Join our community of SUBSCRIBERS and be part of the conversation.
To subscribe, simply enter your email address on our website or click the subscribe button below. Don't worry, we respect your privacy and won't spam your inbox. Your information is safe with us.
Elias Chipimo speaking at the press briefing at the NAREP Secretariat
National Restoration Party (NAREP) President Elias Chipimo Junior says the Patriotic Front government should realize that Chiefs will be there in perpetuity.
Mr. Chipimo has told Qfm News in an interview that it is disheartening to note the lack of respect by the PF government for Traditional Leaders.
Mr. Chipimo says Chiefs in Zambia have always been there since the colonial era, and that the
PF Government will go while they will remain.
The NAREP Leader says traditional leaders deserve respect from all Zambians regardless of one’s position in society.
Mr. Chipimo states that interference in Chiefs affairs at any level is unacceptable, adding that his party will stand firmly behind all Traditional Authorities and the procedures and processes of ascendancy to the throne.
Patriotic Front(PF) campaign manager for the Mangango parliamentary by-election Obvious Mwaliteta says he will remain steadfast and won’t be intimidated by acts of violence by the opposition United Party for National Development (UNPD) members.
Mr Mwaliteta was reacting to the seizure of his vehicle’s immobiliser and the alleged theft of money by suspected UPND cadres who pounced on him in Kaoma on suspicion that he was changing the registration plate of a Mitsubishi Pajero from a government number to a private one.
The Kafue constituency lawmaker who is also Central province Minister claimed that the UPND does not want him in Mangango because it feels that he is the one who caused them to lose the Livingstone parliamentary by-election.
Mr Mwaliteta noted that it was typical of the opposition party to engage in violence when they are anticipating an electoral downfall.
He said the UPND has no message for the people of Mangango and it was becoming very difficult for them to market their candidate based on unattainable promises.
He said he was not a dull person to start changing his own vehicle’s registration plate from private to any other, adding that the vehicle in question is not government property.
Mr Mwaliteta said the PF, unlike the UPND, has not imported any youths to cause violence in Mangango as it realises that no one is a winner when there is violence especially that the political contest is among Zambians.
But UPND deputy campaign manager Carlos Antonio said the vehicle Mr Mwaliteta is claiming to be private is actually a government property whose registration number is GRZ 269 CT which has been changed to ABD 5657.
Mr Antonio, who is also Kaoma Central Member of Parliament, claimed that the UPND cadres found PF members changing the vehicle registration plates from GRZ to private at Pumulo Park in Kaoma, adding that the immobiliser, which is in their custody, bears a government registration number.
He said another vehicle registration number GRZ 281 has been changed to ABD 2160, a registration number he claimed is appropriated to a vehicle belonging to Diblo Kapito Kasweka, a driver for the Nkeyema district commissioner Yuvwenu Kashandola.
He said the UPND has filed a complaint with the police and the party is writing letters to the Electoral Commission Zambia so that the PF desists from using government property during the campaigns.
Mr Antonio said only the President and his vice are supposed to use government vehicles during campaigns, adding that the UPND will continue to remain vigilant to protect government property as the PF will not be in power forever.
A UPND cadre, Kingford Nasilele, who is also former Kaoma district commissioner in the MMD government, has been arrested over the incidence.
Former United States of America (USA) Ambassador to Zambia Frank Wisner has praised the Patriotic Front (PF) government for its continued support to improving the education standards in the country.
Ambassador Wisner said the world today was a hungry place which could only be satisfied once fed with information that can be accessed through people’s ability to read widely.
Speaking today when he visited Katete District to check on libraries built and supported by the Room to Read NGO, Amb Wisner who represented his country from 1979 to 1982 said he was happy to see the various advancements in the education sector that Zambia has achieved.
He observed that during the years when he served as United Sates of America Ambassador to Zambia was still faced with many challenges that hampered development.
He noted that today Zambia can boast of enjoying good economic opportunities because of the peace that the country has continued to enjoy.
Amb Wisner said it was said then that the Zambian government at the start of its democratic rule sought to monopolize services a situation which he described as unfortunate and detrimental to development.
He however noted that with the change of governments Zambia today is enjoying a free economy which has seen the country develop further.
Meanwhile , Ambassador Wisner has challenged the government to invest more in education.
He said in order for the economy to grow there was need for government to open its economy to investors and also enter into partnerships that could benefit the public.
Amb Weisner also said that it was time that government ventured more into diversification and move away from copper as the major driver of the economy.
He said the world was now looking for more business opportunities in agriculture as the major economic sector that could feed masses.
He also advised farmers to work on value addition to their products in order to meet the market standards.
Amb Wisner observed that Zambia is endowed with many economic opportunities which if well utilized could develop the country from where it was today to greater heights.
Evangelical Fellowship of Zambia executive director Pukuta Mwanza follows proceedings during the meeting to demand for the release of the draft Zambia constitution
The Independent Churches of Zambia (ICOZ) has called on the Registrar of Societies to harmonize the Act of registering Faith-based organizations in the country.
ICOZ says this is one way of getting rid of illegal churches mushrooming in the country.
ICOZ Board Chairperson Bishop David Masupa observed that illegal activities occurring in some churches are a disgrace to a Christian nation like Zambia.
Bishop Masupa urged government through the Ministry of Home Affairs to come up with measures to ensure that all churches are registered with the Registrar of Societies.
Bishop Masupa in an interview with ZANIS in Lusaka today said the Society should thoroughly screen people intending to establish churches in compounds and townships before registering them to operate in the country.
The Clergyman regretted the Chibolya and Kabwata incidents in which two churches were yesterday shut down by government for operating illegally saying they painted a bad image to churches that have been operating in Zambia for many years.
Meanwhile, Evangelical Fellowship of Zambia (EFZ) Executive Director Pukuta Mwanza has called on government to be conscious in handling matters surrounding the banning of faith based organisations.
Rev. Mwanza says issues that concern the clergymen and women should be separated from that of the name of a church.
He said closing the entire church is not a solution as other innocent members would still want to congregate and continue worshipping in the church building.
Over the weekend, a joint team of Police, Immigration and Registrar of Societies officers apprehended more than 200 illegal immigrants and refugees in Chibolya and Kabwata township without permits, among them church leaders on suspicion of conducting illegal activities such as abductions and sexual abuses.
The operation resulted in the ban of the Free Pentecost Assemblies operating from Kabwata Community Hall with more than 600 members.
The team led by Chief Registrar of Societies Kakoma Kanganja and Ministry of Home Affairs Public Relations Officer Moses Suwali raided some churches from where suspects were taken to Immigration Offices for further screening .
Mr. Suwali said Government is also concerned that some churches were harbouring illegal immigrants which was against the laws of Zambia.
He said the operation was a wake-up call for other churches, institutions and individuals who were using churches as a frontlines for conducting illegal activities.
Prison Service Care and Counselling Association (PRISCCA) has called on the immigration department to consider expediting the process of screening of apprehended immigrants.
Godfrey Malembeka, PRISCCA; Executive Director says news of immigrants being arrested is always received with caution as the organisation realises that some innocent people are victims of such operations hence the need to quickly screen them.
“While PRISCCA is not against any special operation by any security wing, we would like immigration to speed up the process of screening of the apprehended immigrants.
“We receive news of such arrests with caution as we realise some people are only victims in such operations.
“Many innocent people have suffered during such operations. We therefore call on immigration to speed up the screening process so that those who are free to stay in Zambia can continue enjoying their rights.”
Mr. Malambeka was commenting on the over 100 immigrants were recently apprehended in a joint operation led by the Immigration Department.
Inspector General of Police Stella Libongani speaks with Tourism Permanent secretary George Zulu shortly before President Michael Sata arrived at Harry Mwaanga Nkumbula International Airport for the opening of the UNWTO 20th General Assembly -Picture and caption by THOMAS NSAMA
Opposition United Party for National Development (UPND) Senanga Member of Parliament Likando Mufalali has accused a Police officer in Inspector General of Police Stella Libongani’s motorcade of assaulting him.
Mr. Mufali has told Qfm News in a telephone interview that the incident happened this afternoon around 15:00 hours on his way back from the Copperbelt near Mulungushi University in Kabwe.
He narrates that while he was driving a the Police Inspector General’s motorcade signaled from behind and that he pulled off the road to give way for the motorcade to pass, and later started following the motorcade behind when one of the Police officers stopped him and asked why he was following the Inspector General’s motorcade.
Mr. Mufali explains that it was at this point that the Police officer twisted his arm and before breaking his car keys.
The Parliamentarian has complained of pain in the arm which was twisted by the Police officer who left him stranded after his keys were broken.
But when contacted for comment Police Spokesperson Charity Munganga Chanda says the Inspector General’s official vehicle ZP 1 is a VIP vehicle and that Police have the duty to protect the Inspector General of Police at all times.
Mrs. Chanda says no one has the right to follow the vehicle behind without permission as doing so raises suspicious as to what the motive of a person following behind might be.
She has however stated that police will investigate the matter.
Napsa Stars have attributed their scoreless away draw against Roan United on Sunday at Nkana Stadium in Kitwe to the one hour delayed kick-off.
The FAZ Super League Week 17 game only kicked off at 16h00 due to a lack of security at the stadium when Police were only deployed across the road at Arthur Davies Stadium for the Power Dynamos and Indeni game.
“The delayment stalled our game and I am disappointed with the way that Roan have organized the game,” Napsa coach Hector Chilombo said.
“They know protection is supposed to be provided both for the referee and the players but there wasn’t any.
“We started the game after 16h00 after the players had been warming up for one hour and the players went cold after the warm up and it has cost Napsa the game we were supposed to win this game.”
The match was Roan’s first home match at their temporal home venue in Kitwe following a five-match ban imposed on them by the FAZ Disciplinary committee from playing games at Kafubu Stadium in Luanshya.
This follows crowd trouble that led to the abandonment of Roan’s Week 9 game against Red Arrows at Kafubu on May 10.
All-rounder Kabange Mupopo has sailed into the semifinals of the women’s 400 meters at the 2014 Commonwealth Games in Glasgow.
Mupopo, who is also Shepolopolo captain, is into Monday evenings semifinal heat one after finishing second in Sunday’s preliminary round heat 1.
Meanwhile, there was no joy for Rhodah Njobvu who bowed out of the women’s 400 meters heats including Yvonne Nalishuwa who also exited in the women’s 100 meters heats while Titus Mukhala also bowed out of the 100 mens meters heats.
And Zambia also suffered a setback in the ring on Sunday night when boxer Charles Lumbwe lost 3-0 to Junia Jonas in the last 16 of the light welterweight contest.
Zambia now has two boxers left with Middleweight Ben Muziyo in acton on Monday night against Brody Blair of Canada in the last 16.
Light Flyweight Bwalya Lumbwe enters the ring for the first time on Monday against Ugandan Fazil Kaggwa.
A family in Chief Kaingu Area in Itezhi- Tezhi district happily enjoying the catch of fish
Catholic Bishops in the Association of Member Episcopal Conferences in Eastern Africa (AMECEA) say the threat to the family in AMECEA region is now more real than ever before as the crisis of marriage and the family has been increased by individualism in the contemporary society, breakdown of morals, and attacks on the family unit, poverty and unemployment.
The bishops have pledged that as a Church in the region, they will endeavour to protect the family which is the domestic Church against all these dangers.
“We commit ourselves to pastoral care of broken families and all those who are going through difficulties in their families. We also condemn all forms of domestic violence. We affirm institution of marriage as an indissoluble union of love between a man and a woman open to procreation and denounce any attempt to redefine this institution. Family life must be respected, promoted and protected so that it can provide men and women who can weave a social fabric of peace and harmony. We strongly condemn same sex unions and other deviations that go against human nature and natural law,” Read the Communiqué presented by Most Rev. Berhaneyesus Souraphiel, the new AMECEA Chairman.
“We urge for the protection and defence of the family at all costs as that is the beginning and pillar of human life and society. We seek to enable the family to be an instrument of New Evangelisation which is truly African and truly Christian. We welcome and await the fruits of the forth coming extra ordinary synods on marriage and family life.,” The Communiqué added.
Meanwhile the Catholic Bishops are saddened by the on-going conflicts in Sudan, South Sudan and Somalia and other parts of the world.
In a communiqué at the end of their 18th AMECEA Plenary Assembly in Lilongwe, 16th to 26th July, 2014, the Bishops deplored the suffering of the people in those countries.
“We strongly advocate for a peaceful resolution to these conflicts and remain committed as Catholic Bishops in AMECEA region to do whatever is within our ability to bring about lasting peace to these Countries. We also ask our Catholic faithful and people of good will to remember Sudan, South Sudan and Somalia in their prayers and to attend with a helping hand to their urgent needs and further appeal to all peoples in these countries to embrace peace, seek reconciliation and work towards nation building.” The Communiqué read.
And on New Evangelization, The Catholic bishops have committed to make use of the strategies of the Missionaries who took a positive view of African cultures and in them sought to find the concepts, terms and ways of expressing the Christ-event and the Christian life.They acknowledged with appreciation the efforts many agents of evangelization who are committed to the spread of the Gospel in different ways and encouraged them to remain faithful to the mission we have received from Jesus Christ.
On the use of Information Communication Technology (ICT) and Media for Evangelization, the Catholic Church in the AMECEA region, says will continue to empower social communication departments in order for the Church to fully embrace new forms of media as modern ways of propagating the Gospel and urged pastoral agents to make responsibly use of media and contribute to the content. The bishops have furthermore cautioned all people against misuse of social media.
Additionally, urged parents and all those who are responsible for Children to teach them the ways of God and protect them as children and youth are a gift to and hope of the Church and society.
On Terrorism and Violence, bishops say the AMECEA region and beyond though claim to enjoy relative peace, the recurrent acts of violence and terrorism are very disturbing.
“We appeal to governments in the region to work hard to address the root causes of these problems and ensure protection of the lives of people and their properties. We further appeal for concerted regional and global efforts towards solving these problems” The communiqué read.
The Catholic Bishops in the Association of Member Episcopal Conference in Eastern Africa (AMECEA) were meeting for their 18th Plenary Assembly in Lilongwe.
AMECEA consists of eight countries namely Malawi, Kenya, Sudan, Tanzania, Eritrea, Zambia, Uganda and Ethiopia. AMECEA conferences are held every three years and it’s the third time Malawi is hosting the conference.
Opposition UPND leader Hakainde Hichilema has rubbished assertions that he personally looted state resources during the privatization programmes by undervaluing some state assets.
Mr Hichilema maintained that he offered a professional service to the Zambian Government during the privatization exercise through his firm Coopers & Lybrand which later changed its name to Grant Thornton.
He said he has never worked in Government and does not understand how a professional firm could hoodwink an entire Government system to sale its assets cheaply adding that he was never involved in the sale of any ZCCM asset.
Mr Hichilema was speaking last evening when he featured on the Assignment programme on Muvi TV.
“You cannot say I influenced Government to sale cheaply, I performed valuation services and it was up to the Zambian Government which included some people that are in big leadership roles today to sale or not to sale,” Mr Hichilema explained.
He said the MMD cabinet that decided on the privatization exercise included President Sata who was then Minister without portfolio and current Vice President who was then Agriculture Minister.
“These were key men. You need to ask them to account for their actions including the current Minister of Finance Chikwanda, he was at State House as Chief of Staff. Don’t blame HH for privatization, you know who was in Government then.”
Mr Hichilema added, “I’m not a thief, I have no thread or iota of thieving in my blood. I challenged the President when he accused me of having stolen Cattle that he has a thieving culture I don’t have, if I have stolen something, I challenged him that if I stole Cattle let him arrest me because Cattle is not like rats.”
The UPND leader said he is just a simple villager who started from the floor to acquire what he has.
“I’m a guy who comes from the floor, every Zambia should be proud of their heritage, I come from the floor, went to a village school then later went to a secondary school in the area God chose I should be born, no one chooses where to be born and which language to speak, by the way there is no minority tribe in this country, all of them are equal.”
Mr Hichilema continued, “I was born in grass thatched house, not in a maternity wing of a hospital or clinic, walked to school bare foot, drew water from shallow wells that is why am so passionate about free education so that no other children whether orphans or not should have to go through what we went through.”
I then went to the University of Zambia. Did many things, I bought my first plot in Kalingalinga using my second salary, I could not afford a brick layer with a team of helpers. So I pushed the wheelbarrow myself. I couldn’t complete it and I sold it for a profit, bought another plot, sold it at a profit. I can say I got my business training by rearing Cattle. Entrepreneurship comes from our heritage, cattle rearing. When I was building, my fellow classmates from were laughing at me that I was building a house in the Komboni but I knew I was better because they were renting and I was building a house.”
On the issue of tribalism, Mr Hichilema said the tribal tag does not bother him.
“It’s a non-issue, it’s a matter am completely relaxed about, it does not bother me. UPND is the most represented party in terms of regions. I come from the South, two Veeps from North Western and Eastern Province, Kaputa Northern Province and National Secretary is from Central Province. The structure of the NMC has every part of Zambia represented,” he said.
He said the UPND has Councilors and MPs from all the provinces of Zambia adding that the party has pushed its doors to accommodate anyone even from regions such as Luapula and Northern Province.
Mr Hichilema said the issue of tribe is not serious because PF Secretary General Wynter Kabimba is on record as having said the PF is the tribal and indiscipline political organisation in the history of Zambia.
Mr Hichilema also denied reports that the UPND is courting Kasama PF MP Geoffrey Mwamba for the position of Vice President.
“We are courting everyone. The UPND has bedrooms for the 13 million Zambians. We are not courting GBM for the Vice President position but we are courting every Zambia,” Mr Hichilema said.
A government Minister and some District Commissioners in Mangango were yesterday caught red-handed placing private number plates on government vehicles with the intention of abusing the motor vehicles in the by-election campaigns in the area.
However, the police in Western Province have locked up a United Party for National Development (UPND) official identified as Nasilele for grabbing the keys of the vehicles and the private number plates and reporting the matter to police.
An alert UPND campaign team exposed the electoral scandal when they reported the Minister and the District Commissioners to police after they caught them removing government number plates from 18 government vehicles and replacing them with private number plates.
According to UPND deputy secretary general Kuchunga Simusamba, the UPND campaign team grabbed the private number plates and the keys to the government vehicles and took them to police in Kaoma.
The UPND has since submitted a list of 18 government motor vehicles whose government number plate numbers were allegedly changed to private ones so that motor vehicles could be used in the Mangango constituency by-election campaigns.
Mr Simusamba told the Daily Nation from Mangango yesterday that the opposition political party campaign team discovered that the PF Ministers and some District Commissioners were swapping the GRZ plate numbers with private ones so that the vehicles could be used for their campaigns.
Mr Simusamba said Western Province UPND official Nasilele was arrested after grabbing the car keys and the plate numbers from Mr Mwaliteta when he quickly rushed to police to report.
Mr Simusamba has warned that the UPND would not tolerate the Patriotic Front (PF)’s continued abuse of government resources during by-elections.
Mr Simusammba said the UPND would continue effecting citizens’ arrest if the PF would continue flouting the electoral rules and regulations and that no amount of intimidation and harassment would deter them from ensuring the political playing field was leveled.
‘This morning, our campaign team found some PF Ministers and a number of District Commissioners (DCs) in Western Province who were in the act of changing government plate number to private one so that the vehicles could be abused in their campaigns. They have so far changed the GRZ plate numbers to private ones on 18 vehicles and we have submitted the list of the motor vehicles to police. The youths who found the Minister in the act grabbed the keys and the number plates and quickly rushed to the police to report. But instead of arresting the Minister, the police arrested our youth leader Nasilele and have denied him bond,” Mr Simusamba said.
He said it was annoying that the police were acting like puppets of the ruling party adding the UPND had sent more youths on the ground to monitor the illegal activities of the ruling party.
Mr Simusamba said the UPND would not stand with its arms akimbo and continue watching the ruling party violate the electoral rules with impunity.
Police spokesperson Charity Munganga when contacted referred the matter to Western Province police commissioner.
President Sata and the first lady visiting the Presidents son Kazimu at Milpark hospital Johannesburg
By Field Ruwe
The smile
When a father gives care, a son gives him love. Look at the picture again; President Sata shows genuine delight at seeing his son. He may not grin; the smile on his face is rare and spontaneous. It is one of those special smiles drawn from the subterranean of paternal love.
Look closely. You may not see the smile if you are bent on seeing how sick he looks. Look at it from a father-son perspective. Although radiated from a face overwhelmed by illness, the benign smile has power in it; it has eternal love, comfort, encouragement, assurance, and reassurance. His smile is not only substantial, but also a requisite to Kazimu’s recovery, and psychological well-being.
Sata’s smile would be even more consequential if Kazimu was lying in our very own University Teaching Hospital, in a ward as sophisticated as the one in the picture. The smile would be as contagious as to deeply affect us all. It would go beyond being a gesture for love of his son, to being a symbol of pride for all; of great accomplishment, self-empowerment, and advancement.
Sata’s smile would spread to Kazimu’s friends Steven Kawandami, and Tiberth Musambachime, wounded in the same accident. It would engulf the wards and light up the souls of patients less fortunate than Kazimu. That’s what a smile does; it brings happiness, appreciation, and pleasure to those who are treated equally.
Disappointment
The noun associated with “equally” is “equality,” a word that implies that people have the same status in certain respects. In this aspect it refers to “health equality.” A country with 14 million people highly susceptible to all sorts of diseases due to poverty requires the absence of prejudice stimulated by an inalienable part of a person’s class. It calls for the absence of disparities in critical aspects of health. Simply put, it calls for equality in health care.
When allowed to be digested, the above paragraph evokes a feeling of disappointment. Unlike a smile, disappointment hurts. Disappointment is synonymous with failure. It carries with it words like letdown, discontent, displeasure, setback, disillusionment, regret, and shame.
With disappointment in mind look at the President of the Republic of Zambia, His Excellence Michael Chilufya Sata seated by the bedside at Milpark Hospital in Johannesburg, South Africa, a country that is not his. See how his presidential mystique and prestige are stripped of him. He looks ordinary—lackluster—at the mercy of South Africa. He is in South Africa, in a Milpark ward because his own country does not have state-of-the-art life-saving facilities. For almost fifty years it has lamentably failed to build a hospital of Milpark’s caliber. And since he is the current ruler, he becomes the epitome and conventional emblem of failure.
Zambian doctors
Look at the picture again, the president looks exhausted. Hardly had he rested after spending two weeks in a hospital in Israel than he found himself in another foreign hospital visiting his son. In the picture, he is hoping South African doctors can save his son’s life, just like he has entrusted his life with Indian, British, and Israeli doctors.
What does all this mean to our very own doctors, fully bred at the Ridgeway Campus after seven years of excruciating training, some of it spent in the morgue? Let me be candid, the president’s son lying in a hospital bed in South Africa is a blotch on the image of the medical profession in Zambia. It undermines our doctors and conveys an impression of medical incompetence. It also sends a wrong message to the international medical fraternity and often results in our doctors being ostracized. They are seen as second-rate, middle-of-the-road, and of course inferior to their foreign peers.
Take the president’s wife for instance. She is a fully-fledged medical doctor. In the picture, she is using the visiting hour at Milpark to see her stepson. She too has put all her hope in the South African doctors. Can you imagine how wonderful it would be to see her in a white coat as leader of the Zambian medical team treating Kazimu at UTH? That aside; how wonderful it would be to see her attending to her very own husband in a state-of-the-art ward in Lusaka. Look at the picture again. There is absolutely nothing she can do to help her stepson on foreign soil.
Self-empowerment
While a picture is worth a thousand words, I have focused on specific words like “smile” “equality” and “disappointment.” Now, let us look at another word, “self-empowerment.” It is a word related to “self-sufficiency.” Self-empowerment in this context is the ability to own facilities that are vital to the survival of a people. In successful cultures, it exudes pride, and confidence.
“Pride” and “confidence” are the words the owner of Netcare Milpark Richard Friedland, carries with him. This is an individual who can afford a state-of-the-art hospital, while our leader who presides over a country with abundant wealth cannot. He cannot afford even a single modern medical ward like the one in which his son is recovering, let alone an Intra-MRI operative machine. Our very own president would rather globe-trot and spend millions of tax-payers’ dollars in aviation gas, medical bills, accommodation, and food.
The cost to the tax-payer on Travel,Fuel,medical bills etc
Let me expound. On the day he visited his son the president first flew by helicopter to the airport and boarded the presidential Challenger jet. After slightly over two hours he landed at Lanseria International Airport. The Challenger 604 jet consumes 262 gallons (1191.1 litres) of fuel per hour which is worth $3,851.00. It takes approximately two hours to Johannesburg, a total of $7,702 one-way and $15,404 return plus parking fees. A seven-hour return Lusaka flight to Tel Aviv would cost approximately $53,914 plus parking fees per hour, and other incidentals. If you add the South African and Israel bills, you get close to $70,000 in gas alone. Add medical bills, food, lodging, and jet parking fees you have a colossal figure.
Zambia can afford to have a state of the art hospital
Why can’t such amounts be channeled to the building of a state-of-the-art annex at the antiquated UTH or any other hospital for that matter? By the way, I stumbled on a quotation of $302 million for a high-tech hospital with 320 beds. A third of the budget (100 beds) would cost approximately $53 million. Surely president Sata can raise this amount without getting a loan.
Let me show him how. Back in January 2009, Frederick Chiluba, appearing in Ndola High Court told Deputy Registrar Jones Chinyama that according to an audit conducted by Price Waterhouse Coopers and Grant Thornton there was $53 million in the Zamtrop account of which $8.5 million was his. This is the exact required amount for the project. The Zamtrop money is ours. If it has disappeared, those responsible must be brought to book. In the case the money cannot be recovered, there are many other fund-raising alternatives.
Sourcing medical attention abroad should stop. It exposes a class society built on power. It also exposes disparity due to lack of imagination and poor priorities. What Zambia needs is health-empowerment. Sata’s government must build a state-of-the-art Urgent Care hospital in Zambia that will provide exceptional medical care for all without class distinction.
Thanks to the Sata-Kazimu picture it is as enthusing as disappointing, and serves as an eye opener. The next president must take heed. Having said that let me end by wishing the president’s son Kazimu speedy recovery.
Sports Minister Chishimba Kambwili has threatened to sue The Post and Times of Zambia newspapers for publishing a story in which he is reported to have called the referee who handled the Nkana-Etoile Du Sahel match stupid.
Kambwili on Saturday confronted Ethiopian ref Bamlak Weyesa after Nkana beat Tunisian club Etoile 4-3 in a CAF Confederation Cup match in Kitwe .
Speaking during a media briefing at his residence in Luanshya on Sunday, Kambwili denied calling Weyesa stupid but admitted telling off the ref.
He gave the two newspapers 48 hours in which to retract the story failure to which he will sue the media institutions and the two reporters in their individual capacities.
“I said that I was extremely disappointed with the manner the referee had handled the game and that it was such kind of refereeing that had destroyed football in Africa,” he said.
“I am urging The Post to retract that story I am giving them 48 hours failure to which I will take legal action,” Kambwili said.
INTERNATIONAL Organisation for Migration employee Felix Ngoma hugs his wife Mary
THE International Organisation for Migration (IOM) employee Felix Ngoma, who was abducted by suspected Janjaweed militia in Sudan, has returned home describing his 21 days in detention as the most horrible in his life.
Mr Ngoma arrived on Ethiopian Airlines at 14:00 hours to the jubilation of his family and Government officials, including Foreign Affairs Permanent Secretary George Zulu and his Tourism and Arts counterpart Steven Mwansa.
Narrating his ordeal on arrival at Kenneth Kaunda International Airport, Mr Ngoma said his captors sometimes kept him without food or water for days on end and only survived through some well-wishers who risked their lives by sneaking food to him.
“The first four days I went without food and water,” the surprisingly composed Mr Ngoma said. “Those people did not care whether I had eaten or not but somehow I knew that as long as they kept me under lock and key, they were not going to harm me.”
Mr Ngoma’s joyful mother, Halesi Chima, jokingly asked him how come his potbelly was still intact despite his disclosure that he went for days without eating.
He thanked the Zambian and Sudanese governments, his employers IOM, the entire United Nations Systems in New York and Geneva, the African Union and United Nations chief of Mission in Sudan for their role in securing his release.
Mr Ngoma said working in Sudan was an occupational hazard but vowed to go back to work as soon as possible.
He said all the people who were instrumental in his release occupy a special place in his heart and lauded the united front all stakeholders put up after hearing his abduction.
Mr Ngoma’s wife Mary recounted the anguish of hearing that her husband had been abducted by the rebels and that the family feared for the worst but never lost hope.
“To borrow his words, it was a horrible experience. We lived in fear wondering what was going to happen to him. Thank God he is here with us today,” she said.
Foreign Affairs Minister Harry Kalaba said President Michael Sata was happy with the release of Mr Ngoma and that the Head of State was closely monitoring the case.
Mr Kalaba said this at his office during a brief ceremony at which IOM chief of Mission Andrew Choga and UN resident coordinator Janet Rogan handed over Mr Ngoma to the Zambian Government.
“This is a joyous day for all of us. On behalf of the Zambian Government, I would like to express gratitude to the IOM, the UN and all other parties, including the Mission in Geneva that worked tirelessly to release Mr Ngoma. Welcome home,” he said.
Dr Choga said the IOM was happy that Mr Ngoma had returned unharmed and that the organisation was looking forward to work with him after he recovers from his ordeal.
Ms Rogan said the UN System rejoiced at the momentous release of Mr Ngoma from his captors and that the organisation was happy to have played a part in securing his release.
INTERNATIONAL Organisation for Migration employee Felix Ngoma waves to onlookers as his wife Mary (left), his mother Halesi Chima (second from right) and Foreign Affairs Permanent Secretary George Zulu (right) look on following his arrival at Kenneth Kaunda International Airport in Lusaka
