Two civil society organisations have said they are disappointed that the Catholic Church has not condemned Patriotic Front (PF) leader Michael Sata’s statement that the constitution provides for gay rights.

And Forum for Leadership Search executive director Edwin Lifwekelo has said PF secretary general Wynter Kabimba should stop defending Mr Sata’s stance on gay rights.

Committee of Citizens executive director Gregory Chifire and Mr Lifwekelo said in separate interviews in Lusaka yesterday that the Catholics should have been the first to denounce Mr Sata’s intentions because the act of homosexuality is unGodly.

Mr Chifire said it is surprising the Catholic Church has said nothing about Mr Sata’s stance when it is expected to condemn the PF president.

“We expected the Catholic Church to lead the condemnation of Mr Sata because it condemns homosexuality and abortion,” he said.

Mr Chifire said homosexuality is unChristian, immoral and sinful and the Catholic should preach against it.

Mr Lifwekelo said the Catholic Church is the biggest church in Zambia and citizens expect it to denounce the opposition leader’s stance on homosexuality.

He said it is amazing that the Catholic has said nothing when there is evidence linking Mr Sata to plans to legalise homosexuality.

Mr Lifwekelo challenged the Catholic Church to condemn Mr Sata, according to its teaching.

Meanwhile, Mr Lifwekelo said PF secretary general Wynter Kabimba should grow up and stop defending Mr Sata’s statement on homosexuality.

“The audio compact disc in circulation is very clear about what Mr Sata said to Danish journalists about gay rights, no matter how much Mr Kabimba wants to cover it up,” he said.

Mr Lifwekelo said for the first time, Mr Sata was clear about his stance on homosexuality.

He said the Compact Disc will be posted on internet-based social networks, Youtube and Facebook, to expose the PF’s stand on homosexuality.

Mr Lifwekelo also described Mr Kabimba as a ‘pathological liar’ for suggesting that he (Lifwekelo) is being looked after by his wife.

He said in a statement issued in Lusaka yesterday that he finds it ‘cheap and preposterous’ for Mr Kabimba to sink so low and talk about his (Mr Lifwekelo’s) wife.

“While I acknowledge that my wife is a professional teacher who is well qualified for her job and an employee of Tick High School in Lusaka run by Mr Kabimba’s wife, he cannot suggest that my wife looks after my family,” Mr Lifwekelo said.

In March 17’s edition of The Post, Mr Kabimba was quoted as saying Mr Lifwekelo is being kept by his wife, using the salary she gets as a school teacher.

“Mr Kabimba is a pathological liar to suggest that I am unemployed. I am very much self-employed and doing well,” he said.

Mr Lifwekelo challenged Mr Kabimba to relieve his wife of her job if he so wishes.

Mr Lifwekelo said he and Mr Chifire are young role models who are self-employed and doing well in their investments.

He said their finances are clean as they do not make money from selling council plots and engaging in other illegal activities.

“I know a lot about Mr Kabimba but I will not sink so low as to talk about that and lower my integrity,” Mr Lifwekelo said.

Meanwhile, Nkombo Kachemba reports that a clergyman in Kitwe has castigated Mr Sata for alleging that there are adequate laws in Zambia to regularise gay rights.

Brethren in Christ Church pastor Justin Mushanga said in a statement released in Kitwe that it is unfortunate for a leader who wants to become republican president to support gay rights in a Christian nation.

“One does not need to be a Christian to know that homosexuality is an abomination. If Mr Sata is saying there are such laws, I wonder if we need a president like that,” he observed.

He said Mr Sata should know that Zambians want a leader who will develop the country and not introduce gay rights.

The clergyman said Zambians do not want a presidential hopeful to support gay rights because the act is inhuman.

[Zambia Daily Mail]

SPEAKER of the National Assembly Amusaa Mwanamwambwa on March 17 reprimanded Patriotic Front (PF) Roan member of Parliament (MP) Chishimba Kambwili for voting on behalf of Livingstone MP Sakwiba Sikota on the amended Anti-Corruption Commission Bill No. 41 of 2010.

Mr Mwanamwambwa, who made a ruling on the matter for close to 30 minutes, said he is discontented with the conduct of Mr Kambwili by breaching the Parliamentary etiquette by voting on behalf of Mr Sikota.

The punishment meted out on Mr Kambwili was for him to stand behind the Parliament bar for 30 minutes.

“I order you to go and stand behind the Bar of the House. I also instruct the Sergeant-At-Arms to take the Speaker’s mace and stand behind you.

“This is not the first time you are being punished for breaching the rules and procedures of this honourable house.

You have been reprimanded and admonished several times before, which should be embarrassing for any honourable member. I want to believe that disciplinary measures are intended to create positive change in an individual. This doesn’t seem to be happening to you, which is very sad. This is the last time the House will have to mete out disciplinary action against you,” Mr Mwanamwambwa told Mr Kambwili.

He said the MP’s conduct misled the House and the public as the results of the voting were not a true reflection of the actual votes cast.

He said voting is one of the mechanisms used by the House to arrive at its decisions and it is gross misconduct and a serious breach of the rules and procedures of the House for any member to attempt to exercise it on behalf of another member whose constituents he does not represent.

Mr Mwanamwambwa said it is wrong for Mr Kambwili to vote on behalf of Mr Sikota because the rules do not provide for proxy voting.

Mr Mwanamwambwa said Mr Kambwili’s conduct caused grave embarrassment to Mr Sikota and brought the integrity of the House into question.

He said Mr Kambwili has lowered the decorum and standards of the House by breaching the rules and procedures the House has put in place to ensure that MPs perform their functions in a dignified and unimpeded manner.

Mr Mwanamwambwa said it is depressing that Mr Kambwili has continued to breach the rules and procedures of the Housedespite him being guided several times to desist from conducting himself in a manner that can lower the standards of the House.

He said the National Assembly Standing Orders of 2005 regulate the proceedings of the house to promote decorum and dignity in the conduct of business in parliament.

During the sitting of the House on March 16, November 3, 2010, Mr Kambwili voted twice when the amendment to the Anti-Corruption Commission Bill No.41 of 2010 proposed by UPND Itezhi-Tezhi MP Godfrey Beene, was put to the vote.

[Zambia Daily Mail]

Vice president George Kunda has revealed that government has no immediate intentions of tabling before parliament the issue of second republican president Dr. Fredrick Chiluba’s presidential immunity which was removed in 2002.

Mr. Kunda, who is also Justice Minister, assured the house that the issue of Dr. Chiluba’s immunity will be addressed in the new constitution.

He said that there was a part that will address the issue of the second republican president’s immunity in the new constitution.

And the vice president has questioned why some opposition political parties have u-turned on their support to the second republican president.

Mr. Kunda said that he was surprised that some opposition political parties are now calling on government to recover the alleged stolen money from Dr Chiluba, when in the past they claimed his innocence.

Mr. Kunda has further stated that government has not failed to recover or locate any assets linked to the Dr. Chiluba anywhere in the world.

The vice president has also denied accusations that the MMD government has been shielding Dr. Chiluba.

The vice president was answering a question from Chipili Member of Parliament Davies Mwila.

The Patriotic Front has called for fresh negotiations with the United Party for National Development over the future of the UPND/PF pact.

Sources have revealed to QFM that PF president Michael Sata this week met with UPND president Hakainde Hichilema to see if they can still work together.

Mr. Sata is said to have complained to the UPND president that some people close to him were advising him wrongly on the issue of the PACT.

The PF president is said to have written to the UPND requesting to have a fresh look at the electoral alliance of the two biggest political parties in the country.

Yesterday, senior members of the UPND met to discuss the letter written by the PF.

The UPND meeting which was held at the party’s secretariat and lasted for more than 9 hours resolved to give the PF conditions in order to enter into an alliance again.

The sources explained to QFM that the UPND will keep its doors open as long as the PF accepts the set out conditions.

Among other conditions include the economic agenda of the PACT government and the sharing of the government positions equally.

QFM news has also been told that UPND president Hakainde Hichilema has no problem with being the vice president as long as the most important issues concerning the nation are agreed upon.

Efforts to get a comment for the two camps failed by press time.

QFM

Senior Chief Musele of the Lunda people of Solwezi district in North western Province has said he would not sign the surface rights for the development of the Trident project by First Quantum Minerals if the 750 square kilometres being asked for is not revised.

Senior Chief Musele said he would not go ahead and sign because the land being asked for by the mining company is too much and suggested that they take up only 500 square kilometres.

He expressed fear that if the mine was given that much land his people would have no where to settle and do their farming activities from because the whole
area would be taken up.

The traditional leader was speaking during a meeting organised by the Environmental Council of Zambia at Wanyinwa Basic School in Solwezi on Wednesday.

Senior Chief Musele bemoaned gaps in the way information flowed between the two parties, citing the non availability of the map which clearly stated boundaries and where the mining activity starts and ends.

He added that information on a number of families to be affected by the mining activities through displacement had also not been disclosed.

Meanwhile, the senior chief has appealed to the Environmental Council of Zambia (ECZ) to consider translating the Environmental Impact Assessment draft report for the Trident project into local languages to enable locals have a clear understanding of its contents.

The chief also appealed for more time from ECZ to enable him study the draft report thoroughly.

Speaking at the same meeting, acting Senior Chief Sailung’a of Mwinilunga district observed that development brought about both a negative and positive impact on the people and environment hence the need to work out modalities on how to mitigate the negative impact.

Senior Chief Sailung’a said the coming of the Trident project would tamper with nature as trees and rivers that have been sustaining people’s livelihoods would be disturbed adding that the mine should try to protect these in every way possible.

ZANIS

Former Patriotic Front (PF) spokesperson Given Lubinda says he is delighted that he is not spokesperson of The Party at the time of the PF/UPND pact’s break-up as he would have not stood the tension.

Mr. Lubinda says the news of the pull out of the United Party for National Development (UPND) From the pact would not have been so easy for him to handle as he had worked so hard for the sustainability of the same.

He said it is saddening that the pact has been dissolved at a time when the Zambians invested so much to see it prosper.

Mr. Lubinda appealed to the leaderships of the two parties to put their personal interests and greed aside and instead prioritize the nation’s interests.

He added that the two parties should have resolved their differences amicably instead of swaying away from the basis the pact was founded upon.

Mr. Lubinda has however remained optimistic that the Patriotic Front will win the general election as a single party.

He says the only difference is that it might not be with a large margin compared to the way pact would have won the elections.
[ QFM ]

The Committee of Citizens has said Zambia’s Electoral Act prohibits monitors and observers to declare or disclose results of any election before the Electoral Commission of Zambia (ECZ) does so.

Executive director Gregory Chifire said regulation 15 (6) (F) of the Electoral Act was explicit as to why the parallel vote tabulation (PVT) system was illegal.

“We should emphasise that under regulation 15 (6) (F) of the Electoral Act, monitors and observers are prohibited by themselves or through their organisations to declare or disclose the result of any election before the ECZ does so.

“This provision in the Electoral Act is what makes the PVT system illegal,” Mr Chifire said in a statement in Lusaka yesterday.

He said the ECZ was the sole institution mandated by the Constitution in Article 76 and the Laws of Zambia to conduct elections and all its processes.

Mr Chifire said for the purpose of transparency and principles of holding free and fair elections, the ECZ did allow independent observers and monitors to witness the entire electoral process.

“It does not mean that these NGOs (non-governmental organisations) should usurp the constitutional powers of the ECZ by wishing to count, tabulate, collate and announce poll results using the PVT.

“Furthermore, our opposition to the use of the PVT by these NGOs is because they cannot be trusted to use this process responsibly since their partisan and hostile stance against the MMD Government is well-known and documented,” he said.

He also questioned the decision by the Department for International Development (DfiD) of the United Kingdom to engage the National Democratic Institute (NDI) to carry out the PVT system at a cost of 3.8 million Euros during this year’s elections.

Mr Chifire further questioned the decision by NDI to contract the Press Freedom Committee (PFC) of the Post and Caritas Zambia as lead institutions, which have also engaged the Anti-Voter Apathy Project (AVAP) and Southern African Centre for the Constructive Resolution of Disputes (SACCORD).

He said PFC also intended to contract Transparency International Zambia to form a consortium or block that would carry out the PVT.

Mr Chifire said it was surprising that DfiD and NDI could engage PFC and Caritas Zambia as lead organisations to carry out the PVT system when the two organisations had never been known to be monitoring or observer bodies and had no relevant experience to monitor elections.

“This is the reason which has heightened our suspicions that PVT will be used for the purpose of inciting violence and anarchy,” he said.

Mr Chifire said PVT was at the centre of the post-electoral conflict and anarchy in Zimbabwe, Kenya and recently the Ivory Coast, although the proponents claimed that PVT was used successfully in Ghana and Zambia in 2008.

He said his organisation was aware that a sampling method to ascertain the integrity of election results was secretly used by the Foundation for Democratic Process (FODEP) for a targeted audience like donors.

He said although the 2008 PVT conducted by FODEP demonstrated that election results as announced by the ECZ in Zambia were accurate, that did not stop The Post and its allies such as Citizens Forum from making their usual unfounded claims that the polls were rigged.

Patriotic Front leader Michael Sata maintained in the Post yesterday that despite the warning by President Rupiah Banda that anyone computing and tabulating results of the 2011 elections instead of the constitutionally mandated body, the ECZ, would be committing a criminal offence, he would go ahead and call for the use of the PVT system.

[ Times of Zambia ]

A couple in Luanshya is alleged to be organising marriage between its 22 year old daughter and a 29 year old man whom she doesn’t love.

Pascal Mwape and his wife Mary, are allegedly threatening to chase their daughter out of the house if she refuses to marry the said man identified as Francis of the same township.

The victim, daughter to the couple, Flaviour Mwape, told ZANIS in an interview that her mother verbally threatened to chase her out of the house on Tuesday morning should she refuse to marry the said man.

Ms. Mwape explained that she already had a boyfriend whom she loves and has been dating for over four years now.

She says he is the man she prefers to marry.

Ms. Mwape attributes her parents’ hatred for her lover to tribalism, saying her parents prefer a fellow Bemba to marry her.

But when contacted for a comment, her lover who only identified himself as Michael, based in Lusaka, confirmed that Flavor’s mother threatened him on Monday.

He added that his fiancee’s mother threatened him when she called him on her mobile saying she will not accept his lobola because Flaviour will be married off to her preferred man.

Michael explained that he wants his girlfriend to go to College first before marrying her, adding that he is disappointed with his girlfriend’s parents.

He has since appealed to relevant organisations on human and women’s rights to come on board and help him save her girlfriend from what he dubs ‘Selfish parents’ motives’ to force his girlfriend into marriage against her consent.

[ ZANIS ]