United Party for National Development, UPND president Hakainde Hichilema has castigated the PF government for what he termed as failure to liberalize the airwaves to facilitate for expanded coverage areas of radio stations and private television stations.

Appearing last night on Mobi TV’s open forum, Mr. Hichilema charged that the PF government’s delay in liberalizing the airwaves is betrayal to the voters because they promised in their campaign messages to do so as soon as they get into office.

He said the media should not be fooled by statements from government that it is committed to liberalizing the airwaves and also to enacting the freedom of information bill saying the PF government could have done so within its first 90 days if indeed they were committed.

He said the PF government went ahead to rename airports and other structures as well as form districts without discussing with anyone adding that this should have been the case with liberalizing the airwaves.

He said the PF government should show some support for the media by immediately liberalizing the airwaves so that all private media houses can go nationwide.

Mr. Hichilema said UPND is of the view that all media houses should have nationwide coverage and that the only factor that should hinder this should be the media houses’ capital and not government’s grip on rights to the airwaves.

Lately Mr Hakainde has stepped up his attack on the PF Government. On Saturday, The UPND leader said that Zambia needed leaders who should inspire confidence. Mr. Hichilema said that the current developments being undertaken in the Patriotic Front left much to be desired.

Mr Hichilema observed that President Sata failed to inspire a lot of people because of his leadership style. Mr. Hichilema accused the president of not living up to the promises that were made during the campaigns. He also said that the president lied to the Zambians on many things when he assumed the office of the presidency.

Mr. Hichilema said that the windfall tax and the constitutional making process were some of the issues that the president made when he was still in opposition, but has failed to deliver in the time frame he promised

QFM

Zambia’s President Michael Sata has assured opposition MMD Members of Parliament that he has appointed as deputy ministers of full government support. The President has said that it is unpatriotic for any institution or leader to harass and intimidate the MMD parliamentarians that were currently serving in the Patriotic Front (PF) government.

This is contained in a press statement made available to the media by Special Assistant to the President, Press and Public relationships, George Chellah.

“I would like to assure my brothers and sisters from the MMD whom we have appointed in government not to lose sleep over threats from the former ruling party because they have the full backing of both the party and the government. Therefore, nobody should claim or behave as though he or she owns them,” President Sata said.

“These are patriots who have weighed the options available and concluded that national duty comes first. Let me emphasise that my party and government is willing to back our colleagues should any legal action against them arise as a result of these government appointments bestowed on them.

“And let those who have made it their preoccupation to criticise every progressive and positive move this government makes know that as a party and government we shall give all MMD parliamentarians working with us 100 per cent support.”

The Constitution of Zambia provides for the appointment of ministers from amongst all members of Parliament.

Yesterday MMD warned of disciplinary action against Members of Parliament (MPs) who have been appointed deputy ministers by the ruling Patriotic Front (PF).

MMD national secretary, Richard Kachingwe said that the ‘treacherous’ MPs had been given enough time to reflect on their actions and that the party was now going to take disciplinary action against them.

Major Kachingwe however, said MPs should decide whether to join the PF or remain members of the MMD.

“Time is running out and they (MPs) must make up their minds. Do they belong to MMD or PF. They have a tendency of camping at State House. These are treacherous and vacillating MPS.

“The party’s patience has now run out and very soon they will be shown the exit door,” he said.

He said the people of Zambia and posterity would harshly judge the MMD MPs who had been given jobs in the Government. Maj Kachingwe said the people had elected the MMD MPs so that they
could offer checks and balances to the PF Government but that they had abandoned their role.

“At the level of MP, you are honourable and this requires that one should stick to principles. You can’t betray your own constituency which put you in office,” he said.

He appealed to the electorate not to give such members a second chance as they had abused their trust.

When reminded that the MMD government under the leadership of President Levy Mwanawasa also appointed MPs from the opposition to serve as cabinet and deputy ministers, Maj Kachingwe said the
conditions were different because the PF’s decision was aimed at weakening the opposition.

He said the appointments were being done with impunity saying the ideal way was for the ruling party to consult the party before appointing their MPs.

Maj Kachingwe said the party would soon be writing to the affected MPs informing them of the next course of action.

Welcome to 2012 and we trust you all had a wonderful and super festive season. We want to express great thanks to all the visitors to our site and the many people who provided vital and priceless information in the comments section. We greatly appreciate your input in taking Lusakatimes to the level it is and we acknowledge that more needs to be done on our part.

2011 was a tricky and difficult year because of the elections that brought historical traffic spikes to the site.Our main goal was to ensure that the site remained available even in the face of heavy traffic. We are glad we were able to achieve that.

With the beginning of 2012, we don’t foresee any traffic surge,but predictable steady growth, except perhaps during the Africa Cup of Nations (If our National team makes good progress). With less focus on dealing with traffic spikes we expect to do more things to improve other aspects of the site, which were largely neglected in 2011.

Already we have started work on the mobile version of the site, which those who access the site with either iPhone or Android powered phones have noticed. We are aware of the problems people with blackberry phones are facing and are working hard to resolve that.

Our Facebook (FB) account was wrongly created as an individual profile.( Well, it was not clear at the time whether you were creating a company profile or individual profile). So, it turns out that as an individual profile you can only have 5 000 friends. 5 000 friends is undoubtedly more than the 150 recommended threshold for individual friends by experts, but as a news site, 5000 does not cut it. And that explains why most of your FB friend requests have not been attended to.

Also there seems to be a cap on the number of items you can post to the FB individual page within a certain time frame. Again that explains why not all items published on Lusakatimes makes it to our Facebook pages.

To remedy the issue, we shall be transitioning our profile from individual profile to company profile and with that we can instead have more Fans rather than friends and that number can go as high as our work allows. There might be issues in the transitioning and some friends accounts maybe be lost, but we shall issue a further update when we do that during the course of this month.

By the way , our twitter page works great, and EVERYTHING published on LT gets “twitted”. It is another way to keep track of what is happening our site. We also have plans to start a Google+ page and we shall publish the details when this is ready.

Lastly, we wish you a successful 2012 in whatever you do and look forward to your great feedback. As per LT tradition. nothing said against us in the comments is ever deleted or censored. It is a great way to learn where we need to improve.

LT Team

TEMPERS flared and confusion reigned yesterday at Winner’s Chapel in Lusaka’s Libala Township when placard-carrying congregants demonstrated against the Immigration Department’s refusal to renew the
work permit for Victor Femi Adenji, the church’s pastor in-charge.

The congregants, who accused some of the members of the church of being behind the development, demanded that the Immigration Department immediately renews the Nigerian pastor’s work permit.

Speaking on behalf of the congregants, Pastor Andrew Simbaya said there was no chaos in Winners Chapel as portrayed by some people in
the media.

Pastor Simbaya accused some former church leaders and disgruntled members of instigating the non-renewal of Pastor Adenji’s work permit.

“They wanted to be controlling the church and every man of God from Nigeria who has been sent here, they have complained about them. Even when we were given a Zambian pastor they started complaining to our head office in Nigeria until the pastor was transferred to Kenya,” he said.

He wondered why the same people had always been complaining against Pastors. “Every Pastor who refuses to be controlled by them and if he is of foreign origin, they are going to complain to the immigration by generating all manner of accusations.

“Coming to the fact that accountants have been hired and been fired I am privileged to have saved in FMC and I am a chartered accountant by profession.

“Some of these accountants who have gone to complain there have failed to account for church funds. And it was because our ‘father’ (Pastor) asked them that please account for the monies because I need to present a report to head office.

“That’s when they got agitated together with people whose tenure of office has ended and started bringing confusion,” he said amid shouts from congregants.

He has since appealed to the government to intervene in the matter so that Pastor Adenji could stay and continue to do God’s work in Zambia.

He said people were being healed of HIV/AIDS and other ailments as many were experiencing miracles because of the work of the pastor. Mr David Nangana, chairman of the Church Elder’s Council said that as a church they wanted the Pastor to stay.

He said the elders’ council was in full support of Pastor Adenji. Earlier, some congregants almost harassed one of the members identified as Rachael Chileshe for allegedly having gone to the media
to discredit the Pastor.

Ms Chileshe said she was being harassed whenever she went to Church over the matter concerning Pastor Adenji.

“When they saw me come out of the vehicle, they closed the gate just because I was on air where I rebuked the Pastor. That is what they said in the Daily Nation which was not correct and from that day I have been intimidated. I have the right to worship and associate. Each time I sit in church they will remove the person sitting next to me and put a security officer,” she said.

She said she was among the members who met the former Labour Minister, Simon Kachimba.

The Immigration Department said it refused to renew Pastor Adenji’s permit following reports of verbal abuse on Church members.

Immigration Department, Public Relations officer, Justin Siame, said the Department had received several complaints regarding Pastor Adenij’s conduct.

“We wish to put it on record that his application was rejected purely on a number of complaints received from his flock for having been using unpalatable language towards them and generally being abusive, including hiring and firing of accountants, a situation which almost resulted in a near-protest against his presence in Zambia.

“The Department tried to mitigate this by summoning him to the office and cautioned him for his uncalled for attitude but to no avail. The Department, therefore, is obliged as a matter of maintaining internal security to flush out anyone who endangers the peace of the country,” Mr Siame said.

Meanwhile, Information, Broadcasting and Tourism Minister, Given Lubinda, whom the church alleged was supposed to “grace the occasion” yesterday, said he had not received an invitation from Winners Chapel International.

“I was in the office on Saturday from about 09.00hrs to 16.00 hours and if there was such invitation I would have known. It is sad that some pastors are beginning the New Year on lies,” he said.

A pastor Thomas, who was receiving the media told the Times of Zambia crew that the Minister was expected to grace the occasion.

The Federal Government of Nigeria says it was using the appropriate diplomatic channels to avert a crisis to address Pastor Adenji’s issue.

According to a Nigerian newspaper, ‘This Day’, the Permanent Secretary of the Nigerian Ministry of Foreign Affairs Ambassador, Martin Uhomoibhi, said the Nigerian government was already aware of the
matter and was taking advantage of the fact that a good relationship existed between the two nations to resolve the matter.

He was hopeful that Zambia would not do anything to jeopardise its relationship with Nigeria. “It is like business; there is always a risk in it. So, you take risks. We will normally not do anything that would hurt our diplomatic relations,” he said.

The permanent secretary was speaking at a press briefing in Abuja, Nigeria recently.

[Times of Zambia]

THE MMD has warned of disciplinary action against Members of Parliament (MPs) who have been appointed deputy ministers by the ruling Patriotic Front (PF).

MMD national secretary, Richard Kachingwe said in an interview in Lusaka yesterday that the ‘treacherous’ MPs had been given enough time to reflect on their actions and that the party was now going to take disciplinary action against them.

But when contacted for a comment, Elijah Muchima who is an MMD MP for Ikeleng’I in North Western province said it was a fact that he was working with the Government in trying to develop the country.

Mr Muchima said the idea of appointing MPs from the opposition to ministerial positions was not strange to the MMD which equally did the same under the leadership of former President Mwanawasa and former President Rupiah Banda.

He said Mr Banda appointed Mkhondo Lungu as minister of Home Affairs at the time he was United National Independence Party (UNIP) MP for Lundazi constituency.

Mr Muchima said people in his constituency were happy with his appointment as deputy Lands, Energy and Water Development deputy minister.

“This is all about national development. I don’t want my district which is a rural district to lag behind. I am working for the people of Zambia and want to contribute to the governance of the country,” he said.

Mr Muchima said leaders should work in unity in the quest to develop the country.

Major Kachingwe however, said MPs should decide whether to join the PF or remain members of the MMD.

“Time is running out and they (MPs) must make up their minds. Do they belong to MMD or PF. They have a tendency of camping at State House. These are treacherous and vacillating MPS.

“The party’s patience has now run out and very soon they will be shown the exit door,” he said.

He said the people of Zambia and posterity would harshly judge the MMD MPs who had been given jobs in the Government. Maj Kachingwe said the people had elected the MMD MPs so that they
could offer checks and balances to the PF Government but that they had abandoned their role.

“At the level of MP, you are honourable and this requires that one should stick to principles. You can’t betray your own constituency which put you in office,” he said.

He appealed to the electorate not to give such members a second chance as they had abused their trust.

When reminded that the MMD government under the leadership of President Levy Mwanawasa also appointed MPs from the opposition to serve as cabinet and deputy ministers, Maj Kachingwe said the
conditions were different because the PF’s decision was aimed at weakening the opposition.

He said the appointments were being done with impunity saying the ideal way was for the ruling party to consult the party before appointing their MPs.

Maj Kachingwe said the party would soon be writing to the affected MPs informing them of the next course of action.

Meanwhile, Maj Kachingwe has said preparations for the party Convention were going on well and that the fund raising committee had so far met twice to strategise on financing.

He urged members to donate generously when the fundraising events were on so that the Convention to elect the party’s leadership would be a success.
“This party is down but not out. We will bounce back in the next five years as the Government has failed to fulfill their promises in 90 days,” he said.

He said once the party mobilises funds, a one month notice as per requirement in the party constitution would be issued as regards to the date and venue for the convention.
Maj Kachingwe urged party members to remain vigilant and work hard in the New Year.

[Times of Zambia]

The Foundation for Democratic Process has called on the Technical Committee on the constitution to ensure that submissions on the independence of the Anti-Corruption commission are upheld.

FODEP Executive Director McDonald Chipenza told the media in Lusaka yesterday that the committee should ensure that the independence of the ACC is guaranteed by the new constitution.

Mr Chipenza added that even the appointment of the ACC Director General should not be left to the President but that it should be given to an independent committee.

And commenting party on funding, Mr Chipenzi says the new constitution should also provide for party funding as a way of avoiding an uneven political playing field.

The Opposition United National Independence Party has also backed calls for the introduction of party funding.

UNIP Vice President Njekwa Anamela said that state funding of political parties will level the playing field and also give legitimacy to political parties.

Mr AAnamela noted that the current scenario is says it is not only his party which shares that viewed by many politicians as one that favours the ruling party only.

Zone Fam is starting 2012 with a bang by releasing a video called “Ma Danger” by one of the members , Jay Rox.

Jay Rox has an easily recognizable flow so it is easy for him to stand out from the group . Doing a solo record does not mean the group is breaking up , they are just exploring their individual talents .

MA DANGER

BY KAPA187

The vacationing Chipmunks and Chipettes are turning a luxury cruise liner into their personal playground, until they become ‘chipwrecked’ on a remote island. As the ‘Munks and Chipettes try various schemes to find their way home, they accidentally discover their new turf is not as deserted as it seems.

PRO’S

Interesting kids movie ,with some funny moments.

CON’S

• If you haven’t watched the first two Alvin and the chipmunks movies , you will be a bit lost in this one. There is no back story or explanation about the talking chipmunks.
• There is too much singing and too many pop culture references that add nothing to the plot of the movie.
• Jenny Slate’s character, Zoe , was not really necessary as she seemingly did not do anything until the end of the movie.

FAVORITE QUOTE

• Dave: Are you going to charge me twenty five dollars a bag?
• Flight Attendant: Of course not sir. It’s twenty five dollars for the first bag and forty dollars for each additional bag.

CONCLUSION

I originally had low expectations for this movie , but it was actually a pretty good movie.  The storyline was flat and predictable , but for a kids movie its ok. Its a great movie to take your kids to , they will really enjoy it.

RATING

1 out of 5

 BY KAPA187