Government has announced that Hundreds of people have been arrested and detained in Mongu in Western Province for threatening the country’s peace and security.

And Government has confirmed that two people died today in Mongu following violent activities.

Home Affairs Minister MKhondo Lungu also disclosed that five people have been arrested in Lusaka for inciting people in Mongu to engage in riotous behaviour.

On culprits arrested in Mongu, Mr. Lungu said they were arrested after they went on rampage destroying property and pelting stones at police officers, and attempting to set ablaze a filling station.

He said Government would not tolerate such behavior from a group of people agitating violence hence jeopardising the lives of other innocent citizens and the nation’s security.

The Minister told journalists at a press briefing in Lusaka today that Government would do everything possible in its powers to ensure that all those involved in the violence were brought to book.

He said it was the Government’s duty to ensure that the lives of Law abiding citizens and the country’s peace were protected.

[pullquote]“Zambia is one, and as Government we will not dialogue with anyone over the issue and we urge people to desist from engaging in violent activities or risk being arrested” Mr. Lungu said.[/pullquote]

And Mr. Lungu has stated that Government would not dialogue with anyone over the Barotse Session Agreement of 1964 as it had the potential to divide the nation.

He said no part of the country would be separated from the rest of the nation as a result of few selfish individual.

“Zambia is one, and as Government we will not dialogue with anyone over the issue and we urge people to desist from engaging in violent activities or risk being arrested” Mr. Lungu said.

Meanwhile, Mr. Lungu has confirmed that two people have died in Mongu following today’s violent activities.

He said among the dead was an innocent child who was killed by a stray stone from people who were pelting stones at police officers while the other person was shot at by police as he attempted to burn a filling station.

The Minister said police were left with no option but to shoot the person as the consequence would have been grave, if he was left unchecked.

‘’It’s not that the police take pride in killing people but it’s just that they were left with no option as setting a filling ablaze was going to result in serious consequences” The Minister said.

Mr. Lungu has since advised Mongu residents to remain calm as the situation was being adequately addressed by law enforcing wings.

And The Baroste Royal Establishment has been prodded to come out in the open and help address the issue surrounding Barotseland Agreement of 1964.

A senior citizen in Mongu Evans Musialela sounded the call following violent activities that ensued in the district Friday morning prompting business stoppages.

Mr. Musialela said the BRE was to blame for the current situation in the Province because it had not taken keen interest in issues surrounding the Barosteland agreement of 1964.

All Government and Private schools, and business houses in Mongu remained closed in fear of the impending fracas by youth groups advocating the restoration of the Barotseland Agreement of 1964, in both Limulunga royal village and Kapulanga compound,

Radio Liambai was equally closed down by police and its equipment confiscated but efforts to contact the Manager Mukeya Liwena over the matter revealed that he was out of Mongu.

A check by a ZANIS crew at most schools in the district found that all school going children did not report for classes on Friday.

Business was equally affected as shop owners did not open their shops forcing business activities to ground to a halt.

Meanwhile, police officers and other security wings were on the ground to quell riotous youths who attempted to go ahead with the meeting which was scheduled to take place in Limulunga royal village.

Some youths in Kapulanga compound mobilised tyres and burnt them barricading Limulunga road to motorists.

ZANIS

Eastern Province Movement for Multi-party and Democracy (MMD) Chairperson Kennedy Zulu has appealed to the party cadres in the province to respect public service workers.

Speaking on a Good governance programme on radio Maria yesterday, Mr Zulu advised the cadres to embrace public servants because they are carrying out government works which aims at improving the life of every Zambian.

Mr Zulu said there is need to encourage civil servants to support the government of the day for them to effectively implement developmental programmes.

He also emphasized the need to respect traditional leaders who he said are the custodians of people of various tribes.

Mr Zulu said chiefs and headmen guide both their subjects and political leaders on various developmental issues hence the need to ensure that they are respected.

And Mr Zulu says the recruiting new members to the ruling party must be done by convincing people about the visible developmental programmes taking place in the province.

He said the construction of schools, hospitals and roads is visible and people can appreciate the developments that have been brought to various areas.

Mr Zulu reemphasized the need to support President Rupiah Banda if developments of social and economic sectors are to continue.

He observed that the province has seen a number of developments during the two years of President Banda’s rule.

He stated that apart from the schools, hospitals and roads; President Banda has reduced poverty at household level through subsidized farming inputs.

ZANIS

Two people have died following the riot in Mongu today over the Barotse agreement. Home Affairs Minister Mkondo Lungu confirmed the two deaths and arrest of about hundred people in connection with the riot.

And Government has said that  it will not condone any group of people that will continue spreading hatred, tribalism and violence in the country.

Acting government spokesperson Dora Siliya said that  anyone who wants to take the law into their own hands will be dealt with firmly to send a signal to all thinking that government is soft on the matter.

Ms Siliya has called on people of Western province to remain calm and not to allow the situation to worsen.

Addressing a press in Lusaka today, Ms. Siliya said  it was unfortunate that the group calling itself the Black Bulls are taking advantage and misleading youths.

Ms. Siliya said  youths should be vigilant and ensure that they are not victims as they will only be the ones to be exposed to the police.

She said it is the reason why government has sent a full force of police to diligently deal with the matter in the province.

And Radio Lyambai in Mongu has been closed.  Sources at the radio station confirmed to QFM that the radio station was closed this morning when police stormed the station and confiscated computers.

The source says the station was closed for airing voice pops of people on the Barotse agreement.

THE Zambia Police Service has maintained that the planned meeting today by a group calling itself the Linyungandambo and the Barotse Freedom Movement (BFM) remains cancelled and protesters will be arrested if they go ahead.

Western Province police commanding officer Peacewell Mweemba said the police will arrest anyone who will attempt to assemble in Limulunga.

“The organisers of the meeting have been informed that their meeting has been cancelled and those who will attempt to defy the order should be ready to collide with the law,” Mr Mweemba said.

He said the message of the cancellation of the meeting planned for today is clear and those who will want to test the law will find out what it means to break the law.

The Linyungandambo group and the BFM are insisting on a meeting which they are calling the Limulunga Declaration.

Sources within the Linyungandambo and the BFM say the planned meeting will go ahead with or without a police permit. The sources said the Linyungandambo is not calling for violence and that there is no need for the police to surround the Limulunga Village, the royal home of the Litunga.

“We are peaceful people. We have always been peaceful and all we want are our rights,” one source said.

[pullquote]He said the message of the cancellation of the meeting planned for today is clear and those who will want to test the law will find out what it means to break the law.[/pullquote]

So far, the situation is calm. In the market place in Limulunga, some people are not even aware of what is going on and are wondering who the Linyungandambo is representing.

Some teachers at Limulunga Basic School described the planned meeting as a scandal which Government should not allow.

The teachers said it is not right for the Linyungandambo and the BFM to cause confusion and panic in Mongu because Zambia is a country of many tribes.

The teachers said those who are threatening to expel non-Lozi-speaking people from Western Province should also start calling for Lozis outside Western Province to go back to the province.

The Western Province administration has named a Mr Maxwell Mututwa as the man who is allegedly behind the clandestine acts of calling for secession. A team of senior citizens in Mongu early in the week went to Senanga to meet Mr Mututwa to urge him to stop his activities.

The Linyungandambo and BFM have been going around homes in Mongu and Limulunga asking for donations towards the planned meeting.

Meanwhile, REBECCA CHILESHE reports that the Kuomboka Kufuluhela Committee of Lusaka has endorsed the stand of the Barotse Royal Establishment (BRE) that discussions on the Barotseland Agreement should focus on a unitary state.

Committee chairperson Oliver Saasa said during a press briefing in Lusaka yesterday that it is important to resolve the issue.

Professor Saasa said as a cultural association, the Kuomboka committee would like to assure all ethnic groups in Western Province and outside that anyone who recognises past kings of Barotseland who brought tribes together must recognise members of these tribes as equals.

He said besides, there is no such tribe as Lozi as the Lozi group consists of many ethnic and tribal groups and the Lozi language itself is not even originally Zambian but a derivative of the Sesotho language following the invasion of the Barotseland by Kololos.

“The committee would like to call upon both Government and the BRE to provide the needed leadership in facilitating dialogue as this is the only way that unresolved issues can be dealt with,” he said.

[Zambia Daily Mail]

Energy Permanent Secretary Teddy Kasonso has disclosed that Government has embarked on an ambitious programme of developing fuel storage facilities throughout the country.

Mr Kasonso said this was in an effort to promote value generating economic activities in all parts of the country other than in Lusaka and Copperbelt Provinces to ensure that all parts of Zambia developed simultaneously.

ZANIS reports that he described the energy sector as the heart beat of Zambia’s economy and that it fuelled economic activity.

Mr Kasonso said that every activity generating economic value in Zambia was powered through this sector and thus its importance as a conduit to achieving key economic milestones could not be overemphasised.

The Energy Permanent Secretary was speaking at the official opening of Livingstone Service Total filling station in Livingstone today.

Besides, the programme to develop storage facilities, Mr Kasonso disclosed that the uniform Pricing Programme (UPP) launched in September, last year was another effort intended to develop the country,especially in areas outside Lusaka and the Copperbelt.

Mr. Kasonso also said that UPP Programme has standardised the fuel pump price across the country in a bid to reduce costs of doing business and transportation of goods and services from source to consumer adding that this accounted for about 50 percent of the price charged to end users.

He noted Government expected that the private sector would support key programmes and invest in all the provinces.

The Permanent Secretary pointed out that the economies of scale that Government was creating through policies such as UPP must translate into meaningful investments that triggered employment and economic activity for the local people.

ZANIS

PATRIOTIC Front (PF) president Michael Sata has admitted having participated in a special committee of Cabinet ministers who in 1993 recommended to second Republican president Frederick Chiluba that the Barotseland Agreement had expired.
Mr Sata said in Lusaka yesterday that he was part of the eight-member committee that dismissed the Barotseland Agreement as stale and illegal, deserving no attention from Dr Chiluba’s administration.

The PF leader dodged questions on why he had shifted his position to now insist that the agreement was valid and that he would implement it if he ascended to power.

He instead accused Dr Chiluba of leaking the documents to former PF secretary general Edward Mumbi who last weekend revealed Mr Sata’s past views on the Barotseland Agreement.

“The point is, why did they leak the document to Edward Mumbi? Edward Mumbi has never been a Cabinet minister, so where did he find those documents? It is Dr Chiluba because he wants to buy freedom from the cases he is facing,” Mr Sata said.

Dr Chiluba’s office said it was not available for comment.

When reminded that he had lately issued statements that contradicted his long-held view that the Barotseland Agreement should not be recognised, Mr Sata could not provide any answer except to continue attacking Dr Chiluba.
He said Mr Mumbi failed to publish the whole report because he knew that it was against the law to place documents classified as confidential in the public.

The documents produced by Mr Mumbi during his media briefing on Sunday also stated that Mr Sata had recommended to Dr Chiluba that the recognition of the Litunga of the Lozi-speaking people in Western Province should be withdrawn.
Mr Sata wanted the Litunga to lose his recognition to allow the Government to treat him as a political opponent.

Mr Mumbi during his Press briefing described Mr Sata as a hypocritical person and warned the people of Western Province that the PF leader would not entertain any such debates if he assumed power.

[pullquote]“The point is, why did they leak the document to Edward Mumbi? Edward Mumbi has never been a Cabinet minister, so where did he find those documents? It is Dr Chiluba because he wants to buy freedom from the cases he is facing,” Mr Sata said.[/pullquote]

He said Mr Sata was using the Barotseland Agreement for political expedience but such debates would not be tolerated under a PF administration.

He said this in reaction to a story in the The Post of January 8, 2011 in which the PF leader was quoted as saying the Barotseland Agreement was still valid.

Meanwhile, the Committee of Citizens has accused an opposition political party and some prominent Lusaka business persons of championing the Barotseland Agreement to cause anarchy because of their desperation to ascend to power.
Committee of Citizens executive director Gregory Chifire said in Lusaka yesterday that the opposition party and the Lusaka business executives were sponsoring the renegade groups in their quest to tarnish President Rupiah Banda’s image.

“It is very unfortunate that politicians and these people are getting this desperate to try and discredit President Banda and Government.

“We are aware that they are working with three groups in Western Province,” Mr Chifire said. He appealed to the police to investigate the activities of some opposition parties and some media houses. “We are also aware that some media houses are involved in this scheme.

“We know that the flag and some of the documentation were done by some media personnel that have hatred against the Government and President Banda,” he said.

He said the groups pushing for the restoration of the Barotseland Agreement had the potential to cause ethnic violence and ultimately destabilise the nation.

“Imagine what would happen if the so-called Black Bulls go ahead and beat up non-Lozi-speaking people in Western Province. The same will happen to Lozis in other provinces. “These people shouldn’t be myopic, they should look at the bigger picture,” he said.

And the Zambia Institute of Human Resource Management (ZIHRM) has condemned people agitating for the restoration of the Barotseland Agreement.

ZIHRM president Namucana Musiwa said in Lusaka yesterday that as a professional body responsible for promoting professionalism and productivity, they were concerned that if unchecked, the events in Western Province could cause chaos.

“Our concern as a professional body is based on the fact that Western Province does not only have Lozi, Luvale, Nyengo, Nkoya and Mbunda-speaking professionals but professionals who are Zambian and hail from different parts of the country and different parts of the world,” Ms Musiwa said.

Meanwhile, the Government has banned media houses hosting phone-in programmes on the Barotseland Agreement to save the country from potential violence.

Acting Information and Broadcasting Services Minister Dora Siliya said this in an interview with Zambia National Broadcasting Corporation television yesterday.

[Times of Zambia]