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Government is this Friday, 16th August,2013 expected to launch a road rehabilitation project in Lusaka dubbed: L-400 which will see 400 kilometres of urban roads worked on in various townships and compounds at a cost of US$348.8 million.
Republican President Michael Sata in a statement issued to QFM News by his special assistant for press and public relations George Chellah says the road rehabilitation and construction project is expected to create 1,000 jobs.
President Sata says the Government will also focus on implementing more labour absorbing projects such as the Lusaka 400 kilometres [L400].
Mr. Sata, says the PF Government will continue to centre its efforts on growing the economy faster and creating jobs.
President Sata adds the L400 project includes improvement of various roads in various residential, light industrial and industrial areas of Lusaka City such as Kabanana, Chalala, Kamwala South, Chilenje South, Avondale, Kabwata Site and Service, Chazanga, Kamanga, Chinika Area, Bauleni, Northmead, Matero, Chawama, Lilanda, Chilulu, Ngombe, Kaunda Square, Kalingalinga and Mtendere among others.
He says Transport, Works, Supply and Communication Minister Yamfwa Mukanga is scheduled to launch the L-400 project.
President Sata has reiterated his Government’s commitment to creating a better Zambia for all by fostering job creation and maximising the development impact of jobs in line with the PF Manifesto.
SARB Energy Managing Director Akpan Ekpene this morning shocked a Lusaka Magistrate Court room when he broke down and protested that he didn’t know why he was being involved in the court matter.
Mr. Ekpene, who is a state witness in a case in which Former President Rupiah Banda is charged with abuse of authority wept during testimony describing Mr Banda as a man of great honour.
He was testifying in a matter in which former President Rupiah Banda, 75, of house number 3 Plot 2759 off Leopards Hill Road in Lusaka is charged with one count of abuse of authority of office.
Mr. Banda is alleged to have procured a US$2.5 million Nigerian government-to-government oil contract in the name of the republic of Zambia “which he in fact meant to benefit himself and his family”.
[pullquote]Mr. Ekpene said Mr. Banda was not involved in the oil deal[/pullquote]
Akpan Ekpene, who spoke between sobs, said he holds Mr. Banda in high esteem because Mr. Banda believed in him.Mr. Ekpene wished that Mr. Banda had won the 2011 general elections to avert what the duo is now facing.
He told the court that no money was paid by the Zambian government and that Mr. Banda did not pay anything adding that Zambia did not lose anything.
Mr. Ekpene said Mr. Banda was not involved in the oil deal.
During cross-examination by defence counsel, Professor Patrick Mvunga, the witness said he travelled to Zambia to confirm that his company did not receive any money from the Zambian Government and that his team took a great risk.
“I was not happy with what I was reading about my company in online articles which I could access. So when I came here I wanted to confirm that we did not receive the US$2.5 million from the Zambian Government, we took great risk and delivered our mandate,” he said.
Mr Ekpene said the lifting of the crude oil was done in September 2011 after Rupiah Banda had ceased to be the Republican president and that the contract was later terminated, an indication that nobody further benefited from the contract.
When further asked whether he had access to parliamentary proceedings concerning the matter where it was stated in the notice of motion that the investigations team had established that the Zambian Government paid $2.5 million to National Nigerian Petroleum Company (NNCP) for the procurement of crude oil, Mr Ekpene said the Zambian Government did not pay any money.
He explained that the said amount was actually his money paid to the Nigerian Oil Petroleum Corporation (NOPC) paid by every businessman who wants to export oil from the country as surety.He said he has actually since been refunded that amount and no body ever lost any money in the purported oil deal with the Zambian government.
The magistrate adjourned the matter to tomorrow and the DPP indicated that he will be bringing a new witness tomorrow.
Meanwhile, attempts to block Daily Nation Newspaper from covering court proceedings proved fruitless.Chief resident magistrate Joshua Banda cautioned Daily Nation Newspaper to be professional in their reporting following and application by the Director of Public Prosecutions, Mutembo Nchito.
Chipolopolo on Wednesday night begins the build up to next month’s must win 2014 World Cup qualifier against Ghana when they take on Senegal in a friendly in France.
The friendly against Senegal in Paris is part of Zambia’s preparations for the September 6 World Cup qualifiers against The Black Stars scheduled for Kumasi.
Zambia beat Senegal 2-1 in the two teams’ last meeting-which came at the 2012 Africa Cup in January.
Herve Renard’s side takes on The Taranga Lions minus four key players who include Captain Christopher Katongo, forwards Collins Mbesuma and James Chamanga plus midfielder Chisamba Lungu.
Senegal are also missing Demba Ba.
However, Renard has rounded up a strong Chipolopolo squad capable of upsetting Senegal in the 20:00 hours kick off match.
Some of the players in France are Vice-Captain Kennedy Mweene, Stopila Rainford Kalaba, Nathan Sinkala, Jacob Mulenga, Emmanuel Mayuka and Fwayo Tembo.
Meanwhile, Ghana warms up for Zambia with a friendly against Turkey away in Istanbul.
Full Squad
Goalkeepers: Kennedy Mweene (Mamelodi Sundowns, South Africa), Danny Munyau (Red Arrows),
Defenders: Joseph Musonda (Golden Arrows, South Africa), Davies Nkausu (SuperSport United, South Africa), Bronson Chama (Red Arrows) Christopher Munthali (Nkana), Hichani Himoonde, Stoppila Sunzu (Both TP Mazembe, DR Congo)
President Michael Sata has taken a swipe at ministers with bald heads when there are a lot of combs being sold by women.
Speaking shortly before swearing in former Road Development Agency Board Chairman Benard Chiwala as permanent secretary for transport, works and Supply this morning, president Sata said it is easy to keep hair.
President Sata said this while greeting Ministers among them Lusaka province minister Obvious Mwaliteta and Transport, Works and Supply minister Yamfwa Mukanga who had short shaved hair.
The President said he will organize women for them to sell them combs.
Reports attributed to the Ministry of Finance that the effective date for implementation of new salaries for public service workers has been moved are false and just another scheme aimed at stressing workers and thereby affecting their productivity and capacity to deliver the promises of the Government to the people of Zambia.
During the media briefing on treasury and fiscal matters held last Sunday, the Minister of Finance was very categorical in his affirmation that the new salaries would be implemented NEXT MONTH IN SEPTEMBER.
At that occasion, the Minister praised all public service unions for the benevolence shown in agreeing that the salary increments be implemented in September, instead of the end of the first quarter in March. He also thanked the unions for their spirit of dialogue, understanding and focused leadership.
Issued by
Fredson Yamba
Secretary To The Treasury
MINISTRY OF FINANCE
Dr Effron Lungu being sworn in as Foreign affairs Minister
President Michael Sata has with immediate effect dropped Foreign Affairs Minister Effron Lungu.
He has since appointed Lands Minister Wilbur Simuusa as Foreign Affairs Minister while the Ministry of Lands remains unoccupied.
President Sata has also sworn in former RDA Chief Executive Officer Bernard Chiwala as Permanent Secretary Ministry of Transport, Communications, Works and Supply.President Sata instructed Mr Chiwala to ensure that the Link 8,000 road project is fully implemented.
Last month, President Michael Sata publicly rebuked Foreign Affairs Minister,Effron Lungu for writing him a letter and copying it to Foreign Affairs Permanent Secretary, Margaret Miyoba.The President said he had served in various governments before and has never seen a minister writing a letter to the President and copying it to other people such as Permanent Secretaries or any other person.
“The letter that you wrote to me and copied to other people, I shredded it because I do not expect you to copy a letter that is coming to me,” President Sata said.
The visibly disappointed Head of State stated that he has never encountered such a thing in his political career and advised Dr Lungu to be serious with his work.
Dr.Effron Lungu was sworn in as Foreign Affairs minister in February this year replacing Given Lubinda who was fired after being charged with treachery and disloyalty to the PF party.
I had hardly settled in my seat before a monitor of a microfilm reader in the library when a bulky man with steel eyes, dressed in a charcoal suit, approached me.
“Are you Field Ruwe?” he asked.
The accent gave him away. He was Zambian.
His approach was confrontational, so I hesitated, but only for a brief moment.
“Yes,” I said.
He extended his hand.
“I’ve been dying to meet you. We need to talk.”
A bolt of worry ran through my body. I was going to scream for help when my sixth sense calmed me down. There was a woman at the next monitor. She took a quick glance at us and continued with her work.
Research on the Life of Michael Sata
Okay. Let me pause for a sec and set the scene. First, I must explain what a microfilm reader is. It is a computer–like device that compacts and stores documents. Libraries use microfilms to archive old newspapers, journals and records from around the world in microform. Some date back to the Gutenberg Revolution of the 1400s. I had just accessed the Northern Rhodesia/Zambia section.
For the past month, I have been perusing microfilmed newspapers and documents to find supporting evidence of President Michael Sata’s life. To do so is like sifting through soil for Acheulean fossils in the Olduvai Gorge. I am not a Louis Leakey, but a historian and journalist trying to chronicle the life of my president in its entirety. Armed not with excavation spades and brushes, but with my pen, I am looking for skeletons in the cupboard, buried deep in the sands of time.
The life of president Sata intrigues many. It is a rags-to-riches blockbuster laced with perseverance, tenacity, trickery, vindictiveness, deceit, back-stabbing, malice, and venom. It exceeds that of most Zambian men who walk the corridors of power. He is not charming but cunning; not loved but tolerated. So why not put his life in perspective for the curious mind and the fervent reader. That’s what I am attempting. If I don’t, no one will. There is no presidential biographer in the land of fourteen million people.
[pullquote]He has succeeded in blocking journalists from writing with a purpose of facilitating change and has instead turned them into propagandists.[/pullquote]
We never chronicle our presidents. Apart from Kaunda who penned an autobiography “Zambia shall be free,” our leaders do not write their memoirs. They do not keep journals or diaries and when it is time to go, they leave not an iota of written life. We remember them orally for we are content with oral history—that branch of history that has earned us much scoff and ridicule. They say we muddle our memories in vagueness and imprecision. Our very own historians know this and yet choose to behave like scavengers feeding on Eurocentric acumen.
Perhaps the word “scavenger” is too extreme. There are some local historians who have made an effort. For instance Beatwell Chisala did an excellent job with “The rise and fall of Kaunda.” But many who have volunteered to document the lives of our leaders have been underrated, spurned, snubbed, held in suspicion, and turned away. This is the reason why my project bears the title “King Cobra: unauthorized biography of Michael Sata.” Before I embarked on the assignment, I took an oath to be fair and unbiased. I pledged to execute my work as both a journalist and historian, and not allow emotions get the best of me.
Shu shu shu?
I had intended to kick off at the end of the spring semester and put the summer break to good use, but for a good while a spell of discouragement percolated in my mind like the devil’s wind. It was sparked by a caller one May day:
“I’m trying to reach Field Ruwe,” the caller said.
“Yes, this is he,” I replied. “And who are you?”
“Never mind,” he said. “I just want to warn you to stop writing garbage about His Excellency President Michael Sata and the PF government. I have…”
“Who are you?” I interjected.
The caller ignored me.
“I have been reading your so-called ‘Hunt for Successor’ nonsense and I am least impressed. You’ve been tainting the good name of the president. You are portraying him to the world as an ignorant dictator. We know who is behind this and who is paying you. We even know how much. You are playing with fire my friend.”
“Who are you and who gave you my number?”
“You can’t hide,” he continued. “I know where to find you. I’ve all your cellphone and home numbers, your street address, and your exact location, even the plate number and make of the car you drive. For your own information, I’m not far from where you are. I know the color of your house. I even know the number of trees in your yard. They are eight. Count them. So, watch it. Stop the nonsense, do you understand?”
“You bloody assassin,” I countered. “Stalkers like you ought to be arrested and thrown in jail. You are the reason our country is stagnant. You are the ones who have turned your very own children, brothers and sister, nieces and nephews into lambs and dragged our country back to the stone-age. We can’t develop intellectually because of you.”
“Leave the president alone,” he retorted. “If you don’t I will make sure you are arrested and repatriated to Zambia to stand trial. Don’t say I did not warn you.”
“I’ll not be intimidated,” I replied.
“I’m coming for you,” he said and hung up.
For a while I was emotionally frayed. It was the third anonymous call in a month. The last one was from a woman.
“Mr. Ruwe,” she called. “I was your fan when you wrote ‘Zambian intellectuals are lazy.’ I felt inspired, but you began to criticize the president and our political leaders. I changed my mind. Why have you gone after politicians instead of concentrating on your message of invention and innovation? Do you know that defamation of a president is a very serious crime in Zambia?”
“Who are you?” I asked.
“I’m a woman who loves her country and respects her leaders. Of course you don’t. You choose to insult and demean them. You better watch your back.”
She hung up.
The very first call was short. It was male and deep-throated:
“Don’t you ever think of coming back to Zambia. We shall feed you to hyenas. Stay where you are.”
Fear
A languid feeling coupled with a sense of insecurity began to filter in. I had forgotten that I belonged to a trodden people lodged in the grasp of one man—the president. In my country the president is supreme; nonpareil; and he is a quasi-deity. He can do whatever he wants even when he sleeps on a bed of thorns. It is illegal and certainly taboo to say or write anything negative about him.
For president Sata, uncritical support and naivety are a symbol of loyalty and patriotism. We are expected to worship him. We should mutely watch him squander our trust and mismanage our lives. He can conceal his life and reveal only what suits him; that’s alright. He can leave the country whenever he feels like at our expense; why not. Those who dare challenge his authority are considered contumacious and pay a heavy price. They are hunted, blackballed, thrown into TB jails and left for the dead.
The recent anonymous calls, hate mail, hackings, and the use of my IP to block me from accessing some of the online media outlets, were an indication that I was in a similar predicament; that I had aroused enough concern to be put under surveillance. If I boarded a plane to Zambia I would land at Auschwitz in the same cell with those who believe in the freedom of the press.
The thought scared the bejesus out of me. I told my son I was abandoning “Hunt for Successor” series.
“I thought you taught me never to quit?” he said. “You did mean it, didn’t you?”
“Of course I did.”
“You said that when fear knocks I should slam the door in its face.”
“Yes I did.”
“So, why are you sounding like a coward?” he asked. “Why are you throwing in the towel?”
“Because I do not want you or any member of my family to be harmed,” I said. “The president is brutal. He’s pitiless. He’s throwing people with dissenting views in jail and shutting off any media opposition.”
“Tell me dad. If you quit, who is going to fight for those thrown in jail? Who is going to give Zambian journalists the full meaning of freedom? I thought by writing the series you were shedding more light on the untold stories and fulfilling the function of freedom of the press? If you are such a coward, why did you start the series? Didn’t you know the conditions under which journalists back home operate? Didn’t you know who you were dealing with? Didn’t you know it would come to this?”
Zambian journalists are pursued, prosecuted, and persecuted
My son had me thinking. I remembered the words of my professor in my investigative journalism class: “An investigative journalist must remain focused, fearless, and precise, just like a surgeon. He must have the desire to probe, prod, and uncover the truth. He must not wilt under pressure.”
This is the reason I became an investigative journalist and a historian. I have the desire to seek the truth and help to uphold democracy in my country.
From the day Sata became president, the development of journalism has stalled. It is retarded. He has succeeded in blocking journalists from writing with a purpose of facilitating change and has instead turned them into propagandists.
As a result Zambian journalists have become non-progressive. They are unable to fight the abuse of power, oppression, corruption, and nepotism. Those who feel a personal affront when they sense danger are banished. They are pursued, prosecuted, and persecuted. I am no exception.
I took another good look at my pursuer, the falconer in the microfilm room. For a moment I thought it was Wynter Kabimba. Obviously it was not. He was taller with thicker lips. His demeanor was best suited for a police officer.
He glanced at the monitor and caught the bold words “Zambia: Sata linked to emeralds scandal.” I had begun my day by reading a story in the Zambia Reports, written by George Mwenya, and featured on All.Africa.com.
“So this is where you do your research,” the man said after telling me his name was John Banda.
“John, how can I help you?” I was nonchalant.
“I need to speak with you,” he said. “Do you have a moment?”
“What do you want to speak to me about?” I asked.
“I can’t say it here. We’ll need to find a quiet place. It is important that I talk to you.”
All the while I was trying to connect his voice to the phone calls. I couldn’t place it. It was huskier with beer in it.
“I’m not moving out of this seat until you tell me why you are here,” I said.
I reached for my phone to call the emergency 911; that’s what the police had told me. I had reported the phone threats to them and they had assured me help would not be too far.
To be continued. Don’t miss Part II
By Field Ruwe
Text Part 1 to a friend. Permission is granted to other media outlets to publish this story with acknowledgement.
Zamtel has completed its USD 4 million Livingstone investment and is on schedule to hand over free internet hotspots to all official UNWTO venues and hotels ahead of the conference.
Livingstone has effectively become the first city in the country to benefit from Zamtel’s latest high speed internet services using the optic fibre network technology.
As an official UNWTO communications partner, Zamtel is providing free internet access to delegates through virtual hotspots set up at all approved hotels and other strategic institutions such as the airport and conference secretariat.
The free internet access offer is limited to the duration of the UNWTO general assembly and beneficiary institutions includes David Livingstone, Sun International, Courtyard, Falls way Lodge, Chrismar and Protea Hotels. Others are Harry Mwanga Nkumbula Airport and the One Stop Shop (UNWTO Secretariat).
In February, Zamtel prioritized the upgrade of telecommunication infrastructure in Livingstone in order to provide reliable and high quality services during and after the UNWTO general assembly taking place this August.
The company focused on two major capital projects namely: Expansion of the 3G Mobile Network Coverage using Long Term Evolution (LTE) or 4G ready Mobile Baste Stations and installation of the Fiber to the home, office, cabinet and business.
[pullquote]Zamtel is hoping to turn Zambia into a virtual hotspot providing fast internet connectivity[/pullquote]
Under the 2G/3G/LTE Mobile Network coverage and expansion project, Zamtel has deployed 22 new coverage and expansion sites in and around Livingstone, increasing capacity in the tourist capital by more than twofold.
As a consequence of these two projects in Livingstone, Zamtel has managed to connect 2G, 3G and LTE ready cell sites through fiber which has greatly increased internet access speeds for broadband services such as video streaming, mobile television and other value added services. Additionally all passive copper cabinets have been replaced by active cabinets (MSAGs) which are fed by fiber under the FTTx project.
This has reduced the copper distance to clients by over 60 percent in most cases resulting in great improvement in ADSL internet throughput and quality.
At national level, Zamtel is currently running a fiber backbone network from Sesheke through Lusaka and Copperbelt to Solwezi. Additionally, there are three branches running from Kapiri to Serenje, Lusaka to Mwembeshi and Lusaka to Rufunsa. Besides the Fiber Backbone, Microwave (Radio) Backbones run to all provincial centres in the country.
To meet the increasing high capacity (bandwidth) demands for ICT services in Zambia, Zamtel plans to extend the current fiber backbone network to all provincial centers and districts across the country. This project will largely benefit clients who require wide area network (WAN) interconnectivity across the country.
Projects such as E-Government aimed at interconnecting ministries and government agencies are expected to benefit from the countrywide National Fiber Backbone. Zamtel shall have the largest fiber backbone network in the country once the National Backbone is deployed to all districts.
With this level of investment, Zamtel is hoping to turn Zambia into a virtual hotspot providing fast internet connectivity that is likely to spur rapid economic development through reliability internet connectivity.
File Picture:President Banda talks to the President of Turkey Abdullah GUL at the Convention and Exibition Centre during the Least Developed Countries (LDCs) UN Conference in Instanbul Turkey. This was during bilateral talks between Turkey and Zambia on the sideslines of the LDCs meeting.
A witness yesterday told the Lusaka magistrate’s court that he personally handed over US$260,000 cash to former President Rupiah Banda to fund his presidential campaign in 2008.
This is in a matter in which Banda, 75, is charged with abuse of authority of office relating to procuring a government-to-government oil deal between Zambia and Nigeria.
SARB’s Energy Limited managing director, Akpan Ekpene 46, told the court that he visited Zambia several times when asked by one of the defence lawyers Lubinda Linyama and that his major purpose of visiting Zambia on the second trip was to support Banda in his election campaign.
He said on that trip he travelled to Zambia with Banda’s campaign materials such as t-shirts which were engraved with an MMD logo.He said he also carried with him $260, 000 in cash which he entered with into the country without declaring it at the airport because he was not given a declaration form by immigration officials to sign.
He said he handed over the said money to Banda at Government House for his use in the 2008 campaigns and stated that it was a private arrangement with the former President.
In his testimony yesterday, Mr Ekpene told the court that in 2011, he again gave Banda, through his son Henry, $500,000 to boost his election campaign.
This was after Banda requested for $1 million advance payment from the government to government oil deal.Mr Ekpene told chief resident magistrate Joshua Banda that he also helped Banda with printed MMD campaign materials which he brought from Nigeria to Zambia.
He said, however, that it was not an offence to fund a political party in his country.He said he made the donation to Banda because Major Richard Kachingwe had allegedly insisted that they needed to support him to win the elections.
When asked whether Banda asked for the donation, Mr Ekpene said “his Excellency received the donation, but his Excellency did not solicit for the donation.’’
Trial continues today.
Finance Minister Alexander Chikwnda is flanked by Secretary to the Treasury Fredson Yamba (left) and Bank of Zambia Governor Michael Gondwe (right) at a media breakfast at Taj-Pamodzi hotel in Lusaka
The Civil Servants and Allied Workers Union of Zambia (CSAWU) has expressed shock that government decided to communicate the deferment of payment of new civil servants salaries from September to October 2013 through the media.
This follows Finance Minister Alexander Chikwanda’s announcement on Sunday that salaries for Civil Servants will be effective from 1st October and not 1st September as earlier promised.
Civil Servants and Allied Workers Union General Secretary Joy Beene in an interview with QFM News said that the union will take the Minister’s statement a mere media statement.
Mr Beene said that government’s channel of communication over such an issue has been received with shock by the union.
He says the Union will not accept communication through the media as it is aware of how government communicates and operates.
Mr. Beene added that ever since the pronouncement was made Civil Servants have been having sleepless nights trying to inquire why there has been a change.
He said that the union had initially bargained for March 2013 as the date for the effecting of the new conditions of service but that government negotiated for September, which forced them as a union to sensitize its membership across the country on the effective implementation date for new conditions of service.
Mr. Beene has since reassured Civil Servants to stick to what was signed for in the collective agreement between the Union and government.
FARMERS in Kitwe’s Mfubu ranch yesterday protested over reports that their land had been sold to politicians and businessmen.
The farmer’s alleged that the Kitwe City Council (KCC) had sold over 1,750 hectares of their land which they had been occupying for many years to others.
Group representative, Kelvin Silwela said the farmers had been occupying the land in question for a long time and had nowhere to go.
Mr Silwela said the farmers walked from Mfubu ranch in Wusakile Township to the roundabout along the Kitwe-Ndola dual carriage way where they were intercepted by police in riot gear.
But KCC director of human resource and administration Wisdom Bwalya who addressed the farmers said Mfubu ranch was state land.
Mr Bwalya said the council would engage the Ministry of Agriculture and the farmers to find an amicable solution.
THE Food Reserve Agency (FRA) has assured Government that it will manage to buy enough maize required for national reserves and ensure that Zambia enjoys food security.
FRA executive director Chola Kafwabulula told journalists after visiting Zimba satellite depot yesterday that there is no need to worry about the country’s maize reserves.
“In terms of national reserves, we will buy sufficient stocks for national reserves. We don’t have to worry about this…we are going to be secure in terms of food,” Mr Kafwabulula said.
In the last three weeks, the FRA has been buying maize from farmers across the country. The agency has so far purchased 146, 828 metric tonnes of maize. Last year, within the same period, the FRA only bought 119,000 metric tonnes.
He said if the trend continues, the agency is likely to buy more maize this year compared to last year.
Mr Kafwabulula said according to statistics, the FRA has so far bought more maize from the Northern Province.
“The highest purchase is from Northern province. So far we have bought about 33,000 metric tonnes from the 146, 828 metric tonnes countrywide….Western Province has recorded the lowest purchase so far,” he said.
He said despite its target of 500,000 metric tonnes of maize, the FRA will continue to buy the crop whenever the farmers supply it.
Meanwhile, private maize traders in Zimba are using defective scales to weigh the maize they are buying from local farmers.
One of the farmers Sylvia Rito, who has sold more than 300 x 50 kilogrammes of bags to the FRA, said farmers have lost a lot of maize through defective scales used by private traders.
“We waited for the FRA to buy our maize instead of selling to briefcase maize buyers. FRA scales are more accurate,” she said.
COPPERBELT University (CBU) students have gone on a class boycott following the arrest of colleagues by police on Sunday.
Copperbelt University Students Union (COBUSU) president Oscar Mbewe said the students had boycotted classes as a way to protest against the detention of their colleagues.
Mr Mbewe said in an interview that the boycott was referred to as a ‘Black Monday’ and that the 16 students that were arrested had been released.
He said the students who were charged with unlawful assembly were released yesterday (Monday) through the help of Riverside councilor Christopher Kang’ombe who intervened in the matter.
“We have gone on a class boycott in solidarity over our colleagues that were arrested on Sunday and we are calling the day a black Monday,” he said.
Mr Mbewe said CBU which was supposed to have 2000 students was currently housing over 14,000 students, a situation which had brought confusion at campus.
He said management was not putting in consideration the number of students being enrolled each year.
He appealed to Government to come on board and help management build hostels to cushion the accommodation crisis at the institution.
He said the institution had over 80 percent of land which was dormant.
On Sunday, police arrested 17 students for alleged unruly behaviour after they rioted following managements decision to check on squatters in rooms.
ZAMBIA needs a progressive and independent judiciary which is accountable to the majority of the people it serves, Justice Minister Wynter Kabimba has said.
Mr Kabimba said the country’s judiciary should be sensitive to the court of public opinion and promote good governance and human rights.
Speaking in a presentation on legal and justice reforms in Zambia during the seventh annual State Advocates workshop in Livingstone yesterday, he said it was vital to have a judicial system which did not believe in divinity of judgments it pronounced.
“The Zambian Government would like to have a justice and legal system which will be a catalyst for social and economic development as well as the overall stability of society,” he said.
He said in a constitutional democracy such as that of Zambia, a legal and justice system which was able to meet and fulfill the aspirations of the people was most appropriate.
He said the lack of political will since independence to reform the legal and justice system in Zambia could have contributed to growing poverty and inequality and slowed economic development.
“We need a judiciary which promotes good governance and human rights as well as a judiciary which commands the respect and confidence of society. We also need a legal system which does not compromise the local and international standards,” Mr Kabimba said.
He said a Police Service which promoted the civil liberties of individual citizens and the human rights regime of all citizens was another aspect of a just legal system.
He called for a Prison Service which was not penal but reformatory so as to ensure that prisoners had a post-prison life as citizens.
“We need a system of appointing and promoting Judges on merit and not any other extraneous considerations. We also need a media regime which is free from undue political pressure and influence but which is also accountable and responsible in its reporting,” Mr Kabimba said.
He said under the MMD administration, the stakeholders in the judiciary and the general public had lost hope about judicial reforms.
Justice Permanent Secretary Joseph Akafumba urged participants to put in their best during the workshop.
Mr Akafumba said he had no doubt that the participants would find the meeting useful in their career as lawyers.
The five-day gathering has attracted many lawyers from the Government and from the private sector.
Labour Minister Fackson Shamenda
THE Patriotic Front (PF) government says it has created more than 316,089 jobs since assuming power in September 2011.
Minister of Labour and Social Security Fackson Shamenda said the 316, 089 jobs were created in various sectors of the economy between October 2011 and July this year.
Mr Shamenda said at a press briefing in Lusaka yesterday that the jobs were created directly and indirectly through effective implementation of policies, projects, programmes and activities under the PF government.
“This, indeed, is testimony of hard work of the PF government towards fulfilling its pact with the people of Zambia.
“The 2013 national budget, whose theme is “Delivering inclusive development and social justice”, has for the first time put job creation at the centre of the country’s development agenda by explicitly targeting the creation of 200,000 jobs in 2013. Sectors targeted for these jobs include agriculture, tourism, manufacturing and construction,” he said.
Mr Shamenda said of the 316,089 jobs, the tourism sector accounted for 218,344 jobs, the electricity, gas and water sector accounted for 27,369 jobs while the services sector had 13,470 jobs out of which 13,463 were directly created by the Road Development Agency.
He said the education sector has seen 10,099 jobs while the finance and banking sector has had 5,481 jobs. The community, social and human development sector had 4,136 jobs.
“The rest of the sectors, including transport and communication, health, agriculture, forestry and fishing and others, each accounted for less than two percent,” Mr Shamenda said.
He said the tourism sector is one of the sectors targeted for job creation. Mr Shamenda said the figures will drastically shoot up after the United Nations World Tourism Organisation conference, which Zambia will co-host with neighbouring Zimbabwe this month.
