The Lusaka City Council (LCC) has summoned senior church officials at the newly built multi-million dollar Bread of Life Church in Lusaka’s Emmasdale area to appear before it, tomorrow.

This follows the death of a forty-year-old congregant after a ceiling board sliced half of his face following a heavy downpour in the area.

Council Public Relations Officer, Henry Kapata says the local authority has since launched investigations into the matter.

Mr. Kapata further disclosed that the local authority is yet to establish whether the church obtained a partial occupation certificate to use the unfinished building, as stipulated by the Public Health Act.

And Amos Lwabila, who has described the incident, as the work of the devil, expressed sadness at the development.

Mr. Lwabila, has described the late elder, Artone Nyirenda, who was Kitwe based, as a dedicated Christian.

Mr Nyirenda was badly injured by falling pieces of the church ceiling board after strong winds blew off parts of the newly built Church in Lusaka’s Emmasdale Township.

MUVITV

A former Army commander has apologised to president Sata for calling on him to desist from involving the defence forces in politics during the run-up to the September 20 tripartite polls.

Lt. Gen. Wisdom Lopa says he inadvertently mentioned President Sata’s name and has apologised on behalf of the former service chiefs.

General Lopa had called on Mr. Sata as an opposition leader then to desist from involving the Defence force into politics because they support the government of the day.

Gen. Lopa made the apology during his colourful Farewell Parade where he transferred the instruments of power to Army Commander Lt Gen. Paul Mihova at Arackan Barracks in Lusaka on Monday.

He apologised for the embarrassment the remarks may have caused president Sata.

And General Lopa has advised the Defence force to have a need to acquire knowledge because the Army must be in step with Modern Technology and Equipment.

He also paid tribute to the Army Commander and his Deputy for their well deserved appointments.

And Army Commander Lt. Gen. Mihova hailed General Lopa for his great contribution to the Army and his 40 years of gallant service.

And Army Chaplain Lieutenant Vincent Mweya commended General Lopa for the sacrifice he made to the Zambia Army.

[ZNBC]

THE MMD Die Hard youth wing has challenged former MMD national secretary Katele Kalumba’s wife, Lumba, to disclose her preferred party president instead of peddling derogative media statements to scandalise Nevers Mumba who has all qualities to stand as MMD president.

National coordinator Bowman Lusambo has since given Mrs Kalumba an ultimatum of two days in which to reveal her preferred candidate and stop attacking Dr Mumba. He said in an interview yesterday that MMD youths were disappointed with Mrs Kalumba’s conduct of attacking Dr Mumba through the media. He said Mrs Kalumba’s failure to disclose her stance within two days effective today and tomorrow would force them to block her participation during forthcoming party convention.

Mr Lusambo was reacting to Mrs Kalumba’s statements reported in some sections of the media commenting on MMD party presidency. “Mrs Kalumba should respect Dr Mumba because he is currently the only potential candidate who can uplift the party from where it is now. Dr Mumba has all the support and he is a competent and hardworking leader,” Mr Lusambo said. He said the MMD needed a leader who was charismatic and Dr Mumba was such a person the opposition party required because of wealth leadership qualities, especially that he had also served as Republican vice-president. He said Dr Mumba was a hardworking leader who had proved to all and?would not divide the MMD once elected as party president.

“Some of the people Mrs Kalumba thinks can take the party forward have ?been failures and cannot perform any task. Among all those who are vying for the MMD presidency, Dr Mumba is the only capable candidate who will take the MMD to higher heights and provide visionary leadership skills,” he said. Mr Lusambo said the MMD youth wing would continue to defend Dr Mumba because he was headed for victory during forthcoming party convention due to massive support he would receive.

He said former vice-president Enoch Kavindele who was recently on ?campaign trips with former president Rupiah Banda was not capable of leading the MMD because he was among the people who wrongly advised Mr Banda and lost the elections. He said MMD in its current status needed a true messiah to unite it and that could only be achieved through Dr Mumba if voted as party president.

Mr Lusambo hailed the police stance on carrying out various corruption investigations but said such should not be done as a result of political motivations. And MMD Lusaka Province Taskforce chairperson Chiwele Maimisa described as strange the statement by Ms Kalumba.

Mr Maimisa said Ms Kalumba was not the right person to talk about corruption in the party given that her husband was in court facing corruption charges.

Meanwhile, the MMD Watchdogs has proposed that former Finance minister Situmbeko Musokotwane should take over as party president. National Mobilisation coordinator Boyd Liambai said Dr Musokotwane was best suited to lead the MMD. In a letter to MMD National Secretary Major Richard Kachingwe, Mr Liambai said the decion to back Dr Musokotwane was reached at after a serious and vigorous consultation from people within and outside the party structures countrywide. And MMD deputy national chairperson Kabinga Pande has dispelled assertions by some political analysts that the former ruling party risks going into oblivion because of its failure to reorganise itself since the defeat in the September 20 polls.

He said since the defeat, the MMD has been reorganising itself and had constituted various committees to come up with the best ways of once again attracting the electorate to the party.

Political analysts Dante Saunders, Foundation for Democratic Process (FODEP) president Alex Ng’oma and Zambia Open University lecturer in the School of Development Studies Thomas Mabwe at the weekend predicted that the MMD was headed for extinction because the members were busy jostling for the presidency at the expense of reorganising the party.

But Mr Pande said contrary to the assertions by the three political analysts, the MMD had since the loss been reorganising itself and the Zambians would soon be shocked by the party’s performance in the coming parliamentary by-elections in Magoye and Nakonde.
[Times of Zambia]

INFORMATION and Tourism Minister Given Lubinda has challenged former Education minister Dora Siliya to prove claims that the 29 impounded motor cycles that were intercepted on their way to her residence were a donation instead of making empty accusations that Government was persecuting her.

Mr Lubinda said the statement by the Petauke Central Member of Parliament (MP) that she was being persecuted were inaccurate because the police and Government did not have reasons to persecute her but reminded her that the law requires her explain on how she acquired the impounded property. Police in Lusaka on Saturday impounded a truck laden with 29 electric motor cycles which the law enforcers linked to Ms Siliya.

The cycles were immediately taken to Woodlands offices being jointly used as an investigation centre by a combined team of security personnel. The incident happened barely 24 hours after a combined team of law enforcement officers searched Ms Siliya’s house on Lusaka’s Independence Avenue in their continued investigations on a number of suspected irregular conducts by former government officials. Mr Lubinda said the Government would not be discouraged by remarks attributed to Ms Siliya that she was being persecuted because the Government wants to correct what he described as scandalous activities.

The minister said the Patriotic Front (PF) Government was composed of men and women of sober character and would not engage in petty politics such as witch-hunt. Mr Lubinda, who is also Kabwata MP, said it was incumbent upon Ms Siliya to satisfy the police that she acquired the cycles in a lawful manner than engaging in accusations that lacked background.

The motor cycles impounded on Saturday were discovered around 10:00 hours after a truck from Melcome Industries laden with the items was intercepted by police on Bwinjimfumu Road in Lusaka. The truck driver identified as Lawrence Kashila was detained and later released after police interrogation during which he revealed that he was taking the cycles to Ms Siliya’s house on instructions from his employer, Muhammad Ahmed Seedat.

But Ms Siliya said the motor cycles were a donation from South Africa made about seven months ago to “My Home Town”, an organisation the former minister is matron of. Ms Siliya said the cycles were being kept at Mr Sedat’s warehouse and that she had been too busy in the recent past to find time to distribute the vehicles to the intended beneficiaries.

The MMD national chairperson for information and publicity accused the PF Government of harassing and persecuting her and wondered how the police could impound the motor cycles without anyone coming forward to complain about the matter. Ms Siliya said “My Home Town” was currently working in Petauke in Eastern Province, in Choma in Southern Province as well as some towns on the Copperbelt and had nothing to do with public resources.

The impounding of the cycles comes after more than 1,000 bicycles were confiscated from former Finance minister Situmbeko Musokotwane and other members of the former ruling party while former minister of Mines Maxwell Mwale was also arrested in connection with the bicycles.

[Times of Zambia]

Security wings have opened a docket and started investigating former President Rupiah Banda regarding the K3.5 billion (US$700,000) he could have spent on a duplex of luxury up-market villas located on Leopards Hill Road barely 90 days after he became President of Zambia.

This has been confirmed by the Anti-Corruption Commission (ACC) in a written response to the Daily Mail.

Charges are unlikely to hold unless his immunity is lifted in Parliament through a popular vote to pave way for a possible court and police appearance.
President Sata has said his government is not in “a hurry” to lift his predecessor’s immunity as he embarks on a spirited anti-graft fight, suggesting that he would want law investigations officers to complete their job before he can act.

A team put together to probe the former President comprises high ranking specialised officers from the Zambia Police, ACC and Drug Enforcement Agency (DEC).

The property Mr. Banda has been linked to is located on plot NO. RE/29/488A Leopards Hill Road in Kabulonga and value runs into billions of Kwacha.

“I would like to inform you that there is an inquiry into the matter (the Leopards Hill property) which is being investigated by a joint team of investigative agencies,” ACC Corporate Affairs Officer Mr. Wezzy Chomba said.

Mr Chomba could, however, not shed more light on the matter and instead referred all queries to the Inspector General of Police saying: “the office of Inspector General of Police will deal with any matters relating to media on the said subject.”

But Inspector General of Police Dr Martin Malama declined to give the Daily Mail more information on how far investigations had gone saying Zambians will have to wait for the courts to start trying various “high profile” cases.

“We have no comment on that. We want to ensure that the people and details of all investigations taking place are revealed in the courts of law,” Dr Malama said from Zimbabwe via phone yesterday.

It is alleged that Former President Banda demolished structures which were there to build a multi-million dollar complex of 12 villas whose value runs into billions of kwacha.

Source: Zambia Daily Mail

PRESIDENT Sata on Friday received kudos from an unlikely source – former Vice President George Kunda.
Mr Kunda welcomed the appointment of a 20-member technical committee to draft a new republican Constitution.
“I’m happy that the Patriotic Front (PF) has started honouring some of its campaign promises and one of this is the appointment of the 20-member technical team to draft a new republican Constitution. I’m happy with the composition.
“I’m just hoping that the committee will come up with a Constitution that will stand a test of time according to the wishes of the Zambian people,” Mr Kunda said.
He said in an interview that he is impressed with the legal representation on the committee.
The committee to be headed by former Chief Justice Annel Silungwe is expected to complete its work within 12 months.
Mr Kunda said he is happy that President Sata has appointed a 20-member technical team to immediately begin working on the new Constitution.
Last week, President Sata announced the appointment of a 20-member technical committee that includes the Council of Churches in Zambia (CCZ) and three bishops from the Catholic Church.
Mr Kunda said the committee should not be restricted to completing its task within 90 days because this might compromise its quality of work.

[Zambia Daily Mail]

Living Waters Global Churches Bishop in Charge Bernard Nwaka has appealed to the people of Zambia to help restore the life of Iris Kaingu and her boy friend.

Bishop Nwaka says the media in the country and the community at large should not put pressure on the two for the sins they have committed but help restore their lives so that they can begin to fear God.

Bishop Nwaka says he personally renounce the evil which the two committed but there is need for the community to show love for them as Jesus Christ accepted the woman who was found committing adultery.

He says that Jesus showed love and accepted the women and warned her never to sin again.

Bishop Nwaka says that this is the route the Zambian community especially the media should take to serve the life of the two young people.

Zambia Centre for Accountancy Studies ZCAS has expelled Former Community Development Minister Michael Kaingu’s daughter Iris who is appearing in a sex video with her boy friend a matter that has also attracted Police investigations.

ZNBC

By Maurice Makalu:

It has become fashion for people to cry “discrimination” in every decision the President makes. Riding on the adage that “there is no smoke without fire,” many people have made a habit of seeing their own smokes and accusing the President of causing the fire.

And Zambia being a democracy where freedom of speech reigns, the voices of these “false smokes” are getting louder as if the fire were real. Opportunists, alarmists and sensationalists are riding the wave, gaining political capital and publicity out of these false smokes.

Feeling “hated” or that another person is “jealous” of you is a pervasive illusion in the human psyche which has made others declare: “God hates me; what wrong have I done?” When you give a street kid K1,000 and another asks you and you say your money has finished, that street kid will feel “hated.” Some have even failed exams for what they believed was “hatred” from teachers.

Therefore, when somebody THINKS you hate them, often it helps to give some facts and figures, a kind of objectivity, to help explain your decision. It is not a guarantee that they will see that you truly do not hate them. For all intents and purposes, they have not seen God’s love for them despite the many facts and figures He has given in creation. But it helps to just put the facts and figures, which hate nobody, out there. You can only pray that reason will eventually prevail and they will see their false smokes for what they are and rise above them.

The latest example of the false smokes of discrimination is the constitutional panel of experts, where some have seen the smoke of hatred of non-catholics on the part of the President. They are arguing that having three Catholic bishops is discriminatory to other churches or religious groupings.

I would like to show why that is not the case, why the panel shows no hatred on the President’s part.

In terms of Christian groupings, who do you say has been left out? Who is hated? Is it SDAs, Jehovah’s Witnesses, Lutherans, Methodists, Baptists, Apostolics, Anglicans, Wesleyans, Reformed Church, Methodist Episcopals, Salvation Army, Presybeterians, Brethrens, Faith and Holy Tabernacles, or Pentecostals? The list is endless, exceeding even the 20 allowed on the panel. Do people expect all of them to be included? Or say he included SDAs, would that suddenly make him non-discriminatory? Or perhaps Baptists will cry foul still?

Some people are saying Protestants have been discriminated against. They think that because Protestants broke away from Catholicism and the term ‘protesting’ sounds acrimonious, people can easily believe that indeed Sata hates Protestants, like he “hates” opposition political parties.

First of all, who are Protestants? What is Protestantinism?

Wikipedia says, “Protestantism is one of the three major groupings (Catholicism, Orthodoxy, and Protestantism) within Christianity.” Religion facts at www.religionfacts.com further says that, it is “A general branch of Christianity encompassing numerous denominations and a wide theological spectrum ranging from conservative to liberal. It started in the 16th century.”

Examples of denominations given include: Presbyterians, Reformed, Church of Scotland, Anglicans, Episcopalians, Evangelicals, Lutherans, and Baptists.
So when somebody says, “Sata hates Protestants,” they mean he hates these churches. How possible is that when he was recently ridiculed in some sections of the media for acknowledging a Protestant leader in the traditional way of kneeling and kissing the leader’s ring?

And because the list of experts does not mention these denominations by name like it does catholic, all Protestants out there: Presbyterians, Baptists, Lutherans, Anglicans, etc will believe they are hated by the head of state, as a major branch of Christianity, when in actual fact they are not.

Other people are saying include the Evangelical Fellowship of Zambia (EFZ). What is EFZ?

EFZ is “A mother body of Christian denominations, local churches, para church organizations, mission agencies and individuals. EFZ was established in April 1964.” Their list of 225 members includes Pentecostals, Methodists, Baptists, Redeemed, Salvation Army, Apostolic, children care and HIV/AIDS help desk, and many other Pentecostal “ministries” and fellowships including ZAFES, scripture union, Campus crusade for Christ and Zambia Nurses Fellowship.

In actual fact however, most of the 225 members are one-man show Pentecostal ministries, headed by men of God who have enriched themselves from the offerings, tithes and gifts of their church members.

Yes they represent their various ministries, but those are the same ministries where they themselves are getting “blessed” while the larger majority of their congregations wallow in poverty. So if in their own congregations they are putting themselves first, can you then argue that at EFZ they will put others first?
“Charity begins at home,” they say.

The EFZ participated in the NCC where the nation lost money. Some of their members prophesied that God had allowed Chiluba a third term. If EFZ represent a coherent section of society, why these “errors” from their members? Or is it EFZ itself and not individual members making the errors?

Or if we say we are a Christian nation who must forgive, why then should we oppose Xavier Chungu’s appointment? Further more, if EFZ represent their various individualistic ministries, how then can we say ALL the 225 organizations have been represented when we put one individual from a certain ministry on the panel?

Of course there are other members in EFZ like Baptists, Lutherans, Methodists, Episcopals, Salvation Army, etc who do not have this tendency of “self enrichment” in God’s name, even to the extent of ripping off our national resources. But even under Council Churches of Zambia (CCZ), which is represented on the panel, there are Lutherans, Methodists, Episcopals, Salvation Army, etc.

Why should a Salvation Army, Methodist, Lutheran, etc under EFZ feel hated and discriminated against, while the same is represented under CCZ?

I personally think they do not. They feel they are one and the same in Christ and so they are represented, including by Catholics. So the people seeing discrimination are the ones who have something wrong with them.

CCZ is a 22 member, “ecumenical umbrella organization of mainline Christian churches that seeks to promote cooperation and fellowship between Christian churches and organizations in the nation. It was founded in 1914.”

This is where you find such churches as: UCZ, United Methodist Church, Anglican, Othordox, Presbyterian Church in southern Africa, etc. All these and others are represented on the panel in Rev Mutale from CCZ.

According to Wikipedia, quoting the International Religious Freedom Report – Zambia 2010, in terms of religion, 87% Zambians are Christians. On 20th April 2011, Times of Zambia quoted the Vatican Ambassador to Zambia, Nicola Girasoli, that, “The Catholic Church consisted of about 30% of the population in Zambia.”

So we can roughly say of the 87% Christians in Zambia, 30% of that is Catholic, 57% Protestant. One can therefore use a blanket statement and say, “Sata hates Protestants for giving 75% of church seats on the panel to Catholics.”

But that is being unreasonable and impractical.

We have seen above that Protestants are not one, two, three “coherent” sections of society. You have Protestants in both CCZ and EFZ. And obviously, the fact that we have two protestant mother bodies means even amongst them, there is more “protesting.” It is even possible that there are Protestants outside these mother bodies. Therefore it is practically not possible that Protestants can be “represented.” They are just way too wide, divided, varied and numerous.

In my view therefore, CCZ is enough representation. It has both Orthodox and Protestantinism, the other two major groupings of Christianity. It is a pity EFZ has been left out but I think it is irresponsible, alarming and sensationalism for anybody to say, “Sata hates non-catholics” because of that.

What about Muslims?

Wikipedia, quoting the International Religious Freedom Report – Zambia 2010, says, Muslims AND Hindus make 1% of our population. (The other 12% is indigenous Zambian beliefs).

The Islamic Supreme Council of Zambia, through its Council Secretary General, Sheik Shaban Phiri, said, “The Technical committee (on the constitution) is not representative of all religions, which may be a threat to national unity.”

Surely, what is 1%? If all 1%s must be represented on the panel, how many will be there. And we have to include a Hindu too, because Muslims are not Hindus. Besides we are a Bible-inclined nation; when we “leave out” Muslims, that is not hatred against them, it is majority rule. Christians are left out in Islamic countries like Iraq, Iran, Pakistan, Afghanistan, Indonesia, etc. They do not talk “threats” to national unity.

And is it only the exclusion of a religious 1% that is a threat to national unity? What about the other “1%s” in miners, students, youths, women, teachers, bus drivers, marketers, trade unions, etc? Why are they not talking threats?

Again these alarms are just false smokes being projected on the President. People are intolerant and they are blaming the President for it. That is not fair.
Sheik Phiri is already on record, in the Zambian Watchdog article of 20th November, 2010 of threatening to cut the nose of the Registrar of Societies for allegedly meddling in Islamic Affairs. These threats are not necessary.

Clearly, from the afore going, people are seeing their own smokes and accusing the President of causing the fire. This is irresponsible and uncalled for. It is contrary to the spirit of One Zambia One nation.

Zambia is our nation all of us. There is no need to feel “hated” or that others are “jealous” of you when you are left out of ONE opportunity to make a contribution. Everybody will have an opportunity for public submissions at a later stage.

You can express your disappointment for being left out yes, but it is totally irresponsible to go further and accuse the head of state of hating you. That is arrogant. We should not encourage such a culture among us, whether from religious brothers and sisters, tribesmen, gender mates, political party mates, age mates, etc.

I know the president did not go through all this bother of “facts and figures.” I am sure he does not think of EFZ the way I have put it here. He just used his wisdom and made his judgment. People have a right to disagree with that judgment, he is their president after all; and maybe he can reconsider. But let us all desist from sensationalized allegations of being “hated” by the head of state, when we disagree with his judgment. We do not need to issue threats.

I believe even in OUR disagreement, there can be unity, respect, peace and above all patriotism. We are disagreeing because we love our country; so let us not be the first to project hatred, anger and threats in our disagreements.