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Lt. Gen. Ronnie Shikapwasha
Transparency International Zambia (TIZ) has called on Information and Broadcasting Services Minister Ronnie Shikapwasha to reason with the media fraternity and ensure that self regulation of the media in the country prevails.
TIZ Executive Director Goodwell Lungu said in an interview that the state control of the media has a negative impact on the operations of the industry.
Mr. Lungu said government has capacity to control the media to its advantage which has made it difficult for practitioners working in the state media to operate objectively.
He has appealed to Lt Gen Shikapwasha not to be hostile over self regulation of the media adding that the dialogue the minister is suggesting has failed to yield positive results.
This comes in a wake of General Shikapwasha’s statement that government will not recognize the Zambia Media Council (ZAMEC) that is set to be launched by the Media Liaison Committee (MLC) and other media bodies on the basis that the media council is not inclusive and will not help the media industry and the country as a whole.
[QFM ]
THE Ndola High Court has set today as the date for hearing the appeal of Kafulafuta Member of Parliament (MP) George Mpombo who has appealed against his conviction and sentence for bouncing a K10 million cheque.
Ndola High Court Judge-in-Charge Munalula Lisimba set today as the date to hear the appeal after he adjourned the matter yesterday when it came up for hearing.
Mr Justice Lisimba adjourned the matter after State advocate Nkumbiza Mumba told the court that Mpombo’s lawyer had informed her that he was not aware of the date which was set to hear the appeal.
Ms Mumba said the appellant’s counsel, a Mr Chabu of Ellis and Company, informed her through a mobile phone text message that he was not aware of yesterday as the date set to argue the appeal.
She said Mr Chabu had told her that he would travel yesterday from Lusaka to Ndola and would be available to argue the appeal today.
Mr Justice Lisimba, therefore, adjourned the matter to today.
Mpombo was in August convicted for bouncing a K10 million cheque and was sentenced to two months in prison and fined K4 million by the Ndola magistrates’ court.
Facts of the case were that Mpombo on December 18, 2009 with intent to defraud issued a cheque to Colwyn Limited in the amount of K10 million drawn on a Standard Chartered Bank account.
Mpombo borrowed K10 million from Colwyn Limited through its chairperson Terence Findlay on December 11 in 2009 and wrote a post-dated cheque in the same amount for December 18 the same year.
[ Times of Zambia ]
The resumption of Voter Registration exercise has suffered a setback in Milenge District since the mobile exercise ended in December, 2010.
Milenge Council Secretary Fidelis Chanda told ZANIS in an interview today that since December 1, 2010, the voter registration centre in the area has recorded almost none.
Mr Chanda attributed the poor turn out to lack of sensitization on the exercise and long distances to the registration centre.
He said most people, especially those who live in far places, are not even aware that the exercise has continued at the civic centre.
He said there is great need to sensitize people that the voter registration exercise has continued at the council office.
Mr Chanda further attributed the poor turn out for the voter registration to long distances to the centre.
He said it is difficult for people to move long distances to Milenge District Council to register as voters.
Mr. Chanda said being the cultivation season many people would rather go to their crop fields than walk a long distance to the civic centre to register as voters.
He cited Milambo and Fibalala areas as two of the places situated far from the district council and it would require someone the whole day to ride to the civic centre where the voter registration exercise is taking place.
Mr. Chanda suggested that government should introduce a deliberate measures to allow for mobile registration in order to reach the potential voters.
He said most people who live near the council offices had already registered during the mobile registration exercise.
He said government had done well to introduce the mobile registration exercise that yielded good results, but noted that as far as the voters’ registration exercise remained stationed at the council offices he does not expect the turn out to improve.
Meanwhile, Mansa Municipal Council Public Relations Officer Chris Mumba has appealed to the government to put up sensitization programmes on the Voter Registration Exercise.
Mr Mumba said despite the district recording a favorable number of voters from December 1, 2010 to date, there is still need for effective sensitization on the exercise especially in rural areas.
He further explained that some people who come to replace their voters’ card in most cases find it inconveniencing to go to the police station to get a police report.
He said people were used to getting police report from the registration centre and since police officers stopped issuing police report from the centre, many people just walk away when they are advised to go and collect a police report at the police offices.
Two male juveniles were this morning apprehended by Police in Solwezi District in North Western Province for allegedly causing the death of their friend in a fight.
North Western Province Police Chief Charles Lungu confirmed the incident to ZANIS in Solwezi today and named the deceased as Raphael Kapang’a aged 18 of Chawama compound in Solwezi district.
Mr Lungu said the incident occurred at the weekend but could, however, not give the exact age of the two apprehended juveniles who beat up their friend after a misunderstanding ensued at a local bar.
Mr Lungu said Kapang’a was admitted to Solwezi General Hospital after the incident and he later died on Sunday.
He noted that the matter was not immediately reported to Police and that the body was still lying in the mortuary awaiting postmortem.
And quick action by police this morning saved the two suspects from being lynched by family members of the deceased.
Education Minister Dora Siliya
Government has disclosed that about 25 billion kwacha is needed to cater for the national shortfall of 400, 000 school desks.
Education minister Dora Siliya said the ministry has plans to purchase desks in bulk to avoid shortfalls.
Ms. Siliya was speaking in Lusaka today when she met 38 local desks manufacturers from across the country.
She said it is important for Zambians to appreciate giving business to the local manufacturers as they have the capacity to produce quality products.
Ms. Siliya added that promoting local manufacturers would help fight joblessness as more jobs will be created for the locals.
The Minister disclosed that government has a target of constructing about 100 high schools across the country by 2012-2013.
Ms. Siliya said the construction of the high schools cannot be done at once but in stages.
FAZ on Wednesday declared the Referees Association of Zambia (RAZ) redundant in dealing with match official duties.
However, RAZ chiefs Welly Chikuka says all referees in the country have refused to dealing directly with Faz over refereeing matters.
The announcement was made on Wednesday by Faz communication officer Erick Mwanza at the weekly Faz press briefing held at Football House in Lusaka.
Mwanza said starting this year, all match officials must register with the referees committee at Football House to be headed by Katongo Kabungo.
Mwanza said this was in line with Article 13 of FIFA statues which states that each member association is obliged to establish a referees committee which is directly subordinate to the member association.
“At no level will we deal with RAZ, it s up to RAZ to render themselves relevant to the game,” Mwanza said. “This is not a
FAZ decision, it is according to FIFA statues.”
Meanwhile, Chikuka wondered from which Faz constitution the decision has been reached because RAZ was enshrined in the Faz consititution.
“RAZ is enshrined in the Faz constitution as an affiliate member and a decision to remove it can only be made at a Faz annual general meeting so we do not know on what Faz basis this decision has been reached,” Chikuka said.
“As far all the referees have said in the country they have all agreed to back RAZ.”
RAZ recently back the petition against embattled Faz boss Kalusha Bwalya that saw the boycott of league matches.
The PACT leaders ( Michael Sata and Hakainde Hichilema)
The Forum for Leadership Search has challenged the PF/UPND pact to state their position on the gay rights.
Forum for Leadership Search executive director Edwin Lifwekelo has said the opposition Patriotic Front (PF) and United Party for National Development (UPND) should state their position on the issue of homosexuality and secular state with regard to Zambia being declared a Christian Nation.
Mr. Lifwekelo has told QFM today that he is aware of the fact that some opposition political party leaders are meeting donor countries that believe in the rights of gay persons and support the declaration of Zambia as a secular state.
He said Zambians would not allow selfish leaders that support gay rights and Zambia being a secular state, calling on the church to guard jealously the declaration of Zambia as a Christian nation.
He added that the church should resist leaders that have auctioned Zambia on condition that they would recognize gay rights and declare Zambia a secular state once in State House.
Mr Lifwekelo noted that he fully supports vice president George Kunda’s challenge to the UPND/PF pact to state their position on the same sex relationships.
[ QFM ]
Southern Province Minister Elijah Muchima
Livingstone has added its voice to Colonel Panji Kaunda’s “bloody remarks” calling on him to emulate his father Dr. Kenneth Kaunda on championing peace and unity in the country.
Southern Province Minister, Elijah Muchima advised Panji Kaunda to avoid issuing statements that could incite violence and cause anarchy in the country.
Mr. Muchima said Colonel Kaunda’s remarks are a frustration to the country’s peace and democracy.
He said this at the Livingstone International Airport yesterday.
Mr. Muchima also hailed President Rupiah Banda’s unitary role aimed at promoting peace and unity in the country and on the African continent as a whole.
Meanwhile, MMD Livingstone District Chairperson, John Mukosho has said the MMD in the district condemns sentiments that are likely to cause violence.
Colonel Kaunda was recently quoted in the media saying the 2011 elections will be the bloodiest, a statement that has attracted criticism from all walks of life.
National Airport Corporation Limited (NACL) has sourced about US$13 Million (K64bn) for the construction of a second Terminal Building at Livingstone International Airport that is expected to enhance the capacity for the Airport to handle international flights.
Livingstone International Airport Manager, Joseph Mumbi said the new Terminal would operate side by side with the old building that currently can only handle the capacity of about 2,500 passengers per month.
He said the number of international travelers at the Airport has been on an increase over the last five years owing to the first renovation in 2001 and the widening of the tourism industry.[pullquote]However Mr.Mumbi said the Airport is faced with challenges to do with vandalism and Elephant encroachment.
He said since the Airport was build on an Elephant trail and little can be done
[/pullquote]
Mr.Mumbi said the Airport has the capacity to handle five International Flights and forecasts more Aero activities in the near future owing to booming tourism sector.He said with the current facilities including the first Terminal Building, the Airport has managed to host larger air-crafts such as the Boeing 767 that landed on the grounds last year.
“So that is the capacity we have and looking ahead we see a situation where we have increased traffic owing to the growing demand of Air transport,” he said.
Mr.Mumbi said recently the Airport gained a status of being used as a transit point for International Flights.
However Mr.Mumbi said the Airport is faced with challenges to do with vandalism and Elephant encroachment.
He said since the Airport was build on an Elephant trail little can be done but lamented that some members of the community are fond of stealing the fencing despite patrols by Security Officers.
He said this when Southern Province Deputy Permanent Secretary, Alfred Chiingi inspected the new Terminal Building at Livingstone International Airport yester night.
And Mr.Chiingi said he is happy that NACL is running the five International Airports in the country with a business motive.
The Deputy Permanent Secretary said Livingstone International Airport that was built in 1950 as a domestic landing ground has undergone several changes to reach milestone of becoming an international gateway.
On the issue of vandalism, Mr.Chiingi said the Government would send the Police to permanently guard the Runway.
A number of works have been carried out on the Airport since 2001, with the recent one being the extension of the Runway from 2.5Km to 3km stretch.
Women queue up for voluntary counseling and testing during the commemoration of VCT day in Chipata
A Survey on sexual behavior in Zambia has revealed that only 24 per cent of people are accessing Voluntary Counseling and Testing(VCT)service in spite of 99 per cent of the teenage and adult population having had come across information on HIV/AIDS Pandemic.
The survey further reveals that out of the 99 per cent, only 4 per cent of the people are ignorant that HIV/AIDS can not be cured.
The survey has been conducted by Corridors of Hope (CoH), an institution that provides VCT services and currently operating in 10 districts around the country.
CoH Program Director, Leslie Long disclosed this in newsletter published in December.
Long said the majority of people among the 24 per cent who have had accessed voluntary HIV test, received the test and received the results are in the ages between 15 and 49.
Commenting on the low turn out of people who go for VCT as compared to 99 per cent of people who have the information on the pandemic Long described the difference as an amazing gap.
“It is a puzzling gap.Why is there such a gap between the near universal knowledge of HIV/AIDS and the relatively small percentage of those who have actually chosen to learn their status,” Long said.
CoH project has been working in Zambia for over 10 years.
And Livingstone General Hospital Director, Namani Moonze said the hospital is experiencing a problem with re-entrants of TB-AIDS cases due to incoherence in taking medication by patients.
Mr.Moonze said most patients get back to the Hospital on account of medical apathy.
He said some of the patients stop taking medication and seek God’s intervention but in the end they come back to the hospital.
80 per cent of TB patients are co-infected with HIV/AIDS according to the 2007 AIDS Report published by World Health Organization (WHO).
MMD National Secretary and Former Finance Minister Katele Kalumba (R) on his way to jail
MMD national secretary Katele Kalumba, who was admitted to the University Teaching Hospital (UTH)’s fast-track VIP ward, has been discharged.
UTH public relations manager Pauline Mbangweta said in an interview yesterday that Dr Kalumba was discharged from the hospital on Thursday last week after undergoing treatment.
“He is no longer at UTH. He was discharged last week on Thursday and I think he is now recovering,” Ms Mbangweta said.
Dr Kalumba, who is Chiengi member of Parliament, was involved in a road traffic accident in November last year in Kashikishi in Luapula Province after the Pajero he was driving overturned when he was trying to avoid a pothole.
He sustained a rupture in the bladder during the accident and was flown to UTH.
( Times of Zambia ]
A one-time rising star on the Zambia football scene has failed to impress coach Lucky Msiska who dropped the player from his 2011 All-Africa Games football tournament qualifying squad.
And Msiska has said that chances are very slim that Emmanuel Mayuka or the foreign-based players will join the team.
Nkwazi defender Kasongo Mwepya has had a brief day in the Sun as recent as last April with the Zambia national team in the CHAN qualifiers.
However he has failed to make Msiska’s team as the coach continues to trim ahead of naming his final 18 on Thursday ahead of Saturdays All-Africa Games qualifying match against archrivals Zimbabwe.
Others dropped are Olen Pepa, Misheck Zulu and Lameck Tembo.
Meanwhile, Mayuka is almost certainly ruled out but Msiska says they are still 50-50 chances that two Israel-based players Justin Zulu and Roger Kola could still join the team if they beat the Wednesday deadline.
On Wednesday, Msiska’s team will play Green Buffaloes in a training match at Nkoloma stadium starting at 15:00.
There are disagreements and small demonstrations in Mongu about the Barotse Agreement of 1964. Suddenly after 46 years of independence, under the motto “One Zambia and One Nation” and peace that is the envy of many nations, there is a threat of anarchy and disintegration of our nation. There are groups, internet web pages and blogs that have mushroomed championing secession or what some of them call “self-determination of the Malozi”. I want to express my views which I hope represent those of millions of Zambians that love the freedom and tranquility we have enjoyed since 1964.
There is a tendency for some politicians, some Zambian intellectuals, and those who are disaffected today to dismiss all those years from 1964 to 1991 as years of the “terrible Kaunda UNIP One-Party dictatorship”. What I am urging all my fellow citizens, who are 36 to 50 years old, who grew up in Zambia between 1964 and 1984 to be intellectually honest and realistic. We should criticize President Kaunda or UNIP and the One- Party State, but let’s also have some balanced judgments and reflections of the period. The 60% of our Zambian population that was born in 1985 have no idea what happened from 1964 to 1991. As a result many of them are vulnerable to exaggerations, speculations, wild guesses, myths, and becoming victims of historical revisionism and politically motivated distortions of what happened.
At Independence in 1964, the first 40 year old young President Kaunda of the young independent Zambia had in his cabinet: Ruben Kamanga, Simon Kapwepwe, Mainza Chona, Arthur Wina, Sikota Wina, Justin Chimba, Simon Kalulu, Peter Matoka, Elijah Mudenda, Nalumino Mundia, John Mwanakatwe, Grey Zulu, Lewis Changufu, and Nathy Nyalugwe. The men and women who are the founders of our nation had just gone through over ten years of the struggle for independence. Their first crucial job was to develop and unite this new Zambia that had 72 separate tribes. The vast majority of Zambians including even our leaders had known only their tribes, chiefs, kingdoms, and perhaps headmen in rural villages in separate regions of Zambia.
Zambians should know that nation building is very difficult and messy. The leaders built new roads, hospitals, political administrative systems, clinics, University of Zambia, hundreds of schools, teachers had to be trained, provided free education for all Zambians, and they adopted the national policy of a non-racial and non-tribal society. At this same time there was the crisis of the Alice Lenshina’s Lumpa Church and the religious violence in Northern and Eastern Province just before independence in 1964. White minority Rhodesia (Zimbabwe) and the crisis of the Unilateral Declaration of Independence (UDI) happened on November 11 1965, the Portuguese colonialists in Angola and Mozambique were trying to destabilize Zambia. White apartheid South Africa was interested in destroying Zambia or any black newly independent countries in Southern Africa that did not support the apartheid racist regime at the time. Namibia was occupied by hostile South Africa. The South African National Congress (ANC) had just been banned. Nelson Mandela had just been sent to prison for life. There were some threats of violence within Zambia. If you do not believe this just read: “Night Without a President” by Sikota Wina.
Should this have been the time the new sovereign nation of Zambia should have been worrying about the Barotse Agreement? All the freedom fighters from all parts of Zambia were right to focus and spend all their energies on developing and uniting Zambians to be one Zambia and One Nation.
I will forever be grateful that I and millions of Zambians had a free education from Form I (grade 8) all the way to the University of Zambia up to my Ph. D. I lived in Zambia as a free child all my life. This was due to the people of Zambia under One Zambia and One Nation and the leadership of President Kaunda, UNIP, and all the freedom fighters including Harry Nkumbula, Simon Kapwepwe, and many other heroic men and women. Whatever the disagreements they had, in the end they did what was most important for the nation of Zambia: they kept the nation together and provided security. At that time, some or any of them could have rebelled, seceded with their local Chiefs or Kingdoms as some few advocates of the Barotse agreement are now saying, or joined colonial outsiders to fight the new fragile state of Zambia to kill fellow Africans.
What is causing this talk of secession and the Barotse Agreement of 1964? There might be genuine frustrations about problems of development of certain areas of the country. But I also suspect that many Zambians have no idea what it takes to build a nation. When many of us who are educated, have access to the computer, might live abroad, have enjoyed freedom most of our lives, we begin to be bored and take the peace for granted. Ordinary Zambians today at home, including many educated foreign scholars in Zambia and abroad, make the mistake of assuming the many political parties, open debate, and freedom of the press we have today should have been there or created in Zambia in 1964 or 1967. But that’s unrealistic, being intellectually, and historically dishonest.
I would urge my fellow educated Zambians or the elites who are furiously circulating the Barotse Agreement of 1964 document to really begin to document and write books about what really happened from 1964 to 1991; both the negative and especially the positive. It is very easy to create rosy web pages and post articles that may have exaggerated and incendiary claims about the intentions of our founders who are now close to 80 years and some of whom have already been called by the lord. The discussions and debate about the Barotse Agreement of 1964 should be done in an open democratic fashion probably through a commission of inquiry. But all peace loving Zambians from all corners, tribes, regions, ethnic groups, and those abroad should lock hands and arms together in unity as One Zambia and One Nation. Those few Zambians who advocate any type of violence, treason, and collude with outsiders to achieve narrow selfish ambitions and interests should be arrested and tried in the courts of law and punished. The peace and tranquility we enjoy as Zambians is too precious.
END of ARTICLE
ABOUT AUTHOR: Mwizenge S. Tembo obtained his B.A in Sociology and Psychology at University of Zambia in 1976, M.A , Ph. D. at Michigan State University in Sociology in 1987. He was a Lecturer and Research Fellow at the Institute of African Studies of the University of Zambia from 1977 to 1990. During this period he conducted extensive research and field work in rural Zambia particularly in the Eastern and Southern Provinces of the country. Dr. Mwizenge S. Tembo is Professor of Sociology who has taught at Bridgewater College in Virginia in the United States for twenty years.
Dr. Tembo has authored 4 books: Titbits for the Curious (1989), Legends of Africa (1996), The Bridge (Novel) (2005), Zambian Traditional Names (2006). He is spearheading the building of a Zambia Knowledge Bank Libraries: Nkhanga Branch Village Library in Lundazi District in his native country of Zambia in Southern Africa. He is a weekly columnist for the Daily Newsleader Newspaper of Staunton in Virginia. He is a frequent column contributor to the Daily News-Record of Harrisonburg in Virginia. He was also a frequent contributor to the Sunday Times of Zambia in the 1980s. He has published at least 100 newspaper columns. He is a freelance photographer who has sold many of his works. For more details: www.bridgewater.edu/~mtembo, www.bridgewater.edu/zanoba
Dr. Tembo has also published at least 15 scholarly articles, 21 book reviews, and 10 journalistic articles.
Trolley dash...A woman leaves Shoprite Manda Hill during the Christmas shopping time
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Some women providing a Christmas gift wrapping service at Arcades shopping centre in Lusaka
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Some women entrepreneurs providing a Christmas gift wrapping service at Arcades shopping centre in Lusaka
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Some Lusaka residents captured inside the new look Manda Hill shopping mall in Lusaka
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Some Lusaka residents captured inside Spar Store during the Christmas shopping period
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President Banda interacts with a mother and her baby at Chipata Clinic in Lusaka
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People of Kaoma District are complaining over the poor drainage system that is now affecting buildings. The Council is said to be oblivious to this problem as they are not doing anything about it.(Sent by Kaoma resident)
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Health Minister Kapembwa Simbao presents a gift to a mother and her baby at the University Teaching Hospital in Lusaka
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Health Minister Kapembwa Simbao looks at one of the Christmas babies at the University Teaching Hospital in Lusaka
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Defence Minister Kalombo Mwansa presents a Christmas gift to a patient at Maina Soko Military Hospital
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An woman displays her Christmas gifts for sale at Arcades shopping centre in Lusaka
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Bank of Zambia Zambia Governor Caleb Fundanga during the opening of the Indo Zambia Bank Manda Hill branch
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An aerial view of the Lusaka central business district
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President Banda congratulates new Sports deputy Minister Brian Sikazwe at State House
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Ministry of Science and Technology Permanent Secretary Criticles Mwansa and Milenge Dictrict Commissioner Rosemary Malutu inspect a garden at Milenge Trades Training Institute.
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Ministry of Science and Technology Permanent Secretary Criticles Mwansa about to present a computer to Milenge Trades Training Institute principal Dorothy Siame
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(corrected)The women in Solwezi district removing Cassava from a drum in readiness for drying before its pounded into mealie-meal(ubunga bwa tute)
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Stranded passengers along Chingola-Solwezi Road after the Minibus they were in had a tyre burst
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Kisasa area along Solwezi -Mwinilunga road in Solwezi district
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Christmas in the village, the youths are preparing meals in a hut in Jiwundu area
