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FORMER president Frederick Chiluba raised a number of issues about the moral conduct and leadership qualities of Patriotic Front (PF) leader Michel Sata and United Party for National Development (UPND) leader Hakainde Hichilema which must exercise the minds of many Zambians.
As Mr Hichilema observed (Post Newspaper) “I am assuming that Mr Sata will respond to those many, many issues … because it is important that he responds to these matters.”
It is significant to note that what Dr Chiluba raised were not accusations, but issues that require explanations.
They are not matters that can simply be wished away by saying the former president is a trickster or be dismissed as revival of long forgotten history – true or distorted.
They are matters that have a bearing on the choices people will be asked to make in the forthcoming presidential and general elections.
In his Press conference at his home in Kabulonga on Sunday Dr Chiluba questioned the morality of Mr Sata in passing moral judgment on others and challenged him to explain his relationship with a Ndola woman.
On Mr Sata’s marital status, the public wants to know if it is true that he has two wives although, according to The Post newspaper (February 22) he denies being a polygamist. He did not comment on his relationship and the two children allegedly sired with the Ndola woman Dr Chiluba referred to.
Those who know that he divorced his first wife to marry the one he lives with now would like to know if it is true that there is a third woman in his life.
Further, in view of the overt hostility exhibited against the MMD and President Rupiah Banda by some priests in the Roman Catholic Church, many wonder if this is because the woman in question is a biological sister of one of their bishops. It is important that this is explained as some people may be forced to speculate.
In respect of Mr Hichilema, Dr Chiluba wondered what morals he had if he could conceal the truth when a Zambian is wrongfully accused.
The public would thus like to know if Mr Hichilema was a senior official of Grant Thornton when the firm was appointed receiver of Luanshya Mine’s Ramcoz. Mr Hichilema has to explain what he knew about the payment of US$12 million referred to and why he did not tell his firm to state the truth as stated by Dr Chiluba.
This is the only way he can allay fears that his former company or himself may have been undeserving beneficiaries of the money. Since he seeks to be president of Zambia the issue is about why Zambians should entrust their lives on him as president if he does not have moral courage to say the truth when a citizen is wrongfully accused.
ZAMTEL ZAMTEL management says it is in support of privatisation of 75 percent of the company’s shares to an equity partner because this will help the company be more responsive in meeting customer needs.
Zamtel managing director Mukela Muyunda said the privatisation of the shares will address various challenges that the company is facing.
Mr Muyunda said this yesterday when he led a team of officials from Zamtel to appear before the Parliamentary Committee on Communications, Transport, Works and Supply.
He said his management has realised the urgent need to privatise Zamtel because of the effective role that the company will play in enhancing growth in the country’s telecommunications sector.
“The management of Zamtel is fully convinced and has supported the decision taken by Government to privatise the 75 percent shares of Zamtel. The move is commendable as this will help the company to become more innovative and improve on its operations,” he said.
Mr Muyunda said this in response to a question raised by Bangweulu Patriotic Front (PF) MP Joseph Kasonde, who wanted to know whether Zamtel management is aware that Zamtel has been a ‘sleeping giant’ for a long time and if they are in support of the company’s partial privatisation.
Mr Muyunda admitted that the company has over the years not performed according to people’s expectations and that interventions are being taken to improve its operations.
“It is true that over the years, Zamtel has not met the expectations of customers so to improve its operations, we are undertaking the installation of the GSM-phase three which will help us to improve the company’s efficiency.
“Once this exercise is completed, the company will attract more clients because of the improved services that it will provide to its clients,” he said.
He further said his company has made strides to install the optic fibre network which should be operational before the end of this year.
Mr Muyunda said his company is in a hurry to finish installing the optic fibre network because of the effective role that it will play in improving the country’s telecommunications sector.
Mr Muyunda said Zamtel will this year implement other viable projects to ensure that it competes with other mobile service providers in the country.
Parliamentary Committee chairperson on Communications, Transport, Works and Supply Ng’andu Magande urged Zamtel management to put in place remedial measures to improve the company’s operations.
The Air Force officer who last year dashed to the rescue of two Zambian girls drowning near Victoria Falls will be honored by Zambia’s president.
Col. Keith E. Andrews is to receive a medal in May for pulling the teens to shore after they fell into the fast-moving waters of the Zambezi River, just 180 feet from where Victoria Falls plunges 360 feet.
“People keep calling me a ‘hero.’ I don’t want to be a hero,” said Andrews, chief of intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance with the 607th Air and Space Operations Center at Osan. “I tell everybody the same thing: I just know that God put me in the right place and the right time.”
At the time of the March 8 rescue, Andrews was a lieutenant colonel and a student at the U.S. Air Force’s Air War College at Maxwell Air Force Base, Ala. He was one of about 20 students in Africa on a two-week regional studies trip.
The trip included a sightseeing stop at Victoria Falls. It was a hot, sunny early afternoon with a heavy mist thrown up by the cascading falls.
“Very beautiful,” he said. “You see the falls coming down. Water’s everywhere.”
He was about 10 feet from shore when he stopped so a companion could snap his photo, with the river and the falls in the background.
A teenage girl sat on a rocky outcropping near the water talking on a cell phone.
“Being a dad, I had my dad radar on, thinking she’s close to that water,” Andrews said.
Two other young women came along and the three chatted. Just as Andrews turned away to take the photo he heard two splashes, then loud screams.
“I saw big eyes, and they were reaching for their life,” he recalled. “The water was sweeping them away.”
One girl clung to the leg of the one nearest shore, who in turn was straining for a handhold but couldn’t reach shore because the current was drawing her back. The third stood on the shore nearby, screaming hysterically, Andrews said.
He said he dashed to the girls in about two bounds, clasped a rock to anchor himself to shore, and thrust his right arm toward them.
He caught the nearest girl’s wrist, and, in a single motion, lurched rearward, hauling them both from the water.
“I don’t know where I got the strength to do that,” he said. “[The current] was sucking her away pretty fast.”
Shaken and crying, the girls bowed their thanks and said something in a local dialect.
The morning of graduation day at the air war college, the student body handed Andrews a framed photo of the rescue, signed by all of them. More recently, he learned that Zambian President Rupiah Bwezani Banda is to present him a medal May 25 in Lusaka on Africa Freedom Day.
Although the incident occurred nearly a year ago, Andrews can still choke up when he thinks about it. He has a 15-year-old daughter.
“Couldn’t sleep at all that night,” he said. “Thinking what would have happened if I hadn’t have been there, if those two girls went over the falls … and thinking, if something like that happened to my daughter, hoping someone would be there to help her.”
The U.S. Census Bureau’s Bellevue office held an open house Thursday that featured a Snoqualmie Indian family singing a tribal song, a Zambian dancer doing a traditional dance and a U.S. congressman urging residents to fill out their census forms.
The open house helped underscore two key points about the constitutionally-required head count: The county is diverse, and the work of counting everyone in it holds a great deal of political importance.
The last American Community Survey — a snapshot of the population that’s done by the Census Bureau — showed that 31 percent of the Bellevue population is foreign-born, and one-third of the population speaks a language other than English. Of cities in Washington with a population of more than 20,000 people, Bellevue has the largest percentage of residents that are foreign-born.
That diversity presents a special dilemma for the census bureau, however. Immigrants “tend to not to understand the importance of the census,” said Bellevue Councilman Conrad Lee, himself an immigrant (Lee was born in China and moved to Bellevue in 1958). “We tend not to be counted.”
Each uncounted person means a loss of about $1,400 in federal money per year, according to the Census Bureau. The census is also used to apportion congressional seats, and Washington may be large enough, population-wise, to qualify for a tenth congressman, if the count is high enough.
So the open house at the Census office in on 120th Avenue Northeast was also something of a pep rally for ethnic communities, faith-based and immigrant groups to help them organize a strong response to the census.
“It’s just a real simple deal,” said U.S. Congressman Dave Reichert. “Fill out the questionnaire. Send it in.”
Most people will be counted by mail. The census form will arrive in mailboxes around March 15, and census organizers expect most people to drop the return envelope in the mailbox.
But for those who don’t respond right away, census workers will be sent out to try to find out why a response wasn’t returned. And census-takers are also needed to count people at nursing homes, prisons, halfway houses, soup kitchens, even the race track — places where people don’t live in single-family homes or apartments with clearly-defined mailing addresses.
If you’re looking for a job, the census office is still hiring; in fact, they are expecting to employ 1,200 people at the office in Bellevue, and many of those positions are still open. Call the 2010 Census Jobs Line, 866-861-2010, for information.
What skills are required? The census is “looking for people who are friendly,” said recruiter David Higgins. “Most of the jobs are door-to-door.” It’s a bonus if you speak more than one language.
Bellevue census office director John Saul says he’s expecting the count will show 600,000 people live in the area served by the east King County census office, which includes everything from Bellevue east to the county border, and south to the southern border of the city of Renton.
But getting a head count of the exact number — well, that’s what the census is all about.
Government has defended the microbicide gel clinical trials in which 46 women out of 1,332 volunteers in Mazabuka District contracted HIV due to failed efficacy of the gel pro-2000, meant to prevent the contraction of the virus that cause AIDS.
Health minister Kapembwa Simbao told Parliament in a ministerial statement today that government believes that research as such the microbicide gel clinical trials is important because it provides data for policy implementation.
Mr Simbao says the results of the Microbicide Development Programme, Mazabuka trials were disappointing, but that government recognizes that this large trial was done with high scientific and ethical standards.
He says the researchers also engaged the stakeholders and the community in which the trial was conducted. Mr Simbao says the failure of the clinical trials should not bring to an end microbicide research, but should continue as well as research to find other means of protecting women.
And Mr Simbao says the issue of compensation for the women infected with HIV does not arise because all the volunteers knew that they were taking a risk trial and that it is for this reason that they were made to sign the consent agreement.
He says the only thing that is being done is to make follow ups so that those that contracted HIV can be assisted to cope with their new condition.
Ras Al Khaimah Crown Prince Ras Al Khaimah Crown Prince and Deputy Ruler HH Sheikh Saud bin Saqr Al Qasimi, received yesterday visiting President of Zambia Rupiah Bwezani Banda and his entourage.
The two officials discussed during the meeting existing relations between the UAE and Zambia in all fields and ways to upgrade them, particularly in the areas of mutual trade, economic and investment cooperation.
Present in the meeting were Sheikh Omer bin Saqr Al Qasimi, head of the Private Department of RAK Ruler, Sheikh Faisal bin Saqr Al Qasimi, head of the Finance Department, other Sheikhs and senior officials.
Dr Chiluba emerges from his house and his assistants are at hand to help him before going to address the press briefing
By Charles Ngoma
Adlai Stevenson is quoted as saying, ‘I have been thinking that I would make a proposition to my Republican friends…that if they stop telling lies about the Democrats, we will stop telling the truth about them.’
From Dr Chiluba’s latest press conference one can see how Zambian politicians seem to be sitting between the truth and lies by failing to reveal one, while concealing the other.
It is like the more secret scandals they know about each other, the closer their precarious friendships and associations. Kind of insurance policies ready to be cashed in on the death of that friendship.
There has been feverish interest in this press conference and yet in as far as politics is concerned, there was very little of it.
The main political point Dr.Chiluba made was to defend his freedom of association and tell us why he supports a particular person as Presidential candidate.
Other than that, the rest was a shameful and embarrassing ‘undressing’ of an older man in the eyes of the people. Once upon a time all these men were pals.
It seems that at that time, they concealed all the truths about each other but now they want everyone to know what they know.
On the other hand, Mr Sata once asked Mr Hichilema to ‘reveal how he got rich so quickly as a young man’ but now that, is expediently a non-issue in the pact.
Could it be that he has reserved that weapon for future use? How true, that ‘in politics, your enemies can’t hurt you, but your friends will kill you.’ (Ann Richards, 45th Governor of Texas) There is no doubt that Dr Chiluba was provoked by the numerous aspersions that had been cast on his character by the older man. Whether he was right or wrong to respond in that manner, I will leave for others to judge.
But the question that should be asked is: how have we come to this petty pass in our politics? May I suggest that all sectors of our society are to blame for this.
First, it is us, us the public who have an insatiable appetite for ‘juicy gossip’ and voyeurism on the people in power and those we admire.
Because of this, we have blurred the distinction between what is of public interest and interesting to the public.
What came out of the former President’s mouth was not news to many people because Zambia is a small country and we all know someone who knows someone, who knows someone we know.
Second, the blame is on the media, the media whose life line depends on circulation.
Newspapers do not make money from selling individual papers as such, but if they show that they have a wide circulation, advertisers are more likely to buy space and thus finance the paper.
It has been said that sex sells newspapers and what a harvest it yields when this is combined with politics! The media personalities are part and parcel of the society, and so what interests the society, interests them and vice versa.
But, there is journalistic training that should help distinguish between a reporter and a common gossiper, between a professional and a charlatan.
The journalist must be incisive, and must consider diligently the effect the information he is to disseminate will have on people. Information is power.
The pen is mightier than the sword. Nowadays, we have visual cues as well and this is a potent force that can be used to shape our destiny for good or for ill.
Lack of information is ignorance, and ignorance is vice. But too much information without restraint is dangerous.A sail that takes in too much of the wind will capsize the boat.
There are certain things that are not necessary to report, unless one has malice in aforethought.
Thirdly: the politicians themselves. There is nothing super human about a politician. Indeed, all of them have flaws.
All of them have done and will do many unsavoury things in their lives for which they will be ashamed. We do not elect them because they are ensamples of superior morality.
We elect them to do a job. But, if they have any idea as to why they are in politics, then they will know what to say and when to say what they say.
It seems to me that Mr Sata has a penchant for pointing moral flaws in political opponents. Dr Nevas Mumba was once a victim of this while he led the NCC.
How can talking about someone ‘stealing another man’s wife’ bring food to a hungry and malnourished child in Madzimoyo, medicine to a leper in Liteta, fertilizer to a farmer in Mazabuka or money in the pockets of a retired miner in Mwansabombwe?
How do all these personal attacks explain encourage people to go to a polling station to vote? By these personality issues, how does the man in the street understand what is wrong with the national budget? How does all this really develop our country?
As President Obama said about America, I would say of Zambia that there is nothing which is wrong in Zambia, which what is right with Zambia cannot correct.
As our own Dr Kenneth Kaunda says about HIV/AIDS, we fought colonialism, we can overcome our ills as well.
Let the people seek first the really important things for us and our children and elect officers who can bring about those things.
Let the media ask the right questions and so hold the elected officers to account for their mandate and promises.
Let the politicians concentrate on the weightier matters of development, life and death, rather than petty issues of who is sleeping with whom.
MMD National Chairman Michael Mabenga addresses journalists at the party secretariat in Lusaka
The Ruling Movement for Multi-party Democracy (MMD) has said the opposition Patriotic Front (PF) is panicking following second republican President Fredrick Chiluba’s declaration to support president Rupiah Banda in the 2011 general elections.
MMD national Chairperson Michael Mabenga said it was surprising that the PF is jittery with Dr Chiluba’s support for president Banda by condemning him, when the party did not condemn him when he supported PF leader Michael Sata in the 2006 elections.
“ PF is panicking, its leaders are now condemning Dr Chiluba because they are aware that the MMD will retain power after the 2011 elections,” Mr Mabenga said.
Mr Mabenga noted that in 2006, the MMD allowed Dr Chiluba to support the PF because he has a democratic right to support whichever party he feels like supporting.
PF President Micheal Sata has ordered Dr Chiluba to aplogisewithin seven days or be dragged to court.
And Chiluba has vowed to defend every statement that he made against Sata during his press briefing last week.
According to a letter written to Dr Chiluba by Sata’s lawyer John Mulwila from Ituna Partners, the law firm had been retained in connection with the alleged innuendos and remarks that were also published by the Times of Zambia.
Mr Sata was particularly concerned about the allegations by Dr Chiluba that he was dismissed by the Northern Rhodesia police force and that he was arrested and imprisoned because of some criminal offences committed in the police force.
He was further concerned about Dr Chiluba’s allegations at the same Press briefing that he led a polygamous life and had a relationship with a woman in Ndola, yet he was receiving Holy Communion in the Catholic Church.
And Mr Sata’s lawyer stated that the words complained of by his client were in no doubt defamatory and the estimation in which he stood in the opinion of others had been affected by false statements.
A South African based clergyman and medical doctor has implored the church in Zambia to brace itself for the looming effects of global warming on the environment.
South African Indian Ocean Division of the Seventh Day Adventist Church health ministries director Alex Raguno said the negative effects of global warming will in future affect water levels as rivers will start drying up.
Speaking to the leaders of the SDA church who gathered at Choma central church, Dr. Raguno said Christians should brace themselves against the impending calamity by winning more souls to Jesus Christ to hasten his second coming.
He noted that it was time the SDA church stood up for Jesus Christ by engaging in an evangelistic campaign that will ensure that more people surrender their lives to Jesus.
Dr. Raguno observed that global warming is envisaged to reduce crop production levels which will culminate into hunger and starvation in many parts of the world. He explained that it was only Jesus Christ, who was able to address calamities of global warming, floods, and earthquakes, which have devastated some parts of the world.
Dr. Raguno implored the SDA church leadership in Choma to embark on vigorous evangelist campaigns.
“We need a great explosion such as that of the Japanese invasion by the Americans not to kill people but to win more people to Jesus Christ through evangelistic campaign meetings,” he said.
VICE-President George Kunda yesterday presented in Parliament for first reading the Public Interest disclosure Bill, which seeks to protect whistle blowers in the private and public sectors.
Presenting the Bill on behalf of Mr Kunda, Home Affairs Minister Lameck Mangani said the Bill would provide a framework within which public interest disclosures would be dealt with independently.
Mr Mangani said the Bill would provide procedures in which employees would disclose information regarding unlawful or irregular conduct by their employers.
Information and Broadcasting Services Minister Ronnie Shikapwasha also presented the Zambia National Broadcasting Corporation (ZNBC) Amendment Bill.
Acting Commerce Trade and Industry Minister Bradford Machila presented six other Bills related to registration of companies and trading requirements.
Mr Machila said the Zambia Consolidated Copper Mines- Investment Holdings (ZCCM-IH) had not published its annual reports since the financial year ending June 2005.
He told Parliament that the delay in finalising the reports for 2006, 2007 and 2008, although already audited, was as a result of the need to report ZCCM-IH at a fair value in compliance with the international accounting standards.
He was responding to a question from Nchanga Member of Parliament Wilbur Simuusa (PF) who wanted to know when the annual reports for ZCCM-IH were last published.
He said that ZCCM-IH in subsidiary and associate companies had previously been reported at cost in all annual reports.
Mr Machila said following the completion of audit of accounts for the year 2006 and before publication, the company in 2007 engaged external consultants to undertake valuation of its investments.
“Unfortunately, the valuation exercise by the consultants has not been finalised to the satisfaction of ZCCM-IH’s external auditors due to lack of comprehensive resources data from the mines,” Mr Machila said.
And Deputy Speaker of the National Assembly, Mutale Nalumango has directed the Ministry of Home Affairs to issue a ministerial statement over the issuance of national registration cards (NRCs).
She said this after Mfuwe MP Mwimba Malama (PF) had earlier on asked when NRCs would be issued to eligible citizens in his constituency.
Deputy Home Affairs Minister David Phiri (MMD) explained that the issuance of NRCs was an on-going exercise.
But Chongwe MP Sylvia Masebo (MMD) argued that there were a lot of inconsistencies in the issuance of the identity cards, and asked the Speaker to direct the ministry to issue a ministerial statement.
And Gender and Women in Development Deputy Minister Lucy Changwe (MMD) told the House that 1,198 gender-based violence cases had been recorded from 2007 to date.
Of these cases, 911 men were convicted for the offence, while six women and 220 youth were convicted. Ms Changwe said this when she responded to a question from Kankoyo Member of Parliament Percy Chanda (PF) who wanted to know the number of people convicted for gender-based violence.
And Mr Machila said that the Pepsi Zambia plant in Lusaka would be opened by March this year. He said that the bottling company had invested US$30 million in the project and that 214 direct jobs would be created, alongside 600 indirect jobs.
He was responding to a question from Kanchibiya MP Davies Mwango (PF) who wanted to know when the plant would be opened and the number of jobs to be created.
MORE than 100 families in areas affected by floods in Lusaka have registered for the relocation process starting tomorrow, District Commissioner Christa Kalulu has said.
Ms Kalulu said the response from the families in the affected areas was good because they had understood that it was for their own protection.
She said in an interview in Lusaka yesterday that the water levels in some parts of the city were high and that the Government would do everything in its means to lessen the suffering of the people.
The townships worst hit by the floods are Chawama and Kanyama. Other affected areas are Mandevu, Mtendere, Kaunda Square, Kalikiliki and some parts of the light industrial area.
A Times check yesterday showed that many houses were submerged in water, forcing the residents to wade in filthy water ponds when leaving their homes.
The Government would remain supportive to the affected families and had secured land for the victims where they would be safe.
Ms Kalulu said the District Disaster Management and Mitigation Unit (DMMU), through district disaster management unit, had enough resources and had already put up tents, lavatories, and security, among other things.
Ms Kalulu said the DMMU was working closely with Lusaka City Council, Members of Parliament in the affected areas, and the ward development councillors where the registration was taking place, to make the exercise a success.
The shifting of the residents was the only option the Government had at the moment to prevent people from contracting diseases.
She said a lasting solution to the floods would be found at a later stage since, at the moment, pumping out water in face of the continuing downpours would not be a sustainable method.
The district commissioner thanked the office of the vice-president, Lusaka Water and Sewerage Company, and all the stakeholders for the support rendered to the relocation exercise.
Several residents complained in separate interviews that the flood situation in their townships was worsened by the under-developed drainage systems.
Amos Banda, of Chawama Township said it was sad that the drainage system had remained unattended to for a long time.
Mr Banda, whose house was flooded with dirty water, said he and other residents lived in fear of an outbreak of waterborne diseases like cholera because of the contaminated water.
Charles Mulenga, a Kanyama resident, wondered why the local authority failed to rehabilitate drainages during the dry season and only showed willingness when floods ravaged the area.
SECOND Republican president Frederick Chiluba has said he will defend his statements against Patriotic Front (PF) leader Michael Sata even if he was dragged to court.
Dr Chiluba acknowledged yesterday, through his spokesperson Emmanuel Mwamba, that he had received a letter from Mr Sata’s lawyers demanding an apology for the allegations stated against him during a Press briefing.
Dr Chiluba said it was a gamble for Mr Sata to even threaten to take him to court over remarks he made at a Press briefing held at his residence on Sunday last week, and that he was ready to defend every statement.
According to a letter written to Dr Chiluba by Mr Sata’s lawyer John Mulwila from Ituna Partners, the law firm had been retained in connection with the alleged innuendos and remarks that were also published by the Times of Zambia.
Mr Sata was particularly concerned about the allegations by Dr Chiluba that he was dismissed by the Northern Rhodesia police force and that he was arrested and imprisoned because of some criminal offences committed in the police force.
He was further concerned about Dr Chiluba’s allegations at the same Press briefing that he led a polygamous life and had a relationship with a woman in Ndola, yet he was receiving Holy Communion in the Catholic Church.
And Mr Sata’s lawyer stated that the words complained of by his client were in no doubt defamatory and the estimation in which he stood in the opinion of others had been affected by false statements.
Dr Mulwila said the statements by Dr Chiluba were an infringement on Mr Sata’s rights.
Mr Sata was now demanding a retraction of the words by Dr Chiluba within seven days and an apology through an appropriate media approved by his lawyers.
He warned that legal proceedings would commence should a favourable response not be made.
Meanwhile, a Ndola-based Bank of Zambia (BoZ) employee alleged to have two children with Mr Sata has not been available to give her own side of the story following Dr Chiluba’s revelations.
A Times reporter who went to the BoZ regional offices in Ndola on Monday was initially informed that she was available but security personnel later made aU-turn and said she was not on duty.
Efforts by the Times yesterday to either see the woman at the offices or meet her at her residence in Itawa proved futile as the reporter was told that she had shifted to Kansenshi.
Later in the day, the reporter learnt, through further investigations that the woman had travelled out of town for official duties.
Chief Government spokesperson Ronnie Shikapwasha has dismissed allegations that government is not taking action on the Auditor General’s report because it is shielding some people.
Lt Gen. Shikapwasha says government does not take action before the report is released but only does so once information is availed to all ministries and government departments.
Lt Gen Shikapwasha who is also Information and Broadcasting Minister told ZANIS in an interview in Lusaka that government will never do things without following procedure.
He explained that government was merely waiting for the right time to take action against those mentioned in the Auditor General’s report as opposed to assertions that it is trying to protect some people.
Lt. Gen. Shikapwasha noted that government understands that any misapplication or misappropriation of public resources is retrogressive to the development process of the country.
He explained that when the report is released it is taken to all the ministries so that each ministry is aware of issues that concern them.
He has since advised people to desist from blaming government on issues they do not understand properly.
Lt. Gen. Shikapwasha has since appealed to the public to have information on issues before issuing any statements to safeguard the peace the country has continued to enjoy.
On Thursday last week, Luena Member of Parliament (MP) Charles Milupi accused government of not taking action on revelations in the Auditor General’s reports as a way of protecting some people.
Mr. Milupi said issues of misappropriation of funds, non retirement of imprest and projects not being completed on time contribute to the country’s underdevelopment.
Immanuel Church of the Nazarene in Towamencin will see close to 400 youths shoot free throws into 18 basketball nets in order to raise money to build dormitories for students in Twachiyanda, Zambia, and to provide for care centers for orphans in Swaziland.
Hoops of Hope will run from 1 to 7:30 p.m., and all of the participants are the 400 or so youths in the church’s Upward Basketball League.
The event can be attributed to coincidence and being at the right place at the right time.
When Richelle Holnick, 13, a Pennridge Central middle schooler, attended a Revolve concert in Philadelphia, she witnessed a speech from 15-year-old Austin Gutwein about his nonprofit organization he started in 2004 called Hoops for Hope, which raised money for children in Africa orphaned by AIDS.
“That experience showed me what one kid can do,” Richelle said. “If we wanted he said he would e-mail everyone a way to start their own Hoops of Hope and the money will go to his organization to send over. I really wanted to help them out.”
At around the same time, Marie Jansen was reading “A Hole in Our Gospel,” which mentioned Gutwein and his effort.
Jansen and Holnick, unbeknownst to one another, approached the youth pastor at the church with the same idea and the same message.
“We got together,” Richelle said, “and now we are getting to do this.”
Each child participating in the event will get a sponsor to donate money toward their day of standing at the free-throw line shooting 1,000 baskets in honor of the children of Zambia and Swaziland.
“After I found out I was able to do this, I was happy that I could help and that other kids could help too,” Richelle said.
Youths will be broken up by groups and proceed to shoot hoops. Each one will try to sink 1,000 baskets.
“The idea is kids are coming in and getting sponsors to raise money, and that money will go to build a dorm in Zambia, where Austin Gutwein has raised money to build a school,” said Richelle’s mother, Cathy Holnick. “These kids have to walk so far for school, that they are sleeping in the school. They want to build a dorm so they have a place to sleep and they can go home on the weekends.”
Hoops of Hope “shoot-athons” have funded the building of a high school for 1,000 students, a medical lab and a counseling center, according to Holnick.
Most recently, Hoops have helped fund a water project in Kenya and a second medical clinic in Zambia.
The Hoops of Hope universal goal is to raise $580,000 to complete dorms for the high school.
All money collected through Hoops of Hope go to World Vision, a nonprofit that facilitates the building of Hoops of Hope projects.
Because it is in its preliminary year, the church’s Hoops of Hope event will feature only youths in its Upward league.
“Let’s see how we can do with this the first year. In subsequent years, we are hoping we can open it up to the community,” Cathy Holnick said. “Certainly, people can come from the community and be supportive at the event and they can donate as well.”
Individuals can also show up and sponsor a child through World Vision, she said. A World Vision table will be at the event.
Businesses in the community have asked to either be sponsors or to donate prizes.
“We want to make it a festive event and keep kids motivated,” Cathy Holnick said.
Scores of Chinese nationals resident in Zambia shooting pictures of their friends and relatives during the Chinese new year celebration in Lusaka
International media have reported up a storm on the recent surge in China-Africa links. They invoke a theme familiar from the past two centuries of colonialism and Cold War: Africa is beset by poverty and ignorance, caused by ruthless and corrupt rulers. Westerners are trying to bring them to book and instill order on the continent, but other forces, in this case Chinese interlopers, are making that difficult.
The facts on the ground show China’s engagement in Africa has been more positive than this discourse claims. The Chinese are getting bad press in the West because they are from a country that is neither liberal democratic nor white, yet are effectively competing with those who are – to the point that some Africans see Chinese development activities as providing a model.
The Chinese, it is said, are in Africa only for natural resources, to feed China’s industry and huge population. To exploit the continent, they provide loans and aid to rogue regimes.
They worsen the plight of Africans by dumping cheap, shoddy products in their markets and ruin local industry. Chinese investors pay Africans a pittance, in contrast to more ethical Western firms. Given all that, China can only be an obstacle to Africa’s development.
It’s an exciting tale but, alas, the media have gotten it all wrong. It’s not mainly China that impairs Africa’s development, but a world system of neo-liberal capitalism, based on privatization, trade liberalization, and reduced social spending, into which China is now partly integrated. As part of the same world system, China and the West have many activities in common in Africa, but there are also some distinctly Chinese trade and investment practices and these are often more appealing to Africans.
China-Africa trade was $3 billion in 1995, but $107 billion in 2008. That’s still only 4 percent of China’s world trade. Yet, it makes China Africa’s second largest trading partner and trade is balanced in Africa’s favor. On imports from Africa, the China-in-Africa media discourse focuses overwhelmingly on oil. It’s often alleged that Chinese demand for oil perpetuates Africa’s reliance on petroleum exports, preventing growth of more labor intensive industries, such as agro-business and manufacturing.
Most of what China buys from Africa is indeed oil (62 percent) and ores and metals (17 percent), but in 2008 oil was 88 percent of US imports from Africa and minerals made up most of the rest. China’s investment in oil production in Africa equals only 8 percent of that of Western multi-nationals and 3 percent of all investment in African oil. China received 9 percent of Africa’s oil exports, but Europe and the US each took 33 percent.
China also couples oil acquisition with low or no interest loans to build the infrastructure Africa needs, at a much lower cost than the West is willing to do. For 2006-2013, China lent or will lend $28 billion to Africa for infrastructure and as trade credit. There is also less scope for corruption with China’s loans for infrastructure projects – often built by Chinese firms paid directly by China’s government – than with the all-purpose aid Western sources provide African governments, such as the money for primary education in Uganda in the 1990s, four-fifths of which never reached the designated schools .
The focus of the China-in-Africa discourse on China’s exports is almost wholly on basic consumer items and their alleged negative consequences. Chinese goods are held responsible for the decline in Africa’s textile and clothing (T&C) industry. But when Chinese goods first came in mass around 2000, Africa’s T&C was already decimated by the international financial institutions’ forced trade liberalization of the 1980s and 1990s, which opened the market to second-hand and new clothing from developed countries. The fact is that Chinese goods are much cheaper than imports from other countries, as well as locally made goods that are made costly by poor infrastructure, pricey utilities, and corruption. A British government study found that Chinese exports to Africa mainly displace developed country exports.
China’s stock of investments in Africa rose from $49 million in 1990 to $7.8 billion in 2008. The total stock of FDI in Africa in 2007 was $36 billion, with most of it from the EU, US and South Africa. There are about a thousand significant Chinese enterprises in Africa, but the media discourse focuses only on investment in extractive industries, particularly on one investment, the Non-Ferrous Metals Corporation Africa (NFCA) Chambishi copper mine in Zambia.
Conditions at the Chambishi mine, with its 2,200 employees, have indeed been deplorable. Chambishi, however, is not the only Zambian mine where conditions are highly oppressive, as the many strikes at Western and white South African mines show. Zambians regard all the mines as much worse now than they were before privatization, at World Bank insistence, in the late 1990s. In any case, Chambishi mine is not the largest Chinese-owned enterprise in Africa. In Nigeria, a Chinese conglomerate employs 20,000, including many local managers, yet the media dwells on Chambishi.
A comparison of Chinese and Western firms in Africa would find that many on both sides have oppressive conditions, but Western firms garner much higher profits. In contrast to Western investments, many Chinese enterprises are equity joint ventures, sharing profits with Africans. Most produce for the local market and focus more on infrastructure and manufacturing than do Western companies.
China is presented in the discourse as “indifferent to Africa’s authoritarian despots, as it courts the continent for energy and minerals,” as a leading British journalist put it. But the US and France support most despots in Africa, providing them with military assistance and legitimacy. The West is also implicated in the trade in money and trade in people. Some 40 percent of Africa’s private wealth has been sent overseas (Martin Meredith, “The Fate of Africa: a Survey of Fifty Years of Independence,” Washington Post, Jan 20, 2006), much of it to banks that trade interest and secrecy for these funds. London and Zurich, not Beijing, receive these fruits of capital flight and tax evasion. Western states trade their citizenship for the skills of hundreds of thousands of African professionals, especially doctors and nurses who have trained in, but are now lost to Africa. China has trained tens of thousands of Africans to be doctors, engineers, agricultural specialists and they generally return to Africa (“China has Education Cooperation with 50 Countries,” Business Daily Update, Nov 28, 2005).
The China-in-Africa discourse lacks a comparative approach and reflects Western elites’ perception of their national interests and moral superiority. Its proponents fail to question Western government rhetoric about “aiding African development” and “promoting African democracy.” At the same time, they seize on any example of supposed exploitation by Chinese in Africa.
Many Africans – and some Westerners – question the binary view of a new Western “civilizing mission” versus the actions of “amoral” Chinese who don’t fully practice neo-liberalism by, for example, conditioning loans to African states on reduced spending on social services. They are increasingly rejecting a discourse that draws attention away from Africa’s systemic problems of exploitation and human rights and toward blaming Chinese, not for what they actually do in Africa, but for being the newly perceived strategic competitor of the West.
Barry Sautman is a political scientist and lawyer at the Hong Kong University of Science & Technology who works on ethnic politics in China and China-Africa relations. Yan Hairong is an anthropologist at the Hong Kong Polytechnic University and the author of New Masters, New Servants: Migration, Development and Women Workers in China (Duke University Press, 2008). The article first appeared in Yale Global online on Feb 10, 2010.
[China Daily 02/24/2010 page9]
By Barry Sautman and Yan Hairong (China Daily)
