The Road Transport and Safety Agency (RTSA) has warned of stern action against public transport operators whose vehicles have no sliding windows.

RTSA spokesperson, Mukela Mangolwa said it was illegal for public transport operator’s vehicles not to have sliding windows.

Mr. Mangolwa told ZANIS in an interview in Lusaka today that it was unfortunate that some public transport operators’ vehicles do not have sliding windows despite the health hazard and safety concerns.

The RSTA spokesperson called upon members of the public to report public transport vehicles without sliding windows to RTSA.

He said members of the public should get the registration number of such public transport vehicles and present such information to RTSA.

He explained that once such vehicles are reported to RTSA, the agency would not hesitate to make follow ups and bring erring operators to task.

ENDS/AJN/AM/ZANIS

The British Council has donated 4,500 British pounds to three schools in Kabompo district in North-Western province for an exchange programme for pupils and teachers between Zambia and the United Kingdom (U.K).

Kabompo District Commissioner, Rebecca Mukuka has since commended the British Council for the gesture.

Mrs. Mukuka said the three schools that will share the 4,500 British Pounds are Kabompo High School, Chikata and Pokola basic schools. The schools would receive 1,500 pounds each.

She said 25 pupils and some teachers from each of the three schools would be going to the United Kingdom to visit some schools which have been twined to their schools on an exchange basis every year.

Mrs. Mukuka said each school is expected to use the money to buy computers and digital cameras.

British Council Programme Officer, Ackim Banda said the three Kabompo schools were connected to Britain and Sierra Leone.

Mr. Banda said the exchange of pupils and teachers was meant to develop positive attitudes in young people about each other’s country and culture.

He said Zambians and Britons should have greater knowledge of each other’s country in order to develop skills that were necessary for successful intercultural dialogue.

Mr. Banda was accompanied by two head teachers from Sierra Leone, Brenda Davids of Annie Walsh Memorial school and Stephen Marrah of St. Michael primary school in Freetown.

He said there are 27 schools in Sierra Leone that were connected to schools in the U.K which were benefiting from he British Council.

Zambians should appreciate Chinese investors as they have resolved to continue operating mines and maintaining their workforce amid threats of retrenchment by others in the sector, Mines and Minerals Development Minister, Maxwell Mwale, has said.

Mr Mwale said in an interview in Lusaka yesterday that people should stop demonising the Chinese investors because they were doing a lot to help maintain stability in the country.

He said despite the prevailing global economic conditions which had adversely affected the local industries, the Chinese investors were resolved to continue operating without resorting to the reduction of the workforce.

“People should stop demonising the Chinese investors. They should observe that at all mines which are being run by the Chinese, there are no reductions of employees as opposed to others,” he said.

Mr Mwale said while big economies like the United States of America were running to China for bailout of their operations, some Zambians were busy “insulting” Chinese investors.

He said the Chinese investors had, for instance, re-capitalised and continued running the Chambishi Copper Mine in Kalulushi, which had been on care and maintenance for 14 years.

He said Zambia needed to attract investors like those from China who already had the money because it would be almost impossible for a company to borrow huge amounts such as US$600 million.

Mr Mwale said while others like Mopani Copper Mines (MCM) wanted to place some of the mines under the care-and-maintenance system, the Chinese had continued operating.

He said the Government would not allow further offloading of miners from employment as it had a duty to ensure socio-economic stability in the country.

Mr Mwale said the move by MCM to place some of its mining units in Kitwe and Mufulira under the care-and-maintenance arrangement would result in the loss of up to 20,000 jobs considering even the people employed by contractors.

He reiterated his challenge to the MCM and any other investors who would not want to continue operating some of the mining plants to voluntarily surrender them to the Government.

He said the precedent to voluntarily surrender the mines when an investor felt like not continuing had already been set when Anglo-American Corporation (AAC) did so with the Konkola Copper Mines about seven years ago.

On the Luanshya Copper Mines (LCM), Mr Mwale said there were a lot of investors who were interested in running the mine as soon as the current negotiations between the Government and LCM management were over.

He said the Government would, however, ensure that it selected the most suitable investors to run the mines to avoid a repeat of what was currently happening.
He said the people of Luanshya had suffered enough.

“As you know, this is not the first time that the people of Luanshya are going through this situation,” he said.

And LCM management has dismissed reports that the mine in Luanshya has been stripped of its assets and is flooded.

LCM chief executive officer, Derek Webbstock, said in a Press statement that management of LCM was saddened by reports of asset stripping and flooding of the mine.

Mr Webbstock assured the nation that the mine would not be flooded or be stripped of its assets.

Mr Webbstock said it was the intention of management to ensure that the care-and-maintenance process protected the assets of LCM and allowed for efficient resumption of operations at an appropriate time.

The statement further says management had retained 227 security staff, 123 hospital staff, 36 Luanshya Trust School staff, 10 staff at Luanshya Craft School and 67 were directly at the main mine operations.
[Times of Zambia]

growing roses for export for the last 14 years.

But now the speed of the global downturn is forcing them to give up the business, threatening the livelihoods of hundreds of workers and their dependents.

The sudden collapse of the prices paid for roses in Europe, due to diminishing demand and oversupply, has made their business uneconomic.

And they are being forced to sell their farm as they can no longer keep up their loan payments to Barclays Bank, which is demanding immediate repayment.

” It’s a sad day,” says Angelique Elsinga as she walks round her farm with its eight giant greenhouses – which produced 40 million roses for export last year.

“It’s cheaper for us to destroy the roses now than send them to Europe.”

They are shutting off the irrigation pipes in seven of those greenhouses, growing only for the local market and switching some of their production to vegetables.

“We had to shut down production during the two weeks before Christmas, something we had never done before,” said Watze Elsinga.

“And just before Valentine’s Day, our suppliers told us not to send any more roses – their warehouses were full.”

“We have never seen such low prices.”

Social gains

For the Elsingas, who came to Zambia from the Netherlands 14 years ago, the farm was a social enterprise as well as a business.

They have constructed housing for their workers, and built a community centre and a school for 600 children on the premises.

And they have provided year-round employment for nearly 200 workers.

Now they will have to lay off all the workers at the rose farm, with only a few finding employment in the vegetable business which they hope to continue at another location.

Difficult conditions

According to Luke Mbewe, chief executive of the Zambia Export Growers Association (Zega), flower exporters in Zambia face more difficult conditions than their rivals in other African countries such as Kenya, Tanzania, and Uganda.

Flower exporters are dependent on a secure supply chain, with the fresh flowers kept refrigerated and disease-free as they are moved quickly from the farm to markets in Europe within 48 hours.

But in Zambia, transport costs are higher, because of the higher cost of petrol and jet fuel that has to be imported into this land-locked country.

And the lack of a substantial scheduled air freight service has meant that they have had to charter flights to take their flowers to market.

They have also faced problems with electricity supply, with Zambia’s government-owned electricity company Zesco introducing rolling power cuts throughout the country over the past year.

The sharp drop in the value of the Zambian currency has raised the cost of fertilisers, fuel and other farm inputs.

Mr Mbewe says he knows of a number of other farms that have gone out of production, and he now fears for the future of the industry.

Economic hopes

Zambia remains one of the world’s poorest countries, with more than 60% of the population living on less than $2 a day.

Now its prospects for economic growth have been dented by the decline in the world price of copper, which makes up 90% of the country’s exports and provides thousands of jobs.

Zambia’s President, Rupiah Banda, says that the way for Zambia to cope with the global recession is by diversification, moving away from dependence on copper.

But the problems of the flower industry show how difficult this could be.
[BBC NEWS]