President Edgar Lungu has pardoned jailed musician Clifford Dimba, alias ‘General’ Kanene, who was convicted of defiling an underage girl and sentenced to serve 18 years.

The President said this is in exercise of the powers vested in him by Article 56 of the constitution of Zambia.

The President said this when he toured and commissioned the procured Agricultural equipment for the Zambia Prisons Service at Mukobeko Maximum Security Prison in Kabwe today.

The Head of State has urged General Kanene to be an ambassador in the fight against Child defilement.

Moba Hotel General Manager Ronald Ngosha also refuted reports that there was gun fire and tear gas at the hotel to disperse PF cadres who attacked Mr Hichilema and his team who were residing at the hotel.

Mr Ngosha said he has not received any reports of disturbances at the hotel on Wednesday evening.

He said what is true is that some PF youths had assembled at the hotel but were quickly pushed out of the premises without causing any damage to the hotel.

Mr Ngosha said all the doors and fittings ?at the hotel are in place and no damages have been recorded.

Meanwhile, Copperbelt Police Commissioner Joyce Kasosa says she has not received any reports of disturbances at Moba Hotel targeted at Mr Hichilema and his team.

On his Facebook page, Mr Hichilema has narrated how known PF cadres attacked him and his delegation at Moba Hotel which led to live ammunition and tear gas being fired.

Mr Hichilema said the hotel corridors were full of tear gas as PF cadres aimed at killing him and members of his delegation.

Dear fellow citizens,

It is high time we clearly defined the type of country and society we are shaping for ourselves now and for future generations.

While we were in Luapula, and North Western Provinces thanking voters, we kept receiving very disturbing but credible reports that we would come under heavy and deliberately sponsored attacks by very well known political competitors who dished out huge amounts of money to a few jobless youths in some areas, especially on the Copperbelt.

Unfortunately, the nature of our tours are such that before we conduct these tours and interactions with our fellow citizens, we inform local law state enforcement agencies to provide security for our meetings and also as a requirement under the archaic Public Order Act.

It is now increasingly becoming clear to us that this same requirement is now proving to be the same source of danger to our lives and political situation and national stability because our competitors now use this information to sponsor and arm jobless youths in these areas to harm us.

We were humbly welcomed at Simon Mwansa Kapwepwe International airport in Ndola with multitudes that were eager to hear our messages of hope and alternative economic recovery policies.

We proceeded to Kitwe where we inspected our newly opened party secretariat.

And true to the reports we were getting, our entourage that included journalists and officials, came under severe and savage attacks and beatings by ironically the same known people and identities we were being told had been sponsored by key PF officials.

They came with all sorts of dangerous weapons clearly with the intention to cause maximum harm.

A few people were injured and thank God we survived after they were repelled by our sympathisers and security team.

Later we proceeded to Kitwe Show Ground where we held a very successful meeting and were joined by more than 5000 new members from other political parties, something that was very humbling to us.

Later in the evening, we had scheduled for a live interactive radio programme on Chengelo Radio station where we wanted to share our ideas and alternative economic policies with our fellow citizens and also equally hear their concerns so we could address them.

We were again informed that our advance team at the radio station was being attacked so we could not feature for the radio programme. Our local team demanded for an all outright fight so we could feature at all costs but I personally intervened because life was more precious and hence no need to shade Zambian blood.

To our surprise, the sponsored attackers followed us to Moba Hotel where we were residing and taking a rest and the premises became a battle ground with live ammunition being fired right inside the hotel corridors.

Our rooms were full of teargas until the attackers were eventually overpowered and guns were confiscated from them.

This situation coming at a time many families are facing depressing times due to economic challenges that needs urgent address is very unhealthy in our young democracy.

One would have thought such a scary movie like situation would be a battle ground for ideas on how best and quickly we can join hands together as a country to tackle our economic challenges.

Honestly, when are we going to sit down as one united people to address issues of poor living and work conditions for our miners, challenging situations for our mine suppliers, avoidance of university closures, lowering the fuel costs, paying farmers, come up with solutions for the current electricity deficit that has led to massive load shedding, falling Kwacha, high interest rates, reduce debt burden, and provide decent education for our children as well as create decent jobs for our people, especially the youths?

One would have thought these and others would be the real issues we would be arming ourselves so as to fight poverty in the country than lifting guns, machetes, stones and pangas with intention to kill one another because we are political competitors seeking to serve the people of Zambia.

Just where is this culture of political violence in our society coming from which has the potential to escalate and degenerate into an unimaginable situation if our supporters also decided to arm themselves and retaliate in self defence as others are doing?

The challenge now is for those of us in leadership to stop and address this situation as we go into next year’s elections, especially as evidenced in the recent bye elections.

It is even a bigger challenge for those in government who control and command state security apparatus to treat all citizens fairly regardless of their political opinions.

Democracy entails tolerance for one another as we can’t all have same views.

Hakainde Hichilema
UPND President

Transparency International Zambia (TIZ) in Kasama district has recommended to the Legal and Justice Sector Reforms Commission that the Office of the Auditor General should be given powers to arrest and prosecute people cited for abusing public funds.

TIZ Kasama district representative Mulenga Shula said the Office of the Auditor General is a very important institution in monitoring the usage of public funds but that it had no powers to arrest or prosecute those cited in its reports for abusing resources.

Mr Shula submitted to the Commission chaired by Solicitor General Abraham Mwansa who is the Vice Chairperson during a public sitting in Kasama today at the provincial administration conference hall that the Office of the Auditor General must be given legal powers to arrest and prosecute culprits without waiting for instructions from authorities.

“As TIZ we feel that there is need to empower law enforcement agencies to proceed with investigations on such matters as recommended by the Auditor General in the Reports, as they may arise”, said Mr Shula.

Mr Shula also submitted that the Public Order Act has been mismanaged by agents of the government that administer it because they have done so with bias against some sections of the society that might come into conflict with the law such as students.

Mr Shula recommended that the police officers that abuse the administration of the Public Order Act must be individually made accountable for their actions and that the Act must also be implemented fairly.

The TIZ in Kasama also recommended that the electoral law must be revised to members of parliament that lose their seats due to corrupt practices from re-contesting for a period of five years.

Another petitioner Titus Walima, 35, submitted that the contribution of the legal and justice sector to the development of the country has not been tangible because people in rural areas do not have access to justice.

Mr Walima said most rural people do not have an understanding of the legal system due to lack of civic education caused by the absence of the Legal Aid Board in the remote parts of the country adding that there was therefore need to decentralize the operations of the board in order to avail government lawyers to the less privileged.

The Commission is winding-up its two-day public sittings in Kasama district today with a visit to Mulima prison later in the afternoon before proceeding to Luwingu tomorrow.

Vice President Inonge Wina has disclosed that she is going to issue a ministerial statement next week as to when government would release the findings of the three commissions of inquiry which were initiated by the Patriotic Front (PF) administration when it came into power in 2011.

Ms Wina said she needs time to come up with a consolidated answer considering the sensitive of the commissions of inquiry which the public would like to know as a matter of urgency.

ZANIS reports that the Vice President was answering questions for oral answer from Kasempa Member of parliament Kabinga Pande who wanted to know when government would release the Rodger Chongwe Commission of Inquiry into the Mongu riots.

Mr Pande also wanted to know from the Vice President when Government would make available the Sebastian Zulu Commission of inquiry on the sale of the Zamtel to LAP Green of Libya.

The Kasempa Member of Parliament also wanted to know the Winter Kabimba Commission of inquiry on the oil procurement under the Energy Regulation Board as well as how much money was spent on each of the commissions.

Mr Pande further wanted an answer to the main recommendations of the Rodger Chongwe Commission of Inquiry respectively.

And Vice President Inonge Wina assured parliament that she was very much sure that next week, the information will be availed to parliament ultimately to the nation to know.