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]

By Mwizenge S. Tembo, Ph. D.

A two year old crying child was sitting alone, profuse sweat and tears mixed together on her dirty cheeks in the scorching heat of the midday African sun. The child was abandoned, crying, rubbing eyes, and desperately kicking the dusty soil with her legs in the middle of a remote bush road. Her mother lay dying beside the child. There were dead bodies everywhere piled around the child, many people had collapsed and were sprawled around along the road moaning because of hunger, thirst, exhaustion, and fear. Thousands of hordes of people, men, women and children carrying small luggage of their possessions on their heads were walking by fleeing like stampeding wild animals. This was a video news image of Hutu refugees that I saw on TV during the 1994 Rwanda genocide in which 800,000 thousand Tutsis and moderate Hutus were massacred. I will never forget that image for as long as I live. The desperate abandoned child and the men and women looked just like Zambians. But they were not. This is why the recent talk of secession and January 14 bloody ultimatum in Mongu in the Western Province of Zambia alarmed me. The consequences of such an action would be catastrophic for Zambians. I don’t expect many Zambians to believe me but I have a confession.

When I was a young student at the University of Zambia in the 1970s, I used to read the Times of Zambia and the Zambia Daily Mail every day. The headlines often were of President Kaunda, the Cabinet Ministers, Members of the Central Committee, and other UNIP party officials addressing rallies and public meeting always exhorting Zambians to love one another under One Zambia One Nation, to fight the evils of tribalism, hatred, political violence, to fight hunger, disease, exploitation of man by man, and poverty. I used to slam the paper down and impatiently react: “Why is Kaunda always ranting about fighting tribalism, talking about peace! He is crazy! This is useless government propaganda!”

I realized many years ago that I was wrong. After this recent secession talk and threats of violence and tribal cleansing, I realize it is very difficult to create national unity. Three decades later, what most of us might not realize today in 2011 is the paradox that the very One-Party State of President Kaunda and UNIP leadership that existed up to 1991, which is often criticized as a dictatorship, gave us twenty-seven years during which Zambians could truly be united and become one Zambia One Nation that we are proud to have to day. Looking back, when I first went to UNZA eight years after independence, it was the first time all the students had met people from all separate parts and tribes of Zambia. We were the best cream of the crop students from the whole country who were Tonga, Bemba, Tonga, Ngoni, Lozi, Kaonde and many other tribes. We were the hope for the future of Zambia. We all lived together peacefully and got to know each other on campus. Not once did we students ever have tribal fights or hostile tribal divisive language. The peace that existed was such that we could all go the University even though many of our families were poor village peasants who could not have afforded the K400 per year tuition and board at UNZA at the time.

The greatest gift we as Zambians have inherited as a nation is that we do not know how to hate each other. That’s why the talk of secession and threats of violence must be discouraged. One of the things that every Zambian must be proud of is that if you go anywhere in Zambia and abroad; China, the United States, Europe, Russia, and even the North Pole, if you are told there is Zambian citizen somewhere, you will immediately be warmly helped and enjoy each other’s company. As a Zambian you will never have to ask what tribe the Zambian you don’t know belongs to before you meet him or her.

What is the cause of this discontent and talk of secession? There could be real legitimate dissatisfaction about development which can be resolved through political representation. But my suspicion is that the 60% of the young Zambians who were born after 1985 may be part of the youth in Mongu and perhaps in many other parts of rural Zambia who may not feel very connected to the rest of Zambia today. The current economic development may not be fast enough to provide jobs, training and accommodate and raise the quality of life and to improve the standard of living perhaps in all the provinces. Since the earlier generation of leadership may have done a good job creating opportunities and feeling of unity as a nation, the current leadership, all political parties, and all Zambians need to receive this relay button and create new opportunities for all Zambians especially the youth.

Besides resolving the Barotse Agreement of 1964 disagreement, we as a nation has to create new opportunities in this new age of globalization. The youth and all Zambians need not just have better job and training opportunities, but as a nation need to create fresh ways for our citizens to know, identify with, and appreciate the rich history and diversity of our nation. Here are my proposals on how we the older generation who inherited the country from the first founders of the nation can do.[pullquote] when I first went to UNZA eight years after independence, it was the first time all the students had met people from all separate parts and tribes of Zambia. We were the best cream of the crop students from the whole country who were Tonga, Bemba, Tonga, Ngoni, Lozi, Kaonde and many other tribes. We were the hope for the future of Zambia. We all lived together peacefully.Not once did we students ever have tribal fights or hostile tribal divisive language..
[/pullquote]
First there needs to be an open and increased contact between all the Zambians who live abroad, those in the cities, those in cities, and in the rural areas.

· All educated Zambians should immediately begin documenting many aspects of our traditional cultures so that the current and future Zambians will know who we are and where we came from. Scholars and students from University of Zambia, Mulungushi University, Copperbelt University, all teachers in schools, Lecturers at Teacher Training colleges all over Zambia could simply document major aspects of our culture and history. I personally had planned to document the memoirs of President Kaunda from 1964 to 1991 so that we can have a historical knowledge of the triumphs and challenges of building the nation that all our leaders faced. Many youth and even older Zambians may not know this information. This is why many youth today can easily be misled through the internet and cell phones by misinformation by the political opportunists among us.

· With proper coordination and leadership of these new programs, if 1,000 former UNZA graduates from within Zambia and abroad each donated a mere $100 each, University of Zambia alone could have K475 million for supporting allowances for lecturers to engage in cutting edge research, teaching materials, student field research, and providing of computers, and campus grounds maintenance. University of Zambia has been in existence for more than 30 years. It has thousands of former graduates.

Lastly all the youths in Zambia should participate in exchange programs in which during the school holidays, they can visit a different part of the country. Youth and students from Western Province, for example, could visit Mbala in the Northern Province. Those from Lundazi in the Eastern province could visit Solwezi rural in the Northwestern Province. Those from the North could visit the Southern Province. Those in the cities could visit rural villages and vice versa. Government does not have to do everything. Families, schools, all political parties, soccer clubs, church congregations could coordinate the exchange programs.

Patriotic Front President Michael Sata has described the decision by Lusaka High Court Judge Philip Musonda to order the Anti Corruption Commission (ACC) to return second Republican President Fredrick Chiluba’s forfeited properties as a temporal.

Speaking with Qfm, Mr. Sata says Zambians know the salary of a republican President and wonders where Dr. Chiluba got the money to acquire his property.

He says the former President accumulated so much wealth in his two terms of office adding that Zambians are not blind to see what is happening adding that they will act using the power of the ballot.

The PF leader has however congratulated Dr. Chiluba for the court’s decision and that it will not be right for people to question Judge Musonda’s order as he is just following the law.

Judge Philip Musonda has ordered the ACC to surrender seized properties to a company registered in Panama called Tedworth Properties Inc which Dr. Chiluba used to acquire the said properties in Lusaka.

The properties are Horizon House on Leopards Hill Road, Chibote House and Alberg Court Longacres all in Lusaka respectively.

QFM