Movement for Multi-Party Democrac (MMD) Chairperson for Mining and Mineral Development, Kaunda Lembalemba says calls for the party to start considering party leadership succession are ill-timed.

Mr. Lembalemba who is also former Mines Minister said the call is regrettable as it comes at a time when the President is hospitalised in Paris – France.

He has asked MMD Spokesperson, Ben Tetamashimba to apologise and withdraw the story attributed to him in a daily tabloid newspaper.

Mr. Lembalemba told ZNBC news that all MMD members should ignore Mr. Tetamashimba’s suggestion and instead concentrate on prayers for the President.

Mr. Tetamashimba was quoted saying it will be important for the party to begin to consider President Mwanawasa’s successor when he comes back.
[ZNBC]

Malone Zaza, a Zambian based in South Africa has apologized unreservedly to President Levy Mwanawasa for alarming the nation that Dr. Mwanawasa who is currently admitted in Percy Military Hospital in Paris France had died.

Zaza , a 26 year third years information system student at the University of South Africa (UNISA) has also apologized to the president’s family, relatives , to the Zambian people and the international community for the pain and anguish he caused them over his statement.

Foreign Affairs Minister Kabinga Pande told ZANIS in a press statement this evening that ZAZA has appealed to the president and all Zambians to forgive him, saying he did not mean to cause any harm.

“ I wish to apologise unreservedly to the President , his family , the people of Zambia and the international community at large for the pain and anguish caused to them by my irresponsible statement.

I have learnt a bitter lesson from this experience. Please forgive me. I am sorry,’ he added.

Zaza who admitted having told Radio 702 said he was a law abiding citizen who loved president Mwanawasa and has since wished him a quick recovery.

He blamed the radio station for spreading the news without first verifying it .

He stated that if the radio station has called the high commission to verify , it would have realised that the tip he had given them was just a rumour.

He said his information to the radio station was intended to be a tip which he expected the station to follow up and verify before putting the news on air.

ZAZA made the disclosure yesterday evening during an interview with the Zambian high commission held at the new Café in Randburg, Johannesburg.

Mr. Pande said ZAZA has denied having introduced himself to Talk Radio 702 as head of protocol at the Zambia High Commissioner in Pretoria.

“I couldn’t have done such a thing. I was merely giving them a tip as a Zambian citizen who had received information that our president is died,” he said.

He said because of the previous day’s rumors he has heard that President Mwanawasa had died , Zaza upon receiving an SMS from a Zambian decided to phone the radio station to inform them about the message.

“ I introduced myself as Malone ZAZA , a Zambian citizen. At no point did I introduce myself as head of protocol at the Zambia High Commission in Pretoria. I don’t know where they got that from, he added.

Having being in a meeting the whole day of Thursday, Zaza disclosed that he later on received a call from his parents in Zambia telling him that there was an item on the international news wire quoting him of having said President Mwasawasa had died.

He explained that it was after that call that he realized that SMS he had earlier received about the president’s death was not true.

Last week, the Zambian Student is reported to have told the radio station that President Mwanawasa had died, the news which was later broadcasted by the BBC, Sky news and other International Media organisations

ZANIS/MK/ENDS

Government has warned of withdrawing grants to local authorities in Luapula Province that are failing to submit their receipts and payments to the Ministry of Local Government and Housing.

Luapula Province Local Government Officer Alfred Nyambose said that some councils risked having their grants withdrawn for not submitting receipts and payments and minutes of their meetings.

Mr. Nyambose said that under section 34 of the Local Government Act it was a serious offence for councils to withhold minutes of council committee meetings and receipts and payments.

The province local government officer said this during the Luapula Province Development Coordinating Committee Meeting over the weekend.

He said that councils needed to submit the minutes of the meetings within one month because the Ministry of Local Government and Housing had a mandate to scruitinize the resolutions from the Finance and General purposes and other council meetings in line with the Local Government Act.

“I’m afraid some councils risk punishment for flouting the Local Government Act for not submitting their receipts and payments and non availability minutes of the councils needed to the ministry,” Mr. Nyambose said.

It is a legal requirement for Local Authorities to submit the minutes to the Ministry for review and timely advice.

He said that submission of receipts and payments on time was critical to the approval of the councils budgets by the minister of local government and housing.

The province Local Government Officer said his office had written several reminders to the councils on the need for them to submit the minutes but to no avail.

Meanwhile only 13 out of 39 chiefs in Luapula Province have received their vehicles.

Luapula Province Local Government Officer Alfred Nyambose said that some chiefs had turned down Luxury four-wheel drive vehicles in preference to high trucks.

Mr. Nyam bose said that some chiefs have requested to be given high trucks other than the executive vehicles they were recently bought for by government.

Recently government bought 150 vehicles for chiefs across the country to enable their mobility and easy monitoring of development in their chiefdoms.
ZANIS/DS/CK/MK/END

Some prominent members of the opposition United National Independence Party (UNIP) in Northern Province have welcomed the formation of a revive UNIP forum.

Former UNIP Mungwi District Chairperson Thomas Mwananshiku said in a walk in interview with ZANIS in Kasama today that the majority of UNIP members fully supports the formation of the revive UNIP forum as it will save the party from extinction.

Mr. Mwananshiku said the move by the Malimba Masheke group was long over due as the party under the Tilyenji Kaunda leadership was heading no where.

He also charged that UNIP members were in total agreement that the Tilyenji leadership was running the party unconstitutionally as their mandate ended in 2005 when their term of office expired.

Mr. Mwananshiku who is also a freedom fighter further said his party needed to put in office a new leadership as the current one has failed lamentably to manage the affairs of the party.

Recently, three former faction of UNIP merged to come up with the revive UNIP forum which is being headed by former Prime Minister in the Kaunda Government General Malimba Masheke.

The forum’s main objective is to hold the national congress within a shortest possible time at which it intend to oust the Tilyenji Kaunda leadership.

UNIP is the oldest party in Zambia .

ZANIS/HM/MK/ENDS.

Researchers have confirmed divorce has lasting damage
on children.

A recent study in Britain found that children whose parents
divorced are more likely to perform badly academically.

Th children, according to the study, are also more likely to
suffer from depression.

In short, divorce harms a child’s well being.

“Divorce has repercussions that reverberate through
childhood and into adulthood.

” Children from disrupted families tend to do less well in school
and subsequent careers than their peers,” researchers say.

They explained that children are also more likely to experience the
break-up of their own partnerships.

The researchers tracked around 17,000 people born in
Britain during one week in 1958 over the course of their lives
to arrive at this conclusion.

At their 50th birthday anniversaries, the researchers compared their
lives with other sample groups born in earlier and later years.

From the sanmples, the study has confirmed that children born in 1958 were much
less likely to experience parental divorce than children today.

Family break-up was subject greater social stigma, something that was sometimes
thought to contribute to the problems experienced by the children of
divorced parents.

ZANIS/PTI/ENDS/MM