President Rupiah Banda today attended the Inauguration ceremony of Mozambican President Armando Guebuza who was sworn in for a second and final five year term of office in Maputo.

President Banda who arrived at Maputo international airport at 09:00 hours this morning joined several other SADC Heads of State and government in witnessing President Guebuza’ s inauguration.

Mr. Banda joined President Robert Mugabe of Zimbabwe, Jacob Zuma of South Africa, Hefekapunya Pohamba of Namibia, Jakaya Kikwete of Tanzania, SADC Chairperson Joseph Kabila of Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) and Bingu Wa Mutharika of Malawi.

The ceremony which was held at Maputo civic centre which is also the Independence square was characterized by performances from the military and traditional dancers.

In his speech President Guebuza called on the people of Mozambique to put aside their political differences and together concentrate of fighting poverty and other challenges facing the country.

Mr. Guebuza said although his country made tremendous economic, social and political developments during the first five years in office, there was need for the citizenry to continue working hard in order to register more development.

President Banda is accompanied to Maputo by Foreign Affairs Minister Kabinga Pande and former president Dr. Kenneth Kaunda.

Later in the day President Banda and other heads of state attended a luncheon at State House in Maputo.

This evening the President attended a closed door double troika SADC summit at Joachim Chisano International conference centre.

And Dr. Kaunda is among some former heads of state and government in the SADC region who have been invited by the Mozambican government to attend the ceremony.

Among the former heads of state that attended the ceremony are former South African president Thabo Mbeki and his counterpart from Botswana Festus Mugea.

President Guebuza won at least two-thirds (77 percent) of valid votes in Mozambique’s October 28, 2009 general elections after garnering 2.3 million votes.

He beat Alfonso Dhlakama of the opposition Mozambique National Resistance party (Renamo) and Daviz Simango of the newly formed Mozambique Democratic Movement (MDM), who polled 420,000 votes and 280,000 votes respectively.

Out of a total of 250 parliamentary seats, Frelimo got 192, Renamo fell in the second position with 48 constituencies while MDM trailed behind with eight seats.

In his election for the first term of office in 2004, President Guebuza’s Frelimo party had 160 seats while Renamo had 90 seats in the National Assembly. The recent election means that Frelimo increased its representation in parliament while Renamo reduced from 90 seats to 48.

In their pre-October 2009 campaign messages, President Guebuza pledged to continue addressing many issues among them poverty and unemployment while Mr. Dhlakama promised among other things, to abolish party branches in state institutions and to promote peace and stability in the country.

MDM’s Simango campaigned on the promise of modernizing agriculture, promoting rural trade and reducing unemployment.

Mozambique uses an electoral system of Proportional Representation.

ZANIS

THE executive committee of the United Party for National Development (UPND) is scouting for a female vice-president, preferably from the Northern Province to enhance its chances of winning the 2011 presidential polls now that it is clear that the pact with the Patriotic Front (PF) is crumbling, sources have revealed.

At its extra-ordinary executive meeting held on January 6, 2010 chaired by President Hakainde Hichilema, serious concerns were raised about the manner the PF was conducting its campaigns in the private media and it was resolved that Nkandu Luo be courted for the position of third vice-president.

This, in the view of the UPND, would attempt to give the party a more national outlook and possibly lure some Northern Province votes and the women’s vote in the light of the impending split with the PF.

UPND spokesperson Charles Kakoma confirmed that the meeting took place and that among other issues discussed was the issue of the third vice-president.

He, however, said the choice of the candidate for the position was still under intense debate and consideration. When asked if she had received overtures for the position, Professor Luo could neither confirm nor deny. “Kindly allow me to remain silent over this matter, I would not like to begin to discuss politics, please leave me out of it for now,” she said.

Mr Kakoma said the ideals of the pact were still alive but that the individual parties had agreed to go on an intensive membership drive to build capacity and strengthen their bases. He warned party members not to bank on riding on the backs of other pact members in apparent reference to the PF adding that they as UPND members must concentrate on building their own strengths.[quote]

The sources revealed that some executive members who attended the meeting complained that the private media was giving undue coverage to Mr Sata as opposed to Mr Hichilema, who was being systematically relegated to second position. It was however agreed that the “divorce” be kept under wraps while the party heightened its campaigns and new membership drives until the very end, to forestall any counter moves that the PF or MMD would engage in.

According to the sources, the UPND leader had come under increasing pressure from traditional leaders in the province to dissolve the party’s marriage of convenience with the PF because it was apparently clear that Mr Hichilema had already been relegated to the position of vice-president of the pact.

This has settled very badly with die-hard UPND members and traditionalists who felt that their president was giving in too much.
Mr Hichilema was, in the light of the impending cracks in the pact, advised to review all the disciplinary cases and instead speak the language of reconciliation to woo influential members who had left, to rebuild confidence.

Mr Hichilema is reportedly in the Western and North- Western provinces where he had travelled to garner support in readiness for the polls. “Hakainde is ready for the 2011 elections not as vice-president under the pact with the PF but as president of the UPND, it looks like the man has finally started seeing sense over this pact and realises that he is only being used by Mr Sata, even leaders like Chief Nalubamba has held meetings with him to advise him,” the source said.

PF spokesperson Given Lubinda said he took the UPND to be equal partners as prescribed in the memorandum of understanding and as far as he was concerned, everything was running smoothly. He said the UPND and the PF were alive to the fact that at no point did they agree to dissolve their respective parties to form one and as such both were at liberty to campaign in the manner they wanted.
“We are in the pact out of sincerity and good faith, we therefore would not like a third hand to dampen our resolve not on any propaganda allegations,” he said.

He added that the pact had learnt to take such insinuations in their stride and would treat such information as statements coming from detractors.

[Times of Zambia]

The Media Institute of Southern Africa (MISA) Zambia Chapter has called on Zambians not to attack the Press Association of Zambia (PAZA) based on assertions.

MISA Zambia Chairperson Henry Kabwe said people should prove that PAZA had been compromised when it signed a Memorandum of Understanding with the Press Freedom Committee of the Post Newspaper instead of speaking on assumptions.

Mr. Kabwe has challenged people to come forward and prove with substantial evidence that the MoU PAZA signed with the Press Freedom Committee of the Post had strings attached.

He charged that the attacks on PAZA were only meant to scandalize and destabilize the media liaison committee and divert attention away from discussing media self regulation.

Mr. Kabwe wondered why people are bringing up the issue of the MoU now when the friendship between the Post and PAZA has been in the public domain for some time now.

The MISA Zambia Chairperson said media institutions need to support each other, adding that the MoU between PAZA and The Post Newspaper was not strange.[quote]

He accused some sectors of society of orchestrating the campaign to scandalize the media liaison committee because they believe that the MoU between PAZA and the Post was meant for the two organisations to gang up against government on statutory media regulation.

Mr. Kabwe reminded the public that the fight against statutory regulation of the media was started long before the Post joined the fight, and appealed to the public not to see the Post Newspaper as engineering the resistance against statutory media regulation.

He urged the nation not to start bringing in others issues to derail the issue at hand but focus on addressing the impasse on the media self-regulation mechanism.

Mr. Kabwe told ZANIS in an interview in Lusaka today that people should wait for PAZA’s Annual General Meeting (AGM) which had been delayed due to financial difficulties if they wanted a new executive in place.

ZANIS