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Anti Voter Apathy Project-AVAP- Executive Director, Bonnie Tembo has commended chiefs from Western province for not taking a partisan stance by endorsing candidates.
Mr. Tembo said by not taking sides, the Barotse Royal Establishment is setting a good example by allowing its subjects to make independent choices.
Mr Tembo advised Chiefs in the country to desist from endorsing political parties and candidates in the run up to this year’s tripartite elections.
He said that Chiefs should instead stay away from politics and follow constitutional provisions on their role.
Mr. Tembo has called on every Zambian to be actively involved in the affairs of the country in readiness for the general elections.
He was speaking at the launch of the Voter Mobilization Campaign in Livingstone on yesterday.
SPEAKER of the National Assembly Amusaa Mwanamwambwa on March 17 reprimanded Patriotic Front (PF) Roan member of Parliament (MP) Chishimba Kambwili for voting on behalf of Livingstone MP Sakwiba Sikota on the amended Anti-Corruption Commission Bill No. 41 of 2010.
Mr Mwanamwambwa, who made a ruling on the matter for close to 30 minutes, said he is discontented with the conduct of Mr Kambwili by breaching the Parliamentary etiquette by voting on behalf of Mr Sikota.
The punishment meted out on Mr Kambwili was for him to stand behind the Parliament bar for 30 minutes.
“I order you to go and stand behind the Bar of the House. I also instruct the Sergeant-At-Arms to take the Speaker’s mace and stand behind you.
“This is not the first time you are being punished for breaching the rules and procedures of this honourable house.
You have been reprimanded and admonished several times before, which should be embarrassing for any honourable member. I want to believe that disciplinary measures are intended to create positive change in an individual. This doesn’t seem to be happening to you, which is very sad. This is the last time the House will have to mete out disciplinary action against you,” Mr Mwanamwambwa told Mr Kambwili.
He said the MP’s conduct misled the House and the public as the results of the voting were not a true reflection of the actual votes cast.
He said voting is one of the mechanisms used by the House to arrive at its decisions and it is gross misconduct and a serious breach of the rules and procedures of the House for any member to attempt to exercise it on behalf of another member whose constituents he does not represent.
Mr Mwanamwambwa said it is wrong for Mr Kambwili to vote on behalf of Mr Sikota because the rules do not provide for proxy voting.
Mr Mwanamwambwa said Mr Kambwili’s conduct caused grave embarrassment to Mr Sikota and brought the integrity of the House into question.
He said Mr Kambwili has lowered the decorum and standards of the House by breaching the rules and procedures the House has put in place to ensure that MPs perform their functions in a dignified and unimpeded manner.
Mr Mwanamwambwa said it is depressing that Mr Kambwili has continued to breach the rules and procedures of the Housedespite him being guided several times to desist from conducting himself in a manner that can lower the standards of the House.
He said the National Assembly Standing Orders of 2005 regulate the proceedings of the house to promote decorum and dignity in the conduct of business in parliament.
During the sitting of the House on March 16, November 3, 2010, Mr Kambwili voted twice when the amendment to the Anti-Corruption Commission Bill No.41 of 2010 proposed by UPND Itezhi-Tezhi MP Godfrey Beene, was put to the vote.
Vice president George Kunda has revealed that government has no immediate intentions of tabling before parliament the issue of second republican president Dr. Fredrick Chiluba’s presidential immunity which was removed in 2002.
Mr. Kunda, who is also Justice Minister, assured the house that the issue of Dr. Chiluba’s immunity will be addressed in the new constitution.
He said that there was a part that will address the issue of the second republican president’s immunity in the new constitution.
And the vice president has questioned why some opposition political parties have u-turned on their support to the second republican president.
Mr. Kunda said that he was surprised that some opposition political parties are now calling on government to recover the alleged stolen money from Dr Chiluba, when in the past they claimed his innocence.
Mr. Kunda has further stated that government has not failed to recover or locate any assets linked to the Dr. Chiluba anywhere in the world.
The vice president has also denied accusations that the MMD government has been shielding Dr. Chiluba.
The vice president was answering a question from Chipili Member of Parliament Davies Mwila.
Bruce Mwape faces his first big international test as Nchanga Rangers coach when the Chingola side plays DR Congo club Lupopo in Lubumbashi on Friday in the Orange Caf Confederation Cup first round, first leg tie.
In 2000, Mwape was part of the bench in Rangers last appearance in a Caf club competition when they reached the quarterfinals of the Caf Cup, the forerunner to the Caf Confederation Cup.
Mwape was then assistant to Fordson Kabole during a campaign whose major highlight saw Rangers eliminate Kaizer Chiefs in the second round in a team that had one Doctor Khumalo in the line-up and heading for retirement and Jabu Pule on his way to brief stardom.
This time around, Rangers will jump straight into the thick of action after sailing through from the preliminary stage via a bye following the withdrawal of their initial stage opponents Highlanders of Zimbabwe due to logistical problems.
Lupopo were on an automatic bye from the preliminary stage.
Meanwhile back home in the Orange Caf Champions League, Zesco Uniteds’ first round, first leg opponents Young Buffaloes of Swaziland are due to arrive in Ndola late on Thursday evening.
This is after taking a transcontinental overland journey from Manzini to Ndola for the first round match scheduled for Saturday at Trade Fair Grounds in Ndola.
Faz has succumbed to pressure for the league to be postponed until after its annual general meeting on March 26 in Kitwe.
Faz vice president Boniface Mwamelo who is also chairman of the premier league organizing committee said the league will now kickoff on April 2 instead of this weekend March 19.
“The Football Association of Zambia wants to advise all Super League teams that the league games for Week One will be played on April 2,” Mwamelo said.
“FAZ wishes to place on record that the commencement of the league which was previously tied in with the annual general meeting was removed as an agenda item by the FAZ council almost eight years ago under an item that was called Approval of Fixtures and League Standings.
“This was done to enable the league run as an administrative instrument with no tie-ins to the AGM.In fact this has been the case for the last six years or so where the league has always started prior to the AGM.”
The decision comes in the wake of the National Sports Council of Zambia’s statement on Wednesday they will be forced to act if FAZ does not heed the directive to delay the season kickoff until after the AGM.
The Zambian government has presented a Bill to the National Assembly seeking to change the law to enable President Rupiah Banda qualify for a gratuity at the end of his less than three-year reign.
According to the current laws, only a person who has served for a minimum of three years of the five-year presidential tenure is entitled to gratuity.
However, Vice-President George Kunda presented to Parliament the Presidential Emoluments (Amendment) Bill without the minimum specified period of three years service for Mr Banda to be entitled to gratuity.
Mr Banda became president on November 2, 2008 after a by-election held to replace Levy Mwanawasa, who died mid-term in August 2008, and complete his remaining years of the five-year tenure.
President Banda, 74, who is running for re-election in polls, which he says will be held before September this year, would have served three years by November 1. Therefore, according to the current law, he does not qualify for gratuity unless it is changed.
Mr Banda, who was the Vice-President of Mr Mwanawasa, was embroiled in controversy shortly after his election when he increased emoluments for himself and other constitutional office holders amidst public disapproval.
(Catholic Father in Court)Father Leo Ululi of Saint Lawrence Parish Catholic Church in the accused’s dock. He is being sued for committing adultery.
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Father Leo Ululi of Saint Lawrence Parish Catholic Church in the accused’s dock cross-examining Irene Simaubi, the wife of a police officer who has sued him for committing adultery.
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Father Leo Ululi of Saint Lawrence Parish Catholic Church (in striped shirt) reading out to the court a document in which he confessed flirting with a Police officer’s wife
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Father Leo Ululi of Saint Lawrence Parish Catholic Church (in striped shirt) reading out to the court a document in which he confessed flirting with a Police officer’s wife
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Father Leo Ululi of Saint Lawrence Parish Catholic Church is greeted by sympathizers after the hearing of a case in which a police officer has sued him for adultery
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Father Leo Ululi of Saint Lawrence Parish Catholic Church is greeted sympathizers after the hearing
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Father Leo Ululi makes his way to the car as scores of curious residents look on
The Patriotic Front has called for fresh negotiations with the United Party for National Development over the future of the UPND/PF pact.
Sources have revealed to QFM that PF president Michael Sata this week met with UPND president Hakainde Hichilema to see if they can still work together.
Mr. Sata is said to have complained to the UPND president that some people close to him were advising him wrongly on the issue of the PACT.
The PF president is said to have written to the UPND requesting to have a fresh look at the electoral alliance of the two biggest political parties in the country.
Yesterday, senior members of the UPND met to discuss the letter written by the PF.
The UPND meeting which was held at the party’s secretariat and lasted for more than 9 hours resolved to give the PF conditions in order to enter into an alliance again.
The sources explained to QFM that the UPND will keep its doors open as long as the PF accepts the set out conditions.
Among other conditions include the economic agenda of the PACT government and the sharing of the government positions equally.
QFM news has also been told that UPND president Hakainde Hichilema has no problem with being the vice president as long as the most important issues concerning the nation are agreed upon.
Efforts to get a comment for the two camps failed by press time.
The United Kingdom Government has handed over Emergency Obstetric Care Equipment worth K32 billion to the Ministry of Health.
The items donated include operating tables, beds and infant incubators among other items to help address the high rate of maternal mortality in the country which has resulted in the loss of many lives.
Speaking during the hand over ceremony in Lusaka today, Department for International Development (DFID) Head Office in Zambia Mike Hammond
assured the Zambian government of his country’s continued support in reducing the number of women who died during child birth.
“DFID is supporting Zambia in efforts to tackle maternal mortality through 7.2 million pounds maternal health programme for 2009-2012”
Mr. Hammond said.
Mr. Hammond noted that Zambia had made significant improvement in the fight against Maternal mortality with rates reducing from 729 in 2002 to 591 per 100, 000 live births in 2007 according to the Demographic Health Survey (DHS).
He also observed that further progress in the attainment of this goal was being hindered by lack of trained health workers, inadequate supplies of medicines and emergency equipment such as the ones donated today.
And speaking at the same occasion, Ministry of Health Deputy Minister Christopher Kalila said Government appreciated the support from its cooperating partners in meeting some of its goals.
Dr. Kalila said the equipment donated would not only help in the reduction of maternal mortality rate in the country but would also greatly contribute in the attainment of Millennium Development Goals (MDG’S) on health.
Dr. Kalila said it was Governments wish to ensure that by 2012 about 86 ‘Government facilities were equipped with emergency obstetric care.
Senior Chief Musele of the Lunda people of Solwezi district in North western Province has said he would not sign the surface rights for the development of the Trident project by First Quantum Minerals if the 750 square kilometres being asked for is not revised.
Senior Chief Musele said he would not go ahead and sign because the land being asked for by the mining company is too much and suggested that they take up only 500 square kilometres.
He expressed fear that if the mine was given that much land his people would have no where to settle and do their farming activities from because the whole
area would be taken up.
The traditional leader was speaking during a meeting organised by the Environmental Council of Zambia at Wanyinwa Basic School in Solwezi on Wednesday.
Senior Chief Musele bemoaned gaps in the way information flowed between the two parties, citing the non availability of the map which clearly stated boundaries and where the mining activity starts and ends.
He added that information on a number of families to be affected by the mining activities through displacement had also not been disclosed.
Meanwhile, the senior chief has appealed to the Environmental Council of Zambia (ECZ) to consider translating the Environmental Impact Assessment draft report for the Trident project into local languages to enable locals have a clear understanding of its contents.
The chief also appealed for more time from ECZ to enable him study the draft report thoroughly.
Speaking at the same meeting, acting Senior Chief Sailung’a of Mwinilunga district observed that development brought about both a negative and positive impact on the people and environment hence the need to work out modalities on how to mitigate the negative impact.
Senior Chief Sailung’a said the coming of the Trident project would tamper with nature as trees and rivers that have been sustaining people’s livelihoods would be disturbed adding that the mine should try to protect these in every way possible.
Former Patriotic Front (PF) spokesperson Given Lubinda says he is delighted that he is not spokesperson of The Party at the time of the PF/UPND pact’s break-up as he would have not stood the tension.
Mr. Lubinda says the news of the pull out of the United Party for National Development (UPND) From the pact would not have been so easy for him to handle as he had worked so hard for the sustainability of the same.
He said it is saddening that the pact has been dissolved at a time when the Zambians invested so much to see it prosper.
Mr. Lubinda appealed to the leaderships of the two parties to put their personal interests and greed aside and instead prioritize the nation’s interests.
He added that the two parties should have resolved their differences amicably instead of swaying away from the basis the pact was founded upon.
Mr. Lubinda has however remained optimistic that the Patriotic Front will win the general election as a single party.
He says the only difference is that it might not be with a large margin compared to the way pact would have won the elections.
[ QFM ]
The Committee of Citizens has said Zambia’s Electoral Act prohibits monitors and observers to declare or disclose results of any election before the Electoral Commission of Zambia (ECZ) does so.
Executive director Gregory Chifire said regulation 15 (6) (F) of the Electoral Act was explicit as to why the parallel vote tabulation (PVT) system was illegal.
“We should emphasise that under regulation 15 (6) (F) of the Electoral Act, monitors and observers are prohibited by themselves or through their organisations to declare or disclose the result of any election before the ECZ does so.
“This provision in the Electoral Act is what makes the PVT system illegal,” Mr Chifire said in a statement in Lusaka yesterday.
He said the ECZ was the sole institution mandated by the Constitution in Article 76 and the Laws of Zambia to conduct elections and all its processes.
Mr Chifire said for the purpose of transparency and principles of holding free and fair elections, the ECZ did allow independent observers and monitors to witness the entire electoral process.
“It does not mean that these NGOs (non-governmental organisations) should usurp the constitutional powers of the ECZ by wishing to count, tabulate, collate and announce poll results using the PVT.
“Furthermore, our opposition to the use of the PVT by these NGOs is because they cannot be trusted to use this process responsibly since their partisan and hostile stance against the MMD Government is well-known and documented,” he said.
He also questioned the decision by the Department for International Development (DfiD) of the United Kingdom to engage the National Democratic Institute (NDI) to carry out the PVT system at a cost of 3.8 million Euros during this year’s elections.
Mr Chifire further questioned the decision by NDI to contract the Press Freedom Committee (PFC) of the Post and Caritas Zambia as lead institutions, which have also engaged the Anti-Voter Apathy Project (AVAP) and Southern African Centre for the Constructive Resolution of Disputes (SACCORD).
He said PFC also intended to contract Transparency International Zambia to form a consortium or block that would carry out the PVT.
Mr Chifire said it was surprising that DfiD and NDI could engage PFC and Caritas Zambia as lead organisations to carry out the PVT system when the two organisations had never been known to be monitoring or observer bodies and had no relevant experience to monitor elections.
“This is the reason which has heightened our suspicions that PVT will be used for the purpose of inciting violence and anarchy,” he said.
Mr Chifire said PVT was at the centre of the post-electoral conflict and anarchy in Zimbabwe, Kenya and recently the Ivory Coast, although the proponents claimed that PVT was used successfully in Ghana and Zambia in 2008.
He said his organisation was aware that a sampling method to ascertain the integrity of election results was secretly used by the Foundation for Democratic Process (FODEP) for a targeted audience like donors.
He said although the 2008 PVT conducted by FODEP demonstrated that election results as announced by the ECZ in Zambia were accurate, that did not stop The Post and its allies such as Citizens Forum from making their usual unfounded claims that the polls were rigged.
Patriotic Front leader Michael Sata maintained in the Post yesterday that despite the warning by President Rupiah Banda that anyone computing and tabulating results of the 2011 elections instead of the constitutionally mandated body, the ECZ, would be committing a criminal offence, he would go ahead and call for the use of the PVT system.
A couple in Luanshya is alleged to be organising marriage between its 22 year old daughter and a 29 year old man whom she doesn’t love.
Pascal Mwape and his wife Mary, are allegedly threatening to chase their daughter out of the house if she refuses to marry the said man identified as Francis of the same township.
The victim, daughter to the couple, Flaviour Mwape, told ZANIS in an interview that her mother verbally threatened to chase her out of the house on Tuesday morning should she refuse to marry the said man.
Ms. Mwape explained that she already had a boyfriend whom she loves and has been dating for over four years now.
She says he is the man she prefers to marry.
Ms. Mwape attributes her parents’ hatred for her lover to tribalism, saying her parents prefer a fellow Bemba to marry her.
But when contacted for a comment, her lover who only identified himself as Michael, based in Lusaka, confirmed that Flavor’s mother threatened him on Monday.
He added that his fiancee’s mother threatened him when she called him on her mobile saying she will not accept his lobola because Flaviour will be married off to her preferred man.
Michael explained that he wants his girlfriend to go to College first before marrying her, adding that he is disappointed with his girlfriend’s parents.
He has since appealed to relevant organisations on human and women’s rights to come on board and help him save her girlfriend from what he dubs ‘Selfish parents’ motives’ to force his girlfriend into marriage against her consent.
VICE-President George Kunda has said there is need for the member states in the Common Market for East and Southern Africa (COMESA) to address the issue of the free movement of persons if the objectives of the regional grouping are to be attained.
Speaking in Lusaka yesterday when he officiated at the fourth meeting of COMESA ministers responsible for immigration, the vice-president said while progress had been made in the movement of trade commodities, there is need to address the movement of persons.
“The people of our region or our human resource are one of our greatest assets or resource and if we are to fulfill our goal of attaining a complete free market for the COMESA region, we have to address this important aspect of our integration agenda,” he said.
Mr Kunda has since called on COMESA member states to agree on the measures, however modest, that the region needs to take to make progress in the area of the movement of persons.
He said COMESA already had legal instruments already in force to govern the issue of the movement of people.
“We already have legal instruments that are already in force and that govern our programe such as the protocol on the gradual relaxation and eventual elimination of Visas, but what is retarding our progress is lack of implementation.
“I am also aware that since the protocol on free movement of persons, services, labour and right of establishment was adopted by member states, only four member states have signed the protocol with one ratifying it,” he said.
He urged the member states that had not yet signed and ratified the protocol to do so, adding that the aspirations of the member countries for a better life for their people would only be achieved if leaders took bold decisions to implement what had already agreed.
The vice-president said the regional integration agenda would not be complete if people do not enjoy basic tenements of regional integration such as free movement across the borders.
COMESA secretary general Sindiso Ngwenya said the success of the programme on the movement of people depended on the harmonisation of immigration laws among COMESA member states.
“It is important that our ministers give us direction on how we can enhance the process of harmonising our immigration laws,” Mr Ngwenya said.
He said the people in the region were at the centre of the COMESA integration agenda as a factor of production as well as movement of goods and other factors of production such as technology transfer.
The meeting was attended by five ministers-in-charge of immigration from within the COMESA region.
The United Party for National Development (UPND) says it is impossible for its former pact partner the Patriotic Front (PF) to win this year’s tripartite elections.
UPND spokesperson Charles Kakoma said in Lusaka on yesterday that the PF cannot win the poll, given the facts on the ground, which are stacked against the opposition party. He was reacting to PF secretary general Wynter Kabimba who said on March 16 that the PF was looking forward to winning the 2011 elections.
Mr Kakoma described PF’s hopes of having an outright victory in the 2011 elections as ‘delusional’.
“If they think they can win this time around, that is a delusion, dreaming and a serious error of judgement of events on the ground,” he said.
He said an ‘outright victory’ proclaimed by Mr Kabimba is practically impossible.
Mr Kakoma also dispelled Mr Kabimba’s allegations that UPND caused the failure of the pact and said it were people like him (Mr Kabimba) and his president Michael Sata who thought it was not necessary to unite and provide formidable opposition to the MMD.
Earlier, Mr Kabimba said UPND vice-president Richard Kapita said at a press briefing when he officially announced his party’s pullout from the pact that party members started campaigning for their president Hakainde Hichilema last year because they knew that the pact was not going to work.
“So, the reasons they have given about Mr Sata being a dictator are not genuine at all. UPND have been undermining the pact from last year, if not long before 2010, according to their own confession,” he said.
[pullquote]“They also said we in the UPND have no brains. Obviously, this was provocative and they wanted to annoy us. So, it is them who wanted the pact to die. Now that the Zambian people have descended on them, they are defending themselves and accusing us of killing the pact,” he said.[/pullquote]
Mr Kakoma said UPND was a serious and faithful pact partner and that it did all it could to ensure that the pact succeeded but the PF never took it seriously from the very beginning.
Mr Kakoma said last year, the PF wrote to UPND explaining the rules of engagement in the pact but started fielding candidates even where the working group had agreed to be represented by UPND members.
“For example, they followed us in Chilanga, Kafulafuta and others. They also advertised to field their candidates in all the constituencies and wards. This was an indication that they were not serious,” he said.
Mr Kakoma said it was clear that the PF did not have regard for UPND leaders and wondered how and why they could refer to Mr Hichilema as an “under-five” when he is a 48-year-old man with a wife and children.
“They also said we in the UPND have no brains. Obviously, this was provocative and they wanted to annoy us. So, it is them who wanted the pact to die. Now that the Zambian people have descended on them, they are defending themselves and accusing us of killing the pact,” he said.
Last week, the UPND announced it was pulling out of the pact, formed in June 2009, due to ‘irredeemable differences’.
UPND vice-president Richard Kapita said it had become clear that the pact would not work because the PF was disrespectful to the UPND which it regarded as a junior partner.
