President, Michael Sata has turned down an invitation from Malawian President, Bingu Wa Mutharika to attend the COMESA summit set to be held in that country.

He has explained that he is unable to attend next week’s summit in Malawi because of being declared a prohibited immigrant in Malawi following his deportation in 2007.

Speaking when he met President Bingu Wa Mutharika’s special envoy at State house David Bandawe, President Sata says until Malawi formally deals with the matter, he fears being embarrassed if he travelled as he is still regarded as a prohibited immigrant.

Mr. Sata told the envoy that he thought he was bringing the revocation of the prohibited immigrant declaration.

“You are fully aware of the dilemma I am in with your government,” Sata told Malawi’s high commissioner to Zambia David Bandawe after he delivered an letter inviting the Zambian leader to the summit.

[pullquote]“I went to Malawi to visit an opposition leader and your government bundled me into a (Toyota) Land Cruiser and said I am a prohibited immigrant. Your government has not been courageous enough to apologise and therefore I find it extremely difficult to go to Malawi.”[/pullquote]

“I went to Malawi to visit an opposition leader and your government bundled me into a (Toyota) Land Cruiser and said I am a prohibited immigrant. Your government has not been courageous enough to apologise and therefore I find it extremely difficult to go to Malawi.”

President Sata has instead assigned Vice President, Guy Scott to lead the Zambian delegation to the COMESA Summit.

Meanwhile, President Sata has ordered the reinstatement of all Copperbelt University students who were expelled for expressing displeasure at the re-appointment of Dora Siliya, as Minister of Education after a judical tribunal ruled that she breached the law over the award of a contract to RP Capital which was single-sourced to evaluate Zamtel.

And Mr. Sata has also directed the NAPSA management to reinstate the Director of Finance who was dismissed for challenging a questionable transition that would cost the authority billions of pensioners’ money.

This is contained in a statement made available to the media by Special Assistant to the President for Press and Public Relations George Chellah.

MUVITV

TODAY’S SCRIPTURE

“Where there is no vision, the people perish…”
(Proverbs 29:18, KJV)

TODAY’S WORD from Joel and Victoria

Throughout life, we will always have forces opposing us to try to keep us from becoming all God’s created us to be. And many times, the adversities and unfair situations are set up by the enemy to try to discourage us and deceive us into giving up on our dreams. Today, you may feel like you’re at an empty place in life. Not much is going your way. You’ve been through difficulties and setbacks. But I believe God wants to restore you. He wants to encourage you, and pour out His spirit upon you. He wants to do a new thing in and through you. It doesn’t matter what’s happened in your past, God has something new for your future. I always say, when one dream dies, dream another dream.

Today, remember, God has placed so much inside of you. You have gifts, talents and abilities that no one else has. You may have had more than your share of unfair things happen. But it’s not how you start, it’s how you finish that matters. It’s time to shake off the past and shake off that discouragement. Let faith arise in your heart and keep your dreams alive!

A PRAYER FOR TODAY

Father God, I know that You have chosen me for such a time as this. I may not understand everything that has happened in my past, but I choose to trust in You. I believe that You are working all things together for my good. Give me Your faith so that I can boldly pursue the dreams You have given me in Jesus’ name, Amen.

— Joel & Victoria Osteen

A drama centered around a promising football running back , Deon (Curtis “50 cent” Jackson), during his senior year in college. Every thing is going his way , he is the best player on his team , he has all the fame ,all the girls , he is about to play for a top team , but all that is taken away when he is diagnosed with cancer.  As life changes for him and his family ,he struggles to get back on his feet.he

PRO’S

• The best acting 50 cent has ever done , he was really dedicated to the part and it showed in his improved performance.
• The story was very gripping , you really feel for Deon and his family and what they go through.
• The dynamics in the relationship between Deon and his brother Sean were interesting to watch.

CON’S

• The movie has a slow start.
• Should have had original music in the movie ,instead of 50 cent’s music , it distracts you from the story.

CONCLUSION

This is a very good music , i was really impressed with Curtis “50 cent ” Jackson , (as he is credited in his movies), acting. Not quite Oscar worthy but most definetly his best work so far. The drastic weight loss shows just how dedicated he was to this movie. He also had his tattoos removed in a painfull procedure . It has a very inspiring story , it is a must- watch movie.

RATING

4 out of 5

BY KAPA187

Tanzania Zambia Railways Authority -TAZARA- Managing Director Akashambatwa Lewanika has written to President Michael Sata indicating his willingness to step down as Managing Director for the joint national railway company.

Mr Lewanika says he has decided to offer himself to be replaced because the effective operations of the TAZARA Managing Director require political will and support.

He has noted that with the coming in of the new government in Zambia, there is need to appoint a new Managing Director and that he is willing to step aside.

And Mr Lewanika says TAZARA needs over 7-hundred million US dollars to meet its financial requirements.

Mr Lewanika told a media briefing in Lusaka on Friday that of the total amount of money required to ensure the smooth running of TAZARA, over 4-hundred Million US Dollars should come from the government of Zambia.

He says this should be so, because the survival of TAZARA is critical to the Zambian economy.

Mr Lewanika has pointed out that TAZARA has a lot of challenges which need to be addressed by both the government of Zambia and Tanzania.

ZNBC

By D.Phiri
Indeed, Zambia celebrates another benchmark in its democracy. Mostly,credit is to the people of Zambia and the mature political players involved. However, I would like to bring to the fore, a very pertinent matter which has for a long time been relegated to the periphery in the governance agenda in Zambia. That is, the Childrens agenda. Adult Zambians have spoken, and democracy has answered their call. However,we have the unheard voices; whose right to vote is not yet but they are a critical constituency in the Zambian demographics.

As of 2007, the Zambia demographic and Healthy Survey (ZDHS) stated that Zambia has a young population with 50 per cent of the total population under the age of 15 whilst the least age group of 0 – 4 years comprised of the largest proportion of the population at 19 per cent (p. 13). Therefore, many children are being impacted in reality by the social, economic, and political realities of the day than adults. It can be assumed by the population demographics that they tend to be affected more.

However, their voices seem to continue to be unheard. The government and other NGOs who purport to work in this area need to reflect on this matter at this early stage of government transition. Whilst children cannot vote, how can the government ensure that childrens perspectives, concerns, views and experiences be taken into consideration as a serious governance agenda? Political structures from the time of campaigns are not easily accessible to
children, and were it is done, seems to be top dressing and not mutually interactive with children to get their perspectives.

In some cases, we have read in media were political players have laughed at other party rallies attended by children. Is it a sign of political
failure when children attend rallies to hear what government is doing in their country? Children are social agents, who are part of the
overall political environment and are largely affected by political activities and outcome. It should be well known that children contribute severally to the political economy of the country but due to such discriminative tendencies their contribution and stake is not seen and respected.

As the new government settles down and creates its structures, we are watching with keen interest what changes they make in structures that will be pushing forward the childrens agenda. The question has always been, ‘which government wing holistically moves the childrens agenda forward!’ Fuzzy and unclear structures in the government characterized the system that has been tasked to handle childrens affairs. In most instances, childrens programming was subsumed in other adult activities and as such never made substantial impact at all.

Previously, we had Ministry of Sport, Youth and Child Development (MSYCD), Ministry of Community Development and Social Services (MCDSS) and Ministry of Education (MoE) as the main structures handling childrens affairs in various aspects. These were aided by several committees that had duplicative mandates. However, this system was fraught by serious duplication of efforts, lack of precision in handling child affairs, inefficiency and subsequent poor delivery.

This is evident in the ONLY report CRC/C/11/Add.25 (instead of 3-4) delivered to the United Nations Committee on the rights of the child
in 2001. With the current merging of ministries, we hope that structures that will coordinate the holistic programming in child welfare and development will be visible. With expertise and competence in working with various NGOs in making childrens voices, views,perspectives and concerns audible through various creative programming that lessens the distance between local people and technocrats.

In addition, allocation of financial and competent human resources to programming in this area has been very inadequate. It is a huge challenge for the very inefficient systems to carry out their mandate when they are insufficiently resourced. In this regard, it is hoped that the ‘newly created structures’ will be sufficiently resourced to ensure that programming in childrens welfare is well resourced in terms of finances and human resources. With the start of the national budget debates in parliament, I hope that concerned government wings and related structures will be allocated sufficient funds to sufficiently attend to concerns and needs of this large and vital, but usually unheard constituency of the Zambian population.

It should not be assumed that addressing adults concerns addresses childrens concerns as well, for childrens concerns and perspectives as independent social agents in our society are in many ways and instances different.