Mweemba primary school which was prematurely closed in the third term last year in Sinazongwe district following rampant witchcraft that led to all the teachers fleeing the school, has been reopened.

Mweemba Ward councillor Aaron Mweemba told ZANIS that the district education office has sent six new teachers to the school.

Mr Mweemba said the community was happy with the development.

The civic leader has since urged them to desist from using witchcraft on innocent teachers.

He said the school reopened last week and a grade eight class has been introduced for the first time.

Last year female teachers at the school had bizzare experiences such as nightmares of having sex with unknown people.

Their male counterparts would also wake up in morning feeling tired and backache a situation which resulted in most teachers getting sick.

The Centre for Elections and Governance (CEG) Zambia has welcomed the pronouncement by the Electoral Commission of Zambia (ECZ) that it might postpone the February 21 by-election in Kanyama constituency if floods worsened.

CEG Zambia Trustee Gershom Musonda told ZANIS in an interview that continued monitoring of the floods situation in Kanyama constituency by the ECZ is good for all stakeholders.

Mr. Musonda observed that the floods in the area would have discouraged voters from turning up to cast their votes.

He further observed that organizations such as the ECZ, election monitoring groups, political parties and other stakeholders would be hindered in their work if floods worsened in the constituency.

Mr. Musonda said political parties should be particularly cheered by the possible postponement of the polls in Kanyama as this would afford them time to prepare adequately.

He observed that some candidates chosen by some political parties are not resident in Kanyama and therefore need time to criss-cross the constituency in a bid to sell themselves to the electorate in the area.

Mr. Musonda further said the draining of flood water in Kanyama ahead of the February 21 by-election should not be politicized because the exercise is in good faith as residents in the area have been worst hit by floods.

He said the forthcoming by-election should not hamper efforts aimed easing the plight of the residents.

And Mr. Musonda said the adoption of its party president, Kenny Ngondo, by the All People’s Congress party is a welcome development because it would make the Kanyama parliamentary by-election competitive.

Mr. Musonda said Mr. Ngondo is a combative competitor and his entry into the Kanyama parliamentary race is a plus to Zambia’s growing democracy.

The ruling Movement for Multiparty Democracy (MMD), Patriotic Front (PF), United Party for National Development (UPND), United National Independence Party (UNIP), United Liberal Party (ULP), and All People’s Congress Party (APC) have so far confirmed their participation in the Kanyama parliamentary by-election set for February 21.

The candidates are tomorrow expected to file their nomination papers for the seat left vacant last December after the death of Mr. Henry Mtonga.

Former Zambia National Service (ZNS) Commandant, Wilford Funjika has paid back over K111 million, equivalent to 15,000 British Pounds, to the state following a court order in October last year.

Lieutenant General Funjika was on October 31st, 2007, convicted of two counts of corrupt practices and abuse of authority of office respectively, and sentenced to two years imprisonment with hard labour but suspended for two years.

In the first count, Funjika was accused of corrupt practices when 15,000 British pounds was corruptly paid to his children as a reward for awarding contracts to Semyon Holdings without following laid down procedures.

In the second cound, he was charged with abuse of authority of office for allegedly engaging Semyon Holdings to supply raincoats to ZNS at a value of 72,000 Pounds.

After his conviction, Funjika was ordered to pay back the 15,000 Pounds paid to his two children for their school in the United Kingdom by Semyon Holdings as a reward from the company engaged by their father.

Task Force on Corruption Public Relations Officer Victor Makai disclosed in a statement to ZANIS today that Funjika has since paid in court, K111,176,756.00 (15,000 pounds).

“The money was paid back to the state within 90 days failure to which a warrant of distress was to be issued,” Mr. Makai said.

The payment was made on January 18th, 2008 in court.

He said the case was yet another success scored by the Task Force on Corruption in he quest to recover whatever was stolen for the people of Zambia by people in public office.

“It is also a timely warning to all those entrusted with the responsibility of managing public resources that, you should be accountable, failure to which the law will come knocking,” he said.

Zambians would in the next two months be issued with new passports, which would have features that are difficult to forge, Minister of Home Affairs, Ronnie Shikapwasha has disclosed.

Lieutenant General Shikapwasha said his Permanent Secretary, Susan Sikaneta has since traveled to Germany with a high powered delegation to check on the machines that would be used to issue new passports.

He said the delegation would also consolidate the issue of having new passports.

General Shikapwasha said the machines would be brought into the country in the next few weeks and be installed in readiness for the issuance of new passports by the end of March, 2008.

He said in an interview that it was necessary for Zambians to have news passports that would not be easy to forge.

Meanwhile, General Shikapwasha has said investigations on the alleged corrupt passport officers were ongoing.

When asked if passport officers that would be found wanting would not be allowed to move to the new office as earlier stated, the minister said such would be announced after investigations have been concluded.