The Young Women Christian Association (YWCA) has supported Cabinet’s decision to approve the dual citizenship proposal and regard it as a non-contentious issues which should be presented in parliament for enactment into the new constitution of Zambia.

YWCA national president Lucy Lungu said the move was welcome because the dual citizenship will not disadvantage children born from parents of different nations.

Ms. Lungu said this in an interview with ZANIS in Lusaka adding that Zambians should support this clause of dual citizenship because it was progressive.
She said majority of Zambians supported the clause when the technical committee on drafting the national constitution was going round to get views from the citizens.

She explained that there were many Zambians that are married to foreigners whose children will now be allowed to hold dual citizenship.

Ms. Lungu further said Cabinet meant well when it approved the dual citizenship clause so that it can be taken parliament for final inclusion in the Zambia constitution as advocated by the majority of Zambians.

But Programme Director for Zambia Disability HIV/AIDS Human Rights Elijah Ngwale said his organisation was opposed to the idea of holding dual citizenship.

Mr. Ngwale said the clause will cause a lot of problems in the country because it will promote criminality as some unscrupulous people will take advantage of belonging to two different countries.

He said the country should be careful when implementing the clause on dual citizenship which was already in the draft constitution.

Mr. Ngwale argued that the clause was not good for developing nation such as Zambia but for countries which were already developed.

Yesterday President Edgar Lungu, who is in South Africa, disclosed that Cabinet has agreed that the issue of holding dual citizenship should be among non-contentious issues in the draft constitution.

He said the clause should be taken to parliament for enactment into the constitution and further said Cabinet at its last sitting unanimously resolved that Zambians be afforded an opportunity to hold dual citizenship as outlined in the draft constitution currently under consideration.

He said his government has realised that it was important for Zambians to hold dual citizenship so that the country can move in tandem with modern trends in the world.

President Lungu, who was accompanied by First Lady, Esther, was speaking in Pretoria, South Africa, on Saturday night when he addressed Zambians living in that country.

Patriotic Front (PF) national vice chairman for the mobilisation committee Niger Mpakateni has refuted allegations from some opposition political parties that the ruling party is buying their members to defect.

Mr. Mpakateni said those joining the ruling PF were just attracted by the good policies of President Edgar Lungu who is implementing developmental programmes which were started by the late President Michael Sata in 2011.

He said today during a walk in interview with ZANIS in Lusaka that Zambians should support President Lungu.

Mr. Mpakateni said Zambians should not be misled by the opposition political parties that they will be able to develop Zambia if voted into power in 2016.

He noted that Zambians were eager to see development as opposed to mere politicking which he said will not be able to feed them.

And speaking during the same interview, PF national mobilization committee secretary Kelvin Mayondi said the committee was ready to recruit many members ahead of next year’s elections.

Mr. Mayondi further said the opposition should not make allegations which they were not able to substantiate.

He also said the PF slogan of “PAMAKA” does not mean violence but hard work by government.

Some opposition political party leaders have accused the PF of buying their members in order for them to defect to the ruling party, an allegation which has been vehemently refuted by the PF.

Of late, a lot of people from opposition political parties have been ditching their parties to join the ruling PF citing good policies of President Edgar Lungu.

Sudanese President Omar al-Bashir flew out of South Africa on Monday, defying a high court order which banned him from leaving the country until an application calling for his arrest had been heard.

Sudan’s information minister Ahmed Bilal Osman confirmed that he had left and was expected to land in Khartoum at about 18:30 local time.

An interim order was made by the high court in Pretoria on Sunday, barring President Bashir from leaving South Africa, pending an application from civil society organisations calling for his arrest on an International Criminal Court warrant.

Earlier on Monday, Osman said the president would return to Sudan regardless of whether the high court ordered his arrest.
“The [South African] judiciary does not have policemen. No one is going to arrest him.”

The South African state broadcaster, SABC, reported at about 10:15 GMT on Monday that the president’s plane had flown out of the Waterkloof air force base, on the outskirts of Pretoria.

Prior to the president leaving the country, the high court in Pretoria was expected to decide whether to send Bashir to the International Criminal Court.

A number of African countries have in the past decided not to co-operate with the ICC. The court has been accused of racism and bias against African leaders.

A man who infected two women in the U.K with HIV after having unprotected sex with them despite knowing he was a carrier has been jailed for seven years.

Mweetwa Muleya, 28, from Swansea, knew from the age of 19 that he had HIV and had been warned it would be a crime to have sex without warning a partner he had tested positive.

Muleya went to Britain from Zambia as a teenager. Muleya was diagnosed with HIV at the age of 15 – but his mother did not tell him until he was almost 19.He was then given anti-retroviral medication to control the virus and advice on how to stop its spread. He was told it would be a crime to have unprotected sex with someone and not disclose his positive status.

Muleya fell into a lifestyle of drink and drugs and lapsed when it came to sexual health check ups.

Muleya said he had started drinking and taking drugs because he was in denial about his condition.When arrested Muleya said he had used protection with both women.

He leaded guilty to two counts of causing Grievous bodily harm in May this year and sentenced to seven years in prison, and handed an extra six months for unrelated drug offences.

The Commission for Investigations has today commenced provincial public sittings in the North-western province to hear complaints of maladministration perpetrated by government officials.

According to a press statement released by the Commission to the Zambia News and Information Services in Solwezi today, the Commission will be sitting the whole week.

“You are therefore, encouraged to come and lodge in any complaints of maladministration perpetrated by any government department, parastatal body or local authorities”, reads the statement in part.

The public is advised to lodge such complaints as any action or inaction or decision taken by any public officer or authority in the exercise of the administrative functions of that officer or authority which may result in abuse of authority, unfairness, error, negligence and or administrative dysfunction.

Other complaints to be lodged include bias, neglect, delay,incompetence, tribalism, intimidation, selective treatment, rudeness and neglecting to inform an individual on request of one’s rights or entitlements.

The Patriotic Front (PF) in Kaputa district has accused the United Party for National Development (UPND) of embarking on early campaigns for the 2016 general elections by enticing voters with donations.

PF Kaleulu Ward Councilor, Webby Kawelwa alleged that the UPND through its member Elvis Nkandu has started undertaking background campaigns in Kaputa district ahead of next year’s elections. He alleged that Mr. Nkandu who is also Zambia National Marketer Association (ZANAMA) President is making the donations to communities with the intention to stand as Member of Parliament (MP) during next year’s elections.

Mr. Kawelwa explained that Mr. Nkandu has hired some community members to do some works on the roads, and is sponsoring football tournaments and distributing mattresses to health centers.He has since cautioned Mr. Nkandu to come out in the open and state his position rather than to continue campaigning in the background.Mr. Kawelwa who was speaking in a walk in interview with ZANIS in Kaputa said the PF is not scared of Mr. Nkandu but that he should come out clearly and state his position.

He warned that Kaputa is a stronghold for the PF adding that he will just regret wasting money if he tried to stand on the opposition ticket.But UPND Kaputa District Chairperson Belson Chansa has dissociated his party from Mr. Nkandu’s purported campaigns saying he was doing it in his personal capacity.

Mr Chansa said this was not the first time Mr. Nkandu had donated to the community adding that he has been doing similar things which is only aimed at helping the people.Mr. Chansa who admitted having heard and seen the charity works by Mr. Nkandu in some wards however said he could not say whether Mr. Nkandu was UPND or not.

He said Mr. Nkandu has also not approached him to indicate whether he intends to stand on the opposition party’s ticket during the 2016 general elections.He added that it could however be true that Mr. Nkandu wants to contest the Kaputa parliamentary seat but has not come out in the open to state which party he will stand on.

The UPND District Chairperson said the opposition party has also not opened nominations for people but noted that a lot of prominent persons have expressed interest to contest the seat on its ticket.Efforts to get Mr. Nkandu who is based on the Copperbelt however failed.

POLICE in Southern Province have scaled up sensitisations in crime-prone chiefdoms such as Chikanta and Sinazongwe for people in possession of illegal firearms to voluntarily surrender them.

More than 40 illegal firearms have so far been recovered from last year to date, in among other chiefdoms, Chikanta, Nalubamba and Sinazongwe.

The chiefs recently attributed the rising murder cases of people on suspicion of practising witchcraft in the province, to traditional factories producing home-made guns.

Provincial Police Chief Mary Chikwanda said in an interview that more than 30 illegal firearms were recovered in 2014 while about 10 were recovered from January to date.

Ms Chikwanda cited Chief Chikanta in Kalomo and Chief Sinazongwe’s areas as notorious chiefdoms were most illegal firearms were confiscated.

“Our sensitisation meetings with chiefs and their subjects are going on, we have started with those mostly crime-prone areas and we have so far recovered some illegal firearms,” she said.

She said the desire of police was to visit all chiefdoms in the province to dialogue with traditional leaders and their subjects to work together in combating crime.

Police in the region last year secured two convictions of people found in possession of illegal firearms.

Some chiefs, however, were concerned that punishment under the Firearms Act was not custodial and that fines were inadequate to effectively deter would-be offenders.