OPPOSITION United Party for National Development UPND Kafue Constituency Member of Parliament, Mirriam Choonya has commended President Edgar Lungu and the ruling Patriotic Front (PF) government for taking Development to her Constituency.

Speaking when she attended the Commissioning and Hand over of 40 modern housing units for the men and women in the Zambia Police Service in Kafue district on Friday August 7, Hon Choonya said Development does not go where it is not lobbied for.

Hon Choonya jubilantly narrated how accommodating the Ministry of Home Affairs was when she lobbied them to consider constructing New Housing Units for the police in her constituency

“Hon Minister allow me to commend you and your government for improving the housing standards for our men and women in uniform in Kafue, and we can all appreciate the fact that the 40 houses will not be able to accommodate all our officers hence the need for me as area MP to lobby for more of these houses” Hon Choonya said.

She said that due to the PF government’s commitment to uplifting the living standards of the men and women in uniform, the officers in Kafue will be coming from deserving homes befitting the work they do.

Meanwhile, Home Affairs Minister Hon Stephen Kampyongo has applauded the UPND Kafue Member of Parliament for attending the commissioning and hand over ceremony in Kafue having being instrumental in the achievement of the project.

Hon Kampyongo said President Edgar Lungu and his government are committed to ensuring that the men and women in uniform under the Ministry of Affairs get to have access to descent accommodation

The Minister said the Head of State and all his cabinet Minister are willing to work with all well-meaning Zambians regardless of their political affiliations to build a better Zambia.

Water Development, Sanitation and Environmental Protection Minister Dr. Jonas Chanda has yesterday conducted an on-spot check-in Mtendere (B) compound to check progress on works to establish the extent of water contamination in the area.

Dr. Chanda has since called for a quick conclusion of water contamination investigations and release of sample results so that the affected residents are not endangered with waterborne diseases.

Dr Chanda urged the Lusaka Water and Sewerage Company (LWSC) who are on site to quickly conclude the matter in order to also restore normal water supply to 26 affected households.

The Hon Minister thanked the water utility company for providing a bowser to facilitate for supply of safe and clean water as investigations are being done.

“I want to assure all the affected residents that the experts are doing everything possible to restore normal water supply and am happy that the Lusaka Water and Sewerage company is supplying you with clean water during this period” Dr Chanda said and further thanked residents for their patriotism to detect and report such cases to authorities as soon as they notice them.

Dr Chanda who also took time to visit and inspect the house of one of the affected residents to check on his water contamination situation urged him and other residents not to fall for social media falsehoods but assured that he will follow up the matter on sunday with area member of parliament to ensure that the matter is conclusively done.

And LWSC director for commercial services Mr Dennis Malambo told the minister that the water utility company is on the ground and has cut supply from the affected households in order to facilitate for new installations and to ensure that the contamination is stopped and said that substantial progress will be made by midday tomorrow.

Mr Malambo explained that the water source is clean but only 26 households are affected hence the tireless effort to quickly determine the cause of the contamination but also assured that residents will continue to be provided with clean and safe water in the morning, lunch time and evening until normal supply is restored.

Transparency International Zambia has commenced the implementation of a short-term project that seeks to monitor the prudent management of donations for COVID-19 in order to promote transparency, accountability and integrity in their management.

The project, whose implementation commenced in July 2020 is funded by USAID through the National Democratic Institute, Zambia Political Participation and Leadership program, and has the ultimate goal of ensuring that the COVID-19 emergency response in Zambia is anchored on principles of transparency, accountability and integrity at all levels.

TIZ Executive Director Maurice Nyambe says in implementing this project, his Organisation is focusing both on the donations that have been made public through the media, but is also engaging the Ministry of Health for any additional donations that may have been made.

“Thus far, we have received good cooperation from the Ministry and our engagement with them concerning the project has been cordial and underpinned by a mutual desire to ensure that all donations made towards the COVID-19 response are managed prudently”, he said.

Mr Nyambe has commended that Ministry for the open-door policy they have exhibited so far as it is cardinal to the successful implementation of the project.

“We believe that the Ministry’s openness thus far shows that civil society and government entities can collaborate around common causes such as what our project seeks to achieve. Our hope is that the Ministry of Health will continue to exhibit this openness even when it comes to other matters that are of public interest”, added Mr Nyambe.

Speaking at a media briefing today, Mr Nyambe said TIZ is aware that the Ministry’s task in leading the COVID-19 response is not an easy one, but are very optimistic that with support coming from various stakeholders, the fight against COVID-19 in Zambia will be won.

“Our clarion call goes to the Zambian people to take the lead on an individual level and supplement government’s efforts in the fight against COVID-19. In the same vein, we also wish to implore senior government officials to adhere to the same prevention measures that have been put in place”, he said.

Mr Nyambe said TIZ is concerned that there has recently been a number of cases where government officials have flouted the regulations related to mass gatherings, and we call on them to put a stop to that.

He said Zambians should be on the lookout and report any abuse of the COVID-19 donations because they are meant to save lives and not selfish interests.

Mr Nyambe said it is a well-known fact that abusing resources meant to fight the pandemic reduces the chances of us winning the fight against COVID-19, and this is why we insist that it is the duty of every well-meaning Zambian to report the abuse of these funds where such abuse is observed.

45 year old Sraj Umar Banda from Zambia was hailed as a fantastic multicultural venture by the state-owned mining company LKAB – but at the same time he committed hundreds of systematic abuses of his daughters which consisted of oral, vaginal and anal rapes that began when the daughters were eleven and twelve years old.

One of the daughters was forced to have two abortions after she became pregnant.

Banda has now been sentenced to a maximum of 14 years in prison.

The extremely serious and extensive crimes were discovered at the beginning of the year when one of the girls, now in her late teens, started telling friends and then the social services about the abuse she and her sister had been subjected to for several years.

The perpetrator in question is their father, the 45-year-old immigrant Sraj Umar Banda who moved to Sweden from Zambia because he was granted state money to do a doctorate in rock mechanics at Luleå University of Technology.

He then came to work for the state mining company LKAB in Svappavaara, where he was hailed as a fantastic multicultural venture.

But even when he was arrested, he could admit in the first interrogations that he had raped the two sisters since they were eleven and twelve years old and that there were so many rapes that he could not even state a clear number himself.

“I’m not here to save my own skin, but I admit the damage I caused,” he said in the first police interrogation.

Now the incestuous child rapist has been sentenced to the highest possible punishment for the systematic rapes of his own daughters.

Hundreds of brutal rapes – one of the girls was forced into two abortions.

The abuse lasted between 2013 and until this spring.

For one girl, it is from the time she was 11 until she was 14 years old and according to Banda herself has touched “almost 100 intercourses”.

The other girl was exposed when she was twelve years old and several years ahead and, according to Banda, was about “well over 100 intercourses”.

Estimates that according to the girls themselves are the tip of the iceberg of rapes that have occurred several times a week.

According to one of the girls, she remembered how the first rape took place:

“He was naked and I was scared, he closed the door and closed it again so no one would see. I tried to stop him, I shouted at him, kind of stop. I knew what [he] was going to do. He took Vaseline on my vagina and on his penis. It hurt and blood came.”

But Banda not only contented herself with raping one of the girls but also started raping her sister.

Sometimes he forced himself on both of them at the same time as they lay next to each other in one of the beds in the home.

He also took pictures and filmed his rapes and assaults – materials that became important evidence in the trial.