President Levy Mwanawasa says he will not be deterred in his development vision by people bent to criticise developmental programmes being implemented by his administration.

The president said the development of north western in particular, would remain
priority on the national development agenda due to the value derived from the area
in developing the overall national economy.

Mr. Mwanawasa said in line with the development agenda, government has focused
resource allocation towards the improvement of the road network, as a measure of
facilitating the smooth implementation of developmental projects, in north western
province.

The president was speaking in a speech read for him by Transport and Communications
Minister Sara Saifwanda at the Ukupupa traditional ceremony of the Lamba people.

Mr. Mwanawasa disclosed that government has released K43.8 billion for the
rehabilitation of the 120 kilometre stretch of the Solwezi/Kipushi Road an
additional K31 billion for the Solwezi/Chingola Road.

He further indicated that US$180,000 has been disbursed towards the rehabilitation
of the Solwezi Mwinilunga Raods.

The president further disclosed that government has released K30 million for the
drilling of boleholes at Senior Chief Kalilele and Lwamakanda and an additional K200
million for the construction of the Lamba High school in Solwezi district.

Speaking at the same occassion, Ukupupa Organising Committee Chairperson, Kilinima
appealed to president Mwanawasa to consider giving Mushindamo a district status due
to its rapid economical growth.

And in passing a vote of thanks, Chief Mukumbi of the Kaonde people called on
government to put to an end casualisation of labour at Kansanshi and other mining
firms in the province.

Vice President, Rupiah Banda, is disappointed at the failure by some investors to assist communities in which they operate.

Mr. Banda regretted that despite making huge profits, most local and foreign
companies,  profits were not supplementing government efforts in assisting
vulnerable communities particularly in the area of education.

The vice president was speaking at Mushindike Basic School in Mwansabombwe today
when he received a donation from Celtel of 40 school desks worth K20 million.

The donation by Celtel  is part of the company’s ‘build the nation’ project launched
two years ago.

Mr. Banda urged other business houses to emulate Celtel and assist the vulnerable
communities around the country.

And Celtel Marketing Manager for Services, Kennedy Mambwe, said the company will
remain a partner to government in its quest to provide quality education for all
throughout the country.

Mr. Mambwe said universal education for all requires the effort of a stakeholders
not only to ensure access to education but also achieving a good learning
environment.

Celtel has so far spent over K400 million in assisting schools in various
communities around the country through the donation of books, desks and
infrastructure rehabilitation.

President Levy Mwanawasa has refuted a story which appeared in yesterday’s edition of the Post Newspaper headlined ”This Chap KK is Decampaigning MMD-Levy.

In reaction to the story, President Mwanawasa said he never said what was attributed to him as the word ‘Chap’ was not his language and that he takes very strong exception denying that he never referred to Dr Kaunda as ”this Chap”.

In a statement released to ZANIS in Lusaka today by Special Assistant to the
President for Press and Public Relations, John Musukuma, Mr Mwanawasa said the
report by the Post was unethical as the meeting quoted was a Party Executive and
closed meeting.

Mr Mwanawasa confirmed talking about Dr Kaunda in answer to a question raised by one
of the party officials who
wanted to know why he was tolerating Dr Kaunda and Mr Sata who unfairly talk ill of
him.

The President said the Party Official in his question noted that Dr Kaunda would not
have brooked the amount of criticism and would have been quick to deal with such
people by detaining them adding Mr Sata being a disciple of Dr Kaunda would never
have tolerated the kind of attacks he had been making.

In response to the Party official’s question, Mr Mwanawasa said that he regretted
that Dr Kaunda does not appear to reciprocate the kind of treatment which he had
offered him as a parent and as the founding father of the nation.

Mr Mwanawasa said he did not deserve this treatment by Dr Kaunda and that he had
been rather unkind in his remarks about the MMD Government and the President himself
despite the many things which he had done for him

”I commented however that whether l really deserve this, the people of Zambia would
judge”, Mr Mwanawasa said.

With regard to MMD Presidential aspirants, President Mwanawasa said that the
contents of the story can only be intended to antagonise him against his MMD
colleagues.

The President explained that he informed the meeting that it was not the interest of
the party for him to step down before the 2011 General Elections and proposed as
”food for thought that the party could require him to stay on as Party President
until elections day and at the Convention they could elect a presidential candidate
who would become party president on elections day.

The President denied that his proposal to remain in office until election day was
for a perios outside the stipulated time and said that when the Convention is held,
he will  not have served either five years of the second term or ten years of the
cumulative period that he will have served.  

”This would enable to lead the Party and to be at the head of the tripartite
elections. This would all be within my two terms both as Party and Republican
President.

In addition he also stressed the importance of selecting a presidential successor
who had integrity and who would treat fundraising for the Party as of paramount
importance because the party needed to be sufficiently funded to enable it discharge
its operations.

President Levy Mwanawasa says the Constitutional Conference would have no legislative power to make or alter a new Constitution.

Mr Mwanawasa said this when he explained to party officials during a meeting in Livingstone on the difference between the Conference and the Constituent Assembly.

This is contained in a Statement released to ZANIS in Lusaka today by Special
Assistant to the President for Press and Public Relations, John Musukuma.

Mr Mwanawasa said the process to amend the current constitution  through the
constituent assembly  would be long and very costly to the nation and fail to
achieve the desired result.

He further said legislating for a Constitutional Conference which would have no
power to make or alter the Constitution but pass its resolutions to Parliament for
enactment, is simple and less time consuming.

Mr Mwanawasa said because all the Members of Parliament would be members of the
Constitutional Conference, there is a high probability that Members of Parliament
would vote to legislate whatever the Constitutional Conference adopted.

He stressed that the method was inexpensive, less acrimonious and would make it
possible for Parliament to legislate those provisions which were  not contentious
and defer those that require the holding of a Referendum.

”It is possible for an agreement to be made on almost 80% of the document.  At the
end of the day except for this explaination,  there was no difference between a
Constituent Assembly and Constitutional Conference. You can call it what you want
‘Constituent Assembly, Constitutional Conference, Convention, National Indaba, it is
all an exercise in semantics”, Mr Mwanawasa said

Zambia, a former recipient of food aid, has given the U.N World Food Programme (WFP) 10,000 tonnes of white maize to feed orphans and people living with AIDS, a senior aid official said on Thursday.

WFP country manager for Zambia, David Stevenson, said the government donation would be used to help feed hungry people in Zambia where the aid agency requires an additional $10 million to feed Zambians affected by floods in the last rainy season.

“It is the first time Zambia has done so (donating food) and it’s a tremendous gesture in many ways that shows we are collaborating well with Zambia in meeting the needs of hungry people,” Stevenson said.

He added assessments were underway in Zimbabwe, Lesotho, Malawi and Swaziland on food requirements, and part of the Zambian donation could go to help feed hungry people elsewhere in Africa.

“The priority for distributing this food will be within Zambia because we have 600,000 people requiring food aid while the donation can only feed 550,000 people for three months,” Stevenson told Reuters.

Officials say thousands of Zambians and Malawians still face food shortages despite maize surpluses in the two nations in the 2006/07 season.

In June, Zambian Agriculture Minister Ben Kapita said the country’s 2006/07 maize output declined 4.4 percent to 1.36 million tonnes compared with output for 2005/06 due to floods which destroyed the crop in 41 of the country’s 72 districts.

Kapita said Zambia would keep 250,000 tonnes of maize in strategic reserves in addition to the surplus of 160,000 tonnes the previous year.

The government last week authorised traders to export 200,000 tonnes of maize to Namibia and the democratic Republic of Congo.

In Zambia, where one in every five adults aged 14 to 49 years either lives with AIDS or is infected with HIV, people especially in rural areas are unable to feed themselves because they either spend too much time nursing relatives suffering from AIDS or are too sick to grow their own food, officials say.