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Mr Banda taking an oath during his inuarguration November 2008The Forum for Political Parties (FPP) has congratulated
President Rupiah Banda on his 1st anniversary as Republican President.
FPP Chief Spokesperson Charles Kafumbo says the road for Mr. Banda as Republican President has not been smooth but that he proved to be a strong and focused man.
Mr. Kafumbo told ZANIS in an interview in Lusaka yesterday that the one year that Mr. Banda has been President a lot of people have insulted and called him names and yet he has not lost direction.
Mr. Kafumbo said it was his organization’s prayer that God may grant President Banda good health and more wisdom on how best to rule the country.
Meanwhile, Mr. Kafumbo has urged President Banda to urgently convene at an inter-party meeting to address issue of violence in political parties in the country..
Mr. Kafumbo said if the political party violence, if not properly addressed and handled can led to loss of lives.
President Banda was inaugurated as fourth Republican President on November 2 after the death of President Levy Mwanawasa.
A youth activist in Lufwanyama has appealed to government through the Ministry of Health to conduct a mobile male circumcision programme in the district to reduce the spread of HIV/AIDS.
Speaking in an interview with ZANIS in Kitwe, Fairchild Fundanga said there is a high demand for male circumcision among the youths who have been enlightened that the operation reduces the spread of HIV/AIDS.
Mr Fundanga said the youths are currently turning to traditional circumcision methods in their efforts to protect themselves from the HIV/AIDS pandemic.
He noted that the traditional circumcision methods being used were posing a health risk including HIV/AIDS infection due to the use of unsterilized equipment.
Mr Fundanga appealed to government to intervene and provide safer circumcision operations in the district.
He noted that there was also need to educate traditional circumcision experts in rural areas on how to sterilize their equipment.
Male circumcision has been approved to be effective in reducing chances of contracting HIV/AIDS and most Zambian men are slowly accepting the operation in a bid to protect themselves from the pandemic.
winstone zuluWinstone Zulu, one of the world’s leading activists against
the spread of HIV/AIDS and TB says there is need for collaboration between government and TB centers in the country if the fight against the disease is to be won.
Global Friends in Action Program Manager Winston Zulu says despite the disease being in existence for more than 120 years, people have not fully understood it due to lack of adequate information compared to that of HIV/AIDS.
Winstone Zulu became the first individual in Zambia to publicly acknowledge being HIV positive.He has been living with HIV and AIDS since 1990, and became sick with – and was cured of – TB in 1997. He watched four of his brothers die of TB, as a result of a lack of access to the drugs that would have cured them and extended their lives.He’s since become the preeminent global advocate on the dangers posed by the increasing spread of TB throughout the developing world.[quote]
He’s one of the few TB survivors who continuously remind us that TB is the leading cause of death for those with HIV.
Mr Zulu has urged government to come up with programs that would adequately raise TB awareness in communities so that people understand the disease including its medication.
Mr Zulu told ZANIS in an interview in Lusaka that lack of access to TB information and medications has played a role in the increase of TB cases although it is curable.
He was once quoted as saying “It’s difficult to get drugs in some rural areas,but the strange thing is that you can find Coca-Cola almost everywhere.”
Meanwhile Mr. Zulu has said his organization, with financial assistance from the Catholic Church in the USA, has embarked on a campaign to empower people living with TB by building them houses and improving their diets.
He said the initiative which started 3 years ago has seen the construction of 10 houses out of the targeted 100 units in Kabwe’s Makulu Township.
Mr Zulu said the process has been slow due to inadequate resources and non-availability of land for the structures.
And Mr Zulu disclosed his organization has constructed a multipurpose community centre and also intends to build a secondary in the same area..
Paramount chiefs Gawa Undi and Mpezeni, chiefs Madzimawe and Maguya during burial Of Michael Daka, elder brother of chief Undi at Mkaika royal grave in Katete
Of late, the behavior of some of our chiefs has become inimical to the functioning of a vibrant and peaceful multi-party political system that we are attempting to create. I have two examples of such behavior.
The first example relates to Paramount Chief Chitimukulu, who has been quoted by Chibaula Silwamba of The Post Newspaper as having said the following in an article entitled “Chitimukulu Vents His Frustration on The Post” of October 23, 2009:
“We have to be on the side of the governing party and the government. There is no chief who could be on the side of opposition political parties. I can never be on the side of an opposition political party.”
In an article by Ernest Chanda of The Post Newspaper dated November 1, 2009 entitled “Chief Puta Bans PF Activities,” Chief Puta is quoted as having banned Patriotic Front (PF) activities in his chiefdom on grounds that the party’s leadership is opposed to former Republican president Frederick Chiluba’s acquittal. In the same article, he is also accused of having tried to block the nomination of a PF candidate for the November 19, 2009 local government elections.
Since independence in October 1964, there have been complaints and sentiments from some segments of Zambian society about the use of traditional leaders by ruling political parties to gain political advantage, particularly during political campaigns. The revelation that chieftains in the Eastern province were consulted in the process of picking an MMD candidate for the Milanzi parliamentary by-election last year, and that the Republican president urged chiefs to support the MMD candidate in the Chitambo parliamentary by-election this year, are cases in point.
If we are not careful, we could be paving the way for anarchy in our 286 chiefdoms by pushing chieftains into the political arena. We could be planting the seeds of destruction for the Zambian nation, and for our nascent democracy; we could be starting a vicious fire for our children and grandchildren to extinguish—and they will not judge us kindly if we leave them a country that will be in flames!
I believe very strongly that the partisan stance by some of our chiefs is partly promoted by the subsidies, electrification of palaces and the car loans extended to them through the office of the Republican president.
I, therefore, wish to call upon President Banda to initiate, by Executive Order, the removal of public assistance to chiefs from the office of the Republican president and placed under the aegis of the Parliamentary Committee on Local Governance, Housing and Chiefs’ Affairs in order to forestall any suspicions that assistance to chiefs is designed to woo their support for the ruling political party during elections.
There is also a need to uphold Articles 65 (clauses 3 and 4) and 129 of the 1996 Republican constitution (as recommended by the National Constitutional Conference), which bar chieftains from participating in or joining partisan politics unless they formally abdicate their traditional leadership roles. If they are allowed to participate in partisan politics, they can consciously or otherwise abuse the absolute traditional authority they wield by imposing their political views and choices on their subjects — a situation which can lead to tribal politics in our country.
Moreover, traditional leaders’ participation in politics can lead to the disintegration of their chiefdoms. Let us consider a number of scenarios which can culminate in such a situation.
Firstly, a chieftain is, ideally, an impartial leader of all the people in his or her chiefdom regardless of their political affiliations. However, his or her participation in partisan politics can inevitably place him or her in an adversarial position against subjects who may have different political alignments.
Secondly, the political arena naturally requires participants to advocate certain causes and articulate their ideological convictions which, for a traditional leader, are likely to be at variance with the causes and convictions of some of his or her subjects. Thirdly, partisan politics is fraught with slander, snobbery and discourtesies to which traditional leaders can choose to subject themselves only at the immense cost of losing the abounding and unconditional respect accorded to them by their subjects.
Further, chieftains’ participation in active politics can frustrate efforts aimed at creating a level playing field for all political contestants, since they (the chieftains) already have a faithful following in their areas of jurisdiction.
We would do well to address allegations of election-rigging, vote-buying, intimidation, and access to public resources by the ruling political party without opening up other avenues for unfair political advantage.
The Zambia Direct Democracy Movement (ZDDM) says there is need for government to undertake investigations and prosecute those found guilty of abuse of authority in the disbanded Task Force on Corruption.
ZDDM National Coordinator Edwin Sakala says despite the many financial irregularities revealed by the Auditor Generals report, government has still remained mute over the arrests of the perpetrators within the organization.
He alleged that ZDDM was aware that former Task Force Chairman Marks Nkole had illegally awarded contracts to foreign firms in the United Kingdom without following the normal tender procedures but has not been arrested.
Mr. Sakala stated this in a press statement made available to ZANIS in Lusaka today. He said government must fully investigate all the financial irregularities and allow the law to take its course on those found wanting.
Mr. Sakala added that in the interest of justice, government through the Vice President should allow all the people injured by the Task Force operations through illegal arrests, prosecutions and seizure of their property to be given an opportunity to seek legal redress.
The Zambia National Education Coalition (ZNEC) has expressed displeasure with the decision taken by University of Zambia (UNZA) not to allow about 200 students to sit for their examination due to non settlement of tuition fees. ZNEC Executive Director Miriam Chinyama says the decision has serious implications on the education standards in the country.
Speaking in an interview with ZANIS in Lusaka today, Mrs. Chinyama noted that de-registering students during examination time is likely to impact negatively not only on the people affected but the nation as a whole. She said the decision taken by the UNZA management has a possibility to affect the school calendar and the out come of examination results because most of the students will be demoralized and fail to concentrate on their studies. Mrs. Chinyama said the move by the UNZA management is detrimental to the development of the country because students that have not been allowed to sit for exams will be deprived of an opportunity to contribute to the country’s development.
Meanwhile, Mrs. Chinyama has appealed to UNZA management to rescind its decision and allow the affected students sit for their exams. She advised management to engage the affected students in constructive dialogue and agree on how they would settle their outstanding balances. The ZNEC chief suggested that management should withhold the results and release them only when the students settle all the fees. Mrs. Chinyama has also urged students not to relent or lose hope and concentration but to continue working hard for the betterment of the country. Over 200 UNZA students were last week de-registered and were not allowed to sit for the exams which started yesterday because of non-payment of tuition fees.
Government says there is need for the country to continue putting in place measures to effectively prevent and control the spread of the Highly Pathogenic Avian Influenza (HPAI) commonly known as bird flu.
Central Province Permanent Secretary Denny Lumbama said in Kabwe yesterday that if not properly managed, the disease had the potential to spread rapidly and escalate to pandemic proportions.
Mr. Lumbama said this is the reason why government has continued to play a proactive role and was paying great attention to the preparedness programmes.
He was speaking at the Influenza rapid response Training programme held at Tuskers hotel and supported by STOP-AI, an organization based in the United States of America.
Mr. Lumbama noted that although Zambia was free of the disease, the country was at high risk of getting bird flu because of the migratory birds that visited Zambia from other parts of the world.
He said trade in poultry and poultry products and increased human traffic also put the country at high risk.
Mr. Lumbama said government created an Avian Influenza Task Force whose mandate was to put in place measures to prevent the spread of the disease. He said that in the case that the country is affected, the task force should prevent the disease from further spreading to other parts of the country.
Opposition Patriotic Front (PF) Mufulira Member of Parliament (MP) Marjory Mwape has expressed concern over the state of the Sabina-Mufulira road.
Ms. Mwape says it is disappointing that Sabina – Mufulira road which was constructed last year has completely been damaged making it difficult for motorist and traveling public to use it.
She told ZANIS in an interview in Lusaka today that the road was washed away during the last rainy season but has not been rehabilitated.
Ms. Mwape said it was strange that instead of admitting that the road was poorly done, the contractor was attributing the damage to heavy rains last season.
She noted that government was spending a lot of taxpayer’s money to engage contractors who are in turn doing shoddy works.
The MP said government would continue losing colossal sums of money to contractors on the same roads if it does not take action against such contractors.
She has since urged the Road Development Agency (RDA) to contract construction companies that can do a good job.
Ms. Mwape has since threatened to take legal action against the contractor on behalf of the people of Mufulira, if government does not take any action.
THE Government has said service delivery in health institutions, including AIDS treatment has continued to worsen due to the withholding of funds by some donors and has asked them to resume funding.
In a related development, Netherlands ambassador to Zambia Harry Mollenar said his country was considering resuming funding to the ministry of Health, which it froze after it emerged that some officials had stolen money intended to improve service delivery.
Ministry of Health Permanent Secretary Velepi Mtonga said provision of drugs, including anti-retrovirals to persons living with HIV/AIDS had been adversely affected by the action taken by the donors to freeze $33 million for her ministry.
Dr Mtonga said in an interview in Lusaka that partners were key to the delivery of treatment to people living with HIV/AIDS whose health was at risk of deteriorating if the donors continued holding on to the funds.
“Government fully acknowledges the impact of the withheld funds by partners and it is doing everything possible to get to the root cause of the problem and to correct it but as that is being done, we need the funds to offer services to the people,” she said.
She said the Ministry of Health was ready to work with cooperating partners to improve service delivery for the benefit of the people.
She said the Government alone could not provide what the people, including those seeking HIV treatment, needed because the resources were not sufficient.
Dr Mtonga said the country had learnt enough lessons by the action taken by the cooperating partners and would be on the look-out for any wrong-doing by the people working in the health sector in future.
She said there was, however, a lot of work that needed to be done to avoid any such situations in future and urged cooperating partners to find other ways of expressing their dissatisfaction to misappropriation of funds other than with-holding them.
[Times of Zambia]
Indeni Oil Refinery in NdolaChief Government Spokesperson Ronnie Shikapwasha has assured the nation that there is enough fuel in the country and that there should be no panicky purchases among motorists.
And Lieutenant General Shikapwasha has dispelled the insinuation from some quarters that government is shifting goal posts with regard to the supply of fuel situation, and maintained that the fuel supply situation in the country will be normalized over the weekend and onwards when Indeni resumes operations.
Lt-Gen Shikapwasha said in Lusaka today that 1.705 million litres of petrol and 1.5million litres of diesel will be distributed to eight provinces, with Lusaka receiving the bulky for each of the two commodities.
Lt-Gen Shikapwasha said this in Lusaka today at a press briefing.
Lt-Gen Shikapwasha, who is also Information and Broadcasting Services Minister said 19 tankers offloaded petrol at TAZAMA in Ndola making a total of 1,705,000 litres out of which a big portion will be given to Oil Marketing Companies (OMCs) to distribute while the rest 700,000 will be consumed in the country on a daily basis.
He said 40 tankers transport fuel on a daily basis that are entering Zambia and bemoaned that the Southern Africa hasn’t got enough tankers to transport the commodity.
He further said diesel consumption in the country is close to one million while 700,000 litres of petrol are consumed in Zambia on a daily basis.
He said Total, Engen, Kobil, Petropda, Oyrx, Sperctra and Pegasus that are receiving fuel imports and these imports that are now supplementing the government imports.
Meanwhile, answering questions from Journalists, Lt-Gen Shikapwasha says government is still negotiating with Indeni on the offer shares.
He explained that government was going ahead to buy the shares at Total but indicated that a large share will be floated to the government and the rest Total will decide what to do with the shares.
Lt-Gen Shikapwasha said government is prospecting to open oil stations in the Gwembe valley in the Southern and in the North-Western province where huge quantities of crude oil has been discovered.
He said Zambia cannot import crude oil from neighboring Angola because of the lack of communication infrastructure like railways line and pipe line to transport the crude oil unlike on the Copperbelt where all the facilities were readily available.
And the Chief Government Spokesperson has lashed out at Forum for Democracy and Development president Edith Nawakwi for undermining government operations.
Lt-Gen Shikapwasha said government is working at full capacity and doing everything possible to improve the economy steadily and the Rupiah Banda administration should be appreciated and on merit and not criticized unnecessarily even amid this fuel crisis.
He revealed that Zambia experienced a lot of challenges such as the Carlingtone maize deal when Ms. Nawakwi was minister in the second republic.
President Rupiah Banda`s son Henry with his wifePresident Rupiah Banda has appealed to politicians, especially former Vice President Enock Kavindele to leave his family out of politics of hatred and mudslinging.
President Banda says he is very saddened with the emerging culture of hatred and misinformation in the country where politicians make unsubstantiated statements on things they know to be totally false.
This is contained in a press release made available to ZANIS in Lusaka today by President Banda’s Special Assistant to the President for Press and Public Relations Dickson Jere.
The President appealed to politicians, especially his opponents, to refrain from dragging his children in mudslinging and smear campaigns which he said they had launched for some time now.
President Banda advised politicians to let his children to lead a quiet life, especially those involved in business, adding that they were running their companies successfully even before he was recalled from retirement to become Vice President in 2006.
He reminded Mr. Kavindele to be sincere with his attacks particularly that it was he when he served as Vice President, who pleaded with the nation not to judge him based on his son, Enock Kavindele Junior’s involvement in the TST oil procurement problems.
The President said Mr. Kavindele rightly argued that his son was old enough to carry out any business transaction without his father’s help and wondered what the difference was with his children.
President Banda disclosed that Mr. Kavindele had approached him over his business problems with the North-Western Railway Company but could not help him instantly without consulting widely.
Attorney-General Mumba Malila says the disbanding of the Task Force on corruption will not affect cases that are still before the courts of law.
Mr. Malila also says the move will not affect the on-going investigations which where initiated by the task force on corruption.
The Attorney-General says corruption cases that the Task Force was prosecuting and those under investigations before its disbandment will be ably dealt with by the Anti-Corruption Commission (ACC).
Mr. Malila told ZANIS in an interview in Lusaka today that the transformation of the Task Force into a department in the ACC does not mean the corruption cases it was pursuing would be done away with.
He said the ACC will take up the cases and ensure that they are dealt with in the usual independent manner that it has always carried out its mandate.
The Attorney General said government will continue providing the necessary support to the commission to ensure the fight against corruption was effectively undertaken in the country.
There have been growing concerns from some quarters of society that the disbanding of the Task Force on corruption would have a negative effect on some cases which are still before the courts of law and those under investigations.
Chief Nkambo of the Lamba people in Masaiti district has called on government to enact a law that would criminalize the brewing, selling and consumption of Kachasu.
The chief said Kachasu, which is a colourless distilled alcoholic drink with high alcohol content, has a lot of devastating effects on consumers’ health and national development.
He said this over the weekend during the Chibalankata traditional ceremony in senior chief Mushili’s chiefdom on the Copperbelt province.
He said the brewing, selling, buying and consumption of Kachasu has been devastating for his subjects and subjects of the surrounding chiefdoms.
Chief Nkambo explained that many vibrant youths, who were supposed to be catalysts of national development at chiefdom level, were incapacitated because they were drinking the liquor every day.
He said many young people were addicted to Kachasu and have since turned into liabilities in the chiefdom.
He said young men and women were getting drunk early in the day and remained unproductive the rest of the day, which he said had an effect on the utilization of time, human resource and other requirements for development.
Chief Nkambo further observed that youths addicted to drinking Kachasu were also found in many other parts of the country apart from his chiefdom.
He has since called on Members of Parliament (MPs) to consider enacting a law that would make the production, trading and consumption of the liquor a punishable offence.He said this action would help youths to be responsible for their personal and community development.
The traditional ruler also called for the promotion of the education of the girl child saying education was the key to a better life.He said girl children should be empowered through education so that they could also increase their opportunities to a meaningful contribution towards national development.
