PRESIDENT Lungu has commended National Assembly for voting for the Constitution of Zambia bills, saying the constitution is an important document that should have national consensus.

President Lungu has also promised that should there be sufficient consensus for progression on the Bill of Rights, he will call for a referendum.

Special assistant to the President for press and public relations Amos Chanda told journalists at the Presidential guesthouse in Kitwe yesterday that President Lungu applauded Parliament for the vote because the constitution is an important document which should be driven by national consensus.

“The President wishes to place on record that the constitution is an extremely important document upon, which the country is governed and in recognition of that, the President continues to assure the promises he has been making regarding giving the Zambian people a people-driven constitution,” he said.

“The President had promised that the people of Zambia would get what they want.”

Of significant note in the constitution, he said, was the passing of the majoritarian principle of the 50 percent-plus-one winning threshold for the winning presidential candidate, the running-mate clause, which he said would create stability and also assure continuity in the event one President does not continue.

Mr Chanda said President Lungu continues to promise and assure the nation that when there is sufficient and progressive consensus on the Bill of Rights, he will deliver a referendum because that part of the constitution cannot change without a referendum.

“So the President wishes to congratulate the members, [including] those who voted against, that parliament has passed a constitution therefore the President wishes to congratulate the National Assembly for this remarkable development that has happened, it will ensure stability and unity of the nation,” he said.

And Local Government Minister Stephen Kampyongo has said that the PF government has finally honored its promise of delivering a people driven constitution to the masses.

Mr. Kampyongo said that the adoption of clauses such as the 50 plus 1 percent clause, running mate and dual citizenship is critical for the country’s good governance.

He has told ZNBC News that while the process faced a lot of challenges including doubts and suspicions on government and the President, the PF remained steadfast and engaged MPs from the opposition MMD and some from UPND as it does not meet the two-thirds majority votes required.

Mr. Kampyongo thanked the MMD MPs and leadership for having looked at the document beyond partisan lines.

He also thanked the opposition UPND for having stayed throughout the night from 14hrs yesterday to almost 10hrs today when parliament adjourned.

The Minister said that while the UPND was not in favour, their participation throughout the night is also a sign of being a part of the process.

And MMD National Secretary Mwansa Mbulakulima said that his party is not ashamed to have supported the move taken by parliament contrary to what some people may think.

Mr Mbulakulima said that the MMD has been consistent on the constitution making process.

He said the adoption of the 50 plus 1 percent clause will bring a totally different landscape to politics in the country.

Meanwhile, a Lusaka Clergyman Jevan Kamanga has hailed government for supporting the constitution making process to its logical conclusion.

Reverend Kamanga has also thanked MMD parliamentarians for supporting the process in Parliament.

He has appealed to citizens to remain calm as they await Presidential assent.

Parliament has since adjourned sine die.

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Addressing a media briefing in Lusaka this morning, MMD President Dr. Nevers Mumba notes that the outcome in Parliament this morning is due to sustained pressure on the PF to at least give the Zambian people clauses which would assist in ensuring that the next election is conducted in an atmosphere of expanded liberties.

Dr. Mumba says his party supported the parliamentary route using common sense, stating that the nation would not have attained the victory of the 50 percent plus one vote clause and presidential running mate clause had his party not supported the process.

Dr. Mumba says he is delighted that as a party they remained focused and consistent and provided direction and sense of clear purpose in making history to enact clauses that Zambians have looked forward to over a very long period of time.

He cited some of the clauses he says were close to the hearts of the MMD as 50 % plus one, presidential running mate, dual citizenship, strengthening of the Auditor General’s office to effect prosecutions of erring civil servants, mandatory national debt contraction through parliament and the prevention of parliamentary defections and crossing the floor in an effort to bring order to the house.

The Members of Parliament had to debate the constitution bill the whole night into today following a motion moved by Vice President for the house to adjourn sine die upon completion of all business on the order paper.

Members of Parliament voted 111 to 37 for the constitution amendment bill to be read the third time around 08:15 hours this morning.

They also voted in favour of having the Constitution of Zambia Bill read for a third time.

The house had earlier voted to remove the article on provincial assemblies, marinating clauses such as the 50% plus one vote threshold for a winning presidential candidate, the running mate and dual citizenship among others.
And Parliament has passed the K53.14 billion 2016 national budget.

The house has since adjourned sine die after marathon proceedings which started yesterday at 14:30 hours until this morning at about 09:43 hours.

United Party for National Development(UPND) President Hakainde Hichilema has issued a statement in response to Patriotic Front (PF) take on his solutions to deal with job losses due to mines scaling back.

Wednesday, PF said that the announcement by Anglo America to lay off 85 000 workers had exposed UPND leader, Hakainde Hichilema’s lies and deceit about his plans for the mining sector.

PF Information and Publicity chairperson, Frank Bwalya said that Zambians now know that Mr. Hichilema lied when he promised miners on the Copperbelt that Anglo America will save their jobs once he is voted into power.

Father Bwalya said it was sad that Mr. Hichilema’s continued attribution of the loss of jobs on the mines to President Edgar Lungu’s leadership.

He challenged Mr. Hichilema and the Post Newspaper to tell Zambians if Mr. Lungu is also the President for countries where Anglo America will lay off workers.

Father Bwalya advised the opposition leaders to stop misleading Zambians because no amount of deceit will hoodwink citizens to vote for them.

Anglo America had announced that it will downsize its workforce from 135 000 to 50 000 due to drop in commodity prices.

Below is Mr Hichilema’s response to Father Bwalya’s statement

OFFICIAL STATEMENT

UPND restates strong commitment to mine workers and suppliers

It has been drawn to our attention that certain individuals are spreading malicious rumours regarding our reaction to recent layoffs in the mining sector and our proposed intervention after the people of Zambia elect us into office in 2016.

Rather than waste further time bemoaning the vicious insults from Government and the PF cadres we want to take this opportunity to restate our position and our strong commitment to the affected workers, contractors and suppliers.

Simply put the recent layoffs are a tragedy. There is no cause for celebration by anyone. Each and every worker that has lost their job has numerous dependents, and coming at a time when the price of bread has doubled in just a few short months it is clear that many families are now facing extreme hardship. Let us draw a parallel, whereas the US just created not less than 200,000 jobs as more than 10,000 of our miners were losing jobs. We will try to put this into perspective, a miner supports 5 other people in their house hold, a job loss for a miner immediately consigns 5 people to poverty, essentially 50,000 plus people on the Copperbelt have lost a source of livelihood.

While it is clear that lower copper prices have presented a challenge to copper mines in recent months, we have to ask ourselves why it is that companies are choosing to cut back or close their Zambian operations specifically. There are two key factors in this equation: firstly, the electricity crisis, and secondly, government interference. And this is a fact, Chile whose economy could be said to also be copper dependent has not had a single mine close operations. They have not cut down half the production like what has happened in Zambia. Chile projects 6 million metric tons in 2015, they have cut back that production to 5.94 million, where as Zambia projected 900,000 but have cut back to 441,000 due to cost of doing business driven by bad and inconsistent fiscal policies.

The PF has been in government for four years and in that time we have seen four different mining tax regimes. You do not have to be an economist to see that changing the tax regime willy nilly is bad for business. It is also symptomatic of a broader lack of direction and haphazard approach, which isn’t good enough and arguably is an insult to those employed in the sector. What is even worse is threatening private capital every time they make a business decision. Imagine you are selling fritters by the roadside, and every time you increase prices, the Government threatens you, would you be safe and confident of such a Government?

The failure of the PF to identify the looming electricity shortfall before its onset, acknowledge the causes of the crisis, or manage and communicate a sensible load shedding schedule have increased costs for the mines. This is an obvious problem at a time of low prices. Business goes through cycles but we should understand that it’s incumbent upon Governments to ameliorate tough times when business hits turbulence and not kick them further down by holding back their VAT refunds, money they would have used to maintain the fired miners.

After four years of PF government it is the above is the situation we find ourselves in; so the question becomes what would we do differently? Here is a breakdown of how the UPND would seek to protect our workers and businesses that operate in the sector:

Repair relationships – The only way to deliver sustainable growth of the sector, and thereby protect jobs, is through constructive engagement with mining companies, unions and contractors. That means listening with an open mind, consulting extensively before changing the rules and regulations, regular communication with the various parties and not responding with empty angry threats at the first sign of trouble. This is what we are doing in February 2016 during the Mining Indaba in Cape Town.

Create a competitive environment – We can protect our own mines by ensuring they are more competitive. This means addressing the current electricity crisis and learning from what other countries are doing to attract investment even at times of low prices. It also means regulatory stability, as even before the recent fall in prices we have seen investment decisions postponed that could have created more jobs due to the uncertainty. As PF is issuing threats they have no time to listen to the mining houses on the cost structure which has led to job losses.

Protect our workers – Thousands of Zambians work in the mining sector, and thousands more depend on the income of a relative who works in the sector including children and vulnerable people as we have stated above. These people need a Government that prioritises their jobs, ensures adequate support systems are in place and that has contingency plans for various price scenarios.

Build up reserves – The PF has failed to use the time of high prices to build up reserves to be used at times of low prices. It is well known that commodity prices are cyclical and that there will therefore be times of high prices and times of low. To not plan for this is extremely short sighted.

Diversification – By diversifying our economy we can reduce our reliance on mining, meaning that if the industry contracts Zambian workers and businesses have other opportunities open to them. In the current situation we already have high levels of unemployment but if we can stimulate growth and investment in areas such as tourism, agribusiness and retail then opportunities for workers to re-train or suppliers to themselves diversify will increase.

A final few words of advice to our colleagues in the PF: how many more times do we have to say it? If you focus as much time and energy serving the people of Zambia as you do slandering your political opponents then, with a bit of direction, progress can be made. But ultimately the perfect description of the PF approach is this “If the only tool you have is a hammer, all problems will look like nails!” So it is with the PF that all they have to offer as solution to our challenges are political manoeuvres, such as preventing freedom of movement and slandering political opponents, when in fact what Zambia needs now is good economic management.

Hakainde Hichilema
UPND President

“Together We Can”

It’s Friday and that means its cheat day; and what better way to cheat than with a decadent and utterly scrumptious Chocolate cake. This cake doesn’t need much of an introduction – chocolate cake, is chocolate cake.  It’s rich, flavoursome, sweet, and literally melts in your mouth, but don’t take my word for it; try it yourself.

Preparation: 30min| Baking: 20min| Ready in: 50min 

Serves: 10 

Ingredients

For the chocolate cake

• 3 large eggs
• 175g self raising flour
• 175g caster sugar
• 175g softened butter
• 1½ level tsp baking powder
• 40g cocoa powder

For the buttercream icing

• 85g butter
• 175g icing sugar
• 2 tablespoons cocoa powder
• 1 tablespoon milk

Method

Combine the flour and cocoa powder.

Preheat the oven to 170 ?C / Gas 3. Grease and flour two 8 inch round cake tins, or one 3 inch deep, 8 inch round cake tin.

Put all of the margarine and sugar into a large mixing bowl and cream them together with an electric mixer until the mixture is pale, creamy and fluffy.

Crack one egg into the margarine/sugar mixture. It is important that you do not over whisk at this point; use the mixer on its lowest setting until the egg is just mixed in. Repeat this process with the second egg and then the third egg.

Sieve the flour-cocoa mixture into the mixing bowl, gradually.  Give the mixture a quick stir with a wooden spoon; then turn the mixer on and mix everything together very well.

Divide the mixture evenly between the two tins. Bake in the preheated oven for about 20 minutes. To make sure the cake is cooked completely, insert a knife or tooth pick through the centre of the cake, if they come back clean then the cake is done. Remove the cake from the oven and let it cool on a cooling rack.
Whilst the cake cools, make your buttercream icing; mix the butter and icing sugar well until smooth.  Add in cocoa powder and milk and mix again until smooth; once the cake is cool, spread over your light and sweet buttercream icing; and decorate with chocolate sprinkles if you’d like.

Serving

Chocolate cake always goes down well with a hot brew, but if you want something other than tea and are feeling extra adventurous, then enjoy it with a hot mug of cocoa – every chocoholics dream.

Kanta Temba is a cake maker and decorator. She is also the owner and founder of Kanta Kakes – cake shop.

You can find her work on www.kantakakes.com.  Follow her on twitter @KantaKakes and Instagram @KantaTemba.