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

Information and broadcasting Service Permanent Secretary Ngosa Chisupa says his ministry has set up a Media Institutions Support Fund (M.I.S.F) to help in addressing operational challenges that media institutions in the country were facing.

Speaking on his familiarisation tour of media houses in Ndola , today, Mr. Ngosa Chisupa said the Fund would only be given media houses with identified needs.

Mr. Chisupa added that facility was open to both private and public media institutions, countrywide.

The Permanent Secretary also called for enhanced developmental reporting for the citizenry to appreciate what government was doing.

He said it was important for media personnel to have capacity in various areas of specialized reporting like census which was underway this year, elections reporting,climate change, the environment, politics, tourism and human interests stories.

Mr. Chisupa urged the media fraternity in the country to be more innovative in attracting more resources.

Except for the three daily newspapers Post, Times of Zambia and the Zambia Daily newspapers Limited , respectively, the country has seen a number of weekly tabloids which have gone into oblivion due to the operational costs.

Howver, the country has also a notable increase in the number of community , television and web site news papers in this of Information Communications and Telecommunications (ICT) era.

Meanwhile, Mr. Ngosa says he is quite impressed and happy with Times Print-Pak’s gender balance.

Speaking on his familiarisation tour of media houses in Ndola , today, Mr. Ngosa Chisupa says he was quite impressed with the gender balance taking place at one of the country’s oldest newpaper printing company.

He said it was also gratifying to note that the Deputy Editor in Chief was a woman so that even at top management level the issues of gender were taken on board.

This is on of the first tours undertaken by Mr. Chisupa as new Information Permanent Secretary a position he took over from Mr Timothy Nyirenda who has since retired.

And Times of Zambia Managing Director John Phiri said the equipment that was currently printing the newspaper was old and could breakdown any time as it was acquired 27 years ago.

He said the age of the printing machine has led to poor quality of the print competing with other better printed materials on the market.

He said the Company was in the process of acquiring a new equipment from Taiwan and an initial deposit has already be made to start the process.

He said distribution was also another challenge that his Company was grappling with because even though the Company had a good product but it was not reaching the intended target on time.

ZANIS