United Party for National Development -UPND- Namwala Member of Parliament ROBBIE CHIZYUKA has been expelled from the party.

The Party says Major CHIZYUKA has failed to exculpate himself against the charges leveled against him for being against the UPND Pact with the PF.

UPND Spokesperson CHARLES KAKOMA told a media briefing that the Speaker of the National Assembly has been notified of the development and has been requested to declare the seat vacant.

When contacted for a comment Major CHIZYUKA said he is consulting his lawyers on the next course of action.

[ZNBC]

The United Party for National Development (UPND) and the Patriotic Front (PF) Pact have adopted Watson Lumba as their candidate for the Solwezi Central Parliamentary by-elections.

Speaking at a PF/ UPND press briefing in Lusaka toady, PF spokesperson Given Lubinda said Mr. Lumba will stand on the UPND ticket.

Mr. Lubinda said Mr Lumba has been an active politician in Solwezi and chairman of the government contracts committee in the National Management Committee (NMC) of the UPND.

He the pact is confident that the pact will scoop the seat in Solwezi because the pact is becoming sharper and clearer.

Mr. Lubinda has since called on the electorate in Solwezi Central Constituency to vote for Mr. Lumba.

The seat fell vacant after the death of Solwezi MMD area Member of Parliament (MP) Ben Tetamashimba and the Electoral Commission of Zambia (ECZ) has set November 19th 2009 as the date of elections.

Speaking earlier UPND Chairperson for Information and Publicity Charles Kakoma announced that the party yesterday expelled Namwala Member of Parliament (MP) Major Robbie Chizyuka.

Mr. Kakoma said the expulsion comes as a result of Mr. Chizyuka’s gross misconduct which has caused discontent and despondency in the pact.

He explained that the party has since written to Mr. Chizyuka’s lawyers who have since responded on the matter.

Mr. Kakoma further explained that the Speaker of the National Assembly has also been informed and advised to declare the Namwala constituency seat vacant.

He further said the Southern Province MMD have welcomed the move to expel the area MP.

ZANIS

The Movement for Multi Party Democracy (MMD) Mukangala ward councilor Francis Kanema has scooped the council chairmanship through votes casted in Mwinilunga district.

The seat was tightly contested between MMD councilor Kanema and UPND Mulumbi ward councilor William Mukangla, both councilors failed to beat each through the ballot.

The first round of voting both MMD and UPND councilors scored 12 votes each out of the 24 votes casted, second round the councilor still failed to beat each other as they scored 12 votes each.

The full council went for the third round of voting; still a deadlock could not be reached as the two candidates scored 12 votes each from the 24 votes cast.

A lot was used to decide the winner of the position of the council chairperson, through a lot Councilor Kanema managed to beat his reveal councilor Mukangala

And addressing the full council shortly after being declared a winner by the electoral officer Munganga Shadrick , Councilor Kanema assured the both MMD and UPND councilors that he would work towards improving the operations of the council.

He said wining through a lot was a bad sign, hence the need to improve the operations of the council.

Chairperson noted that the poor performance of the council has attributed to some councilors from the MMD to vote for UPND.He stressed that his office remains open to the councilors despite their political affiliation.

Meanwhile the position of vice chairperson went to MMD IKelenge ward councilor Eriton Kabola who went an opposed.

[ZANIS]

SPEAKER of the National Assembly Amusaa Mwanamwambwa yesterday warned members of the Patriotic Front (PF) and the United Party for National Development (UPND) to desist from referring the electoral pact when in Parliament.

Mr Mwanamwambwa said the electorate voted for the MPs based on their respective political parties and not the pact and as such, the members should avoid talking about it.

The speaker said this after Chinsali MP Christopher Mulenga (PF), during the debate on the 2010 national Budget said he was happy that the pact had a new member named Geoffrey Mwamba of PF.

“Be mindful of what the constitution states, you are in this House through a political party process or independent. If you constantly bring in things that are not in the provisions of the constitution, you are confusing the voters,” Mr Mwanamwambwa said.

“The voters want to know if you belong to the UPND, PF or MMD. Nobody will stop you from talking about the pact outside the chambers,” Mr Mwanamwambwa said.

Contributing to the debate on the 2010 Budget, Moomba MP Vitalis Mooya (UPND) said the construction industry in the nation was not growing as fast as it should because Government-funded projects were taking long to complete thereby increasing costs.

Mr Mooya said for instance, the construction of the Dag Hammarskjold Stadium in Ndola was much lower in the 1980s but because of the delays, the total cost was in 2009 estimated at more than K 300 billion.

According to the world economic report on construction, Zambia was ranked 125 out of the 129 countries surveyed.

Chilanga MP Ng’andu Magande (MMD) said as much as he supported the Budget, he was not comfortable that it did not highlight the activities that would be undertaken during the year.

It was important that the Government was transparent, accountable and adhered to the tenets of good governance so that donors could continue assisting in the development projects.

“If rules and laws are not followed to the letter, that is corruption. Reduction in donor aid could have been avoided if we are perceived to be a country that is seen to be fighting corruption,” Mr. Magande said.

Finance and National Planning Deputy Minister, Chilesehe Kapwepwe told the House that the daily revenue collection by the Zambia Revenue Authority at Nakonde border post for the period 2005 was K829.1 million, in 2006, K 801.0 million, in 2007, K 1,375.7 million and in 2008 it was K1, 507.9 million.

She said this in response to a question by Chinsali Central MP Christopher Mulenga (PF) who wanted to know how much was collected at the border post on a daily basis in the said years.

Mr Mulenga also wanted to know how much revenue was collected at the same border post from 2005 to 2008 year by year.

[Times of Zambia]

THE Government has advised people with divergent views over sale of ZAMTEL to allow the Zambia Development Agency (ZDA) to do its work professionally.

Chief Government spokesperson Ronnie Shikapwasha said the Government had confidence in ZDA and felt that it would carry out the sale of ZAMTEL competently.

In an interview in Lusaka yesterday, Lieutenant General Shikapwasha, who is also Information and Broadcasting Minister, said the calls by some sections of society to block the sale of Zamtel were not being done in good faith.

He said the Government would continue to allow the ZDA to conduct their work in a professional manner as the agency had capable men and women who would conduct the sale of the company in the interest of the nation.

“My advice to those opposed to the sale of ZAMTEL is that they should allow ZDA to do the work professionally. This tendency of critising everything will not help us,” he said.

He said the decision to sell Zamtel was being done in good faith and wondered why some people were critising the move which was aimed at serving the company from total collapse.

The Government had no hand in the sale of ZAMTEL and it was for this reason that it had allowed the agency to the work without interference.

Last week, ZDA announced that two of India’s biggest telecommunications firms and one of Africa’s largest communication service providers, were among eight foreign companies and consortia that have been shortlisted to buy a stake in ZAMTEL.

South Africa’s Telkom, one of Africa’s largest telecommunications firms in terms of operating revenue and assets is on the list of the shortlisted firms.

Telkom has been pursuing opportunities in Africa since it sold a 15 per cent stake in Vodacom to Britain’s Vodafone for $3 billion.

India’s State-owned Bharat Sanchar Nigam Limited (BSNL) and Mahanagar Telephone Nigam Limited (MTNL), which are both part of a consortium and also looking to buy a 46 per cent stake in Kuwait Mobile firm Zain, also prequalified to bid.

BSNL has cash reserves of more than $7 billion and is the second-largest telecommunications company in India with 57.3 million mobile subscribers and 28.5 million fixed line customers, trailing only Bharti Airtel.

MTNL also operates in Mauritius through a unit called Mahanagar Telephone Mauritius Limited (MTML) and submitted interest in a stake being sold in Nigerian telecommunications firm, Nitel.

The rest are Altimo Holdings or Vimpelcom of Russia, LAP Green Limited or LAP Green Networks of Libya, Portugal Telecom, Orascom Telecom Holdings or Telecel Globe Limited of Egypt as well as UNITEL consortium of Angola.

[Times of Zambia]