His Excellency Mr Rupiah Bwezani Banda, fourth President of the Republic of Zambia, would like to express, with a deep sense of shock, his sympathy and condolences to the family, government, and people of Malawi, at the passing of his brother and friend Ngwazi Dr Bingu Wa Mutharika. May His Soul Rest in Eternal Peace.

This was contained in a statement made available to Lusakatimes by the African Presidential Center Boston University.

Meanwhile, On Thursday, April 5, President Banda paid his respects and visited the Crypt of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. and Mrs. Coretta Scott King in Atlanta, Georgia.

As he laid a wreath, His Excellency said, “On behalf of His Excellency Michael Sata, former Zambian President Kenneth Kaunda, in memory of President Levy Mwanawasa, on behalf of all Zambians, and as an honored guest of Boston University, I lay this wreath in memory of Martin Luther King, Jr., as an example of a human rights activist who inspired Africans in their quest for freedom.”

President Banda was accompanied by Ambassador Charles Stith, director of the Boston University African Presidential Center, and Reverend Bernice King, daughter of the slain civil rights leader.

President Banda is visiting Atlanta primarily to conduct lectures at Morehouse College, a member of BU’s African Presidential Center’s Universities Collaborative. President Banda will also visit the Carter Center, having been the head of a recent Carter Center election monitoring delegation to the Democratic Republic Congo.

President Rupiah Banda is the Eighth President-in-Residence at Boston University’s African Presidential Center, and will fill this role through the fall. As President-in-Residence, President Banda follows such notables as former Zambian President Kenneth Kaunda, President Q. Ketumile Masire, former president of Botswana, President Antonio Monteiro, former president of Cape Verde, and Mo Ibrahim prize-winner President Festus Gontebanye Mogae, former president of Botswana.

President Banda will also conduct lectures at other schools that are part of the Center’s Universities Collaborative, including Elizabeth City State University, the University of Dar es Salaam, and the University of Ghana, Legon.

He will be traveling within the United States and Africa to discuss his experiences as President, trends of democratization, and the current state of African politics.

He will also join other former heads of state at the African Presidential Center’s upcoming African Presidential Roundtable, to be hosted at the University of the Witwatersrand in Johannesburg, May 23-25, 2012.

The African President-in-Residence program is an initiative of the African Presidential Center at Boston University and is funded by the United States Agency for International Development (USAID).

The African Presidential Center has taken an unprecedented approach to studying democratization and free-market reform in Africa. Through this residency program for former democratically elected African leaders, the African Presidential Center provides a forum for sharing the insights and expertise of past and present heads of state and government.

The African Presidential Center’s other initiatives include its internationally renowned African Leaders State of Africa Report, as well as its annual policy forum, the African Presidential Roundtable.

Zimbabwe on Tuesday dismissed reports that President Robert Mugabe was battling for life in a Singapore hospital as “a lot of hogwash”, after his absence forced cabinet to postpone this week’s meeting.

“It’s a lot of hogwash,” Information Minister Webster Shamu told AFP. “This is not the first time we have heard these rumours. If anything like that had happened, we would have issued a statement.”

He would not disclose the whereabouts of Mugabe, 88, who was reported by state media to have left for Singapore on a private visit more than a week ago to arrange post-graduate studies for his daughter Bona.

Shamu’s statement came on the back of a report in the Zimbabwe Mail news website that Mugabe, in power since 1980, was seriously ill and had agreed to hand over power to defence minister Emmerson Mnangagwa.

A government source who spoke on condition of anonymity said Mugabe was well and denied the report.

“He is on a private visit in Singapore,” the source said.

“He is not in and was not taken to any hospital. He is well and should be back later today or tomorrow which is why cabinet was pushed to Thursday. The story from the Zimbabwe Mail is a complete fabrication.”

Mugabe last seen in public when he handed computers to a government primary school nearly two weeks ago.

But he issued a condolence message following the death of Malawian president Bingu wa Mutharika last week and another one congratulating wa Mutharika’s successor Joyce Banda on assuming her new post.

Mugabe’s health has been subject of speculation in recent years.

Last year the whistleblower website WikiLeaks released a cable in which central bank governor told a US ambassador in 2008 that Mugabe was diagnosed with prostate cancer and doctors had given him three years to live.

Source: AFP

GOVERNMENT has revised the selection process in the award of various foreign scholarships to ensure transparency and that every Zambian has an equal opportunity to access education.

Education, Science and Vocational Training Minister, John Phiri said in Lusaka yesterday that the Government had changed the selection process to give equal opportunities to all Zambians.

“We have not received any formal complaint, but we have changed the selection process to give an opportunity to everyone,” he said.

He said the current process would ensure that all applicants were interviewed by a broad-based panel chaired by Deputy Minister Novelyn Wilombe.

“There is a broad range of people who sit on the interview panel and some not from the Ministry of Education,” he said.

Some people who had applied for foreign scholarships had been complaining that the scheme only seemed to benefit those with “connections” with senior Government officials.[pullquote]We just discovered that only some ministers’ children and relatives of former ministers in the MMD were the ones benefiting.[/pullquote]

The minister said so far, the Government had completed the process of awarding scholarships from Russia and that the awarding of Chinese scholarships would follow soon.

A teacher in the Ministry of Education who sought anonymity for fear of victimisation complained to the Times of Zambia last weekend that for the past six years, he had attempted to access the scholarships but had failed.

“I am qualified, with a first degree for that matter from the University of Zambia. I have been applying for these scholarships and I have even attended interviews but never picked.

“We just discovered that only some ministers’ children and relatives of former ministers in the MMD were the ones benefiting.

“We only hope that President Michael Sata and the new Government will deal with this matter because some of us have no connections and only depend on our inherent right of being citizens of Zambia,” he said.

The teacher appealed to the Government to put in place a transparent mechanism through which the scholarships could be awarded to deserving Zambians.

[Times of Zambia]

SOUTH African High Commissioner to Zambia Moses Chikane yesterday announced in a interview with Zambia Daily Mail that South African government plans to build a modern city in Zambia to commemorate African National Congress Party (ANC)’s 100 years of existence which falls on April 27.

Mr Chikane said South Africa owes her freedom to Zambia and other countries on the continent but added that the contribution Zambia made towards the liberation of South Africa is insurmountable.

He said it is for the reason that his government has decided at her 100 years of existence to build a city to celebrate and remember the role Zambia played in South Africa.

“The role that Zambia played in South Africa’s liberation is huge and we want to honour her (Zambia) by building a city somewhere in the outskirts,” Mr Chikane said.

However, the South African envoy could not give specific details such as when and the cost of the project. He said if the Zambian government is agreeable, his country would prefer naming the city after Dr Kenneth Kaunda, Zambia’s first President fondly known as KK or the founding father of the nation.

“We have had our political emancipation but now we need our economic emancipation and to commemorate our freedom we want to do something big in Zambia such as building the city we have already mentioned,” Mr Chikane said, adding that “We can’t say how much that will cost just yet.”

[Zambia Daily Mail]