Vice President Rupiah Banda today led hundreds of mourners in paying their last respects to the late Lusaka Division Police Commanding Officer,Wasakaza Ng’uni.

Speaking during the church service of the late Ng’uni at St.  Paul’s United Church
of Zambia in Lusaka, Mr. Banda said it was unfortunate that some suspected criminals
were allegedly celebrating Mr. Ng’uni’s death.

He said the deceased was a patriotic serviceman, whose death should sadden every
peace loving Zambian.

And Inspector General of Police, Ephraim Mateyo, has warned criminals against taking
advantage of Mr. Ng’uni’s death, saying the Police Service was still remain intact
and alert.

And in a sermon, Reverand Mpanji Silungwe said that Zambia needed selfless leaders
of the calibre of the late Ng’uni.

Among the hundreds of people that attended the church service were former republican
Vice Presidents Lupando Mwape and Nevers Mumba, former Inspectors General of Police
Zunga Siakalima and Silas Ngangula.

Several Cabinet ministers, Government and Defence officials, MMD and opposition
political party officials were also present.

Mr. Ng’uni, 57, died on Tuesday in a road traffic accident in Lusaka’s Kabangwe area
on Great North Road.

Meanwhile, the late Mr. Ng’uni’s body has been flown to Lundazi district in Eastern
Province in readiness for burial in Chama district tomorrow.

The Police brass band sang solemn music at the airport.

The Vice President, Senior Defence force Officers and scores of sympathisers
proceeded to City Airport where the body was flown by a Zambia Air Force (ZAF)
plane.

Government has with immediate effect dissolved the Energy Regulation Board (ERB) and the Zambia Electricity Supply Corporation (ZESCO) Board for ineficiency and lack of focus.

Energy and Water Development Minister Kenneth Konga has since advised ERB Executive Director Sylvester Hibajane and ZESCO Managing Director Rodney Sisala to report to
the Energy Permanent Secretary for further guidance.

Mr Konga disclosed the dissolution of the two Boards at a press briefing in Lusaka
today.

Mr Konga said Government will soon appoint new Boards  using power vested in him to
do so.

The Minister who condemned poor Governance by the two Boards observed that owing to
the looming power deficit and fuel shortages in the country,  the National
Developnment Economic indicators shows that Zambia would be affected.

And Mr. Konga has disclosed that Government is pondering on finding another
strategic partner to work with Indeni Petroluem Refinery in Ndola on the Copperbelt
on addressing the fuel situation in the country.

He said at the moment Indeni has four million litres of diesel, 30 days stocks of
Petrol, 26 days jet fuel and 30 days stocks of Kerosine.

The Energy Minister also disclosed that Government through the Office of
Proportional Private Power Investment, OPPI, is working closely to generate and
export surplus power to other countries in the region.

The Minister explained that under the OPPI, Government is investing power at Kafue
lower, Kabompo falls, Itezhi-tezhi to generate sufficient hydro electricity for
Zambia as well as trade with SADC countries in the energy sector. 

President Mwanawasa yesterday joined several mourners at the funeral house of the late Lusaka Province commanding officer, Wasakaza Ng’uni, who died in a car accident on Tuesday night.
Mr Mwanawasa, who was accompanied by the First Lady, Maureen, was met on arrival at the funeral house at about 14:40 hours by several Cabinet ministers, Service Chiefs, senior Government and MMD party officials before he was led into the house by Inspector General of Police, Ephraim Mateyo.
The solemn looking President stayed at the funeral for almost an hour and did not address the Press after his visit.
The First Lady remained in the house for over 30 minutes, consoling the widow, Hilda Ng’uni.
Mr Ng’uni died in a road traffic accident on Tuesday night after his vehicle lost control and rolled several times and died on arrival at the University Teaching Hospital (UTH).
On Wednesday morning, Vice-President, Rupiah Banda, described the death of Mr Ng’uni as a great loss to the nation and called for thorough investigations to establish what led to the accidentMr Banda, who openly wept when he visited the funeral house in Kabulonga, described Mr Ng’uni as a selfless and gallant officer, who dedicated his life to ensuring that law and order was maintained during his tour of duty.
Zambia’s ambassador to Switzerland, Love Mtesa, sent a message of condolences to President Mwanawasa, the police service and the family on the demise of Mr Ng’uni.
“On behalf of the Zambian community in Switzerland and indeed on my own behalf, I wish to convey to the family of the late Mr Ng’uni, President Mwanawasa, Mr Mateyo and through him to the entire police service our heart felt condolences,” he said.
Mr Mtesa said Mr Ng’uni would be remembered as a very dedicated police officer, whose qualities needed to be emulated by all those that wished to succeed in the police service.
United Party for National Development (UPND) president, Hakainde Hichilema, said his party learnt with deep sorrow and disbelief the sudden and untimely death of Mr Ng’uni.
He said his death was not only a blow to the Zambia Police Service but the entire nation.
“As a party we admire him for being brave, professional and dedication to duty. His conduct during the 2006 general elections was exemplary as he, under very difficult circumstances, administered the Public Order Act to give equal access for political parties to address campaign meetings.
“It is also undisputed that crime levels in the city and the province in general had reduced considerably during his reign,” Mr Hichilema said.
Burial of the late Mr Ng’uni would take place in Chama district in Eastern Province on Saturday, Home Affairs Minister Ronnie Shikapwasha announced yesterday.
Lieutenant General Shikapwasha said the decision to bury in Chama arose from a request from the family members and that the body would be flown to Lundazi district after a church services today en-route Chama.
According to the programme released by the police service, mourners would depart the funeral house for St-Anne around 09:00 hours after a church service to be held at United Church of Zambia (UCZ)’s St. Pauls in Kabwata.
The body is expected to depart for Lundazi by air at about 12:30 hours.

Former minister of Lands, Reverend Gladys Nyirongo, yesterday pleaded not guilty to two counts of corruption.
She was recently arrested by the Anti-Corruption Commission (ACC) and made her first appearance before a Lusaka Magistrate Court yesterday.
In the first count, it is alleged that Rev Nyirongo, between January 1 and February 22 this year, being a person, employed in the public service, as minister of Lands, did direct a lands officer to generate offer letters of land in Lusaka’s Foxdale and Chamba Valley to 10 people.
In the second count, it is alleged that between October 1, 2006 and February 28, 2007, Rev Nyirongo, as minister of Lands abused her position by directing a junior technical officer in the ministry of Agriculture and Cooperatives to sub-divide a former Zambia Consolidated Copper Mines (ZCCM), farm number F/309a in contravention of the land alienation procedures and created property number L/1943/M which she later obtained as her own.
Magistrate Sharon Newa, adjourned the matter to July 19, 2007 for possible start of the trial.
Rev Nyirongo is on a K10 million bond signed in her own recognisance.
President Mwanawasa fired her in March this year for allocating eight pieces of land to herself, husband, son and daughters.
Her husband and other sympathisers accompanied Rev Nyirongo to the court.

The ministry of health in Mansa district targets to immunize 40, 000 children against measles in the campaign that begins on Monday next week.

District Director of Health, Delia Kanguma, said the 40, 000 children would also be
given Vitamin A supplementation, and de-worming tablets during the integrated
measles campaign slated for July 9 to 14.

She said the District Health Management Team, DHMT, has already received vaccines
and other logistics to be used during the campaign.

Ms. Kanguma was speaking during a measles preparatory meeting held with stakeholders
at the Boma Conference room.

She explained that the DHMT had already started distributing the vaccines and other
logistics to all the 26 health centers in the district.

She said the distribution of the vaccines and logistics would be completed by
Saturday this week before the commencement of the Six-day immunization exercise.

Minister of Information and Broadcasting Services, Mike Mulongoti has urged contributors to foreign publications to refrain from writing falsehoods about Zambia just to make money.

Mr Mulongoti was reacting to two articles in the Germany media, one by a named Zambian doctor saying operating theatres had leaking roofs and that flies flew around during surgery, and another by a Germany celebrity who alleged that Zambians were so overwhelmed by the AIDS pandemic that people were unable to think about the next day.

“It is not right for anyone to print falsehoods about Zambia.

They are damaging our reputation all because they want to be given money.

Such people are unpatriotic and their behaviour is bad,” he said.

Muvi TV managing director Steve Nyirenda made the articles available to the parliamentary committee on information and broadcasting last Friday.

Mr Nyirenda told the committee that such negative reports were damaging the country’s bid to attract foreign investors and tourists.

The German celebrity said there was “too much HIV/AIDS in Zambia for people to even think about the next day.”

Mr Mulongoti, who is also chief government spokesperson, said false reports about any country were unpatriotic and bordered on the morality and integrity of the authors.

He said Zambia had achieved a lot in the health sector for anyone to begin making such falsehoods, which were “selfish” and aimed at painting a bad picture of the country.

People were free to contribute to foreign publications but that they must ensure they gathered their facts instead of writing damaging reports based on falsehoods.

He said there was no country in the world that had been spared by HIV/AIDS but the context in which the Germany report was put was aimed at lowering the integrity of the Zambian people.

He said the fact that there were no restrictions as to what foreign correspondents could publish did not mean they should base their reports on falsehoods.

He said even if a story were negative it would still be respected if it represented the real picture on the ground.

Government  has mourned the death of Lusaka Province police commanding officer Wasakaza Ng’uni and issued strict instructions to the police command to “leave no stones unturned” in the investigations into the cause of his death in a tragic road accident on Tuesday night in Lusaka.

Speaking to journalists at the late Mr Nguni’s funeral house in Kabulonga’s Twin Palm Road, Vice-President Rupiah Banda said police should thoroughly investigate the accident to find out exactly what led to the death of the popular and tough top cop.

Mr Nguni 57, died around 20:00 hours on Tuesday in Lusaka’s Kabangwe area on the Great North Road when his Toyota Mark II overturned as returned from his farm in Ngwerere where he had gone to collect a cell phone he had earlier forgotten there.

“This is a great loss to the nation and I speak for many Zambians.

It is important to investigate deeper, the cause of the accident in order to establish exactly what happened.

It will be sad for the President to arrive to such devastating news,” Vice-President Banda said.

“We used to sleep peacefully knowing that Mr Nguni was in-charge,” a visibly shaken Vice-President said.

He described the death of Mr Nguni as upsetting, sad and that the nation was faced with an early death of a selfless and gallant police officer.

The late police commander was a dedicated worker and a great role model to the younger and aspiring police officers.

“On behalf of Government we would like to send our condolences to the family and to the (Zambia) Police Service,” he said.

And Inspector General Ephraim Mateyo said although preliminary findings indicated it was a normal accident, the police command did not completely rule out foul play.

Mr Mateyo, who broke down in between his speech when he spoke to journalists at the funeral house, said the death of Mr Nguni had taken him several miles backwards in police operations.

He described the late Mr Nguni as a gallant officer with whom he had made a great team because they shared a common vision.

“Immediately the police high command was informed of the accident, we sent officers from the Scenes of Crime Section to go to the accident scene and right now we are still examining the vehicle.

As at now it’s too early to speculate,”he said before breaking down.

Police would try to ensure that the peace that the nation was enjoying under Mr Ng’uni continued.

Other notables who visited the funeral house were: Minister of Mines and Minerals Development Kalombo Mwansa, deputy minister of Home Affairs, Grace Njapau and permanent secretary Peter Mumba.

Others were permanent secretary in the Ministry of Works and Supply Bizwayo Nkunika and his counterpart from Lusaka Province Susan Sikaneta and the entire police high command.

Meanwhile, former president Kenneth Kaunda who broke down after being informed of Mr Nguni’s death said the passing of the man was a great loss to the family and the entire nation.

“It’s sad… condolences to the family and the police service. It’s a great loss,”Dr Kaunda said amid tears.