Government has challenged United Party for National Development UPND president Haikainde Hichilema to explain what happened to the hundreds of millions of dollars that went missing when he engineered the privatization of RAMCOZ and other parastatals.

Chief Government spokesperson Ronnie Shikapwasha in an interview with QFM said Mr Hichilema should not try to come out clean on the sale of RAMCOZ but explain the criteria and procedures used to sell off the mine which subsequently resulted in the suffering of the ex-workers of the company.

He said Government has all the information with regards the manner in which Mr Hichilema handled the privatization of parastatals.

Leutenant General Shikapwasha expressed shock that the UPND leader is now condemning and attacking Government on what he described as a well calculated move to the sell Zamtel.

He said Mr Hichilema should not mislead the Zambian people on Government’s decision to sale Zamtel because it is in the interest of the nation.

And General Shikapwasha has dared Mr Hichilema to tell the Zambian people how he acquired the house that he is currently leaving in situated in Kabulonga residential area.

QFM

President Rupiah Banda has dismissed as untrue allegations by Post Newspapers Editor In Chief Fred Mmembe that the state is plotting to eliminate him.

President Banda says he has nothing personal against Mr. Mmembe.

He told Journalists in Lusaka Thursday afternoon, that Mr. Mmembe ‘s problems do not relate to him but the Judiciary.

The President was speaking to Journalists shortly upon arrival from Mfuwe where had gone for a three day working visit.

Mr. Banda said Mr. Mmembe should not kill himself and accuse the state of clearing him.

Mr Mmembe is quoted as telling First Republican President Kenneth Kaunda in a story published by the Post newspapers that President Banda’s Government wanted to eliminate him.

And Mr. Banda said he is sorry about an incident in Chitambo constituency where Health Deputy Minister Solomon Musonda shot and wounded a Patriotic Front cadre, Jack Musaka.

The President said the Police and the Director of Public Prosecutions should be left to handle the matter.

ZNBC

Second Republican president Frederick Chiluba has said the Patriotic Front (PF) and its supporters who are against his visits to Ndola are afraid he will expose the poor state of PF-run councils and bring it to the attention of the central Government.

Dr Chiluba said the PF must not panic each time he visits other provinces because he is still a free citizen of the country.

Dr Chiluba said in an interview in Ndola yesterday that the PF was worried that he was seeing for himself the damage they were causing to the councils under their control which they wanted to blame on the administration of President Rupiah Banda.

Dr Chiluba said he enjoyed freedom of movement and no one could stop him from seeing for himself what was happening in some areas.

“What I see, I can’t keep to myself, I will pass it on to the president,” he said.
Dr Chiluba said he was extremely pleased that on Tuesday when he toured Chifubu Township, people including PF cadres were expressing their anger over the poor state of the township directly under the leadership of the PF councilors.

“I totally agree with them that we need to change the current PF leadership at local government level and replace them with MMD. The PF has clearly failed to run the councils,” he said.

Dr Chiluba said it was unacceptable that Chifubu Market, which was one of the oldest in the city, still had no electricity and marketeers were forced to close as early as 18.00 hours.
[pullquote]“What I see, I can’t keep to myself, I will pass it on to the president,” he said.
Dr Chiluba said he was extremely pleased that on Tuesday when he toured Chifubu Township, people including PF cadres were expressing their anger over the poor state of the township directly under the leadership of the PF councilors.

“I totally agree with them that we need to change the current PF leadership at local government level and replace them with MMD. The PF has clearly failed to run the councils,” he said.[/pullquote]
He wondered where the PF councillors were using the K600 million constituency development fund if areas such as Chifubu had heaps of garbage and sanitation was lacking.

“I am in total consonance with them that we need change because the councillors there have clearly failed the people. Modern government is not about central government but about local government. PF councilors are responsible for areas like Chifubu and they must be held responsible for the poor state of the township,” he said.

He said when he left office, the CDF was only K30 million but it had since been raised to K600 million which was a lot of money that could be translated into tangible development projects.

Dr Chiluba said people in areas such as Chifubu appreciate his housing policy legacy hence the reason why their reception was warm when he visited the township.

He said Chifubu residents must agitate for repairs of the roads and electricity and hold their councillors responsible for failing to deliver on such services.

“Our people are not resentful or insane, they are nice law abiding citizens who respect their leaders,” he said.
Excited crowds followed Dr Chiluba when word went round that he was in Chifubu Township.

He visited the home of an elderly widow Lise Bwalya who said electricity had been disconnected as she was struggling to make a living.

And Dr Chiluba, through his spokesperson Emmanuel Mwamba, said PF should not remain constantly pre-occupied and obsessed with his movements to any part of the country.

“Dr Chiluba is a former head of state. He is not seeking any party or Government office. He will be engaged in non-partisan issues that he deems helps our people,” he said.

Mr Mwamba said while on the Copperbelt, residents with difficult and longstanding problems have requested Dr Chiluba’s intervention in many issues.

He said Wusakile residents, whose households share communal toilets that have been neglected and have not been serviced by the new sewerage company requested his intervention.

He said the former miners had also made Dr Chiluba their patron and he has coordinated the search for a solution with Government for their numerous problems ranging from failure to access title deeds, unpaid dues and other issues.

Dr Chiluba also visited former ZAFFICO houses in Kalulushi where residents want the houses sold to them as sitting tenants and former workers.

He said the residents had also requested for his intervention on many issues as the local councillors had paid a deaf ear to their plight.

The former president expressed surprise at the deliberately twisted media reports arising from his presence on the Copperbelt Province.
[ Times of Zambia ]

Government has charged that first republican President Dr Kenneth Kaunda’s reaction to the conviction and incarceration of Post Newspapers editor-in-chief Fred M’membe has exposed his short sightedness.

Chief government spokesperson Ronnie Shikapwasha says Dr Kaunda is short-sighted by trying to say that M’membe is an innocent soul. This was in reaction to a story in yesterday’s Post about Mr M’membe and Dr Kaunda’s conversation shortly after M’membe was released from prison on bail on Monday. The story quotes Dr Kaunda as saying the Post editor-in-chief is an innocent soul.

Lieutenant General Shikapwasha says the same man Dr. Kaunda is referring to as innocent had at one point accused him of being after his Life.

And Gen. Shikapwasha says government is surprised by Mr M’membe’s claims that President Rupiah Banda and former president Dr Fredrick Chiluba are after his life.

He said Mr M’membe is afraid of his own shadow and that his claims are baseless and not new to the government. He stressed that Mr. M’membe has accused all of Zambia’s four Presidents of wanting him dead.

He maintained that the government of President Rupiah Banda is not interested in anything that pertains to M’membe and that they have nothing to do with his case.

Gen. Shikapwasha has also accused Mr M’membe of making cheap and false allegations to divert the attention of the people from his conviction for contempt of court.
[QFM]

By Elias Munshya wa Munshya
The most anticipated launch of the UPND/PF pact has finally materialized. The Pact members were mobilized in Lusaka to launch a pact that they feel would achieve the aspirations of removing the MMD from power. But as I show in this article—the launch of the UPND/PF pact, while being a major political milestone in the country, is much ado about nothing since this launch has not answered the most perennial questions the Pact leaders must answer.

First, the real issue with the Pact is not whether the grassroots in the two parties are united or not. That is not the issue. The main issue is about whom between Hichilema and Sata will be the presidential candidate in the 2011 elections. Regardless of how many rallies and launches the Pact goes through, if it does not address the presidency, its prospects for 2011 remain bleak. A Pact candidate matters since it may determine how Zambians will vote in 2011. While the respective spokespersons of the two parties have said that the candidate will be picked through a vote-they have not elaborated how. They are just assuming that he will be picked through democratic means.

Learning from history, no party has held truly democratic intra-party elections since Chiluba was elected MMD president in 1991. As such, I have no illusion to believe that there will be any meaningful democratic modalities to pick the Pact’s candidate. The two respective parties themselves have not held freely democratic elections within their parties, how then do they expect to exercise democracy when picking the candidate for 2011? All that is known, for now, is that both Sata and HH are candidates for the 2011 elections, and such an atmosphere is not helpful to convince innocent Zambians that there is a meaningful alliance.

Second, while it is true that mathematically the Pact may, taking the lead from the 2008 election, have more votes than the MMD—the political algebra just does not mean that they will have those votes come 2011. From the 2008 elections it is clear that a combination of the PF and the UPND votes comfortably beat the votes for the MMD. But that is where the faulty reasoning lies. The Pact may be assuming that people who voted for the two parties will vote for the Pact in 2011.

This assumption is fundamentally faulty since it does not take into account the complex reasons why people vote in the first place. To assume that the Pact will take all the provinces that the UPND and PF as individual parties took in 2008 is flawed. As above, let me reiterate the fact that the deciding factor in the next elections will be the Pact’s presidential candidate. If the Pact fields Sata, Southern voters will not vote for the Pact—it is as easy as that. Southern voters have expressed in clear terms that the Pact will only be supported if it fields HH.

On the other hand, if the Pact picked HH as its candidate—the MMD will exploit HH’s weakness as a regional candidate. This is the dilemma that the Pact faces. Either-way it is a bust for the Pact.

Third, the launch of the Pact is much ado about nothing since it fails to explain exactly what is being launched. To launch something, you need to have a plan. But the so called pact does not seem to have a plan in place. While they have a desire to remove the MMD from power, they lack a comprehensive plan of how they are going to do this, and they are assuming that by saying that they are a pact then they can easily boot out the MMD.

What Zambia needs is not a pact, in the lines of the UPND/PF pact. We have tried those before and it has never worked. If it is political unity the PF and the UPND needed then what they should have done is to dissolve themselves and then form one party; head for party elections; elect a president; and then launch themselves as such. But going by Saturday’s event, they are doing things backwards. And it is this backwardness that will come to haunt them latter in 2011. This Pact has no plan and it is just wasting innocent Zambians’ time.

Fourth, both HH and Sata are right in saying that the Pact is people driven and in fact they are cautioning the people to guard the pact very jealously so that it does not fail. I see that to be a serious anomaly. Since when did ordinary people matter to Zambian politicians? I have no delusion to believe that the pact will work simply because the people say so. In 1991, unity worked because the MMD had a plan and its leaders (Wina, Mulemba, Lewanika etc) selflessly supported Chiluba once he was elected as MMD president. Besides, Wina, Mulemba and Chiluba never declared their candidacy for the 1991 general elections; they instead waited until the MMD had elected one of them as its president.

From our political history, it is political leaders and not just the ordinary people that determine the Zambian political landscape. And regardless of how much ordinary Zambians want the Pact to succeed; if HH and Sata do not make it work, then it would not work. What HH and Sata need to understand is that the future of the Pact does not lie in Chiwempala, Chawama, or in Chama, but rather in Rhodes Park and Kabulonga where Sata and Hichilema live.

And if they do not agree right there in Kabulonga I do not see how the ordinary people in Milenge will make the Pact work. The fact that the Pact is people driven and not leadership driven is the very reason why it will fail come 2011. HH and Sata can do the people a great service, by agreeing on a clear plan of unity which should make them excuse themselves from 2011 candidacy until their Pact chooses a president to lead the Pact.

In the meantime, they are working from a wrong assumption that they are both presidential candidates until the Pact rejects one of them. How about if they worked from the assumption that none of them is a candidate for 2011 until the Pact decides on the candidate. But who am I to suggest anything to these politicians, they only do what they want to do and not what the people want!

Second Republican President Frederick Chiluba has dismissed reports that he received a hostile reception during his recent visit to the Copperbelt.

Dr. Chiluba said contrary to some negative media reports, he was received by a huge, excited and slogan chanting group of residents.

He said the group was much bigger yesterday when he made a stop over at Chifubu market on his way to his residence.

The former President said this in a statement released to ZNBC news by his Spokesperson Emmanuel Mwamba in Lusaka.

Dr Chiluba is shocked that his private visits to the Copperbelt are being maliciously misconstrued and reported as political campaigns for the MMD.

He wondered why the Patriotic Front is now panicking over his trips to the Copperbelt when the MMD NEVER made an issue over similar trips when he supported the PF.

He explained that regular trips to the Copperbelt are necessary because his other home, farm and close relatives are there.

ZNBC

The Zambia Government has allowed farmers and traders to export the maize surplus of 1.1 million tonnes mainly in southern African after a good harvest, but farmers have urged more exports.

Zambia National Farmers’ Union (ZNUF) president Jervis Zimba told Reuters today that farmers also wanted the government to provide tax waivers on maize exports and other incentives to make exports cheaper.

He said they are looking at exporting somewhere around 1.3 million tonnes in order not to have serious carry-overs for the next crop. Zimba said proposals to subsidise exports would also allow excess maize to be removed from the local market and guarantee higher prices in the 2010/11 season, after the government kept this year’s prices flat at K65,000 per 50kg bag.

Zimba said maize output would drop if the government did not facilitate the export of the surplus through an export subsidy.
South Africa said in April that it had secured foreign markets to sell its surplus maize of about 4 million tonnes in the 2009/10 season to safeguard maize prices for local farmers.

[pullquote] Zimba said proposals to subsidise exports would also allow excess maize to be removed from the local market and guarantee higher prices in the 2010/11 season, after the government kept this year’s prices flat at K65,000 per 50kg bag.[/pullquote]

Zambia produced 2.7 million tonnes of white maize in 2009/2010, beating last season’s harvest of 1.9 million tonnes, to leave a surplus of 1.1 million, according to a government crop survey.

Zimba said Zambia’s food balance sheet showed that total maize required for human consumption was 1.3 million tonnes, 230,000 tonnes for industrial use and 200,000 for strategic reserves.

Zambia, Africa’s top copper producer, also relies on copper exports for about 63 percent of foreign exchange earnings.

It has in the previous seasons exported maize to the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), Zimbabwe, Namibia, Botswana and Angola.

Exporters said they will target exports to Zimbabwe, after it declared 11 percent of its maize a write-off due to a dry spell, and also to other neighboring countries.

Meanwile, Kenya and Sudan have expressed interest in importing maize from Zambia.

Agriculture Minister Peter Daka says ZAMBIA has the capacity to export Maize and other crops to neighbouring countries and the sub region.

Zambia this year has over three million tonnes of maize following a bumper harvest recorded this year and carry over stock from last year.

Mr Daka said this during a consultative workshop on the development of the Zambia National Rice Strategy in Lusaka on today.

The minister said Zambia could treble its rice production if it develops a strategic plan for the sector.

Zambia currently produces 42 thousand metric tones of rice annually.

Reuters/ZNBC