Zambia congress of trade unions President Leonard Hikaumba has said there is nothing wrong for the church to monitor the 2011 elections.

Mr. Hikaumba sais the decision by the catholic church to try and monitor the elections should not be politicized.

He said the idea by the Catholic Church was to ensure that they is transparency in the 2011 elections.

Mr. Hikaumba has since advised the church to re-consider their decision to show that they they were not taking sides.

On friday, Center for Elections and Governance (CEG) Trustee Gershom Musonda says the church has abandoned its functions and has instead concentrated its efforts on politicking.

Mr. Musonda was commenting on a statement by the Catholic Church that it would participate in the monitoring of the tripartite elections next year.

The ZCTU president has however welcomed the decision by the church to participate in the electoral process in the country.

QFM

GOVERNMENT has instituted investigations into reports that Patriotic Front (PF) president Michael Sata was allegedly imprisoned for breaking the law.

Home Affairs Minister Lameck Mangani told the Sunday Mail in an interview yesterday that if the allegations against Mr Sata turn out to be true, then he will not be eligible for future elections.

Mr Mangani said Government decided to investigate the matter after a former freedom fighter Jackson Ngoma claimed that he once shared prison cells with Mr Sata.

Mr Ngoma, 77, the last district governor for Mambwe, said he shared the same prison cells with Mr Sata at Bwana Mkubwa and Mukobeko prisons in the early 1960s.

The former freedom fighter said he and other youths were rounded up for the role they played in the Chachacha uprising during the independence struggle. At the time, Mr Sata was a policeman and was brought in the cells in Ndola for a case review and later transferred to the maximum security prison in Kabwe.

Mr Mangani said Government would like to establish whether Mr Sata was tried and convicted of any crime or was merely one of the political detainees during the freedom struggle.

Mr Mangani said as a former police officer Mr Sata should know very well that he is not eligible to contest elections if he was convicted of a crime.
The minister said the Zambian law does not allow a former convict to run for elections.

“If indeed Mr Sata served a prison sentence, it means he does not qualify to stand for elections, then all these years that he has been standing, he has been doing it illegally,” Mr Mangani said.

He said, however, that there could be no better witness to the alleged incarceration than the people who shared a prison cell with Mr Sata.
He said although the incident happened before independence, government will get to the bottom of the matter to establish the truth.

Mr Sata could not be reached for a comment, but PF general secretary Wynter Kabimba accused Mr Mangani of not understanding constitutional provisions.

“Who says that if a person was convicted 20, 50 or 100 years ago he cannot stand for election?” Mr Kabimba asked.
He could not state whether Mr Sata was convicted, but said the constitution only bars presidential aspirants who were convicted five years preceding an election.

“There is nowhere in the Constitution where it says that anyone who has been convicted can never stand for elections. The Constitution says that the person who has been convicted five years leading to an election cannot stand for presidential elections,” Mr Kabimba said.

Meanwhile, KANGWA MULENGA reports that MMD youths on the Copperbelt and a non-governmental organisation (NGO) have challenged Mr Sata to withdraw from the Presidential race following revelations that he has two children outside marriage and allegations that he was once incarcerated for criminal offences.

Party provincial youth chairman Evans Chibanda said in an interview in Ndola yesterday that it is worrying that a person aspiring to become a Republican President could have such a record.

“We challenge Mr Sata to withdraw from the Presidential race until he clears himself from all the things that have surfaced against him,” Mr Chibanda said.

He has since cautioned Zambians to be careful with politicians aspiring to lead the country.
National Moral Advocates for a Better Zambia chairperson Alex Mubanga said there is need to establish the nature of the case that led to Mr Sata allegedly being imprisoned.

He said Mr Sata should inform the nation on the alleged criminal offence.

[Zambia Daily Mail]

TODAY’S SCRIPTURE

“A generous man will prosper; he who refreshes others will himself be refreshed”
(Proverbs 11:25, NIV)

TODAY’S WORD from Joel and Victoria

Do you need refreshing today? So many people go around overwhelmed, tired, worn down, barely getting by. But that’s not God’s best. He wants us to prosper. He wants us to be refreshed. Here’s the key: be generous and refresh others. Is there someone at the office you can be a blessing to? Can you lighten someone’s load? Maybe a family member is going through a hard time. Can you help them out? Can you cook them a meal? Refreshing someone can be as simple as a smile or an encouraging word. Don’t wait until you feel like doing it, that day may never come! Do it because the Scripture tells us to. Do it because it blesses the Lord.

Today, look for someone to be a blessing to. As you step out and refresh others, as you live a life of generosity, you will be refreshed and experience His blessing in your own life in return.

A PRAYER FOR TODAY

Heavenly Father, thank You for Your grace and mercy in my life. Thank You for blessing me so that I can be a blessing to others. Teach me to be generous. Show me how I can refresh others and bring glory to You. In Jesus’ Name. Amen.

By Kabela Sumba. BSc. Eng.

At the beginning of this year, carbon tax was introduced in our nation. I totally oppose this theft in broad daylight as it is highly exaggerated and just another ploy by governments to squeeze even more money out of the pockets of tax-paying individuals. In Zambia, government has been quick to implement this carbon tax; most of the people don’t know what carbon tax is, much less carbon or its compounds.

Some officials even say it has been introduced to deal with carbon emissions. Since when did man begin discharging carbon into the environment? Carbon? The first correction to be made is that it’s compounds of carbon (carbon dioxide, carbon monoxide) being discharged and not the element itself. It is quite a challenge to begin to imagine how Zambian authorities can use this tax to reduce the effects of climate change. Human beings really think they can buy themselves out of decades of deforestation and massive factory emissions. It is very laughable.

This government efficiently thought up a method of collecting this tax, but plans have not been laid out as to how they will use this new resource. Will they patch up the sky? With pieces of ozone? Or will they use it to install a big air conditioner over the nation? And what about charcoal burners? Will they be taxed too? Personally I think the large manufacturers and the mines are the biggest polluters. They are the ones that should bear the larger chunk of this environmental debt.

It should be observed that in this nation, other areas of tax collection have not produced the results they purport to render, take for example “Musonko” (Road Tax). Every year billions of Kwacha (millions of dollars) are collected from car owners in form of tax which is meant to build and repair roads. If you were to drive to the Kitwe office of the Road Transport and Safety Authority today, I assure you will find that the road leading up to their office is not even maintained. Picture a slice of cheese in your mind, remove the yellow, paint it black and you have the road I am talking about.

Surely, if a government department fails to use road tax to fix roads, how can one possibly expect any other department to ‘mend’ the environment? The plain fact is that one feels the roughness of the road every time they make their way to this Road Transport Authority. Yes, everyone, including government-employed road tax collectors. If the potholes on that road are so evident and still nothing has been done about it, how can one start to believe that the government will mitigate the effects of a very gradual climate change, one so gradual you don’t even feel it. If there has been damage to the environment due to man’s activities, it is a mistake to think that money can solve this problem. Some things are just too big for man to accomplish. You can never make a pump big or strong enough to drain an ocean, or create a water tap large enough to flood the world.

At this point it should also be stated that there have been some serious errors made by some scientists computing figures. It comes as no surprise that while rushing to make the case for carbon tax and other green revenues, these scientists have, made tremendous mistakes such as switching the positions of a 35 and a 0 when compiling a report on the rate of melt of Himalayan glaciers: 2035 comes within a quarter of a decade while 2350 is 3 whole centuries away. It would not be paranoia on my part to suggest that the 2035 timeframe excited members of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, because it made a very strong case for the green cause, a scenario bearing close resemblance to that of a prime minister using a 45 minute timeframe to force his case for war through a parliament. Environmentalists need to be careful with how they analyze such data. The information coming from such panels must be carefully scrutinized before it is disseminated to the public. Organizations and governments, while making their case, should be careful not to instill fear in the public; the consequences could be very grave.

Needless to say, I get this feeling that all governments will eventually endorse this tax. What a window of opportunity, it couldn’t have come at a better time for Zambian policy makers. In effect, the total money paid out in tax per car-owning family has risen. Wouldn’t one suggest tax has somehow gone up, regardless of what it is for? Carbon tax collection will prove to be a very innovative means of introducing some kind of tax into the economy, in the place of openly hiking taxes. Carbon tax is the going to be the greatest trick this devil of a government pulled in the 21st century.

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Extract from the author’s article: Carbon Tax – The Greatest Trick The Devil Pulled In The 21st Century, And A Few Other Tweaks Zambia Needs To Move Forward

The ruling Movement for Multiparty Democracy (MMD) says it is not aware of the Mazabuka commercial farmers who were forced to donate food stuffs and ferry people to Chief Mwanachingwala’s palace when President Banda visited the area recently.

Party spokesperson Dora Siliya says the party has better things to do than engage in activities that do not benefit the grassroots.

Ms. Siliya told ZANIS in an interview in Lusaka yesterday that President Banda had a wonderful visit to Chief Mwanachingwala’s palace.She said it was strange that some people would think that when huge crowds of people flock to welcome the head of state whenever he visits an area, then they are being forced to do so.

Ms Siliya was reacting to allegations by some commercial farmers in Mazabuka that they are always directed to contribute towards party activities when they have nothing to do with politics.

And Mazabuka Central UPND Member of Parliament Garry Nkombo has accused the ruling MMD of being irresponsible towards issues that affect their party.

Mr. Nkombo alleged that the MMD has continued to intimidate the white farmers and investors in Mazabuka forcing them to contribute towards MMD party activities.

Mr. Nkombo noted that Government has Ministry of Works and Supply which can repair vehicles adding that taking a government vehicle to a farmer for repair is unfair.

He has since appealed to the MMD and President Banda’s government to take responsibility of issues that affect the party and the government as a whole.

ZANIS

Parliament yesterday heard that Government has no intentions of legalizing street vending in the country.

Local Government and Housing Deputy Minister Moses Muteteka said government has no intentions of legalizing street vending because the trend is illegal and makes cities look dirty.

Mr. Muteteka said this in response to a question from Chilubi Patriotic Front (PF) Member of Parliament (MP) Obby Chisala who wanted to know whether government intends to legalize street vending following the global recession which has affected many families.

Mr. Muteteka said legalizing street vending would allow many marketeers to move from designated markets to the streets adding that this is what the government does not want to see happen.

Meanwhile, Mr. Muteteka has disclosed that 11,000 marketeers have applied for stands at the New Soweto Market.

He, however, said the number of applications does not correspond with the number of stands at the New Soweto Market adding that the demand for stands at the new market is very high.

Mr. Muteteka said he did not have the amounts as to how much each trader will be paying for a stand at the market.

Mr. Muteteka also advised the opposition Political Parties to stop politicizing the allocation of stands at the New Soweto Market.

He said government shall ensure that the allocation of stands at the market is done in a more fair and objective manner.

Mr. Muteteka said once the allocation of stands at the New Soweto Market is not properly done, his Ministry will always intervene to restore order.

ZANIS