The government has begun demolishing illegal houses in Lusaka, in a move aimed at ending corruption in the distribution of plots of land, police said.

Officials say the demolitions will gradually be rolled out across the country, raising the prospect of millions of people being made homeless.

Bonny Kapeso said police moved in to raze houses in an exercise which started late on Friday night and ended in the early hours of Saturday.

“We carried out a successful operation with the council and a number of houses were demolished. The police officers were involved in the operation in order to safeguard the security of council officers,” Kapeso told Reuters.

Witnesses said council officers using sledgehammers knocked down about 100 houses under construction in an area where some people had seized plots without official approval.

Most of the houses were still under construction and not yet inhabited.

“We saw about 450 state police officers and policemen from the Lusaka City Council destroying houses from about midnight on Friday until the early hours of today,” one resident told Reuters news agency.

Opposition parties often accuse senior members of the ruling MMD party of taking bribes from people in exchange for land. Opposition Patriotic Front (PF) party leader Michael Sata, pledged to demolish illegal houses to pave the way for new ones during last year’s presidential elections.

President Levy Mwanawasa sacked Gladys Nyirongo, the lands minister, two weeks ago, after accusing her of handing out plots of land to her family. Nyirongo, who is currently under investigation, has declined to comment on the matter, saying she wanted investigations to be concluded first.

Several senior ministry officials have been suspended on corruption charges involving land distribution.

The government has said it intends to destroy all illegal and unplanned homes and shops, starting in Lusaka where many impoverished informal settlements infringe on roads, railways, power lines and government-owned land.

Henry Nachina, co-ordinator of the Land Alliance, a Zambian non-governmental organisation that deals with land issues, told The Associated Press earlier this week that the situation was “scary” because people do not know how the government is going to proceed.

Nachina said he was hopeful that the government would avoid a “Zimbabwe-type” demolition where thousands are made homeless.

Nachina said that the government should not be punishing the people who build illegal settlements, but rather target politicians who hand out land to supporters without following city guidelines.

“We know very well the reason why we have illegal structures: Because local politicians are the ones who are giving that land illegally,” he said.

However, a government official, speaking on condition of anonymity because of the sensitivity of the issue, told The Associated Press that “the (demolition) process is not meant to be done indiscriminately,” and added that in some cases the government may allow families living in illegal housing to remain in their homes, while “formalising” the arrangements.

“It’s nothing like what happened in Zimbabwe,” the official added.

President Levy Mwanawasa has hailed Celtel’s developmental activities in the country.

President Mwanawasa said Celtel has contributed greatly to the improvement of the tele density in the country which he said has risen from three percent in 2001 to 16 percent todate.

Mr. Mwanawasa hoped the company would keep growing and affording Zambians effective
and improved network infrastructure in the country.

President Mwanawasa was speaking in Lusaka today when MTC Chief Executive Officer
Saad H Al Barrak paid a courtesy call on him at the State Lodge.

MTC is a telecommunication company that bought Celtel Africa 18 months ago.

President Mwanawasa also commended Celtel Zambia for introducing the bursary fund
which will target vulnerable pupils in grades eight through to grade 12 for a period
of five years.

The President assured Celtel of Government’s full support in its efforts to improve
the welfare of Zambians.

And President Mwanawasa has said that there was a lot of under development in Zambia
which needed to be tackled by every developmental-oriented organisations and
individuals.

He pointed out that it was unfortunate that people have a feeling that Government
should provide everything for them saying Government would be pleased to see
organisations or individuals contributing towards the development of the country.

Meanwhile, MTC Chief Executive Officer, Dr. Barrak has revealed that Celtel will
invest a total of US$100 million for improvement of network services in Zambia.

Dr. Barrak who revealed that the company has so far invested over US$250 million
said the proposed US$100million is meant to improve the capacity of the network
coverage.

The MTC Chief further assured the President that Celtel is committed to adding new
features and products to make the services more reliable.

Dr. Barrak noted that he was in the country to show commitment and appreciation to
President Mwanawasa’s guidance and conducive environment which had given the company
hope and trust to stay on track.

He said Celtel is committed to listening to advise on how best to develop the
telecommunication sector in the country.

And speaking earlier, Celtel Zambia Director, David Venn said Celtel has set aside
K1 billion towards the ‘ Build Our Nation’ bursaries fund.

Mr. Venn revealed that Celtel bursaries project will run for five years and will see
a full sponsorship of vulnerable pupils from grade eight through to grade 12.

He said his company would work with the Ministry of Education to ensure transparency
of the distribution of the funds to vulnerable pupils.

Dr. Barrak arrived in the country yesterday.

ZANIS

Government says its role is not only to do business but also to provide a good and conducive environment for conducting business and
investment.

Speaking when the 18 member Malaysian delegation that is in the country to look at
investment opportunities paid a courtesy call on him today, Minister of Finance and
National Planning Ng’andu Magande said the role of government through his ministry
is to identify potential sectors for investment and potential investors.

Mr. Magande said the current environment in the country is right for more productive
activities such as investment.

He said Zambia’s economy is performing well after most of the debt was written off
adding that only $625 million remains as sovereign debt.

He noted that his ministry is working towards tightening management to ensure that
the economy continues to perform well.

And delegation leader Siew Soong Hoong said there is need to develop the small and
medium enterprises as they form a core for a country’s ecomomic development.

Mr. Soong said the small and medium enterprises are source of various resources for
other bigger enterprises.

He also encouraged Zambia to increase its quality and yield of agriculture produce
to bring in more income for development.

He added that his country has 35 years of experience of manufacturing saying
Malaysia has machinery and technology that can used to assist Zambia develop its
manufacturing industry.

ZANIS

Government has disclosed that it will this year improve the working conditions of magistrates throughout the country.

And Government says it will improve the court infrastructure to facilitate a
conducive, effective and efficient administration of justice.

Justice Minister George Kunda said government is aware of the complaints by the
magistrates that their salaries are low hence the need to improve the working
conditions.

He said inadequacy of personnel especially at the magistrate level has continued to
affect the performance of the Judicature .

He said for a long time, the judiciary has been forced to operate below its
establishment of magistrates thereby negatively affecting the case disposal rate.

The Minister added that a backlog has been created at a number of stations
especially in rural areas where there are no magistrates.

The Minister said this in a policy statement in parliament on estimates of
expenditure for Judiciary that government will take in a bid to take justice closer
to the people by increasing the number of court houses.

He said the current court houses in a number of places have been in a state of
dilapidation adding that others have collapsed due to the heavy rains experienced
this year.

” This year’s budget provision has been made to construct court houses in each
province,” he said.

The Minister disclosed that government has initiated plans to turn the Venus
Theatre buildings in Kabwe into a courthouse which will house the High court and
Supreme court.

And Mr. Kunda said the judiciary has made headways in the transfer of staff from
the Public Service Commission to the Judicial Service Commission.

He said the exercise is scheduled to be completed by mid this year.

He said the move will complete the process of delinking the judiciary from executive
administration to an autonomous status.

Following the enactment of the Judicature Administration act of 1994, judiciary has
been undergoing restructuring .

Contributing to debates, Bangweulu MP Joseph Kasongo urged government to improve on
the working conditions of magistrates.

Mr. Kasongo who is also Patriotic Front (PF) MP expressed sadness that government
only attended to the needs of magistrates when they went on strike.

He also implored government to ensure proper accountability of the resources raised
from the operations in judiciary.

Chifunabuli MP Enerst Mwansa urged government to revisit the marriage act which he
said in its current state does not give protection to property once owned by the
deceased.

Chasefu MP Chifumu Banda accused government of paying attention to the grievances of
judges during election petitions.

He said improvement in conditions of service should cater for both magistrates and
judges.

He however commended the minister of Justice for increasing the number of lawyers at
the Legal Aid department.

Meanwhile government has disclosed that it has proposed to allocate more than K1
billion in the Trust Fund in this year’s budget so as to pay beneficiaries of the
deceased.

The Justice Minister explained that the Trust Fund had remained without funds due to
lack of accountability.

He said when the money was being transferred from Standard Chartered Bank in 2000,
not all the money was deposited into the Zambia National Commercial Bank (ZANACO)
account.

He further added that some documents went missing in the process.

ZANIS

The Sinazongwe District National Union of Public Servant workers (NUPSW), has urged political parties to give  President Levy Mwanawasa  chance to develop the nation.

Mr. Macdonald Machona told ZANIS that political parties should concentrate on issues
that would assist in building the country’s economy.

He said the insistent on issuing disparaging remarks on the President would retard
development which most Zambians were yeaning for in order to reduce the poverty
levels.

“Fellow Zambians we appreciate the formation of political parties and indeed the
role you playing as political parties but  if we keep on insulting the head of
state we are depriving  development  to the electorates,” Mr Machona said.

He also said  Member of Parliament (MPs) were benefiting a lot at the expense of
electorates that ushered them into power.

Mr Machona noted that most of the political statements that politicians were giving
the electorates were not happening on the ground.

He disclosed that people have continued to experience economic hardships when their
chosen leaders were busy debating for an increment to their salaries in parliament.

“When are you going to bring development that you were preaching about?
ZANIS

Amnesty International has expressed disappointment over the latest stance taken by the Zambian government to maintain and uphold the Death penalty in the law books despite President Levy Mwanawasa refusing to sign any Death warrants.

 Amnesty International Zambia (AIZ) says despite the death penalty being a highly
contentious piece of legislation, the International human rights body was saddened
by remarks by Justice Minister George Kunda that the piece of legislation would
stay.

And AIZ Executive Director Charles Mulenga made the pronouncements in an interview
with the Zambia News and Information Services in Mufulira today.

Mr. Mulenga was reacting to remarks by  the minister of Justice in parliament a
forth night ago that the piece of legislation wont be done away with.

He observed that the punishment was not only inhuman but a cruel and humiliating act.

And AIZ says it shall soon hold workshops targeted at Members of Parliament meant at
educating and coercing the legislators on the need to abolish the act.

Mr. Mulenga however noted that the courts of laws should not be blamed for effecting
the penalty as they were merely following what was in the law books of the country.

In his argument in parliament, Mr Kunda submitted that the death penalty was
contentious and that is why it was amongst the terms of reference to the Mungomba
Constitution Review Commission(CRC).

The Minister said the majority of people submitted to the CRC then that the death
penalty should remain on the statute books.

ZANIS