President Edgar Lungu is not impressed with the building inspectorate of the Lusaka City Council .

Mr. Lungu has wondered what has happened to the practice of issuing certificates to building plans at every stage of construction.

This was after discovering that the brick wall that collapsed and claimed lives during heavy storms do not meet required standards.

Speaking after the tour of woodlands stadium and a brick wall of Lamasat along Kafue road where three people died, Mr. LUNGU says the situation is a clear act of corruption.

He says it is sad that companies like Lamasat which are reported to be wealthy can construct a wall fence without following proper building procedure.

The President says the company should be prosecuted for constructing a brick wall not meeting the required standards.

Mr. Lungu however says the tragedy should be a wakeup call for the councils to begin valuing lives of people who ushered the PF into office.

The President also visited two houses of mourning one in chilenje where a 14 year old boy died after the brick wall at Woodlands stadium collapsed on him and three of his friends who got injured and another in John Laing compound where two children from the

same family, aged 12 and 9 died when the brick wall belonging to Lamasat collapsed on them.

Mr. Lungu consoled the families appealing to them to put everything in the hands of GOD noting that the development is sad.

He says while government will help the families with funeral expenses, no amount of money or help can bring back the deceased.

Mr. Lungu also checked on Down Town shopping mall where the roof was also blown off during rain storm.

Mall Assistant Manager Emmanuel Bwembya says goods worth millions of kwacha got damaged in the rains but that no life was lost.

Meanwhile 13 out the 14 people admitted to UTH following the rain storm have been discharged.

UTH Spokesperson Mwenya Mulenga confirmed in a telephone interview that the condition of Benedetti ZULU who is still admitted is stable.

Meanwhile government through the disaster management and mitigation unit has taken over the funeral expenses for the people who died in Lusaka when the wall fence collapsed on them following the hailstorm.

A check by ZNBC news found a team of Government officials identifying the affected homes. The team was lead by Lusaka district commissioner, Captain Davies Mulenga.

And father of the deceased, Kennedy Sikota, who commended President Lungu for taking time to mourn with his family, said James was an aspiring footballer whose dream was to play for the national team.

“He was a brilliant boy whose wish was to play for the national team. We are broken as a family over his untimely passing but support from Government will go a long way in easing this burden,” he said.

And Fred Ngoma, one of the survivors who was with James at Woodlands Stadium, said they took shelter by the wall fence when the storm started.

“While we were standing, lightning struck and the wall fence fell on us. James fell on me but I managed to crawl out to a nearby carwash after which I realised that James had remained. We tried to ask the people at the car wash to go back and search but they told us to wait until the rain was over,” a swollen Fred said.
Wincing in pain, Fred said it was then that they discovered that James had been seriously injured from the impact.

In John Laing, father of the two siblings who died at the Lamasat wall fence, Allan Kazemeka, thought his children would routinely come back home only to be told that they had been involved in a accident.

“I rushed to the scene where the wall fence had collapsed on my children. There, I was told that they had been rushed to the hospital, where I learnt they had both died,” the grief-stricken Mr Kazemeka said.
He described his children as industrious, adding that they helped provide for the family with proceeds from the vending business.

“I am, however, grateful to God for sparing the life of my youngest daughter, who crawled under the vegetable table at the time of the accident. She survived because the wall fence fell on the table while her sisters, who were against the wall, were crushed by the blocks,” he said.

Upon seeing the President and his entourage, Mr Kazemeka and his wife Dainess wept uncontrollably, humbled at the presence of the Head of State.

The President consoled Mr Kazemeka and encouraged him to be strong for the sake of his family. President Lungu also counselled the mourners, urging them to take a leaf from the patriarchal Job from the Bible, who drew strength from God when he lost everything he had.

One of the girls’ friends, Anna Phiri, said Florence and Helen, who were jovial, got along very well with her. She said she was shocked at their death and would greatly miss them.

Scores of John Laing and Woodlands residents gathered to get a glimpse of President Lungu and his entourage as he made his way to the funeral houses.

He was accompanied by his special assistant for press and public relations, Amos Chanda, senior government and Patriotic Front party officials.

“THE schemes by the Patriotic Front (PF) to attempt to rig the general elections is a sign that the ruling party has lost the confidence of Zambians and can only resort to electoral malpractice to cling to power, Geoffrey Bwalya Mwamba has charged.

Mr Mwamba whom is UPND vice-president for administration has alleged that some former PF supporters had revealed that the ruling party was encouraging its cadres to obtain more than one voter cards in a bid to rig the general elections.

Mr Mwamba said the ruling party should stop fantasizing that it was going to win the general elections scheduled for 11th August because Zambians were determined to change Government and that the UPND was the only alternative.

He explained that a former PF member who has defected to the UPND had produced three voters’ cards which he acquired illegally.

Mr Mwamba who could not give the name the former PF member said such matters should not go unattended to as it could be seen that the PF had started rigging even before people started voting. He said the Electoral Commission of Zambia (ECZ) had to clarify how it was possible for one individual to have three cards. ‘’ As a party our position would be that we have to petition the ECZ, they need to explain how one person can have three voters cards under one name, ‘’ he said.

THE Patriotic Front (PF) will not allow anyone to coerce or blackmail President Edgar Lungu to nominate a running mate that he would not be comfortable with, Frank Bwalya has said.

And Fr Bwalya has warned party official lobbying traditional leaders and other interest groups to support their candidature as running mate to stop because President Lungu would be allowed to freely choose his running mate.

Fr Bwalya, who is PF information and publicity chairperson, said he was warranted to categorically state that President Lungu would be allowed to freely choose his running mate following the recent manoeuvres by some senior members positioning themselves, motivated by notorious ambition of taking over the Head of State on the PF party ticket.

“Our party acknowledges the dynamics of a running mate who becomes Vice President when his or her party wins the presidential election,” Fr Bwalya said.

Fr Bwalya said PF was conscious of the danger the presidential running mate arrangement could pose in the case where a person with notorious presidential ambition was adopted as running mate.

He said the party would allow President Lungu to freely choose his running mate and that would be a person he would be comfortable to work with.

“Those who are guilty of this behaviour should know that they are wasting their time and that they are effectively eliminating themselves from being considered,” Fr Bwalya said.

He said the party would strongly oppose the nomination of a running mate among those who had exhibiting insatiable appetite for presidency under the pretext of desiring to be vice president.

Fr Bwalya said such people would be a real danger to President Lungu.

“We are aware that one of our members of parliament has even gone further to indicate that he would leave PF and form his own party if President Lungu will not pick him as his running mate. Our message to this ambitious person is that his conduct has already disqualified him,” Fr Bwalya said.

He has since urged all respected traditional leaders not to allow themselves to be used by selfish people whose real aim was the presidency.

“On the contrary our traditional leaders and other stakeholders have a duty to help the president freely choose a person who will not be a danger to his life,” he said.

Fr Bwalya said after winning the forthcoming 2016 general election the PF want President Lungu to govern Zambia and lead it to prosperity without any fear of being harmed by those around him.

T-Sean released the music video for his song “Osoba”. The video was directed by Qbick and Lawdak of NXT soloutions .

BY KAPA187

A light earthquake of magnitude 4.6 struck 31 kilometers from Chirundu this Saturday morning. The epicenter was at a depth of 10 km. The 4.6-magnitude earthquake occurred at 5:05 am (local time epicenter). The tremor was felt in most parts of Lusaka and Southern provinces of Zambia.

The epicenter was 59 km from Kariba, 50 km from Kafue, 77 km from Lusaka, 81 km from Chongwe and 89 km from Mazabuka according to Earthquakes today.There have been no reports of structural damage so far.

Ruling PF Chairman for Media Fr Frank Bwalya has charged that UPND leader Hakainde Hichilema will never become republican President because people from the corporate world do not make good Presidents.

Fr Bwalya said Mr Hichilema should stop misleading Zambians that he will turn around the economy if he becomes President because businessmen cannot make good Presidents.

He said history shows that most people drawn from the corporate world struggle in politics and end up failing to become Presidents.

Fr Bwalya was speaking in Lusaka on Friday when he featured on a special radio programme on Hot FM in response to Mr Hichilema’s own radio appearance on the same station on Thursday.

“This man whom we call Mr Kalusa because he has always been losing elections was here on this station claiming that President Lungu has failed, I am here to tell the Zambians that they should not even pay attention to Mr Kalusa because he is a bitter man who is desperate for power,” Fr Bwalya said.

He added, “Mr Kalusa should forget about becoming President of this great country because the blood he shed after mismanaging the privatisation of this country’s assets will continue crying out to God and God will continue listening to those cries.”

Fr Bwalya said Mr Hichilema cannot make a good President because he is simply a dealer who is only good at selling things.

“This is why God will not allow a dealer to run this country because he will sell everything and give himself a cut, the same way he did with privatisation.”

The outspoken Fr Bwalya lashed out at Mr Hichilema for attacking President Lungu’s abilities to manage the country.

“On this same programme, Mr Kalusa was busy mocking President Lungu that he cannot manage the economy because he has never managed any business. You see, the programme with this man is that he is always motivated by profits. All he knows is to sell and earn a profit and this is why God doesn’t allow business men to rule nations because they are profit motivated,” he said.

“This is why God will not allow a dealer to run this country because he will sell everything and give himself a cut, the same way he did with privatisation.”

On the constitution amendments, Fr Bwalya said Mr Hichilema is being very ungrateful for stating that President Lungu has failed to give Zambians a people driven constitution.

“If a parent promises a child a number of items before going to boarding school and when school opens, the parent manages to give the child 80 percent of the items promised due to hardships and when the child reaches schools, he starts speaking ill about the parent and when the school authorities call the parent to inform them that the child was insulting them because he didn’t receive 100 percent of the items promised, the parent would feel so betrayed, I guess this is how President Lungu is feeling when he reads such comments from Mr Kalusa about the constitution.”

Fr Bwalya continued, “Mr Kalusa’s altitude can be compared to Umwana wa ndoshi (Child of a witch) because Umwana wa ndoshi eushitasha (A child of a witch is the one who doesn’t appreciate). With Mr Kalusa, everything that President Lungu does is wrong and this is why he will continue losing elections.”