THE Government is discussing with development partners, including the International Monetary Fund (IMF), on how to utilise some of the accrued international reserves for infrastructure development, Finance and National Planning Minister Situmbeko Musokotwane has said.

Bank of Zambia (BoZ) governor Caleb Fundanga recently announced that the foreign reserves had risen to nearly US$2 billion, which has been said to be the highest Zambia has ever accumulated in 38 years.

There have been calls for the Government to consider diverting into gold reserves to take advantage of the growingly favourable prices of the metal on the international commodity markets.

But Dr Musokotwane said in Lusaka that the Government would not divert the reserves into buying and stocking of gold reserves because it was a risky business, as the prices of the metal was vulnerable in the commodity market.

“It is dangerous to put money into gold because the prices are not stable, as a commodity,” he said.[quote]

He said the Government was confident that the current level of the international reserves was safe and would like to plough part of the reserves to invest in infrastructure development.

“At the levels of the foreign reserves where we are, we think that it is safe. Investments take place with these reserves and we want to invest some of the money into the development of infrastructure,” he said.

The Government was talking to the IMF because the fund had room for Zambia to borrow more and use the finances on developmental projects.

“We are talking to a number of partners, even the IMF. There is room for us to borrow a little bit more with the level of reserves. Most of the money will be for infrastructure, and the focus will be on power infrastructure and roads,” he said.

The gross international reserves increased to $1,924.2 million in December 2009, up from $1,739.9 million at the end of September and from $1,171.17 in June in the same year, after the country received more than $600 million from the IMF under the special drawing rights.

Zambia recorded an increase in capital and financial accounts after receipt of the SDRs amount of $627.3 million, the receipt of budget support from the European Union of $43 million and the receipt of a $80 million Poverty Reduction and Growth Facility (PRGF) loan from the IMF, which coupled with BoZ purchases of foreign exchange from the market, improved the reserves.

[Times of Zambia]

Okay lets try and see if we can fix this. Looks like we suddenly have an influx of micro bloggers determined to violate our comments policy at will. They have been dumping comments on the site that are inappropriate. These bloggers have even gone to the extent of spelling some local insults with English words to just beat our filters.

In our last update we brought up this issue and we repeat it here for those that missed it. We said this:

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 or her argument. Can we please not 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

It looks like those people peddling in inappropriate language have chosen to ignore the civil way we are trying to address this issue. Please note this is one of the most reliable Zambian websites with news content that a lot of people frequent, including our leaders and the comments posted by some micro bloggers are unacceptable. We realise some of you have just discovered freedom of expression and out of excitement, you just don’t know what to do with it. Could this be a result of the combination of Freedom of Expression and Lack of Vocabulary? Surely, there is a civil way to exercise your new found freedom despite having a limited vocabulary.

Right, we are currently working on some technical solutions to fix this problem and it will take us a few months to get it right. In the interim we are going to be very, very heavy handed with offenders of our comments policy. First time offenders will be put on moderation for a week and their comments will take hours or even days for us to approve. Second time offenders will be completely banned from accessing the site. When you visit the site, all you will see is a message in red-YOU HAVE BEEN BANNED.. We have the technology to do this and we have banned a few people in the past. It’s not pretty when you are banned.

Lastly, we welcome comments that encourage dialogue or debate but not insults, particularly targeted at our leaders in both Government and those in Opposition. Insulting Mr Michael Sata does NOT add any value to the development of Zambia. Same goes for attacking Ms Dora Siliya’s personal character. There is only one Zambia with the current leaders at the wheel and it is everybody’s responsibility to influence them to do good, through constructive suggestions and not attacking their personal characters. And remember that growing beyond ourselves and our views requires learning from others. Let uphold this spirit on this site.

LT Team

The National Constitution Conference (NCC) says it is still waiting for a report from Kaoma District Council on the fate of its chairperson Dick Kwanga who was last week convicted by a Kaoma magistrate court of stealing K53.5 million Constituency Development Funds (CDF).

Mr. Kwanga who is MMD Longe Ward Councilor in Kaoma was last week convicted by the Kaoma magistrate court together with Kaoma Council treasurer Gift Ngenda and a local businessman, Nawa Mangolwa and handed a three-year suspended sentence.

NCC spokesperson Mwangala Zaloumis said in an interview with ZANIS in Lusaka today that the NCC cannot terminate the membership of Mr Kwanga who is one of its commissioners without an official complaint from the institution he is representing.

Ms. Zaloumis further said that the NCC was not aware of the conviction of Mr. Kwanga and would wait until a report is forwarded to them.[quote]

She was reacting to a story carried in yesterday’s Post newspaper that said the councilor was still attending the NCC deliberations after his conviction by the court of law.

Mr. Kwanga was on Tuesday last week slapped with a three-year suspended sentence by the Kaoma magistrates’ court after he was found guilty on counts of abuse of authority of office, conspiracy to defraud and theft by servant.

The three convicts have been ordered to refund the embezzled CDF by April this year failure to which a warrant of distress would be issued against them.

ZANIS

The Zambia National Broadcasting Corporation (ZNBC) has announced that it has received overwhelming response on its new Television station TV2.

ZNBC Public Relation Manager, said in an interview with ZANIS in Lusaka today that the new station is receiving a 100 percent viewer-ship in Lusaka.

Ms Tonga further said ZNBC‘s TV2 will soon migrate to the sate-dish hosted on its behalf by Multi-choice Zambia.

She said the feedback being received from viewers appreciating the new channel is overwhelming.

“I am receiving a lot of feedback especially through phone calls of people watching our new channel. In fact, most homes I have been to even business places including other television stations watch Tv2.” Ms. Tonga said.

Ms. Tonga further said the TV2 expansion project will soon extend to Livingstone in Southern province and on the Copperbelt province with the availability of funds.

She disclosed that TV2 is a self-run and generating its own funds and therefore expansion to other towns will be done gradually.

Vice President George Kunda launched TV2 on January 15, this year on behalf of President Rupiah Banda.

ZANIS

World Bank Group President Robert Zoellick has described his meeting with President Rupiah Banda as excellent and fruitful for the people of Zambia.

Mr. Zoellick said  he had good discussions with the Zambian Head of State on many areas of national development such as infrastructure development, agriculture, irrigation among other key national programs.

He said he discussed with Mr. Banda how the country would find money to invest in the sectors adversely affected by the global economic meltdown.

Mr. Zoellick disclosed that he also discussed with Mr. Banda how Zambia can diversify its economy from dependence on mining as the key economic activity to agriculture.

He told a video press conference today that he was able to discuss with President Banda how the country can find additional funding for clean development projects.

Mr. Zoellick said President Banda was able to tell him about his own farming experience and how some farmers sold the subsidized fertilizer they got from government to other farmers.[quote]

The World Bank Group President said this situation was unfortunate and did not make sense hence the need to reduce subsidies.

And the World Bank chief said Africa’s development lies squarely with Africans themselves.

He said the World Bank was committed to work with Africa to create jobs and reduce the prevailing poverty among the African people.

Meanwhile, Mr. Zoellick has said Chinese investment in Africa was welcome as it had the potential to contribute to Africa’s infrastructure development which could in turn result in job creation for the people.

He, however, said Chinese investors need not to come with their Chinese workers as that did not do Africa any good in terms of development.

ZANIS

Patriotic Front leader Michael Sata has announced that the PF will hold its long awaited general conference between September and October this year.

Mr Sata said it will be during the general conference that a new party leadership will be ushered in. He said the Patriotic Front is very much geared and far much ahead of other political parties in the country in its quest to hold the general conference.

He was speaking when he featured on radio Phoenix’s Let the People Talk this morning

While on the same programe, Mr Sata said that former President Fredrick Chiluba should repent for the destruction he caused to Zambia.

Mr Sata said Dr Chiluba should repent and not add any more to the destruction he caused to the country. He said as someone who has worked closely with the former president there are so many things he knows which he has kept to himself.[quote]

He said Dr Chiluba knows the poverty Zambians are currently going through because of the destruction he caused during the time he served as President, that is why he was dishing out K10,000 notes to people when he visited the Copperbelt.

Mr Sata added that when leaders know the poverty people are going through the best thing to do is to address the poverty, wondering what a K10,000 can do to address the poverty people are facing.

QFM