Shoprite workers in the country have resumed work today following the meeting held yesterday involving Shoprite management, National Union of Commercial and Industrial Workers (NUCIW) and Labour Minister Fackson Shamenda.

Mr. Shamenda who addressed the workers yesterday urged them to end their strike and resume work today as management and union leaders negotiate for their improved working conditions.

A check by a QFM News Crew this morning found workers at Manda Hill and Cairo Shoprite stores working normally.

Some of the workers spoken to however told QFM News that if management does not come up with living wage within the ten days government has given them, they will down tools again.

The workers said they want a proper and reasonable wage structure.

The workers who sought anonymity expressed hope that with the intervention of government their salaries will be revised upwards.

They have since urged their union leaders to be vigilant and negotiate in good faith and not allow the multinational company to violate their rights.

Over three thousand Shoprite Checkers workers on Monday went on strike at various outlets countrywide to press for the implementation of the minimum wage as set by Government and demanding an end to casualization.

The chain store is said to have lost about $1 million as a result of the strike.

[QFM]

THE Lusaka high court has transferred from Mongu to Lusaka hearings in a case in which former Barotse Royal Establishment (BRE) Ngambela Clement Sinyinda and 83 other barotseland activists are charged with treason.

Judge Evans Hamaundu said in his ruling yesterday that he was changing the venue of the case hearings to Lusaka because it was convenient for it to be heard in the capital city than in Mongu.

Mr Justice Hamaundu also transferred the detention of the accused persons from Mongu prison to Mwembeshi open prison in Mumbwa.

This is in a matter in which the State had requested for the transferring of the case hearings and detentions to Mumbwa court and prisons respectively citing security concerns.

But the activists led by Sinyinda had objected to the application saying there were no disturbances that had risen during their appearance in the Mongu magistrate court but all that their relatives and supporters did was to cheer outside the court after court sessions.

Mr Justice Hamaundu said in his ruling yesterday that he had inquired from the Mongu magistrate court on the allegations of disturbances during court sessions but he was informed that there had been no disturbances in court.

He however said that if the matter was moved to Mumbwa as was requested by the State, it would mean that the accused persons would be required to appear in Kabwe where there is only one court room and would in the process affect other matters.

Mr Justice Hamaundu further said that he was changing the venue to Lusaka because there were several courts with many judges who would handle two or more parallel court sessions.

He said that Mumbwa was good for accommodation of the suspects because of the Mwembeshi prison which had spacious space.

Mr Justice Hamaundu said “trial is convenient here in Lusaka so I have changed the venue from Mongu to Lusaka”.

A LUSAKA-BASED Non-Governmental Organisation, Speech for Growth, says Patriotic Front (PF) Lusaka province chairperson Geoffrey Chuumbwe is not fit to hold such a sensitive position if the allegations of aggravated robbery are true.

And political commentator Brebner Changala has asked the police to clarify whether or not the advert reproduced by the Zambia Daily Mail yesterday linking Mr Chuumbwe to crime was authentic or not.

“I want to find out and I want the police and Mr Chuumbwe to tell whether the advert in your paper is by any chance related to a robbery in 1994 or not?” he said.

Mr Changala said the police should clarify how Mr Chuumbwe acquired licences for four guns when he allegedly has a criminal record.

And Speech for Growth board member John Mutekenya said in a statement issued yesterday that Mr Chuumbwe should resign from the PF on moral grounds because allegation of aggravated robbery are serious and have the potential of staining the ruling party’s image.

“On a moral standpoint we call upon Mr Chuumbwe to relinquish his public leadership position if at all he is involved in the alleged criminal revelations,” Mr Mutekenya said.

He said if Mr Chuumbwe refuses to resign on moral grounds, President Sata should consider retiring him to save the image of the party instead of risking staining the ruling party’s image because of one person with an alleged criminal record.

Mr Mutekenya said his organisation has also petitioned the police to make public the finding of the investigations it carried on Mr Chuumbwe’s alleged involvement in an aggravated robbery case.

He said it is important for the police to inform the nation if the case is still active or it was discontinued and Mr Chuumbwe was cleared.

Mr Mutekenya wondered how Mr Chuumbwe was given a licence for the guns adding that the police should invalidate the licence.

“If the licence for the guns were issued before 1994 the police should invalidate the permits after instituting investigations and if the licence was issued after 1994, we want to know what criteria the police used,” he said.
Mr Mutekenya said the police should give a speedy response to the matter because it is an issue of governance and grave important.

Mr Chuumbwe refused to comment on the matter when contacted yesterday.

Meanwhile, the Daily Mail has established through a court search that Mr Chuumbwe was in January 2006 charged with businessman for alleged theft of a government aircraft.

According to the indictment Mr Chuumbwe was between November 20, 1999 and June 30, 2002 alleged to have stolen an aircraft piper PA 18-150 Super Cab registration number 9J-AAD, a property of the Republic of Zambia.

In the second count between the same period, Mr Chuumbwe was allegedly engaged in money laundering involving the same aircraft.

Testifying in the matter before the Lusaka magistrates’ court, former National Parks and Wildlife Services director Acmat Mwenya said by 1991, the department had two aircrafts – a Cessna 206 registration number 9-J AEH and a Super Cab registration number 9J-AAD.

Mr Mwenya said the Cessna later crashed in Lusaka East on its way from Zimbabwe where it was taken for service.
He said later a decision was made for the department to sell its aircrafts whether serviceable or not and a recommendation was made to the permanent secretary of Ministry of Tourism and Environment.

The Daily Mail will in due course establish how the matter was concluded.

Mr Chuumbwe has reportedly said that these are matters that were raised against him when the PF was in opposition and he wonders why they are being brought up again.

MINISTER of Tourism and Arts Sylvia Masebo has been admitted to the University Teaching Hospital (UTH).
Vice-President Guy Scott yesterday took time to visit Ms Masebo.

On her Facebook page, Ms Masebo said she was feeling unwell and asked for prayers from her friends.

GOVERNMENT has dismissed as careless and alarming, calls by the African Parliamentarians Network Against Corruption (APNAC) that President Michael Sata should dissolve Cabinet for alleged corruption.

Chief Government spokesperson, Mwansa Kapeya said that no Cabinet Minister was currently under any investigations or appearing in the courts of law for corruption.

APNAC chairperson, Cornelius Mweetwa alleged in some sections of the media that President Sata should dissolve Cabinet because of alleged corruption.

“Hon Mweetwa should not mix the Zambian scenario with that of Malawi where the President recently dissolved Cabinet, as the two scenarios are unrelated. The calls from him for President Sata to dissolve Cabinet on grounds of corruption are therefore unfortunate, unfounded and unjustified,” Mr Kapeya said.

Mr Kapeya said in a statement in Lusaka yesterday that as a lawmaker presiding over a high profile institution such as APNAC, Mr Mweetwa should prevail over issues in a level headed manner and play a more positive and constructive role in the fight against corruption and avoid playing to the gallery.

Mr Kapeya who is also Information and Broadcasting Services minister said Mr Mweetwa’s position as chairperson of APNAC, provided him access to relevant institutions to gather facts on matters of corruption and should avoid alarming the public on matters he could easily verify.

He said contrary to Mr Mweetwa’s calls, President Sata had declared zero tolerance towards corruption in which there were no sacred cows.

“This can be seen in the restoration of the Abuse of Office Clause in the Anti-Corruption Commission Act which had been removed by the previous Government and the ongoing prosecution of various corruption cases in the courts of law,” he said.

He corruption was a cancer that delayed and derailed development and affected the poor especially women and children adversely.

He said it was for this reason that the Patriotic Front was determined to eradicate corruption.

He expressed Government’s unwavering commitment to fight corruption through close collaboration and partnership with all stakeholders such as APNAC and Transparency International.

THREE suspected Patriotic Front (PF) cadres yesterday wept uncontrollably in the Choma Magistrate Court after they were convicted and sentenced to three-years imprisonment for obtaining money on false pretence.

The three, Exildah Mwale, 38, Tokyo Jere, 33, and Japhet Kamwendo, 35, wept loudly in the docket as most of their relatives joined in shedding tears outside the court.

This was shortly after Choma Magistrate Jacob Mbolela who sentenced the trio, ordered police officers to immediately take the convicts to jail.

Mwale wept while she put both her hands on her head. It took other female suspects who had came to take plea in a murder case to console her while on the other hand ,police officers ordered her to stop crying in court.

“Stop crying in court, you will cry in the jail this is not a place of weeping,” one police was heard telling her.

Particulars of the offence are that on October, 3 2013, the trio whilst jointly acting together in Machinda Township in Choma obtained K3, 500.00 from Christopher Mwanga after they sold him an illegal piece of land.

The trio purported that they had a plot in the area which they sold to Mr Mwanga when infact, the said piece of land did not belong to them but obtained the money on false pretence from the victim.

In mitigation, Mwale pleaded for lenience saying she was the first offender and was looking after two grand children with two orphans and if she was jailed, her siblings would suffer at home.

Jere also asked the court to be lenient with him saying he was a widower whose wife passed away recently and left a five-month old baby whom he was looking after.

When passing sentence, Mr Mbolela said the offence the trio committed was on the increase in Choma as several people were swindled out of their little hard earned income.

”I have heard your mitigations but offences of this nature have become rampant in Choma and many people are being swindled for buying plots illegally this sentence should set example to others,” he sais