Health Professions Council of Zambia ( HPCZ) Public Relations Officer Terry Musonda says his organisation is determined to ensure that health training institutions in the country admit only qualified students for training.

Mr Musonda says this was why the HPCZ in conjunction with the examination Council of Zambia (ECZ) has commenced the verification of grade Twelve general certificate of education.

The verification is intended to ensure that qualified applicants in pursuit of careers in the health professions have the right grade twelve certificates.

Mr Musonda noted that after the verification, it was revealed that there is a lot of cheating some applicants who get enrolled with fake Grade Twelve results.

He also warned parents to learn to verify with the Health Profession Council of Zambia before going ahead allowing their children to enrol in schools which are fake and end up wasting their money.

Mr Musonda said health profession is one which is sensitive and as such should only admit those students who have the right qualification to train as health personnel.

The Justina Mutale Foundation, a brainchild of Justina Mutale, African Woman of the Year 2012 and Global Ambassador for Gender Equality at the International Women’s Think Tank, has partnered with the European School of Economics (ESE) to offer Business and Leadership Scholarships; and also with Rai University of India, to offer STEM Scholarships (Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics) to academically talented underprivileged young women from Zambia and other African countries.

“We all need to acknowledge that our Governments do not have all the answers, nor the requisite resources to solve the problems that our countries face regarding educating our youth, especially our young women and girls”, says Justina Mutale

Recipients of the ESE Scholarship would be able to study International Business and Leadership at any of the six ESE campuses in different cities including London, New York, Madrid, Florence and Rome. Rai University has several campuses in India, including Ahmedabad and Bangalore, at which Scholarship recipients can study STEM subjects.

“Our scholarship programmes aims to give young women from Zambia and the rest of Africa an opportunity of a lifetime. Cross-cultural learning and studying abroad can be transformative to one’s future and outlook on life”, says Ms Mutale, who is lending her name to the Scholarship Programme.

The first Zambian recipients of the “Justina Mutale Scholarship” will be identified within the next few months to prepare them to take up their studies in at Rai University in India and at the European School of Economics in Italy, in August and October 2016, respectively.

“We want to make the world a better place and this is why we are very much interested in educating people. We cater for both women and men at our school. We need to have leaders in all the fields that can change the world”, says Professor Elio D’Anna, ESE Founder & President.

Justina Mutale said this special scholarship has been founded to equip women with practical skills, knowledge and information to bridge the gender gap. The high poverty levels in Zambia and the rest of Africa have contributed to the low number of female students in universities and colleges. She said the scholarship would help women acquire tertiary education and prepare them to take up leadership positions to help Africa realise the aspirations of Agenda 2063 and the Global Goals for Sustainable Development (SDGs).

“We believe in the power of women uniting and uplifting the world. This is why we are focused on educating and giving the girl-child the necessary education to empower them to become effective world leaders”, said Dr Harbeen Arora, female Chancellor of Rai University.

The Justina Mutale Foundation will be assisted in administering the Scholarship Programme by Diaspora for African Development (DfAD).

“As African Diaspora development activists, despite our awareness that the changes we aspire to see on the continent might not come to pass in our life time, we have willingly accepted our responsibility to make the necessary sacrifices required to plant and nurture the seeds that will foster this change for the next generation”, Says Chibwe Henry, DfAD Founder & CEO.

THE Young Women Christian Association (YWCA) has expressed concern over the increasing reports of young girls carrying alcoholic beverages in their drinking bottles when going to school.

YMCA Copperbelt regional co-ordinator Sharon Chisanga said in an interview yesterday that so far her office has received 15 cases of young girls drinking beer at school.

“One of the parents came here to report that their daughter came back home drunk from school. We did an investigation and actually found out that there are a lot of girls who carry alcohol to school in their drinking bottles,” Mr Chisanga said.

She urged school authorities to be vigilant and monitor the activities of pupils in school.

Ms Chisanga also appealed to parents to check what items their children carry to school.

Deputy minister for Commerce, Trade and Industry Raymond Mpundu says regime charge will not solve the country’s economic woes.

Mr. Mpundu says the electorate must not be hoodwinked by the opposition that the charge of government will solve the country’s economic woes.

He said the PF government under President Edgar Lungu and his predecessor late Republican President Michael Sata has performed exceptionally well.

The Deputy minister was speaking at the handover of 1, 951 pieces of furniture worth about Six Point Seven Million kwacha ( K 6.7 million ) to Kashita Secondary School in Nchelenge District of Luapula Province yesterday.

Mr. Mpundu, who is also Nchelenge Constituency PF Member of Parliament, said the economic challenges in the country is global and cannot be blamed on President Lungu and his administration.

The global economic meltdown and volatile climate conditions have not spared major economies citing South Africa as one example adding that Zambia is enduring this blatant reality, he said.

“ It will be folly and hash for the Zambian people to judge the PF government in comparison with past governments that the country has had because of different economic climates, ‘ said Mr. Mpundu.

He noted that the first republican President Kenneth Kaunda ascended to the highest office of the land when the Zambian currency had comparable advantages with the world’s major currencies because of competitive copper prices.

The Nchelenge lawmaker said the unstable copper prices and the volatile climatic conditions are at war with the good policies of the PF government and President Lungu’s administration.

Mr. Mpundu urged the people of Zambia and Nchelenge in particularly not to be swayed by political opportunists ahead of the 2016 general elections.

He said the Zambian people must be alive to these realities and give President Lungu and his team another five year mandate in order to grow the country’s economy.

United Party for national Development (UPND) national chairperson Mutale Nalumango has rubbished reports of a rift in the party and that she was ever talked down by a Senior UPND official.

Reacting to rumours created by her absence the press briefing which was attended by Mr Hichilema, his deputy Geoffrey Mwamba and former Commerce minister Bob Sichinga as well as other senior party officials, Mrs Nalumango said it was normal for her not to attend every press conference the party held.

She said she could not make it for yesterday’s briefing but would be present at the next briefing.

Mrs Nalumango said what mattered was that she was a senior member of the UPND and had her duties to perform and that speculation about her being ‘‘dressed down’’ by one of her colleagues were unfounded.

“It is normal for me not to attend every party event or press conference. If one was called tomorrow, you will definitely see me. So it is not correct to impute that there are problems in the UPND and your speculations are certainly unfounded.

“Whatever you are insinuating are your own imaginations. For me what is important is that I am UPND and I will remain so,” Mrs Nalumango said.

The Daily Nation recently revealed that Mrs Nalumango was verbally abused by a senior leader of the UPND and even threatened with physical harassment at a national management committee meeting, the story she said was not true.

THE absence of UPND national chairperson Mutale Nalumango at a press briefing to welcome defectors yesterday led to people to suspect the insults she endured from a top party official recently could have been the cause.

Mrs Nalumango was last weekend allegedly “dressed down” in the party’s management meeting when she questioned why a named top official was dissolving grassroots committees and putting in place new ones without her knowledge as a chairwoman.

A UPND official who attended the press briefing but sought anonymity said Mrs Nalumango’s absence at the press briefing yesterday gave an idea of the tension between her and her fellow senior party member.
The official said Mrs Nalumango as party chairman was rarely absent during such important events of receiving new members.

“Was Mutale there? What does that tell you? Because you know Mrs Nalumango is always present at such events,’’ the official said.

He said the apparent ‘‘animosity’’ between the two senior members had become a source of concern to UPND president Mr Hakainde Hichilema as he did not know how to deal with the situation.

“The situation is simmering but it is still under the surface, you cannot see it. It is now bottled up. Everybody is cagy and people are just watching each other now. It is very worrying especially for Mr Hichilema as president,’’ the source said.

The official said it was worrying that the party had not taken any measures to reconcile the two parties.