Zambia’s Ambassador and Permanent representative to the United Nations in Geneva and other International Organizations, Darlington Mwape, has presented his credentials to the World Trade Organisation (WTO).

During the presentation, Mr. Mwape hoped the G 20 summit, being held in London this week, would focus on aid for trade in developing countries.
He said Zambia, like any other country, was affected by the global recession and needed measures that would lessen its impact especially on the county’s mining sector which was the most affected.
And receiving the credentials, WTO Director-General, Pascal Lamy said Zambia was an active player in WTO and urged Mr. Mwape to continue putting the country in the limelight.

He said he would find time to visit the mines on the Copperbelt to assess the impact of the crisis on Zambia’s mining sector.

Mr Lamy is expected in the country for the North-South Corridor High Level Conference to be held from the 6th to the 7th of April 2009.

ZANIS/ENDS/MP/EB

The United Kingdom has introduced a new system for students who are applying for Visas to study there.

The British High Commissioner Tom Carter said the new system of procuring the Visa will be through Tier 4 of the new streamlined points Based System.

He stressed that this process will require students to prove that they have been accepted in one of the courses run by an educational institute which is a UK Border Agency (UKBA).

He added that international students who will granted visas will required to undertake part time work of up to 20 hours per week during the term time, full time during the holidays and undertake any course related work in order to support themselves.

Mr Carter said this new process will be more transparent and will enable them to know which students are eligible for a Visa even before applying.

Mr Carter announced this in a statement released to Zanis in Lusaka yesterday.

ZANIS/ENDS/AC/EB

The Lusaka city Council says it has made a great progress in putting up street lights in the streets of Lusaka using the K1.6 billion government grant.

LCC Public Relations Officer, Henry Kapata said the Great East road has been fully installed with street lights.

Mr Kapata said the council has now started installing street lights on other major roads across the city.

He said the council is working hard to ensure that by 2010 the entire Capital city will have street lights.

He also revealed that the council has put in place various intervention measures that will ensure that the street lights were not vandalized.

Mr.Kapata said the new poles have been made in way that it will be difficult for vandalism.

He urged motorists to drive with care saying the council will charge careless motorists knocking down the poles K 15 million as penalty fee.

ZANIS/PC/ENDS/MM

Zambia Wildlife Authority (ZAWA) says it will in May 2009 start auctioning live wild animals to local and foreigners.

ZAWA Executive Director Mr. Davies Saiuwa told ZANIS that the animals will be sold through an auction sell that will allow members of the public to choose the animals and bid for them.

Mr.Saiuwa however said that the auction sale will be done in absentia of the wild animals as there were no public facilities to house the animals were buyer can view them during the auctioning.

He said the purpose of having the auction sale is to raise funds for conservation and rehabilitating some national parks that he said were in a deplorable state.

Mr.Saiuwa said the organization will carry out advisements to allow both international and local bidders have a chance to know which animals will be auctioned.

He further said that ZAWA will help transport the animals for successful bidders from other countries.

He said that the animals that will be auctioned include Buffaloes, Impalas, Antelopes, Zebras and many others. These animals will be poached from different National parks in the country.

ZANIS/PC/ENDS

A Ndola based businessman has urged government to control the mushrooming of law firms to protect the general public from exploitation at the hands of unscrupulous law practitioners.

Speaking in an interview with ZANIS in Ndola today, Edward Ng’andwe alleged that some law firms in Ndola were corrupt and taking advantage of clients who have little knowledge in legal issues.

Mr Ng’andwe also accused some judges at Ndola magistrate’s court of conniving with corrupt lawyers to acquit offenders.

Mr Ng’andwe, who claimed to have been duped buy a lawyer from a named Ndola based law firm, urged government to monitor the operations of private law firms so that innocent citizens do not suffer because of corrupt lawyers.

The Ndola businessman claimed that he was duped by a lawyer from a named Ndola based law firm in a case where he was involved in a road traffic accident in which he lost 46×50 bags of groundnuts worth about K400 million and the transporter he hired to transport the bags has not compensated him because he seems to have been protected by the magistrate’s court and the lawyer which the complainant used.

He alleged that a magistrate connived with the lawyer so that the transporter could be let scout free despite the charges that were laid against him earlier.

Mr Ng’andwe said he has not recovered anything since the accident happened in December, 2007, yet he has spent about K7 million in pursuing the case.

He named the transporters as Justine Phiri and Rabson Banda both of Chimwemwe residential area in Kitwe, the duo popularly known as Jafira.

ZANIS/ENDS/LNN/CMM/EB.

Labour sector stakeholders have proposed that the minimum wage be increased from the current K268, 000 to K600, 000 in view of the rising cost of living.

And the stakeholders have also proposed some amendments to the statutory instrument number 57 of 2006 that looks at the minimum wage and conditions of employment.

The resolutions were made at a one day workshop on minimum wage organized by the Anti- Voter Apathy Project (AVAP) in Lusaka yesterday.

The workshop which was attended by various trade union leaders, labour consultants, employers and employees, among others, also proposed that domestic workers be included in the minimum wage bracket.

The stakeholders said there was need for the statutory instruments on minimum wage Act and conditions of employment Act to be changed as ithey were last amended in 2006.

They proposed that the minimum wage be increased from K268, 000 to K600,000 with the difference spread across the board to other wage earnings.

They further proposed that employees who have retired should continue receiving full pay from their former company until they get all their terminal benefits and that this should also apply to people whose relatives die while in employment.

And in a vote of thanks, AVAP executive Director Bonny Tembo thanked the participants for coming up with resolutions and suggestions to the labour laws in the country.

Mr. Tembo said some of the proposals that were made are also undergoing debate at the National Constitution Conference (NCC) and urged participants to take keen interest in the deliberations.

He said his organization was prompted to come up with such a workshop because they saw the loopholes in the current labour laws.

He however assured the stakeholders that AVAP will quickly look into the issue of forming an advocacy committee that will ensure that the proposals are implemented by authority.

Mr. Tembo said AVAP will work closely with trade unions and other labour leaders to ensure that many of the challenges workers are facing are addressed.

And a participant at the workshop has hailed AVAP for organizing such a workshop saying there is need for more of such initiatives to acquaint people with the labour laws.

Tedson Msoni who is also a labor consultant said there is also need for stakeholders to be reviewing the statutory instrument yearly if the problems in the labour laws are to be reduced.

ZANIS/GP/ENDS/MM.