Cabinet held a meeting at Statehouse today where it was decided among other things to establish Presidential Mausoleums and Supporting Facilities.This is according to a press statement released to the media by Chief Government spokesperson Chishimba Kambwili.Cabinet said it is necessary to bury our departed Republican Presidents in a dignified manner and have properly designated places by establishing Mausoleums and creating supporting facilities matching such burial sites for visitors to learn about
the individual and collective contributions to the nation.
Under this Item, Cabinet approved:
- the construction of the Mausoleum for the Late President, Mr. Michael Chilufya Sata at Embassy Park
- the construction of supporting structures and facilities at all the three (3) Mausoleums at Embassy Park
- the construction of future Presidential Mausoleums and supporting facilities at other designated areas.
Other issues discussed by Cabinet include:
Countrywide Electricity Load Shedding
A Special Cabinet meeting will be held next week to discuss ways to alleviate the shortage of electricity due to the reduced water levels at Kariba North Bank Power Station, Kafue Gorge Power Station and Victoria Falls Power Station due to reduced water levels. The maximum power deficit the country faces is estimated at 560MW. In the interim,this deficit will be sourced from both power imports and load shedding.
ZESCO Limited has embarked on a countrywide power rationing mechanism in order to preserve the limited water available for power generation until the 2015/16 rainy season.As a result of the current situation ZESCO’s revenue losses will be as follows:
- US$97 million: revenue loss due to reduced sales to customers
- US$70 million: revenue loss due to reduced sales to distribution customers
- US$60 million: cost of power imports between now and December
- US$60 million: the overall funding gap due to reduced generation
ZESCO Limited has revised the load-shedding programme from 2-4 hours a day. The load-shedding programme will be implemented in an equitable manner to ensure that the burden is spread across all areas apart from essential services and operations.
Today Cabinet discussed the following short and long-term measures to alleviate the current power shortage.
In the short-term, Cabinet has:
- authorised the importation of 100 mega watts (MW) of power;
- directed ZESCO to ensure that the 120MW Itezhi-tezi power station is commissioned as planned in August 2015
- directed that ZESCO and its private sector partners commissions the 150MW Maamba Coal Powered Station in November 2015
- directed that the on-going load shedding continues in order to protect the power generation equipment from possible damage due to reduced
water levels; - explored the option of power-renting from ships docked at sea
- directed ZESCO to actively promote the use of renewable energy technologies
In the long-term, Cabinet has:
- directed the quick implementation of the Lusiwashi Lower hydropower project in Serenje
- directed ZESCO to engage the promoters of Kalungwishi Hydropower Station (150MW) to expedite the implementation of the project
- directed the expansion of Ndola Heavy Fuel Oil plan to 100MW
- approved the construction of the 340MW EMCO thermal powered plant
Opening of a Consulate-General in Guangzhou City in Guangdong Province of The People’s Republic of China:
Under this Item
Cabinet approved the opening of a Consulate in Guangzhou City of Guangdong Province of the People’s Republic of China.Zambia and China maintain diplomatic relations on a residential basis in
each other’s capital, at Ambassadorial level. However, Cabinet says it has become necessary to open a Consulate in Guangzhou City to further strengthen relations between the Republic of Zambia and the People’s Republic of China, and in particular, to take advantage of the vast opportunities for trade, investment and tourism that the province of Guangdong offers. The Consulate will also provide consular services to both Zambians and Chinese nationals.
Revised National Tourism Policy:
Under this Item, Cabinet approved for implementation, the Revised National Tourism Policy. The 1997 Tourism Policy was revised in order to be aligned to the Patriotic Front (PF) Manifesto, the Revised Sixth National Development Plan (R-SNDP), the Revised Decentralisation Policy, the Job Creation and Industrialisation Strategy and other recent trends and best practices in the Tourism
sector. The tourism sector, remains one of the sectors that Government feels can contribute positively to development.
Appointment of Members for the Zambia Centre for Accountancy Studies (ZCAS) Board:
Under this Item
Cabinet approved the appointment of 9 members to serve on the Board of the Zambia Centre for Accountancy Studies. The Minister of Justice will present the names of the nominees to Parliament for ratification.
Statutory Instrument to Establish the Insurance Fidelity Fund:
Under this Item, Cabinet approved issuance of a Statutory Instrument to establish and provide regulations for the Insurance Fidelity Fund so as to protect the interests of beneficiaries of insurance policies. The Insurance Act, (No. 27 of 1997) as amended by Act No. 26 of 2005, provides for the establishment of the Fidelity Fund by way of a Statutory Instrument.However, since the enactment of the Insurance Act, the Insurance Fidelity Fund has not been established and hence there has not been a process under which the claims from the holders and other beneficiaries of policies who have suffered the inability by the insurer’s or broker’s to fulfil its obligations could be considered for purposes of compensation.
Bayambilila bakufa,
Misplaced priorities zoona. Electricity ni next week.
You can not be building those things for every dead president. we will soon run out of room.
These buffoons. So every dead president will have a house called Masauleum. These stup!d ministers can make one mad.
In USA where they have money the just make a normal tumbstone. If you want just make a statue not these Masauleums which will be costing tax payers money or donnor every day every week every year for ever in maintenance costs. A tumbstone with windows sure.
The dead have nothing to do with the living. The dead can wait sort out the problems faced by the living first then we can look at the dead. This is one of the first rules in First Aid treatment and it applies very well to our country today.
Nacho chi manda kukula, nanga benagu tika paike pati?
Stupid Cabinet with wrong priorities. I cant believe that Zambian has gone this low.
You have power issues and busy spending on a dead person?? Please M H S RIP this nonsense Mausoleum can be put on hold until further notice.
Resolve economical issues first that affect poor Zambians. If Sata’s family are in a Harry let them fund it.. because the already spent billions in lodging bills.
What a greedy family and Government??
It was a mistake to build for Mwanawasa in the first place. And we advised you to wait to build such a HUGE grave for Levy before you do for KK. Only KK deserved such a monument.
Now Lusaka will be a city of pyramids for Zambian pharaohs.
Looking at ZESCO’s projected losses… that EUROBOND was a drop in the ocean and will mean nothing…surely some heads need to roll… the cabinet meeting is all about directives. We are blessed with Sunshine and no proposals for solar farms!!
We appreciate your cabinet notes but this is just mere rhetoric!!!
Ati “A Special Cabinet meeting will be held next week to discuss ways to alleviate the shortage of electricity”. With the urgency this problem deserves, this in not something that should be left to next week.
Resolutions passed on electricity are merely rhetorical statements. Short or long term goals without specific timelines are useless!! You need specific timelines so that whoever is responsible can be audited periodically and brought to book or fired if these goals have not been met. That’s how you get the job done.
Another PF blunder.
@Nostradamus
kekekekekekekek! ati now lusaka wil be a city of pyramids of zambian pharaohs!,,,,
Sata was a simple man, he doesn’t need a mausoleum. All he needs is a simple which cross, chapwa.
This is were we go wrong spending large amounts of money on dead people! At a time when ordinary people are running out of burial space.
Why not just leave the park simply with green well kept grass and small busts of former presidents. with benches for people to sit and reflect? Its the same thing with national mourning many unproductive days yet we can just observe a minute of silence.
@Ndobo, ulemoneka boyi. Not just to show up whenever you hear of amalilo… You thought there was a funeral again??? No no we are just remembering Ba Yama Ba Sata.
THIS IS IDOLATRY.
Where is @Saulosi mwe bantu? Is he adeath like Boxing Mwale used to say in ZNBC’s “Sewero” radio program?
We clearly do not have the best brains Zambia has to offer in Cabinet. Most of the things they discussed are not of benefit to Zambia..Education is not a priority so we are talking about Masauleums for the dead presidents who did more harm than good for Zambia,appointing money consuming boards and embassies,directing a broke ZESCO to commission power stations.
You have Call-Boys from Kamwala bus stop as ministers what do you expect?
Show me Lungu’s cv?
Communist style – imortalising human beings. Who can believe us when we say there is no money to invest in critical sectors such as energy.
So, amongst all those retards in Cabinet non of them would have loved to come out like a sharper dullard by just saying; hey guys have you noticed that there is no power in this room. What a banana cabinet full of pin heads!
Misplaced priorities – Mausoleums over job creation, quality healthcare provision, quality education, increased food capacity. Sometimes, you wonder whether these Cabinet ministers live in the same country as the rest of us!
ZESCO – can you please tell us what happened to the Eurobond? Perhaps if we understand where the money went, we can be more understanding of the power situation in the country.
The Zambian cabinet should be featured on the “Comics Unleashed” programme on BET 2 (Channel 135 DStv). I am pretty sure the cabinet can outclass those American comedians.
The living need more chastity than the dead. Such misplaced priorities will only lead Zambia the Greece way. Beef up please.
So the whole cabinet of empty tins actually met today to discuss about constructing an impressive building housing a tomb for “deadwood” Sata…..this what the City Mayor and his Councillors should be discussing…truly laughable and the pressing issues will be discussed next week like load shedding, ZRL, Economy CBU closure…etc for the living….truly laughable indeed and they will get allowances for this cabinet meeting.
Zambians wake up from your docility!!
The Bible says let the dead bury themselves. Can we really afford such ventures as a country. What is wrong with our leaders kanshi? Is it our education system to blame or we simply paying the sin of too much corruption and nepotism since independence at the expense of raising effective leaders!
And they call themselves a Cabinet my foot! One wonders whether these idi.ots know what is affecting the citizens on the ground. Instead of addressing issues of the weak kwacha, power deficit, poor health care, expensive mealie meal, poor education standards, the list is endless, they decide to spend the whole day talking about building houses over sata’s grave. Where are the priorities? Of what value is the house over a grave? How can these foo.ls choose to misapply our money like this? Meanwhile they’re busy stealing through giving each other contracts. Sure we must stop this nonsense otherwise before we know it Zambia will ground to a halt. We will have ourselves to blame for doing nothing to stop the rot. We have a bunch of featherbrained cabinet members. Zambia will continue to…
You cant build such things when youre failing to pay your debtors. Your euro bond borrowing has a lot of penalties. Please4 think twice. Its not rocket science to put your priorities right
Wats wrong with consulting extensively if your people support some these ventures before embarking on them mwebantu.
Look at the priorities of you so called leaders. Nothing urgent regarding the load shedding but busy making urgent plans about construction Mausoleums . I feel like torching them myself once they are constructed!
We need a demonstration and demolish all these styopet Mausoleums
Indeed, any dead President should be given a dignified burial. But what tombstone you put on the grave should be according to the wish and at the expense of the immediate family. There is no need for Zambian tax-payers to continue bearing this cost. “A king is only as rich as its people,” as the English Philosopher, Thomas Hobbes, once said. If the immediate families of dead Presidents cannot afford Mausoleums, then Zambian tax-payers should not be forced to pay for them.
They are constructing more monuments for the youth to stone when they get upset. But kwena why not just build a Ka small museum around the area. Some people have mushrooms for brains.
Zambia meets to discuss and approve monuments while in Kenya they meet to discuss big infrastructure and big crackdowns on alcoholism.
Why do we need to build these things? Why not build clinics or hospitals after the dead President. A structure that you spend money and time on just for looking at is worthless. Even that Mwanawasa thing should be brought down
Foolish thinking! and you call yourselves leaders? *****s. Please stop wasting our time and money. Is this what we pay for when you seat in those ‘meeting’. How different are they from those chibuku parties in taverns? Styopet.
Why did they not pass a vote to build Mausoleums for the Zambian economy.
Because they are the ones that killed it!
The best mausoleum you can build for Sata is to keep his PF the way he wanted it to be & fulfilling his 90 day promises for which he was elected.
As for your priorities, awe sure you guys are jackasses. You couldn’t discuss CBU.
& your short term projections for Zesco target the next rainy season. Do you have data on the performance of the next rainy season.
And some poor council worker has to clean the windows of the Mausoleum every morning…instead of cleaning our dirty streets.
Still tangled up in idiótic and cadaverous misadventures. These useless politicians of ours can really leave you dumbfounded.
A cabinet full of madness . What a misplaced priority . Zambians watchout.
And all this for a chap who should never even have been accorded a state funeral. This is the nigga who fought on the side of oppressors during the struggle, and today these daft moroons are still plotting on how to waste our tax payers’ money on him? But, hey, why am I supprised? This is the same govt whose President sent his representative to a funeral of a known gangster, Youngson, right? A Gerabo, a criminal of all colours, whose trail of destruction on the Copperbelt only Kambwili and Musukwa knows. And yet, no representative at Dr. Manda’s funeral.
SHADES OF OZYMANDIAS! LATE PRESIDENTS SHOULD BE REMEMBERED BY PROJECTS ALLEVIATING POVERTY AND SUFFERING;IMPROVING EDUCATIONAL AND HEALTH STANDARDS. GRANDIOSE EDIFICES ARE BOUND TO CRUMBLE SOONER RATHER THAN LATER.
Sata was a bloody liability and cost to this nation when he was alive and now he should also cost us money in death?? WTF??
That money could best be used to upgrade our health system. Surely the dead top the agenda at cabinet meetings!
Aaah these chaps! Just by the mere fact that Sata is buried at the exclusive embassy park is big enough! What mausoleum for what?? This PF cabinet thinks that by repeatedly praising Sata people will vote for them. That time passed just after elections in January. Just work hard and solve problems instead of continuously wishing Sata was there! See how unrealistic you are? You know power problem has been caused by lack of water and you are still emphasizing lower Lusiwashi power station! Nothing about Solar which you talked about some two ago,solar power farms in each province!? Tell us how you expect power to be transmitted from Maamba and lower Itezhi- Tezhi when you have not put transmission lines!!How much do you expected to rent power from ships when you are so far from sea??
Surely, Zambians we are too docile. These are issues we should be protesting over,spending tax payers money recklessly. The idea of a park is cheaper and excellent. Look at President Sata he crooked his way through to State house with his propaganda Slogans. We still are in hurry to spend money’s on such issues at the expense of drugs in hospitals, etc.Come come guys. Us the youth should wake up and start fighting these buffoons, like the our forefathers did to the colonial masters.
Zambia is really the Real africa ,are these issues of dead prsdo a priority kwana
Mr. president, people have spoken. If you want to dig your own grave, ignore the statistics on this subject. Hold a quick press conference and denounce this cabinet decision as it is coming at a wrong time when the post has continued to create a perception and convince people about negatives in your leadership style.
I for one know that you mean well. But it is also high time you reflected on whether you have the right team at our plot one. Why? I have not seen your quick wins which can detract lies perpetrated by one newspaper. The ability to handle SG issue and timings on some issues does not seem convincing.
If I did not love you as my president, I cannot write this sensible piece of advise. Neither would I sleep properly. Press conference on power cuts and investing in dead…
Zambia is now paying a very high price for the PF’s corruption and nepotism. Corruption and nepotism misallocate resources. In all fairness, Lungu did not win the Elections, but he corruptly wormed his way to power. Intelligent and competent people are roaming the streets , but dull, lazy, manipulators and cheats find themselves in top and privileged offices. There is no social justice in this country. If we are serious about moving this county forward, we have to stop this nonsense and the day light robberies by PF bandits.
And they ask why they are poor?
And yet, the absolute rulers in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, one of the richest countries in the world, are buried in unmarked grave between the graves of the poorest.
What next, embalming the departed “dear leaders” to be visited by generations to come?
here it is. I have told you a million times that PF is full of dull airport cabinet ministers. all they know is to admire things. A Lungu Anabwera should stop this nonsense. And one wonders why Africa or the black man is very poor. I think docile Zambians need a revolution where one will destroy these monuments. Saddam Huesein had monuments, where are they?Zambians, let us say no to visionless and wasteful PF in 2016.
Cremation would have been better. What a waste of prime land in Lusaka, not to talk about the waste of our meagre resources.Only the “founding father” KK deserves a mausoleum when he departs.
Mausoleum can be goggled by voice and then learn how to pronounce it properly ba Kambwili. It is very possible to prepare your self before you go to the public. You are the face of the government and each and every word coming from you must be well calculated. You are embarrassing us mudala. You are not, unfortunately among the gifted speakers that we have in Zambia and really your education is a humble one(Copperstone) and therefore the need to prepare yourself is very important. You were almost biting your lips on TV to pronounce the word mausoleum…….I was really feeling for you, seriously!
its time we demand for a press statement this lungu need to tell the nation what plans he has come up with for zambia since he did not have any plans.
I agree with most bloggers here. These are misplaced priorities. KK deserves one, being the father of the nation. This is what you get when you put incompetent people in government. Actually, you don’t need so much intelligence to know what Zambia’s priorities are; just common sense. So, it appears common sense is lacking! Shocking!
Tell me its a lie .Really with the issues the country is currently going through these our leaders can be talking about building that.Are these the same leaders we voted for or what?I just cant stomach what is obtaining in this country.what a cabinet.