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Kabwe council managers face suspension

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Local Government and Housing Minister Nkandu Luo

LOCAL Government, Housing, Early Education and Environmental Protection Minister Nkandu Luo has said some management personnel at Kabwe Municipal Council (KMC) will be asked to stay away from their offices to allow for a comprehensive audit of council operations.

Professor Luo said during an orientation meeting held with KMC staff, councillors and retirees in Kabwe on Monday that she would ask her colleagues from the ministry to conduct a thorough audit of the council’s operations in the last five years and that the results would enable the ministry to take clear action.

“This council is in very bad shape and is one of the councils which have a lot of issues with regards to management.

“The audit will not just be focused on finances but will encompass the auditing of road rehabilitation contract awards, as well as the management of parks and car washes and the results will be shared with everyone,” she said.

Prof Luo said she was saddened by the treatment of retired staff that went to inquire about their pay at the council, and the huge salary gap between the town clerk and casual workers.

She said all the leaders should reflect on their behaviour and urged all those who would continue in managing the council operations to change the way they conducted themselves.

Prof Luo assured the retirees that she would study means to pay off the K7 billion owed to them by the Government once the budget was tabled in Parliament.

Speaking earlier, Boyd Banda, who represented the retirees, appealed to the Government to consider getting rid of the entire management at KMC because they were allegedly corrupt.

Zambia Local Authorities Worker’s Union chairperson Nicholas Chitambala said KMC employees were among the worst paid and most victimised by management in Zambia and called for the immediate removal of the Kabwe town clerk, director of administration and director of finance.

[Times of Zambia]

Indeni crisis prompted waiver of open bidding for oil procurement the last 3 years- Chibuye

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Indeni Oil Refinery in Ndola

THE Commission of Inquiry on the operations of the Energy Regulation Board yesterday heard that the Ministry of Energy and Water Development requested the Zambia Public Procurement Authority (ZPPA) to waive open bidding twice to allow single-sourcing of companies to supply the country with fuel worth billions of United States dollars in the last three years.

The authority oversees all procurement by Government ministries and parastatals and uses open bidding, direct bidding and limited bidding as its methods of bidding for contracts.

ZPPA director-general Samuel Chibuye said the ministry requested for the waivers to enable Dalbit and Independent Petroleum Group (IPG) to supply fuel because of crises brought about by the closure of Indeni Petroleum Refinery during the period in question.

He said this in response to questions from the commission, chaired by Mr Wynter Kabimba, on contracts the authority authorised in the last three years.
Mr Chibuye said the authority gave the ministry authority to procure over one million metric tonnes of fuel valued at US$3.5 billion from IPG and authorised another procurement estimated at US$1 billion at different times but the ministry negotiated the prices with the two companies without informing it of the final price.

“They were supposed to revert back to us but they never came back to explain how they negotiated the contract,” he said.

Mr Chibuye said the IPG contract was negotiated downwards to US$1.2 billion and that ZPPA was not updated.

He said even the US$1 billion-estimated contract involving Dalbit was negotiated by the ministry with the oil company but the ministry had not gone back to the authority over the negotiation to date.

Mr Chibuye said ZPPA authorised the instances of single-sourcing in question because it did not want to bear the blame of consequences of shortage of fuel occasioned by the closure of Indeni Oil Refinery.

He said the authority also gave Dalbit a contract to supply fuel, refurbish three fuel storage tanks in Ndola and provincial depots at a cost in millions of US dollars without undertaking to ascertain whether the company had expertise in engineering works.

Mr Chibuye said ZPPA relied on the Ministry of Energy and Water Development to allow Dalbit to refurbish the tanks and depots.
He said the authority could not find out the suitability of the company for the work because of the urgency brought about by the closure of Indeni Oil Refinery.

“We did not take time to verify the expertise of the company because of the urgency created by the shutdown at Indeni. We were aware that there were Zambian companies that could do the engineering works but Dalbit had the capacity to provide the finance,” Mr Chibuye said.

Earlier, Ministry of Energy and Water Development director of human resource Paul Chanda said the ministry had just been given Dalbit as the only name to consider to procure fuel and refurbish the tanks and depots.
[Zambia Daily Mail]

UTH embarks on new TB diagnostic method

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AFB

The University Teaching Hospital (UTH) has embarked on a project of evaluating new and practical tuberculosis (TB) diagnostic methods using a loop-medicated isothermal amplification (LAMP) which is said to be rapid, cost effective and simple does not require sophisticated equipment compared to the conventional method currently being used.

The main objective of the study is to establish a new diagnostic method based on the LAMP using sputum and urine for the direct detection and differentiation of Mycrobacteria in clinic samples.

UTH TB laboratory technician Charity Habeenzu said during the second scientific meeting for HIV/AIDS and TB diagnosis by LAMP at UTH last week that the new diagnostic method could also be used on various fields such as tumor detection and other bacteria.

Ms Habeenzu said the LAMP method currently at the learning stage in the UTH TB laboratory should be improved.

She said the LAMP method would only take a day to diagnose TB compared to conventional method, which take about three weeks and it is user friendly as it could be performed in a simple laboratory.

And UTH Head of Pathology and Microbiology Victor Mudenda in his closing remarks at the same function said the LAMP method would assist in quick TB diagnosis and treatment thereby reducing on the number of cases.

Dr Mudenda said the hospital was looking for such early and cheaper diagnosis because many people were still dying from TB.

“LAMP would help answer many of the questions raised on how to reduce the TB burden in Zambia,” he said.

The new method would assist in preventing others from getting infected as it would provide for quick TB diagnosis.

He called on the young scientists to be part of such important research in future that aims at enhancing good health in the country.
[Times of Zambia]

Protesting KCM miners clash with police

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IRATE miners at Grinaker LTA, a contracted company engaged by Konkola Copper Mines (KCM) in Chililabombwe, on October 18 attacked police officers with catapults during a protest over poor conditions of service.

The miners working at shaft number four engaged police in skirmishes and also blocked the Chililabombwe-Kasumbalesa road with stones but quick action by police dispersed them.

Acting Copperbelt police commanding officer Milner Muyambango said in an interview in Kitwe yesterday that the miners attacked the police officers after they were dispersed from KCM plant.

He said the miners blocked some township roads and burnt tyres but police immediately moved in to restore peace. “The miners in Chililabombwe this morning fought running battles with police, they started stoning the police officers using catapults after they were removed from the plant. The miners also blocked the road leading to Kasumbalesa but now the situation has normalised,” Mr Muyambango said. He said the police did not arrest any miner during the fracas.

And miners at China Non-Ferrous Corporation (NFCA) in Chambishi yesterday evening protested over management’s refusal to award them a K2 million salary increase. The miners blocked the road with stones but quick action by police prevented the protest from degenerating into a riot.

Acting Copperbelt police commanding officer Milner Muyambango said in an interview yesterday that 60 police officers have been deployed to Chambishi to maintain law and order. Mr Muyambango said the workers burnt tyres and blocked the road with stones but that no-one was injured.

“The workers at Chambishi NFCA have been protesting for three weeks now. Yesterday [Tuesday] in the evening they blocked the Kitwe-Chingola road. They burnt tyres on the road and put huge stones but no-one was injured,” he said.

Mr Muyambango said the protests in Chambishi and Chililabombwe have so far been peaceful and that the police have not made any arrests. He said police will continue maintaining law and order to protect lives and property in the communities.

[Zambia Daily Mail]

Speaker directs VP to explain the abolition Secretary to the Treasury without House permission

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Republican Vice President Guy Scott
Republican Vice President Guy Scott

SPEAKER of the National Assembly Patrick Matibini has directed Vice-President Guy Scott to address the House today on the point of order raised by former Vice-President George Kunda, who has questioned the abolition of the position of secretary to the treasury, a position that was created by Parliament under the Public Finance Act No. 15 of 2005.

Mr Kunda, who is also Muchinga MP (MMD), asked whether Government was in order to abolish the position of secretary to the treasury without seeking authority from the House.
Mr Kunda, who raised the point of order during debate on the President’s address to Parliament, said the secretary to the treasury is the controlling officer for public funds and that he is the one who appoints controlling officers.

“The secretary to the treasury, inter alia, performs the functions of preparing estimates of expenditure (budget), reviews the budget, submits financial reports to the minister and prepares supplementary estimates.”

“With the abolition of the position of secretary to the treasury, who is going to prepare and authenticate the budget for 2012, and who is appointing controlling officers? The abolition of this position has far-reaching implications,” Mr Kunda said.

He said according to a story which appeared in the Zambia Daily Mail of October 4, 2011, President Sata decided to abolish the position, which was held by Mr Likolo Ndalamei, saying it was extravagant.

Dr Matibini told the House that he expected Dr Scott to address the matter today.

Meanwhile, Mfuwe MP Mwimba Malama (PF) has commended President Sata for laying out the vision he has for this country during his address to Parliament last on October 14.
Mr Malama, who moved the motion for debate, said the President’s speech has given hope to Zambians, who lived in fear of a bleak future.

[pullquote]“With the abolition of the position of secretary to the treasury, who is going to prepare and authenticate the budget for 2012, and who is appointing controlling officers? The abolition of this position has far-reaching implications,” Mr Kunda said.[/pullquote]

He said the PF will not let the people of Zambia down and assured that the party will deliver on its pre-election promises. In seconding the motion, Petauke MP Dora Siliya (MMD) said she was happy to note that the PF prioritises sectors such as agriculture, health and education, just like the former ruling party.

She said, however, that the President did not say anything on the PF’s foreign policy and that there was nothing mentioned on the windfall tax. Kalomo MP Request Muntanga (UPND) said he found the speech to be “open-ended” and that most of the things that were promised may take longer to implement.

Debate on this motion resumes today.

Lubinda urges HH to stop trivializing the decisions Government is making

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Minister of Information, Broadcasting and Tourism Given Lubinda

Government has urged UPND leader Hakainde Hichilema to stop trivializing the decisions that government is making for the benefit of the Zambian people.

Chief Government spokesperson Given Lubinda says the opposition leader is at liberty to engage the government on policy matters stating that the PF government will not allow the opposition to derail it in its quest to deliver development to the Zambian people.

Mr. Lubinda says it is regrettable to learn that Mr. Hichilema has been attacking government for its decision to relocate the provincial capital of southern province from Livingstone to Choma which is centrally located.

He says moving the capital to Choma will reduce the cost of running government business in the province adding that it is sad that the opposition leader has failed to see logic in the decision made.

Mr. Lubinda has further stressed that the establishment of Muchinga province as the 10th province was one of the issues which the PF talked about during its campaigns and that the government is merely fulfilling its promise to the people of that area.

And Mr. Lubinda has advised Mr. Hichilema to take a break and recover from the election fatigue. The Chief government spokesperson adds that the UPND leader should also reflect on the future of his political career and that of his party.

QFM

Michael Mabenga rebuffs calls for him and RB to resign from their MMD positions

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MMD National Chairman Michael Mabenga addresses journalists at his office in Lusaka
MMD National Chairman Michael Mabenga

Movement for Multiparty Democracy MMD national chairman Michael Mabenga has castigated the MMD North Western Province Executive for calling for his resignation and the stepping down of former President Rupiah Banda from the party presidency.

Mr. Mabenga says there is no way he will relinquish his position as chairman of the former ruling party. This follows the resolution by the MMD Provincial executive committee in North Western Province for former president Rupiah Bwezani Banda to relinquish his position as president of MMD with immediate effect and retires from active politics.

MMD provincial secretary Emmanuel Chihili says the executive further wants Mr Mabenga, and National Secretary Major Richard Kachingwe to resign on moral grounds for lamentably failing to run the party.

Mr. Chihili says the provincial leadership has also proposed that former commerce minister Felix Mutati assumes the MMD Presidency in an interim capacity as they wait for the extraordinary convention.

Mr. Chihili states that the MMD in Northwestern Province are not comfortable and happy with the way the top leadership is handling the party affairs following the painful defeat orchestrated by lack of foresight.

But Mr Mabenga says he will not relinquish his position because of a complaint from one individual. Mr. Mabenga in an interview with QFM radio has also doubted media reports quoting Mr. Chihili. He says the MMD has a procedure which should be followed and not rushing to the media to air grievances.

He adds that the MMD only went to the convention this year and that there is no way the party will organize another convention.

QFM

Nkana-Zanaco Barclays Cup Clash Will be Tough-Sialeti

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Nkana Assistant Coach Zeddy Saileti has told LT Sports in Kitwe that Saturday’s Barclays Cup quarterfinal fixture between the Wusakile side
and Zanaco will be tough.

Saileti stated that what makes the Nkana and Zanaco encounter interesting is that the two teams are familiar with each other having
met in several league and cup games.

“The game will be tough; I think it is 50-50 and at the end of the day a team that will be work hard deserves to win,” he said.

“We have played Zanaco before, and we know how Zanaco plays so this game will be more like a league game and we are not under pressure,”
Saileti added.

The ex-Chipolopolo striker declared that Nkana was targeting to get a better result when they face the Bankers at Nkoloma Stadium.

“After learning that we will play against Zanaco in the Barclays Cup, we are working hard. In the league will draw 1-1 in Lusaka and here we
lost 2-0, so we are looking forward to get a better result,” Saileti said.

He promised that Nkana supporters should expect the Wusakile Boys to put up a spirited fight in this year’s Barclays Cup Competition.

In other Barclays Cup quarterfinals to be played on Saturday, Power Dynamos will face debutants Luena Buffaloes and Konkola Blades will take on Nakambala at Arthur Davies in Kitwe.

Meanwhile Red Arrows are scheduled to face Division One North side Indeni at Nkoloma Stadium.

LAZ president denies being pressured to condemn Sata.

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LAZ president Musa Mwenye
LAZ president Musa Mwenye

Law Association of Zambia (LAZ) president Musa Mwenye has said that at no time did the association’s executive press him to condemn activities of Republican President Michael Sata.

An online publication has indicated that the LAZ Executive has been pressing Mr. Mwenye to condemn the numerous constitutional breaches that President Michael Sata has allegedly committed.

Mr. Mwenye said that the Law Association of Zambia will not allow to be used to fight political confrontations. Speaking to QFM in a telephone interview, Mr. Mwenye said that LAZ will continue to carry out its mandate of saving people, regardless of their political affiliation.

Mr. Mwenye noted that the association can only condemn an act on legal basis either privately or publicly.

And when asked on reports that he is expectant to be appointed Solicitor General by President Sata, Mr. Mwenye said he could not comment on the matter because he was not the appointing authority.

The LAZ president said that President Sata is the only person who can answer such questions because he is the one making the appointments.

QFM

Defending Zesco United Out of 2011 Barclays Cup

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Zesco United will not be taking part in this year’s Barclays Cup tournament.

The 2010 champions and record 3-time winners failed to make the top 6 cutoff point by Week 15 matches of this seasons Faz Super Division.

The Top 6 teams in this year’s Barclays Cup tournament are Nakambala Leopards, Nkana, Red Arrows, Konkola Blades, 2010 runner-up Zanaco and 2009 champions Power Dynamos.

Division 1 North promotion chasers Indeni and Division 1 South club Luena Buffaloes from Kaoma complete the quarterfinal set-up for this year’s Barclays Cup.

The quarterfinals will see two doubleheaders taking place this Saturday, October 22 at Nkoloma stadium in Lusaka and Arthur Davies in Kitwe.

The big one will be at Nkoloma where 2010 runner-up Zanaco will face Nkana in a 15:00 kickoff in what is expected to be the big draw game in the preliminary stage of the tournament.

Nkana have never qualified to the Barclays Cup semifinals and the furthest they have been is the 2007 quarterfinals where they lost 1-0 to Konkola Blades in the inaugural tournament.

And in the lunchtime kickoff at the same venue, Arrows will host Indeni at 13:00.

At Arthur Davies, Power face Division 1 South promotion contenders Luena in a 15:00 kickoff while Blades take on Nakambala at 13:00.

The semifinals will be held on October 29 at Nkoloma while the final will be played on November 19 at Arthur Davies.

This year’s winners will like last year take home K150 million but the runners up not go empty handed unlike last year.

The loser will get K75 million while the coach and the player of the tournament will pocket K10 million and K5 million respectively.

Missing FAZ vehicle at State House

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FLASHBACK Former Zambia national soccer team assistant coach George Lwandamina steps in a new Toyota Raider which was given to him at State House at the time

The Football Association of Zambia says one of the motor vehicles which was never returned to Football House has been located parked at State House.

FAZ Communications Manager Eric Mwanza says the vehicle is the one which was under discussion at the weekend.

Mwanza says as the Football body withdraws the other Hilux from former coach Dario Bonetti, it is their wish to take both vehicles for services in readiness for handover to the new coaches who will be appointed soon.

He says the other vehicle caught fire while in the hands of Bonetti and FAZ had to give him the one he had been using until the termination of his contract.

He says FAZ is now trying to engage State House on possibilities of returning the motor vehicle.

Mwanza says it has never come to the attention of the Association as to why the motor vehicle was never surrendered to Football House for use by the coaches.

Over the weekend, FAZ had asked government to investigate the whereabouts of a Toyota Hilux vehicle, meant for national soccer team coaches.

FAZ Communications Manager, Erick Mwanza said at the time that the association was unaware of the whereabouts of the said vehicle, since it was handed over to State House a few months ago.

The respective vehicle was among 3 double-cab Toyota Hilux vehicles donated to FAZ by First Quantum Minerals in 2009.

[ZNBC]

ZEDBEATS

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If you are a fan of zambian music , you have most probably heard of Zedbeats. It is the premiear channel on youtube to get the latest and greatest zambian music videos and songs on demand.

BEGINNING 

Zed Beats was started on 20th, May 2010, by a student,,studying in the USA. He had a great passion and love for Zambian music. Being abroad for a number of years it was very hard to find latest Zambian music and videos anywhere and to keep in touch with what was going on in the Zambian music industry. He figured there must be many more Zambians in the diaspora facing the same problem.  Music from other countries ,especially Nigeria , is very popular in other countries .

He decided to start Zedbeats with 2 main objectives:

  1. To make Zambian music global, and reach people who have never had the opportunity to enjoy it. This would in turn help expand the Zambian music industry and its reach and consequently help the Zambian artists, record labels, videos producers etc , get more out of their music & crafts.
  2. To help Zambians all over the world have better access to Zambian music and keep up to date with it.

He traveled to Zambia in 2010 and got hold a lot of the new Zambian music and videos and started making contacts in the industry.

He then started by creating a Youtube channel called Zed beats.  This served 2 purposes.

  1.  It allowed people to listen to the songs and watch the videos but they were not downloadable , this was in order to not contribute to piracy that is hindering the growth of zambian music.
  2.   Youtube already had a base of people from all over the world who search for music and videos so setting up the channel dedicated to zambian music would attract a lot of people and make it grow in popularity.

ZED BEATS ON YOUTUBE

The youtube channel  is currently the number 1 destination for Zambian music online. Since it’s inception (17 months ago), it has grown rapidly and offered the Zambian Music industry over 2.5 million views/listen from ears all across the world and continues to get 10,000 views daily.

Several of the countries that now enjoy Zambian music had previously never even heard of ZAMBIA, but have now fallen in love with its music, thanks to Zed Beats. And a couple of songs exposed by Zed Beats have even gone on to make the charts in those countries ,for example  “Captain Charlie” by Josi went to the top of the charts in Ned Caledonia and Vanuatu, which are island countries in the South Pacific.

 Josi “Captain Charlie”

 

Zambian music can now be heard playing in clubs all over the world, even where people do not even understand the language.

LAUNCH OF THE WEBSITE

The new Zed Beats website is intended to be the “go to” website for anything Zambian music. There are plans to add more features. Currently, Zambian music lovers can get free music downloads, artist profies and interviews, music videos, charts and countdowns.
This has been in the plans for the very start, but has finally come to fruition. The world is ready for Zambian music.

To show how much the world has been waiting for this, within 3 days of launching the website, there were over 12,000 music downloads from it.

Piracy of Zambian music is strictly not advocated. ALL the downloads offered on the website are legal free downloads offered by the artists themselves or their record labels, producers and/or promoters


 FUTURE PLANS

  • Help the Zambian Music industry develop further so artists can make a worthwhile living from it.
  • Help Zambian artists reach more markets even more by collaborating with artists from other countries
  • See Zambian music get to the point where Zambian artists can be invited to foreign lands to hold a concert perform and pack the place with non-Zambian Zambian music fans.
  • See more Zambian musicians nominated for more international and prestigious awards.

Visit the site to watch the latest zambian music videos such as:

POMPI -CHIPOLOPOLO

Also a Zed beats mixtape , with one and a half hours of non-stop zambian music

For more information you can follow zed beats on Twitter and Like them on Facebook

BY KAPA187

State House instructed us to buy cars – Ng’ambi

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WORKS and Supply Permanent Secretary Watson Ng’ambi has said his ministry received instructions from State House to single-source the procurement of four armoured luxury 4×4 Lexus motor vehicles.

President Sata recently questioned the logic by his predecessor to buy two luxury vehicles worth K3.6 billion amidst other pressing needs in the country, and also ordered the police to look for two other Lexus vehicles that had been procured.

Mr Ng’ambi said the ministry received instructions to seek permission from the Zambia Public Procurement Authority to allow it to buy and make the vehicles bullet-proof in line with the specifications that came in writing from State House.

On Sunday, through his administrative assistant Mikatazo Wakumelo, former President Rupiah Banda said he was not a procurement officer to be involved in the procurement of vehicles and that people who bought them were still serving in the Government. That was in reaction to revelations by President Michael Sata that Mr Banda’s administration bought four luxury Lexus vehicles and wondered what value they were adding to the people of Zambia.

Mr Ng’ambi said State House generated the quotation from one company in Germany and delivered it to the ministry to facilitate the purchase of the vehicles. “You know that we cannot buy anything that State House does not want. We received instructions and a quotation from one company in Germany to buy the four vehicles,” Mr Ng’ambi said.

He said having made all the arrangements, officials from State House, the Government controller of transport at the Ministry of Works, John Kasanga and other security personnel travelled to Germany to supervise the stripping and armour-plating of the vehicles.

Mr Ng’ambi said no-one had authority to question what State House had arranged because specifications on where the vehicles should be bought and their details were received from there.

He said a Government team went to Germany in August this year to supervise and facilitate transportation of the vehicles to Lusaka. President Sata recently questioned the logic by his predecessor to buy two luxury vehicles worth K3.6 billion amidst other pressing needs in the country. Speaking when he swore in Zambia National Service Commandant Nathan Mulenga and his deputy Alick Kamiji on Tuesday last week, Mr Sata expressed disappointment at the expenditure on the luxury vehicles.

However, Mr Banda last weekend welcomed the investigations into the matter, saying he was not a procurement officer. He said he was available at any given time to answer to any clarification which the current Head of State may have before they are made public.

{Times of Zambia}

Katele Kalumba prefers MMD-PF pact

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Dr Katele Kalumba
Dr Katele Kalumba

FORMER MMD national secretary Katele Kalumba says a working relationship with the ruling Patriotic Front (PF) will serve the long-term interests of the MMD as opposed to a partnership with the United Party for National Development (UPND).

Dr Kalumba said: “A partnership with PF will help serve the long-term interests of MMD. Partnerships with weaker candidates never impress me. By helping PF govern, the MMD will come out better in the public eye than simply helping the UPND ascend to power by obstructing PF.”

Dr Kalumba said there are many internal issues that the MMD needs to resolve before it can become a viable partner with any political party. “There is a history on the part of the UPND which needs to be carefully understood or how its pact with PF fractured and why it fractured. The content matter of that fracture was principally centred on leadership.”

Dr Kalumba added: “I don’t think the MMD has consulted enough about its own leadership issues to marry itself with UPND, which also has its own leadership issues.”

And Parliamentary chief whip Yamfwa Mukanga has advised the MMD to reflect before entering into a pact with the UPND, saying the latter are inconsistent.

In an interview yesterday, Mr Mukanga said the partnership between MMD and UPND is not new because the two opposition political parties worked together in the National Constitutional Conference (NCC) which the PF boycotted.

“The pact between MMD and UPND is not new, they worked together at the NCC but the UPND withdrew when they brought the constitution to parliament so the MMD should now start thinking,” he said.

Mr Mukanga, who is Minister of Transport, Works, Supply and Communication, described the pact between MMD and UPND as a marriage of convenience because the UPND will abandon them at the last minute like they did with the PF.

“If you keep on getting divorced, you should think twice why you keep on getting divorced. UPND has never been consistent that is why they don’t even have a Speaker, deputy speaker not even the deputy chairman of committees, the UPND was even beaten by the FDD, a one-man party in the House,” Mr Mukanga said.

He said President Sata’s address to the First Session of the Eleventh National Assembly is about changing mindsets and the manner in which development is pursued.

Mr Mukanga said it is unfortunate that the MMD and the UPND want to enter into a pact just to frustrate progressive PF policies that are for the benefit of the people.

“In this new dispensation, we will ensure that things are done in a transparent manner so that we can have a Zambia that will be fit and habitable. We are in Government and every Zambian must be told what Government is doing. We were in opposition but we worked hard and the people gave us the mandate so why should people frustrate what we are doing?” Mr Mukanga said.

He said opposition political parties are there to provide checks and balances but not to frustrate Government programmes. Mr Mukanga also said Government will expeditiously reintroduce the abuse of office clause in this sitting of Parliament in order to effectively fight corruption.

“President Sata’s speech gave the direction that Government and Parliament will take. That clause has to come in this sitting of Parliament because we want to fight corruption and that should be done expeditiously,” he said.

[Zambia Daily Mail]

Influx of cheap mobile phones rocks M-Tech

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FLASHBACK President Rupiah Banda talks to workers at the Mobile Telecommunications mobile telephone assembly plant in Lusaka

ZAMBIA’S mobile phone assembling plant, M-mobile Telecommunications, (M-Tech) Limited says the increasing number of imported mobile phones on the market has impacted negatively on the firm’s growth.

M-Tech chairperson Mohamed Seedat said the firm has since 2009 faced stiff competition due to the influx of phones being imported cheaply.

“Business has not been favourable, because of the stiff competition from the phones being dumped on the market from China which are heavily subsided. This has resulted in us failing to fully penetrate the local market,” he said.

M-Tech mobile handsets with double sim cards cost K150,000 while those with a single sim card cost K140,000 but the market is awash with cheaper handsets with some costing as less as K50,000.

The US$10 million mobile phone assembling plant was set up in 2009 to provide affordable mobile phones to the public and to enhance economic development through employment creation.

Mr Seedat said this in an interview in Lusaka recently.

He said there is need for Government to come up with policies that will protect the local industries.

Mr Seedat said Government should introduce a system to register all phones coming into the country because most of the handsets are allegedly being imported duty-free.

He said reducing the cost of production will also enable local products compete favourably with imported products.

Mr Seedat said plans to export mobile phones to countries within the southern region are on hold because like Zambia, the countries have not been spared from the influx of heavily subsided mobile phones.

He, however, said the firm is committed to grow and contribute to the country’s economy adding that the company is negotiating with local mobile service providers on possibilities to partner in business.

M-Tech has since 2009, produced 12,000 single and dual -sim phones. “M-Tech plans to produce about 5,000 phones by the end of this year and plans are also underway to produce triple-sim phones,” he said.

[Zambia Daily Mail]

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