THE mineworkers unions have expressed gratitude to President Edgar Lungu for the manner he has intervened in helping mitigate the impact of job losses among the retrenched Mopani Copper Mines (MCM) miners who have been given some tax relief by Government.

Mineworkers Union of Zambia (MUZ) General Secretary Joseph Chewe said the retrenched miners have all been given some tax relief by the President who has stopped Government from taxing K18, 000 ex-gratia given to MCM employees declared redundant in the wake of the current economic down-turn.

Mr Chewe said this at a MUZ, National Union of Miners and Allied Workers (NUMAW), United Mineworkers Union of Zambia (UMUZ) and Zambia Union of Nurses Organisation (ZUNO) joint press briefing in Kitwe yesterday.

The MUZ general secretary who was giving the routine updates on matters surrounding the affairs of miners, said apart from the pension money of two-month salary pay by the number of years of service, the unions also negotiated for an K18, 000 ex-gratia for each of the retrenched miner, which they had asked to be a stand alone payment.

He said to this effect, the unions asked President Lungu to allow the retrenched miners to be paid K18, 000 without Government taxing the money, as a way of giving the ex-employees some form of relief.

“President Lungu responded favourably to this because he is sympathetic and he has asked the Ministry of Finance to allow the miners to each receive K18, 000 without the money being taxed,” he said.

Mr Chewe said furthermore, the unions, in seeking a sustainable way of assisting the retrenched miners, asked Government to help empower victims of mine redundancies with land for agriculture purposes.

He said the President responded positively to this by directing district commissioners for Kitwe, Mufulira and Chingola to ensure that they identified farming land for the retrenched miners.

“We are grateful that the president has responded to the unions’ cause and the good thing about this is that this will resonate well with Government’s programme for diversification of the economy,” he said.

Mr Chewe appealed to Stanbic Bank to consider having a humane face over the retrenched miners by not subjecting them to a 100 per cent loan recovery.

He was aware that while some banks such as Standard Chartered were doing a 50 per cent loan recovery, Stanbic had opted for a 100 per cent, making some of the retrenched miners go empty-handed.

NUMAW president James Chansa castigated arm-chair critics who have been critical about the interventions put in to help mitigate the impact of the global challenges such as low copper prices on the mining sector in the country.

“The unions have been badly affected because they have lost income and so is Government which has lost revenue in form of taxes,” Mr Chansa said.

UMUZ president Wisdom Ngwira urged all the retrenched miners who would be fortunate to be empowered with land for agriculture to seize the opportunity by making good use of it.

MMD Spokesperson Raphael Nakacinda says assertions that there is confusion in the party are misplaced as the party has moved on from the confusion that rocked the former party during the adoption of the party candidate for the January 2015 elections.

Speaking in an interview Mr. Nakacinda refuted claims that the party leadership had failed to run the former ruling party as it has worked hard to restore order through inclusive dialogue among members.

He explained that the party had made great strides in reconciling the party and that he was happy that their efforts to reconcile had paid dividends as older members have returned and are participating in party programs and working towards wining the next general elections.

“The party was engulfed in confusion during the run up to the last elections as a result of the former President trying to stand on the party ticket that created a lot of uncertainties among members which led to some of our members supporting other candidates during the past election but as a Party we have made efforts in reconciling those members and a lot them have since come back and are even speaking out on behalf of the party.

We are happy to see the likes Honourable Mutati speaking on behalf of the party and continuing to reaffirm their commitment of their membership with MMD.

He reiterated the Party’s desire for unity and reconciliation among its members.

” our desire us a party leadership and the membership across the country is to see that there is unity and cohesion at national level among the leaders and that should trickle down to the grass roots.

We should stop any attempts by either our opponents from other political parties or other stakeholders like the media from creating an impression that there is confusion within the Party.”

He further said the Party will forever be proud of their record as regards to the adherence of democratic principles.

“As MMD we are proud of our record of adhering to democratic principles and any suggestions and view that people my hold that would enhance the chances of MMD in 2016 can only be arrived upon and decided through a democratic process and we will continue as MMD to respect and uphold democratic principles.

” Anybody who attempts to replay the ordeal that we experienced prior to the Presidential by -election and consequences that followed will not be tolerated. Such people will be viciously dealt with by members of our Party who have been injured and suffered a great loss as a result of the confusion created by senior members of our Party. Our appeal is that let us all hold hands together and rebuild our great party. We have no time as elections are around the corner,” he said.

Parliament on Thursday evening passed the Constitution of Zambia Bill Number 16 and The Constitution of Zambia (Amendment) Bill Number 17 when they came up for second reading after heated debates from both sides of the House.

This was after Speaker Patrick Matibini had called for electronic voting shortly after the Parliamentary Committee on Legal Affairs Chairman Cornelius Mweetwa had presented the Committee reports which called for the withdrawal of the two bills as they did not meet the aspirations of the nation.

Mr Mweetwa said the Committee recommended that bills be withdrawn in its entirety to allow for further consultations and areas that need amendment.

But MMD Chief Whip Reuben Phiri Mtolo said the former ruling party has decided to vote for the bills as it will give Parliament a chance to thoroughly debate the draft constitution.

After the debates, 106 MPs voted in favour of the Bill Number 16 while 36 voted against with 4 abstaining.

109 MPs voted for The Constitution Amendment bill 17 of 2015, 35 voted against while two MPs abstained.

Both bills will be taken at Committee stage next week Thursday.

And Justice Minister Ngosa Simbyakula has thanked the MPs for the support and said Zambia is now on its way to having a new constitution.

Republican President Edgar Lungu will tomorrow hold his first press conference at State House. This is according to a statement released to the media and signed by his special Assistant for Press and Public Relations Amos Chanda.

According to the Statement, members of the Press and Diplomatic Corps are invited and should be seated by 11:30.

Below is the full statement

PRESIDENT LUNGU TO HOLD A PRESS CONFERENCE

LUSAKA, (Wednesday, November 25, 2015)­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­——His Excellency Mr. Edgar Chagwa Lungu President of the Republic of Zambia will hold a Press Conference at State House on Thursday, November 26,2015 at 12:00 hours.
Members of the Press and Diplomatic Corps are invited to be seated at 11:30 hours.

________________________________________________________________
Issued by:

AMOS CHANDA
SPECIAL ASSISTANT TO THE PRESIDENT
(PRESS AND PUBLIC RELATIONS)
STATE HOUSE

After waiting for five months to consummate his marriage, a sexually-starved Kitwe husband has sued his new bride for denying him his conjugal rights.
Brighton Kang’ombe complained in the Buchi Local Court that his wife, Melanie Mwanamuvebi, whom he married in June this year, has never allowed him to make love to her.
Kang’ombe told senior local court magistrate Elizabeth Banda that he is fed up of Mwanamuvebi’s lame excuses each time he tries to be intimate with her. This was heard in a case in which the plaintiff sued the defendant for divorce.
“We got married in June this year and everything in our marriage is fine except she denies me my conjugal rights. I have never made love to my wife from the time we got married. She does not even allow me to touch her,” he said.
Kang’ombe said all attempts to persuade his wife to meet her marital obligations have proved futile because she always gives him excuses.
“Each time I try to touch her, she tells me she is menstruating. She will not allow me to touch her even when she is not on her periods. It is not right. And now she has completely abandoned her duties. She has even stopped cooking for me,” he said.
And Mwanamuvebi, who did not object to the divorce, said she can no longer continue being married to a man who disclosed to his relatives everything that happened between them as a couple.
She said her husband told his family that he wanted to marry a woman from his village.
Passing judgment, the court granted divorce and ordered Mwanamuvebi to pay Kang’ombe K4,000 as compensation.

(DailyMail)

Mag44 will be launching his second album titled “Brave Only” .The launch of the 14-track album will take place on December 4 this year at Cresta Golfview from 18:30 hours to 21:30 hours. Tickets are K100 each.
In an interview with the Weekend Mail, Mag44, (Magnus Mando) said over half of the tickets for the concert have been sold out and “preparations are going well”.
The gospel artiste, who is scheduled to perform live on stage with the Elect Band accompanied by opening performances from members of the Lota House music (Pompi, Abel Chungu, Seya, and Tio), urged his fans to turn up in numbers for the “awesome and unique” concert.
Other guest artistes scheduled to share the stage with Mag44 include Tim, Nalu, James Sakala, among others.
“Preparations for the Brave Only album launch concert are well. We initially intended to combine the album launch with the Brave Only book launch but the programme has changed.
Only the album launch will take place for now,” said the Vichani singer, who started working on the Brave Only project last year.
And the 2015 Grove awards Best Southern African Artiste nominee said the album title track Brave Only aims at inspiring citizens to be fearless in their quest to achieve their goals.
“Brave Only is a reminder and an encouragement for people to be fearless as they face life’s challenges. The greatest people in the world are the ones who were fearless and dared to achieve their dreams of contributing positively to society regardless of what they had been going through,” said the music producer who recently released a single dubbed Mwentula (smile).
Other tunes on the Zam-rock sound-inspired album include “I found Love”, “No fear”, and “Tamanga”, among others.

(DailyMail)

BY KAPA187

AN attempt by Fred M’membe to transfer Post Newspaper assets to another company has been blocked by the Zambia Revenue Authority.

According to information availed to the Daily Nation, M’membe intended to transfer the Post Newspaper transport fleet, under the Post Courier Service, a wholly owned Post company, to a newly established company called Makumya Limited.

If this move had succeeded, the fleet of vehicles, plant and equipment and other assets under the Post Courier division would have been put beyond the reach of the Zambia Revenue Authority (ZRA), which is in court demanding tax arrears from the Post.

A search at the Patents and Company Registration Office (PACRA) has revealed that Makumya Limited is owned by Fred M’membe who holds 100 ordinary shares and his daughter Akende M’membe has one ordinary share with Lusaka lawyer Nchima Nchito serving as director and secretary of the company.

The company is housed on the 5th floor of Godfrey House in Lusaka and has an initial investment capital of K10,000.

The company was incorporated on 4th. June 2015.

ZRA has blocked the move because the assets could be out of the reach of the authority in the event that the newspaper failed to discharge its tax liability amounting to K16 million to date.

In addition, there are apparently other pending investigations regarding the operations of the Post Newspaper which the ZRA has been restrained from undertaking because of the order of stay of execution obtained by the Post from the High Court.

The investigations concerning other financial operations of the paper, would be undertaken when the appeal by ZRA to the Supreme Court is allowed.

ZRA is reportedly concerned that the highly indebted Post Newspaper’s plan to move the assets at a time when litigation regarding the assets is on-going, is a scheme meant to escape and avoid settling tax bills to ZRA which have now accumulated to more than K18 million.

In rejecting the Post Newspapers’ proposal to transfer its assets to Makumya Limited, ZRA stated that the Post Newspaper’s transport fleet was part of the assets that the agency could distrain should the newspaper fail to discharge its liabilities.

The Post Newspaper along with its owner Fred M’membe, suspended Director od Public Prosecutions (DPP) Mutembo Nchito and his brother Nchima Nchito’s locked in the K14 million Development Bank of Zambia (DBZ) loan saga which, according to High Court Judge Nigel Mutuna, was obtained by fraudulent misrepresentation.

The Post is currently in court contesting the K16 million ZRA is trying to recover.