President Rupiah Banda is tomorrow expected to leave Lusaka for the Copperbelt province and participate in the 10th anniversary of the Zambia National Marketeers Association (ZANAMA).

President Banda will be accompanied by Local government and Housing Minister Dr. Eustarckio Kazonga and Labour and Social Security minister Austin Liato.

He is also expected to hold meetings with some government officials before joining the 10th anniversary celebrations for ZANAMA in Kitwe at the City Square where he will address the marketeers.

President Banda will return to Lusaka on the same day.

This is contained in a press statement made available to ZANIS in Lusaka today by Special Assistant to the President for Press and Public Relations Dickson Jere.

ZANIS

HUNDREDS of people have escaped unhurt at Ngwenya market in Mpulungu District when a makeshift stand containing drums of petrol caught fire.
A check at the market a few minutes after the fire engulfed the makeshift stand found marketers and traders making frantic efforts to salvage their merchandise and wares from their stalls.
Other people were seen scampering in different directions for safety while others simply run away from the market, fearing for their lives.
The fire was ignited by a cigarette in one of the stores where petrol was being poured.
In an interview later, Ngwenya market committee chairman Maybin Mwansa expressed shock and regret at the incident, saying that it was the third fire incident at the market involving fuel in a short period of time.
Mwansa who was flanked by his vice secretary chewe chilufya accused some government officials of favouring the fuel dealers situated within the market.
He said several appeals have been made to remove the illegal fuel dealers on the black market but the appeals have fallen on ‘deaf ears’.
Mwansa warned that a life would one day be lost if the if fuels are allowed to continue being sold in the market.
He said even the fire fighters from council were not at hand to help put out the fire despite emergency calls being made to them a few seconds after the disaster happened.
Mr. Mwansa complained that this attitude had angered many marketers as they now deem the fire licenses they have been made to pay for, were useless.
He said marketers and traders are now wondering why council charges them fire fees if no help comes from there.
Mr. Mwansa appealed to police to intensify their inspection of stalls and makeshift stands to ensure no fuels are sold in the market because they could one day lead to a serious fire disaster.
[ZANIS]

The British High Commission Department for International Development has announced a commitment of 5.7 million pounds for a new anti-corruption programme.

According to a statement made available to ZANIS in Lusaka today the programme Against Corruption Together (ACT) will support the implementation of the government of Zambia’s national Anti Corruption policy and its goal to achieve a nation and its people that are zero tolerant to corruption.

The statement says the DFID support will help Zambian institutions including the Anti Corruption Commission (ACC) to investigate and prosecute corruption more effectively.

Support will be given to parliamentarians so they can act more effectively in the fight against corruption.

The statement further says the programme will also help civil society organisations to have more Zambians involved in anti corruption initiatives.

The United Kingdom has been a supporter of the government of Zambia’s fight against corruption and since the 2000, DFID has provided 8.4 million pounds to the Anti Corruption Commission and the Task Force through the Anti Corruption Commission Enhancement Support (ACCES) project which ended early this year.

ZANIS

The Anti Voters Apathy Project (AVAP) says it is concerned with the rate at which the issuance of the mobile registration cards (NRC) is going in the rural areas.

AVAP Programme Officer Richwell Mulwani says most rural communities have opted to farming and are not concerned with acquiring the NRCs.

Mr. Mulwani told ZANIS in an interview in Lusaka yesterday that most rural communities who are mainly reliant on farming have paid particular attention to farming and some are not even aware of the exercise.

“Many people are now farming and its difficult for them to go to places where the NRCs are being issued which in most cases are also far. In Mapatizya for example, people have completely shifted to their farms, they will only come back after the farming season. This is a concern to us” he said.

He said AVAP has since engaged its civic educators in the various communities where the issuance of the NRC is taking place to sensitize people and make them acquire the NRCs.

Mr. Mulwani has however commended government for the exercise saying it is the best step towards the continuous voter registration.[quote]

He has since called on the Ministry of Home Affairs to do an evaluation of the national registration cards issuance exercise to determine whether they would reach the target or not.

He said the farming communities’ need to be given another chance especially after the farming season so that all those who will not acquire the cards can do so.

He said there is need to ensure that people are not disfranchised for the future elections because they do not have NRC.

Government has allocated K22 billion for the second phase of the ongoing mobile national registration cards issuance and is covering Northern, Southern and Central provinces.

This was after successfully carrying out the first phase in North-Western, Western and Eastern provinces.

ZANIS

Transparency International Zambia (TIZ) says there is need for the country to have high ambitions in fighting corruption because it is the major cause of poverty among the people in the country.

TIZ president Reuben Lifuka says it is regrettable that the nation does not seem to be so ambitious in fighting the scourge.

He said the country seems to be content with a few convictions in the courts of law, the 0.2 percent improvement on the TI Corruption Perception Index and relax in praises for minor achievements from the international community.

He said the country’s fight against corruption needs a new lease of life.
Mr . Lifuka was speaking in Lusaka today during the commemoration of the International Anti-Corruption Day.
He said Zambia has high ambitions in its socio-economic development but not so much in fighting corruption which he said needed more attention.

He urged government, civil society, and cooperating partners to be more ambitious in fighting corruption, adding that the country cannot afford to fail in the fight against corruption.
Meanwhile Mr. Lifuka has said the successes scored in the fight against corruption should not make the nation complacent as the fight was far from over.

Mr. Lifuka observed that the fight against corruption in Zambia was still in its early days and that the country’s fight against graft was yet to take a form and shape that would ensure long term success.

He said the theme for this year’s observance of the International Anti-Corruption Day which is “Don’t Let Corruption Kill Development” and the motto for the 2009 anti-corruption campaign “Your No Counts” are both appropriate for Zambia and should serve as a call to action for all stakeholders.

He said it was encouraging to note that the country has registered some positive strides in the fight against corruption but insisted that these were small steps in a very long journey.

“These developments represent some motion but with limited movement. Yes, we have seen some changes-but some of these remain cosmetic and more can be done not just by Government, but the private sector, NGOs, Trade Unions, the Church, Young Zambians and cooperating partners”, he said.

And speaking earlier, Chairperson of the African Parliamentarians Network Against Corruption (APNAC) Zambia Chapter Given Lubinda said APNAC was determined to continue to motivate African governments to forge the fight against corruption from rhetoric to action.

Mr. Lubinda said there was no doubt that Zambia, like any other nation, needs enhanced collaboration with other governments, intergovernmental agencies, and Non-governmental organizations in the fight against graft because the vice knew no boundaries.

He said time has come for the country to hate corruption as it was clear that corruption and disregard for the rule of law have overtime constituted the greatest impediments to Zambia’s development.

ZANIS

African countries attending the fifteenth United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change Conference (UNFCCC) have expressed worry over the outcome of the conference following a document that was leaked by the host country giving out its predictions of the outcome of the conference.

Common Market for Eastern and Southern Africa (COMESA) Climate Change advisor George Wamukoya said in an interview here that COMESA and Africa as a whole were saddened by the development in which Denmark is alleged to have been holding informal meetings with selected countries.

Denmark on Monday held an informal meeting with selected number of countries including two African countries – South Africa and Lesotho at which a document was circulated and later retrieved from the meeting.

Sudan which currently chairs the G77 was not invited, forced it’s way in the meeting.

The document has however created a shiver among the African and developing countries as a whole being the most vulnerable to the effects of climate change.

Initially, negotiations for the continuation of the Kyoto protocol are underway here in which groups like the Least Developed Countries, G77 and China and the African Working Group have been closed up negotiation for a legal binding deal.

Mr. Wamukoya said if parties to the Kyoto protocol were for a deal that benefits both the developing and developed countries, it is wrong for Denmark to stab the least developed countries to a political deal.

The negotiations to the post-Kyoto protocol started at a meeting in Bali at which members agreed that Copenhagen would be the final destination where a second commitment to the continuation of the treaty was due.

However the actions from the hosts give impressions that developing countries will not be favoured by the outcome.

He said in Bali two years ago, Denmark was a landmark for the developed countries to make their commitment towards their emission of gas.

He said Denmark was being partisan as it was not the member of the party coming up with the document in question but the host nation with a few countries of whom it had bilateral talks with.

“The content of the document does not even reflect all the issues currently under negotiation at the conference, it is in favour of the developed countries meaning that Africa still has to bear the effects of climate change in a more sever way than before.

The document also does not favour the two tracks that have been tabled by the Bali Action Plan as well as the Kyoto protocol; this is done to bring America into track as United States of America is not Part to the Kyoto Protocol”.

“The document is political while the Kyoto protocol is a legally binding instrument that parties to this legal binding follow, the document is open ended and kills the Kyoto protocol”

Meanwhile the G77 and China chairman Lumumba Stanislaus gave a strong warning against the move by the host nation to predict the outcome of the conference.

Mr Stanislaus said countries from developing nations are looking for a deal that is binding and favours all.

He said the G77 and China will not take anything less than having the Kyoto protocol continue into its second commitment.

ZANIS