Visiting South African President Jacob Zuma has been honored by President Banda with the Order of the Eagle of Zambia, First Division for the role he played in the freedom struggle.

President Banda honored Mr. Zuma last night during an investiture ceremony before a State banquet at the Mulungushi International Conference Centre in Lusaka.

President Banda said he honored Mr. Zuma for rendering distinguished leadership in the struggle for freedom and dignity of South Africa and the rest of Africa.

He noted that Mr. Zuma as President of South Africa managed the difficult transition from a fighter for political freedom and human dignity to a fighter for social freedom and economic emancipation of Africa’s masses.

He said Mr. Zuma has continued to lead and inspire African peace, integration and development as part of a collective leadership of the SADC and the African Union (AU).

And President Banda said President Zuma’s visit to Zambia marks a new chapter of closer co-operation on issues of mutual understanding between the two countries.

He called on South African businesses to take advantage of the available and attractive opportunities in Zambia to invest.

He assured the visiting leader that South African investors as well as other countries and their investment is secure, safeguarded by the progressive and robust legal framework put in place by his government through the public private partnership.

Mr. Banda said Mr. Zuma’s presidency will further enhance the bilateral relations that exist between the two countries.

The Zambian leader looked forward to signing of the agreements and MoUs agreed upon in various areas of agriculture, energy, mining, trade and health and pledged to advance a common agenda aimed at eradicating poverty.

President Zuma commended the Zambian government and its people for their continued efforts in promoting freedom and democracy on the African continent.

Mr. Zuma, who is accompanied by his wife Nompulelelo Nthuli, recollected that humanism taught by former Zambia’s First president Kenneth Kaunda enabled Zambia to embrace South Africa.

He observed that because of humanism, veteran South African freedom fighter Oliver Tambo was provided refuge in Zambia.

The visiting South African leader assured Zambia that his government will implement the MoUs without any delays so that the fruits of the partnership are realized for the benefit of the peoples in the two countries.

ZANIS

SEVERAL Cabinet Ministers have disassociated themselves from their former colleague, George Mpombo’s claims that some of them intend to resign from their government positions to join the Patriotic Front-United Party for National Development (PF-UPND) pact.

Minister of Home Affairs Lameck Mangani said Mr Mpombo, who is Kafulafuta member of Parliament, is only trying to create an atmosphere of suspicion.

“Mr Mpombo is a dreamer. Why should he speak for Cabinet ministers? He is only trying to paint a wrong picture. If he resigned his position in Cabinet, it does not mean that others intend to do the same,” he said.

Mr Mangani said the best approach to take, when there are issues, is discuss as a political party.

“When you resign, what surety is there that you will not find the same problems in other political parties? Every political party has its own problems. Since Mr Mpombo resigned his ministerial position, he should also leave the party,” he said.

And Minister of Works and Supply Mike Mulongoti described Mr Mpombo’s claims as false.

“Does it make sense that someone who is already inside the house should go outside to knock so that he can enter the same house? Mr Mpombo was a minister and he went out before he could even complete his term, and now he wants to come back,” he said.

Mr Mulongoti said Mr Mpombo should not think there are ministers who want to emulate his decision to resign.
Minister of Lands Peter Daka said Mr Mpombo is trying to nurse his self-inflicted pain.

“The man is just hallucinating. I am certainly not one of the ministers he is talking about. I am contented with MMD and its programmes,” he said.
Minister of Foreign Affairs Kabinga Pande said he does not intend to resign his position.

“Resigning is a personal and individual decision which cannot be announced by Mr Mpombo,” he said.
He challenged Mr Mpombo to be courageous enough to name the ministers.

Minister of Community Development and Social Services Michael Kaingu said he is not in politics for sustainability but service.
He pledged his support for President Banda and his administration.

Minister of Livestock and Fisheries Development Bradford Machila wondered why he should resign his government position.

“Why would I do that?” he said when asked whether he was one of the ministers Mr Mpombo was talking about.
And when contacted on the challenge that he names the ministers, Mr Mpombo said he was taking a nap.
“I am taking a nap, my dear, so call me at 16:30 hours,” he said.

When phoned later, he was reportedly out to the farm.

[Zambia Daily mail]

PRESIDENT Rupiah Banda has appointed Solicitor-General Abyudi Shonga to act as Attorney General following the expiry of Mumba Malila’s contract.
President Banda said Mr Shonga would perform the duties of attorney general in accordance with Article 55 of the Constitution of Zambia until a substantive attorney general was appointed and ratified by Parliament.
In a statement released by Special Assistant to the president for Press and public relations Dickson Jere yesterday, President Banda explained that Mr Malila’s contract expired on December 1.
Mr Banda thanked Mr Malila for having rendered his service to the Government and the people of Zambia when he served as attorney general at the Ministry of Justice.
The president said he would consider appointing Mr Malila into the diplomatic service.
And Mr Malila paid tribute to President Banda for giving him an opportunity to serve under his administration.
Mr Malila said in an interview that he was grateful to have served under Mr Banda and commended Cabinet ministers and other Government officials for the support.
“Since my contract has expired I am grateful that I was allowed to serve the Zambian people and the Government as a whole. I am happy that President Banda gave me a chance to serve under his administration,” he said.

[Times of Zambia]

V ice President George Kunda has challenged Southern Province to reclaim its position as the food basket of Zambia.

Mr. Kunda noted that there had been delays in the distribution of farming inputs but that government was accelerating the process to ensure that inputs reach all farmers in time.

Mr. Kunda also observed that with proper management of livestock, the province could export beef adding that this was the reason why government was attending to cattle diseases in the province.

The Vice-President said this in Livingstone on Monday when he featured on a Radio Programme on Zambezi FM.

Mr. Kunda said the economy was now stable and that prices of copper had gone up making the future of the country’s economy brighter.

He also disclosed that government was prospecting for oil saying this would also contribute greatly to the country’s economy.

And speaking upon arrival at Livingstone International Airport, Mr. Kunda said he had just returned overseas from the just ended Commonwealth Summit and a World Economic Business Forum in London where he had sold the potential of Livingstone as a tourist capital.

He said Livingstone was being upgraded to international standards because the city was a special place in Zambia as far as tourism was concerned.

Meanwhile, Mr. Kunda has said he is aware that the opposition PF/UPND pact is weak in Livingstone.

He alleged that by going into a political part with the PF/UPND pact President Hakainde Hichilema had sold the party to the Patriotic Front and was now one of the deputy Vice-Presidents to Mr. Guy Scott.

The Vice President said he would continue talking about the PF/UPND pact so that the people of Zambia should know what they were dealing with.

He cited some areas where the UPND was weak in Southern Province as Livingstone, Namwala, Mazabuka and Kazungula.

”This so called pact is not as strong as it is portrayed to be. We as MMD have structures, we have a President and we have one party and this is the difference with these other political parties,” he said

ZANIS

VICE-President George Kunda says the MMD is confident of winning the 2011 presidential and parliamentary elections with President Rupiah Banda as its candidate.

Mr. Kunda has since appealed to the people of Southern Province not to experiment with leadership.

The Vice-President was speaking in Livingstone today when he featured on Zambezi FM Radio Station.

He appealed to the people not to be cheated by people who had nothing to offer and only made fake promises.

Mr. Kunda said the MMD government was geared to empower the people and to create new jobs for the people.

And responding to a question on when the MMD would hold its convention, Mr. Kunda said a decision on the convention would be made soon.

Meanwhile Mr Kunda has expressed concern that those days when the Church acted as peacemakers had evaporated.

He said he was worried that some of the Churches were now going into the ring to fight with the government adding that this was contrary to the teachings of the Lord Jesus Christ who preached reconciliation.

”We want the Church to bring us together as Politicians,” he said.

Meanwhile, Mr. Kunda has said there is need for government and media to dialogue and has since congratulated the Media Institute of Southern Africa (MISA) for exploring means of self regulation.

Mr. Kunda observed that there must be a difference between those Journalists who were trained and those who were not.

He said a draft bill was ready in his office and that it would be presented to Parliament if no progress was made to draft a bill by Journalists themselves.

ZANIS

We are happy to report that the site upgrade went on as planned without major hitches. We have most of the base features functioning. We only have a few items that we shall work on in the coming days. They are not major and can be addressed while the site is online. Once we have finished working on all the features, expect us to put a permanent link on the menu bar on how to use the features in order to extract the maximum benefit from your LusakaTimes experience.

1). Features and enhancements

We have added a number of features and enhanced the site’s alignment with the social networks like facebook and twitter

Am sure a lot of people noticed our increased activities on facebook last week. Many of the features are on the toolbar shown at the bottom of LT home page/browser window. From there you can facebook, tweet, search the site content, translate content. Going forward, expect a lot more features on the tool bar. We still have issues with RSS & posts and we are working hard to fix that.

There is also an issue if you are using Internet Explorer 6. The above tool bar will not show and we hope you upgrade your browser real soon. Its free to do so.

Translation Tool

The world is becoming flat and we thought we make it easier for other nationalities to be able to read LusakaTimes. They still wont be able to read your local language blogs as they don’t get translated. If you are a Geek and have a translator API for our local languages please get in touch.

2). Are we going to start Charging?

Oh boy! This is now becoming an urban legend. A myth basically. Maybe we need to seek help from the guys fom Discovery Channel to help us burst this myth. Anyway, lets say it again: Lusakatimes will NOT charge for its online content. The site will forever remain free and that is why our slogan is Keeping you informed for free. We are proud of the fact that a lot of others have realised this and made their sites free. Free online content works for us. Of course we are not the originators of free online media, we just liked the idea and decided to do some imitation, something we are good at. Our model is to charge advertisers. As a matter of fact we are busy entertaining the idea of printing the stories and comments and distributing them for free to the Zambia public. We just need to reach a critical mass of advertisers who can help us cover the printing and distribution costs.

3). 2009 LT Awards

Its that time of the year again were we celebrate the contributions of all Zambians to the process of keeping us entertained as we plough through the year. We did the same things last year and to jog your memory, visit this link on LT 2008 Awards.

We realised some things we did wrong last year and we want to make some improvements. This year we are asking you to tell us what category you want us to put in the awards and also tell us your 3 nominations for that category. In two weeks we shall publish the nominations for the readers to vote. So we have categories and nominations now open and you can click here to start the process. The link is on the white background top menu bar next to send pictures link

$50 talk-time to the best blogger

This year we have decided to award a $50 talk-time to the best blogger. The talk time we shall be giving will only be usable in Zambia. If you are not in Zambia, you can still nominate your friend or relative in Zambia to receive the talktime.

Lastly thanks for your never ending support to Lusakatimes and we look forward to your valuable feedback on the latest changes to the site.

LT Team

South African President Jacob Zuma has arrived in the country for a three-day state visit.
President Zuma who arrived aboard a South African Air Force plane touched down at the Lusaka international airport at 17:55 Zambian time.

President Zuma, is accompanied by First Lady Nompumelelo and South African government officials.
He was met on arrival by president Banda, First lady Thandiwe, Zambia’s High Commissioner to South Africa Leslie Mbula and South Africa’s Ambassador to Zambia Moses Chikani.

Others include Cabinet and Deputy Ministers, MMD party officials among others.
President Banda later introduced his cabinet ministers, Permanent Secretaries and other senior government and party officials.

And speaking to journalists on arrival, visiting South African president Jacob Zuma said South Africa and Zambia have for a long time now, continued to enjoy cordial bilateral relations.

President Zuma said this is because of the long historical ties between the two countries.

He told journalists that he is in the country to explore how best the existing bilateral relations between the two countries could be strengthened further.

Mr. Zuma who described Zambia as his second home said he is happy to be in the country.

He commended President Banda and the Zambian people for the warm reception accorded to him and his delegation.

President Zuma, earlier inspected a guard of honour mounted for him by the 2nd Regiment of the Zambia Army.
Meanwhile, President Zuma and his Zambian counterpart are tomorrow expected to lay their wreaths at the freedom Statues before the official talks at State House.

The two Heads of State and Government will then proceed to Mulungushi International Conference Center where Mr. Zuma is expected to give a memorial lecture on Oliver Thambo and later proceed to Leopard’s Hill Cemetery where they will lay wreaths on the graves of late South African Freedom fighters.

They are later in the evenings expected to attend a business dinner at the Taj Pamodzi Hotel.
ZANIS

VICE President George Kunda says people questioning the continuation of the legacy of late President Levy Mawanawasa are being malicious.

Mr . Kunda said he together with the late President and the current President Rupiah Banda were attacked and insulted when they were putting the current policies in place by the same people who are now championing the legacy.

Mr . Kunda said the MMD government was still following the development plan that was devised under the late President Mwanawasa in 2006 such as the Fifth National Development Plan.

He explained that the donors were still funding the programmes under the FNDP adding that support from the donors was growing stronger and stronger and that this showed the confidence the donors had in the programmes that government was implementing.

The Vice President was speaking in an interview in Livingstone today when he featured on Zambezi FM radio station.

”We have a development plan which we devised under the Late President Levy Mwanawasa in 2006. We developed these documents together and at that time President Rupiah Banda was Vice-President and most of us were ministers. Donors still have the confidence because it is the same government but we must appreciate that Mr. Banda is an individual and he has his own qualities but we are implementing a national programme,” he said.

Mr. Kunda said the economy was growing stronger and that the issue of the legacy should not arise adding that the National Anti-Corruption Policy that was recently launched by President Rupiah Banda started before the death of the late President.

Mr. Kunda said the MMD government was on course in terms of development and service delivery adding that the government was working on a five year manifesto and the FNDP.

He said so far, government had included all its nine provinces in the development agenda.

ZANIS