At least seven people died on the spot around 19hrs last night after a truck laden with cement hit into a stationary Toyota Hiace minibus which was offloading passengers at Kashitu area near Kapiri Mposhi.

The dead include the bus driver, women and children who met their fate on their way from Ndola.

The accident happened when a fasting moving truck belonging to Dangote Cement Company rammed into the stationary mini bus.

Kapiri Mposhi Fire Brigade and Traffic Police officers rushed to the scene of the accident to remove the dead from the wreckage

Earlier, the truck hit the rear of a black Toyota Altezza car registration number ACX 1747 forcing the small vehicle to overturn several times.

The driver of the Altezza, a Reverend Kangwa Mabuluki of the United Church Zambia in Lusaka, escaped unhurt.

Narrating the ordeal, Rev Mabuluki said he was lucky to be alive and that he had fastened his seatbelt.

The truck driver survived but escaped the scene, leaving his passenger lifeless.

And Dangote Industries Zambia has released the following statement

Dangote laments tragic loss of life in a road traffic accident and conveys condolences to the bereaved families

Lusaka, Zambia – Wednesday, 04 August 2016 – Dangote Industries (Zambia) Limited is deeply saddened by the tragic road accident that occurred last night involving one of our trucks and two other motor vehicles near Kapiri Mposhi. The incident is regrettable and we lament the loss of life of 8 people. The loss of one life is a loss to many. We convey our profound condolences to the bereaved families and wish those injured a speedy recovery.

We are co-operating with the Zambia Police and other traffic regulatory bodies in their investigations of the incident in verifying the facts of this unfortunate accident.

The safety of individuals is our number one priority. The company has developed safety measures for all our employees in their line of work. Dangote is committed to collaborative efforts that can reduce fatalities and injuries and continues to work with licensing boards, regulatory boards and the like to seek ways to promote safety in all spheres of our business.

NOT A single ngwee from Government coffers has been diverted for ruling Patriotic Front campaigns and some senior members of the party have dug into their pockets to fund the exercise, says PF secretary general Davies Chama.

Mr Chama has revealed that PF central committee member and Minister of Finance Alexander Chikwanda and other senior members of the party have actually been depositing their own money to the party accounts for campaigns ahead of next week’s general elections.

Mr Chama was rubbishing a phone recording published by the Post Newspaper on Saturday suggesting that Mr Chikwanda had been diverting Government resources into the party through the office of the PF secretary general.

He said those who were accusing Mr Chikwanda and himself of diverting Government resources into PF coffers for campaigns were free to visit the Office of the Auditor General for inspection as it was a public office.

Mr Chama said whenever Mr Chikwanda deposited money from his own pocket into the party account, he always called him (SG) informing him that he had deposited money into the party account.

“When I took over the office from Mr Wynter Kabimba all the accounts were depleted. We had to start looking for ways of raising resources for the party. I remember we organised a fundraising dinner in the UK when I just took over and all the resources realised from that dinner was deposited into the donors’ account for the party,” he said.

Mr Chama said since he took over from Mr Kabimba all the party branches abroad had embarked on fundraising ventures in their respective countries and started depositing money into the party’s donor account.

“We have never taken any single dollar from Government coffers and the Office of the Auditor General can attest to that,” Mr Chama said.

He said being experienced, Mr Chikwanda understood well that ministers were not signatories to ministries’ bank accounts.

Mr Chama said permanent secretaries and directors in the ministries where the ones who were signatories of Government bank accounts.

He said the Patriotic Front was a big organisation with a membership of over one million people from different walks of life and everybody had been donating to the party.
Mr Chama said during the on-going political campaigns a lot of donors had approached the party with sponsorship.

“In fact Mr Chikwanda has been using his own personal money just to see that the PF wins this year’s general elections. He has been a Member of Parliament for five years under the PF and throughout he has been contributing his resources obtained from the National Assembly through gratuity.

“Even other Members of Parliament have been contributing their gratuity to the party; Cabinet ministers have also been making contributions to the party,” he said.

Mr Chama said whenever Mr Chikwanda and other senior members of the party deposited their contributions into the account they always called him to remind him that they had pumped in resources.

Asked whether he had issued an official complaint to law enforcement agencies that his phone was tapped, Mr Chama said he had been consulting on how he would go about it.

The Media Institute of Southern Africa (MISA) Zambia Chapter has received with concern the report of a brutal attack on a New Vision Newspaper Journalist Elijah Mumba by a named UPND cadre in Chainda on Wednesday.

It is disheartening that Police clearly showed lack of will to act despite the dire condition in which Elijah was, bleeding profusely after being hit with a brick on the head forcing onlookers to come to his rescue.

The incident adds to the long list of brutal attacks against journalists during the election period in which Police have acted at a snail’s pace to effect arrests or effectively process such reports.

MISA strongly cautions the Zambia Police service to act in a professional manner and not contribute to the erosion of the little faith Zambians still have in the Police service.

We also challenge Police inspector-general, Kakoma Kanganja to immediately institute disciplinary measures against the negligence displayed by the Police officers at the Police post in Chainda where the matter was reported by Mumba as he bled profusely.

We call on journalists at the New Vision Newspaper and other media outlets to remain steadfast and not to be discouraged as the role of journalists is crucial at such a time when the national goes to the polls.

MISA has since engaged the New Vision Newspaper and will announce the way forward as will be agreed with the newspaper in order to deter would be offenders.

Journalists should be left to perform their duty of informing the public without such draconian hindrances as the political violence witnessed in a country that claims to espouse the values of democracy.

Similarly, journalists must conduct themselves above board to ensure their credibility and objectivity do not come into question as this is critical to fulfilling their role in society.

May we reiterate that the classification of an election as being free and fair also depends on the level of media freedom and freedom of expression which are currently under threat in Zambia as evidenced by the restriction of fundamental freedoms, closure of newspapers seen to be critical of the state, abuse of the public media, persecution of journalists and political violence to mention a few activities as documented by MISA.

The institution has since alerted several election observer missions over this imminent threat to the holding of a free and fair election.

The Lusaka City Council in the small-hours of today demolished more than a dozen illegally built houses in Kabwata constituency’s Lilayi area, reports Pan African Radio Journalist Hermit Hachilonde.

One of the affected residents identified as Isaac Chinga has leveled allegations against Patriotic Front (PF) Deputy Secretary General Mumbi Phiri as masterminding the demolitions because after she visited the area last week the Council demolished the accommodation units.

“Mumbi phiri is the one who sent council to come and demolition our houses” he said

Meanwhile, incumbent Kabwata Member of Parliament (MP) Given Lubinda expressed ignorance about the development when he was contacted for a comment because he is not currently serving as area lawmaker and he cannot meddle in the operations of the Lusaka City Council.

“I don’t know what is happening Hermit, am going there to find out, as you know am no longer MP and council is working independently now” Lubinda said

But independent Kabwata parliamentary aspiring candidate Clement Tembo has accused the Honorable Given Lubinda that he has a hand in the demolition of houses in Lilayi because he has realized that he will not retain the seat.

He added that on that score Lubinda has resorted into indirectly de-campaigning President Lungu in Kabwata constituency.

“He has realized that he has lost elections and he want to reduce votes for Edgar Lungu in kabwata constituency” Tembo said

And Given Lubinda has dismissed the accusations from Mr. Tembo, describing him as unwise and dishonesty person.

He said Tembo has fabricated numerous stories not in favor of him to woo voters and now people have known the real clement who cannot be entrusted with the affairs of the constituency.

“He is a silly boy who have lied ten times against me” Lubinda said

Efforts to get a comment from lusaka city council public relations officer Mulunda Habeenzu proved futile by press time as his phone number was unreachable.

Workers at leading chain store Shoprite in most parts of the country have gone on strike, forcing the firm to close.

A check at Manda Hill, Chilenje and Cairo road found protesting workers outside chanting anti-management slogans.

A few workers who spoke on condition of anonymity said working conditions in Shoprite almost to modern day slavery.

They revealed that some them received as low as K800 depending on the hours they work and that majority of the workers at most Shoprite store take home a paltry K1,200.

A female employee said, “We do a lot of work here. There is exploitation of workers in Shoprite but we are paid peanuts. These people are making a lot of money but they pay us poorly.”

“I work at the till and on average I make K60,000 per day but imagine the fact that Shoprite Manda Hill has over 20 tills and they all make the same per day. How much money do you think these people make? And yet they still pay us peanuts.”

The workers appealed to President Edgar Lungu to intervene and direct Labour Minister Fackson Shamenda to take to task Shoprite management’s failure to implement salary increments that were agreed up last year after another strike action.

And PF Media Committee Member Sunday Chanda has accused UPND President Hakainde Hichilema of being behind the latest strike action at Shoprite.

“We know that HH owns shares in Shoprite and he is working with management to offer slave wages to Shoprite workers in order to force them to down tools. Once that is done, HH hopes to gain political capital from this situation,” Mr Chanda said.

“As the PF we are hereby challenging Shoprite Zambia General Manager Charles Bota to come out clean and deny the political hand from HH in this strike. We as PF know that this action is political because of HH’s share ownership in Shoprite,” he said.

When reached for a comment, Mr Bota refused to issue any comment.

INFORMATION and Broadcasting Services Minister, Chishimba Kambwili has said the public media have the power to cover all the political parties but that censorship is crucial in giving the readers the correct information.

Dr Kambwili said although the public media had been given the authority to cover opposition political parties, it was important to censor the information that would be disseminated to the public to avoid raising alarm.

Dr Kambwili was reacting to an online article attributed to Catholic Diocese Bishop of Mongu Evans Chinyemba, where he stated that the public media only spoke for the party in power.

Dr Kambwili said the Government respected the people’s opinion and it had strived to allow all political players to be given fair coverage, which was evident through the various programmes and articles being aired and published on opposition parties.

“We have given the public media power to cover anyone regardless of what party they belong to, but what is important is that those in the public media must be able to differentiate sense from nonsense as they decide on what stories to publish. Some political leaders issue alarming statements and I don’t think it is in the interest of Zambia for public media to carry alarming statements that have no justification,” Dr Kambwili said.

“What we have told media heads is that they should operate independently, but they should analyse the information they are channeling out to the general public. We have tried by all means and have told media heads that everybody must be covered. Everyone is covered in the public media, when you open the papers you find a story about the opposition, so what more do they want?”

Dr Kambwili said there was need for those accusing the public media of being biased in their reporting to note that President Edgar Lungu was not only a party leader but a Head of State, hence there was need to draw a distinction with other opposition presidents.

He cautioned heads of public media to be careful about what information was published as certain statements issued by some political parties were alarming and were not in the best interest of Zambia.

Meanwhile, Dr Kambwili has declared that the Copperbelt and Luanshya District in particular is still the Patriotic Front (PF) stronghold.
The minister said looking at the mammoth rallies that President Lungu held during his two-day campaign visit to the Copperbelt, the ruling party was headed for another victory next week.
“We have scored 10 out of 10 on the campaign and I think we have shamed the opposition who claim that they have infiltrated the Copperbelt. The province still remains the stronghold of the PF. You don’t blow your own trumpet, but I think the results will show, but I can rest assure the President that we have no competition in Roan and Luanshya constituencies,” he said.

A civil society organisation in Kasama district says it is very unpatriotic for some politicians to be influencing people not to vote ‘YES’ in the referendum.

Jesuit Centre for Theological Reflection (JCTR) regional coordinator for Northern Province, Felix Chiwela expressed disappointment that some politicians were telling people not to vote ‘Yes’ in the forthcoming election.

Mr. Chiwela told ZANIS in Kasama toady that the referendum would benefit every ordinary Zambian if it goes through hence the need not to politicise it.

He observed that if people reject the referendum now, it will greatly cost the nation in future as government will spend a lot of money to start organising for another referendum.

Mr. Chiwela also urged people to realise that the country will still be compelled to go for a referendum should they try to shun it now.

He further called on all patriotic Zambians not to listen to selfish individuals but to look at how it will cost them huge amounts of money which should be channelled to other developmental activities.

Mr. Chiwela disclosed that JCTR has gone round in all the districts in Northern Province sensitising people and traditional leaders on why they should vote ‘yes’ in the referendum.

He further called on people to turn out in large numbers and vote in the general elections which will be held alongside the referendum on 11th August next week.

And The Human Rights Commission (HRC) has said the Bill of Rights being proposed was progressive as it aims at enhancing the economic and social rights of the citizens.

HRC Principle Planning and Collaboration Officer Lisbon Chaamwe said unlike in the current bill of rights which contains the political and civil rights, the proposed bill includes the economic and social rights of citizens.

Mr. Chaamwe said the inclusion of these rights in the constitution will guarantee protection of their human rights to health, decent housing and food among others.

He explained that the commission has not taken a position on the matter but was encouraging citizens to read and understand the content of the proposed bill of rights as they go to vote in next week’s referendum.

The HRC is on a sensitization mission in Solwezi, Kasempa, Mufumbwe and Mwinilunga districts in Northwestern province.

And Richard Kayoyo, a resident of Solwezi, said the inclusion of economic and social rights will enhance the enjoyment of human rights as they will guarantee the protection of every citizen.