Government says it has no plans of privatizing the Zambia Postal Services (ZamPost) because it is running profitably.

Transport and Communication and Transport Deputy minister Mubika Mubika said government is however planning to commercialize the institution to make it more effective.

Mr. Mubika said this in parliament today, in response to Chilupi Member of Parliament (MP) Davis Mwila question who wanted to know whether government will privatize ZamPost.

He said privatizing of the company might result into difficulties in communication for people in the rural areas who depend on the company for their communication need.

He said government is recognizes the importance of postal service to the people especially in rural areas adding that privatizing it might result in them being disadvantaged as private firms might not be interested in going to rural areas.

The minister said government will however try to construct new post offices in areas that do not have.
Meanwhile the Minister has told parliament that government gave the institution over K1 billion in aid grant from 2006 to 2008.

And Mr. Mubika has further told parliament that government will appoint the board members for the institution once it receives the nominations.
ZANIS

OPPOSITION Patriotic Front (PF) president Michael Sata says the PF-United Party for National Development members of Parliament will not move the planned impeachment motion against President Banda in this sitting of Parliament, citing lack of time.

The MPs of the PF-UPND pact were today expected to present the motion for impeachment of Mr Banda following the expiry of the 14-day notice given to Speaker of National Assembly, Amusaa Mwanamwambwa.

A law firm representing the pact, Wynter Kabimba and Company, wrote to the Speaker on July 21 giving notice to present a motion of impeachment after 14 days of receipt of the letter.

Mr Sata said in an interview in Lusaka yesterday that the PF-UPND are unable to present the motion because the house will be adjourning next week.

He said the motion will not be presented because the MPs will not have enough time to pursue it.

Mr Sata, however, claimed the pact has gathered enough support from the House to move the motion to impeach President Banda.

“Parliament will soon be rising (adjourning) hence we do not want to be caught up in that move. We won’t be able to present the motion now because we do not want the motion to be caught up in other business of the house.

“Let people not panic because we have the right number of members of Parliament to support the impeachment. It is just that the period left before the House adjourns in this sitting is inadequate,” Mr Sata said.

He said the pact will present the motion when Parliament is sitting for a longer period.

“We are definitely on track with the motion and it will only be presented when the house is sitting for a longer period because then we will have enough time to adequately pursue it,” Mr Sata said.[quote]

But Parliamentary Chief Whip Vernon Mwaanga said in a separate interview in Lusaka yesterday that the move by the pact to defer the impeachment motion to another sitting of Parliament is a clear indication that it has failed to raise the required MPs to support it.

Mr Mwaanga said the motion of impeachment was a non-starter and that the pact is hoping to gather more people to support the move before the next sitting of Parliament.

“This move by the pact is a nice way to say they have failed the intended motion and it is clear they (pact) do not have the right number of MPs to support the motion.

“ They should have known that moving an impeachment motion is not an easy thing and to talk of this proposed motion is meaningless because they do not have solid reasons to initiate such a move,” Mr Mwaanga said.

He said the pact should concentrate on issues that would help develop the nation as opposed to politicising everything being done by Government and coming up with fictitious impeachment ideas.

Mr Mwaanga said the pact has more serious things to worry about such as the Chitambo Parliamentary by-elections where it will suffer defeat.

“The problem we have is our politicians are now fond of politicising everything that Government does and as a result they have turned to bring up all sorts of issues such as impeachment which does not even carry weight.

“Let the pact concentrate on the campaigns in Chitambo because if they lose, which I expect to happen, the pact will fall off. Let them prove what the pact is made of instead of deceiving the nation.

The pact definitely does not have 53 MPs to sign the impeachment motion,” Mr Mwaanga said.

And Chief Government spokesperson Ronnie Shikapwasha has advised the PF-UPND pact to split because it is worthless.

Lieutenant-General Shikapwasha said the pact is wasting Zambians’ time because it has no clear vision on what it wants to achieve.

He said the two political parties will have a clear vision when they operate as individual parties and not as a pact.

Gen Shikapwasha, who is Minister of Information and Broadcasting Services, said in an interview yesterday from Serenje that the pact was a failure from the start on the impeachment proposal because it has no concrete reasons for trying to impeach President Banda.

“I said it from the start that this pact is going to fail because they have no ground to move the impeachment motion and actually even some of his (Mr Sata) members of Parliament are not in support of this motion because it is baseless.

“Even people in the Diaspora have strongly condemned this move and so the statement by the PF leader is an indication that they have failed to carry out the impeachment motion because they have no solid ground,” he said.

[Zambia Daily Mail]

INFORMATION and Broadcasting Services Minister Ronnie, Shikapwasha has appealed to media bodies not to demonstrate against the harassment of journalists by MMD cadres, as some politicians may take advantage and disturb the country’s peace.

The spokesperson for the media bodies Henry Kabwe, however, said journalists would proceed with their plan to petition President Rupiah Banda and would ensure that peace was not disrupted.

Lieutenant-General Shikapwasha said in an interview in Lusaka yesterday that the harassment of journalists was receiving due attention by the president and his ministry.

He said the media bodies could only send their letter of petition to the president without necessarily demonstrating.

Last week, MMD cadres beat up Times of Zambia senior reporter, Anthony Mulowa, photojournalist Richard Mulonga and Chibaula Silwamba from The Post newspapers.

“It is not necessary to demonstrate because the president has already spoken on the matter and the speaker of the National Assembly has instructed that I, as minister responsible issues a ministerial statement,” Gen Shikapwasha said.

“If journalists demonstrate, politicians and other people with wrong agendas may take advantage and cause problems,” he said.

Gen Shikapwasha said as much as it was a constitutional right for media bodies to hold peaceful demonstrations, the Government felt that an amicable solution could be found through dialogue.

“The media institutions have the right to speak out on many issues but we have to work together and find solutions to all the problems,” Gen Shikapwasha said.

On Sunday, media bodies said that they would petition President Banda on the continuous harassment of journalists by MMD cadres.

The bodies included the Media Institute of Southern Africa Zambia chapter, Press Association of Zambia, Zambia Union of Journalists and the Press Freedom Committee of The Post.

The rest are the Zambia Media Women Association , Zambia Union of Broadcasters and other Information Disseminators, PANOS Zambia and the Zambia Community Media Forum.

The organisations said they would this Friday march to State House and petition the president and ensure that action is taken against perpetrators of violence.

[Times of Zambia]

Dr Chiluba said in Kitwe that young people who were insulting President Banda were going against the teachings of the Bible on respecting old people and would reap what they were sowing.

Speaking on Sunday at Living Water Global Ministries Church in Kitwe, Dr Chiluba said those who were insulting people who were old enough to be their parents should not blame anybody for the bad luck that they could encounter in their lives.

He said the country would only receive God’s blessings if the people embraced dialogue and followed the teachings of God.

He said it was imperative that Zambians should embark on reconciliation for the country to continue receiving blessings from God.

“In the Bible, we are told to respect our parents. When we are told to respect our parents, it does not mean that only our biological fathers and mothers alone but all those who are old enough to be our father or mother.

“Those who are insulting President Banda are just cursing themselves because they are going against the teachings of the Bible, which talks about respecting our parents,” he said.

Dr Chiluba urged the Government to strengthen its relationship with Israel because it was a blessed country and Zambia stood to benefit a lot from the good relationship of the two countries.

He said when he became Republican president, he restored the relationship between Zambia and Israel because the Middle East country was a blessed state.[quote]

He said God had used him to restore Zambia’s relationship with Israel and it was imperative that the present Government strengthened the existing ties.

“I restored the relationship with Israel because I knew that Israel was a blessed nation. Just after restoring the relationship with Israel, the shortages of essential commodities like sugar, mealie meal and others came to an end,” he said.

Dr Chiluba said he was happy that people had appreciated his decision to sell houses to sitting tenants and that he did not regret having made such a decision.

He said he could not imagine what life would have been for retirees and retrenchees if he had listened to those who were against selling houses to sitting tenants.

“The mines were in Zambia and the people who were working in the mines that had produced the money to build the houses were Zambians and so, it was just fair that I sold them houses so that they could benefit,” he said.

Steven Mwakibinga said the sale of houses to sitting tenants and the coming up of many churches were some of the good things that Dr Chiluba did for the country.

Pastor Mwakibinga said it was good that following Dr Chiluba’s declaration of Zambia as a Christian nation, a lot of churches came up.

He said it was good that President Banda also wanted Zambia to remain as a Christian nation, and urged other Zambians to support the declaration of Zambia a Christian nation.

[Times of Zambia]

President Rupiah Banda says peace is a prerequisite condition for attracting investors into the country.

President Banda says foreign investment would only come into the country if stability is assured.

Mr. Banda was speaking today at a rally to drum up support for the Movement for Multiparty Democracy (MMD) candidate in the Chitambo Constituency parliamentary by-election Dr. Solomon Musonda at Chitambo Basic School.

President Banda said he would fight those trying to promote tribalism and divide the country.

He called upon all Zambians to have a clear vision and build a Zambia ideal for prosperity.[quote]

He pointed out that when investors come into the country this would translate into job creation.

Mr. Banda said those instigating actions that would result into the instability of the country were enemies of development.

He said government was focused and determined to encourage the setting up of manufacturing firms and would encourage the opening up of new mines in a bid to address the obtaining unemployment levels in the country.

Mr. Banda said it is therefore wrong for the some opposition leaders to say that government was not doing anything to move the nation forward.

He said the MMD was fielding Dr. Musonda in a bid to sustain development efforts in the area.

And speaking letter at Mukando Basic School, President Banda cautioned United Party for National Development leader Hakainde Hichilema against using insulting language towards him.

Mr. Banda said the UPND leader should not join in the cousinship exchange of words between him and Patriotic Front (PF) leader Michael Sata.

On the partial privatization of ZAMTEL, Mr. Banda said there was nothing irregular about the move to partially privatize the company.

He said the move was inevitable as the company was facing financial difficulties and needed to be recapitalized.

The ruling Movement for Multiparty Democracy (MMD), the Patriotic Front (PF) and United Party for National Development UPND pact, the Forum for Democracy and Development (FDD) and the United National Independence Party (UNIP) candidates are contesting the parliamentary by-election in Chitambo Constituency.

Dr. Solomon Musonda will stand on the MMD ticket and Chanda Mutale will contest for the seat on the PF ticket. FDD would be represented by Evans Chola, while UNIP is fielding Timothy Kapolo.

The Chitambo by-election which has been slated for August 13 was necessitated by the death of area member of parliament Nasim Hamir.

ZANIS

Former Kasama Central Constituency Member of Parliament Saviour  Chishimba says youths must take up leadership roles and contribute to national development.

Dr Chishimba made the pronouncements today during the official launch of the United Progressive People (UPP) party at Broadway Cinema Hall today.

He said currently the country lacks transformational leaders who need to spearhead developmental projects.

Dr Chishimba explained that the UPP had come with a gentle but revolutionary voice and that it would stand the test of time as it was founded on sound principles.

Speaking earlier, UPP Chairperson Mable Manda said the party would in the next three months hold a party convention where party leaders would be elected into office.

And party General Secretary Carolyn Nanyangwe said the people of Zambia had for the past 45 years yearned for a leadership that guaranteed justice and dignity for all.

ZANIS

the Government to evaluate the work of the Task Force on Corruption considering the huge amount of money that is paid to lawyers on the investigative wing.

TIZ president, Reuben Lifuka said in an interview in Lusaka that if an evaluation process was undertaken, the Government would draw up lessons on how best to set up the financial intelligence unit under the Anti-Corruption Commission (ACC).[quote]

Justice Deputy Minister, Todd Chilembo last week told Parliament that the Government had this year budgeted US$720,000 for legal fees for local lawyers on the task force.

“While we appreciate that fighting corruption is expensive, the results should justify these huge expenses. “We want to urge the Government to conduct a thorough evaluation of using a task force to investigate and prosecute high-profile corruption cases and use these lessons as it embarks upon setting up the serious frauds unit or the financial intelligence unit,” Mr Lifuka said.

He said the TIZ had for some time been concerned with the design of the task force and its subsequent operations especially in terms of securing the services of private legal practitioners.

He said one of the reasons advanced for setting up the task force was that experts from the different law enforcement agencies would be pooled together and, thus, ensure success in the investigation and prosecution of high-profile cases. “The engagement of private legal practitioners is a clear indication that the task force on its own lacks the necessary technical capacity. The payment of $700,000 each year would not be necessary if Government had concentrated on developing the institutional and technical capacity of the ACC.

“This is not to say we do not recognise some of the important successes scored by the task force, but we are convinced that it is an expensive undertaking,” Mr Lifuka said. He said part of the money being paid to private lawyers on the task force could have been used to strengthen the work of the ACC.

“The unfortunate part of this whole episode is that it is possible that despite Government spending such colossal sums on lawyers and other operational costs, little may come out of the several court cases,” Mr Lifuka said.
[Times of Zambia]