Zambia plans to offer 25 blocks for oil and gas exploration in a bidding round for international companies in the next few weeks, the finance minister said on Thursday.

The bidding round, Zambia’s first, follows an announcement in October last year that the landlocked southern African country had discovered oil and gas reserves in the northwest of the country bordering oil-producing Angola.

“We are now preparing the newspaper advertisement to invite interested parties to bid for the exploration on 25 blocks, and in the next few weeks or so we should be tendering for this,” Ng’andu Magande told Reuters on the sidelines of the World Economic forum for Africa in Cape Town.

He could not say exactly when the tender would be launched.

Magande said Zambian oil officials had visited Norway to get more expertise on how to conduct the bidding round.

The discovery was made by government geologists who had also carried out soil sample analysis confirming the find.

The government would select a foreign oil firm or firms to conduct comprehensive exploration, to determine the size of the identified oil and gas reserves.

The tender may also require them to expand the scope of the study to other districts of Zambia, he added.

Zambia does not produce oil but exports refined petroleum products to the Democratic Republic of Congo and Zimbabwe.

Zambia currently imports its crude oil from the Middle East and refines it at the Indeni Oil Refinery, which is in the copper-rich northern region of the country.

THE Lusaka High Court has granted an order for application to register the London high court judgment in which second Republican president, Frederick Chiluba, and 19 others were found liable to conspiracy to defraud the Government of Zambia. This was in a case in which London high court Judge, Peter Smith, ordered Dr Chiluba, former Zambia Security Intelligence Services (ZSIS) director-general Xavier Chungu, Congolese businessman Raphael Soriano, former ministry of Finance permanent secretary Stella Chibanda and Access Financial Services (AFS) directors Aaron Chungu and Faustin Kabwe, among others ,to pay 85 per cent of what they allegedly misappropriated. Attorney General Mumba Malila applied to register the London high court of Justice Chancery division in the Lusaka High Court foreign judgment register yesterday. Times Judge-in-charge, Esau Chulu later allocated the matter to Judge Japhet Banda. Mr Justice Banda granted the order in chambers and further ordered that any application to set aside the registration should be within seven days from the date of order while execution on the judgment would not be issued until the expiration of seven days. “Upon hearing counsel for the applicant and upon reading the affidavit for one Mumba Malila filed herein, it is ordered that leave to register the judgment be and is hereby granted,” ordered Mr Justice Banda. And when asked if Dr Chiluba had been served with the London court ruling to surrender his Kabulonga house, his spokesperson, Emmanuel Mwamba, said the issue was now a subject of the Lusaka High Court process and the law should take its course. Mr Mwamba advised all parties to desist from making such comments, as it would be contemptuous to do so.

Government has given the committee charged with the responsibility to investigat the cause of the Konkola stadium stampede up to June 25th, 2007 to present its report, Youth, Sport and Child Development Minister, Gabriel Namulambe revealed today.

Mr. Namulambe also clarified that it was not a commission of inquiry that was set to
investigate the stadium accident but an administrative committee.

ZANIS reports that the Minister said the committee has a responsibility to see what
could be done to avoid such accidents in future.

He however said the committee has not concluded its investigations yet saying a
request has been put forward to get the report by 25 th of this month.

The committee was set up to investigate the death of 12 victims who died from a
stampede at Konkola stadium on Saturday 9 th June after Zambia’s 3-0 win over Congo
Brazzaville in the Ghana 2008 Africa cup qualifier.

Meanwhile, Mr. Namulambe said the Zambia National Service (ZNS) camps were doing
very fine in training youths.

He warned people against giving alms to people on the streets because this
encouraged them to stay on the streets.

STUDENTS at the University of Zambia (UNZA) Great East Road campus yesterday clashed with police in fresh violence on the second day of the demonstration that began on Monday evening.

Police and students were involved in violent confrontations which made police to fire teargas canisters to force students back into campus from the Great East Road which they briefly blocked and disrupted traffic.

But the teargas was unable, for some time, to stop the charging students who marched onto the road as they chanted anti-police slogans and retaliated with stones, planks and tree branches.

Heavy traffic mounted on both the northern and southern parts of the road as motorists were diverted into alternative routes to avoid the stone-throwing students.

The students blocked the entrance to the main campus with tree branches and stones to deny police vehicles entry.

Later five students escaped a police cordon by diving into the Goma Lakes.

But the desperate students in the semi-stagnant Goma Lakes waters were rescued by a violent mob of students that charged at the police with stones and sticks, forcing them to retreat.

The law enforcers had to fire shots in the air to disperse the riotous students who kept on going onto the road.

Overstretched police officers who appeared to have run out of teargas watched from a distance as the students jeered at them and charged towards the road.

Earlier, Lusaka division commanding officer, Wasakaza Ng’uni, who led the police operation told journalists that his men were prepared to face the students head-on if they dared go to the road.

“We are prepared to face the students head-on and we will discipline them in such a way that they will not attempt to misbehave again,” Mr Ng’uni warned.

Mr Ng’uni said a car belonging to a student had its windscreen shattered by fellow students.

“No public vehicle has been damaged, but since the vehicle whose windscreen was shattered belongs to a student, they will sort it out amongst themselves,” Mr Ng’uni said.

However, minutes after Mr Ng’uni talked to the journalists, a bus believed to belong to Green Buffaloes Football Club had its rear window shattered by the students.

Times of Zambia reporter, Sylvia Mweetwa, also had her skirt torn by the violent students.

UNZA Students’ Union, (UNZASU), president, Sage Samuwika, accused the police of trying to provoke the situation.

Mr Samuwika said he was sad that demonstrations were becoming part of the university calendar and that this was not helping with the image-building and restoration programme that UNZASU had embarked on.

“You can’t blame the students because they have run out of patience.

They don’t want this institution to be closed because they are the ones who will lose out,” Mr Samuwika said.

He, however, said it was disappointing that Government had remained mute on the way forward in the impasse at the university.

Munali member of Parliament, Mumbi Phiri, appealed to the students not to be used as scapegoats for Government’s failure to find a Vice-Chancellor for the institution.

She said students should not engage in riotous behaviour because Government would blame them if the institution was closed.

Ms Phiri said that eight students were currently in police custody and that as a parent, she would not want her children to be subjected to conditions that prevailed in police cells.

“I have so far visited three police posts, and there is one student at Bennie Mwiinga police station, three at Simon Mwansa Kapwepwe and five at Chelstone,” she said.

She appealed to Minister of Education, Professor Geoffrey Lungwangwa, to make a statement on the situation at UNZA because it was not in order for him to keep quiet when there was confusion at the country’s highest institution of learning.

Meanwhile, UNZA Lecturers and Researchers Union (UNZALARU) secretary, Fenson Mwape, said the lecturers’ position had not changed.

“The go-slow is still on and the sad thing is that today we were not able to enter campus and meet because of the impasse between students and the police,” Dr Mwape said.

And the alumni Association of UNZA urged Government to quickly intervene in the disturbances at the institution.

Association secretary-general, Rose Tembo, said in a statement that the situation needed to be solved as quickly as possible to uphold the credibility and international standing of the university.

And UNZA acting chairperson, Tukiya Kankasa-Mabula, in a statement last evening appealed to UNZALARU members to resume work to allow the technical committee proposed to handle the matter complete its assignment.

She said this would enable the bargaining process to proceed in accordance with laid down procedures.

She also appealed to students to refrain from disturbances.

She said disturbances would only act as an impediment to the speedy resolution of the situation.

She said Government’s allocation for personal emoluments in the 2007 subvention to UNZA was 18 per cent below the required level of current staff remuneration.

“However, to cushion staff against the increase in the cost of living, the university council directed management to remove some activities planned for 2007,” Dr Kankasa-Mabula said.

“This resulted in cuts to various budget lines which will result in significant reductions to key services in the operations of the university this year,” she said.

Leaders in the West say Robert Mugabe is a demon, that he has destroyed Zimbabwe and he must be gotten rid of – but this demonising is made by people who may not understand what Robert Gabriel Mugabe and his fellow freedom fighters went through, says former Zambian President Kenneth Kaunda.

In 1960, Harold Macmillan, then British prime minister, made a statement in Cape Town referring to what was taking place in southern

Africa as “the wind of change.” He had correctly read the feelings of the black masses.Eventually, the British government abolished the Federation of Rhodesia and

Nyasaland. In 1964, Northern Rhodesia became Zambia and Nyasaland became Malawi.But white people in

Rhodesia rejected that wind of change and, in November 1965, Ian Smith, by force, took over in a “Unilateral Declaration of Independence”. It was treason against the colonial ruler, the British monarchy. Soon Smith had arrested a number of African leaders, including Robert Mugabe and Joshua Nkomo. By now Harold Wilson was the British premier, but he showed signs of hopelessness. He called meetings aboard the Tiger and Fearless navy ships. But neither meeting showed tiger claws, and both were fearful of the rebels in Rhodesia. I spoke with Wilson myself, but there was no progress. And, sadly, Smith’s rebel regime went on. White train Meanwhile, the Zimbabwe freedom struggle was continuing, but handicapped because its key leaders were locked up. Even talks with another British prime minister, Edward Heath, did not help. I could see clearly that no matter who became prime minister of Britain, they would do nothing about the Rhodesia situation. It was South Africa that was in charge. I concluded that the settlers were interested in keeping Southern Rhodesia under white rule so that they could have a buffer against advancing African independent states. In 1974, I decided to meet John Vorster, South Africa’s then-prime minister. We met at the bridge between Zambia and then Southern Rhodesia, in Vorster’s white train, for three nights. He had to leave on the third night because he was not feeling well. But as a follow-up to our discussions, he freed our colleagues in Zimbabwe’s liberation movements. There was, of course, not a single dull moment in the struggle for independence in our region. In August 1979, Commonwealth countries from all over the world met in Lusaka to consider many issues – but the most serious one was the Zimbabwe situation. In the end it was Britain’s new prime minister, Margaret Thatcher, who agreed Britain would hold a conference on the future of Zimbabwe in London. She asked me to be around at what became known as the Lancaster House talks, in case difficulties arose in the negotiations. Waiting At the talks, the people of Zimbabwe were assured that they were going to be independent the following year, 1980. But that wonderful news was conditional. The new government of Zimbabwe was not to deal with land issues but was to “leave that in the hands of the British government”. Nationalists from Zimbabwe accepted this rather harsh and complicated condition. The Thatcher government had begun to deal with the land issue, as did her successor, John Major. But when Tony Blair took over in 1997, I understand that some young lady in charge of colonial issues within that government simply dropped doing anything about it. I ask you to consider the implications of the long struggle. The nationalists, who had the regaining of land as a key objective of their struggle, were now being told the British government, which promised to look after that issue themselves, was not going to go ahead with it. The Zimbabwean government waited patiently for more than 10 years, but the British government defaulted. We must remember the occupation by Cecil Rhodes. Rhodes removed African people from fertile lands to hilly and unfertile lands in favour of settlers. And remember that, later, while neighbours became independent, Southern Rhodesia was grabbed by white settlers, led by Smith. In the struggle, many people were killed. There have been allegations of corruption in relation to land allocation. Well, the corruption should have been dealt with by all. Stopping the land programme, and doing nothing, was not the solution. I do not believe it is right to demonise Robert Gabriel Mugabe. It is notable that he and his colleagues have not expelled from Zimbabwe people who did terrible things to them. A star is born Of course, there are some things which President Mugabe and his colleagues have done which I totally disagree with – for example, the police beating of Morgan Tsvangirai.

Thatcher began to deal with the land issue in Zimbabwe

It is not that I think Tsvangirai can make a good leader – I see him as the [former Zambian leader] Frederick Chiluba of

Zimbabwe – but beating him or even sending him to prison will not be the right thing.On the other hand, given their experience, I can understand the fury that goes through President Mugabe and his colleagues. Now, let me reveal that when Blair was elected British prime minister, I wrote a poem in his favour, called A Star Is Born To Us. Indeed, his feelings for

Africa have been very good.But then came the two Bs, Blair and George Bush, and their terrifying act of March 2003 – the invasion and occupation of

Iraq. I condemned the two Bs publicly, denouncing the criminal invasion. Now my prayer is that the Zimbabwe issue will be treated differently by Blair’s successor, Gordon Brown. It is also my humble prayer that South African President Thabo Mbeki and his regional colleagues will meet Robert Gabriel Mugabe, who will be ready in his soul, mind, and body to respond to the advice they give him and the people of Zimbabwe.

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How should Western leaders treat President Mugabe? Has he been demonised unfairly? A selection of your comments will appear below. Unfairly treated is an understatement and he and the Zimbabwean people are not isolated in this issue. If you’re not liked by Britain and the

US, then you and your people are in for a lot of suffering. This is the new form of bondage and colonialism that has always characterized the relationship between the west and the rest of the world. I firmly believe that just as minority voices gained momentum in centuries past to cry against slavery and other forms of bondage and just as we are appalled at the brutality of westerners of those years, so will future generations judge the Tony Blair and George Bushes of our time.
Saiku M Bah, Freetown, Sierra Leone I myself live in the west. The redistribution of the land seemed only to be done to provide the regime’s backers with a payoff for loyalty. But the Land issue is irrelevant now, and people that continue to discuss it only show how out of touch they are. The issue now is the security. The government has passed law after law restricting personal freedom. Reports coming out of the country are of a security forces out of control. With rape and murder everyday events for those who even hint of straying out of line. This, the clearance of the slums and the stifling of the opposition are what needs to be discussed now!
Nich Hill, Portsmouth UK President Mugabe surely has been unfairly by the west, led by the UK over the land issue. Unfortunately the land has been given back to its rightful owners, the black majority. And for those who had a regime change agenda, Mr Blair has failed to affect it in Zimbabwe. The same for Mr Bush. What a combined failure by these two in Zimbabwe and Iraq. Simeone Rumhiba, Zimbabwe The comments by Kaunda are ramblings. How on earth can anyone in their right mind excuse what Mugabe has done? Let’s face it, the land deal with the British has never been withdrawn, but Mugabe will not abide by the conditions of fair and sustainable land distribution. Instead it is parcelled out to mostly government supporters, ministers and military officials in order to stay in power. It really is that simple. Mugabe has got off very lightly, and I pray that one day he will face justice for the thousands of (mainly black) victims of his Gukurahundi massacres and subsequent “clamp downs”. Let’s not mention the more than four million of us of have had to leave the country as a result of the madness going on there.
Alex Nhando, Zimbabwean in Budapest If Mugabe had more than his share of troubles when fighting for independence, he should have learnt from his experiences and become wiser and more humane and just. Instead he has become far worse than his former colonial masters in mistreating and misruling his people. What is deeply disturbing is the deafening silence on part of other African leaders when it comes to criticising their counterparts and their misdeeds. One has the impression that black African leaders, in general, have entered a conspiracy to slowly send Africa to hell.
Jai Singh, Kaiseraugst, Switzerland It is only people who have read the history of Zimbabwe in depth are able to understand the current situation in Zimbabwe. From the time Zimbabwe was occupied the issue of contention was land. The land was parcelled among the whites with impunity. The Africans were relocated to the wastelands. For your own information African cattle were not even allowed to mate with whites cattle or even allowed to graze in so called white lands. The only solution is to share the fertile lands equally.
Louis Mpande, Lusaka, Zambia BBC

THE National Democratic Focus (NDF) has called for patience and understanding among stakeholders involved in the Constitution-making process.
NDF president, Ben Mwila said in Lusaka yesterday that his party was impressed that there was understanding among stakeholders regarding the need for a new Constitution before 2011 elections.
The party is also in favour of holding an indaba as it was a sure way of fostering peace and unity in the face of the current impasse over the roadmap to adopt the Constitution.
Mr Mwila, who is Nchelenge member of Parliament said the indaba should be able to discuss the roadmaps provided by the Government and the civil society organisations.
Mr Mwila said Zambia had come a long way in developing the Constitution that would stand the test of time and it was imperative that stakeholders came to round table discussions to reach consensus.
He said Zambians had managed to resolve several complicated matters in the past and was certain that a lasting solution to the Constitution process would be found.
He said stakeholders should work together so that the peace that the country continued to enjoy was not disturbed.
“These differences are capable of being harmonised. Let us summon the will and determination and the patriotism to do so,” Mr Mwila said.
The NDF had carried Constitution consultations among its members in six provinces where the majority supported the enactment of the Constitution through a Constituent Assembly as recommended by the Constitution Review Commission (CRC).
“We should rekindle the spirit that characterised our return to multi-party politics in the early 90s. There were differences between the Government and the opposition but a serious crisis was prevented through the church brokered talks.
We were able to achieve compromise which paved way for the immediate desired amendments to the constitution,” Mr Mwila said.