President Mwanawasa said he is glad that South Africa and Mozambique have refused to offload firearms from China which were ordered by neighbouring Zimbabwe.

President Mwanawasa was speaking at Lusaka International Airport today when he arrived from Mauritius where he was attending the SADC Heads of State Summit on poverty.

He noted that there was no need to escalate the conflicts being experienced in Zimbabwe use of firearms, saying dialogue was the only solution.

He said the issue of Zimbabwe was being well handled by the Southern African Development Community (SADC).

The Zimbabwe Electoral Commission has not announced the March 29, 2008 elections results, causing anxiety, suspicion and concern among Zimbabweans, regional bodies and other countries around the world.

And President Levy Mwanawasa has described as highly irresponsible, the statement by Movement for Multiparty Democracy (MMD) Lusaka Province Chairman Geoffrey Chuumbwe who suggested that Zimbabwe President, Robert Mugabe, should be forced out of power.

President Mwanawasa said the statement has an effect on the relation between Zambia and Zimbabwe but hoped that the leadership and people of Zimbabwe would understand Mr. Chuumbwe had not authority to say that.

He said Mr. Chuumbwe could not have any authority to speak on behalf of the party or government and therefore, his statement asking concerned authorities to remove Mr. Mugabe by force were irresponsible.

Dr. Mwanawasa noted that Mr. Chuumbwe was neither party spokesperson nor government spokesperson but a junior person in the hierarchy of the ruling party.

He said he felt embarrassed when he received news about Mr. Chuumbwe’s statement, adding that the statement has strongly been condemned by the ruling party.

The National Constitutional Conference (NCC) will tomorrow at 14:00 hours resume sitting at Lusaka’s Mulungushi International Conference Centre (MICC).

NCC Spokesperson Mwangala Zaloumis announced this at a press briefing in Lusaka today.

Mrs. Zaloumis said the NCC would among other things approve the authority to recruit experts from outside the conference to educate members on the constitutional making process.

She said the 11 various committees that were constituted by the NCC would each be given an expert, who would be recruited from within and outside Zambia, for specific expertise to the delegates.

She told journalists that on Thursday, the NCC members would undergo orientation on what the constitution is and the types of the constitutions that exist in Africa.

Mrs. Zaloumis further said the members would also be taught the doctrine of separation of powers by experts to ensure that they understood the constitution as they settle down into serious deliberations.

Meanwhile, Mrs. Zaloumis disclosed that the Seventh Day Adventists (SDA) church has been asked to choose another member to replace the late Cornelius Matandiko, who died about a month ago.

She said other institutions whose delegates died would be required to provide replacements.

And Mrs. Zaloumis has disclosed that about 12 more delegates would be sworn in at 11:00 hours tomorrow to join the conference.

She said these would replace the deceased delegates and those that did not take up their appointments.

Meanwhile, a check by ZANIS at the Mulungushi International Conference centre found scores of NCC delegates collecting documents in readiness for the resumption of sittings tomorrow.

President Levy Mwanawasa has appealed to Zambians to be patient over the load shedding going on in the country and give ZESCO a chance to carry out the necessary rehabilitation works on power installations.

President Mwanawasa said the power shortages were not being experienced by Zambia alone but the southern African region at large.

Dr Mwanawasa said ZESCO has assured that they will complete the rehabilitation works next year upon which time the problem of load shedding currently being experienced will be a thing of the past.

He said the power shortage currently being experienced experienced was as a result of increase in heavy duty investments that have put a lot of pressure on ZESCO in terms of power demand.

Meanwhile, President Levy Mwanawasa headed home after attending a SADC summit on poverty and development which ended in Mauritius yesterday.

President Mwanawasa’s Challenger jet took off from the Sir Seewoosagar Ramgoolam International airport at 12:00 hours, about 10:00 hrs Zambian time.

He was seen off by foreign affairs minister, Kabinga Pande, commerce minister, Felix Mutati, Labour minister, Ronald Mukuma and his agriculture counterpart, Sara Saifwanda.

Zambia’s ambassader to Mozambique who is also accredited to Mauritius, George Chulumanda and other senior government officials were also at the airport to see off the president.

Zambia and the African continent as a whole is lagging behind in the development of Information, Communication and Technology (ICT).

Deputy Minister in the ministry of Science, Technology and Vocational Training, Lucy Changwe attributed the widening divide to insufficient human and financial resources.

Ms Changwe said the training of human resource and the reduction of cost of ICTs products is one of the ways to enable the country reduce the cost of doing business.

She noted that the use of optic fibre in the ICT networks is one way of reducing the cost and application of ICT adding that this will also benefit rural communities and eliminate the rural-urban digital divide.

Ms Changwe said this in Lusaka today when she officiated at a regional training course for developers of ICT materials at the National Institute for Scientific and Industrial Research (NISIR).

She said there was need for African countries to start developing their own programmes and materials for ICT’s in order to compete with the western world and make communication on the continent cheaper and easier.

Ms Changwe observed that the training course was critical as it is meant to equip professionals from various fields in Africa with tools that are used in the development of ICT materials.

And NISIR Executive Director, Mwananyanda Mbikusita Lewanika, said the Africa is facing a critical shortage of qualified scientists and technicians.

Dr Mbikusita Lewanika said there was need for policy makers to provide a conducive environment at work places and be supportive to new ideas and initiatives of scientists.

The one week course is been attended by participants from the Central African Republic, Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC),Ghana, Kenya, Madagascar, Morocco, Niger and Nigeria.

Others are Sierra Leone, Sudan, Tunisia, Uganda, United Republic of Tanzania and Zambia.

Government has revealed that it is considering reversing the retirement age of scientists in the country in order to make it responsive to the needs of the scientific world.

Chief Science and Technology Officer in the ministry of Science, Technology and Vocational Training, Dorothy Mulenga says the current retirement age of 55 years old is of grave concern to government.

Dr Mulenga explained in an interview that government is spending colossal sums of money to send scientists for specialist training who are made to retire early without fully utilizing their knowledge.

She added that Zambia and Africa as a whole is faced with a critical shortage of scientists adding that retiring scientists at 55 years is worsening the situation because most of them retire with knowledge which they can use to educate the younger generation.

Dr Mulenga observed that the western countries do not usually have challenges of human resource because most of their scientists retire above the age of 70 years.

She said government is however currently tapping the knowledge of retired scientists by giving them contractual jobs after retirement.