President Rupiah Banda is among some several Heads of State and government in the Southern African Development Community (SADC) region who have been invited to Mozambique to witness the inauguration of President-elect, Armando Guebuza of the ruling Front for the Liberation of Mozambique (Frelimo) party.

President Banda is expected to arrive in Maputo at Maputo International Airport at 09:00 hours tomorrow for Mr. Guebuza’s swearing in ceremony scheduled for Thursday, January 14, 2010.

Zambia’s High Commissioner to Mozambique, Agness Ngoma confirmed this to ZANIS in Maputo today.

Ms. Ngoma said President Banda will also attend a SADC troika meeting that will take place after the inauguration ceremony here on the same day.

She said the President might also have separate meetings with other heads of state from the region.

She said President Banda will be accompanied to Mozambique by Foreign Affairs Minister Kabinga Pande and some other senior government officials.

The Mozambican government has also invited some former heads of state and government in the region to join in the inauguration celebrations.

From former Zambian president Kenneth Kaunda will be among the former heads of state also invited to witness the ceremony.

President Banda and his delegation are expected to return home on Friday, January 15th 2010.

President Banda’s attendance at the inauguration was important to the enhancement of the already existing relations between Zambia and Mozambique.

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 Afonso 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 Forum for African Women Educationists in Zambia (FAWEZA) has backed calls by the Zambia National Education Coalition (ZANEC) for the quick implementation of the abolition of grade seven (7) cut off point system.

FAWEZA National Coordinator Daphne Chimuka told ZANIS in an interview in Lusaka today that implementing the abolition of cut off point would give many children an opportunity to go to grade eight (8).

Ms. Chimuka urged government to leave to its 1996 policy document intended to abolish the grade cut off point system of selection and bemoaned the delay in having the policy implemented.

She said the abolishment of the system should be embraced by all stakeholders in the education sector.

In 1996 the government came up with a policy document with a view to upgrade primary schools to basic schools and offer basic education from grade one to nine.

ZANIS

China’s intervention has rescued several Zambian copper mines out of bankruptcy and helped create some 2,000 jobs, most of which were lost when copper prices slid over the biting effects of the global financial crisis, visiting Chinese Commerce Minister Chen Deming said.

The Chinese Minister said most of the copper mines operated by private entities in Zambia collapsed in the face of the global financial crisis, which ignited an economic recession across the globe, leading most of the private copper mines in Zambia to shut down.

Several Zambia copper-producing firms were forced to retrench more than 5,000 workers after the price of the commodity fell to historically lower levels.

The price of copper dropped to a 22-year low at the London Metal Exchange in 2009, forcing most firms in Zambia to curb production levels.

‘Zambia’s privately-run copper mines have closed down due to the economic crisis, only the one operated by China is still operating,’ Minister Chen told a news conference in Addis Ababa, Monday.

Zambian Mines Minister Maxwell Mwale announced late in 2009, the country had embarked on the process of selling several copper mines to enable some of the ones which could resume production to do so.

Chinese officials said the Zambian President Rupiah Banda also formally asked China to facilitate its companies to take stakes in the bankrupt copper mines in the face of the global financial crisis.

The Chinese Minister, who addressed journalists on the positive role that China’s investment in Africa’s mineral-rich countries had achieved, also dismissed suggestions that China was a neo-colonialist.

The Minister is visiting Africa and Middle East.

In his five-nation tour, covering Ethiopia, Mozambique, Tanzania, Turkey and Saudi Arabia, the Chinese official is expected to explore more constructive ways in which China can engage with the developing countries in implementing China’s development agenda.

Addis Ababa – Pana 13/01/2010

[Afrique en ligne]

Livingstone, Jan 12, Provincial Education Officer, Festus Mungo has said there is need to build more schools in Southern Province in order to cater for the growing enrollment numbers.

Mr. Mungo said Southern Province, Lusaka and Copperbelt Provinces have continued to capture a huge number of new school entrants as compared to other provinces in the country.
He said inadequate school infrastructure has resulted into limited places in Grades 8 and 10.

Mr. Mungo further said his office was keen on improving educational standards in the province but bemoaned limited school infrastructure in the province.

He however pointed out that programmes are underway to have more schools constructed in the province.
“My office will soon be going round to monitor school construction projects that are currently taking place all over the province,” he said.

And Mr. Mungo has observed that the introduction of High Schools has in some way contributed to limited Grade Eight places in schools.

He said the fact that High Schools only take up Grade Ten pupils has reduced chances for Grade Eight pupils to find school places in areas where basic and secondary schools are non existent.

THE Zambia National Education Coalition (ZANEC) has called for quick implementation of the abolition of the grade seven cut off point system because it is hindering the progression of more pupils to grade eight.ZANEC chairperson Barbara Chilangwa said the increase in the number of facilities in the education sector would help avert the high number of grade seven school drop outs in Zambia.

Mrs Chilangwa said at a press briefing in Lusaka yesterday that the cut off point system had continued to hinder pupils’ progression into grade eight despite Government’s promise to abolish the system. She said 29 per cent of pupils who had dropped out of school this year, was too significant and would negatively affect Zambia’s chances of attaining basic education for all by 2015, saying meeting the goal called for more commitment from the Government.

“I am concerned that in the year 2010 we can still have 87,610 pupils dropping out of the school system at grade seven because they were not selected to grade eight, we only have five years to go and still 29 per cent of our children can not progress to the next stage due to lack of classroom space,” she said.

She said the Ministry of Education had taken too long to complete the implementation of its 1996 policy document, which clearly stated that the ministry intended to upgrade primary schools to complete basic schools, which would offer basic education from grade one to nine.

She said infrastructure development programmes needed to be accelerated to meet the classroom requirements at upper basic level.
A detailed analysis of the grade eight-progression rates between 2004 and 2009 showed that the infrastructure development programme which the ministry had been implementing over the last two years, was just beginning to make an impact.

She commended Luapula and North-Western provinces for recording a 100 per cent progression to grade eight, but said the two provinces had recorded the poorest results at grade 12 over the years saying there was need to target them specifically so that the results could at least be balanced.

[Times of Zambia]