The president has since assured the nation that the amendment of the Act had ensured that the fight against corruption had been strengthened.

Mr Banda said in a speech read for him by Vice-President George Kunda that section 38 of the ACC Act now covered everyone both from the public and the private sector as opposed to section 37 which only targeted civil servants.

“There are no sacred cows in the fight against corruption and as we fight corruption, we also do soul-searching of ourselves,” he said.

He said if a member of the civil society pays a civil servant to steal a document which is later given to a newspaper then that would be fighting corruption using corruption.

He said what the Government had done was to harmonise the laws and that they were now up to international practice because when amending Section 37 of the ACC Act research was conducted and it was not different from what obtains in Britain and other countries.

President Banda said Zambia was also making arrangements for the pending United Nations Convention Against Corruption (UNCAC) peer review mechanism and that Transparency International Zambia was involved in the process.

He said in line with UNCAC, the country had launched the National Anti-Corruption Policy (NACP) to coordinate the corruption fight and at the same time a national steering committee chaired by the secretary to the Cabinet had been put in place to oversee the implementation.

To achieve the desired results, it would require that all Zambians took interest in anti-corruption work and support various institutions and individuals involved in the implementation of the NACP.

He said the institutionalising of the fight against corruption through integrity committees was a sign of Government’s desire to eliminate corruption through promotion of transparency and accountability leading to improved public service delivery.

Mr Banda said integrity committees had been set up at 17 institutions and were not limited to public institutions but it had been extended to private companies such as Konkola Copper Mines.

He said in 2008, the Government launched the public service code of ethics to instill professionalism in the public service while the Millennium Challenge Corporation report indicated that Zambia had made progress in controlling corruption.

The progress had been assessed as having improved from 71 per cent in 2009 and 74 per cent in 2010 to 77 per cent in 2011 although there was more work to be done.

Because political support was crucial to the fight against corruption the Government would continue to strengthen the ACC and other governance institutions in order to meet the UNCAC demands.

He said the Government had strengthened the Prohibition and Prevention of Money Laundering Act and had also enacted the forfeiture of proceeds of Crime Act to enhance the recovery of stolen public resources.

ACC director general Godfrey Kayukwa said the commission was satisfied there were now sufficient legal provisions to deal with public officials, private individuals and corporate bodies that engaged in corrupt practices.

Colonel Kayukwa said the fight against corruption required the involvement of head of State, senior Government officials and the people including civil society organizations.

United Nations Development Programme country director Viola Morgan said that corruption was a scourge that should be addressed because it affected fundamentals upon which the nation was built.

Meanwhile, ACC Copperbelt regional manager, Trevor Nyoni has called for concerted effort from all stakeholders in the fight against corruption.

Mr Nyoni said following Government’s launch of the implementation plan of the national anti-corruption policy which aims to harmonise strategies in the fight against corruption, there was need for participation of all stakeholders in its implementation in order to realise the desired results.

He was speaking in Kitwe yesterday during the commemoration of the International Anti-Corruption Day activities that were conducted in various localities of the city.
( Times of Zambia ]

President Rupiah Banda has with immediate effect revoked the appointment of Chrispin Musosha as Deputy Minister of Education in a move aimed at instilling discipline in both Government and the ruling party.

The President said he has decided to relieve Musosha of his duties because of indiscipline and causing wrangles in Government and the ruling Movement for Multiparty Democracy (MMD) in Luapula Province.

President Banda said discipline in his Government was paramount and that all Ministers, Deputy Ministers, Members of Parliament, and party officials should at all cost adhere to good conduct.
[pullquote]” It does not make political sense for Ministers or Deputy Ministers who live in Lusaka to try and aspire to be in Provincial Executive Committees when they do not ordinarily reside in those areas,” Mr Banda said [/pullquote]
He said it is his wish that power should be shared between Ministers, Deputy Ministers, and ordinary party officials.

The President explained that people holding Ministerial and Deputy Ministerial positions should try and allow ordinary MMD members to aspire and hold senior party positions at various levels during the forthcoming provincial conferences.

” It does not make political sense for Ministers or Deputy Ministers who live in Lusaka to try and aspire to be in Provincial Executive Committees when they do not ordinarily reside in those areas,” Mr Banda said

He said leader in MMD should also allow local people in provinces to run the party.

President Banda has since transferred Luapula Province Minister Boniface Kawimbe, to the Ministry of Education where he would take over from Musosha whose appointment has been revoked.

Mr. Banda has also appointed Bahati Patriotic Front (PF) Member of Parliament, Besa Chimbaka as new Luapula Province Minister replacing Dr. Kawimbe.

This is contained in a statement made available to qfm by State House Assistant for Press and Public Relations Dickson Jere.
[ QFM ]

The toughest job in the world -a new report details role of women farmers. 80 per cent of the food consumed in Zambia is produced by women.

At the same time, women own or control a small percentage of the land and only receive a tenth of all credits. Agricultural extension workers – usually male spend most of their time providing advice to other men. Women are underrepresented in the farmers own organisations. In short, women farmers lack power and influence.

“If the situation for women in agriculture does not improve, we will never achieve the Millennium Development Goal of reducing poverty and hunger by half” , says Anna Tibblin, Regional Director of Swedish Cooperative Centre, based in Zambia.

In order to reduce poverty, investments must be made in women farmers. This includes increased control of arable land and access to legal expertise. Evidence also shows that the use of female extension workers is an effective way to increase women farmers’ knowledge.

The new report The toughest job in the world reveals that 700 million women farmers’ and their daughters’ are living in poverty worldwide. The report has been produced by the Swedish Cooperative Centre (SCC) to highlight the challenges at hand.

Launch of the report:

The toughest job in the world

Date:

Friday, 10 December

Time:

15.00-17.00 hrs

Venue:

Arcades shopping centre, in front of the cinema

The report can be downloaded at:

http://www.sccportal.org/africa

Female farmers will share their experiences, traditional food will be served and participants will discuss how they are working to make the toughest job in the world more reasonable.

Organisers:

Swedish Cooperative Centre, Zambia National Farmers Union, Organic Producers and Processors Association of Zambia, Cotton Association of Zambia,Honey Council of Zambia

A MAN in his seventies has withdrawn his appeal to the Supreme Court against his conviction of defilement and the 15-year-sentence slapped on him by the Lusaka High Court for sexually molesting and impreganting his 14-year-old granddaughter.

James Mwale of Misisi Township in Lusaka on Tuesday withdrew his appeal to the Supreme Court bench consisting of Deputy Chief Justice Ireen Mambilima and Supreme Court justices Lombe Chibesakunda and Muyinda Wanki who sat in Ndola.

Mwale was convicted for defilement and given a 15-year sentence by the Lusaka High Court in 2009.
Facts of the case were that Mwale, between June 1, 2006 and July 31, 2007, in Lusaka had sex with his teenage granddaughter.

He was tried in the Lusaka magistrates’ court and convicted of the offence after which he was referred to the Lusaka High Court for sentencing.

It was on record that Mwale had informed the magistrate court that he had slept with his granddaughter because it was in his tradition, as a Tumbuka of Lundazi to have sex with grandchildren as a way to prepare them for marriage.

His wife, the victim’s grandmother also said it was in their tradition to surrender girls to their elders as a way to prepare them for marriage.

The girl was at the time living with her grandparents after they collected her from Lundazi when her parents died.
She was in Grade six at the time of the defilement and she eventually gave birth to a baby boy.

When the appeal came up on Tuesday, his lawyer, principal Legal Aid counsel, Nzovwa Chomba said he had instructions from his client to withdraw the appeal.

Ms Justice Mambilima said it was good for Mwale that he had decided to withdraw the appeal because her bench could have revised the sentence to give him stiffer punishment.

Meanwhile, the Chipata magistrate court has acquitted former acting Chipata Town Clerk Ronald Daka and two other senior council employees of five counts of theft by servant including money laundering charges.

The three senior employees were arrested by the Drug Enforcement Commission in 2003 for allegedly abusing more than K100 million provided by the Zambia Social Investment Funds and the UNICEF.
[ Times of Zambia ]

A Thirty-nine-year-old man of Chingola has died after a sawmill blade snapped and split his head into two parts.
Copperbelt Province police chief, Martin Malama confirmed the incident yesterday and named the deceased as Marvin Chisanga of house number 29 Mwata Road in Kapisha Township.

Dr Malama said before the accident, the deceased, who was a carpenter, was around 17:30 hours working at Kankoko Carpentry Workshop when the incident happened.

He said the blade snapped while he was working and waged towards his head cutting it into two and left him dead instantly.

“The deceased died on the spot and his body was taken to a local hospital
mortuary awaiting burial,” he said.

In another incident, an unidentified man has died after being involved in a
hit-and-run road traffic accident that occurred around Masangano area just after
Fisenge Stream in Ndola rural.
[pullquote]“The deceased died on the spot and his body was taken to a local hospital
mortuary awaiting burial,” he said.[/pullquote]
Dr Malama said the deceased, aged between 25 and 30 years, was hit by an unknown motor vehicle around midnight on Tuesday and his body was found in a mutilated state.
[ Times of Zambia ]

The Government is determined to deliver a people-driven Constitution and will not deviate from the set roadmap to satisfy narrow and selfish interests, chief Government spokesperson Ronnie Shikapwasha has said.

Lieutenant General Shikapwasha said yesterday that the ongoing constitution making process had been transparent, broad-based and participatory.

He said that could be seen in the mandate and composition of the Constitution Review Commission (CRC) chaired by lawyer and economist Willa Mung’omba which had members from all sectors of society such as the Church, trade unions, politicians, youths, traditional rulers, lawyers, the media, farmers, civil society and others.

He said in a statement that during its three-year tenure, the 41 member CRC went to all the 150 parliamentary constituencies throughout the country and received submissions from the people on the Constitution they wanted.

Unlike in previous undertakings, the Government made legal adjustments to provide for the CRC report and the draft Constitution to be released simultaneously to the Government and the public.

The minister said consistent with the recommendation by the Mung’omba commission, the National Constitutional Conference (NCC) was put in place through an Act of Parliament.

He said the NCC comprising more than 500 members representing interests of society spent three years of extensive deliberations on the Mung’omba draft Constitution until August this year when it wound up its work and submitted its report and draft Constitution to the Government.

He said from this background, it was clear that President Banda’s Government had been focused on delivering a durable and people-driven Constitution through a transparent, participatory and democratic process.

He said it was, therefore, misleading for Civil Society for Poverty Reduction to choose to drag President Banda into the 50 per cent plus one issue because it was referred to the referendum after a two-third majority could not be reached during the NCC deliberations.

He said the issue had nothing to do with President Banda as it was a decision taken by the NCC in accordance with its set rules and procedures.
[ Times of Zambia ]

Education Deputy Minister Clement Sinyinda says examination malpractices continue to threaten the quality of education in Zambia.

And Mr Sinyinda has called for strict supervision in schools, to curb examination malpractices by students and teachers.

Mr Sinyinda says teachers who fail to teach their pupils adequately, are tempted to engage in examination malpractices.

Mr Sinyinda was speaking during the Education Sector Research Symposium in LUSAKA.

The symposium aims at examining how research can contribute to improving quality education.

And Examinations Council of Zambia Assistant Director for Research Joe Kanyika said examination malpractices have continued to be a challenge in the delivery of quality education.
[ ZNBC ]

Everything is set for the commemoration of the International Anti-Corruption Day which falls tomorrow with activities lined up for the event.

Anti-Corruption Commission Public relations Manager Wezzy Chomba told ZANIS in Lusaka that preparations for the national commemoration have been concluded.

Mr. Chomba disclosed that the event is expected to be graced by the republican Vice President George Kunda at Mulungushi International Conference Center.

He said the event is also expected to be attended by High commissioners accredited to Zambia and the African Parliamentary Network on Corruption who he said will deliver a speech through its chairperson Given Lubinda.

Mr. Chomba said the commission has done a lot of sensitizations in communities and schools and has managed to constitute a national steering committee which he said is being chaired by the secretary to the cabinet Joshua Kanganja.

He said members of this committee have been trained to help handle matters related to corruption and how it could best be prevented.

He said the commission is also doing its best to prosecute people involved in the scourge although he could not disclose the number of cases still in the courts of law.

Mr. Chomba also disclosed that the commission has discussed with the ministry of education which he said is considering including corruption in the school curriculum so that pupils are taught on the evils of corruption.

Zambia tomorrow will join the international Community in commemorating this day which falls every year on December 9. It was declared by the United Nations Assembly on October 31, 2003.

ZANIS