United Party for National Development (UPND) national youth chairperson Joe Kalusa yesterday said Patriotic Front (PF) president Michael Sata was causing confusion by making decisions without consulting the UPND.

Mr Kalusa said yesterday that it was surprising that the PF had placed an advertisement calling for people to apply for the Mpulungu parliamentary seat when they had not agreed on who contests the seat.

Mr Kalusa said the PF top leadership was causing chaos in the pact formed last year by advertising in yesterday’s Post newspaper calling for applications for candidacy in the Mpulungu parliamentary by-election without a proper agreement with the UPND leadership.

In an interview in Lusaka yesterday, Mr Kalusa also said the call by Mr Sata on QFM Radio last week for Mr Kalusa to face disciplinary action from the UPND was unrealistic because Mr Sata was the one who should be disciplined by the combined leadership in the pact.

He said he would accept to be disciplined if Mr Sata appeared before a disciplinary committee for authorising an advertisement barely three days after UPND chairperson for women’s affairs Chinyama Sekeseke said the pact was yet to decide who contests the seat.

Ms Sekeseke is a member of the PF/UPND technical working group that was charged with the responsibility of making decisions including the selection of candidates on behalf of the pact.

Mr Kalusa said the Mpulungu seat was under the Movement for Multi-Party Democracy (MMD) and should not be taken by PF without the consent of the UPND.

He said Mr Sata should not be selective in calling people in-disciplined and yet his vice-president Dr Guy Scott authored an analysis, which showed that he was celebrating UPND’s loss of the Luena parliamentary seat.

Mr Kalusa said PF secretary general Wynter Kabimba described UPND leader Hakainde Hichilema as a liar following a statement by the UPND leader that what led to both parties contesting the Chadiza Ward seat was that the pact never discussed and agreed on a uniform candidate.

Members of the UPND were hurt to learn that Mr Kabimba could describe Mr Hichilema as a liar when the truth was that the matter was not discussed.

Mr Kalusa said Mr Sata also questioned his background and yet it was public knowledge that he pioneered the formation of UPND in 1998 and had staunchly maintained his membership to the opposition party since then while other leaders had changed camps.

He said Nkana Member of Parliament Mwenya Musenge should be disciplined by Mr Sata for declaring the PF leader the best candidate over Mr Hichilema in total disregard of the agreement that the candidate would be selected via a transparent process.

Mr Kalusa said the leadership in PF must realise that UPND members also had feelings about who should lead the pact towards the elections next year.

He said the UPND youths have only demanded that the pact should come up with a joint manifesto, the road map, the leadership structure and rules and guidelines to create the waned order.

Mr Kalusa said the other problem that had been cited by the PF leadership was that he had demanded for an explanation on how the opposition party would put more money in people’s pockets, which is a concept that Mr Sata had been promoting.

He said UPND was ready to explain how it would offer free education to the Zambian students and pupils while the PF had failed to offer even a rough explanation on how they would put more money in people’s pockets.

Mr Kalusa said he had worked for several years for the Zambia Air Force (ZAF) and the Konkola Copper Mines (KCM) and was never referred to as indisciplined.

The pact has lately faced problems and inaccurate statements centered on which of the two candidates was more suitable to lead the alliance amid declarations from each camp that their candidate was the best.
[ Times of Zambia ]

Kasama Central Patriotic Front-PF, Member of Parliament, Geoffrey Mwamba has been arrested and charged for wife battery.

Mr Mwamba who is popularly known as GBM was briefly confined to Woodlands Police Station before being formerly charged.

Lusaka Division Police Commanding Officer, Greenwell Ng’uni confirmed Mr Mwamba’s arrest in an interview with ZNBC news in Lusaka Monday evening.

Mr Mwamba who was accompanied by his lawyer Mumba Kapumpa has been released on Police bond.

The PF parliamentarian will appear in the Lusaka Magistrate Court on Thursday.

Mr Mwamba last week allegedly beat up his wife, Chama, following a domestic row.

Meanwhile, The Centre for Elections and Governance (CEG) says it is disappointed with Kasama Central Member of Parliament Geoffrey Mwamba’s stand to justify domestic violence as a cultural norm in marriage.

CEG Chairperson Gershom Musonda has said it is wrong for married couples to fight adding that it was even worse when the home of an elected lawmaker is involved.

Mr Musonda said domestic violence is inhuman, cruel and degrading and that to justify it shows that the Kasama MP has no regard for basic rights of victims, be it men or women.

The CEG Chairperson said this in a statement made available to ZANIS in Lusaka today that it was also not correct for Mr Mwamba to say that no political party should interfere in domestic affairs of its violent members.

[pullquote]“We are equally surprised to note that during the interview at Radio Mano in Kasama over the weekend, Mr Mwamba was with two fellow PF MPs namely Given Lubinda and Jean Kapita as well as PF national Chairperson Inonge Wina who all opted to keep quiet about Mr Mwamba’s violent behavior”, he said.[/pullquote]

He said elected leaders, especially at Parliamentary and Presidential level, are law makers who are duty bound to protect human rights including in marriage.

Mr Musonda charged that a political party that condones domestic violence or ignores it can not be expected to protect ordinary people if elected into power.

“We are equally surprised to note that during the interview at Radio Mano in Kasama over the weekend, Mr Mwamba was with two fellow PF MPs namely Given Lubinda and Jean Kapita as well as PF national Chairperson Inonge Wina who all opted to keep quiet about Mr Mwamba’s violent behavior”, he said.

Mr Musonda said Ms Kapata and Mrs Wina should have risen to the occasion to correct their brother, saying that CEG now wonders where the PF women have placed the rights of women in their party if they fail to support their fellow woman publicly.

He said the Patriotic Front is the strongest opposition party in the country and people do not expect it to move forward without an agenda for Zambia free of domestic violence.

ZANIS

The Centre for Policy Dialogue, CPD, says Zambians are not yet convinced with government’s efforts in the fight against corruption.

CPD Executive Director, Neo Simutanyi, told QFM in an interview that despite president Rupiah Banda’s assurances that his government is committed to fighting corruption, most Zambians are still far from being convinced that the fight against the vice exists in the country.

Dr. Simutanyi says even though government might have allocated more money to the Anti Corruption Commission, there is still more to be done to convince the people of Zambia.

He explains that this has been so because there are still deals government engages itself in that disappoints the general public as to whether government is really committed to this fight.

Dr. Simutanyi however says the fight against corruption is a complicated matter that despite government’s efforts to address the issue, the country’s ranking on the global corruption index is low.

He recalls that even the late president, Levy Mwanawasa used to complain that despite his administration doing so much in fighting corruption, Zambia’s ranking on the global corruption index remained poor.

[QFM]

The United Party for National Development, UPND, has vowed to re-prosecute Second Republican President, Frederick Chiluba, for the corruption cases it says he has been dubiously been cleared of by the MMD government.

UPND Vice President, Richard Kapita, told QFM that the UPND will ensure Dr. Chiluba faces justice no matter how long it takes because the party is convinced that Dr. Chiluba stole from the Zambian people.

Mr. Kapita says it is not by coincidence that Dr. Chiluba’s aides are the only ones who have been found guilty of corruption, adding that there is therefore no way the Second Republican President can be found innocent.

Meanwhile, Mr. Kapita has advised Dr. Chiluba to keep quiet on his alleged dubious acquittal, saying he should instead sit down to reflect on the wrongs he committed.

He says Dr. Chiluba should be the last person to talk about these matters because he is at the centre of the whole episode.

Mr. Kapita adds that Dr. Chiluba remains a thief in the eyes of the Zambian people no matter how smart he might try to play his game.

Dr. Chiluba recently said he was genuinely smiling following the Lusaka High Court ruling on the London Judgment

[QFM Radio ]

PRESIDENT Rupiah Banda has called for a ceasefire to tribal wrangles between Luvales and Lundas in Zambezi in North-Western Province, saying they are unnecessary.

President Banda said in Mwinilunga yesterday after gracing the Chisemwa Chalunda traditional ceremony that the two tribes should be at peace with each other.

“They are brothers, after all they come from the same place, there is no need for petty squabbles. Zambians do not like this,” he said.

President Banda said Government was working flat out to find a solution to the tribal wrangles in Zambezi.

Encouraging peace through out the province, the president said he was happy to see that the Chisemwa Chalunda ceremony had drawn various chiefs from around the North-Western Province.

Mr Banda said with Zambia being a multi-ethnic society that should live above tribal differences, culture should be a unifying factor.

He assured the traditional leaders who included Senior Chief Mujima Nzovu of the Kaonde in Solwezi, Senior Chief Kasempa of the Kaonde in Kasempa, Senior Chief Ndungu of the Luvale in Zambezi and Chief Chizera of the Kaonde in Mufumbwe that his Government was committed to working with them in uplifting the lives of the people in the province.

President Banda who was accompanied by among others senior Government officials, the Minister of Local Government and Housing Eustarkzio Kazonga and Home Affairs Minister Mkhondo Lungu said Government was committed to continue working on the T5 Road, the Solwezi-Mwinilunga Road, to ensure it was in good condition.

Mr Banda reiterated that three more contractors had been given works to speed up the tarring of the Mutanda-Chavuma Road.

He said Government would continue providing basic education to all Zambians as it had realised education was the pillar to national development.

Mr Banda said Government was working hard to improve educational infrastructure in the province and countrywide, revealing that K9.4 billion had been set aside to complete works at Mwinilunga Trades Training Institute.

North-Western Province Minister Daniel Kalenga said the people of North-Western were happy with Government development programmes and that US$3.6m mining investment by the Chinese would trigger economic activities in Mwinilunga.

The Lunda Cultural Association of Zambia chairperson Elijah Kalemba called for lasting peace in Zambezi between Lundas and Luvales and thanked Mr Banda being the first Republican president to attend the Chisemwa Chalunda ceremony.

The opposition Patriotic Front says that it will not succumb to the pressures of those who have found joy in the various challenges that the PF-UPND pact is dealing with.

PF spokes person, Given Lubinda told radio QFM in an interview that those willing to celebrate some of the challenges that the Pact could be going through can go ahead.

Mr. Lubinda said that a lot of people especially those from the ruling party have found a lot of joy ever since the pact experienced a mix up in ward electoral candidates.
He said that the MMD has constantly found pleasure in criticizing the Pact on every opportunity it gets even when it is not necessary.

Mr. Lubinda however maintained that the Pact will not waste its time paying attention to those that find pride in pin pointing its mistakes.

He noted that it is not how one falls that counts but how one rises and adds that the Pact will give the ruling party a rude shock in next years tripartite election.

[QFM]