THE MMD on the Copperbelt has accused the Ndola City Council (NCC) of manipulating the list of sitting tenants at Itawa flats and Masala Housing Complex by fusing in names of some directors and other council officials after President Rupiah Banda ordered the sale of the housing units.

Provincial youth vice-secretary Benson Tembo said the MMD was aware that there was a new list where council officials wanted to deprive some of the tenants a chance to buy the units they were occupying.

Acting Ndola Town Clerk Moses Mwelwa denied that some council officials were in the process of manipulating the lists and appealed to the tenants to report to the council any employee or individual making attempts to frustrate the Government’s directive to have the houses sold to sitting tenants.

Mr Tembo said in an interview in Ndola yesterday the MMD would not sit idle and allow the council to victimise sitting tenants who had suffered a lot by living in dilapidated structures which were not being maintained by NCC.

He alleged that some NCC directors and other officials put their names on some of the Itawa flats and Masala complex and then sublet to sitting tenants.

“We’re aware that some directors and other council officials sublet some of the Itawa flats and Masala houses to sitting tenants and now want to start victimising the people staying in those houses so that they (council officials) are given offer letters to buy,” he said.

Mr Tembo said the MMD would ensure offer letters were given to sitting tenants and threatened to report any suspicious manoeuvres by the council officials to relevant authorities.

He said just like President Banda had promised to open his ‘eyes’ on the sale of the council houses, the party in the province would also be vigilant and ensure the right people benefitted from the house empowerment policy.

President Banda on Tuesday directed the Ministry of Local Government and Housing to sell houses at Masala housing complex and Itawa flats, as well as houses belonging to the defunct United Bus Company of Zambia to the sitting tenants at fair and reasonable prices.

But Mr Mwelwa said the Ndola City Council was waiting for further directives from the central Government on whether to sell the houses at the prices to be suggested by the evaluators, or any other price which would be deemed suitable.

He said NCC had promptly responded to Government’s directive to value the houses by engaging the Government valuation department.

He said a team of evaluators had started the process of determining the prices of the Itawa flats and the houses at the Chinese Complex, which had been earmarked for sale to sitting tenants.

THE Government has said that the Catholic Church should state the action that it will take against priests and members issuing utterances that are against the official voice of the church.

Speaking in an interview in Lusaka yesterday, Chief Government spokesperson Ronnie Shikapwasha said the people expected the Catholic Church to state the action to be meted out against priests and members issuing personal remarks on political and economic issues of the country.

On Tuesday, Vatican ambassador to Zambia Nicola Girasoli said that utterances by individual priests and members of the clergy in Zambia should not be misconstrued as representing the official position of the church.

Ambassador Girasoli said the church only speaks through the Zambia Episcopal Conference (ZEC) and through the Vatican Embassy on matters related to the church and the State.

“If the statements that the clergy and some members are issuing are not official positions of the church, the Government and the Zambian people will want to see the action that the church is taking against its members,” Gen Shikapwasha said.

Gen Shikapwasha said the Government and the citizens expected that there was a code of conduct among the Catholic clergy and the general members and when such were violated, he expected that the church should take appropriate action.

In many instances, he said the statements by Catholic priests and some members were annoying and frustrating to many and as such the public should be informed on the course of action taken against erring Catholic believers.

“Just to say that the statements are not the official position is not enough, we want to hear the action taken,” Gen Shikapwasha said.

Now that the Vatican has stated that the position of some clergy and members was not the official position of the church, he said that the Government would be keen to hear what kind of action the church would take against erring members.

[Times of Zambia]

Maximum security prisoners and death row inmates in Zambia will receive booklets about the Rosary through a joint initiative of two U.K.-based charities.

A reported 1,600 copies of the booklet, created by Aid to the Church in Need (ACN), will be distributed to prisoners in Kamfinsa State Prison and Kabwe Maximum Security Prison. The initiative is conducted by ACN and the charity Crown of Thorns in response to inmates’ requests for more information about the Rosary.

Lisa de Quay, chief executive of Crown of Thorns, told ACN the charity regularly receives many letters from prisoners, including those on death row. She said contact with the prisoners was probably established after a visiting chaplain distributed Crown of Thorns cards describing the rosary prayers.

“Inmates are usually family breadwinners, worried about the poverty and hardship that their crime has left their families suffering and too far from home for their families to visit,” de Quay explained.

“Although kindly treated, most inmates spend years in prison with only the clothes that they were arrested in, and with no soap, and with no blanket or sheet to cover themselves in through the cold months of the year, and (are) often rejected from their society through crime or disease.”

Sending Rosary cards to prisoners and the booklet is making a difference in their lives, she said.

“Their letters will surprise you, (they are) full of the great joy of contact, of being accepted, and of finding God,” she commented.

Another message of thanks came from a maximum security prisoner in Kabwe jail, who called the Rosary distribution “a lamp that one cannot hide under the table.” “It is a light of the world, a light that can be seen thousands of miles up and much farther on land. This light shines before people.

“How thrilling it is to be part of God’s work, shining out in this dark and corrupt world.

“For the love and faith you have for God’s people, I pray that God should bless you all, and that he gives you knowledge that you can share with me.”

[www.catholicnewsagency.com]

Logan Svitzer was sitting in his U.S. history class here when his cell phone rang. He answered, but didn’t understand the person on the other end and hung up. He subsequently received a text message, which he ignored. Then the phone rang two more times.

Annoyed by the disruption, Svitzer’s teacher, Robbin Sweeney, grabbed the cell and called back the number. On the other end was a man saying he was Lazarous Kapambwe, the Zambian ambassador to the United Nations. Sweeney was certain it was a prank or a con.

But after 10 minutes on the phone, Sweeney became convinced Kapambwe was telling the truth. Kapambwe was urgently trying to get a hold of a fellow diplomat from Sierra Leone to discuss a proposed reform of the UN Security Council. But the phone number he had stored in his phone was one digit off.

“He was eloquent and apologetic, and he had a vast knowledge of Zambia,” Sweeney said. “I made a deal with him. I said, ‘Since you’ve taken up so much of my class time, why don’t you come speak to my school?’”

That was in the fall. Today, Kapambwe went to the school to make amends. He spoke to about 300 students, encouraging them to consider careers in diplomacy.

“I apologize for what happened, but nothing happens without a purpose,” he said. “Many of you are about to graduate. Today I hope I will recruit a few people into diplomatic service.”

Kapambwe spoke cheerfully about his home country of Zambia, which he described as a peaceful place that boasts 74 languages. Zambia, which is landlocked by Tanzania, Zimbabwe and other larger countries, is about the size of Texas and has about 13 million residents, Kapambwe said. Zambia is also home to the Victoria Falls, a renowned tourist spot.

Zambia has also had its share of internal strife.

“You remember how in your country you were fighting for your independence? Well, we had the same problems,” Kapambwe said. “We were under colonial rule until 1964, and for a poor, new country, diplomacy through the United Nations can mean life or death.”

As for the confusing phone call last year that eventually brought Kapambwe to West Orange, they can now laugh about it.

“I learned that anger and annoyance at a wrong phone call will never get you anywhere,” Sweeney said. “Maybe a wrong call can make you a new friend.”

[New Jersey On-Line]