President Levy Mwanawasa has hailed Celtel’s developmental activities in the country.

President Mwanawasa said Celtel has contributed greatly to the improvement of the tele density in the country which he said has risen from three percent in 2001 to 16 percent todate.

Mr. Mwanawasa hoped the company would keep growing and affording Zambians effective
and improved network infrastructure in the country.

President Mwanawasa was speaking in Lusaka today when MTC Chief Executive Officer
Saad H Al Barrak paid a courtesy call on him at the State Lodge.

MTC is a telecommunication company that bought Celtel Africa 18 months ago.

President Mwanawasa also commended Celtel Zambia for introducing the bursary fund
which will target vulnerable pupils in grades eight through to grade 12 for a period
of five years.

The President assured Celtel of Government’s full support in its efforts to improve
the welfare of Zambians.

And President Mwanawasa has said that there was a lot of under development in Zambia
which needed to be tackled by every developmental-oriented organisations and
individuals.

He pointed out that it was unfortunate that people have a feeling that Government
should provide everything for them saying Government would be pleased to see
organisations or individuals contributing towards the development of the country.

Meanwhile, MTC Chief Executive Officer, Dr. Barrak has revealed that Celtel will
invest a total of US$100 million for improvement of network services in Zambia.

Dr. Barrak who revealed that the company has so far invested over US$250 million
said the proposed US$100million is meant to improve the capacity of the network
coverage.

The MTC Chief further assured the President that Celtel is committed to adding new
features and products to make the services more reliable.

Dr. Barrak noted that he was in the country to show commitment and appreciation to
President Mwanawasa’s guidance and conducive environment which had given the company
hope and trust to stay on track.

He said Celtel is committed to listening to advise on how best to develop the
telecommunication sector in the country.

And speaking earlier, Celtel Zambia Director, David Venn said Celtel has set aside
K1 billion towards the ‘ Build Our Nation’ bursaries fund.

Mr. Venn revealed that Celtel bursaries project will run for five years and will see
a full sponsorship of vulnerable pupils from grade eight through to grade 12.

He said his company would work with the Ministry of Education to ensure transparency
of the distribution of the funds to vulnerable pupils.

Dr. Barrak arrived in the country yesterday.

ZANIS

Government says its role is not only to do business but also to provide a good and conducive environment for conducting business and
investment.

Speaking when the 18 member Malaysian delegation that is in the country to look at
investment opportunities paid a courtesy call on him today, Minister of Finance and
National Planning Ng’andu Magande said the role of government through his ministry
is to identify potential sectors for investment and potential investors.

Mr. Magande said the current environment in the country is right for more productive
activities such as investment.

He said Zambia’s economy is performing well after most of the debt was written off
adding that only $625 million remains as sovereign debt.

He noted that his ministry is working towards tightening management to ensure that
the economy continues to perform well.

And delegation leader Siew Soong Hoong said there is need to develop the small and
medium enterprises as they form a core for a country’s ecomomic development.

Mr. Soong said the small and medium enterprises are source of various resources for
other bigger enterprises.

He also encouraged Zambia to increase its quality and yield of agriculture produce
to bring in more income for development.

He added that his country has 35 years of experience of manufacturing saying
Malaysia has machinery and technology that can used to assist Zambia develop its
manufacturing industry.

ZANIS

Government has disclosed that it will this year improve the working conditions of magistrates throughout the country.

And Government says it will improve the court infrastructure to facilitate a
conducive, effective and efficient administration of justice.

Justice Minister George Kunda said government is aware of the complaints by the
magistrates that their salaries are low hence the need to improve the working
conditions.

He said inadequacy of personnel especially at the magistrate level has continued to
affect the performance of the Judicature .

He said for a long time, the judiciary has been forced to operate below its
establishment of magistrates thereby negatively affecting the case disposal rate.

The Minister added that a backlog has been created at a number of stations
especially in rural areas where there are no magistrates.

The Minister said this in a policy statement in parliament on estimates of
expenditure for Judiciary that government will take in a bid to take justice closer
to the people by increasing the number of court houses.

He said the current court houses in a number of places have been in a state of
dilapidation adding that others have collapsed due to the heavy rains experienced
this year.

” This year’s budget provision has been made to construct court houses in each
province,” he said.

The Minister disclosed that government has initiated plans to turn the Venus
Theatre buildings in Kabwe into a courthouse which will house the High court and
Supreme court.

And Mr. Kunda said the judiciary has made headways in the transfer of staff from
the Public Service Commission to the Judicial Service Commission.

He said the exercise is scheduled to be completed by mid this year.

He said the move will complete the process of delinking the judiciary from executive
administration to an autonomous status.

Following the enactment of the Judicature Administration act of 1994, judiciary has
been undergoing restructuring .

Contributing to debates, Bangweulu MP Joseph Kasongo urged government to improve on
the working conditions of magistrates.

Mr. Kasongo who is also Patriotic Front (PF) MP expressed sadness that government
only attended to the needs of magistrates when they went on strike.

He also implored government to ensure proper accountability of the resources raised
from the operations in judiciary.

Chifunabuli MP Enerst Mwansa urged government to revisit the marriage act which he
said in its current state does not give protection to property once owned by the
deceased.

Chasefu MP Chifumu Banda accused government of paying attention to the grievances of
judges during election petitions.

He said improvement in conditions of service should cater for both magistrates and
judges.

He however commended the minister of Justice for increasing the number of lawyers at
the Legal Aid department.

Meanwhile government has disclosed that it has proposed to allocate more than K1
billion in the Trust Fund in this year’s budget so as to pay beneficiaries of the
deceased.

The Justice Minister explained that the Trust Fund had remained without funds due to
lack of accountability.

He said when the money was being transferred from Standard Chartered Bank in 2000,
not all the money was deposited into the Zambia National Commercial Bank (ZANACO)
account.

He further added that some documents went missing in the process.

ZANIS

The Sinazongwe District National Union of Public Servant workers (NUPSW), has urged political parties to give  President Levy Mwanawasa  chance to develop the nation.

Mr. Macdonald Machona told ZANIS that political parties should concentrate on issues
that would assist in building the country’s economy.

He said the insistent on issuing disparaging remarks on the President would retard
development which most Zambians were yeaning for in order to reduce the poverty
levels.

“Fellow Zambians we appreciate the formation of political parties and indeed the
role you playing as political parties but  if we keep on insulting the head of
state we are depriving  development  to the electorates,” Mr Machona said.

He also said  Member of Parliament (MPs) were benefiting a lot at the expense of
electorates that ushered them into power.

Mr Machona noted that most of the political statements that politicians were giving
the electorates were not happening on the ground.

He disclosed that people have continued to experience economic hardships when their
chosen leaders were busy debating for an increment to their salaries in parliament.

“When are you going to bring development that you were preaching about?
ZANIS

Amnesty International has expressed disappointment over the latest stance taken by the Zambian government to maintain and uphold the Death penalty in the law books despite President Levy Mwanawasa refusing to sign any Death warrants.

 Amnesty International Zambia (AIZ) says despite the death penalty being a highly
contentious piece of legislation, the International human rights body was saddened
by remarks by Justice Minister George Kunda that the piece of legislation would
stay.

And AIZ Executive Director Charles Mulenga made the pronouncements in an interview
with the Zambia News and Information Services in Mufulira today.

Mr. Mulenga was reacting to remarks by  the minister of Justice in parliament a
forth night ago that the piece of legislation wont be done away with.

He observed that the punishment was not only inhuman but a cruel and humiliating act.

And AIZ says it shall soon hold workshops targeted at Members of Parliament meant at
educating and coercing the legislators on the need to abolish the act.

Mr. Mulenga however noted that the courts of laws should not be blamed for effecting
the penalty as they were merely following what was in the law books of the country.

In his argument in parliament, Mr Kunda submitted that the death penalty was
contentious and that is why it was amongst the terms of reference to the Mungomba
Constitution Review Commission(CRC).

The Minister said the majority of people submitted to the CRC then that the death
penalty should remain on the statute books.

ZANIS

PRESIDENT Mwanawasa has denounced politicians who have adopted a culture of politicking at the expense of national development.

Mr Mwanawasa said yesterday that political leaders who rarely spoke about issues that would uplift the living standards of the people should stop the practice.

“It is sad that most politicians rarely talk about issues affecting the people and how to revamp the economy.

Zambians should learn from their colleagues in the United States of America who always rally behind an elected government.

“When the elections are over they all rally behind the government and work together.

Here we become primarily preoccupied with the pull him or her down (PHD) syndrome until the next elections.

I want that culture of talking politics day in day out to go and concentrate on development,” he said in Livingstone.

He was addressing MMD cadres and Government officials who welcomed him at Livingstone International Airport.
Mr Mwanawasa pledged to revamp the country’s economy by the end of 2011.

“Government has so far acquired a $39 million loan from the international community to be used for the construction of roads in the country,” he said.

Mr Mwanawasa is in Livingstone accompanied by Minister of Agriculture and Cooperatives, Ben Kapita, his counterpart at tourism, Kabinga Pande, MMD national chairman, Michael Mabenga, and some senior Government officials.

And activities in Livingstone’s central business district yesterday came to a standstill when residents, including school children from various primary schools, thronged Livingstone International Airport to grant President Mwanawasa a hero’s welcome.

The atmosphere at the seemingly quite airport was full of activities.

Acknowledging the overwhelming crowd that welcomed him at the airport, President Mwanawasa said he was happy to belong to the MMD and being its leader as well as that of the country.

“I shudder when I think of what could have happened had some other political leaders taken over the reigns of the country after last year’s tripartite elections.

“There was going to be pandemonium in the country had certain political parties been in power today,” he said.

Southern Province MMD chairperson, Daniel Munkombwe, Southern Province Minister, Joseph Mulyata, and former Southern Province Minister, Alice Simango, welcomed the President.

Meanwhile, President Mwanawasa has directed the leadership in the province to forward details of their accounts to his principal private secretary for the disbursement of money to be used in the mobilisation and strengthening of the party.

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