SOUTHERN Province Minister Edify Hamukale has said a dispute has arisen between Zambia and Zimbabwe over the boundary of the Lake Kariba.
Dr Hamukale said the dispute was a security concern, because many Zambians had been arrested and prosecuted for crossing into Zimbabwean waters on the lake.
Dr Hamukale, who was speaking to the Parliamentary Committee of National Security and Foreign Affairs when they paid a courtesy call on him yesterday, said that fishing rights allowed a certain number of vessels, but that had doubled.
The minister said there was need to also put regulations to allow the fish and other species to breed in Lake Kariba.
“I hope the fish ban can also be allowed on Kariba to allow the fish species to breed because at the rate we are going all fish stocks could be depleted in the next 10 years,” Dr Hamukale said.
Dr Hamukale urged the committee to look into the issue, because law- enforcers did not have enough boats to monitor and offer security to Zambians fishing on the lake.
“This is our area of concern in terms of security. Your committee should take care of this issue. The marine units for Zambia Police and Zambia Army don’t have enough boats to monitor and offer security to our people,” Dr Hamukale said.
Chairperson for the committee Martin Malama encouraged the minister to ensure the matter was tabled during the bilateral meeting.
Dr Malama said in as much as there was unemployment, there was also need to preserve some of the resources in the lake for the future generations.
“We shall take it up, in as much as there are a lot of employment levels, but we should also be considering our children on the need to control the resources because they are not eternal,” Dr Malama said.
One of the members of the committee Frank N’gambi commended the minister for the works at the time when the province was undergoing a thorough transformation, which had seen the creation of more districts.
Mr N’gambi urged the minister to ensure Government programmes were implemented in the province.
The committee has now proceeded to Livingstone where it is expected to tour Zambia Correctional Services facilities, and the Drug-Enforcement Commission officers.
Today the committee is expected to hold a public hearing in Livingstone on the mandate of the law-enforcer’s agencies and would proceed to a similar hearing in Western Province.
Members on the committee are Margaret Miti, Anthony Malama, Mr N’gambi, Lawrence Nyirenda, Kapelwa Mbangweta, Morgan Sitwala, and Elijah Muchima.
Dam this Dam that…………….
This were Zambia was suppose to deploy those 600 security men and not kuomboka ceremony.
A weak Government with no Priorities, Zimbabwe will even claim zambian side becoz we are stupid people. all we know is fight each other than work together to develop our country. Even the Minister of Forein affairs should have negotiated to release the Zambians locked up n Zim. Instead they are busy celebrating HH’s Arrest.
During KK’s time the defence personnel never lacked equipment! Priority was given to equipping all defence branches this changed under that evil midget Kafupi! So instead of buying these useless Luxury Suvs we are now lacking boats, inflatable rafts and other marine vehicles that could be used to both secure our borders and protect our people from the Shonas- wake up guys more needs to be done in this dept!
B4 the man-made lake ,the boundary was the river and surely it should not be that difficult to mark such a boundary, even if it means interspaced coloured floaters . Do we always have to wait for people to be killed so that you can make eloquent speeches at their funerals.
The current boundary was agreed by both countries after extensive discussions.
You are right, normally a boundary follows the original river course, but in this case the agreed boundary is much simpler and easier to check as it is a series of straight lines that divides the lake equally between both counties.
For anyone with a cell phone GPS there can be no mistake. This Minister is either ignorant or confused!
Silly Africans, fighting over lines drawn by Europeans in 1889 and revived after the end of the Federation of Rhodesia and Nyasaland in 1963.
Why not use satellites to “see’ where the Zambezi is passing since that is where the so-called border is?
BLACKS…!!!
Border disputes exist even in Europe and beyond.
Nothing to do with being black. Just because you live abroad does not change your race my brother.
Grow up
Ba LT, The dispute cannot be over the boundary of the lake. The lake can be physically seen and its boundary established.
You want to say the two countries’ boundary on the lake.
Marker buoys is the answer as @ BYM following the Zambezi river bed period! In the colonial there used to be buoys and one would see them bobbing in the lake, so what became of them? This is a simple matter to sort out its Zambia that has a problem! It should be recognized that the Lake Kariba shoreline on the Zimbabwean side is mostly game reserve and fishing activities are better managed than the Zambian shoreline which is all but open! Overfishing in the Zambian portion of the lake has depleted fish stocks leading to Zambian fishermen being enticed to following the less fished stocks in the Zimbabwean waters protected by game park laws! Caught fishing in Zimbabwean waters protected under their Wildlife Park Laws is classified poaching! So Zambians face the music! Zambia must just put…
contd…. its house in order, first by educating communities living on the lake shores about laws governing the shared water body, utilization of its resources and, consequences of trespassing/wandering across the perceived boundary line. To call it a dispute is not justifiable as Zimbabweans are not lax as Zambians concerning Lake Kariba! What is the joint body for cooperation between the two countries saying?
And we are building a dam together yet we cant agree on who owns what in lake.
Imagine the fight coming up over the joint venture when building the dam
Two bankrupt countries to screw each other
That’s why I am against this thing of building dams to share with Zimbabwe. Let’s build our inland dams in Zambia for water generation. Zimbabwe is a dead country and desperate they will end up getting Zambian resources. The federation debt zim owes Zambia is there because the whites left proper records and if it wasn’t for that, they would have denied owing Zambia any money. Zambians are good people and Zimbabweans are hard hearted. I remember how the zimbos treated Zambians when we were down and out. Am not saying we shu be hard hearted but we need to use our prior experience with zimbos and they not nice people really.