The Press Association of Zambia has refused to be drawn into a fight with
committee of citizen’s executive director Gregory Chifire.

Yesterday Mr. Chifire accused the PAZA executive committee members of holding
office illegally and that they have sold the media association to the post
Newspaper. Mr Chifire said it was surprising that PAZA had allowed its
leadership to continue leading the association illegally as its mandate expired
in 2006 when, according to the PAZA constitution, new membership should have
been elected.

Mr Chifire went on to say that the memorandum of understanding (MoU) signed by
the Press Association of Zambia (PAZA) and the Press Freedom of The Post where
PAZA receives a monthly grant of K10 million has compromised the independence,
integrity and morality of the association, Committee of Citizens executive
director Gregory Chifire has said.

Mr Chifire said the position PAZA had taken to agree on the terms of The Post
where it had accepted a K10 million monthly grant contradicted the very purpose
of its existence and that the existence of this servile working relationship
made it difficult for the general public to respect the views and activities of
PAZA as it had become an official appendage of The Post.

“PAZA’s recent vicious attacks on the Republican vice-president, senior
Government officials and their fellow journalists using similar, if not
identical, derogatory language with The Post is saddening. We wish to warn PAZA
membership countrywide that its leadership has rented PAZA to The Post and urge
them to restore any credibility left of PAZA by taking immediate action,” he
said.

But PAZA vice president Amos Chanda in response said people like Chifire are
bitter because the media and government have reached consensus on the regulation[quote]
of the media issue.

He says PAZA does not want to be drawn in to antagonist with people of Mr
Chifire caliber.

Mr Chanda says Zambians are aware that Mr Chifire survives on peddling lies to
government and now that the media and government have reached consensus on self
regulation, mr chifire is not happy.

Mr Chanda said it was not true that the association received a monthly grant of
K10 million, adding that PAZA received an amount which varied from time to time
depending on their requirements.

He said the MoU with the Press Freedom Committee of The Post was in mutual
cooperation for the promotion and defence of media freedom and development.
Mr Chanda said the money was meant for the procurement of materials and
acquisition of the venue for joint activities whenever need arose and challenged
Mr Chifire to prove such allegations.

“First, we have no agreement with The Post newspapers but we have a memorandum
of understanding with the Press Freedom Committee of The Post for mutual
cooperation, defence of media freedom and development. We challenge Mr Chifire
to prove his allegations on the money he is alleging that we have received,” Mr
Chanda said.

On being in office illegally, Chanda said his executive has already announced to
its members that the Annual General Meeting to elect new leaders will be held
next November.

He said Mr Chifire was judging the association by his low standards and wanted
to comment on everything that crossed his mind. Mr Chanda said while it was true
that the association’s mandate expired in 2007 and not in 2006 as claimed by Mr
Chifire, the PAZA board was mandated to discharge functions of the association
until the annual general meeting (AGM) is held.

He said because of that, PAZA was not in office illegally. PAZA needed a total
of K100 million to hold the AGM which was slated for November 2010.

[QFM news / Times of Zambia]

THIRTY-four employees at Konkola Copper Mines (KCM) have been fired for their involvement in the recent riots at Nchanga Mine in Chingola where property worth millions of Kwacha was destroyed. KCM spokesperson Rahul Karkar, who confirmed the development in an interview in Kitwe said, 47 miners were charged by management and 34 of them were found wanting.

Mr Karkar said the 34 were dismissed after their case reached the last stage of the hearing process and it was proved that they were guilty of the charges slapped on them. He said the action follows the disciplinary hearing process instituted by management for the charged employees.

He said the remaining 13 employees were reinstated by management and had since resumed work. Mr Karkar said there was overwhelming evidence indicating that the dismissed employees were involved in the riot which left a trail of destruction hence the decision to fire them.

“47 employees were charged for being involved in the riot that took place at Nchanga Mine and management has since discharged 34 while 13 have been reinstated,” Mr Karkar said. National Union of Miners and Allied Workers (NUMAW) president Mundia Sikufele said the union has engaged KCM management with the view of having the fired members pardoned.

Mr Sikufele said the unions had included the plight of the dismissed employees as part of their agenda for the on-going negotiations for improved salaries and conditions of service. “The fate of the dismissed miners will only be determined when we conclude the collective bargaining process because we have included that as part of the on-going negotiations with management,” he said.

Late last year, KCM employees at Nchanga Mine went on rampage and destroyed property worth millions of Kwacha. The riots were sparked by protests against prolonged salary negotiations between the unions and management.

[Times of Zambia]

MINISTER of Education Dora Siliya has said that Government will this year embark on increasing basic classroom space by 16,000 as her ministry sprints towards meeting Millennium Development Goals for basic education by 2015.

Speaking during a recording of a television programme ‘Culture Remodelling’ at the Ministry of Finance in Lusaka yesterday, Ms Siliya said the K3.3 trillion budgetary allocation will enable her ministry to provide more classroom space and enhance quality education interventions.

She said Zambia is on course to meeting the MDG goal of universal primary education and that there is parity on the recruitment ratio at lower level, though more needs to be done to keep the girl-children in school.

Ms Siliya said the ministry is also working on improving the quality of education through provision of adequate learning materials and upgrading teacher qualifications.

She said the ministry would like to emphasise quality education by reducing the gaps in the teacher-pupil ratio from about 1 to 65 to about 1 to 40.

She said this will be done by the recruitment of about 5,000 teachers every year and continuous upgrading of teacher qualifications.

Ms Siliya challenged parents to make a commitment to take their children to school as Government plays its role of increasing school places.

“Let’s imbibe in education not in tujilijili (alcoholic beverage). It’s through education that a daughter of a maid will become a doctor. Through education a child of a miner in Lumwana will become the head of a mine,” Ms Siliya said.

She was glad that all the girls and boys who sat for Grade Seven examinations in Western and North-Western provinces qualified to Grade Eight.

“I am surprised when people say Government is not doing anything because all these things are not happening on their own. It seems some people always seem to be in an election-political mood,” Ms Siliya said.

She said the ministry will review the Education Policy by the end of this year to incorporate new technological advances and align it to the Vision 2030, MDGs on Education and the Sixth National Development Plan which is in the making.

Ms Siliya said the Government will continue clearing the backlog of unemployed graduate teachers and that 5,000 of them will be employed this year.

She said the target is to clear all the graduates that are waiting for postings so that Government can concentrate on employing teachers upon graduation.

The minister said Government has lifted the transfer freeze imposed on teachers last year.

She said the transfer freeze was not meant to punish anyone but to clear the backlog of transfers that had been pending.

On teachers faking marriages in order to be transferred from remote areas, Ms Siliya said it was not the intention of Government to intervene in marriages, saying theirs was to provide an opportunity for employment.

She said a teacher was eligible for transfer after serving for two years in their place of posting, but Government will, however, ensure that it fills up the gaps of inadequate teaching staff in rural areas.

Ms Siliya said over 4,000 teachers were deployed to remote areas last year and that Government would like to re-define the remote and the rural hardship allowances to determine who is eligible for these perks.

The minister urged the private sector to invest further in tertiary education to help absorb thousands of people in need of education.

She said that there are about 60,000 Zambians graduating from high schools every year but the three public universities have a capacity of only 36,000.

As schools open tomorrow, Ms Siliya counselled school children to concentrate on their studies and not on drinking beer.

She said her ministry will embark on a campaign to make education fashionable because it guarantees children a bright future.

Ms Siliya expressed disappointment over incidents of school children spending time in bars instead of studying.

“We will do a major campaign to make being in school fashionable. Like I said let’s imbibe education not tujilijili,” she said.

{ Zambia Daily Mail]