President Lungu is during his visit scheduled to hold bilateral talks with his Ugandan counterpart Yoweri Museveni.

According Zambia’s High Commissioner to Tanzania and accredited to Uganda Judith Kapijimpanga told journalists in Kampala today that President Lungu’s visit is important because it will revive relations between the two countries.

Mrs Kapijimpanga said Zambia and Uganda have enjoyed warm relations which need further strengthening.

“We are calling this visit by our president symbolic because it will revive the relations between Zambia and Uganda which had stalled,” she said.

She said Ugandan President Yoweri Museveni last visited Zambia in 2004, while the last Zambian head of state to visit Uganda was president Frederick Chiluba in 1999.

Mrs Kapijimpanga said president Lungu will use his visit as an opportunity to also revive the Joint Permanent Commission between Zambia and Uganda which ceased to exist.

She added that the head of state will also explore other areas of cooperation between the two countries in areas of health, agriculture, education and defence.

“There are intentions to revive the joint permanent commission which has died and we are looking at cooperation in health, education and agriculture.

We also have intentions of our defence collaborating with the military or defence force’s from Uganda,” she said.

Mrs Kapijimpanga said as part of his state visit, president Lungu will visit a drug and chemical factory in Kampala that manufactures Anti-Retroviral drugs.

Copperbelt Minister Mwenya Musenge says that the Patriotic Front (PF) will not condone or support anyone indulging in political violence.

Mr.Musenge noted that the PF wants to promote politics of integrity and ensure that primitive type of politics which involve stone throwing and insults is brought to an end.

He said this yesterday when he paid a courtesy call on Chililabombwe Mayor Paul Kabaswe.

Mr.Musenge who is also PF’s Party Central Committee member noted that the PF as a party in government has serious issues to address such as job creation for the people.

He added that government wants to ensure that the country has improved services in education and the health sector among others.

Meanwhile,Chililabombwe Mayor Paul Kabuswe assured the Minister that the party structure in the District is intact and working hard to grow the party.

And Mwenya Musenge says he is happy that the road works in Chililabombwe district are progressing well.

Mr.Musenge says government through his provincial office remains committed to ensuring that the road network in the country is improved upon as good roads are critical to attracting investors.

He noted in Chililabombwe yesterday that the more investors come to the country the more jobs are created for the people as well as other income generating opportunities.

And Mr.Musenge has noted that government wants to see proper control of trucks at Kasumbalesa border post.

He said this is why the local authority should ensure that the truck parking port is constructed as soon as possible.

The Minister noted that the truck port will also be another opportunity for the council to raise revenue which can be used for other services within the district.

Meanwhile,Chililabombwe Mayor Paul Kabuswe noted that the land earmarked for the construction of the truck parking port has already been cleared.

Mr. Kabuswe explained that the council has submitted its report on the progress made on the project to the Ministry of Local Government and is now waiting for the Zambia Development Agency to carry out the tender process to select a partner for the project.

He said he is hopeful that the process would be done by September or October this year.

And State House sources have disclosed that President Edgar Lungu is considering firing Zambia’s High Commissioner to South Africa Emmanuel Mwamba who recommended the pardoning of General Kanene.

Close family members revealed that Sharon in the company of her Aunt met Mr Mwamba last evening at named Bar in Chawama who offered beer and money to coerce them not to lay charges.

They say that Sharon later returned home very late and took her clothes and her youngest son without disclosing where she was going.

When family members questioned the Aunt who accompanied Sharon to meet Mr Mwamba, she disclosed that Mr Mwamba offered lots of money and arranged a secret hiding place for Sharon until the story dies down.

And information has emerged that Sharon has two children with Kanene who has been constantly abusing her from the time they got married.

Family sources have said Sharon was once a beautiful young lady before meeting Kanene but has been left with a lot of scars due to constant beatings.

They also dismissed as untrue the statement by Mr Mwamba that one of Kanene’s two other wives might have beaten her up.

Meanwhile, pressure is growing on Mr Mwamba after he was blasted by President Lungu for the latest Kanene scandal.

State House sources have revealed that President Lungu is personally upset with Mr Mwamba because he was the one who engineered Kanene’s release.

They said that President Lungu is now seriously considering firing Mr Mwamba for bringing his name into disrepute.

They added that President Lungu is getting tired of ‘cleaning up’ too many scandals by his close officials and did not want to be embroiled into another scandal since he is still dealing with the Kaizer Zulu and Davies Chama scandals.

And The Zambia National Women’s Lobby Board Chairperson Beauty Katebe who had supported Kanene’s release from jail is disappointed with the singer for violently attacking his wife three days after being released from prison.

Mrs Katebe said that it has become apparent Kanene deceived the correctional service into believing that he had reformed and was ready to contribute to society as a law abiding citizen when in fact not.

“Mr. Dimba’s actions clearly show his lack of respect for women which should be condemned in the strongest terms. Mr Dimba has proved to all Zambians that he was not worthy of the prerogative of mercy extended to him by His Excellence President Edgar Lungu as he has not reformed,” Mrs Katebe said.

She has since urged Sharon to report the matter to police and allow the law to take its course.

“We however remain optimistic that citizens who have been incarcerated can reform and therefore should be given an opportunity to prove themselves.”

And Zambia Civic Education Association Executive Director Judith Mulenga said President Lungu must send Kanene back to prison and look for a worthy praise singer.

“If you are an advocacy organisation like us at Zambia Civic Education Association, we call this boomerang advocacy on the part of the President. He clearly miscalculated on his Theory of Change analysis,” Mrs Mulenga said.

“If you are a poet, you would say this is poetic justice has been served on President Lungu. If you were a cynic you would say the chickens have come home to roost. Need we say more?”

She added, “Mr. President, you blundered, period. And we told you that releasing Kanene and making him an ambassador for GBV is going to haunt your Presidency and the haunting has started even before the ink which you used to sign his release has dried!!!”

“If you had read the case record of Kanene you would have seen that he abducted the girl he defiled around midday and she was coming from school in uniform in the company of her friend and a cousin. During trial he composed akasapato whose lyrics mock the whole concept of sex with a child.”

Mrs Mulenga added, Now if I were the President I would have asked myself these questions:

1. Who looks for sex during lunch time instead of lunch?
2. Who finds a girl in primary school uniform sexually alluring?
3. Does a person who can brazenly compose akasapato appreciate societal values and laws that protect children?
4. Does the person understand the definition of GBV?”

Zambia’s High Commissioner to South Africa Emmanuel Mwamba has confirmed that controversial musician Clifford Dimba aka General Kanene’s third wife Sharon was savagely beaten up.

But Mr Mwamba has attempted to link General Kanene’s first wife to Sharon’s beating after he posted on his Facebook page that it is not clear who beat her up between Mrs Kanene (First wife) and General Kanene.

He also stated that the issue which he called a private family tiff has been blown by President Edgar Lungu’s known enemy But what is clear is that, has been.

Mr Mwamba also linked the expose to Hot FM newscaster Hugh Jempa Mpundu and his boss Oscar Chavula for leaking photos showing Sharon with a swollen eye.

Below is Mr Mwamba’s Facebook posting.

THE TRUTH BEHIND THE BEATING OF SHARON NGANDULA (The so called Mrs. Kanene)

On Sunday 19th July 2015 Clifford Dimba picked Sharon Ngandula.

Although Clifford is married, Sharon is the second person he has a child with (and she calls herself his third wife).

Dimba popularly known as Gen. Kanene wanted to verify critical information relating to certain matters.

1. Clifford left her pregnant when he went to prison.
2. He also wanted to establish if the born child was his.
3. He also wanted to establish why she was co-habiting with another man and only left him when she heard that he had been pardoned.
4. Wanted to verify whether she has been living with her mother in John Laing, or at her new boyfriends place in Chawama.

It remains unclear at this stage what happened as the name of Mrs. Kanene (the original Mrs. Kanene comes in the picture).

In the family meeting convened on Monday evening to establish facts and resolve the matter, Sharon’s brother Hugh Japer Mpundu who works for Hot FM is accused of distorting facts and published the picture and story through Hot Fm Proprietor Oscar Chavula.

When pressed to establish who beat her and caused the swelling on her left eye between Mrs. Kanene and Clifford Dimba, Sharon kept on blaming the brother for his opportunistic actions and for taking a picture without her consent.

She insisted that what happened among the three and her relationship with the father of her child is what the family should resolve.

But what is clear is that a private family tiff, has been blown by President Edgar Lungu’s known enemy.

It’s a story whose manufacturers (Hot Fm) wish to target and discredit President Edgar Lungu and his actions.

So the Zambian Watchdog and The Post will celebrate a story of this magnitude will twist and turn the details in gory details to scandalise government decision to pardon Dimba.

But the facts remain:

To date there is no complaint, no victim and no official Police report and no medical record.

Sharon has chosen to remain silent insisting that this matter is private and remains between Clifford, the child between them and herself.

Mr. Sinkamba says in a statement to ZANIS yesterday that Zambian prisons, are among the most congested and unhygienic in the world adding that with the official prison capacity of 6,100 bed spaces, latest statistics show that the country has a total population of 18, 300 prisoners representing a 300 per cent (300%) overcrowding in all the country’s prisons.

In some instances ten inmates share bed-space meant for one. This congestion not only results in overcrowding, but also creates problems of hygiene, sanitation, and general poor living conditions. The conditions are aggravated by the fact over 4,000 or 22 percent of the prison population lives with HIV, he said.

“ The current system does not meet the basic needs of victims. It is a struggle to remain physically and mentally healthy in Zambian prisons, particularly for women and their children. Of the total prison population while 1 per cent (1%) is women while circumstantial children across the country account 0.4% of the prison population, “ said the opposition leader..

Mr. Sinkamba has said that it is commendable that President Lungu pardoned 332 death row convicts by reducing their sentences to life imprisonment saying that this gesture was typically symbolic considering that no prisoner has ever been executed at Mukobeko for the last 18 years (since 1997).

“ However, we plead that the President extends his pardon to women and circumstantial children in prisons whom we believe are more deserving cases than the death row prisoners, “ he said.

On his party’s policy on the matter, Mr. Simkamba said as a result of significant number women enter prisons while pregnant or just after delivery, children are born in prisons or enter prisons to live with their incarcerated mothers thereby rendering them circumstantial prisoners.

“ The children end up being circumstantially subjected to tough prison-life of overcrowding, unhygienic, poor sanitation, and general poor living conditions. It is an extreme struggle for the mothers and children to be physically and mentally healthy. The children have to endure all this tough life for no fault of their own. It is inhuman and unacceptable to keep them is such a state of affairs, “ he said.
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He said his Party will undertake a major review of women’s prisons to change the status quo. “ In this regard, the Green Party plans to support the establishment of ‘Family Houses’ for pregnant women and mothers to ensure good sanitation and hygienic conditions to ensure a conducive environment for infants and young children, “ he said.

He added that his party will provide adequate facilities, including taking into account overseas best practice for the design and management of prisons for women and offer adequate rehabilitation and skill development programmes for women in prisons.

“ We will allow adequate visitation rights for mothers and children, and that these rights ought not be removed as a form of punishment as well as Provide support the establishment of small-scale well-resourced nursery and pre-schools for circumstantial children countrywide, to end denial of early-child education rights for babies and young children in prisons, as a means to intensively address serious problem of circumstantial children prisoners, “ said Mr. Sinkamba.

The miners, who are yet to be retrieved, met their fate on Sunday night when a rock fell on them.

Copperbelt commissioner of police Joyce Kasosa and Mineworkers Union of Zambia (MUZ) acting general secretary George Mumba confirmed the incident in separate interviews yesterday.

Ms Kasosa said the bodies were still trapped underground and would only be retrieved after two days.
She said the incident happened on Sunday around 23:00 hours, about 3,340 metres underground at MCM’s South Orebody Shaft.

She named the victims as mine operators Emmanuel Kyongola of Chamboli, Honest Mushota (Nkana East), Arnold Mambwe and Abel Mutali, workman, of Ndeke township.

“The bodies of the four miners are still trapped underground and are likely to be retrieved after two days,” Ms Kasosa said.

And Mr Mumba said MCM’s rescue team and engineers were working round the clock to retrieve the bodies.

“The mine rescue team and engineers are working round the clock to try and retrieve the four bodies. There were 94 miners on night shift but 90 have been accounted for while four are yet to be accounted for,” Mr Mumba said.

Mr Mumba described the incident as unfortunate.

A check by Daily Mail at South Orebody Shaft yesterday found tight security as arrangements were being made to retrieve the bodies.

POLICE in Lusaka have arrested five boys aged between 15 and 18 years of Kabulonga boys’ secondary school for allegedly taking turns in defiling a 15-year-old girl of Kabulonga Girls Secondary School.

Lusaka Province commissioner of police Charity Katanga said the incident happened at Kabulonga girls’ secondary school on Saturday around 20:00 hours after attending a party.

Ms Katanga said one of the suspects is believed to be the boyfriend to the victim.

“We have detained five boys for defiling a 15-year-old girl of Kabulonga Girls Secondary School,” she said.
She said the boys are in custody while the girl was issued with a medical report form.