” said Hon. Mulenga.

The Minister called on the US Government to assist Zambia in building capacity amongst media practitioners.

On Digital Migration, the Minister said Government was making steady progress in its quest to complete the second and third phases of the migration process within the next 18 months.

Ambassador Eric Schultz stressed the significance of a free press in a democracy.

The Ambassador said the media have an important role to play in bringing people together to foster national development as well as national reconciliation.

He said the US Government is keen to supplement Government’s efforts in building capacity in Zambian media practitioners for purposes of fostering national development and national reconciliation.

“We have observed that some journalists in some media outlets lack Journalism skills. We have assisted the Zambian Government in the past to build capacity in media practitioners and we would like to continue along this path so that the Journalists can continue to gain the necessary skills to contribute effectively to national development,” said Ambassador Schultz.

Ambassador Schultz also commended Zambia for maintaining its status as a beacon of peace and democracy in Africa.

The Competition and Consumer Protection Commission says it has noted with sadness that schools have continued to force parents and guardian to only buy school uniforms from them at exorbitant prices.

The Commission says it has continued to receive complaints from some members of the public on this not only unfortunate, but also unfair practice.

“We therefore, wish to echo and reiterate our warning to such schools who have taken the law upon themselves to be engaging in unfair trading practices that exploits the consumers that we are actively investigating such issues and we will follow them accordingly,” says Commission Spokesperson Namukolo Kasumpa.

“It has also come to our attention that some schools are also tying school places to buying of the uniforms at the same school, a situation which is unfair and against the law as it limits consumer choices.”

Mrs Kasumpa said this behaviour by schools is uncalled for, and is tantamount to unfair trading practice.
“According to the Competition and Consumer Protection Act No. 24 of 2010, any institution or individual found guilty is liable to pay the CCPC a fine not exceeding ten percent of that person’s or enterprise’s annual turnover. What makes a sad reading is the fact that this trend is being perpetrated by school authorities, who should be custodians of the law, taking advantage of consumer’s desperate situations to engage in limiting consumer choice,” she said.

She warned that the Commission will not allow this situation to continue as it is likely to cause inflation of uniform prices and reduce consumer choice, while on the other hand it excludes other alternative sources that provide similar uniforms.

“This practice if allowed to continue, is likely to frustrate Government’s efforts to provide cheaper, affordable or free education as pupils are more likely to be turned away from the school if they do not buy the uniforms from the school. The Commission is aware that uniforms need to be standards and therefore schools should provide a general standard of what type, shade and color of uniforms that are required, and ensure that school children conform to the standard of uniforms as guided by the school, whilst allowing parents and guardians to purchase uniforms from other sources that produce similar uniforms and most likely at competitive prices.”

“The Commission, therefore, requests the perpetrators to immediately desist from such vices and appeal to affected members of the public to report schools involved in this practice to CCPC,” she says.