Officers from the Anti Corruption Commission broke down the main front door to Kabushi Member of Parliament Bowman Lusambo’s house and accessed the inside of the property.

The officers also disabled the CCTV system on the property by removing the cables and tempering with the electronic wire fence.

During their newly two months of seizing the property, the ACC officers also saw the death of a male Zebra under their care.

This was revealed on Thursday when Mr. Lusambo toured the property with his family following an order by the Magistrate Court for the ACC to vacate the property.

The family has since decided not to move back into the house until it is forensically cleaned by security experts.

The ransacking of the property was against the seizure order that the ACC officers allegedly obtained which only allowed them to seize the property by changing locks to the main gates.

Mr. Lusambo described the behavior of your ACC officers as unprofessional and uncalled for.

“These are a bunch of unprofessional men and women masquerading as officers, they are so unprofessional that they jumped the security wall, disabled my CCTV and started messing around my house. When they got into my house, they started admiring my bed and telling each other that how can Bowman be sleeping on such an expensive bed which can pay for my salary for a year.”

He added, “they came to my house with a fake seizure notice. No Magistrate issued an order to seize my property, they lied and produced a fake notice which we challenged in court and this is why they have lost.”

Mr. Lusambo said what is going on is not a fight against corruption but political persecution.

“So the President doesn’t like Bowman, he instructs ACC to find something on him and when they fail, he tells them to just go and inconvenience him. Freeze his accounts and grab his house and this is what you are calling fight against corruption?”

Mr. Lusambo challenged President Hichilema to focus on fixing the economy and not fixing perceived political enemies.

Vice President Mutale Nalumango has described the just ended inaugural European Union (EU) -Zambia Economic Forum as a successful meeting that will change the economic landscape of Zambia.

Mrs. Nalumango said the forum must be used as a springboard to strengthen and remodel the longstanding trade and investment relations between Zambia and the EU.

Speaking when she officially closed the EU-Zambia Economic Forum, Mrs. Nalumango urged Zambian businesses to take a leading role in forging partnerships with EU firms and penetrate the European market.

She said the new dawn administration is determined to make the private sector the engine of the country’s economic recovery through growth and job creation.

“I am extremely excited with what has gone on in this forum, I am pleased to announce that the inaugural European Union-Zambia Business Forum has been a success,” declared Mrs. Nalumango.

She said the new level of EU-Zambia engagement should move away from mere cooperating partnership to business cooperation.

Mrs. Nalumango has since directed the Ministry of Commerce, Trade and Industry to assist all EU companies that attended the economic forum to actualise their deals, partnerships and export undertakings.

Speaking earlier, Minister of Commerce, Chipoka Mulenga, said it is important that Zambia begins to add value to her raw materials to achieve increased benefits from a large market which is presented by one of the world’s largest economies.

Mr. Mulenga said government has provided a platform that promotes an enabling environment for private sector growth and the development of entrepreneurship to spur national economic development.

The Commerce Minister has since urged the EU business leaders that attended the economic forum to sample Zambia’s tourism by visiting Livingstone at the end of the meeting.

Acting Zambia Development Agency (ZDA) Director, Alfred Halwampa, challenged the private sector to make the EU market Zambia’s new playground through exports.

“Zambia will make the EU a playground and ensure that goods are marketed there,” said Mr. Halwampa

He said ZDA is prepared to assist Zambian companies to meet EU market standards.

He said Zambia can triple her gross domestic product (GDP) from around US$30 billion to US$100 billion by actualising trade and investment partnerships with EU businesses.

Mr. Halwampa projected that in the next three years, Zambia should reach the levels of countries like Kenya that have aggressively penetrated the EU market and annually make US$300 million from exporting avocados and US$1.8 billion for flowers.

Deputy Head of the EU-Delegation to Zambia, Bruno Hanse, said the inaugural EU-Zambia economic forum has already produced results which need to be consolidated to bring about more benefits to Zambians.

Ambassador Hanse said Zambian businesses must engage in new partnerships to promote green growth in the economy.

He proposed that the forum should become a permanent feature to benefit both Zambian and EU businesses in unlocking and consolidating business opportunities.

The Constitutional Court has stopped all criminal prosecution proceedings involving former Konkola Copper Mines provisional liquidator Milingo Lungu.

In a landmark ruling, the Concourt ruled to stay all criminal proceedings currently before the Subordinate Courts until constitutional matters raised are addressed.

Constitutional Court Judge Martin Musaluke said the provision of the law and the Constitution were clear in matters of this nature and therefore, the Constitutional issues raised should be addressed by the Constitutional Court before any matter could be dealt with by the subordinate court.

Judge Musaluke refered matters in Uganda where Constitutional matters were raised in a case of Charles Onyongo Obbo vs the Attorney General.

“This issue was equally addressed in the Ugandan case of Charles Onyongo Obbo v the Attorney General where the Supreme Court opined as follows, where a court refers a questions that arises in proceedings before it, it must await the decision of the question of the Constitutional Court, and “disose of the case in accordance with the decision.”

“Premised on the foregoing, I hereby grant the Petitioner’s application for stay of criminal proceedings before the subordinate court so as to preserve the integrity of the proceedings in this court were allegations of the breach of the Constitution have been raised,” reads in part Judge Musaluke’s ruling.

The Zambia Association of Manufacturers(ZAM) has appealed to the European Union to support Zambian manufacturers to access the European Market by removing all non-tariff barriers that are blocking access to the European Market.

The Association President, Ashu Sagar said the conflict in Ukraine has provided an opportunity for businesses to look for alternative sources in the supply chain, including the local market and has called on the EU delegation to assist the Zambian manufacturers to leverage on this opportunity.

“While we know that the recent changes in Europe regarding the crisis with war has woken us up to look for alternative supply chains from our region as well,” he said

Mr. Sagar said the European Banking Authority EBA provides an opportunity for free trade in the European market and has called on the EU to ensure that the provisions of the EBA are emphasized in all platforms and help the manufacturers add value to their products and resources as they go back to Europe.

He has further appealed to the EU to help build knowledge and skills capacity by Zambian businesses to help them produce quality that meets the standards of the European market.

“Let us look towards building capacity in knowledge of developing the products and the quality that is required in the European Union. If we look to trade with that kind of incentive when we build our economies, when we build from this forum we definitely must look at the low hanging fruit,” he added

Mr. Sagar said this during the Zambia Association of Manufacturers presentation at the on-going Zambia-EU economic forum in Lusaka yesterday.

Meanwhile, Bankers Association of Zambia President, Mizinga Melu said the financial sector is ready to provide financial support to the business community in the various sectors to enable them succeed and contribute to economic growth.

Mrs. Melu has thanked the president for facilitating the forum as it sets to build strong relationships between Zambia and the European Union, which she said is important for the growth of the economy.

“As you rightly said Mr. President, Zambia is open for business and indeed may I say the Zambia financial sector which I represent this morning is open for business to facilitate economic growth.

She says Zambia’s investor confidence has grown over time as evidenced by the positive engagements with International Monetary Fund IMF and other positive economic changes such as the stabilized foreign exchange rates and the reduced inflation rates.

Mrs. Melu pointed out five key areas of access including; access to affordable finance, long term financing, access to local and international market, access to skills and business development and access to Business to Business and Business to the Government as the critical access areas necessary to facilitate growth of the private sector and pledged support to the government on their economic transformation plan.

She was speaking when she gave a vote of thanks during the on-going Zambia-EU Economic forum in Lusaka yesterday.