The Road Transport and Safety Agency (RTSA) has procured 100 motorbikes to enable it enforce road traffic regulations effectively in the country.

RTSA deputy director for road transport Robert Mtonga disclosed this in an interview with ZANIS in Kasama recently. Mr. Mtonga said the motorbikes would soon be handed over to the Zambia Police Service under the Traffic Unit to enhance their mobility while ensuring that safety standards on public roads were observed.

He explained that RTSA was working closely with the police to curb reckless driving among motorists, which has resulted in fatal road accidents.Mr. Mtonga, who was in Kasama for the RTSA public sittings to review the 2010 public service licenses for transport operators, said his Agency was concerned with the increase in road traffic accidents in the country.

He stated that 90 per cent of road traffic accidents happening in the country were due to human causes, mostly bordering on failure to observe traffic regulations.
Mr. Mtonga cited over -speeding as a big problem among motorists which requires urgent attention to safeguard people’s lives.

Meanwhile, Mr. Mtonga described the RTSA public sitting in Kasama as successful considering the high number of transport operators who turned up to have their 2010 public service licences renewed.
He however urged transport operators to hire drivers with Public Service Vehicle (PSV) licences to avoid their vehicles being impounded for having unqualified drivers.

Mr. Mtonga further advised bus operators servicing distant routes to make sure their vehicles were fitted with speed-limiters to avoid being in conflict with the law.
ZANIS

President Rupiah Banda says government will continue supporting cultural events in the country because they are an important unifier.

Mr. Banda says traditional ceremonies play a cardinal role by breaking artificial tribal barriers.

And the President has said his government will continue involving chiefs in matters of national interest because of their critical role in the governance system of the country.

Mr. Banda said chiefs need to be involved in development issues because of their influence on their subjects.

He said traditional leaders do not only act as good mediators in matters of traditional boundary and succession dispute but also on matters of national development.

The President said this over the weekend in a speech read on his behalf by Community Development Deputy Minister Moses Muteteka.

This was during the Lwiindi Traditional ceremony of the Toka-Leya of chief Sekute in Kazungula District.

Meanwhile, the President disclosed during the ceremony that government through the Ministry of Community Development and Social Services under the department of culture affairs is currently undertaking a programme of constructing and rehabilitating cultural villages at provincial centers.

Mr. Banda said this is in order to provide venues where artists, artisans and cultural practitioners can train, produce and market their products.

He said the Provincial office in Livingstone will soon complete the construction of the Maramba Cultural Village where various cultural products and exhibits will be showcased for employment and wealth creation for the people.

The President encouraged artists and cultural practitioners to develop their skills and marketability if government’s programme of developing culture industry is to succeed.

And the President said the reduction of poverty among people lies on improved agriculture production.

He said government has put in place policies suitable to assist the vulnerable in society.

Mr. Banda said viable farmers such as those households headed by females, orphans, widows, the elderly and the disabled will have to acquire farming inputs.

He however, stressed that government gets very concerned when it hears stories of farmers selling the seeds and fertilisers because the trend poses a danger to food security at both household and national levels.

ZANIS

Zambian Ambassador to Ethiopia Albert Muchanga, has called on Zambian nationals living in Ethiopia to make use of the Diaspora desk which President Rupiah Banda recently set up at State House to address the welfare of Zambians living abroad.

Mr. Muchanga said that Zambia is currently offering good investment opportunities to both Zambians and foreigners hence the need for Zambians in the Diaspora to participate.
He said the Zambian Embassy is for this reason planning for an investment sensitization seminar for the Zambian community in Ethiopia.

This is contained in a press release made available to ZANIS in Lusaka today by Zambian Embassy in Ethiopia First Secretary to the Press Dorcas Chileshe.

Mr. Muchanga said the seminar will create a platform for Zambian nationals in Ethiopia to discuss various ways in which they can participate in contributing to the country’s development.

He said this in Addis Ababa at the weekend when he addressed Zambians who had met to elect new office bearers for the Zambian Association in Ethiopia

Mr. Muchanga commended the Zambian community in Ethiopia for exhibiting a strong team spirit.

ZANIS

President Rupiah Banda was today among hundreds of mourners who gathered at the Cathedral of the Holy Cross to attend the church service for the late Former Zambia Army Commander Geojago Musengule’s son Major Joe Musengule.

Several cabinet ministers, senior government officials, service chiefs and members of the diplomatic corps joined the President at the Cathedral of the Holy Cross to pay their last respects to Major Musengule.

Major Musengule, who is the third of Lt Gen Geojago and Mrs Muriel Musengule’s four children, passed away on November 19 after suffering a heart attack.
His death is believed to have been triggered by the death of his wife of eight years, Halodatte Musengule who died on November 14 at the University Teaching Hospital (UTH) after an illness.

Major Musengule who will be put to rest at Mutumbi Cemetary, leaves behind a son and two daughters.

And reading out Maj Musengule’s life history, family representative Joyce Makulu disclosed that the deceased joined the Zambia army in 1994 as an officer cadet shortly after completing his secondary education at Kabwe Secondary School.

Mrs Makulu said before that Maj Musengule did his grade one to three in Yugoslavia before returning home where he completed his primary education in Kabwe.

ZANIS

Renowned Seventh Day Adventist leader Pastor Joe Lubasi passed away last week and will be buried today.

In a statement to ZANIS yesterday, SDA president Harrington Akambwa said Pastor Lubasi died on Friday, November 20, 2009.

Burial is expected to take place at Old Leopard Hill Cemetery after a funeral service at the Libala SDA church along Nationalist road starting at 09:00 hours.

SDA President Akombwa described the death of Pastor Lubasi as a great loss to the church adding that he will be missed by the SDA church in Zambia and abroad.
He said that the late Pastor was an effective and committed evangelist and great soldier of the gospel.

He has described late Pastor Lubasi as a highly sought after speaker who traveled around the country and abroad preaching the gospel and baptizing thousands of people thereby initiating them into Christianity.

The late SDA pastor was also presenter of the television programme Voice of Prophesy and a Communication and Music Director.
He also served as a minister in the SDA church for many years in various capacities including District Pastor and Central Conference Departmental Director.

Pastor Lubasi also served in the Youth, Chaplaincy, and Campus, and Evangelism Ministries. He succeeded the late SDA leader Pastor Corneluis Matandiko who died last year.

He is survived by a wife, Chitalu and one child.

ZANIS

The Passenger Pedestrian and Cyclist Association of Zambia (PAPECAZ) has urged government to immediately ban the movement of commuter buses at night.

PAPECAZ President Lawrence Kaoma says the movement of long distance buses at night should be banned with immediate effect to curb the rising number of road accidents where innocent lives are lost and maimed.

Mr Kabwe said the ban should be implemented as most drivers are failing to observe and maintain road safety measures especially at night.
He has suggested that long distance buses should start off at 05:00 hours in the morning to their various destinations and stop at 21:00 hours.

“We are demanding from government for the immediate ban of movement of passenger buses at night. Most drivers have failed to maintain road safety measures at night,,” he said.

Mr. Kaoma’s observation comes in the wake of a recent case where a bus was impounded by the Road Transport and Safety Agency (RTSA) but was later released only to kill eight people in Kapiri-mposhi due to defective tyres and wipers.

This is contained in a press statement released to ZANIS in Lusaka yesterday.
Similar road mishaps have occurred in different parts of the country within this month.

Mr. Kaoma , who is also Past RTSA Board Member said the agency is not to blame for many road accidents occurring across the country but that he placed 100 percent blame on the drivers for the loss of lives.
ZANIS

The Zambia Congress of Trade Unions (ZCTU) appealing to employers to extend maternity leave provisions for female workers.

The ZCTU President Leonard Hikaumba said in a presentation to the Technical Advisors at Lusaka’s Golfview Hotel that female workers should be given maternity leave starting a month before the expected date of delivery and six months after that.

He said this during the maternity protection workshop hosted by the Organisation of African First Ladies against HIV and AIDS (OAFLA) which has entered its second day today.This is ahead of the First Ladies’ Workshop begins on Tuesday November 24 and ends on November 26, 2009, respectively,

Mr Hikaumba said future healthy and productive employees would emerge if working mothers were enabled to lay firm foundations for their children. Short maternity leave periods left children growing without the needed guidance of their mothers.

He said under the Employment Act section 15 (a) the Public Sector provided 90 days’ maternity leave while under the Minimum Wages Act private sector employers provided 120 days which were both inadequate to enable female workers to recover and also care for their babies.

He regretted that some employers in the hospitality industry in Siavonga did not provide for maternity leave forcing female staff to resign when they were expectant.

The ZCTU leader appealed to employers to appreciate the importance of maternity leave as the last days of an expectant mother’s labour were critical to the lives of women..

Mr Hikaumba stressed that the law requirements states that a female worker could access paid maternity leave after every two years but it was disadvantageous in cases where employers offered yearly contracts rather than long-term employment conditions.

Mr Hikaumba said it was also proved problematic where female professionals changed jobs and had to wait for another two years saying employers should realize that in modern times family planning was fashionable and female workers would not frequently request maternity leave if the ideal seven-plus months were provided for.

He called on employers in the country to seriously consider providing child care facilities at places of work so that breast feeding mothers could bring their child minders to work.

He added that nutrition of the baby was crucial and mothers could not constrain their new-born children because of restrictions at work.

Mr Hikaumba called on the Ministry of Labour to make sure that employers enforce current maternity laws and also revise those restrictive provisions.

The regretted that the ministry is under-staffed that could help clump down and conduct monitoring of human resource management at places of work.

ZANIS