Tanzania Zambia Railways Authority -TAZARA- Managing Director Akashambatwa Lewanika has written to President Michael Sata indicating his willingness to step down as Managing Director for the joint national railway company.

Mr Lewanika says he has decided to offer himself to be replaced because the effective operations of the TAZARA Managing Director require political will and support.

He has noted that with the coming in of the new government in Zambia, there is need to appoint a new Managing Director and that he is willing to step aside.

And Mr Lewanika says TAZARA needs over 7-hundred million US dollars to meet its financial requirements.

Mr Lewanika told a media briefing in Lusaka on Friday that of the total amount of money required to ensure the smooth running of TAZARA, over 4-hundred Million US Dollars should come from the government of Zambia.

He says this should be so, because the survival of TAZARA is critical to the Zambian economy.

Mr Lewanika has pointed out that TAZARA has a lot of challenges which need to be addressed by both the government of Zambia and Tanzania.

ZNBC

By D.Phiri
Indeed, Zambia celebrates another benchmark in its democracy. Mostly,credit is to the people of Zambia and the mature political players involved. However, I would like to bring to the fore, a very pertinent matter which has for a long time been relegated to the periphery in the governance agenda in Zambia. That is, the Childrens agenda. Adult Zambians have spoken, and democracy has answered their call. However,we have the unheard voices; whose right to vote is not yet but they are a critical constituency in the Zambian demographics.

As of 2007, the Zambia demographic and Healthy Survey (ZDHS) stated that Zambia has a young population with 50 per cent of the total population under the age of 15 whilst the least age group of 0 – 4 years comprised of the largest proportion of the population at 19 per cent (p. 13). Therefore, many children are being impacted in reality by the social, economic, and political realities of the day than adults. It can be assumed by the population demographics that they tend to be affected more.

However, their voices seem to continue to be unheard. The government and other NGOs who purport to work in this area need to reflect on this matter at this early stage of government transition. Whilst children cannot vote, how can the government ensure that childrens perspectives, concerns, views and experiences be taken into consideration as a serious governance agenda? Political structures from the time of campaigns are not easily accessible to
children, and were it is done, seems to be top dressing and not mutually interactive with children to get their perspectives.

In some cases, we have read in media were political players have laughed at other party rallies attended by children. Is it a sign of political
failure when children attend rallies to hear what government is doing in their country? Children are social agents, who are part of the
overall political environment and are largely affected by political activities and outcome. It should be well known that children contribute severally to the political economy of the country but due to such discriminative tendencies their contribution and stake is not seen and respected.

As the new government settles down and creates its structures, we are watching with keen interest what changes they make in structures that will be pushing forward the childrens agenda. The question has always been, ‘which government wing holistically moves the childrens agenda forward!’ Fuzzy and unclear structures in the government characterized the system that has been tasked to handle childrens affairs. In most instances, childrens programming was subsumed in other adult activities and as such never made substantial impact at all.

Previously, we had Ministry of Sport, Youth and Child Development (MSYCD), Ministry of Community Development and Social Services (MCDSS) and Ministry of Education (MoE) as the main structures handling childrens affairs in various aspects. These were aided by several committees that had duplicative mandates. However, this system was fraught by serious duplication of efforts, lack of precision in handling child affairs, inefficiency and subsequent poor delivery.

This is evident in the ONLY report CRC/C/11/Add.25 (instead of 3-4) delivered to the United Nations Committee on the rights of the child
in 2001. With the current merging of ministries, we hope that structures that will coordinate the holistic programming in child welfare and development will be visible. With expertise and competence in working with various NGOs in making childrens voices, views,perspectives and concerns audible through various creative programming that lessens the distance between local people and technocrats.

In addition, allocation of financial and competent human resources to programming in this area has been very inadequate. It is a huge challenge for the very inefficient systems to carry out their mandate when they are insufficiently resourced. In this regard, it is hoped that the ‘newly created structures’ will be sufficiently resourced to ensure that programming in childrens welfare is well resourced in terms of finances and human resources. With the start of the national budget debates in parliament, I hope that concerned government wings and related structures will be allocated sufficient funds to sufficiently attend to concerns and needs of this large and vital, but usually unheard constituency of the Zambian population.

It should not be assumed that addressing adults concerns addresses childrens concerns as well, for childrens concerns and perspectives as independent social agents in our society are in many ways and instances different.

South Africa’s FirstRand (FNB) has anounced that it had received formal notification from Zambia’s central bank over the termination of a $5.4 million deal to acquire Finance Bank and would comply with the directive.

“FNB has agreed to this request, and provided the process is within Zambian law, we will continue to engage with BOZ (Bank of Zambia),” it said in a statement.

According to the press statement issued by FNB’s Dr Michael Jordaan, “FNB has now received formal notification that the Bank of Zambia (BOZ) will not proceed with the proposed transaction previously agreed with BOZ, to sell to FNB selected assets and liabilities of Finance Bank of Zambia (FBZ).”

“BOZ have confirmed that they no longer require the services of the FNB staff who were seconded to BOZ to manage FBZ in December 2010, and have taken back the day to day management of FBZ”, read the statement.

The statement continued by saying that BOZ had indicated that they wished to enter into a process with FNB to terminate the existing legal agreement relating to the proposed transaction. FNB has agreed to this request, and provided the process is within Zambian law, we will continue to engage with BOZ.

“The FNB staff seconded to Bank of Zambia are in the process of returning to South Africa. In the meantime FNB Zambia remains committed to growing its current greenfields operations and will continue to focus on supporting its staff and servicing its customers, ” the statement comcluded

Bank of Zambia seized Finance Bank from its shareholders in 2010 for legal violations, including questionable loans. Finance Bank’s chairman has said the seizure was politically motivated.

Information, Broadcasting and Tourism Minister Given Lubinda said that Defence Deputy Minister Panji Kaunda qualifies to be nominated in his position.

Commenting on the media reports that Col Panji Kaunda did not qualify to serve as member of Parliament at a Press briefing in Lusaka yesterday, Mr Lubinda said that Col Kaunda’s issue of being bankrupt was addressed when the Former President Kenneth Kaunda paid Hybrid Poultry Farm Limited the amount Colonel Kaunda owed.

Mr Lubinda advised the media that it was important to carry out research on the matter before publishing any story relating to Col Kaunda.

Earlier this week, the Foundation for Democratic Process (FODEP) Executive Director McDonald Chipenzi said that the appointment of Colonel Panji Kaunda as Member of Parliament and deputy defence minister, contravened article 65 (1)(b) of the constitution because he was declared bankrupt by the courts.

Mr Chipenzi went on to explain that article 65 (1)(b) stated that a person shall not be qualified to be elected as a member of the national assembly if that person is an undischarged bankrupt, having been adjudged or otherwise declared bankrupt under any law in force in Zambia.

The FODEP executive director called on republican President Michael Sata to either reconsider Colonel Kaunda’s appointment or disclose to the nation that Colonel Kaunda is no longer a bankrupt person.

Colonel Panji Kaunda was declared bankrupt by the High Court of Zambia in January 2004 for owing Hybrid Poultry Farm Limited K121,703,436.

ARIEL PERFORMS IN UKRAINE

Zambia’s Ukrainian based Soul Artist- Ariel was the main attraction at the Nigeria Independence Bash in Kharkov, Ukraine
The Soul Singer sang immediately after the speech read on behalf of The President of Nigeria addressed to all Nigerians on this special day. The Soul Singer, known for his live performances sang his Song Woman, an appreciation song for all women (mainly mothers). The smooth melody caused a quiet atmosphere as people paid attention to the strong lyrics and great vocals. This was followed by a great applause from the crowd. He was the guest artist at this event.

Watch the performance below.

He is aiming at spreading his music world wide, this is just the beginning.

BY KAPA187