People’s Party President Mike Mulongoti openly accused Justice Minister Wynter Kabimba of laying a foundation to succeed President Michael Sata.

During a rare National Watch television programme on ZNBC last evening, Mr. Mulongoti said Mr. Kabimba who is also PF Secretary General has been blocking potential successors to President Sata in order to smoothen his way to the top.

“Everybody knows Wynter is a pretender. He is preparing to take over, I know he will deny it but that is what the people in the party are telling us,” Mr. Mulongoti said.

“He is busy kicking out any potential threats to his presidential ambition so that he positions himself to take over, everybody knows that,” he said.

This was after Mr. Kabimba described Mr. Mulongoti and others who campaigned for the PF in the run up to the 2011 elections as political refugees who had sought solace in the PF.

“Our view as the PF is that Mr. Mulongoti and all those that came and sympathized with us were never our members, we view them as political refugees who had run away from a civil war in their own parties and we accommodated them. If refugees at Maheba sympathize with Zambians, they don’t become Zambians. That was the similar situation that Mike (Mr. Mulongoti) and others found themselves in,” Mr. Kabimba said.

The accusations from Mr. Mulongoti will go far to reinforce a general perception that Mr. Kabimba has been orchestrating the recent power battles in the PF to position himself for the big post in the likely event that President Sata does not rerun for office.

“My friend here (pointing at Mr. Kabimba) is a beneficiary of politics of patronage. He has never won an elective political office. He is where he is today because he was appointed Secretary General and nominated as MP by President Sata. He has idea of what it takes to form a political party,” Mulongoti said.

He continued, “My presidential ambitions are well within my right. I have the rights to dream big also. I want to be President. I was a Councilor, MP and Ministers, is it wrong to progress in life?”

Mr. Mulongoti defended his decision to form his own political party saying it was a better option.

“I couldn’t go to the MMD because of the manner in which I was expelled and I couldn’t go and officially join the PF because it has its own problems, not all is well in the PF. I didn’t want to join a house which is on fire.”

Transport, Works, Supply, and Communications Minister Christopher Yaluma today took to task management and staff at the Zambia Information and Communications Technology Authority (ZICTA) over the authority’s alleged failure to regulate the high tariffs and poor service delivery by mobile service providers.

Mr. Yaluma charged that ZICTA has stood by and watched mobile service providers exploit Zambians through high tariffs.

He said this when he visited ZICTA offices in Lusaka today.

He said ZICTA has not performed its regulatory role even when it was aware of its responsibility of ensuring that quality services were delivered to consumers.

Mr. Yaluma alleged that the authority has instead teamed up with mobile service providers in exploiting the public.

He said as a communication regulatory authority, ZICTA should adopt an aggressive approach in regulating mobile phone service providers.

He has since instructed the authority to come up with a clear strategy of how it plans to improve access to information and communications technology, detailing the cost and benefits to Zambians.

The minister observed that ZICTA’s previous strategies lacked a clear roadmap, hence making it ineffective.

And ZICTA Board Chairperson Gertrude Akapelwa Euheni disclosed that her authority will soon open an ICT centre of knowledge which will train information technology personnel in order to improve ICT innovations in the country.

Mrs. Euheni said lack of an ICT training centre has hindered the levels of performance in the sector.

Meanwhile, ZICTA Director General Margaret Mudenda said the authority will endeavour to provide the best service to Zambians.

ZANIS

The national constitution convention has amended the executive functions of the president to allow the head of state appoint career diplomats or persons who have relevant professional qualification to serve in foreign missions.
The convention has further provided in the same article that all the appointments of ambassadors, high commissioners and consuls be ratified by parliament to ensure that only qualified persons are appointed.
This is contained in clause 2 (b) of Article 90 of the first draft constitution.

In debating the clause, Keembe Member of Parliament (MP) Lieutenant General Ronnie Shikapwasha noted that the amendment does not take away powers from the president to appoint diplomats but merely seeks to ensure that only qualified persons are appointed to represent Zambia in foreign countries.

Lt. Gen. Shikapwasha, who once served as Foreign Affairs Minister during the MMD regime, explained that he faced problems with some diplomats who could not perform because they were not qualified to serve in foreign missions as they had no professionl qualification in any field.

But Kasempa MMD MP, Kabinga Pande, who also once served as Minister of Foreign Affairs, opposed the clause contending that the president should be allowed to appoint anyone he thinks can represent the country better instead of career diplomats.His argument was supported by Deputy Minister of Labour Ronald Chitotela who noted that the amendments were wrongly placed as the president has the powers to appoint civil servants hence the amendment should apply to the civil service if the clause is adopted.

The house unanimously adopted the clause by acclamation vote, meaning that all appointment of diplomats will only be for professional persons who will be ratified by parliament.

Meanwhile, the convention has yet again failed to reach a consensus on some clauses of article 97 that provide for the qualification and disqualification for nomination for election as president and referred the matter to a secret ballot tomorrow.

Divisions arose when the thematic group proposed that they include the age of presidential aspirants which attracted mixed reactions.
After debating, the house conducted an acclamation vote which resulted in a stalemate but the chairperson of the convention declared the delegates that opposed amendments as winners.

This was petitioned by more than 80 delegates who stood to show their disagreement forcing the chairperson to refer the motion to a secret ballot tomorrow.

The amendments suggested that the presidential candidate should not to be over the age of 80 years for them to be eligible to contest the presidential election.

And the convention has since rejected proposals to amend a clause of article 97 that would provide that a presidential aspirant should hold a university degree or its equivalent as minimum academic qualification.
This was after a heated debate as delegates supporting the amendments contended that all presidential aspirants should hold a university degree so that they can be analytical and articulate on global issues.
Those opposing the proposal argued that the clause was discriminatory to many Zambians who have not had a privilege of passing through the university but have the skill and ability to run the country better.
But some delegates noted that leadership requires wisdom and not knowledge adding that the poverty levels in the country have made it impossible for many intelligent Zambians to acquire a university degree qualification.
And Kalomo UPND MP Request Muntanga noted that people without degrees have proved to be good leaders world over unlike professors and others with doctorates.
Mr. Muntanga argued that some degree holders have acquired their qualification through questionable means making them worse than those without degrees hence the need to leave the qualification open for all Zambian with Grade 12 qualification.