Senior Executive Officer in the Office of the First President Cheswa Silwizya confirmed in a statement released to ZANIS in Lusaka today.

Ms. Cheswa said Dr. Kaunda’s was admitted yesterday.

She assured the nation that Dr. Kaunda’s hospitalization is purely precautionary because of his age and that the family wants him to remain in good health.

“Dr. Kaunda will be turning 91 years old on Tuesday April 28, 2015 and the doctors and family want to ensure that he remains in good health. The Office of the First President and the family wish to assure the nation that Dr. Kaunda’s hospitalisation is purely precautionary given his age,” Ms. Cheswa said.

She said doctors attending to First President have recommended that he undergoes a check-up following a very busy local and international schedule during the past three months.

Dr. Kaunda was a special guest at the 25th independence anniversary of Namibia on 21st March, 2015 which also coincided with the inauguration of that country’s new President, Dr. Hage Geingob.

Dr. Kaunda also travelled to Johannesburg, South Africa to attend a three-day meeting dubbed, “The champions for an AIDS-Free generation”.

NCHANGA Member of Parliament Wylber Simmusa says he still has presidential ambitions and might stand in 2016 if the situation allows.

The former minister of Lands, Natural Resources and Environmental Protection who took part in the PF second general conference where he lost to Miles Sampa told Hot FM that if the situation and the party allows he will stand for presidency next year.

“There was a situation that allowed for me to stand last year at the PF general conference and I still have the presidential ambitions and can stand in 2016,” he said.

Mr Simuusa said he decided to take part in the PF general conference in Kabwe last year because people asked him to do so and that he will stand in 2016 if people call for him to do so again.

The Nchanga MP has come under pressure in Nchanga constituency as a result of bad roads in the area. Many people in the area have expressed disappointment with the law maker for neglecting the roads in Chingola.

Last week, Chingola taxi and bus drivers protested by parking their cars over bad roads in the area and demanded that their MP Mr Simuusa and the council look into the matter of roads.

THE United Party for National Development (UPND) has called on Zambians to turn up for Labour day celebrations and have their voices heard by what it calls ‘stubborn’ government.

“As Zambians we must make ourselves heard by this stubborn Government during the Workers Day to be celebrated on the 1st of May,” UPND chairperson for labour Percy Chanda said.

He added that this day cannot be business as usual; rather this is a day when workers should air their grievances, make their demands to Government and send a powerful sign that change is needed.

Mr Chanda said that the PF Government is on record as having borrowed heavily, both locally and internationally.

He alleges that much of this money has been carelessly spent and it seems clear that a good chunk of it has ended up in the pockets of the few.

“How else can the Government explain why if the economy is supposedly growing and the Government is borrowing large amounts of money, our workers face wage and employment freezes, and the cost of living is beyond the imagination of most Zambians,” he wondered.

“The result of the careless borrowing and misuse of funds by the PF Government is an insult to the Zambian people who work hard day after day only to have the Government waste money and build up huge debts.”

In statement released in Lusaka today Mr Chanda continued;

“Our workers, and those who are struggling to even find a job, deserve serious answers from Government on this matter.

As UPND we urge all workers to boycott this year’s Labour Day celebrations and instead deliver the message to Government that change is needed.

By boycotting this year’s Labour Day celebration you will be sending a very strong message that you are not happy about the wage freeze, the employment freeze and the continual reversal of position regarding the retirement age.

As UPND we are committed to strengthening the labour laws to protect the Zambian worker from exploitation.

You have heard us talk about setting up the Tripartite Consultative Council that has now been created but implemented in the most chaotic fashion and without the proper political commitment.

When the UPND is elected into Government we will drive the Council forward until it becomes a cornerstone for good industrial relations, boosting our economy and GDP, and helping us to break away from careless borrowing and the sale of our future.”

Zambia Centre for Inter-party Dialogue (ZCID) Executive Director Horrance Chilando says it is working out modalities with the ruling Patriotic Front (PF) and the opposition political parties on increasing voter-turn-out during elections .

Mr. Chilando says the modalities are aimed at encouraging voters to participate and exercise their democratic human right and not shun voting during elections.

ZANIS reports that Mr. Chilando said this in an interview in Lusaka today.

Mr. Chilando says the parties have already agreed on the way forward on raising voter turn-out and a date for an inter-party meeting has been set for next week.

He said voter education is a mammoth task and is not the sole responsibility of the Electoral Commission of Zambia (ECZ).

He said political parties themselves who have a critical role of sensitizing the electorates during election time because they are the ones who need votes in an election.

“The Centre would like to state that voter education is a mammoth task and is not the sole responsibility of ECZ but political parties themselves who have a critical role of sensitising the electorates during election period,” Mr. Chilando said.

Mr. Chilando’s sentiments comes in the wake of the just ended Chawama, Masaiti and Senga-Hill parliamentary by-elections that were marred with low voter turn-out in all the three constituencies.

He commended all the political parties that participated in the three parliamentary elections.

He said civil society organizations also have a duty to undertake voter and civic education.

He disclosed that a vigorous voter education programme would be carried out by the Centre in conjunction with political parties next year when Zambia goes to the general election.

He commended ECZ for the strides it is making in sensitizing the electorates within its available resources.

The Zambia National Women Lobby (ZNWL) has condemned the move by some former commercial sex workers under the Thasinta Reform Programme in Mkushi district for shunning skills training in preference for prostitution.

ZNWL Board Chairperson, Beauty Katebe said it is wrong for the some former commercial sex workers to abandon the skills which they were being empowered with and get back into immoral activities.

Speaking in an interview with ZANIS, in Lusaka today, Ms. Katebe said it was unfortunate and irresponsible that a woman can think of getting quick money through prostitution instead of engaging in tangible business ventures to earn a living.

Ms Katebe stated that the sex workers who were being reformed and empowered by Thasinta should consider themselves lucky to have an organisation that can engage them in decent ways of generating income.

She pointed out that the tendency by some sex workers to not willing abandon prostitution and engage in other alternative income generating activities can have negative impact on the efforts being made by both government and stakeholders in combating the HIV/AIDS pandemic.

“These women should know that they have families that look up to them for survival hence they should look after themselves well because many people have died from HIV/AIDS leaving children suffering, “Ms Katebe said.

She has since called on all sex workers to venture into decent business activities and also take advantage of the empowerment programmes being given to them than engaging in illicit behaviours that endanger their lives

Historically, the Zambian Government has been paying water and electricity bills in police camps as a way of motivating the men and women in uniform.
But Home Affairs Deputy Minister Colonel Gerry Chanda said in an interview that Government has been failing to offset the huge electricity and water bills.

Colonel Chanda explained that the escalation of water and electricity bills is a matter of grave concern for the government.

‘As a policy matter, You as a police officer employed by the state and living a police camp, you must pay for your water but what has been happing is that because of the general billing system, you find that the bill comes as if all the bill is being used by the institution but we need to start separating the bills per household,’ Colonel Chanda said.

He said Government’s continued paying of utility bills is a mistake which should not be allowed to continue.

‘For electricity, each household has a meter but for purposes of billing, the bill is channelled institutionally but that has to come to end. It is our mistake, we should have separated the water and electricity coming to offices and the houses,’ he said.

The Chinese Ambassador to Zambia Yang Youming has said that President Edgar Lungu’s recent State visit to China was fruitful and that Zambia was yet to see more benefits from the trip.
He was speaking when a delegation from Nanjing municipal council in China donated 200 books to the Lusaka City Council (LCC) yesterday.

“China and Zambia enjoy excellent relations and they have fruitful cooperation. The recent one was the big event when President Lungu paid China a State visit,” Mr Yang said.

He said President Lungu and the Chinese president Xi Jinping discussed various issues in depth which would lead to many more co-operations between China and Zambia.Zambians will soon see many benefits from the discussions held.

Mr Yang said the areas that the two leaders explored were economic and trade as well as education and culture.On the education and culture front, there would be visits from Chinese delegations to Zambia.The Chinese Government through its ministry of culture had also come up with a policy to designate individual city councils to form partnerships with other councils across the world.

The Naijing municipal has therefore picked Lusaka to be the city to partner with for cooperation in various sectors.The Naijing municipal donated the books written in English about China to be used in the council libraries and brought a culture group to perform in Lusaka.

Naijing council deputy director general Zheng Ling Ling said she was looking forward to the LCC officials’ visit to China.Acting Lusaka Mayor Potipher Tembo said the three libraries under the council, were in a bad state due to theft of books by people and lack of space and shelves.Mr Tembo said the LCC was working on the challenges that the Lusaka, Matero and Chilenje libraries were facing.

This was because books still remained popular and relevant even with the coming of computers and the internet.The council was committed to improving the reading culture among the citizens especially the youths.Mr Tembo said the council alone, however, could not improve the status of the libraries. He was grateful to Naijing municipal council for their contribution.

Johannesburg-Photographer James Oatway captured a violent attack that resulted in death of a Mozambican in South Africa.He checked the series of stills on his camera. It was then that photographer James Oatway realized the entire attack had taken less than two minutes.

It was the morning after a night of unrest in Johannesburg’s Alexandra Township that saw foreign-owned shops looted and destroyed.

Mozambican Emmanuel Sithole was walking down a street when four South Africans surrounded him. Sithole pleaded for mercy, but it was already too late. The attackers bludgeoned him with a wrench, stabbed him with knives, all in broad daylight. And Oatway had captured it all on his camera.

“They looked like hardened thugs, just by their intensity, the way they moved, the expressions on their faces,” Oatway told CNN. “They wanted one thing and that was to kill Emmanuel. They wanted his blood and nothing was going to stop them from doing that.”

Oatway says he tried to get as close as possible, conscious that the attackers were aware of his presence. “When the attack started I was 20 meters (65 feet) away, but at one point I was 4 or 5 meters away,” he said. “I did think that maybe they would leave him alone.”

Dazed, shocked

The attackers finally did move on and leave Sithole alone. Oatway and his fellow journalist Beauregard Tromp quickly put the injured man in the back of the car and rushed him to a hospital, where he later died.

“I still remember him looking straight into my eyes,” said Oatway. “He had a kind of a dazed, shocked look in his face.”

Oatway’s series of images of the ordeal landed on the front page of South Africa’s Sunday Times under the headline, “Kill thy neighbor: Alex attack brings home SA’s shame.”

It’s a shame that South Africa continues to confront. Seven people have been killed in the latest round of xenophobic violence against poorer immigrants, many from South Africa’s neighbors.

Xenophobic attacks: How did we get here?

Local media alleged that the attacks were a consequence of Zulu King Goodwill Zwelithini reportedly saying at a recent gathering that foreigners “should pack their bags and go” because they are taking jobs from citizens.

Shortly after his reported comments, violence against immigrants erupted in the port city of Durban.

But on Monday, Zwelithini said he had not called for a war on immigrants. “This war I am calling for today is to protect everyone of foreign origin in this country irrespective of which country they are from.”

The United Nations said the attacks actually began in March after a labor dispute between citizens and foreign workers.

But it was Oatway’s photos of the violent attack on Sithole that have seemingly encapsulated the true horror of the situation — and South Africa’s leaders have begun to take notice.

“Terrible picture. People who live in rough townships have never seen such a scene,” said President Jacob Zuma about the photos in a televised news conference. “And I was sitting and I was saying to myself, what are we telling the world about ourselves?”

Police announced they’ve now arrested all four suspects — the last caught overnight Tuesday — with help from Oatway’s photos, which is little solace for the photographer who captured a level of depravity rarely seen.

“I’m sickened by it,” said Oatway. “And I’m extremely angry, angry with the men that did this, and ultimately I’m upset that our efforts weren’t successful in saving Emmanuel’s life.”

Source: CNN