Workers at the Zambia Export Growers Association ZEGA have downed tools demanding better working conditions.

The workers also want their Managing Director Don McDonald removed citing poor management of the company.

The workers action has paralysed some operations at the Kenneth Kaunda International Airport as the company handles ground operations at the institution.

The workers locked management out of the premises and several people who had turned up to collect their parcels were stranded.

Workers representative Mathews Njovu said the workers had also rejected a 3 per cent salary increment because it was not enough.

In response, Mr. McCDonald said the board is addressing the workers grievances.
[ZNBC]

A female police officer, who assaulted a traffic offender in Livingstone after he refused to bribe her, must be disciplined, the Police Public Complaints Authority (PPCA) has recommended.

PPCA chairperson James Mwanakatwe announced the recommendation after a two day public complaint hearing for both parties in Livingstone recently.

A Livingstone taxi driver was alleged to have abducted the named female police officer after she instructed the taxi driver to drive to the police station. The taxi driver defied the orders and sped in a different direction while allegedly threatening her with death.

But it was later established that the police officer allegedly solicited K80,000 as a bribe for her to drop the traffic offences against the offender.

According to a formal letter of complaint and findings of the PPCA, the police officer hit the taxi driver with a glass bottle in the head after he refused to pay the bribe.

“It is not in dispute that the complainant had committed some traffic offences. We have found that the evidence of the complainant was more credible than that of the respondent (police officer). The respondent had claimed that the complainant had threatened to kill her. The authority found no evidence to support the respondent’s defence,” Mr Mwanakatwe said.

“We have, therefore, found that the complaint before the authority has merit. The evidence in our record shows that it was in fact the respondent who was the aggressor. There was nothing that the complainant did to justify that act of violence. It is clear by the evidence on record that an offence was committed by the respondent,” he said.

Mr Mwanakatwe urged police officers in the country to observe and respect human rights while in the execution of their duties.

And the PPCA has directed Livingstone police traffic section to track down and fine an offender who has not paid an admission of guilt fine for an offence he committed about three years ago.

This follows a complaint by a member of the public against police inaction by allowing the culprit to go scot-free.

This is in a matter where a Livingstone resident Trywell Tembo, 70, reported a named police officer for not collecting a fine imposed on the offender by the police.

“It is unfortunate that police had adopted a laissez-fare attitude in handling this matter and Mr Tembo as a citizen has the right to report cases and offences to the police which he comes across.

As police you have to treat all offences seriously and take appropriate action in accordance with the law. We shall in that vein submit our findings and recommendations to the Inspector General of Police,” He said.

Mr Mwanakatwe said the offender must be located and fined or face possible prosecution.

The PPCA a Zambia Police Service ‘watchdog’ are conducting public complaints hearing against inappropriate police action and inaction in Southern Province.

This is in accordance with the authority’s mandate by an Act of Parliament to help promote good governance in the country.

This is further in tandem with President Sata’s resolve to revive and restructure police operations in the country.

Mr Mwanakatwe is in the company of his vice Emmanuel Chileshe and acting executive secretary Maureen Chilende. Others are PPCA commissioners James Nyambaza, Geoffrey Samusungwa and Simasiku Kalumiana.

The authority has so far conducted hearings of some members of the public against some police officers in Livingstone, Kalomo, Choma and Namwala.
And speaking during a courtesy call to the Southern provincial administration and commanding officer Brenda Muntemba, Mr Mwanakatwe said the PPCA should not be perceived by police officers as an institution interfering with their core duties.

He said the authority’s primary concern is to ensure that police act professionally in maintaining law and order.
“The police must at all times act professionally in the execution of their duties by upholding high ethical standards. It is only through this, public confidence in the police will be enhanced thereby making their work easier,” Mr Mwanakatwe said.
[Zambia Daily Mail]

FIRST Lady Christine Kaseba’s mother, Loyce Kaseba, is seeking the help of the law after a 29-year-old man threatened to kill her using a chair.
The man, Rashid Ibrahim, a professional truck driver, appeared before resident magistrate Boniface Mwiinga and denied having threatened to injure Mrs Kaseba.

Ibrahim is charged with one count of threatening violence contrary to the Laws of Zambia.

Particulars of the offence are that on December 12, 2011 in Lusaka Ibrahim threatened to injure Mrs Kaseba by saying, “I will kill you” while armed with a chair.

And Mr Mwiinga has denied Ibrahim bail because he had given contradicting addresses and if granted bail, the accused would be difficult to trace.

“The address on the indictment is that you are from Kapiri but when taking plea you said your address is 145 in Emmasdale. So it will be difficult to tell which address is correct.

On that basis, I sustain the objection by the prosecution,” he said.

Mr Mwiinga, however, ordered that Ibrahim be taken to hospital for medical attention because even an accused has the right to access health care.

He said Ibrahim should be taken to hospital because it is unacceptable to have an accused person die in prison.

Earlier, Ibrahim applied for bail so that he can seek medical attention because he was allegedly beaten by the police officers while in custody.
But the prosecution objected to the application stating that it will be difficult to find Ibrahim because he had given two different addresses.

Meanwhile, former Minister of Mines and Minerals Development in the Movement for Multiparty Democracy (MMD) administration, Maxwell Mwale, appeared for mention in a case, he is charged with one count of unlawful possession of property.

[Zambia Daily Mail]

Government is considering extending provision of free education up to Grade 12 to enable more Zambians have access to quality education.

Currently the provision is from Grade one to seven.

Education Minister Dr John Phiri said this when he featured on a Radio Phoenix programme dubbed “Government and You” in Lusaka yesterday.He sais the Government would upgrade free education from Grade one to Grade 12 to enable many children have access to education.

The Government intends to phase out the basic schools and re-introduce the traditional system of education of primary and secondary school education. He said this would be phased out methodically without disadvantaging anybody

Dr John Phiri also praised teachers across the country for their continued hard work despite working under difficult conditions with low salaries.

He has disclosed that government would next year recruit 5, 000 teachers saying the move would go a long way in removing teachers from the streets.

Dr Phiri said his vision was to ensure that his ministry attained the highest education for all and improve the standards of living for
Zambians.

“My overall vision is to ensure that the Ministry of Education, Science and Technology attains higher education for all and promote science and technical education and for me, this vision will depend on the technocrats and teachers in my ministry who must show diligence to their work.

Let’s do a lot of hard and practical work for the benefit of a miserable child especially in the rural and shanty township to ensure that they escape from the shackles of poverty which is dehumanising. I promise accountability in this ministry and that every ngwee allocated to it will go to the intended purpose,” Dr Phiri said.

He said deployment of teachers to rural areas was a nightmare because of the deplorable conditions which made it difficult to attract teachers.

Dr Phiri said other than the rural hardship allowance, the Government would put in place incentives that would attract teachers to go and teach in rural areas to make their lives more bearable.

He said it was unfortunate that housing for teachers was a source of concern. The minister disclosed that the Government would build 200 houses for teachers next year and engage with commercial banks to give housing loans to teachers at affordable lending rates for which Government would act as a guarantor.

He said the Government was thankful to the thousands of teachers in the country who have endeavoured to work under difficult conditions with low salaries.

The Government is waiting for the report from the Salaries Commission that was put in place by the former MMD government to come up with recommendations on the way forward.

Dr Phiri said the PF Government was committed to the plight of teachers hence the increased budgetary allocation to the ministry among other things.

Since there were already many primary schools in place, the Government would concentrate more on expanding secondary and tertiary schools.

“We will endeavour to construct 2,000 classrooms in schools though this will still not be enough to bridge the gap between primary and secondary schools,” Dr Phiri said.

The Government would study how the current free education system to grade seven was performing so as to draw lessons that would assist in guidelines on the way forward.

He said free education would only be effective after the study and drawing of lessons from the current system.

He commended the MMD government for doing a good job in the education sector adding that the PF Government would continue building the sector from where their predecessors ended.

Some callers to the programme commended the ministry for performing well but expressed concern on issues of special education for the disabled children and scrapping of basic schools which they said would send many children to the streets.

But Dr Phiri assured the nation that no child would be sent to the street as a result of phasing out the basic schools which would be done methodically without disadvantaging anybody.

Earlier Dr Phiri said the Government has set aside K145 billion for recruitment of 5,000 teachers next year in order to reduce the backlog of unemployed graduates as well as to improve the education standards.

The ministry has in the 2012 National Budget been allocated K4.85 trillion compared with the K3.71 trillion for 2011.

Other things that have been improved are personal emoluments that saw an increase to K3.05 trillion from K2.59 trillion and the ministerial ceiling for non-personal emoluments was also increased from K1.1 trillion this year to K1.8 trillion next year.

On infrastructure projects, Dr Phiri said at primary school level, K18.6 billion has been allocated for contractor mode projects while K143 billion has been set aside for community mode projects.

At secondary school level, K303 billion has been provided for contractor mode and K5.4 billion for community mode projects.

On the allocation to public universities, Dr Phiri said the University of Zambia has been allocated K138. 4 billion grant while K56.4 billion in grants would go to the Copperbelt University though this was not enough.

[Times of Zambia]

SEVEN people died in separate road traffic accidents across the country at the weekend, Zambia Police Service spokesperson Elizabeth Kanjela has said.

Ms Kanjela said one person in Lusaka died on the spot while three others sustained serious injuries when the drivers of the vehicles they were travelling in lost control.

She said in a statement yesterday that the deceased had been identified as Nkonkola Kabwe aged 21 while the survivors were Joel, Kapeya, Mfula and Mumbi Benson aged 17.

Ms Kanjela said the accident happened on Saturday around 23:00 hrs on the Great East Road opposite Chainama Hospital.

She said the accident happened when a vehicle of unknown registration number cut into the lane in which the other driver was and in trying to stop, the driver lost control and hit into a bill board.

And Victor Banda of unknown age died on the spot after being hit by a Hino Ranger truck registration number AJB 3873.

The accident happened on Saturday around 18:20 hrs on the Kafue Road opposite Total Filling Station when Victor was crossing the road and was hit by the motor vehicle driven by a Chris Banda of Chawama Township. The driver is detained at Castle Police Post while the body of the deceased is in the University Teaching Hospital mortuary.

In a related development, an unknown person died on the spot after being hit by a motor vehicle with unknown registration number.

In North-Western Province, an unknown person died after being hit by a motor vehicle ABZ 8012 driven by Mulyokela Waluka aged 26.

Ms Kanjela said the accident happened on Saturday when the driver lost control of the vehicle and hit into the pedestrian who died upon reaching the hospital.

[Times of Zambia]

Another unknown person died on the spot after being hit by a motor vehicle from FQM registration number ABD 657 while in Chipata a man identified as Goldwin Mukisi died after being hit by Scania truck.