Chadiza area Member of Parliament Allan Mbewe says the on going wrangles in the former ruling party (MMD) will soon be over.

“I therefore want to urge all MMD members in the district to be united because these wrangles are timely and will soon go to rest and only real MMD Members will remain in the Party,” said Mr Mbewe.

Mbewe also urged the people of Chadiza to pray for their leaders so that they should not be interested in making money or wealth alone but that they should ask for wisdom to lead the people properly.

ZANIS reports that speaking in his New Year message to his electorate in the area , Mr Mbewe asked the people to love one another and also to work together for the development of the district.

He called on all those with differences to reconcile and forgive one another so that together they may help in bring development to the area.

Mr. Mbewe also urged the people of Tigwirizane and Mshoka Villages of Chadiza District not to live in fear because they will not be resettled as government has found an alternative area where to put up an air strip.

“An alternative place for the air strip has been found and I want to urge the people of Tigwirizane and Mshoka villages that they should go on developing their area without any fear of vacating the land”. He said.

Meanwhile, the Mongo MMD Constituency branch led by chairperson, Yowana Chisambwe has threatened to ditch the party if Dr Mumba continues to hold on to the party presidency.

In a petition spearheaded by MMD Mongu Central Constituency chairperson, Yowana Chisambwe and signed by 55 other Constituency and District officials, the members petitioned the party’s National Executive Committee to pass a vote-of-no-confidence on Dr Mumba and ask him to step down.

Mr Chisambwe confirmed the development in an interview from Mongu yesterday saying the MMD was quickly collapsing because of the poor leadership being exhibited by Dr Mumba.

Dr Mumba was encountering mounting pressure to step aside but he had also remained defiant to such calls.

“The members met this morning and we have resolved to pass a vote-of-no-confidence the leadership of Dr Mumba as party president.

He does not listen to his members and he is the sole cause of the confusion in the party. If he doesn’t step down like he is saying, then we will have no choice but to ditch the party and join another one,” Mr Chisambwe said.

He said it was the cry of the membership that Dr Mumba stepped down and pave way for an extra-ordinary convention to choose a new leader to prepare the troubled opposition for 2016 general elections.

Mr Chisambwe who likened the confusion in the party to famous Nigerian writer Chinua Achebe’s Things Fall Apart, said the problems in the party could only end once Dr Mumba stepped down.

“There are no two-ways about the problems that have engulfed the party, Dr Mumba has to go and we support other members like Mafinga MP Catherine Namugala who has stood firm on this matter,” he added.

He accused Dr Mumba of having assumed the MMD leadership through unconstitutional means.

He said the petition represented the views of other Constituency and District officials in other parts of Western Province.

Recently the Luapula MMD provincial executive committee led by Provincial chairperson, Emmanuel Chungu defected to the Patriotic Front accusing Dr Mumba of exhibiting undemocratic style of leadership that had continued to plunge the party into chaos.

There was drama in the streets of Kabwe this afternoon when a street vender refused to collect a K10.00 rebased note, previously K10, 000 from a customer, saying she did not want to be duped.

This was after a customer handed a rebased note to an old woman, who only identified herself as Bana Mpundu, to purchase tomatoes valued at K8.00, (K8, 000), from her stand.

Bana Mpundu practically refused to collect the money and demanded the return of her merchandise, saying she did not want to lose her goods by obtaining a fake note.

In an interview with ZANIS, Bana Mpundu said she did not understand why a person would come into town all the way from home just to give her a foreign currency, especially on New Year’s Day.

She unwittingly complained that it is unfair for people to dupe elderly people like her because they are struggling to make ends meet with little resources that they have.

Bana Mpundu, however, recalled that she once used a similar note in the Kaunda era, but unknown to her is the fact that the Zambian Kwacha has been rebased with effect from today by way of cancelling the three zeros.

Moreover, after a profound explanation from her fellow street vendors, David Mwape, Bana Mpundu accepted to collect the money but on condition that Mr Mwape exchanges his old Ten Thousand Kwacha note with the new currency.

Bana Mpundu, aged over 55, is just one of the many Zambians that have no absolute knowledge on the rebased currency and definitely need sensitization.

Meanwhile, Kabwe’s famous Shopping Mall, Shoprite and Restaurant, Hungry Lion, closed business abruptly because the shop assistants had trouble understanding the rebased currency.

A check by ZANIS found the two shops closed by 10:00 hours in the morning, because the shop assistants had trouble assimilating the transactions in the rebased currency.

Some of the shop assistants talked to said they had trouble reconciling prices in the rebased currency as most of their items and food had a segment of Ngwees but that they did not understand the modalities, except for block figures.

They said they needed a lot of sensitization, not only from the Bank of Zambia (BOZ) but their employers as well, because the new financial system now entails that they must give their clients the symmetries, accordingly.

They, therefore, closed the shops, saying they will only resume operations once their managers, whom they contacted from Lusaka, give them a substantive in-house training on the new currency.

And NATSAVE Bank in Kabwe today broke its record of latency when it happened to be the only banking institution that had operational ATM machines.

All the banks were non-operational except for NATSAVE.

The only challenge was that the bank had no VISA services to allow inter-banking services, and as a result, only indigenous customers had an opportunity to use the facility.

Nonetheless, the three banks promised to resume their ATM machine banking services by 14:00 hours today while ZANACO hopes to resume its operations tomorrow.

ZANIS

The new Zambian currency, Kwacha and Ngwee, has been launched with a call on the business community to keep the prices of goods and services unchanged.

Minister of Finance Alexander Chikwanda unveiled the new currency at a colourful ceremony held in Lusaka at the new Government Complex yesterday.

The new currency comprises of six notes with features such as the African Fish Eagle, coat of arms, freedom statue, trees and animals while there are four coins minted with a coat of arms, a bird and animals representing the abundant wildlife and tourism potential of the country.

The new currency becomes legal tender on 1st January 2013 and will circulate side by side with the old currency for six months to allow the public to completely switch to the new currency.

In his key note address, the Finance Minister observed that the steps taken by the Bank of Zambia to prepare the country for the currency change will proceed with minimal or preferably no hitches.

Mr Chikwanda noted that the rebasing of the kwacha was aimed at addressing the inflationary spirals which over the years caused the currency to depreciate to intolerable levels which were not cost neutral in terms of the economy.

The Minister further stated that decision to rebase was premised on government’s conviction to restore the intrinsic value of the currency as a medium of exchange by bringing normalcy to the numeration of the local currency.

He said it is an internationally accepted practice to rebase a currency during the periods of low and stable inflation stating that in the last five years, inflation has generally taken a downward trend in Zambia.

The Finance Minister dispelled assertions and misconceptions by some circles of society that the rebasing was a gimmick by the new government to nab unscrupulous members of society adding that it will instead lead to greater confidence in the currency and also simplify book keeping, accounting records and facilitate easier business transactions.

Mr Chikwanda however noted that the rebasing of the currency will neither cause revaluation nor devaluation of the kwacha meaning that prices of goods and services will not change and encouraged the general public to accept the new notes and coins.

And Bank of Zambia (BOZ) Governor Michael Gondwe announced that following the launch of the new family of notes and coins, the Bank of Zambia has made available the currency in all commercial banks and agencies throughout the country.

Dr Gondwe assured the public that sufficient security features have been embedded into the new high value K100 notes to make them sufficiently different from the current K100.

He noted that the BOZ team discovered during sensitization campaigns that many people were of the view that the introduction of the new high value K100 note would be confused with the current K100 note.

The launch was attended by senior government officials, diplomats accredited to Zambia, officials from both the notes printing company, G&D of German and South African mining company and CEOs of Banks and Public and Private Institutions.

ZANIS