Vice President George Kunda is tomorrow scheduled to will be travel to Luapula where he is scheduled to officiate at this year’s Mutomboko traditional ceremony of the Lunda people at Mwansabombwe.

The Vice President who will be away from Lusaka until 3rd August is also expected to travel to Copperbelt and Central Provinces.

This is contained in a Press statement made available to ZANIS by Senior Private Secretary to the Vice President Kenneth Ngosa.

Mr. Kunda will be accompanied by Local Government and Housing Minister Eustarckio Kazonga and his counterpart Moses Muteteka, Deputy Minister in the Office of the Vice President Gaston Sichilima, Deputy Minister of Agriculture and Cooperatives Allan Mbewe.

Others are Deputy Minister of Labour and Social Services Simon Kachimba and the MMD Deputy National Secretary Chembe Nyangu.

While on the Copperbelt, Mr. Kunda who is also Minister of Justice will campaign for the MMD candidate Frank Ng’ambi from August 1st to 2nd in Ndola ahead of the Chifubu Parliamentary by election slated for August 5.

Mr. Kunda is also expected in Serenje District to campaign for Mr. Douglas Kalunga in Mailo Ward by election in Muchinga Constituency on 3rd August this year.

ZANIS

Vodafone Ghana is presently going through turbulent times as some major distributors and dealers in its products are withdrawing from working with the company, investigations by The Enquirer have revealed.

The Enquirer can confirm that six out of the 10 distribution companies do not have anything to do with Vodafone Ghana presently, because of unfriendly business policies being implemented by Mr. Amon Jere, a Zambian, who is the head of Sales and Distribution.
In April 2009, Vodafone re-engaged 10 old Ghana Telecom national dealers to operate as exclusive regional dealers in all parts of the country.

When The Enquirer contacted some of the directors of the accredited dealers, they confirmed that they are no longer operational due to the policies of Amon Jere, the Zambian, and have taken Vodafone to court.

The dealers claimed they were made to provide GH¢1 million guarantee, provide a working capital of GH¢500,000, each of them was forced to buy two vans for road shows, employ a minimum of 150 freelancers, and open not less than seven shops with staff in their respective regions.

The accredited dealers accused Amon Jere of deceiving them and being the cause of their indebtedness. The directors of these distribution houses complained bitterly that after incurring so much cost to set up their structures, Vodafone itself is also selling directly to retailers at a lower price (10% discount) and thereby preventing the retailers to deal with them (the dealers).

The dealers purchase the recharge products at 8 per cent, while the retailers get at lower rate with 10 per cent discount. Amon Jere, 34, is the very person, who sometime last year, was alleged to have insulted Ghanaians, saying their lazy and questioned the standard of Ghanaian education during a training session of the Vodafone sales team at La Palm Hotel in Accra.

Vodafone is alleged to be paying Amon Jere US$30,000 plus 1% of the total sales of Vodafone recharge cards every month!

[Source: The Enquirer/Ghana]

Government has approved a medical trip for the second President of the Republic of Zambia, Dr. Frederick Chiluba.

This is to enable him attend to his scheduled medical review.

He was last in South Africa in April 2010. He is expected to be in South Africa for a period of two weeks.

The review will be conducted at Garden City Clinic in Johannesburg where a team of doctors have been treating him for a heart condition since March 2006.

Dr. Chiluba will leave for South Africa today on 30th July 2010, aboard South African Airways lunch time flight.

Dr. Chiluba will be accompanied by his wife, Mrs. Regina Chiluba, his physician Dr. Justin Kangwa, his administrator, Emmanuel Mwamba and his security staff.

Recently many international institutions and church groupings have requested Dr. Chiluba to attend their Meetings and Conferences.

SADC has invited him to Namibia for its up-coming Summit in Windhoek, Namibia to take place on 15th -17th August 2010.

He has also been invited to speak as a Guest of Honour at Highway of Holiness Ministries International Conference to be held in Nairobi, Kenya with delegates drawn from 15 countries among them Canada, Thailand, Hong-Kong, Australia, South Korea, Botswana, Uganda, Rwanda and Indonesia.

Dr. Chiluba has also been invited to Israel for a month long conference in September 2010.

This is according to a statement issued by the Dr. Chiluba’s spokesperson, Emmanuel Mwamba.

Mr. Kunda has noted that the standards of journalism in the country have continued to deteriorate.

He said the position of the government is that the media should be regulated through a statutory regulation.

During the vice presidents question time in parliament this morning, Mr. Kunda observed that some outlets of the media in the country have continued to be unethical.

He added that if the government comes up with the statutory regulation, a larger percentage will be borrowed from the Fringila consensus.

The vice president further said that wide extensive consultation will be made from the media in coming up with the statutory regulation of the media.

And Mr. Kunda has said there is still a lot of time to capture the 2.5 million additional voters on the ongoing voter registration exercise.

He has expressed confidence that the targeted number of the voters will be captured, and has since called for extensive sensitization by all Zambians.
[ QFM ]

Police in Ndola yesterday arrested two cadres who took part in a free-for-all punch up between MMD and Patriotic Front (PF) members at Kawama Market during campaigns for the August 5 Chifubu parliamentary by-election.

Ndola District police chief, Stella Libongani confirmed the arrest of the cadres who she said were in police custody to assist with investigations.

Some onlookers said some cadres sustained minor injuries in the first case of physical violence six days before the day of voting in the polls being contested by the ruling party, United Party for National Development/PF pact, UNIP, and Alliance for Democracy and Development.

But Ms Libongani refused to give any details on the violent conduct of the cadres who exchanged punches and hurled insults at one another.
[pullquote]“All I can say as at now is that police have arrested and detained two party cadres who are helping with investigations after receiving a report of violence,” she said.
[/pullquote]
She also did not state the police station where the cadres were being held and to which party they belonged.

“All I can say as at now is that police have arrested and detained two party cadres who are helping with investigations after receiving a report of violence,” she said.

She said the most important thing was that police had launched investigations into threats of violence and the clash between MMD and PF cadres in Kawama Township, which falls under Chifubu Constituency.

MMD Chifubu Constituency campaign committee chairperson for youth affairs, Enock Kapalu alleged that the fight started after some suspected PF members destroyed campaign posters and banners at an MMD campaign site.

But PF Ndola District chairperson, Rebby Chanda said it was the MMD cadres who were in the habit of provoking his party members during the campaigns.

Mr Chanda said PF was a peaceful party and that he was not aware about the police investigations.

[ Times of Zambia ]

Global Commodity Market Institute country director, Mwango Chisha said it was immoral for Mr Mpombo to criticise the project when he supported the decision just about a year ago.

Mr Chisha asked Mr Mpombo to tell the nation what had gone wrong with the procurement of the mobile hospitals within a short space of time.

Mr Mpombo, who was the minister of Defence, in May last year took a swipe at United Party for National Development (UPND) leader, Hakainde Hichilema for criticising President Rupiah Banda over the mobile hospital programme.

He said neither President Banda nor anyone else in Government wanted a commission from the US$53 million mobile hospital deal as was being claimed by Mr Hichilema.
[pullquote]“Whatever Government does, there is always that element of national interest, so it should not be misunderstood at all.”[/pullquote]
The Post newspaper of May 11, 2009 quoted Mr Mpombo as saying: “I can assure you that no one is trying to make a killing out of this project.

“Whatever Government does, there is always that element of national interest, so it should not be misunderstood at all.”

Mr Mpombo also said the project was workable in other countries.
[ Times of Zambia ]

Chief Justice Ernest Sakala has prodded the newly appointed commissioners of the Salaries Review Commission to harmonise discrepancies in salaries, benefits and conditions of service for Civil Servants in the country.

Justice Sakala said the commissioners must ensure that Civil Service workers who were the country’s backbone were appreciated by awarding them with better salaries and condition of services.Justice Sakala said this at the Supreme Court today when he swore in 15 commissioners to be sitting on the Salaries Review Commission.

He said there had been great amount of discrepancies in salaries and other conditions within the Public Service especially that while some were getting low salaries others in the same service others were getting much better salaries.He said this had raised questions among staff in the civil service.

“There has been great amount of discrepancies in salaries, conditions and benefits within the public service. At times when asked by our staff, why their salaries are so low while others in the same public where getting much better salaries we fail to answer other than agree with them. It is not uncommon that certain civil servants are receiving salaries in US dollars while others with same qualifications are receiving salaries in Kwacha” he said

He said awarding civil servants with good salaries and conditions of services would help fight corruption as they would be deterred from temptations of graft and misappropriation of public funds.Justice Sakala said the civil servants would be very expectant of what the Commission would ultimately recommend to them.

Among the notable persons on the Commission are; Copperbelt University (CBU) Chancellor Professor Muyunda Mwanalushi, Former Chief Justice Matthew Ngulube, Public Service Management Division (PSMD)’s George Kawatu, and Zambia Congress of Trade Union (ZCTU) Secretary General Roy Mwaba.

Others are Danny Longwe, Nana Mudenda, Edgar Imasiku, Danny Musenge, Yuyi Libakeni, Japheth Msimuko, Mabvuto Sakala, Meamui Kongwa, Redson Lusale, Lloyd Sichilongo, and Professor Mutale Chanda from the University of Zambia (UNZA).

The last salary review commission was done in 1993.