The China Development Bank (CDB) offered Tuesday to provide one billion dollars (787 million euros) for a planned hydroelectric station in Zambia and proposed a Chinese company to develop the project.

Jiang Chaoliang, President of the state-owned CBD, said Beijing-based Sinohydro Corporation, which has expressed interest in developing the 1.5-billion-dollar Kafue Gorge Lower power station, could bring valuable experience to the project.

“With the financial stature that CDB has and the rich experience of Sinohydro Power Corporation, we believe that we will be able to contribute to the alleviation of the bottlenecks Zambia is facing in terms of hydro power,” Jiang said during a visit to Zambia.

Construction on the 600-megawatt project, which is aimed at easing power outages in the poor southern African country, is due to begin next year.

[pullquote]”Because we are the ones that are in a hurry to develop, we shall move with the quickest speed to ensure that we access the funds from the CDB and the China-Africa Development Fund,” he said.[/pullquote]

Sinohydro is currently the contractor for Zambia’s Kariba North Bank extension hydro project, designed to add 360 megawatts of capacity to the 600-megawatt Kariba plant.

CDB has helped finance a raft of projects in Zambia, with outstanding loans totalling 112 million dollars. The Chinese bank has said it could provide financing of up to 1.4 billion dollars for various projects, including the one billion dollars for the Kafue Gorge station.

Kenneth Konga, Zambia’s minister of energy and water development, said Zambia needed to build more hydro-power capacity and would move quickly to tap the pledged funds from CDB.

“Because we are the ones that are in a hurry to develop, we shall move with the quickest speed to ensure that we access the funds from the CDB and the China-Africa Development Fund,” he said.

AFP

PATRIOTIC Front president Michael Sata was diagnosed with four diseases including heart conditions on September 8, last year after taking 22 different medical tests at a named clinic in Lusaka.

The comprehensive history of medical records obtained in Lusaka yesterday have indicated that Mr Sata tested for various illnesses and he was found with heart complications and two other named diseases which Mr Sata described as minor.

The records show Mr Sata’s address as City Advertisers, Farmers House in Lusaka while his residential address was shown as number three Omelo Mumba Road in Rhodes Park.

He confirmed having been diagnosed with some diseases, which he named as indicated on the schedule obtained by the Times of Zambia.

The PF leader, however, denied that the diseases were serious and that a special machine was used to treat a named condition to the heart in South Africa.

Mr Sata has lately spoken ill about the illness of Vice-president George Kunda who flew to South Africa for medical reviews but the PF leader alleged that the vice-president was instead evacuated.
[pullquote]The PF leader, however, denied that the diseases were serious and that a special machine was used to treat a named condition to the heart in South Africa.[/pullquote]

When he returned from South Africa, Mr Kunda announced that Mr Sata made telephone calls to the Zambian High Commissioner to South African Leslie Mbula seeking confirmation that Mr Kunda was dead.

Former PF secretary general Edward Mumbi said Mr Sata was preaching hate instead of unity.

Mr Mumbi, in an interview yesterday, said he expected Mr Sata to send messages of goodwill to the Kunda family and the Government instead of wishing his fellow human being dead.

Mr Mumbi wondered why Mr Sata should celebrate illnesses of his fellow human being when he was equally affected by some diseases.

He also dismissed Mr Sata’s claim that the illnesses were minor and challenged him to seek a medical doctor’s interpretation of the four diseases.

Mr Mumbi said the late president Levy Mwanawasa evacuated Mr Sata and no one celebrated but when he was treated, he came back and said it was a political strategy on the part of the Government to evacuate him.

He appealed to Mr Sata to stop politicising illnesses because everyone can fall sick and called on politicians to highlight development issues.

He said Mr Sata was a very ungrateful leader who would leave his pact partner United Party for National Development leader Hakainde Hichilema complaining when the time comes.
[ Times of Zambia ]

SOUTHERN Province Minister, Daniel Munkombwe has said the campaign gimmick by leaders of the United Party for National Development (UPND) and Patriotic Front (PF) Pact that people are suffering is not new and that they will tumble in the 2011 general elections because Zambians know who the genuine leaders are.

Mr Munkombwe has since challenged PF president Michael Sata and UPND’s Hakainde Hichilema to provide empirical data on their allegations that the Zambian people were suffering.

In an Interview in Livingstone yesterday, Mr Munkombwe said the same message was used by the opposition in the 2001, 2006 and 2008 elections but did not yield tangible results as the ruling party continued to hold the grip on power.
[ Times of Zambia ]

“They (leaders of the pact) are saying that people are suffering. When you ask them who is suffering they fail to say who. Let them name them and where they are,” he said.

He said worldwide, the economy was going through hard times and Zambia was not an exception.

Meanwhile, Mr Munkombwe has said it will be a miracle for Change Life Zambia executive director Frank Bwalya to issue a red card to President Banda.

Reacting to a statement by Father Bwalya that time had come for President Banda to get a red card, Mr Munkombwe said the campaign by the Catholic priest against the Government would not succeed.

“It will be a miracle for President Banda to receive a red card. We are yet to see that miracle,” he said.

And Mr Munkombwe has predicted that the MMD will get more votes in Southern Province than it did in the 2008 presidential election.
[pullquote]“It will be a miracle for President Banda to receive a red card. We are yet to see that miracle,” he said.
[/pullquote]
He said in the 2006 polls, late president Levy Mwanawasa got about 33,000 votes and in 2008 President Banda got more than 90,000 votes in the province.

Mr Munkombwe said next year, President Banda will get more than 90,000 because the MMD was gaining more support from the people.

He said the MMD had not lost hope of gaining more votes because it was clear that the UPND/PF Pact was unpopular in the province.

Mr Munkombwe said the pact was unpopular because Mr Hichilema’s supporters preferred that he stood on his own and not in the company of Mr Sata.

He said the political calculations that Mr Sata would win the 2011 general elections if he teamed up with Mr Hichilema were ill-timed.

He said teaming up with a minority shareholder like Mr Hichilema who was only popular in Southern Province would not produce the results they anticipated in the 2011 general elections.

The pastor and his wife see education as the passport to personal success, national progress and helping others. That’s why they uprooted their family a decade ago to come to the United States from Zambia.

Next month they’ll take what they’ve learned here back to their home country in southern Africa to start a school for orphans.

“We value education as the key to national development,” Paul Bupe said. “Every country needs education. These kids are a time bomb to these countries. If they don’t get education, they will blow up in their faces, and the countries will become unmanageable.”

Bupe, pastor at St. Stephen African Methodist Episcopal Church, has dedicated his ministry to serving women and children, particularly widows and orphans, who are worst off in Zambian society.

He served for 11 years in Chililabombwe, a mining town where violence from the 13-year civil war in neighboring Democratic Republic of Congo spills over the border. Nationwide, 10 percent of people in Zambia have HIV.

“AIDS has devastated our communities in such a way that children are left all by themselves — little kids fending for themselves,” he said.

Offered a chance to study in the United States, the Bupes and their four children couldn’t pass it up.

“Our plan was to go back and serve the people better,” Catherine said. “We can argue better, maybe, with the politicians.”

Catherine, formerly an accountant, earned a degree in social sciences at Allen University in South Carolina. Paul studied at Allen, Wilberforce University and Ashland Theological Seminary.

Along the way, they’ve made connections with several pastors and churches who might be able to help support their mission when they move to Lusaka, Zambia’s capital.

They’re also taking supplies and donations with them on the move. Sandusky Schools contributed books and school supplies, while a Sandusky Brownie Troop provided clothes, including school uniforms.

The Bupes spoke at a meeting of the Brownies for World Thinking Day, a Girl Scout event that this year had the theme, “Together we can end extreme poverty and hunger.”

Catherine told the five girls, ages 8 and 9, about Zambian food and culture and how Zambian children live.

That included stories of hardship. Many children cannot go to school because they can’t buy the uniforms or the required black shoes.

“The kids were very touched,” Catherine said. “They started saying, ‘Oh, we have so many clothes and things we don’t use.’ Some of them cleared out their closets.”

Troop leader Tracy Stephens also got Wal-Mart to agree to reduce a rack of school uniforms — 52 pieces of clothing — to $1 apiece. She bought the clothes and gave them to the Bupes.

St. Stephen will continue collecting donated items to send to the Bupes. Stephens said she will gladly pick up anything anyone wants to donate and take it to the church if they call her at 419-503-0435.

People can also reach Paul Bupe at revpaulbupe.com

[Sandusky Register]

Government has maintained that it will not re-introduce the Windfall tax on the mining sector as it will militate against levels of mineral exploration activities in the sector.

Mines and Minerals Minister Maxwell Mwale says explorations is the backbone of the Zambia’s future in the mining sector stressing that the introduction of super taxes of mines would lead a drop in explorations as witnessed when the windfall tax was introduced in Zambia.

The Minister was speaking at the presentation of a cheque of dividend, a payment worth $ 18.1 million, by Kansanshi Mining PLC a major holding of First Quantum Minerals FQM to Zambia Consolidated Copper Mining Investment holdings ZCCM-IH, a minority share holder of Kansanshi.

The Dividend is the first single largest payment ever received by ZCCM-IH from the firm which is the highest since it began its operation in the mining sector.

Mr. Mwale said the gesture by the firm is a clear demonstration of Government and the countries benefits from foreign investments in the sector as opposed to some sections and sectors of the country that Government is not benefiting from its investments.

And First Quantum Minerals FQM Resident Director Kwalela Lamaswala said that the payment follows a review of Kansanshi Dividend Policy by the board and comprises a special Dividend of US$ 15.6 million for the end the financial year of 2007 while the other US$ 2.5 million accounts for the end of the 2009 financial year.

He said the objective of the review of its policy is to ensure that its share holders receive an attractive return on their investments.

Speaking at the same function as he received the cheque ZCCM-IH Board Chairman Alfred Lungu said that the Dividend not only represents a valuable return on its investment but that it will also enhance opportunities of the Government holding to supplement its investment portfolio for the ultimate benefits of the Zambians.

He also said the Dividend will help ZCCM Holdings to offset the remainder of its Legal liabilities carried over from the old ZCCM Limited before the firm’s transformation into ZCCM in 2002.

Mr. Lamaswala called on other investment firms to emulate what Kansanshi has done in order demonstrate their investment worthiness in the sector.

QFM

MMD Chief Whip Vernon Mwaanga has said the Government is now in the process of managing economic fundamentals to maximise benefits for ordinary Zambians.

Mr Mwaanga said the Government was not responsible for producing data on the economy as these were produced by economic researchers using proven trends.

Mr Mwaanga also defended the decision to waive the windfall taxes on mining firms because this had led to increased investment in the sector.

Speaking during the recording of the Frank-Talk programme at Golden Bridge Hotel in Lusaka yesterday, Mr Mwaanga said the recorded economic development is real and was slowly benefiting the ordinary Zambians especially in rural areas where the ruling party was popular.

[pullquote]He said he conducted a research recently which showed that the people of South Province would only have accepted an alliance between the ruling MMD and UPND.[/pullquote]

Mr Mwaanga urged Zambians to start preparing their views on the proposed degree clause that was already adopted by the NCC.

Mr Mwaanga said the NCC merely passed a proposal and the people of Zambia would be given a chance to criticise the document before it finally passed into law.

Meanwhile, Mr Mwaanga has said the ideological impurities between the Patriotic Front (PF)/United Party for National Development (PF-UPND) would make the alliance crumble and rejected by the people of Southern Province.

He said he conducted a research recently which showed that the people of South Province would only have accepted an alliance between the ruling MMD and UPND.

According to Mr Mwaanga, this is because of similarities in the ideologies and the constitutions.

Mr Mwaanga said the research involved meeting traditional leaders, ordinary citizens and farmers who said they were not widely consulted before the alliance was mooted.

He said because of this, the MMD would defeat the alliance in the 2011 presidential elections.

Mr Mwaanga said the MMD has the greatest manifesto and urged Zambians not to waste votes on the opposition.

He said the opposition leaders were using bad language and should not be given chance to govern.

Mr Mwaanga said insinuations that the ruling part was tired were malicious as leaders change because of retirement.

On the controversial senior members of the ruling party Mr Mwaanga said he had offered free advice to them to refrain from attacking the head of State and toy the policies of the party.

[Times of Zambia]

Government has challenged Patriotic Front (PF) president Michael Sata to make public the results of medical tests he underwent on September 8, 2008 before he can continue to malign others.

But Mr Sata said the diseases which were detected after the tests had been treated and declared that he was ready to disclose the type of diseases in the presence of Mike Mulongoti.

Mr Mulongoti who is acting chief Government spokesperson said in Lusaka yesterday that he had been forced to challenge Mr Sata after observing careless talk on the health condition of Government leaders.

Mr Mulongoti said the Government was in possession of all medical records for Mr Sata mainly carried out at a medical centre in Lusaka.

He said after Vice-President George Kunda’s trip to South Africa for medical reviews, Mr Sata talked ill believing that the Government was merely threatening when it continuously said it had results of Mr Sata’s medical tests.

Mr Mulongoti challenged Mr Sata to deny that he conducted medical tests in September 2008 before he can start talking ill about other people’s health conditions.

“As Government we want to respect the rule that medical records are a private matter between the patient and the doctor and we want it to remain like that. I will not disclose anything further but let him continue, he will see what we will do,” Mr Mulongoti said.

He said details of medical tests should be disclosed to the public by Mr Sata to allow people make their own judgment on his fitness in comparison with the people he was maligning.

Mr Mulongoti, who is Minister of Works and Supply said the Government was ready to debate the matter until Mr Sata accepted that it should be rested and asked him to disclose the status of his health so that other leaders could do the same.

He said Mr Sata should be ashamed of himself for making phone calls to South Africa hoping that the vice president was dead.

He said the Government was ready to help Mr Sata by disclosing the results of his medical tests and allow the Zambian people make their own judgments.

Mr Mulongoti who is also MMD chairperson for elections said Mr Sata used other people’s illnesses to gain political mileage and warned that the Government would also use his illness to gain the similar measure of political gain.

But Mr Sata said the diseases the Government had listed were long treated and pledged to co-operate in conducting another set of similar tests to prove that he was cured.

Mr Sata claimed that the diseases he was found with were minor. He said the diseases were not strange to society and was ready to disclose to the public in the presence of Mr Mulongoti.
[TIMES OF ZAMBIA]