President Rupiah Banda today inspected crop performance on his 62-hectare farm in Chipata district in Eastern Province.

Mr. Banda went to inspect the field this morning and was accompanied by his wife, Thandiwe, Tourism Minister, Catherine Namugala, and Health Permanent Secretary, Simon Miti.

The head of stated who could not state his expected yield was, however, impressed with the performance of the maize crop on his field.

The President arrived at Chipata airport this morning from Mfuwe where he is on ten-day Christmas holiday.

And his farm manager, Chibisa Banda, said the farm is expected to yield over 7,500 x 50 Kg bags of maize from the 62 hectares that have been cultivated.

President Banda was also expected to visit Luangwa house before returning to Mfuwe this afternoon.

ZANIS/ENDS/HN/EML/EB

Patriotic Front (PF) spokesperson, Given Lubinda, has advised all political parties and concerned citizens not to worry about the cost of the mass by-election.

In an interview with ZANIS in Lusaka today, Mr. Lubinda said political parties should concentrate on investing discipline in their parties.

“All those who are saying it is going to cost the nation a lot of money are not genuine because there is enough money in the country and other parties should learn from us PF on how much this country needs disciplined leaders,” he said.

He said for a country like Zambia to operate very well it needs disciplined and well informed leaders.

Mr. Lubinda said they are unnecessary projects going on in the country where a lot of money is being spent while people in the villages are going hungry.

He added that the call for mass by-elections is for all political parties to embrace respect and dignity within the party itself before thinking of forming the government.

Mr. Lubinda said the Patriotic Front has shown how much committed it is to solving matters arising within the party and other parties should do the same instead of cruising unnecessarily.

Mr. Lubinda was responding to the Non-Governmental Organisation Coordinating Council (NGOCC), the ruling MMD and the Center for Policy Dialogue (CPD) that appealed to PF party president, Michael Sata not to expel the rebel MPs from the party.

Earlier, Anti-Voter Apathy Project (AVAP) has joined other civil society stakeholders in opposing the intentions of the opposition Patriotic Front (PF) party to expel over 15 of Members of Parliament and cause parliamentary by- elections in the country.

AVAP Executive Director, Bonny Tembo, said if the Patriotic Front expels its ‘rebel’ Members of Parliament, the country will spend billions of Kwacha on holding many by-elections thereby putting a lot of strain on the country’s economy.

Mr. Tembo told ZANIS that holding many parliamentary many by-elections would be waste of resources especially that Zambia is currently facing an economic situation that required resource mobilization.

He noted that the same money that would be used on by-elections was supposed to be used on cushioning the financial problems which the country is facing as a result of the world credit crunch.

Mr. Tembo however called on other political parties to put in place effective mechanisms within their party structure that will seek to resolve intra-party conflicts.

He said there was need for political parties to have a code of conduct that would regulate them, noting that having such guidelines would avoid all unnecessary expulsions and by –elections.

Mr. Tembo has since appealed to all political party leaders to ensure that internal democracy existed in their parties because it was an important ingredient in strengthening democracy.

He also called on leaders of political parties to build consensus to embrace other members in their parties and ensure that the country’s young democracy was strengthened through dialogue.

He observed that lack of dialogue and democracy in political parties would promote voter apathy among electorates.

Meanwhile Mr. Tembo has advised Members of Parliament to continue to explain to the electorates in their various constituencies, the current political and economic situations which the country is facing.

On Monday this week, PF president Michael Sata asked Zambians to brace themselves for what he termed “mass parliamentary by-election” after the High Court ruled against 20 PF MPs who sought to restrain their president and their general secretary Edward Mumbi
from expelling them following their decision to participate in the national Constitutional Conference (NCC).

ZANIS/AH/KSH/ENDS

Civil Servants and Allied Workers Union (CSAWU) has commended the Government for the reduction of pump fuel prices in the country.

CSAWU Kitwe District Chairman Denny Maluti said the gesture by the Government was welcome, though long over due.

Mr. Maluti told ZANIS in Kitwe today that the measure which the Government has taken would have a multiplier effect that would lower the cost of doing business and result in the reduction of prices for essential commodities such as mealie meal and other services which have sky rocketed in the country.

He said workers have been negatively affected for so long, especially the lowly paid civil servants.

Mr. Maluti also challenged the millers and transporters to stop using the excuse of high fuel prices to exploit the consumers now that the fuel prices have been reduced.

Mr. Maluti said the transporters should adjust their bus fares in view of the reduced fuel prices announced by the Energy Regulation Board (ERB), to pass on the benefit to the common man.

The opposition United Party for National Development (UPND) has implored government to step up its efforts which are aimed at alleviating poverty among Zambians in 2009.

UPND chairman for information and publicity, Charles Kakoma told ZANIS in an interview in Lusaka that Zambians had been challenged with a lot of hardships during the year 2008, hence the need for government to cushion their sufferings by easing the impact of poverty in their lives.

Mr. Kakoma said government should devote most of its efforts towards poverty reduction, lowering of inflation rates and exchange rates, increasing employment opportunities and gross domestic product (GDP) growth.

He observed that although there were job losses in the mining industry, Zambia still had a window of hope especially in the agriculture sector.

Mr. Kakoma, who is also Member of Parliament for Zambezi East, expressed optimism that Zambia could still thrive amidst global economic meltdown.

He said the country could prevail over the world’s economic crisis through seizing every opportunity in the agriculture sector at both subsistence and commercial levels.

He pointed out that even in the face of the world’s economic crunch, Zambians still has a lot of sectors that could redeem her from challenges of poverty.

Mr. Kakoma cited the rural economic potential and small scale agricultural activities as some of the areas which could be effectives in developing the country’s economic base.

The MP explained that Zambia had a good rain pattern and a favourable dry weather that could support agricultural activities all year round.

And Mr. Kakoma has, on behalf of the UPND, wished Zambians a prosperous 2009 and urged them to work hard for their individual development, which would subsequently promote national development.

Recently, Zambia experienced among other economic challenges, a rise in food prices, job losses in the mines which closed due to plummeting copper prices on the world market. The country also experienced high exchange rates against the United States dollar and other foreign currencies.

The Food Reserve Agency -FRA- has reduced the price of a fifty kilogram bag of maize from K63,000 to K55,000.

FRA Board Chairperson, Costain Chilala, announced the price reduction in a statement to ZNBC news in Lusaka on Wednesday.

Mr. Chilala said the FRA board took the decision in consultation with the government.

He explained that the decision has been taken in view of the escalating mealie meal prices in the country.

He said the FRA will buy available maize from the local market and import adequate stocks for local consumption.

Government is making serious efforts to reduce the prices of mealie meal which have increased sharply in the last few months.

Meanwhile, Choma District Commissioner, Laiven Apuleni, has directed the Food Reserve Agency (FRA) to suspend the on-going sale of maize, saying the exercise is not benefiting the intended starving rural communities.

Mr Apuleni issued the directive in Choma yesterday when he summoned officials from the Choma District Cooperative Union mandated to sale the maize on behalf of FRA.

The DC said he is disappointed to learn that the FRA is selling maize within the town instead of delivering the commodity to rural areas.

Mr Apuleni said the district administration requested the FRA to offload some maize specifically to cushion the serious effects of hunger in rural communities.

He wondered how people from rural areas would be expected to travel to town to buy the maize when they do not have the capacity to meet transport costs due to hunger stalking the area.

He stated that the decision by the FRA to sell the maize within the town defeats the purpose as unscrupulous businessmen in the township will take advantage of the exercise to buy the commodity in huge quantities which they will later re-sell at inflated prices.

He said it is better for the FRA to suspend the current sale of maize if the agency maintains that it will not authorize the district cooperative union to carry out the exercise in rural communities.

Mr Apuleni said he would inform all the five chiefs about the development especially that the district administration is under intense pressure from the traditional leaders over the delayed delivery of maize.

He said management at the FRA should be humane enough and understand the suffering of rural people who are going without food.

The FRA has released 2,000 by 50 kilogramme bags of maize for sale at K63,000 per bag.

znbc/zanis

Luapula Province Acting Permanent Secretary, Clement Siame, has implored the public to give support to President Rupiah Banda in his quest to address economic challenges that the country was facing.

Mr. Siame said the current economic challenges Zambia and the rest of the world were going through needed concerted efforts and not blame  it as a failure on the part of government.

He said there was no need to blame the current escalating mealie meal and other food prices on President Banda but on the global economic down turn which had affected even bigger economies than Zambia’s.

Mr. Siame said this during the 4th Quarter Provincial Development Coordinating Committee Meeting (PDCC) in Mansa.

Meanwhile Mr Siame has called on Heads of Government Departments in Luapula Province to ensure that they implemented government programmes to cushion the effects of the recent economic crisis that was obtaining in the country.

He said the failure to effectively execute government projects would further worsen the livelihood of the people on the ground and would be costly to the development of the country during the current economic meltdown.

“let us effect government programmes so that we mitigate some of the impacts of this economic recession. If we don nott implement these programmes we will be adding more salt to the wound,” Mr. Siame said.

And Mr Siame has warned that his office would next year not approve any payments for departments to implement projects without a work plan.

He said work plans were necessary because they helped in supervision and evaluation of the works being done on projects but some government departments did not see the essence of submitting the work plans to his office.

The PS noted that in the past, government had released huge sums of funds for project implementation by various departments in Luapula Province, but some departments had failed to implement the projects effectively.

He advised heads of government departments to be  serious and committed when implementing government programmes for the people to benefit as intended.