The Forum for Leadership Search, FLS, has described as disastrous the current trend of funding and leadership selection in political parties in the country.

FLS Executive Director Edwin Lifwekelo regretted most political parties have
resorted to selecting leaders on the basis of wealth as apposed to leadership qualities.

Mr. Lifwekelo attributed this to the move by political parties to entirely rely on individuals for funding of party operations.

He told ZANIS in Lusaka that the trend by parties to depend on individual politicians to fund parties has to a greater extent compromised the quality of political leadership and democracy in the country.

Mr Lifwekelo said the state of affairs has made politicians, who assume leadership
on the basis of wealth, to become reluctant to be challenged at national party
conventions.

Meanwhile , Mr Lifwekelo challenged the Bankers Association of Zambia, BAZ, to publicly condemn the move by some banking institutions to compromise the client
confidentiality principle, through revelation of personal bank documents to the public.

 Mr. Lifwekelo made the challenge in apparent reference to recent revelations of
President Mwanawasa’s bank account details to the public by Finance Bank.

He urged BAZ to censure financial institutions that breach banking ethics by
undermining the confidentiality of individual clients.

“We wonder how confidential information regarding a private account was availed to
third party if not for the purposes of embarrassing the president” he said.

ZANIS

Government says it will consider assisting towards funerals of the victims of the CR bus road accident that claimed 14 lives and left several others injured on Friday.

Luapula Province Minister, John Chinyanta, said government regretted losing several
lives of people in such circumstances and would do everything possible to prevent
future occurrences of such accidents.

Mr. Chinyanta was speaking when he visited twelve accident victims last night, who
are admitted at Mansa general hospital.

He said government will soon summon the CR management in an effort to establish the
cause of the fatal accident.

The minister, flanked by Luapula province permanent secretary, Alfred Kalumba and
other senior provincial government officials said government would not allow lives
of the citizens being claimed by preventable causes.

He said government would ponder speed limiting on the Tuta High-way to prevent
further loss of lives as the road as claimed many lives due to over speeding by
motorists.

And Mr. Chinyanta has commended the Luapula province police command for their prompt action to rush to the scene of accident.

He said the quick action helped prevent further loss of lives of people that were
trapped in the wreckage of the mangled Marcopolo CR bus.

Meanwhile Mansa general hospital executive director, Dr. Francis Bwalya, has
appealed to families who are still missing their relatives to go to Mansa general
hospital and help identify bodies that are currently lying at the mortuary.

Mansa general hospital mortuary received 11 brought in dead bodies from the fatal
accident on Friday.

And Dr. Bwalya has described the condition of the 12 accident victims admitted to
the hospital, as stable, saying many of them suffered fractures and cuts apart from
one who is in a critical condition and had to be rushed to the theatre.

14 people and several others were injured after the bus they where in careered off
the road and overturned along Tuta Road on Friday.

ZANIS

The Lusaka City Council, LCC, in conjunction with State Police this morning swung into action to remove makeshift stalls from streets in the city centre in a bid to curb street vending.

The officers destroyed the make shift structures erected by the vendors on freedom way, Cha cha cha, Lumumba and all the subsidiary streets in town.   

By press time, police sealed off all the major roads and vehicles were forced to use
alternative routes.
And scores of vendors, who were caught unawares, watched helpless as the uncompromising law enforcement officers took full control of the streets.

Recently LCC warned the street vendors to vacate the streets and relocate to designated trade centres.
The council advised vendors to start trading from the new Soweto Market and other
markets in compounds.
The decision to chase the vendors from streets comes in the wake of the street vendors’  defiance of the 48 hour-ultimatum in which to leave the streets, issued by
the council.

Meanwhile, efforts by ZANIS to get comments from LCC Public Relations Officer Chanda Makanta on the latest development proved futile as her mobile was constantly not reachable.

 And Police spokesperson, Bonny Kapeso refused to comment on the matter.

ZANIS

Kitwe’s Kapoto compound residents last night ran amok destroying property worth millions of kwacha after two Police officers from Riverside police station allegedly shot dead a 13-year-old girl.

And Copperbelt Police Chief, Antoneil Mutentwa, has disclosed that Police in Kitwe have arrested and charged Constable Rexson Banda and Sub Inspector, Africa Zulu, with murder.

The residents went on rampage destroying property that included the office of the local Neighbourhood community Watch and other shops at the Market after the alleged shooting of the girl identified as, Marvis Mwansa, at Kapoto market.

A check by ZANIS at the market found a ZAMBEEF outlet has been destroyed with its window panes completely shattered while meat products worth over K6.5 million were looted by the irate residents.

The Body of the deceased is lying at Kitwe Central Hospital Mortuary

Police chief Mr. Mutentwa told ZANIS in Kitwe today that Police were concerned that the two officers who  allegedly shot the minor were not on duty and had no mandate to pursue drug dealers.

” As a Police we unreservedly condemn such acts especially that our officers acted outside the operational guidelines of the Police service.” said Mr Mutentwa.

He explained that the shooting incident happened when the two officers from Riverside Police Station went to Kapoto market to pursue a group of boys that were allegedly selling drugs at the market between 18 30 and 19 hours yesterday.

“The Boys who were allegedly selling drugs bolted after they saw Police approaching, hence the Officers decided to open fire in a crowed place in an effort to apprehend the culprits which was wrong.” said Mr Mutentwa.

Mr Mutentwa said the two officers have been arrested and charged because they did not follow procedure in pursuing drug traffickers and that there was no evidence to indicate that their lives were in danger for them to resort to firing live bullets.

He said Police would ensure that that the law prevails in the matter.

And one of the residents, Amon Banda, told ZANIS that some Police officers have allegedly been obtaining money from the unsuspecting drug dealers at Kapoto Market.

” The Police Officers  have been coming here for a long time now to harasse  these drug dealers who give them money to elude arrests” said Banda.

And Father to the deceased, Abel Mwansa, welcomed the arrest of the two Police Officers and called for justice to prevail over the death of his daughter.

” I don’t understand why these people decided to Kill my  daughter, please let thelaw take its course on this matter” said Mwansa.

ZANIS

President Levy Mwanawasa has promoted Gwembe District Administrative Officer Dorothy Hamvula as Gwembe District Commissioner.

This is contained in a letter signed by Public Service Management Division Permanent Secretary Ignatius Kashoka and made available to Southern Province Permanent Secretary Darius Hakayobe in a letter dated March, 21, 2007.

Mr Kashoka said the promotion is with effect from February 01, 2007