MORE than 3500 retirees from various Ministries have dragged the Attorney General to Court for nonpayment of their terminal benefits amounting to K 10,000,000.

This is a matter where Bornwell Katita Kamoya and 3523 were claiming the said monies following a consent judgment entered in their favour by the Supreme Court.

They contended that according to the signed consent order between the plaintiff and the Public Service management Division under the Ministry of Justice, tabulation of released funds, they were expected to be paid K 10,000,000 by July 2009.

“To date we have not been paid anything, we were granted a number of claims among them costs arising from the court proceedings, but to no avail, there was a purported payment of K 10,000,000 but that is not a correct position,” they said.

The plaintiffs said they had worked for several years and spent other years in pursuing the matter further in court through hiring various lawyers due to the Ministries reluctance in paying them their dues.

That a team of accountants from the Ministry of Justice, Public Service Management Division, Cabinet office, Ministry of Justice and Ministry of Transport Works and Communications was constituted to produce a report on the same.

The plaintiffs indicated that the released report showed that they were paid in July but was refuted and were now claiming the same because there were no records at any Ministry to show proof that they were paid.

They were also asking the Court to grant them any other relief that the court may deem fit as well as interest at the current bank rate.

President Edgar Lungu has conferred Justice Minister Ngosa Simbyakula with the status of State Counsel (SC).

President Lungu has also conferred lawyers Mutemwa Mutemwa, Willy Mubanga and Michael Musonda with the status of State Counsels.

Meanwhile, Ministry of Foreign Affairs Permanent Secretary Chalwe Lombe has been conferred with the status of Ambassador while High Court Judge Martin Mwanamwalye has been promoted to the position of Deputy Chief Justice.

Dr. Simbyakula, Mr. Lombe, Justice Mwanamwalye, Mr. Mubanga, Mr. Mutemwa and Mr. Musonda have since been sworn in.

Speaking during the swearing in ceremony at State House in Lusaka today, President Lungu said he has no doubt that those sworn in will work according to the expectations of the Zambian people.

He pointed out that those sworn in today have been entrusted with and ushered into the high positions and must therefore serve diligently.

And President Lungu said government has consulted widely on the constitution making process.

He expressed optimism that the great team from the Judiciary will give guidelines and direction concerning the constitution process.

President Lungu has further appointed David Matongo as a member of the Electoral Commission of Zambia (ECZ) while Mr. Jeffrey Simukoko and Nixon Banda as members of the Judicial Complaints Authority.

Four suspected criminals believed to be Zambians have been gunned down at Tuduma in Tanzania by the Tanzanian police during an exchange of heavy gun fire.

Both Tanzanian police and Muchinga Deputy Commissioner of Police Peter Bubenshi have confirmed the incident in an interview with ZANIS at Tuduma today.

Mr. Bubenshi said the four suspected criminals were gunned down at about 11:00 hours yesterday when they staged a day-light robbery at beer depot located at Songea about 6 km inside Tuduma town from the Zambian border town of Nakonde.

Mr. Bubenshi said Tanzanian police have since recovered 400,000 cash Tanzanian Shillings equivalent to K1.6 million, an AK 47 Rifle and a Semi Automatic Machine Gun (SMG).

One of the deceased suspects was also found with a ticket for a Zambian bus operating between Lusaka and Nakonde which showed that he arrived in Nakonde in the morning yesterday and allegedly took part in staging the robbery.

The bodies of the four suspects are lying at Tuduma mortuary awaiting further investigations.

Meanwhile, a team of Zambia Police officers from Chinsali has arrived at Tuduma Tanzania for further investigations.

Mr. Bubenshi said the team will be in Tuduma working with the Tanzanian police to ensure that the case is fully investigated and the source of fire arms traced.

We, as the Green Party, are extremely disappointed with the manner in which Information Minister Chishimba Kambwili has handled the employer-employee relationships at ZNBC in the last week which resulted in the suspension of a union leader Martin Maseka. Since the root cause of the disturbance specifically relates to collective bargaining, industrial relations, and social security laws, we would like to appeal to Labour Minister Fackson Shamenda to immediately intervene and resolve the impasse.

Further, we urge government to immediately suspend the Director General Richard Mwanza so as to facilitate investigations of alleged abrogation of the collective agreement and misappropriation of monies.If the PF government is serious with fighting corruption and promoting good governance and transparency in public institutions. Furthermore, we urge the Anti-Corruption Commission (ACC) and Anti-Money Laundering Unit of the Drug Enforcement Commission (DEC) to move in and investigate alleged misappropriation of workers’ pension funds by ZNBC Management.

We believe that the workers have a cause to protest since management decided to unilaterally delete or remove some of the conditions of service from the collective agreement. If proven, this constitutes a grave breach of labour laws. Instead of intimidating and persecuting the workers, it is therefore imperative that Government lends them an ear. In a democracy a government should be sensitive to workers distresses.

Secondly, the workers allege that management has not accounted for the monies deducted from earning to pay Zambia National Building Society, which has resulted into some employees facing legal action. This is a very serious corruption and money-laundering allegation which warrants prompt proactive investigations by ACC and DEC. We hope that the two institutions have already moved in to investigate the allegations.

Peter Sinkamba
President
Green Party of Zambia