CHIEF Singani of Choma district has demanded that Chief Nalubamba must apologise to his fellow chiefs in Southern Province for issuing a misleading statement that President Banda has fallen out of their favour.

Chief Singani was reacting to a statement, attributed to Chief Nalubamba of
Namwala, in one of the local tabloids quoting him has having said that President Rupiah Banda had fallen out of favour of Southern Province chiefs.

Chief Singani said that his chiefdom had benefited tremendously from government support in infrastructural development and other social services.

Speaking in Choma today when he called on district administrative officer Vincent Sikanyela, Chief Singani said he will always remain grateful to the MMD government for the various developmental initiatives which have improved the socio-economic status of his subjects.

He said the MMD government will go down in history as having provided electricity, schools and other developmental projects to his chiefdom.

Chief Singani said for the first time, his chiefdom will have a modern high school, which is currently under construction.

He said it would therefore not be right for some traditional leaders to unfairly criticize the Rupiah Banda led government which is doing everything possible to meet the developmental challenges of the country especially the rural populace.

ZANIS.

First Lady, Thandiwe Banda, has attributed the high number of women dying as a result of pregnancy and childbirth to lack of transport.

Mrs. Banda said only 48 percent of women deliver in health facilities while the majority in rural areas are attended by non-qualified personnel.

She said one woman die every four hours due to complications related to pregnancy and childbirth, a situation which she says needed to be resolved with urgency.

Mrs. Banda said that many of these cases of women dying in childbirth can be avoided if there is transport to ferry them to health centres.

The First Lady said this at State House today when ZamBike presented three Bicycle Ambulances worthy K8.4 Million, for community based Safe Motherhood Action Groups (SMAGS).

And speaking earlier, Zambike Marketing Manager, Chiteau Muyoya said that many women, who die from pregnancy and childbirth related complications, die as a result of walking long distances.

Ms. Muyoya said there is therefore need for transport facilities to be given to people in rural areas to help reduce the high number of women dying from pregnancy and childbirth related complications.

ZANIS.

GOVERNMENT has said the court case involving Vodacom and the Communication Authority (CA) in which the former is seeking to be awarded a cellular mobile licence has nothing to do with the sale of shares in Zamtel.

Chief Government spokesperson, Ronnie Shikapwasha said the Vodacom case had nothing to do with the sale of 75 per cent shares in Zamtel and Government would proceed with the offer of shares to investors.

He was commenting on a statement by former vice-president, Enoch Kavindele that the sale of Zamtel shares could not go ahead until the case in which the State has appealed against a high court’s ruling that Vodacom Zambia was lawfully granted a mobile licence was disposed of.

General Shikapwasha, who is also minister of Information and Broadcasting, said yesterday that Government would continue with the sale of 75 per cent shares in Zamtel because it wanted to save the company from collapsing.

Mr Kavindele said that Zamtel shares could not be sold before the disposal of the case.

He said that he had since instructed his lawyers to institute contempt proceedings against the CA for allowing the sale of Zamtel shares despite the pending case in the Supreme Court.

Mr Kavindele, who is Vodacom Zambia chairman, said at a Press briefing yesterday that the high court ruled that his company still held the fourth cellular mobile licence and there was no way Zamtel could be sold because it meant that another company was being allowed in the country.

He said he had even written a letter to Communications and Transport Minister, Geoffrey Lungwangwa reminding him that the sale of Zamtel could not proceed because the high court injunction restrained the CA from introducing any other cellular telecommunication operator in any form.

“The said injunction, among other restrictions restrains the authority from granting such a licence to any national mobile cellular operator until after the determination of the appeal in the Supreme Court,” reads the letter.

He has also complained against the CA’s decision to issue Zain Zambia a third generation (3G) licence because the same injunction restrained it from granting any licenses relating to telecommunication until the matter was disposed of.

In another letter to Zain Zambia managing director David Holliday, Mr Kavindele said that the CA had recently issued public notices referring to the suspension of issuance of all telecommunication licenses until further notice.

He said he had instructed his lawyers to institute contempt proceedings against the CA and advised Zain Zambia to cease any 3G-related activities with immediate effect failure to which the company may face similar contempt charges.

But Attorney General, Mumba Malila said that he could not comment on the matter because Vodacom Zambia sued the CA and Zamtel adding that his chambers were not handling the case.

[Times of Zambia]

Vice President George Kunda says government will ensure that rural areas are given top priority to cell phone connectivity access
.
Mr Kunda says it is for this reason that government has provided under the Communications Authority , K 59 billion for cell phone connectivity in all parts of the country.

Mr. Kunda says government was working hard to ensure that the whole country including Chitambo district had cell phone connectivity.

He said this during a campaign for the forthcoming Chitambo parliamentary by-election. The campaigns took place in Chipundu, Chalilo and Mpelembe of Serenje district.

Mr. Kunda assured the people of Chitambo constituency that government would facilitate the existence of all three cell phone networks to the area.

He said the people of Serenje district and other rural parts of the country needed to be connected to their relatives.[quote]

Mr. Kunda also challenged the PF/UPND pact to show the people of Zambia land which they alleged he ( the Vice President ) sold to Chinese investors.

He said the pact should identify which Chinese investor he sold the land to.

MR. Kunda also urged the people of chitambo district to vote for a leader that would be able to articulate developmental issues in parliament.

He said MMD candidate for Chitambo constituency Dr. Solomon Musonda was thus the right man that would foster development in the area.

And Communications Minister Prof. Geoffrey Lungwangwa said that government was in the process of constructing several high schools in the district.

Prof. Lungwangwa said government spent 170 billion kwacha on the construction of the schools.

He also said government has set aside 535 million kwacha for the construction of teachers houses and VIP latrines for teachers and pupils.

Meanwhile MMD Candidate for Chitambo Constituency Solomon Musonda said Chitambo constituency needs to be represented in Parliament by someone who understood the area well.

Dr. Musonda also said the MMD was the only party that would bring about development to Chitambo.
He has since called upon the people of Chitambo to vote for him.

The Chitambo parliamentary seat fell vacant following the death of the area Member of Parliament Nasim-ul-Gani Hamir.
The date for the chitambo parliamentary by elections has been set for August 13, 2009.
ZANIS

Chief Macha of the Tonga people of Choma district has disassociated himself from a statement made by Chief Nalubamba of the Ila people of Namwala district on Saturday that President Rupiah Banda had lost wholesome support of Southern Province Chiefs.

Speaking when Southern Province Permanent Secretary Darius Hakayobe paid a courtesy call at the Chief’s palace yesterday, Chief Macha said Chief Nalubamba did not consult widely before issuing a sweeping statement on Saturday.

The traditional leader said he was entitled to his own opinion and wondered why Chief Nalubamba decided to include other Chiefs in his own opinion.

”Southern Province Chiefs includes me but I was not consulted. What is happening in Macha is very good for us. Roads and bridges are being done and this country is big, so we can’t expect the government to do everything at once,” he said.

Chief Macha said he was disappointed when he heard the story that President Rupiah Banda looses wholesome support of Southern Province chiefs.

He said if at all there was a meeting where that was resolved, he was not there.

Chief Macha has since advised government to include Chiefs in seminars and other diplomatic courses in which they could learn more about quality leadership, code of conduct and ethics adding that many of them were just appointed by members of their families and did not know anything about diplomacy.

He said unless government takes up such decisive steps as educating the Chiefs on issues such as conduct, they would continue to lead in what he described as a very embarrassing situation.

”We need to learn basic law and diplomacy and by learning this we will know what to talk about and when to talk about it,” he said.

Chief Macha observed that government was doing everything possible to ease the lives of people adding that everything that government was doing to bring about development could be seen everywhere in his Chiefdom.

He said he thanked government for whatever little it did to ease the lives of the people in his area adding that currently, government was busy working on roads in his area.

He observed that as a leader, not everybody can like you adding that criticism was normal.
ZANIS