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The Movement for Multiparty Democracy (MMD) in Lusaka Province has dismissed claims by opposition United Party for National Development (UPND) that the ruling party was trying to kill the PF-UPND pact.
Lusaka Province MMD chairman William Banda told ZANIS in Lusaka yesterday that it was not true that the MMD has been trying to bring down the opposition PF-UPND pact.
Mr. Banda was reacting to allegations by UPND vice president, Richard Kapata that the MMD is trying to kill the pact because they feared it.
He said the pact was just worried because people have lost confidence in it.
Mr. Banda said the ruling party has never at any time interfered in the running of the affairs of other political parties.
He appealed to the MMD members to remain calm and not to be easily swayed by statements from other political parties.
The Movement for Multiparty Democracy (MMD) National Secretary, Katele Kalumba has said the party’s National Executive Committee (NEC) has not changed its endorsement of Rupiah Banda as its Presidential candidate in the 2011 general elections.
Speaking in Mazabuka, yesterday, Dr Kalumba reiterated that whether the party goes to the convention or not, President Banda remains the party’s sole candidate for the Republican Presidency.
And Dr Kalumba further said that the party’s supreme body will meet this weekend to decide whether to dissolve the party organs to pave way for party elections in readiness for the party convention or not.
Dr Kalumba said the meeting, which will be chaired by President Banda, will set guidelines on how the elections would be conducted should NEC resolve to dissolve the lower organs.
He said the party will not tolerate any unauthorised dissolution of party organs in Mazabuka and Monze districts because it weakens the popularity of the ruling party.
Dr Kalumba said the dissolution of party organs in the two districts is a recipe for anarchy and could help the opposition to strengthen their support.
He also said his office is aware of the illegal activities of a clique of senior party officials who are bent on creating disturbances in the party through fake dissolutions.[quote]
Meanwhile, the MMD in Mazabuka has challenged Mr Jeff Kaande, the deputy national secretary, to state which candidate he is backing for Presidency in the 2011 elections.
District Youth Chairman, Gesho Gaanga told ZANIS in Mazabuka today that the district and constituency officials are disappointed with the deputy national secretary for deliberately telling lies about the dissolution of the district and constituency executives.
He said it was not true that the party organs in Mazabuka requested to be dissolved as stated by Mr Kaande.
And Mazabuka District Vice Chairman, Takawira Mahere, challenged Mr Kaande to speak the truth if he has the interest of the party at heart.
Mr Mahere said the illegal dissolution of the party by Mr Kaande is highly suspicious, especially that it has no blessings of the party’s national executive committee.
Efforts to get a comment from Mr Kaande proved futile.
PF Leader Michael SataChinese and other Asian mining firms in Zambia are creating “slave labour” conditions in Africa’s top copper producer, with scant regard for safety or local culture, the main opposition leader said on Wednesday.
In a typically blunt assessment of the foreign mining sector, Patriotic Front leader Michael Sata, who has a fair chance of unseating President Rupiah Banda in 2011 elections, said the special tax status and “economic zones” granted to outside investors were a political and racial powder-keg.
“We don’t hate the Chinese. We don’t hate the Malaysians, but when they come here, they should treat us like human beings,” Sata, a gruff 72-year-old nicknamed “King Cobra” for his venomous tongue, told Reuters in an interview.
“The Zambian government, by creating zones for the Chinese, the Malaysians, is sitting on a volcano,” he said.
“This is a landmine because those who have no land will react one day. Why should there be special conditions for the Chinese and Malaysians? Why should they have special treatment?”
Sata, whose long and varied career includes stints in car assembly plants in Britain and with British Rail, lost a closely contested election in 2008 to Banda’s Movement for Multi-party Democracy.
If his two-party opposition coalition hangs together, he has a good chance of ousting Banda next year, many Zambians believe.
It is unclear how his vehement and systematic anti-Chinese rhetoric would sit with the Asian mining firms that now dominate Zambia’s Copper Belt, although he said nationalisation of the mines was not an option.
Mines minister Maxwell Mwale dismissed Sata’s claims that Chinese mine bosses were replicating China’s poor mine safety and “slave labour” conditions in Africa, but he did admit to a difference in approaches.
“The Chinese are operating just as well as any other investor in this country,” he told Reuters. “They have their own home country cultures, and we as a host country have our host country culture.”
Sydney Chileya, spokesman for Luanshya Copper Mines (LCM), a unit of China Nonferrous Metals Mining Corporation (CNMC), said the firm was offering reasonable wages.
“As far as we are concerned, we are operating well within the Zambian labour laws,” Chileya told Reuters.
“Our least paid of the 2,300 employees get 1.2 million kwacha per month and that is way above the stipulated minimum wage of 260,000 kwacha for month.”
The spokesman for the Chinese-owned Chambishi Copper Smelter (CCS), Lewis Mulenga, said the company was not offering slave conditions.
“We are regularly inspected by officials from the government and the government is happy that we are not flouting the Zambian laws,” Mulenga said.
Many Copper Belt miners are grateful to Chinese investors for rescuing their mines that closed last year after a collapse in world copper prices, and talk of a gradual improvement in Chinese attitudes to health and safety.
“In 2004, the Chinese didn’t want to cooperate with the government. They ignored safety,” said Eric Chirwa, a 40-year-old mining occupational health officer in Luanshya.
“This time around, slowly, slowly, they are getting there, but we still need a lot of education about health and safety. They’ve been in mining in Zambia for the last five years and they’re slowly picking up,” he said. (Additional reporting by Chris Mfula; Editing by Giles Elgood)
MUVI television management would like to express its displeasure over the unruly conduct of Honorable Chishimba Kambwili MP at our studio premises on the night of Tuesday 19th January 2010.
On this material day, Mr. Kambwili drove into our premises and informed security personnel at the gate that he had come to pick up Patriotic Front Secretary General Wynter Kabimba after he featured on Tuesday’s edition of the Hot Issue programme.
Upon parking his vehicle the Roan MP in the company of some PF sympathizers forced their way into the stations reception foyer seeking audience with Antonio Mwanza and Stanford Kabwata, who were also guests on the same programme over views they had expressed regarding the topic of discussion.
MUVI T.V is possession of footage of Mr. Kambwili’s aggressive and unruly conduct against the two defenceless guests.
As management we are extremely disappointed with this behaviour and unreservedly apologize to our guests who were harassed whilst in our premises.
Furthermore we believe in providing a fair and conducive platform for all stakeholders to express their views on various national issues freely without intimidation.
As an institution we would like to assure the general public that we shall endeavor to ensure the safety of all our guests and clients whilst in on our premises.
May we also take this opportunity to strongly warn that MUVI T.V will not tolerate nor associate itself with individuals and organizations perpetuating violence in the nation.
The matter has since been reported to police for further investigations.
Women in Law and Development in Africa (WiLDAF) and Women and Law in Southern Africa (WLSA) have joined other Organisations and Individuals in condemning Lusaka Province MMD Youths for their utterances against FDD president Edith Nawakwi.
The two women groups registered their displeasure over the statement in a joint statement made available to ZANIS in Lusaka today and signed by WiLDAF Regional Chairperson Gladys Mutukwa and WLSA Regional Coordinator Matrine Chuulu.
The organizations observed that the utterances by MMD Lusaka Youth Chairman Chris Chalwe on Sunday to gang rape Ms. Nawakwi underscores the impunity with which women’s rights have been violated without due protection from government.
They said their organizations noted with deep regret that since Sunday no leader both in government and the MMD has condemned the insulting statement.
She said Mr. Chalwe’s intentions against Ms. Nawakwi are a grave insult to the dignity of Zambian women and should render him and his gang open to police probe.
“We wish to remind Mr. Chalwe and his gang that gang rape is not only inhuman but constitutes one of the worst forms of violence against women.” The statement said in part.
They noted that the impunity with which the statement was made should remind Zambians of the daily silent suffering of thousands if not millions of women at the hands of perpetrators of violence against women.
They have since called on the police to take appropriate action against Mr. Chalwe for threatening violence.
The women organizations further called on the MMD leadership, religious leaders, political party leaders and the Zambian society at large to take a definitive stand on violence against women in Zambia.
Rainford Kalaba has been certified fit to face Gabon on Thursday in Benguela.
Team physician Dr Joseph Kabungo confirmed in an interview from Angola that Kalaba will play against Gabon.
“Kalaba is game for the match,” Dr Kabungo said on the line from Benguela.
Meanwhile, the Zambia-Gabon match will kick off at 18:00 Zambian time.
Zambia need a win irrespective of the result in the other final Group D match between Cameroon and Tunisia that will be played simultaneously in Lubango
PF Roan Member of Parliament Chishimba Kambwili (L)The Foundation for Democratic Process (FODEP) has condemned in the strongest terms possible the attacks on media personnel in the country.
FODEP information officer MacDonald Chipenzi described the acts of violence against the media as unfair especially that journalists were working under stressful conditions in their endeavour to effectively inform the nation on the social, cultural, political and economic developments in the country.
Mr. Chipenzi was commenting on the incident where suspected opposition Patriotic Front (PF) cadres who were allegedly accompanied by Roan MP Chishimba Kambwili, violently stormed Muvi Television studios in the early hours of today to disturb a live in programme.
The cadres stormed the Muvi TV studios and harassed two ex-UNZA students who were featuring on a live current affairs programme.
Mr. Chipenzi urged the members of the public to always seek dialogue whenever they felt aggrieved, adding that there was no need for some people to impose their views on others.
He said it was health for people in the country to have different opinions and were therefore entitled to different views and opinions.
He said if the PF cadres were aggrieved with sentiments from the two ex-UNZA students on the Speaker of the National Assembly, they would have sought a platform to counter whatever the two former students had said about their party.
Mr. Chipenzi said violence against the media was denting the image of the country and of political parties to the outside world.
He has since called on law enforcing agencies to ensure the law takes its course against those found wanting in this case.
He further advised political party cadres especially the youth to channel their energies toward fighting for the economic development of the country instead of getting involved in physical confrontations.
This latest violence against media practitioners comes barely three weeks after a similar incident occurred in Mazabuka where suspected PF-UPND pact cadres stormed and disrupted a live programme on Mazabuka Community Radio.
Rainford Kalaba is still a doubt to start tomorrow against Gabon in Benguela.
According to reports from Benguela today, the midfielder trained with the rest of his team mates but was not certified ready for the game against Gabon tomorrow.
“He is improving but will have a late fitness test later today,” Zambia team physician Dr Joseph Kabungo said.
Zambia face Gabon tomorrow in a game that they must win, needless of the result in the Tunisia-Cameroon game in Lubango, to book their quarterfinal place on January 25.
Meanwhile, Jacob Mulenga one of over a dozen players chasing the CAF golden ball.
Mulenga of FC Utrecht in the Netherlands was by press time joint second on two goals with three other players.
Angolan midfielder Flavio and Mali’s Seydou Keita are joint first on three goals but the latter is out of contention following his teams elimination from the tournament.
Meanwhile, Mulenga shares second place with Mohamed Nagy of Egypt, including Russel Mwafulirwa of Malawi and Malian striker Frederic Kanoute.
Movement for Multy-party Democracy (MMD) National Secretary Katele Kalumba says that speculations by some people that he had intentions of standing for party presidency was completely rubbish.
Speaking in an interview with ZANIS in Monze today, Dr Kalumba said that such speculations were totally rubbish and that he never even wanted to comment on them.
And Dr Kalumba, says the ruling party in Southern Province is still intact. Speaking in the same interview, Dr Kalumba said he had been in Mazabuka and Monze where it was reported that the lower organs of the party had been dissolved and found that there were no confusions.
The National Secretary said the party was waiting for its National Executive Committee (NEC) to make a decision on when to dissolve its lower organs in order to pave way for further electoral activities of the party.
He said that the lower organs would be dissolved to pave way to electoral activities and not because of confusions which did not exist in the party.
Two people have died on the spot while several others, including children, sustained serious injuries when a light Canter truck they were in careered off the road after a tyre burst and overturned at Mbulu stream in Mbala.
The dead, a woman and a man, were confirmed dead in Mbala General Hospital upon arrival where several others have also been admitted.
Both police and hospital authorities in the district have confirmed the accident adding that Clemus Sikombe, the PF constituency chairman for Senga Hill constituency, was also one of the survivors of the fatal accident.
A team of journalist that rushed to the scene of the accident found the mangled truck, registration number ABR 5992 lying on the roadside.
The driver of the truck, who has been identified as Peter Simukoko, is on the run and police have since launched a manhunt for him.
And speaking from his hospital bed, Lazarus Simusenga, 25, said the vehicle which was coming from Nsokolo area to Mbala, was carrying over 20 passengers.
Mr Simusenga said apart from carrying people, the truck was also loaded with bags of maize and other goods.
He said some of the victims of the accident included four pupils from Mbala High School, who were getting back to school for the first term.
And a visit at Mbala General Hospital found several victims lying in pain in the male and female surgical wards, as well as the X-ray section.
A nine-year-old boy of Airport area in Mongu district has died after
the house he was sleeping in cought fire.
Western Division Police Commanding Officer, Vael Muzwenga, confirmed the
incident to ZANIS in Mongu that the fire started around
23:00hrs last night.
Mr Muzwenga said the father of the deceased boy, Kafuti Likonge, aged
25, together with his 19-year-old brother, Bweti Likonge, sustained
multiple burns on their bodies.
He said the fire might have been caused by a candle which
was left burning overnight.
The Commanding Officer said the duo is currently admitted to Lewanika
General Hospital while the remains of the deceased will be burried
today.
Government says it is doing everything possible to better the living standards of people in Western Province.
Provincial Minister Richard Mwapela said government is addressing the situation in the province by taking developmental projects to the area which also includes improving on infrastructure.
Mr. Mwapela told ZANIS in an interview that the developmental activities that are taking place in the province will help create a lot of job opportunities for the people.
He observed that 80 percent of the people working on schools in Lukulu district are locals which shows government’s commitment to job creation in the province.
Mr. Mwapela also noted that the construction of the Mongu-Kalabo road will also create jobs for a lot of people in the surrounding areas.
He is hopeful that the different interventions by government will help fight poverty levels in the area and change the face of Western Province.
Recently ethnographic field work by Dr Michael Barret of the Curator for Africa at the Museum of Ethnography in Sweden and also researcher affiliated to IESR at the University of Zambia indicated that Western Province suffers more from high poverty levels, low economic production and poor infrastructure.
I wish to comment on statements made in recent months by Ronnie Shikapwasha, George Kunda and Rupiah Banda in support of the Declaration of Zambia as a Christian Nation by Dr. Frederick Chiluba at State House on 29th December 1991, which was later incorporated into the Preamble of the 1996 Republican constitution.
It is important for national leaders to guard against the imposition of any particular religion on the entire society. The Republican constitution particularly should be a neutral document that does not discriminate against atheists or pagans, or those who believe in Islam, Judaism, Buddhism, Hinduism, or Jainism.
In the long run, the Declaration is likely to make non-Christian citizens to feel that they are second-class citizens. And, as Venkatesh Seshamani has argued, a feeling of religious superiority is likely to develop among Christians by virtue of their religion having been accorded constitutional status, which may lead to bigotry that would prompt them to view non-Christians as lost souls.
Clearly, the Declaration was made without consideration of the dangers of dragging religion into politics. Religion is deadly if it is not handled with utmost caution. The precarious problem currently facing Algeria, Nigeria, the Sudan, Afghanistan, and a host of other countries around the world which are beleaguered by religious conflicts should serve as a clear warning to each and every peace-loving Zambian to refrain from creating a similar situation that will dog our beloved country in perpetuity.
We should not be blinded by our having experienced no serious religious conflicts so far, but as our country’s population and the membership of each religious denomination swells, we would be shortsighted not to anticipate and make an effort to forestall the incidence such conflicts. We need to act proactively. To wait until the consequences of our failure to reason are upon us is to leave serious problems for future generations to grapple with. And such failure will eventually prove to us that experience, in relation to this issue, teaches fools, since we have thus far not been able to see beyond our noses.
What Zambia needs is a secular state that genuinely recognizes and safeguards each and every individual’s freedom of worship and the freedom to choose one’s religion. At the same time, we should actively DISCOURAGE the following in a deliberate effort to forestall the potential for disruption of public order and socio-economic activities by cliques of fanatics from any of our country’s religious denominations:
(a) The use of public funds by a local or national government to set up a church or mosque, and/or to provide any form of support to any given religious group, institution or activity;
(b) Official participation by government leaders in the affairs of any given religious group or institution, or official participation by any given religious leader or group in political or governmental affairs;
(c) The use of a religious platform by any individual or group of individuals to form a political party;
(d) The use of a religious platform by any individual to seek a leadership position in any of the three branches of government—that is, the legislature, the judiciary and the executive;
(e) Inclusion of denominational religious subjects in the curricula of schools funded by the government; and
(f) Religious sermons which are contemptuous to, or are designed to slight, other religious groupings or denominations.
In countries where government leaders have not provided for these kinds of safeguards mainly due to lack of foresight, violent clashes among religious groups in their quest to dominate the political sphere, and to impose their religious laws on the citizenry, have become exceedingly difficult to contain. As it is often said, prevention is better than cure! Malaysia’s Mahathir Mohammad summed up the perilous nature of religious conflicts in his address to the World Evangelical Fellowship in May 2001 thus: “Once started, religious … [conflicts have] a tendency to go on and on, [and] to become permanent feuds.”
In a country that is already inundated by violence and threats of violence mainly by cadres from the MMD on a regular basis, to add the potential for religious conflicts would be akin to spraying gasoline over burning charcoal.
In all, I am confident that religious institutions in Zambia will continue to provide the moral and spiritual direction to our nation in an era that has been high-jacked by unprecedented violence and moral decay, and to articulate the people’s demands on the government for a more democratic, more peaceful, more prosperous, and more egalitarian society.
Residents of Kapoto shanty compound where cholera has broken out in Kitwe have shocked the district administration after they refused to be drinking treated water allegedly for fear of becoming impotent.
ZANIS Kitwe reports that Kitwe District Commissioner Macdonald Mtine confirmed that the community in Kapoto compound was not taking free treated water which the Nkana Water and Sewerage Company was providing.
This is despite the outbreak of cholera in the area.
Mr. Mtine, who is also Kitwe District Epidemic Preparedness Committee chairman, said seven people from Kapoto have already been treated for cholera but surprisingly, the rest of the people in the area have continued to drink water from shallow wells located near pit latrines.
He said the people of the damp Kapoto compound should start using treated water from the Nkana Water Kiosks to enable health authorities to contain the cholera situation.
Mr. Mtine expressed worry at the traditional myth circulating in Kapota compound that treated water had certain particles that would make them impotent once they took it.
He said the continuous use of water from shallow wells located near pit latrines was dangerous and exposing the community to more water borne diseases.
He has since appealed to the community not to compromise their health and instead drink treated water.
ZAMBIA’s gross international reserves increased to US$1.9 billion in December last year from $1.8 billion in November.
The rise in the reserves followed the receipt of budget support from the European Union of $43.0 million, Poverty Reduction and Growth Facility (PRGF) loan receipt from the International Monetary Fund (IMF) of $80.0 million and Bank of Zambia (BoZ) purchases of foreign exchange from the market of about $15.0 million.
BoZ Governor, Caleb Fundanga said in Lusaka yesterday that the Net Foreign Assets (NFA) increased by 8.6 per cent during the fourth quarter of last year, contributing 5.2 per cent points to broad money (M3) expansion, mainly due to the rise in gross international reserves.
The NFA increased by 60.0 per cent compared with the 80.8 per cent recorded in September 2009, largely on account of the 6.6 per cent increase in the actual gross international reserves in the quarter under review.
Dr Fundanga said during a quarterly media briefing that during the fourth quarter, the Kwacha lost some of its previous quarter’s gains and posted marginal depreciations against the major currencies.
Accordingly, the Kwacha recorded 0.6 per cent depreciation against the US dollar mainly on the back of a stronger import demand for oil and agricultural inputs.
Similarly, the Kwacha made losses against the Euro, pound sterling and the South African rand.
Preliminary data shows that Zambia recorded an overall balance of payments (BoP) deficit of $113.1 million during the fourth quarter of 2009 compared with a surplus of $661.1 million recorded the previous quarter.
This was on account of unfavourable performance in both the current, capital and financial accounts.
Dr Fundanga said the overall financial condition of the banking sector during the fourth quarter was satisfactory.
The banking sector was adequately capitalised and the liquidity position remained satisfactory, while there were modest improvements in asset quality and earnings performance compared to the previous quarter.
On the inflation outlook, he said inflationary pressures in the first quarter of 2010 were expected to originate mainly from the recent 15 per cent adjustment in the prices of petroleum products in line with the rise in oil prices on the global markets.
Inflationary pressures were also expected to originate from price increases on services and manufactured goods in response to upward adjustments on water tariffs implemented in December 2009.
Other pressures would come from seasonal price increases on maize grain, various fresh vegetables and fish largely due to low supply of the commodities.
However, Dr Fundanga said Inflationary pressures would be moderated by the relative stability in the exchange rate of the Kwacha against major foreign currencies.
And Dr Fundanga reminded the public that bouncing cheques on an insufficiently funded account was a criminal offence under the National Payment System Act.
He said new directives regarding the bouncing of cheques offence would be issued in the first quarter of this year.
Meanwhile, the mining tax revenues paid in US dollars through BoZ stood at $77.7 million last year from $128.4 million in 2008.
The sales of foreign exchange to the market stood at $739.2 million in 2009 from $1,232.0 million the previous year.
