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Bar could be operating as a brothel-Chiwama residents

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A named Bar in Lusaka’s Chawama compounded is allegedly operating as a brothel. This is according to some concerned residents who spoke on condition of anonymity. They told ZANIS in Lusaka today that Katete Bar situated near KUKU market, has been turned into a brothel by the owner who has allegedly engaged some foreign women as sex workers.

They alleged that the Bar owner has entered into an agreement with some Zimbabwean women working as sex workers at the bar.
They said the Zimbabwean women are charging between K10, 000 and K50, 000 for each sexual encounter and are mainly targeting those who patronize the bar and some residents in the area.

The residents have since called on the Lusaka City Council and the area councilor to quickly move in and stop the act before it gets out of hand. They said they are worried because the continued operation of the business poses a danger of high risk of disease transition in the area.

“The council and other relevant bodies should come in and close this business because we are at risk of contracting diseases, it is also inconveniencing because the women will even approach you when you go for drinking,” one of the residents said.

And when contacted, Lusaka City Council (LCC) Public Relation Manager, Chanda Makanta said the council is not aware of the situation but admitted that there have been complaints from residents around the city on the mushrooming of brothels.

Mrs. Makanta has meanwhile described the incident as most unfortunate especially that foreigners are involved.

She said the business is an act of public nuisance and a crime according to the Zambian law adding that the council will involve the police and others to investigate the matter thoroughly.

She said the council had previously done investigations after similar reports and some business premises had been closed and some have taken to court.

Mrs. Makanta has also called on the immigrations department to also investigate the matter especially that it borders on foreigners who could have been cleared by the department.

She has further called on the public to continue tipping the council with vital information in order for authority to effectively act.

ZANIS

LCC warns against trading at Cemeteries

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Hawkers selling foodstauffs at Chigwere cemetry

Lusaka City Council (LCC) has warned of stern action against people trading around cemeteries.

LCC Public relations Manager Chanda Makanta says doing business at the burial place is illegal and that perpetrators of the act will be prosecuted once apprehended.

Mrs. Makanta told ZANIS in an interview in Lusaka today that the council will not treat lightly people who are deliberately violating council laws.

She said the council police are aware of the illegal traders and will soon pounce on them any time soon.

Mrs. Makanta disclosed that recently the council police confiscated merchandise from traders around the cemeteries in Lusaka warning that this time around, the council will ensure that perpetrators face the law.

She has since appealed to members of the public not to buy from such traders saying it is morally wrong to buy or sell food at the burial place because this is disrespectful to the dead.

Mrs. Makanta wondered how people eat and drink when others are mourning their beloved ones and advised that those who want to trade should acquire trading licenses and space in markets.

She noted that the trend of trading around the burial places is against the Zambian tradition and should be condemned by all well meaning Zambians.

She said that the council is committed to making the city clean but cannot manage to curb street vending and illegal trading alone but with the help of all Zambians.

ZANIS

Kalala’ s assertions wild and unfounded – Shikapwasha

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Chief Government Spokesperson Lieutenant General Ronnie Shikapwasha

Chief Government Spokesperson Lieutenant Ronnie Shikapwahsa has described as wild and unfounded, assertions by former State House Special Assistant for Policy Implementation and Monitoring Jack Kalala that chiefs from Eastern province directed President Rupiah Banda to purge the late President Mwanawasa’s tribesmen from Government.

Lt. Gen. Shikapwasha told ZANIS in an interview in Lusaka today that statements by Mr. Kalala were not true because the late President Levy Mwanawasa had a wonderful relationship with the chiefs in Eastern Province.

Lt. Gen. Shikapwasha, who is also Information and Broadcasting Services Minister, says allegations by Mr. Kalala were strange because President Banda, Vice President George Kunda and the entire cabinet worked well with the late president.

The Minister observed that Zambia as united and peaceful country did not deserve to have leaders such as Mr. Kalala, who makes statements to deceive the nation.

Lt. Gen Shikapwasha stressed that Mr. Kalala failed to contribute to the development of the country when he had an opportunity to do so adding that this is why he had resorted to making such statements.

Meanwhile Lt. Gen. Shikapwasha has urged Change Life Zambia Executive Director, Father Frank Bwalya to honor the people in authority as they are chosen by God.

Lt. Gen. Shikapwasha said it was important for Fr. Bwalya, as a clergyman, to recognize that the government which is in place has been chosen by God.

He said contrary to Fr. Bwalya’s observations, the MMD Government under the leadership of President Banda has gone ahead to provide quality leadership in the country.

Lt. Gen Shikapwasha noted that a lot of developmental progarmmes have been initiated and were progressing well while the performance of the economy has improved.

The Minister wondered why Fr. Bwalya has continued making statements against President Banda out of hatred.
He advised the Catholic Priest to show love to all the people regardless of their political affiliations.

ZANIS

LT Update

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Last week we reported to you that our server was experiencing high latency and that our technicians were working hard to correct the problem which they had managed to identify. We are happy to report that the problem was fully resolved on Saturday afternoon and the performance of the site has significantly improved. We just want to take this opportunity address a few issues.

What Happened

Lusakatimes.com gets its income purely from advertising and that is what makes it possible for us to provide content in a quality fashion for free. The people who place adverts on our site demand some statistical information concerning the performance of their adverts and we have had the software that collects these statistics and sends them out on a weekly basis to our advertisers. It is this software that almost brought our site to its knees. In fact this software has been a problem for a while now. Not only did it slow down the site, but it also used to frequently crash the backend engine, resulting in a display of a white blank page with the message “502 Bad Gateway”. The only way we could resolve this was to restart the server backend. We tolerated this software for this long because of budget constraints and no viable alternatives on the open source market.

We are glad to report that we managed to acquire a new separate server that manages all the administrative side of adverts. The new arrangement has been working well since Saturday and we believe the occurrence of the dreaded “502 Bad Gateway” has been significantly reduced.The error used to occur several times in a day.

We thank all the experts for their suggestions on Javascript( The software files that adds a lot of nice features to the site). We took note of your advise and enabled the technique that allows us to compress content, by a factor of 80%, then transferring it onto the wire before exploding it or uncompressing it into your web browser. So, despite the large content that we pack into a single page, we are able to deliver this to your browser at a faster speed now. This process is technically called GZIP Compression.

Unfortunately, if you are still using Internet Explorer 6.x (IE6), our website will still be slow to you. IE6 does not support GZIP compression. We believe your browsing is slow everywhere you go, anyway because GZIP compression is enabled on most serious websites you can think of out there. Please upgrade your browser. Browsers are free and there is no need to hold on to an antiquity that has survived from the distant past-IE6.

New Features

The developers of the toolbar have added the CDN feature (Content Delivery Network) that makes the toolbar load faster. As a results we have enabled a couple of new features on the toolbar like chat and how many people are online. For the Chat, you can use your twitter or facebook account to logint and just login anonmously, lusakatimes style.

Expect in our next LT Update more information on how to use most of the features on the toolbar. We really want to enhance your blogging (or is it Mirco Blogging as the experts now tell us?). Undoubtedly, most of the content on LT can be obtained from elsewhere, but we want your experience when you come to blog or micro blog on LT to be a unique, live and memorable one. Media houses put out content to drive their various agendas, and probably us included, but the opinion that you bring to the site is special and belongs to you as your brain child. In fact it cannot be bought, especially if you have even the option of delivering it anonymously. You can tell it as it is. At LT we highly value that and we shall continue to work hard to integrate the best technologies out there to make sure that you have a cutting edge platform at your finger tips to add your voice to the issues affecting our wonderful country.

Mobile Phones

This is undoubtedly a fast growing market and from as early as two years ago we have been trying to cater for this segment. Unfortunately we are still struggling. The technology out there is still pitiful when it comes to delivering content to an average cellphone. At the moment you can barely just read the stories, but posting comments is really problematic. We are still search for the solution.

Having said the above, we can happily announce that the iphone/ipod-touch works very well on the site. You will get a customised view of the LT and the comments posting works like a charm. Please give it a shot and give us feedback. The comments are not numbered though and there are no flags. We are working on that.

Comments Policy

As the cliché goes: last, but not the least-Comments.This vexing issue affects us all. We have this word we never saw in primary school-ad hominem, in our comments policy. It can have a myriad of meanings to a lot of people, but this is what it means to us:-attacking an opponent’s character rather than answering his argument. Can we please do this on the site. Can we also apply this to our leaders? We believe people comment because they want to be heard and influence decisions and surely if you want somebody to hear you and later on take your advise, you better be nice to them. If you want honey, don’t disturb the bees. Lets make this forum a place where we educate each other and deliver our opinions to our leaders in a civilised manner. Yes some of us are very dedicated and passionate indeed about what we believe in, but let us respect other people’s views and just attack each other’s argument.

Passionate Blogger or Micro Blogger?

Have a wonderful day

LT team

ZIEM welcomes carbon emission tax

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The Zambia Institute of Environmental Management (ZIEM) has welcomed the recently introduced Carbon Emission Tax.

ZIEM Chief Executive Officer (CEO) Morgan Katati says the institute is of the view that the revenue from carbon emission tax should adequately fund the environmental sector.

He told ZANIS in a statement today that Zambia has for a long time now been using the standards setting approach through licensing and emission standards according to statutory instrument No. 141 of 1996 Act No. 12 of EPPCA 1990.

He explained that the taxation approach is another abatement model used to collect money from polluters and information has it that carbon emission tax may be the low cost solution of achieving a given standard of pollution control.

He said ZIEM has, however, raised serious concerns that need to be addressed before the commencement of the tax.

Mr. Katati observed that major stakeholders were not consulted in coming up with the tax approach as a means of anti pollution measure.

He advised government to consider consulting exhaustively on the importance of the tax issue as most people are in the dark regarding the issues pertaining to carbon emission tax.

He further explained that there is also lack of knowledge on the damage function of each pollutant which needs to be addressed as there must be some knowledge on marginal external cost of each form of pollution adding that this alone is difficult to estimate in practice.

‘’Therefore this concern requires that as a country we invest certain level of technology and high levels of expertise to spell out challenges to do with pollution figures if we avoid figures being “massaged” for the purpose of collecting the tax” he said.

Mr. Katati said the tax approach is costly to implement at times and is usually open to legal wrangling if it is based on the measure of economic value of damage which he said is usually disputed by the polluter.

He noted that in order to address the concerns, the standards of emissions should be clarified in order to come up with a perfect threshold which would attract a tax.

He said government should establish the impact of carbon tax on the current revenue structure as this leads to proper selection of tax collection structures.

Mr. Katati added that since government wants tax emission to become law, it is wise to follow the path of ecological development paradigm as many countries that have effected the law do.

ZANIS

The Party and Its Government Phenomenon

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RB singing with ZANAMA women as Copperbelt Minister Mwansa Mbulakulima looks on

By Henry Kyambalesa

Since independence, government lea­ders have tended to be pre­occu­pied with serving the interests of their political parties at the expense of pressing national issues. In part, such a situation has been fostered by a political system that allows individuals to hold govern­ment and party positions concurrently. This has inevitably distorted the boundary between national duties and party activities, and has culminated into what is commonly referred to as “the Party and Its Govern­ment” or “the PIG” phenome­non.

Since the Vice President George Kunda recently flagged off the MMD campaign for the 2011 general elections, we are likely to see some of the government ministers and their deputies on the campaign trail from now until the day of the elections.

Clearly, we would do well to emulate the United States of America, where members of the President’s cabinet or their deputies would never be seen to be directly involved in campaigning for the President or for anyone vying for a seat in the U.S. Senate or House of Representatives. There is, therefore, a need to delink the operations of the current and future ruling poli­tical parties from the operations of the national Govern­ment.

In this endeavor, we should strive for a constitu­tional proviso that bars national leaders from actively perform­ing political party functions. Alternatively, the Registrar of Societies should require all political parties in the country to include a clause in their constitutions which provides for duties of party members who get elected or appointed to serve in either the judiciary or the executive branch of the national government to be assumed by incumbents of other offices within the party’s administrative and management structures.

We need to do so in order to put an end to the situation where the Republican president, the Republican vice president and government ministers seem to be spending their on-the-job time performing MMD functions than they do on serving the larger Zambian society. It is high time for each and every government leader in our beloved country to put the national interest before all other consider­ations!

Needless to say, “the PIG” phenomenon is partly to blame for MMD cadres’ violence or threats of violence against citizens who dare to criticize government leaders in the belief that the leaders are accountable to the citizenry and are, therefore, subject to criticism for perceived malfeasance and/or mediocrity in discharging their duties.

In short hand, the cadres conceive of government leaders firstly as being MMD leaders and secondly as being national leaders. They are probably right, considering the partisan demeanor of President Rupiah Banda, Vice President Kunda, Minister of Works and Supply Mike Mulongoti, Minister of Home Affairs Lameck Mangani, Minister of Information and Broadcasting Services Ronnie Shikapwasha, Deputy Minister of Lands Michael Mabenga, and a few other government leaders.

PF MP, 6 others plead not guilty

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OPPOSITION Patriotic Front Nkana MP Mwenya Musenge in a suit with some papers emerging from the courtroom at Kitwe Magistrate Courts yesterday after being granted bail.

OPPOSITION Patriotic Front (PF) Nkana Member of Parliament Mwenya Musenge yesterday pleaded not guilty in the Kitwe magistrates’ court to the charge of riotous behaviour. Musenge, who was denied police bond at the weekend was, however, granted bail by the court in the sum of K15 million in his own recognisance.

Musenge, 46, of house number 18, Twalishuka Close in Parklands, Kiwe, is jointly charged with six other men who also denied the same charge. These are David Katongo, 38, of house number B6/130, Wusakili Township, Patrick Chongo, 22, of house number 8, Mangwana and Evans Witika, 38, of plot number 1531, Bulangililo Township.

Others are Chrispine Musuka, 36, of house number 1566, New Ndeke, Jonathan Manda, 23, of house number 456, Twatasha Township and Steward Mushota of house number 162, Buchi.Particulars of the offence are that on January 7, 2010, Musenge and his six co-accused unlawfully assembled and damaged the property of the Zambia National Marketeers Association (ZANAMA) neighbourhood watch.

Senior resident magistrate, Tamara Gondwe granted the seven bail after their lawyers applied for it. She granted them bail of K15 million in their own recognisance with three working sureties each in managerial positions to sign in their own recognisance.
When the three lawyers representing all seven accused persons applied for bail, they said the offence that their clients were facing was bailable and that they had cooperated with the police from the time they were summoned.

The lawyers said their clients would not jump bail, hence the need for the court to grant them bail. The State did not object to the application for bail but said the court must give conditions that were suitable to all parties. The State said the court should also warn the accused persons not to interfere with State witnesses if granted bail by the court. The matter was adjourned to January 26 for mention and trial would commence on February 11 and 12, 2010.

Meanwhile, confusion took centre stage outside the court premises as scores of overzealous PF cadres converged and started chanting slogans while displaying their party symbol. The cadres, who were clad in PF T-shirts and Chitenge material, started daring the police over the detention of Mr Musenge. After Mr Musenge was granted bail, the cadres demanded to have the MP handed over to them even before paper work for bail conditions could be finalised.

In the same court, three ZANAMA officials who were alleged to have murdered a marketeer appeared before Ms Gondwe.
The three are charged with murdering Charles Chola, a marketeer at Chisokone Market. The three are Dennis Phiri, 37, of house number 1727, Mulenga Township, George Daka, 27, and Peter Mbale of house number 345, Ndeke Township.

Particulars of the offence are that between December 27,2010 and January 3, 2010 the trio allegedly murdered Chola. The matter was adjourned to January 26, 2010 for mention as the State awaits for instructions from the Director of Public Prosecutions. Last week, marketeers rioted destroying a ZANAMA office after Chola, who was alleged to have been beaten by the three accused persons, died.

[Times of Zambia]

Zesco starts transformer installation in Lusaka

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ZESCO yesterday started installation works of the US$3.2 million Leopards Hill sub-station transformer that was gutted last year, company director of customer services Joe Chiyassa said.

Mr Chiyassa said in a statement in Lusaka that commissioning of the transformer would result in the reduction of load-shedding currently experienced by customers in Lusaka by 50 per cent.

“Zesco has commenced installation works. The installation works, testing and commissioning period is four weeks effective Monday January 11, 2010,” Mr Chiyassa said.

He said the transformer, that was procured to replace the one which was gutted, arrived on the site on January 8.

The transformer arrived in the country through the Chirundu One-Stop border on December 21 last year. However, its transportation to Leopards Hill suffered a setback when the truck transporting it broke down in Chirundu.

[Times of Zambia]

China injects $39m into TAZARA operations

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Communication and Transport Minister Geoffrey Lungwangwa

THE Chinese government has given the financially crippled Tanzania-Zambia Railways Authority (TAZARA) US$39 million interest-free loan to revive its operations, Communication and Transport Minister Geoffrey Lungwangwa has said. Professor Lungwangwa said part of the funds, apart from reviving operations, would be for the procurement of six new locomotive engines, four wagons and the repairing of 120 wagons.

In an interview in Lusaka yesterday, Prof Lungwangwa explained that the decision to fund TAZARA was arrived at during a meeting which was held in China last month at which Zambia and Tanzania signed the 14th protocol with the Chinese government to provide US$39 million interest-free loan.

Prof Lungwangwa said the funds would also be used to repair the railway line and the purchase of new equipment for the workshop aimed at bringing about efficiency in the company’s operations. “I can confirm that the Chinese government has provided us with US$39 million loan and we will not pay any interest. This is good news for us and we will work towards improving the operations of the company,” he said.

The minister said since the country’s economy was growing, it would require a reliable railway line to match with the increased production of copper and agricultural activities in various parts of Zambia. He paid tribute to the Chinese Government for the support to Zambia’s various development programmes and TAZARA in particular and that the loan would help the company operate effectively.
He said a team of experts from China would soon be dispatched to work with the TAZARA management to evaluate its viability and to carry out a comprehensive study on how it could link other countries through the railway network.

Prof Lungwangwa reiterated his Government’s commitment to contributing to the development of the country through infrastructure development, among others. Last month Zambia, Tanzania and the Chinese governments met in China to discuss the possible funding of TAZARA.

Chinese Ambassador to Zambia Li Qiangmin said he was confident the negotiating teams would reach a conclusion and reiterated his government’s commitment to supporting Zambian programmes aimed at contributing to the economy. Mr Li said the financing of TAZARA was a clear testimony of the good bilateral relations that his country and Zambia have enjoyed over the years, which have continued to grow.

President Rupiah Banda and his Tanzanian counterpart Jakaya Kikwete had earlier appealed to creditors to cancel TAZARA debts to rescue the railway firm from collapse. The two leaders further called on the board of directors to expedite the process of concessioning management and operations of the railway company to a competent railway enterprise from China.

The railway line, built in the early 1970s through the assistance of the People’s Republic of China, is seen as the icon of friendship between the three partner States, China, Tanzania and Zambia. The railway also facilitated the opening of trade links between Tanzania and other landlocked neighbouring countries.

[Times of Zambia]

PAZA should be ashamed-Mulongoti

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Works and Supply Minister, Mike Mulongoti
Works and Supply Minister, Mike Mulongoti

MORE people have condemned the Press Association of Zambia (PAZA) for receiving money from the Press Freedom Committee of The Post Newspapers, saying the association had compromised itself at the expense of providing impartial leadership to institutions it represents.

MMD spokesperson Mike Mulongoti said that the PAZA leadership should be ashamed to be receiving money from one media institution. Mr Mulongoti said there was no justification for them to receive money from the Press Freedom Committee of the Post, an organisation linked to The Post Newspapers because even if they claimed to be a non-governmental organisation, there was no way they could receive money from anywhere.

He said the MMD would wait for a comprehensive statement from PAZA because there was no way leaders could be receiving money from selected media institutions.

He also challenged the PAZA leadership to call for the annual general meeting because it was illegal and against their constitution for them to be in office for about four years without elections. Forum for Leadership Search (FLS) has advised PAZA not to be compromised by The Post at the expense of providing impartial leadership to the institutions it represents.[quote]

FLS executive director Edwin Lifwekelo said in a statement yesterday that allegations by the Committee of Citizens that some media institutions were on The Post Newspaper pay-roll had a chilling effect on the integrity of media institutions and investigations should be instituted.

“The forum prays that the allegations that PAZA leadership were on The Post Newspaper payroll are not true because they have a serious bearing on the integrity of the PAZA leadership and other media institutions,” he said. Mr Lifwekelo urged the PAZA leadership to renew its mandate if it was true they did not have legitimacy from their membership as alleged by Committee of Citizens executive director Gregory Chifire.

He said it was only fair that the PAZA membership gave the leadership an opportunity to renew its mandate.
He said the FLS appreciated the dialogue between the Government and media institutions and hoped that all stakeholders treated the issue with urgency.

He said an enforceable definition of what constitutes legitimate news publication be applied as it would place values that would stress the importance of public service, impartial reporting and balance of opinion.

The forum also condemned the unproductive attacks on Vice-President George Kunda because they did not add value to the spirit of dialogue in Zambia since he was being unfairly targeted for political expediency.

PAZA vice-president Amos Chanda said those alleging that the PAZA leadership was receiving money should provide evidence for the police to move in. Mr Chanda said PAZA had only signed a memorandum of understanding with the Press Freedom Committee of The Post Newspapers based on mutual co-operation on media and freedom of expression.

[Times of Zambia]

M-Mobile to produce double SIM phones

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President Rupiah Banda talks to workers at the Mobile Telecommunications mobile telephone assembly plant in Lusaka

M-MOBILE Telecommunication Company, Zambia’s first mobile phone manufacturing plant, will start producing phones with capacity to accommodate double SIM cards starting next month, chairperson Mohammed Seedat has said.

The company, which was launched last year, produced 20,000 handsets and exported about 10,000 of the phones to Zimbabwe while the rest were supplied on the local market. Mr Seedat said the components used to manufacture double SIM phones were still on their way to Zambia, adding that the firm would come up with new phones by next month.

He said the new phones would be supplied to the domestic market as well as export markets like South Africa and Mozambique. “The materials to produce phones with double SIM cards delayed to arrive in the country especially during the festive season.

“The components should be arriving any time from now and we should start producing them next month,” he said in an interview in Lusaka. President Rupiah Banda launched the country’s first mobile phone manufacturing plant with assurance that the Government was working towards reducing the international gateway licensing fees to the regional average to reduce the cost of doing business in the communication sector.

President Banda was happy to note that the US$10 million project, wholly-owned by Zambians, would employ more than 200 local people in different jobs. The demand for mobile phones in Zambia in the last few years has grown, as demand for mobile phone services, particularly among low-income customers, has gone up.

[Times of Zambia]

President Banda is still a member of UNIP-Sata

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Patriotic Front President Michael Sata has said that as far as he is concerned. President Rupiah Banda is still a member of United National Indepencdece Party (UNIP). Mr Michael Sata said that the First Republican President Kenneth Kaunda’s support for President Rupiah Banda shows that he is still regarded as a UNIP member.

Mr Sata also noted that Dr. Kaunda has seen that the UNIP current president, his Son Tilenji Kaunda, is too weak to handle politics and that is why he is clinging on to Mr. Rupiah Banda.

Mr. Sata further said that Mr. Banda has never made his resignation from the UNIP public, and that as far as he was concerned, President Banda is a UNIP member.

He said that it is not surprising that the Dr Kaunda and R Banda even went to Luanshya on a Presidential assignment together saying that their friendship is political.

Mr. Sata wondered what purpose the presence of Dr Kaunda in Luanshya was going to serve.

He said that Mr. Banda has gone to the MMD to destroy the party because as far as he is concerned he is still a UNIP member.

Mr. Sata saod that the only true member of the MMD is the Acting party spokesperson Mike Mulongoti.

He said that there are a few people in the ruling party who are genuine members, adding that the MMD is headed for extinction.

[QFM News Zambia]

Zambia Prepare For Tunisia

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Angola 2010 AFCON
Angola 2010 AFCON

Zambia and Tunisia clash on Wednesday in match day one in Group d at the Africa Cup in Lubango.

Zambia arrived on Sunday in Angola and transited by air to Lubango in the south where they will play two games before shifting to the port city of Benguela on January 21.

Herve Renard has boldly stated that this is the Africa Cup that will end Zambia’s 14-year quarterfinal draught.

How the draught will be ended against a foes whom Zambia have failed to beat since 1995 and memories are still fresh of their first round 4-1 bashing in Egypt four years ago.

This tournament will be crucial for captain Chris Katongo whose form has been poor of late.

Focus will also fall on another veteran of sorts in James Chamanga who has been a consistent scorer over the last three months for Zambia with 7 goals since November to date for Zambia.

Focus will also fall on winger Clifford Mulenga who returns to the fold after a year away on self-imposed exile.

Mulenga has been a consistent scorer for his struggling side Mpumalanga Black Aces on 5 goals and should he replicate that form with Zambia he could be one of the team’s key players this time around.

In Zambia’s upcoming Group D fixtures, Renard’s side will face Cameroon on the 17th at the same venue before moving to Benguela to take on Gabon in their final game four days later.

Essar Group May Buy Stake in Zambian Refinery, Mint Reports

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By Rakteem Katakey

India’s Essar Group may buy a majority stake in a Zambian state-owned refinery and is competing with Sasol Ltd. for the purchase, the Mint newspaper reported, citing persons it didn’t identify.

Zambia may take a decision on selling a stake in the 1 million metric ton-a-year Indeni refinery by March, according to the report. Essar plans to supply fuels from the plant to the Democratic Republic of Congo, Malawi and East Angola, the newspaper said.

Manish Kedia, a spokesman for the Essar Group, declined to comment when reached by telephone today.

To contact the reporter on this story: Rakteem Katakey in New Delhi at [email protected]

[Bloomberg]

Tunisia must fall Renard

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ZAMBIA coach Herve Renard says his players have come of age and will perform well at the African Nations Cup finals in Angola.

Renard said his belief in the ability of his players has not diminished despite the rocky road that saw the team score only two goals on their way to Angola.

“Maybe others have lost hope in the team but I have always believed in my squad for a long time and I have set targets for myself,” Renard said at the conclusion of the team’s training camp in Johannesburg on Saturday.

He said his team is becoming more efficient in front of goal as seen in friendly matches against Mozambique, Nigeria and South Korea.

Zambia edged Mozambique 1-0 through Collins Mbesuma’s goal, held Nigeria to a barren draw before humiliating South Korea 4-2 with Felix Katongo, Rainford Kalaba, James Chamanga and Noah Chivuta hitting the target.

The Frenchman reiterated that his modest target is to reach the quarter-finals after which he will take each stage as it comes.

He said the opening game against Tunisia on Wednesday is very important because it will give him some direction.

“The game against Tunisia must be won and then the rest are a matter of philosophy,” Renard said.

He could not state whether Zambia have the capacity to beat Tunisia but he said his boys must overcome the Carthage Eagles to have any realistic chance of qualifying for the quarter-finals.

“Tunisia are just like Egypt and I know their coach (Faouzi Benzarti) very well. He is a good coach but we will see what happens,” Renard said.

He acknowledged that Cameroon are very strong and that Zambia will have to give the match their best shot.

Football Association of Zambia (FAZ) president Kalusha Bwalya said going by the performance during friendly games, there is reason to believe that the outing will be fairly good.

“Again,” Kalusha said, “it was a Zambia well-co-ordinated. They were very good in-between the lines. Goals were well-executed and had the match well in control.

“It was a final preparatory match well worth the camping in South Africa,” Kalusha said of the match against South Korea on Saturday.

Skipper Christopher Katongo said the Chipolopolo were going to Angola to compete and not to participate.

Katongo, who plays his trade for German second division side Arminia Bielefeld, said the Zambians know what they want to achieve.

Portugal-based midfielder Rainford Kalaba urged Zambians to believe in the national team.

“It is high time people believed in us. We were eliminated in the first round twice in 2006 and 2008 and we learnt lessons. We now want to go a step,” Kalaba said.

Goalkeeper Kennedy Mweene said he is looking forward to keeping a clean sheet at the tournament.

Netherlands-based striker Jacob Mulenga said Zambia is not intimidated facing four-time champions Cameroon, 2004 kings Tunisia and Gabon.

Mulenga, who has scored five goals at Dutch side FC Utrecht, said with self-belief and determination, the three teams are beatable.

The Zambian team arrived in Angola yesterday and will face Tunisia on Wednesday.
Zambia Daily Mail

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