The World Bank has observed that Zambia has made remarkable progress in the public sector reforms and doing business index.

World Bank Country Representative Dr. Kapil Kapool disclosed that Zambia is now rated 100 out of 181 whose progress in the public reform programmes are being monitored.

Dr Kapool said this at a media breakfast meeting to give a summary of Zambia’s performance on the 2004-2009 doing business indicators in Lusaka today.

He said Zambia has now moved 16 steps from last year when it was rated 116 out of the 181 countries globally.

Dr. Kapool attributed the improvement to the streamlining of the Patents and Companies Registration Office (PACRO) and the computerization of various institutions that facilitate businesses in the country.

He noted that most institutions have improved and reduced their time of operations such as issuing of licenses and registration of companies despite their system of operations remaining the same.

Dr. Kapool however said that there is need for Zambia to strive towards reducing the time and costs of exporting and importing goods into the country especially at border posts.

He added that the delays in exporting and importing goods out and into the country impacts negatively on the competitiveness of both exporters and importers respectively.

Dr. Kapool further called on government to work towards improving the labour market and employment conditions.

He added that there is also need to build on the momentum gained so far and address challenges such as transportation cost and labour market rigidities.

Dr. Kapool noted that the business environment in the country can receive a major boost if government addresses critical reforms is areas such as energy, telecommunications, railway systems and agriculture.

He has however commended government for putting in place mechanisms that have enabled the country record progress in improving its doing business index at global level.

And Deputy Secretary to the Cabinet Likolo Ndalamei said government will continue working towards improving business in the country.

Mr. Ndalamei said government wants Zambia to become the best investment destination in future adding that the country cannot create wealth for development without investments.

He said the fight against corruption through institutions created for the task by the late President Mwanawasa has also impacted positively in doing business effectinely in the country.

Mr. Likolo also assured the World Bank of government’s commitment to addressing issues and challenges observed in the annual assessment.

The Doing Business is an annual assessment of selected business indicators on how countries are fairing in the implementation of private sector reform programmes.

It is however not a comprehensive index measure. Currently Zambia is among the 181 countries across the globe that is annually assessed since 2004.

ZANIS/CM/AM/ENDS

Kafue District Council Chief Administration Officer, Maurice Hichilema has urged the district voter education committee to work hard and be non partisan in its community election sensitization exercise on the forthcoming presidential by-elections.

Mr.Hichilema, said today that the responsibility that lay ahead of the committee was very demanding and the committee should not be influenced by politicians who could make them fail to sensitize communities freely.

He was speaking today in Kafue during a meeting held by the district voters’ education committee (DVEC) in the council chamber.

Mr. Hichilema said the presidential by election was just a month away and therefore, the committee should ensure that it worked extra hard to encourage more voters to participate in voting.

He said the district has this year been allowed to employ 17 ward community voter education facilitators to sensitize communities on the importance of participating in elections as compared to 2006 when only five facilitators were employed.

Mr. Hichilema informed the members that the committee would have to ensure that people living in the remotest parts of the district were also reached and education on issues of the forthcoming elections.

He said the Electoral Commission of Zambia would work closely with the district council and other committees to ensure that the elections were held under a free and fair atmosphere.

And Kafue District DVEC Chairperson, Francis Kanyembo, appealed to members to work together so that the voter education sensitization exercise throughout the district was carried out without any difficulties.

Mr. Kanyembo said despite the programme coming at short notice, it was important that the committee did not put the name of the Electoral Commission of Zambia into disrepute.

He said the committee should ensure that democratic principles were highly valued and respected in the country.

Dear LT bloggers,

I am a lady aged 40.  I was going out with this gentleman before I married my husband.  I must admit that I loved him so much but he had a problem of accepting my daughter and my relatives so I decided to call it quits.
I am now married to this man who I feel loves me so much and I do love him as well. My problem is when ever I sleep I keep on having fun dreams with my ex-boyfriend.

Does it mean he is using JUJU on me or what?  This old affair was there some 10 – 15 years now.
To make it worse he has even befriended my cousin whom he works with at the same Company which puzzles me a lot. Is he trying to keep track of my life and my wonderful husband?  If any one can help I will
appreciate.

Sunkie

Acting President Rupiah Banda has expressed confidence of   the party scoping the forth-coming October 30 Presidential by-elections.

Mr. Banda says the Movement for Multi-Party Democracy (MMD) is a strong Party which will never be intimidated by the opposition political parties even if they teamed up in the October 30 Presidential by-elections.

The Acting President was speaking to Journalists shortly after arrival from Chililabombwe where he had gone to watch the joint Zambia/Togo 2010 World Cup and Africa Cup qualifiers game in which Zambia won by a goal.

Mr. Banda said the MMD  was ready to  win the opposition in the forth-coming October 30 Presidential by-elections because the party  is  credible  and  capable of delivering to the Zambian people.

He appealed to the MMD members to campaign vigorously to ensure that the Party continued in government and fulfill the late President Mwanawasa’s vision of developing the country.

Mr. Banda said it was the late President Mwanawasa’s wish that the MMD party continued in government in a bid to uplift the living standards of people and propel the country’s national development to greater heights.

Earlier, Mr Banda called for  mature and issue based campaigns.

Mr. Banda made the call at Kasompe Airstrip in Chingola this morning before departure for Lusaka.

He said the forthcoming by-election messages must be based on the developmental agenda of the country.

He said the people of Zambia wanted to know how the political leadership of the nation would help the citizens to provide answers to people’s basic needs.

He said it was the MMD’s agenda to provide more schools, health centres and provide the necessary leadership that would improve the livelihood of Zambians.

Mr. Banda said politics of name calling and insults were long gone as Zambians were now focused on development in all the sectors.

He said the MMD cadres and members should send the right campaign messages to the people of Zambia so that on October 30, 2008 all may vote for the ruling party for continuity with programmes that the late President left in place.

Meanwhile Mr Rupiah Banda is tomorrow expected in Chipata to attend the Kulamba traditional ceremony of the Chewa people of Katete district on Saturday.

According to the program released ZANIS in Chipata by the Eastern Province administration in Chipata yesterday, Mr. Banda is expected to touch down at Chipata airport at 09 hours.

He will then go to Mama Rula lodge for a briefing before traveling to Katete to pay a courtesy call on Paramount chief Kalonga-Gawa-Undi at Mkaika headquarters, where the ceremony would be held on Satruday.

The programme also states that after the courtesy call, Mr. Banda will depart Katete for Chipata where he is expected to pay condolences to senior chief Nzamane of the Ngoni at his palace, on the death of his son.

The Acting President will have a night stop in Chipata before going back to Katete to attend this year’s Kulamba ceremony.

He is expected back in Lusaka on Sunday.
ZANIS/SM/KSH/ENDS

Dear LT bloggers,

I had a daughter out of wedlock born in 1996. I intended to marry the mother of my daughter but things could not work out as her parents could not allow her to marry someone from a different tribe.

I was charged damages which I paid in full. I took care of all my child’s financial responsibilities and shared custody of the child until 2002 when the mother got married to a fellow Tonga and moved to South Africa. Since then, I have not been allowed to support or even see my own daughter. I am also reliably informed that even her names have been changed. I have been very depressed at the situation as I don’t think it’s a fair deal.
Please, advise me on how I can get custody of my daughter. I have a good job, am well settled and I have a wonderful family. However, my conscious cannot let me be without my only child.
Depressed… Zambian  man.

Michael Sata has challenged Vice-President Banda to state publicly if he had officially resigned from UNIP. He said MMD had shown a lack of confidence in its party members by adopting Vice-President Banda. Mr. Sata  was speaking on Sky FM Radio in Monze yesterday.

He said Vice-President Banda has surrounded himself with all sorts of questionable characters. Sata said there were strong signs of regionalism and opportunism in Vice-President Banda’s camp. “Rupiah was born in Southern Rhodesia. He’s not brave enough. He’s never come out in the open to say he has come out of UNIP. President Mwanawasa once said that Professor (Clive) Chirwa should start from the branch; which branch is he, Vice-President Banda coming from? If he is elected President, Zambia will go back 360 degrees backwards,” Sata said.

Mr. Sata said he had a proven track record in public service as opposed to Vice-President Banda who served in several government positions but with nothing to show for it. Sata said recently, Vice-President Banda’s Cabinet approved hefty salary and allowance increments for constitutional office holders and senior government officials.

“When he was at NAMBOARD, he never employed anybody except people from Chipata. Rupiah Banda is a known tribalist and his tribalism is so cheap because he even discriminated against the people from Katete, Nyimba and Petauke. As far as he is concerned, they are supposed to be led,” Sata said.

He urged Vice-President Banda not to deceive himself into thinking that he would build on president Mwanawasa’s programmes because he was nowhere close to the late president.

He also said political parties and individuals who were questioning his health status were just scared of him.

“Rupiah Banda is older than me. I’m challenging all the political party presidents that we go and test for three things, HIV, Kaposi Sarcoma and let them examine our hearts,” said Sata.

Sata also said Lusaka lawyer, Dr Rodger Chongwe, was supporting Vice-President Banda’s presidential candidature on tribal grounds.

“Comrade Rodger Chongwe is trying to use tribalism thinking that if he comes in the open to support Rupiah Banda and when Rupiah Banda is elected, he is going to get his (Chongwe’s) US $2.5 million but that should not be our preoccupation,” said Sata.
He said former president Frederick Chiluba and president Mwanawasa refused to pay Dr Chongwe the US $2.5 million which he was claiming from the government after being shot in Kabwe on grounds that the judgment was obtained in a foreign country and the Zambian government had not been given an opportunity to defend itself.

Mr. Sata begins his campaign trail with a rally in Kafue this Thursday 11th September at 14:00hrs.
On Friday 12th September, Mr Sata will hold a rally in Chilanga, Lusaka at 14:00hrs.

Mr. Michael Sata has called for an indaba between PF and the Hakainde Hichilema-led United Party for National Development (UPND) to have a collective agreement on the way forward, especially on a plan to defeat the MMD government.

Speaking on Sky FM Radio in Monze yesterday, Sata said there was need for interaction and exchange of ideas between the leadership of UPND and PF.

“All I am appealing to my brothers and sisters all over the country, I  have put a proposal publicly today, if we have to have anything meaningful, the entire 22 members of parliament from UPND and our members of parliament from PF our Central Committee, the National Management Committee of UPND, we must have an indaba” said Mr.Sata

“But if Michael Sata agrees, yes, I am going to be in the background and comrade Hakainde becomes president .  I have once had that same thing, we agreed with the Catholic church – ZEC, CCZ, EFZ, NGOCC, Women for Change that unless we amended the NCC to suit the people of Zambia we will not go to NCC. My 22 members of parliament defied and went to the NCC because there is money. Our colleagues in UPND at first said they will not go but they went but it doesn’t matter…I need this time a collective agreement between UPND and PF, not between Michael Sata and Hakainde Hichilema.”

He was commenting on numerous appeals from listeners for the PF and UPND to join hands if the MMD was to be dislodged during the October 30 presidential election.

“What I want is that what we agree is not just for the two of us but an agreement for the people who are the representatives of the people who are the owners of PF and UPND,” Sata said.

Sata further said he was the only person who had president Levy Mwanawasa’s vision because the two had a two-hour discussion and during that meeting the late president told him about his vision.

“I am very devastated because as far I am concerned the differences I had with Levy are behind us and it is me today in Zambia the only person with Levy’s vision,” Sata said. “If I would have been a Michael Sata of yesterday, I would have revealed what plans he had for some of his ministers. But we talked, he is not here, he did not implement what we discussed so therefore I don’t have to talk about it.”

The Electoral Commission of Zambia (ECZ) has set September 23rd to 26th 2008, as dates for nominations for the forthcoming presidential by-elections slated for 30th October, 2008.

ECZ Director, Danny Kalale said, on the nomination dates presidential candidates, are required to present 200 supporters each, who should be registered voters.

Mr. Kalale said the presidential candidates would also be required have to pay a non-refundable nomination fee of K20 million.

He said aspiring candidates would be required to lodge in their nominations to the Chief Justice, who will be the returning officer at the Supreme Court, to validate them.

He noted that according to the law, only the President and the Vice President were allowed to use government resources during campaigns.

“Government officials willing to campaign for the party should use their own resources. According to the law, only the President and Vice President are allowed to use public resources,” Mr. Kalale said.

The official campaign period will commence soon after the filing in of nominations.

Mr. Kalale further disclosed that the commission would have the ballot papers printed in South Africa.

He said the commission was currently scrutinizing various tenders from South Africa.

He said all the political parties would be required to follow the electoral code of conduct and end their campaigns on the 29th of October, 2008 at 18:00 hours.

Meanwhile, the commission has set September 27th  2008 as the nominations date for the Ndola Central and Mwansabomwe parliamentary by-elections.

Mr. Kalale said on the same date, aspiring candidates for the 13 local government by-elections across the country would file in their nominations in their respective wards and districts.

He noted that the by-elections for the parliamentary constituencies and 13 local government seats will take place on the same date as the presidential by-elections.

And the commission as set September 12th to 26th, 2008 as dates on which Zambians who have lost their voters cards would register for replacements.

Mr. Kalale said the ECZ was currently in negotiating with Ministry of Education on the possibilities of turning schools country wide as registration centers for the acquisition of new voters’ card.

He said the commission would ensure that those who lost their voters card registered at the nearest school centre so that their cards could be ready and collected between the 20th  and the 25th October, 2008.

Meanwhile all the 72 districts in the country have received the transparent ballot boxes for the forth coming presidential by-elections.

Mr. Kalale said the commission had reached an advanced stage in delivering election materials in the various districts.

He noted that out of the K231 billion needed for conducting the elections, government has so far released K56 billion, adding that a further K93 billion was expected to be released by the end of this month to enable the commission prepare for the elections adequately.

Mr. Kalale said ECZ would strive to conduct free and fair elections, adding that to that effect, the commission would soon installing  generators and lamps in all polling centres to facilitate smooth counting in case of  power failures.

He added that FAX machines have since been distributed in the districts to enable the electoral officers transmit results to the commission as quickly as possible.

He added that the Mulungushi International Conference Centre (MICC) will be the final announcement centre.