The BBC reported that the late mega church leader TB Joshua is accused of committing sexual crimes on a large scale. It was also revealed that he kept his own daughter locked up, tortured her for many years, and eventually left her homeless on the streets of Lagos, Nigeria.
My dad was always afraid. One of the pastor’s daughters, Ajoke, was very scared that someone would tell the truth about the abuse she saw at her father’s church, the Synagogue Church of All Nations (Scoan). She was the first person to reach out to the BBC about it.
TB Joshua, who passed away in 2021 at 57 years old, is accused of hurting and mistreating many people for almost 20 years.
At 27 years old, Ajoke is hiding and has changed her last name from “Joshua. ” The BBC is not sharing her new name.
Not much is known about Ajoke’s birth mother, but it is thought that she was a member of TB Joshua’s church. Ajoke says she grew up with Evelyn, who was Joshua’s wife, from a very young age.
Until Ajoke was seven years old, she had a really good childhood and went on fun vacations with the Joshua family to places like Dubai.
But one day, everything was different. She got in trouble at school and had to leave for a while. Then a writer in the area said she was TB Joshua’s child but not born in marriage. She was taken out of school and brought to the Scoan compound in Lagos.
“I was told to go to the disciples’ room. ” I didn’t choose to be a follower. “I had to join,” she says.
The disciples were a special group of loyal followers who lived with and served TB Joshua inside the church building. People from different countries came to the compound and many of them stayed there for a long time.
They had to follow strict rules: they couldn’t sleep for long, they couldn’t use their phones or check their emails, and they had to call TB Joshua “Daddy”.
The followers were influenced and made things possible. Everyone was just following orders without thinking – like zombies. She says that no one was asking any questions.
As a child, Ajoke didn’t like to follow the rules like the other kids: she didn’t want to stand up when the pastor came in and didn’t like being told when to sleep.
The treatment began shortly after.
Shortly after she got there at seven years old, she was hit for wetting the bed and made to walk around with a sign that said she wets the bed.
One former female follower said that they were told Ajoke had bad spirits inside her that needed to be removed.
Once, in the meetings with his followers, he said that people could defeat her. Anyone in the girls’dorm could hit her and I only saw people slapping her as they walked by,” she says.
When Ajoke moved to the church in the Ikotun neighborhood of Lagos, people didn’t treat her nicely.
Rae, from the UK, says that she was seen as the outsider in her family. She lived in the church for 12 years as a follower. Like most of the former followers asked by the BBC, she chose to only give her first name.
Rae remembers when Ajoke slept for a long time and Joshua yelled at her to wake up.
Another follower brought her to the shower and beat her with an electrical cord before turning on the hot water, she explained.
Ajoke remembers that she was shouting very loudly and the water kept running on her head for a long time.
She says the abuse never stopped.
“We’re talking about many years of mistreatment. “Regular treatment I, as a child from a different mother, made everything that he [TB Joshua] believed in look less important.
The abuse got worse when she was 17 and talked to her dad about people who had been sexually abused.
“I saw some women followers go up to his room. ” They were leaving for a long time. I heard people saying,”Oh, this happened to me. “”He tried to have sex with me. A lot of people were saying the same thing,” she says.
The BBC talked to more than 25 former followers from different countries. They all said they experienced or saw sexual abuse.
“I couldn’t handle it anymore. ” I went straight into his office on that exact day. I yelled really loud and asked,”Why are you doing this. Why are you hurting all these women. “
I wasn’t scared of this man at all. “He tried to make me look away, but I kept looking into his eyes,” she says.
Emmanuel was in the church for 21 years and lived in the compound for over 10 years. He remembers that day very well.
“He [TB Joshua] was the first person to start hitting her. and then other people joined in,” he said.
“He was asking if you can picture what she’s saying about me. Even though they were hitting and beating her, she kept saying the same thing. “
M’MEMBE , CHOLERA , DIRTY POLITICS , AND POLITICAL OPPORTUNITIES
By Mark Simuuwe
Fred M’membe is a type of an old man who uses dirty politics and sees political opportunities when people are dying . We saw his behavior and celebration during gassing period and during the time Lawrence Banda , Nsama Nsama , Joseph Kaunda , Kasongo, and Mapenzi Chibulo died.
This is not surprising, because under the PF and Fred M’membe , we saw thousands die of cholera and they were the first ones to use Heroes Stadium as an epicenter . It took them time to even secure external assistance because, as a party , they were known for stealing public funds .
Today, he is failing to understand the speed with which government has secured external assistance . Due to the confidence that the international community have for Zambia under the UPND administration, they have been able to quickly respond to government intervention.
As usual, a lopsided and non appealing statement from Fred M’membe who fails to distinguish between politics and human interest programmes aimed at addressing problems affecting citizens, has been circulating on social media .
Fred has a short memory . Not long ago , Fred and his PF friends saw thousands of citizens die of cholera .
The Heroes Stadium was first used as an epicenter under Fred M’membe / PF administration.
It is under the Fred M’membe/ PF administration that even donated money , among other materials for the pandemic were reportedly missing .
From this media report ,it would be concluded that they turned a disease into a corruption scam .
Instead of ensuring the town was clean , they promoted street vending which backfired with the PF unleashing soldiers to chase and beat all the street vendors during a serious cholera outbreak .
During this period , even soldiers , and police officers died in the process and yet Fred has forgotten so soon.
Cholera is a waterborne disease which is associated with dirt. It is the dirt that Fred and his minions promoted on the streets by allowing carders to collect council levies which should have been used for garbage collection and cleaning the city .
The council was failing to clean the City. They allocated k1.6million to CDF , which money they were failing to disburse . In some places where they disbursed , money was mostly reportedly stolen.
In 2021 , which was an election year , they failed to pay CDF and equalization fund to councils and constituencies, and this was only cleared by the UPND New Dawn Government.
They even failed to pay council workers across the country their 7 months to 15 months salary arrears .
They killed councils completely that this is the time councils are now getting resuscitated.
Fred is not a serious old man . Instead of joining hands with well meaning Zambians to fight cholera , he is busy playing dirty politics.
To deal with the situation right now requires raising awareness and a quick response to secure vaccines which President Hakainde Hichilema and his team have done .
As reported yesterday in the media, a million vacccines have since been sought from the World Health Organization (WHO).
As usual , Fred lacks research and is not aware that cholera has ravaged the region . Just a few days ago , the BBC reported serious cases in Zimbabwe . Fred is not aware of all this .
He wants to behave as though he is hearing of cholera in Zambia for the first time just , for his political aggrandizement, yet he and his colleagues registered more cases.
I do not know what kind of solution Fred wants , which him and his colleagues , the PF could not give us before their time was up .
Unfortunately, he does not believe that they are out of power and would want to pretend not to have been PF , by jumping from Kafue River , as a Bubble-fish, into Luapula River and claims he can be a Tiger-fish , by cheating unsuspecting youths through his lopsided interpretation of socialism.
Fred is a type of adult who talks too much without providing solutions. And this behavior will bury his ever – infant political career.
In 2026, Fred will be 64 years , many years older than HH who is already president , and in 2031 , he will be around 71 years old . He is a latecomer in politics who offers no solution to problems him and the PF created.
Just like the PF , this is the man who celebrates when sees people dying of cholera . As was the case under their leadership, so many citizens died not only as a result of disease but through killing them.
Lawrence Banda is gone , Nsama Nsama is gone , Joseph Kaunda is gone , Kasongo is gone , Mapenzi Chibulo is gone , and many others and this made Fred and his friends celebrate. In addition , thousands were gassed , while others died mysteriously under Fred M’membe and the PF leadership.
I have never heard Fred raise concern on these but celebrated the deaths with the PF .
Let him shut up if he has no solution. It is not time for politicking and dirty politics . It is time for solutions .
UMODZI KUM’MAWA WANTS MORE EASTERNERS APPOINTED INTO GOVT …as they write Hichilema to consider an Easterner for the position of Foreign Affairs Minister
OPEN LETTER TO THE PRESIDENT
January 9, 2024.
Dear our Republican President, Mr. Hakainde Hichiliema,
Firstly, we as Kum’mawa Development Coalition (KDC) would like to express our gratitude for your efforts in appointing Mr Mike Mposha as Minister of Water Affairs, Mr Mtolo Phiri as Minister of Agriculture, Mr Levy Ngoma as your Political Advisor, and other few individuals from the Eastern Province in significant positions within your administration, We appreciate the gesture of inclusion and representation so far.
However, as members of the KUM’MAWA DEVELOPMENT COALITION (UMODZI KUM’MAWA), a group dedicated to promoting development within the Province and speaking for the welfare of our people, we kindly request that you consider appointing more individuals from Eastern Province in your cabinet particularly in light of the current vacancy at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs as you reshuffle.
We believe that UPND Members hailing from Eastern Province, as well as those sympathetic to the party within the Province, should be given the opportunity to serve, provided they possess the necessary credentials just like other Zambians from UPND strongholds.
We would like to suggest the following individuals, among others, who we believe would be well-suited for ministerial positions, including within the Foreign Service:
1, Ambassador George K Zulu, 2. Mr. Michael Chunzu
3. Professor Edgar Ngoma, 4, Mr, Lucas Phiri,
5. Mr. Noel Nkhoma,
6. Mr. Johabie Mtonga,
7. Mr. Dawood Mbewe,
7. Colonel Bizwayo Nkunika, 9. Ms Shelly Thole,
10. Major F Kamanga,
11, Ms Angela Chifire, and 12, Mr. Ronald M Daka
We would be honored to collaborate with the Government of the day on developmental projects and work towards the progress of our beloved Province.
Kum’mawa Development Coalition (KDC) aims to strategically advance development programs for the people of Eastern Province in the broader context for the modernization of Zambia by advocating and defending for their interests and rights in all sectors. The coalition recognizes that the region has abundant natural resources and the local people must always be engaged and prioritized to discover and actualize their full developmental potential just like other Zambians elsewhere.
Thank you for your attention to this matter and wish you God’s blessings. Happy 2024!
THE State says it acted within the confines of the law when it withdrew Edgar Lungu’s benefits after he made a pronouncement that he had returned to active politics in defence of democracy.
Deputy secretary to the cabinet administration, Dr Oliver Kalabo said the State cannot be paying Lungu when he is engaged in active politics as the law ought to be followed.
He said the wording of The Benefits of Former Presidents (Amendment) Act is very clear as it provides that the pension and other benefits conferred by the Act shall not be paid, assigned or provided to a former President who is engaged in active politics.
In this matter, the former president has petitioned the State in the Lusaka High Court crying that government builds him a house in a location of his choice as an entitlement of a former Head of State.
On October 28, during the ninth memorial anniversary of late president Micheal Sata, Lungu made a speech that is now come be known as “The Grave Mistake” when he announced his comeback to the political arena immediately Miles Sampa replaced him as PF president.
Cheered on by a handful of party members and commanders, Lungu declared that he had returned to his previous position as PF president and vowed to rescue the PF from State-sponsored stooges.
Within the same period Lungu said he had left Stoppilla Sunzu’s Ibex Hill mansion which was being rented for him saying; he would not allow to be manipulated over the crumbs that government was giving him.
Barely a month afterwards, Lungu swallowed his words and pleaded with the Court to compel the secretary to the cabinet to reinstate his pension and other benefits and provide him with a furnished executive house built or bought by the State at a place of his choice in line with the law.
The former president explained that his return to active politics was not to challenge his successor President Hakainde Hichilema for the country’s presidency but only to restore democracy as well as guard against the shrinking democratic space in the country.
Lungu lamented that the withdrawal, of his pension benefits is not only punitive and unconstitutional, but also has the effect of gagging him from expressing or sharing his political views on National affairs in a democratic society.
But in an affidavit in opposition to Lungu’s demands Dr Kalabo said the office of the Secretary to the cabinet acted legally and within the law pursuant to the provisions of the former President’s Benefit Act Cap 15 of the laws of Zambia.
He said his office took due diligence to establish whether the sixth former president was participating in politics and violating the Benefits Act of former presidents.
Dr Kalabo said Lungu was written to on several occasions to clarify whether he was engaged in active politics following his political stunts but he was two-faced and maintained that he was not.
“Following a publication in the Zambia Daily Mail dated November 15 ,2021 indicating that the PF party wanted immediate change, the office of the Secretary to the cabinet in a letter dated November 25, 2021, wrote to the office of the sixth President and diligently inquired on whether the former president had continued to be the leader of the PF,”Dr Kalabo explained.
“Cabinet Office sought clarity on the allegation published in the Zambia Daily Mail stating that the position alleged was at variance with The Benefit of former Preaidents Act no. 21 of 1998 that clearly stated that the pension and other benefits conferred by the Act shall not be paid ,assigned or provided to a former President who is in receipt of a salary from the government;or engaged in active politics.”
He said on the same day , the office of the sixth President responded reaffirming the earlier position given by Lungu that he had resigned from active politics and from being the leader of the PF.
“However, the letter stated that the sixth President awaited handing over power to the person the party would elect in his place. In the meantime, the party vice president would continue running the party,”Dr Kalabo said.
He said videos were circulated on social media of Lungu’s political stunts but he remained insincere about his participation in politics and insisted that he had taken leave from politics and relinquished his position as PF president.
“On May 4, 2023, the Ministry of Home Affairs and Internal Security upon receiving a complaint from Miles Sampa in February 2023, regarding the leadership of the PFsought confirmation from the Secretary to the Cabinet on the resignation of the former President as party president,”Dr Kalabo said.
“By letter dated September 18, 2023 the Ministry of Home Affairs and Internal Security informed the office of the secretary to the cabinet that records at the officer of the Registrar of Societies and the application for notice of change of office bearers had maintained Edgar Lungu as their party President.”
He said the benefits of the former sixth president were only withdrawn when Lungu came out of his closet during Sata’s memorial last year and made it clear that he would take over in running the affairs of PF as party president.
Dr Kalabo said the withdrawal of the benefits is not contrary to the constitution or the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights(ICCPR).
“Sections 2 and 5(1) of the Benefits of Former President’s (Amendment) Act,does not fly in the teeth of theLungu’s Constitutional rights of freedom of expression, freedom of assembly and association and protection from discrimination on the ground of among others , political opinion as enshrined in Articles 20 ,21 and 23 of the constitution,” Dr Kalabo said.
He added that Lungu is not being discriminated against as he cannot equate an elective office of president to that constitutional office holders, judges, members of parliament, public workers and chief executive officers in the public and private sectors.
SIMON Mwewa has spent the first night of his six months in prison following his jailing for malicious damage.
The blogger and self-appointed national teacher of the King’s language earned himself legal trouble when he deflated tyres of Ricky Nyimbili’s minibus which he thought it was improperly parked on the busy Kalusha Bwalya Road next to his Simoson Building last June.
Following the incident, Mwewa was summoned to the police station by constable James Lungu who interviewed him for malicious damage to property.
The officer testified in court that Mwewa denied deflating the tyres of the bus in question but admitted deflating the tyres of another bus that was parked on Simon Mwewa Lane near Simoson building.
“I wasn’t satisfied with his explanation, I charged him with malicious damage to property and under warn and caution he denied the charge. A sharp instrument was used. I asked him to produce it but he (Mwewa) walked away,” said Lungu.
At trial, Mwewa was found with a case to answer and was given an opportunity to defend himself but opted to remain silent.
And so yesterday, Mwewa was convicted by magistrate Fine Mayambu and sent to jail for six months.
The conviction announcement disoriented Mwewa so much that he needed close to a two-minute lecture to understand the meaning of mitigation.
Upon being asked to mitigate, Mwewa asked the magistrate to explain the meaning of the word.
After the lesson of what mitigation means, Mwewa pleaded for the Court’s leniency saying he was a family man and first offender.
“This is my first offence without sounding redundant I am a family man. I beg for the courts leniency,” Chitambala said.
In handing down the sentence, magistrate Mayambu said Mwewa’s behaviour was uncalled for as it did not befit his status in society.
He said it is quite disappointing for Mwewa to behave like someone who was not learned when he was supposed to be a role model in society.
“Members of the community are supposed to look up to you as a role model to learn manners. You damaged tyres of a passenger bus without taking due deligence whether there were passengers on board,” said magistrate Mayambu.
“You acted so irresponsibly. This behavior is unacceptable! To send a warning to would be offenders you have to be punished. The offence carries a maximum sentence of two years imprisonment , I therefore sentence you to six months simple imprisonment effective today.”
He granted Mwewa leave to appeal.
The verdict left visible shock on Mwewa’s face who now sat in the dock and sobbed under his mask whilst typing on his phone.
Upon hearing the news of Mwewa’s jailing, Leader of the Economic and Equity party Chilufya Tayali who was within the Court premises awaiting for his mutiny case rushed to magistrate Mayambu’s Court room to peek at Zambia Correctional Service Commissioner General Fredrick Chilukutu’s latest guest.
Eventually, the sombre-looking Mwewa was led to Lusaka Central Correctional Service facility to exchange his trademark reflector vest for the suit that has the same colour as carrots.
With Mwewa behind bars, Chishimba Kambwili and others can speak all the broken English they want and mispronounce words without having to look over their shoulders.
People are giving Lungu false hope but PF will never be united – Sensele
By Edwin Mbulo in Livingstone
FIGHT your own battles, don’t use other people, Paul Sensele has advised former president Edgar Lungu.
He says the PF shall never be united.
“The PF will never be united because of the way they treated each other way back. Some of us were regarded useless. I remember being chased from the Livingstone airport and told to go and eat crackers. They even mocked us by saying go to your president at the graveyard,” Sensele said.
Sensele, who is NDC vice-president, said Lungu is surrounded by people ‘who are destined for prison’.
“If I had an opportunity to meet Edgar Lungu I think I can advise him well not those that are surrounding him. They are the ones that beat up Major (Richard) Kachingwe with a view of protecting Nevers Mumba. They are giving him false hope because they know that their route is headed for prison for the atrocities they committed and so the only way to survive is to cling to Lungu,” he charged.
“But this is very unfortunate because you (Lungu) you have your own battles to fight. Why not fight on your own instead of using others to fight your battles?”
Sensele said the PF is so divided and cannot be united.
Sensele, who served as Livingstone district commissioner under the Michael Sata administration, quoted Ecclesiastes 3 which says “To everything there is a season, and a time to every purpose under the heaven. A time to be born, and a time to die.”
“So to the PF, there is time for everything. Time to dance, and time to lose power to Miles Sampa. They should understand that Ecclesiastes has been fulfilled. The PF started mingalato (tricks) with Wynter Kabimba, and when Sata passed on they chased all of us who were appointed by him. I remember being chased from the Livingstone airport and told to go and eat crackers. They even mocked us by saying go to your president at the graveyard,” said Sensele. “But today where are they? They even introduced a brutal slogan… That was the downfall of the PF. So what are the lessons we are learning here? It is that all battles can only be won when you are united. The PF will never be united because of the way they treated each other way back. Some of us were regarded useless. Judge Ngoma was regarded useless.”
Lawyer asks LAZ to challenge IG’s threat on democracy
By Bright Tembo(The Mast)
LUSAKA lawyer Celestin Mukandila says Inspector General of Police Graphael Musamba’s statement forbidding opposition political parties from holding public rallies goes against enshrined constitutional tenets of a democratic state.
In his letter to Law Association of Zambia (LAZ) president Lungisani Zulu, Mukandila said the statement must be challenged immediately, warning that failure to do so will erode fundamental human rights guaranteed by the Constitution.
“Mr. President you will note that in line with the objects for which the Association is established as provided for in Section 4 (l) of the Law Association of Zambia Act Chapter 31 of the Laws of Zambia, the Association is mandated to seek the advancement of the rule of law and the rights and liberties of the individual,” he said. “Further, Article 20(1) as read together with Article 21(1) of the Constitution of Zambia Chapter 1 of the Laws of Zambia guarantees the protection of the freedom of expression and the protection of freedom of assembly and association.”
He said the Supreme Court has on several occasions pronounced itself and guided on the inalienable constitutionally guaranteed rights as provided for in Part Three of the Constitution.
Mukandila asked LAZ to challenge the constitutionality of the statement that Musamba made as it abrogates the guaranteed constitutional rights of the opposition.
“Your Excellency, from the aforementioned provisions of the law and the decided Supreme Court decisions, the Law Association of Zambia must immediately challenge the constitutionality of the statement that the Inspector General of Police made as the said statement abrogates the guaranteed constitutional rights of the opposition political persons and proposes to threaten criminal prosecution of gatherings that may occur,” Mukandila said. “Your Excellency, I opine that the statement that was made goes against the tenets of Constitutionalism, the rule of law as well as the principles of a good democracy such as ours and promotes the advancements of a one-party state tendency which must be checked to protect our democracy and multi-partism we have achieved thus far.”
He reminded Zulu of the need for the opposition to mobilise as the country goes for a general election in two years’ time.
Mukandila said LAZ’s intervention in the defence of democracy was critical.
“Your Excellency, the Country is earmarked for general elections in the next two (2) years and such statements only prove a shrinking democratic space which curtails opposition political players from participating in a leveled playing field of this democratic process in offering alternative solutions to our country,’’ said Mukandila. ‘’Your Excellency, your intervention in defense of our democracy, rights, and individual liberties is in line with the mandate as the Law Association of Zambia is a necessity at present.”
An anatomy of an election in the West: lessons for Zambia and Africa, a report
By Prof Munyonzwe Hamalengwa
There will be crucial elections in the UNited States of America and South Africa in 2024; and many other countries.
Zambia will hold its next elections in 2026. I reflect on my own participation in a local election in Canada and the broad lessons that I learnt which I can generalise for educational purposes for Africa and Zambia in particular. Hints of suggestions for reform are contained in this article. It has been stated by the Great American jurist Oliver Wendell Holmes’ that “the life of the law (substitute here elections) is not Logic, but experience”. This article is a reprint.
If my good friend Canadian-Nigerian lawyer Kingsley Jesuorobo (whom I call Mr King, shortened from Kingsley), a best selling author of the book, “Province of Poetry”, didnt phone me recently from Toronto, Canada to offer his condolences on the deaths of President Kenneth Kaunda and Chief Justice Irene Mambilima, I would never have conceived of this article. Mr King knew of my relationship with President Kaunda from our numerous discussions on African presidents and African politics in general and from my two books touching on President Kaunda as well as my recent article entitled, “My Dialogue with President Kaunda”. Mr King sensed he needed to call and talk to me about President Kaunda. Regarding Chief Justice Mambilima, Mr King knew of my intense interest in matters of the judiciary and justice, the role chief justices can play in steering the judiciary towards judicial independence, autonomy and the rule of law. Mr King was aware of the article I had written in Pambazuka newsmagazine in 2015 about Mambilima after she had been appointed Chief Justice by President Edgar Lungu whom she had recently declared President when she was chairman of the Electoral Commission of Zambia. King was present when I launched my book on the Judiciary in Toronto. King knew of my writings on the need to have judicial diversity. King knew I would experience the death of a chief justice at a totally different multidimensional level and angle than most people.
We have discussed and written about chief justices and the judiciaries of many countries including Nigeria and Zambia. King and I go a long way back in Canada. We regularly teamed up to do certain strategic court cases together in Toronto. The most memorable one is when we brought a class action lawsuit to stop Canadian immigration from deporting a group of Nigerians to Nigeria. They rounded them up and put them in a hired plane inappropriately named “ConAir” as if it contained con-men. We brought an injunction arguing that the deportation was based on racial profiling and discrimination against Africans especially Nigerians when white immigrants were not deported in a similar fashion. Of course this was provocative albeit the truth legally so we used appropriate legal lunguage. The plane was scheduled to take off when justice O’keeffe of the Federal Court issued a stay of removal and our clients were offloaded from the plane. Some of them later became citizens as we won the case on the merits. King and I did other cases in family and criminal law together. I had previously won a class action immigration law suit from which King and I borrowed the template to win the Nigerian case. Canada was giving amnesty to all Yugoslav immigrants who had sought refugee status in Canada because of the civil strife in Yugoslavia but was deporting Somalis who had fled Somalia because of the civil strife there. I filed a class action in which I accused the Canadian government of double standards based on race and place of origin of the immigrants. I accused the Canadian government of favouring the Yugoslavs because they were white and because the Prime Minister Brian Mulroney’s wife Mila Mulroney was from Yugoslavia. It was a high octane case and some journalists of major papers were going to cover the court case. The day before the hearing, the government conceeded and we entered into a consent judgment for a stay of deportations to Somalia.
Strategic litigation in appropriate cases can help a lot of people in one swoop than individual litigation. King and I used that strategy which helped us win the Nigerian case. But King’s call brought about a discussion of an important Canadian election from which Zambia can learn. When King learnt that we were in election season in Zambia he brought up the issue of an election in Canada which I had forgotten. He reminded me that he was present at a Nigerian restaurant called Planet Africa when I launched my election campaign for the mayor of Toronto in 1997. Indeed I ran for the mayor of Toronto in 1997. I learnt a lot from the experience. When you run for political office in Canada, there are things you cannot avoid. Firstly, the financial record keeping requirements. The source of every dollar you raise and spend must be backed by a receipt of the source and receipt of how it was spent. Two weeks after the election you have to bring the books for auditing to an election accountability office and the books must balance and all the money that was raised has to be used up on election related matters when the books are handed over to the elections office two weeks after the elections. Any left over money has to be surrendered. No election money can be used for any other purpose than the prosecution of an election. It is a criminal offence to abuse election funds and to violate the election finance law. A number of candidates get jailed in Canada and the US on this score. In Canada there are limits as to how much money any individual can donate to a candidate. A lot of corruption is avoided when there are strict election finance laws. And because all monies have to be accounted for by veriable audited reports, leakages are easily spottable and you can go to jail. Secondly, if you want to stand a chance of winning, you are compelled to openly in a public place, debate the other candidates on your platform followed by questions from the public. Zambian voters are cheated in that there are no compelled debates between candidates before a panel and the public followed by excruciating questions. Candidates in Zambia get away with murder because they don’t debate and there are no financial accountability restraints whatsoever. Zambian voters sometimes end up voting for quacks who don’t know anything at all, people who win through corruption, tribalism, and rigging. In the West, if you are serious and not going just for a funny ride, you have to back up with figures your campaign promises. You can’t say you will do this and that without showing where you are going to get the money from. When I ran for mayor my platform was reduced to: “Diversity, Equality and Socio-economic Transformation of Toronto”. Toronto is one of the most diverse cities in the world in terms of race, religion, culture, colour, ethnic, place of origin etc and yet it is a cesspool of inequalities across the board including in the socio economic areas and in criminal justice, family and educational etc systems. How was I going to show that I was serious in my platform and deserved to be elected? I knew that the Municipal Elections Act forbade non-citizens from voting in municipal elections and the Constitution did the same in provincial and federal elections. So I filed a class action lawsuit to strike down Section 3 of the Municipal Elections Act which engendered this inequality and made it a campaign slogan of “No taxation without representation”. The Constitution didn’t prohibit non-citizens from voting in municipal elections, it was a mere local statute that did so. What the Constitution doesn’t prohibit had to go, especially when the Constitution was clear that non-citizens can’t vote at provincial and federal level.
The Constitution omitted the municipal level. I had a good case I reckoned. If I won that case in the Superior Court of Justice, I was assured of an electoral landslide, I dreamt. Thousands of immigrants some of whom had been there for even fifty years paying tax were not eligible to vote and to influence their living conditions. Municipal governments are closer to the people than provincial and federal governments. In the public debates during candidates debates, my issue got traction. But judge Hoilett dismissed the lawsuit on the basis that I had no standing to bring such a suit since I didn’t suffer the disability myself. He forgot that I stood to benefit if the lawsuit succeeded. On socio economic transformation I focussed on eliminating homelessness. I hired a team to roam around Toronto locating bolded up houses without owners. We found thousands of these houses. The city has figures on the numbers of the homeless. My accountants figured out how much these houses would cost to repair and to house the homeless. These are the figures and numbers I would rattle during the debates. Such are the figures you would hear Obama, Romney, Biden, Trump, Trudeau in Canada etc recite during their debates. I had a complete budget of all my expenditures and how to finance my promised programmes, budgets prepared by tax experts, accountants and economists. Taxation is the foundation of revenue to finance projects. Obama, Biden, Trump etc all had figures or budgets of how they would finance their promises and they were questioned about them as I was when running for mayor. How many candidates in Zambia have designed budgets and can rattle them during a candidates’ debates? They are lucky they are not put to a debate and to be tested under pressure. Only a few presidential candidates can withstand the pressure of being questioned in front of a TV audience of thousands of people. I didn’t win the election. It was partly a practice-run for the future. But that election gave me a taste of serious things that happen but not seen during an election. A mystery happened in Toronto during the counting of the votes. Barbara Hall was leading by thousands of votes when all of a sudden the tallying computer systems crushed. Tallying stopped. The engineers went to work to repair the system. When the computers became alive again, Mel Lastman had surged ahead. How could thousands of Barbara’s leading votes vanish within minutes after the computers were fixed? Beware! Mel Lastman became mayor of Toronto. I fear computers when they crush during tallying of election votes. Who knows what happened to my votes when the computers crushed. Lessons galore.
The author teaches law and is the author of “The Politics of Judicial Diversity and Transformation: Canada, US, Britain, Australia, South Africa, Israel, Post-Colonial States and International Tribunals”. Reach him via:
Former Liverpool striker Sadio Mane married his ’18-year-old long term girlfriend’ Aisha Tamba during a private ceremony in his home country of Senegal on Sunday.
According to multiple reports the couple tied the knot on January 7 in Keur Massar, an area in the capital city of Dakar and the event was attended by family, friends and fellow footballers.
Although the ceremony was private, pictures of the wedding have been posted on Instagram by photography company @Magvision_Evens_Officiel.
Questions have obviously been raised about when Mane started dating Aisha given the legal age of consent in Senegal is 16 years.
The reports say Mane first spotted Aisha when she was 16 but he did not approach her formally at the time, according to Sports Brief.
You will recall that Mane has always kept his relationships secret and briefly commented in 2022 about the type of person he would marry.
“I’ve seen a lot of girls asking me why I am not married, but sorry you might be wasting your time. The woman I marry will not be on social networks,’ Mane said according to the Tribune website.
‘I want to marry a woman who respects God and prays well. Everyone has their own way of making their choice of love,’ Mane added.
Former Liverpool striker Sadio Mane married his ’18-year-old long term girlfriend’ Aisha Tamba during a private ceremony in his home country of Senegal (Picture via Instagram – @Magvision_Evens_Officiel)Former Liverpool striker Sadio Mane married his ’18-year-old long term girlfriend’ Aisha Tamba during a private ceremony in his home country of Senegal (Picture via Instagram – @Magvision_Evens_Officiel)Former Liverpool striker Sadio Mane married his ’18-year-old long term girlfriend’ Aisha Tamba during a private ceremony in his home country of Senegal (Picture via Instagram – @Magvision_Evens_Officiel)Former Liverpool striker Sadio Mane married his ’18-year-old long term girlfriend’ Aisha Tamba during a private ceremony in his home country of Senegal (Picture via Instagram – @Magvision_Evens_Officiel)Former Liverpool striker Sadio Mane married his ’18-year-old long term girlfriend’ Aisha Tamba during a private ceremony in his home country of Senegal (Picture via Instagram – @Magvision_Evens_Officiel)Former Liverpool striker Sadio Mane married his ’18-year-old long term girlfriend’ Aisha Tamba during a private ceremony in his home country of Senegal (Picture via Instagram – @Magvision_Evens_Officiel)Former Liverpool striker Sadio Mane married his ’18-year-old long term girlfriend’ Aisha Tamba during a private ceremony in his home country of Senegal (Picture via Instagram – @Magvision_Evens_Officiel)Former Liverpool striker Sadio Mane married his ’18-year-old long term girlfriend’ Aisha Tamba during a private ceremony in his home country of Senegal (Picture via Instagram – @Magvision_Evens_Officiel)
Salem Bazoum, the son of Niger President Mohamed Bazoum who was toppled in a coup last year, was provisionally released on Monday, according to a statement by the Niamey military tribunal.
The 22-year-old had been in detention at the presidential residence with his parents since the coup in July. The tribunal did not provide details on the fate of Salem’s parents.
The coup, one of eight in West and Central Africa since 2020, was widely condemned, led to sanctions from the Economic Community of West Africa States (ECOWAS), and prompted widespread calls for Bazoum’s release and a return to democratic rule.
Niger has been ruled by military leaders since the overthrow of elected president Bazoum, which prompted international condemnation. Military ruler General Abdourahamane Tchiani has said his regime wants up to three years for a transition back to a civilian government.
A source close to the removed president told the AFP news agency that Salem Bazoum had left Niamey for Lome, the capital of Togo, where he arrived on Monday evening.
A statement by the Togolese government confirmed a deal for the younger Bazoum’s release after mediation from Togo and Sierra Leone, but gave no details about his whereabouts.
Niger is currently suspended from the ECOWAS, which has said the release of Bazoum and his return to power are among the conditions for easing sanctions. But Togo is among several West African states that have been involved in mediation with the Nigerien military regime after the bloc softened its stance on a possible forceful intervention.
On Monday, Togo’s Foreign Minister Robert Dussey was in Niamey, where he met with Niger’s military-appointed prime minister, according to Nigerien public television.
This followed a trip by Dussey in mid-December when he said he had reached an agreement “on the content and timing of the transition” with the prime minister.
The new military government has distanced itself from Niger’s hitherto close European partners – notably France – and has drawn closer to two of its neighbours, Mali and Burkina Faso, which after recent coups are also run by militaries. The last French troops withdrew from Niger in December.
Like Burkina Faso and Mali, Niger has faced persistent rebel violence, particularly in the so-called tri-border area where the three Sahel countries meet. Al Jazeera
The BBC has unearthed new evidence the late Nigerian megachurch leader TB Joshua hid dead bodies and intimidated families, to cover up his role in the collapse of a building which killed at least 116 people at his church in 2014.
The collapse is one of the worst disasters to ever strike a place of worship in Africa.
The BBC’s investigation is the first time insiders from TB Joshua’s Synagogue Church of All Nations (Scoan) in Lagos have presented evidence of what caused the incident nearly 10 years ago, and of how the pastor allegedly orchestrated a cover-up.
It follows evidence uncovered by the BBC of widespread abuse and torture by the founder of one of the world’s biggest Christian evangelical churches.
Two days after the collapse on 12 September 2014, TB Joshua publicly said it was linked to an aircraft that flew over the building used to house visiting pilgrims.
But an inquiry by a Lagos coroner agreed with emergency workers that structural failure had caused the guest house to collapse, and said it had been built without proper planning permission.
Eyewitnesses told the BBC that TB Joshua had been warned of serious structural problems prior to the disaster. They say the aeroplane explanation was a “lie”.
“He knew the building was unstable,” says Emmanuel, who spent more than a decade as a disciple of TB Joshua – a group of devout followers who lived in his church in Lagos.
Like most of the former disciples interviewed by the BBC, he opted to only use his first name.
He described the pastor receiving a report, hours before the collapse, that the building was “swaying” and “shaking”.
Multiple witnesses say the visitors were not warned. Instead more than 200 of them were led into the building’s dining room on the ground floor to eat their lunch – where they were seated when all six storeys of concrete descended on top of them.
Many were killed instantly, but more than 100 were trapped inside alive.
“I could hear people crying out: ‘Help me, help me, help me,’” says Emmanuel, who was on the scene within minutes of the collapse.
“Their voices were fading and you could tell these people were dying off.”
Others described horrifically injured victims, with missing eyes and limbs – splintered by the beams which came down on top of them.
“It was quite clear that that building was never built for the height that TB Joshua built it to,” says Rae, from the UK, who spent 12 years living in the church as a disciple.
She says she was present when TB Joshua ordered his workers to construct additional floors: “The foundations weren’t built to hold a building of that many storeys.
“He just kept kind of pushing and saying: ‘I want it higher. It must go higher. It must go higher.’”
The church insiders who spoke to the BBC also say lives could potentially have been saved had TB Joshua responded promptly to the collapse itself. Instead, they say, he blocked emergency services from accessing the site for 24 hours – an allegation corroborated by news reports at the time.
During this crucial window for rescuing people and assisting the injured, the BBC’s eyewitnesses say some church workers attempted to save lives in reckless and amateur ways. Without the use of mechanical equipment or medical training, they used tools from the church’s maintenance department.
In one instance, a church worker allegedly used a chainsaw to amputate the leg of a man who was trapped under a fallen beam.
“He was screaming!” says Emmanuel, visibly shaken during his interview. He is not sure if the man survived.
“I saw a lot of things that really traumatised me… faces were crushed,” says Michael, a disciple who was in his late teens at the time.
Eyewitness testimonies of the horrific aftermath have never been published before, with many church insiders sworn to secrecy, and the site of the collapse shielded from public view by a large wall.
Three sources, including Michael, say TB Joshua ordered his workers to move piles of dead bodies away from the building collapse site during the night, to hide them from the media and the authorities.
Two say they were asked to film this activity, and to deliver the tapes to TB Joshua in his office.
“We were recording them as they put them into body bags… loads and loads of people,” says Michael.
Chloe, a former disciple of TB Joshua from the UK, also witnessed the aftermath of the collapse. She says she got into a bus and immediately noticed an awful smell.
The driver told her the vehicle was “full of dead bodies… and we’re transporting them at night so that the press can’t see them”.
Multiple sources believe that the death toll was higher than the 116 figure given by the church, and cited friends and church workers who were inside at the time of the collapse who they say were not recorded in the official list of the dead.
It’s total betrayal: His U$ 1 Million Presidential Advisory Experts smiles Gayism, Imperialism, lesbianism & Neo Colonialism
By Dr. Chris ZUMANI Zimba
1. Introduction
Our president, Mr. Hakainde Hichilema (HH) is now one of the most advised and expensive leaders in Africa maybe only second to Uganda’s Yoweri Museveni. It is urged that Museveni is the world’s most heavily advised leader with a team of 82 presidential advisors appointed to advise him on specific subjects and issues.
At the pace Bally is moving, Zambia’s president may overtake Museveni soon especially after learning that State House’s budget allocation for 2024 is now increased to K550,493,726.00�($160million) covering foreign trips, presidential advisory services, etc. He has his big special advisory team, presidential delivery unity, Tony Blair Foundation, Brenthurdt Foundation, Presidential team under Cabinet, etc.
The actual breakdown of State House Budget based on the cabinet document is as follows: (1) presidential advisory services is allocated K26,601,685.00; (2) Presidential Affairs allocated K22,149,614.00; (3) Management and Support Service allocated K95,430,543.00; and (4) State and Presidential Affairs Under Cabinet Office allocated K406,311,884.00.The collective total is surely alarming and depressing for voters and citizens.
What are the key issues emerging from this discussion for HH’s increased presidential budget? Why should Zambians be worried about it? From my end, l have identified four key issues. These are as follows:
2. First issue: Abnormal amount for HH’s foreign consultants, trips and presidential affairs matters
Our problem here is more to do with this huge tax payers money going to hire and pay foreign consultants, external trips, etc for state house. We are talking about more than K550 million Kwacha meant for state house only: more than half a billion.
In the SADC region if not in Africa, HH could have the highest budget for external consultants and foreign trips. We are talking about U$1 million strictly for foreign presidential advisors. It’s a total waste of public funds: a betrayal to his suffering voters.
President HH repeatedly assured Zambians that he was well trained and best suited to govern the country. Why is he relying on hiring foreign advisors to run Zambia? HH promised Zambians that he will reduce the cost of running government. How come he now keeps on increasing his state house budget each year?
Many times, HH used to fool the PF government to consult him for help on governance matters. How come now HH seem so lost and confused that he is increasingly relying on hiring expensive foreign presidential advisors? In fact, he specifically hires and pays whites at the expensive cost of a human nose (U$1 million).
“Bally Will Fix It” was his famous campaign slogan that swept the nationwide hearts of voters to vote for him. He gave Zambians hope for political redemption. But this Bally lied: this Bally has failed: hence this Bally is now hiring foreign advisors to help him govern his country. He is hiring imperialists and Neo colonialists to run our country. It’s total betrayal!
3. Second issue: Toni Blair, former UK Prime Minister and renowned Gay Ambassador now running Zambia
Remember, when HH just became president, Tony Blair was the first high profiled foreign leader who visited him at State House on 29th September, 2021. Clearly, he came to secure his consultancy deal of helping HH to govern Zambia as his external advisor.
In the 2024 Zambia’s budget, there is $1million (more than K25 million Kwacha) meant for our President’s foreign Advisory Services: Tony Blair under his foundation and Greg Mills under his Brenthurst.
This Tony Blair is a lead global champion of homosexuality, widely known, celebrated, awarded and respected in UK, Europe, North America, Australia and everywhere. This is the key person providing advisory services to our HH: a key UK politician and gay icon now ‘running’ Zambia.
For example, on 25th September, 2014, The Gay Times in marking the magazine’s 30th anniversary named Tony Blair as one of the gay icons of the past 30 years, sitting alongside Boy George, Barbra Streisand and Sir Ian McKellen. In the same year October, Blair was awarded by another gay organization as its political ambassador.
Reported in the Telegram, Guardians, Reuters, BBC, CNN, Independent News, France 24, New York Times, etc, you can verify that all acknowledged that UK and Europe has never produced a President or Prime Minister who can compete with Tony Blair’s pro gay and lesbian policies in the past 30 years. Over decades, Tony Blair has won multiple awards from gay organizations and is saluted everywhere for this.
His Tony Blair Foundation is among the most well known political foundations and consultancy firms that help countries worldwide on how to introduce and implement liberal policies and practices aimed at reforming and protecting minority populations- gays and lesbians among other areas.
So, this is the Tony Blair our HH has hired as one of his top Presidential advisors through his foundation. The Tony Blair Foundation is now part of Zambia’s State House presidential advisory firms. This Tony Blair, a former UK Prime Minister and a globally renowned gay icon is part of Zambia’s government today in 2024. HH duped Zambians on this: he betrayed his voters countrywide.
Surely, the BSA Company founder, John Cecil Rhodes who owned both modern Zimbabwe and Zambia as his imperial territory is very happy in his grave with HH that ‘his boys’, his descendants are back at the top of governance in his former African mining zone and ranching empire. Sir Evelyn Hone is so happy too with HH for bringing back the wheels of colonialism.
By hiring direct descendants of our colonists and imperialists like this top British politician and respected world gay ambassador to help him govern us, HH is now a darling of whites-Europeans and Americans. To passionate Pan Africanists like Samora Machel, Patrice LuMumba, Thomas Sankara or Steve Biko in their graves,HH is betrayer.
4. Third issue: Imperialist Brenthurst Foundation and it’s top executives also govern Zambia today
This foundation is a beneficiary to a brutal huge amount of plus U$ 21 million for presidential advisory services under HH’s state house budget for 2924. And we now know why this foreign foundation and not Zambian firm or local consultants.
Brenthurst Foundation is a sure modern face of ‘Cecil Rhodes’s BSA Company’ and a known neo-liberal as well as imperial organization. The fact that it is now part of State House advisory units, HH has not just betrayed Zambia’s independence and sovereignty, Bally has technically sold this country to Neo Colonialism.
Greg Mills, Executive Director of South Africa’s Brenthurst Foundation is regarded as one influential figure around our Hakainde Hichilema. This foreign advisor to HH is believed to be behind the opening of an Africom bureau ( American military post) in Lusaka and a multi-million dollar investment programme in Zambia by First Quantum Minerals. He is a key foreign advisors to HH and believed to be so powerful indeed than Gary Nkombo or VP Mutale Nalumango.
To confirm his power and influence around state house, on 27th January, 2022, our entire President HH was in Johannesburg particular to launch Greg Mills’ book “Expensive Poverty”, an act which invoked sharp critics from many Zambians. Greg Mills’s book launch trip was a waste on tax payers money but a confirmation that Mills is HH’s trusted advisor.
In fact, the start of 2024 saw President Hakainde Hichilema’s appointed New Board of Directors for Mpulungu Harbour unveiled to Zambians with another face of Brenthurst face. The top four are; Fellystons Nchimunya as Chairperson, Precious Musonda, Joseph Mbinji and Mark Pearson.
This Mark Pearson, a trade, transport, infrastructure and regional integration expert at the Brenthurst Foundation now sits on Zambian parastatal boards at the expense of citizens who falsely think they are independent and HH value them.
This confirms that these foreign imperialists are not just HH’s advisors as we know it: they are also physically sitting in key public positions in Zambian institutions. This HH has reintroduced colonialism in his Bally fashion. This is the extent of betrayal, the extent of insulting our independence, the extent of undermining our freedom and the extent of destroying our state sovereignty. HH must be stopped and condemned on this trajectory.
5. Fourth Issue: The betrayal is real to our history, sovereignty, independence and freedom fighters
In 1897, the BSA Company agents met Crown Prince Nsingo Jere and his warriors in the Kapatamoyo hills of modern Chipata. Through an interpreter, they told him that they were sent by John Cecil Rhodes of BSA Company on behalf of the King of England to survey their territory for immediate imperial take over.
The BSA company agents asked Nsingo to convince his father, King Tuto Mpezere Jere 1 to surrender in peace before the British monarch’s world conquering and consolidated army with heavy gun pounders vomited fire, bloody and mass destruction on them.
After thinking through, Crown Prince Nsingo Jere told them through an interpreter that “this land only belongs to King Mpezeni and the Ngoni people and shall remain as such for eternity. “We are not afraid of war, bloodshed or death as long as we remain free people, go and tell your Cecil Rhodes and that King in England “, Nsingo replied.
After a long bloody war, capture and murder of Nsingo Jere and defeat of his Ngoni warriors in 1898, the BSA company took control of the entire modern Zambia until 1924 when its founder, Cecil Rhodes sold this territory to his own British government when he thought it had become too unprofitable and unsustainable. Zambia just like Zimbabwe was Rhodes’s garden or farm from 1898 to 1924.
From 1924 to 1964, this former minerals bedroom and game ranch of Cecil Rhodes was under British control with all colors of racism, oppression, segregation, brutality, slavery, exploitation, imperialism and colonialism. Britain was our brutal and oppressive colonial master for 40 years and our founding fathers opposed this style of government.
Hence, our freedom fighters opposed, fought and died in huge numbers for direct self rule. Kenneth Kaunda, Rueben Kamanga, Simon Mwansa Kapwepwe, Maiza Chona, Harry Mwanga Nkumbula, Lawrence KatiLungu, Betty Kaunda, Grey Zulu, Arther Wina, Innonge Wina, Rupiah Banda and many others are among our known freedom heroes. Being ruled by Europeans was not only deemed an insult, but a betrayal to our culture, sovereignty and pride.
Therefore, Zambia’s political independence, sovereignty, self determination and long standing national pride did not come cheap: thousands of people died. To be politically independent, blood was shed in thousands and hundreds were left handicapped everywhere.
But this HH has totally betrayed everyone and everything about it. As earlier observed, Zambia has a huge state house budget in 2024 for foreign presidential advisors: the worst is that they are known imperialists, globally recognized gay ambassadors and Neo colonists.
6. Conclusion
One distinguished Pan Africanist, freedom fight and Mozambican First indigenous President, Samora Machel told his supporters that, “if one day you hear whites speak well of me, just know that I have betrayed you”. This statement was more true and factually noble to Jesus Christ and the Pharisees too.
Surely, Nsingo Jere, Kenneth Kaunda, Rueben Kamanga, Simon Kapwepwe, Maiza Chona, Harry Mwanga Nkumbula, Lawrence KatiLungu, Betty Kaunda, Grey Zulu, Rupiah Banda, Micheal Sata, etc all feel so betrayed in their graves to see these Neo colonial forces and imperialists running Zambia at State House under President HH’s office today.
When everything is said and done, we can confidently conclude that what is happening at state house is total betrayal: the notorious problem is that fact that HH’s U$ 1 Million Presidential Advisory Foreign Experts smile Gayism, Imperialism, lesbianism and Neo Colonialism for Zamb.ia. This is what anoints and confirms the betrayal to voters.
Dr Chris ZUMANI Zimba is a Political Scientist, Researcher, Author & Consultant specialized in Comparative Global Governance and Democratic Theories. He holds a PhD, MA, BA and Cert in Political Science. Zimba was President Lungu’s Political Advisor from December 2019 to August 2021.
The Lusaka City Council has approved a request by the Patriotic Front to join in cleaning the Lusaka Central Business District.
On 30th December 2023, Patriotic Front Secretary General Hon. Raphael Nakachinda offered his members to help and join the cleaning of the Lusaka CBD in light of the widespread cholera outbreak that has claimed over 200 lives.
But Acting Town Clerk, Eng. Liftery Ndaba rejected the offer claiming Mr. Nakacinda did not represent the Patriotic Front as illegally amended records at the Registrar of Societies showed.
Following an appeal to the Mayor and the Lusaka City Council, His Worship Chilando Chitangala has accepted the offer stating that the fight against the cholera out-break required a multi-sectoral and multi-stakeholder approach and therefore demanded the participation of all stakeholders.
“I commend you for your offer to partner with us in our efforts to realise a clean and healthy city.” ,she stated.
Ms. Chitangala has also stated that the request by the Patriotic Front met all official criteria to accept donations, material, financial, and other support as outlined by the Council’s own strategy and Local Government regulations.
“This is in line with the City’s Solid Waste Management policy which outlines strategies to address solid waste and recognizes the value of collaboration with the residents, businesses, community organization in these strategies.”she stated.
She has since directed the Acting Town Clerk to meet Mr. Nakacinda and their teams to sit and plan for the activity.
Below is the official response
The Secretary General Patriotic Front LUSAKA
Dear Sir,
RE: OFFER TO CLEAN THE BUSINESS DISTRICT
I refer to your letter of 30th December, 2023 in which you complained about the response of the Town Clerk to your offer to join the on-going effort against the cholera outbreak, by helping to clean the Central Business District (CBD).
I commend you for your offer to partner with us in our efforts to realise a clean and healthy city.
As you are aware, a clean and healthy city cannot be achieved by the local authority alone and therefore requires the concerted efforts by all stakeholders.
The council has and continues to receive support in various forms, from individuals and organisations, in a bid mobilise the required resources to safeguard the health and safety of the residents of Lusaka.
This is in line with the City’s Solid Waste Management policy which outlines strategies to address solid waste and recognizes the value of collaboration with the residents, businesses, community organization in these strategies.
The need for support from stakeholders is even more acute now that we are faced with a raging cholera outbreak which has so far affected over Four thousand (4, 000) people in Lusaka with over Hundred and Seventy (170) deaths as at 5th January, 2024.
Please be informed that donations, financial and material, are welcome for as long as they are in keeping with our mandate and meet the established criteria for receiving donations.
As a way forward, I wish to suggest a meeting between a representative of your organization and the relevant sections of the Council to ensure that this opportunity is utilised in the best possible way.
A clean Lusaka is possible if we work together.
Yours respectfully,
Chilando Chitangala (Ms) THE MAYOR
Cc;Eng. Liftery Ndaba – The Acting Town Clerk, Lusaka City Council
Compromised Judges Throughout History: Lessons from the Annals of Injustice
By Dr Lawrence Mwelwa
In the annals of history, there have been judges whose names have become synonymous with compromise and unreliability. These are individuals whose decisions had catastrophic consequences for their nations, forever tarnishing their legacy. Let us take a journey through time and explore some of these compromised judges and the timeline in which they operated.
Our first stop takes us to Nazi Germany during World War II. Here we encounter Roland Freisler, a leading judge in the infamous People’s Court. Freisler’s decisions were heavily influenced by Adolf Hitler and the Nazi regime, resulting in unfair trials, harsh sentences, and widespread terror. His actions led to countless executions and struck fear into the hearts of those who sought justice.
Fast forward to the reign of King James II in England, and we come face to face with Lord Chancellor Jeffreys, also known as “Bloody Jeffreys.” During the aftermath of the failed Monmouth Rebellion, Jeffreys presided over the “Bloody Assizes,” where he administered brutal and biased trials. The result? Hundreds of executions and severe punishments that fueled public resentment and created chaos.
Venturing across the English Channel, we arrive in France during the reign of Louis XIV. Here, we encounter Nicholas Fouquet, a politician and judge who served as the Superintendent of Finances. However, his lavish lifestyle and extravagant spending raised eyebrows and led to accusations of embezzlement and misuse of funds. Fouquet’s downfall came in a highly publicized trial that showcased the discontent among the French nobility.
Returning to England, we delve into the life of Sir Francis Bacon, a philosopher and judge whose contributions to science and philosophy are overshadowed by his corrupt practices during his tenure as Lord Chancellor. Bacon’s acceptance of bribes and manipulation of judgments undermined the integrity of the legal system and stained his reputation as one of the most corrupt judges in history.
Our final stop takes us back to Nazi Germany, where we encounter Judge Leopold Gutterer, a Nazi Party member who actively participated in implementing racial and anti-Semitic policies. Gutterer’s decisions resulted in the deportation and execution of Jews, exemplifying his complete allegiance to the Nazi ideology. His actions contributed to the chaos and destruction caused by the regime.
These compromised judges throughout history serve as reminders of the importance of being on the right side of history. The role of a judge extends far beyond individual cases; it encompasses shaping and upholding the principles and values of a just society. Being on the right side of history is crucial for judges because it ensures the integrity and relevance of the legal system, protects individual rights, promotes social progress, preserves public trust, and allows them to leave a positive and meaningful legacy.
As we reflect on these compromised judges and the timeline in which they operated, we are reminded of the words of Richard Buckminster Fuller: “Integrity is the essence of everything successful.” It is indeed through integrity that judges can navigate the complexities of their roles and strive to be on the right side of history. Let us learn from the past and ensure that those who don the robe of justice are committed to upholding truth, fairness, and the well-being of society as a whole. Only then can we move forward and create a just world for generations to come.
As a judge or officer of the Court, undoubtedly, one would strive to be remembered in the annals of history for their unwavering integrity and dedication to upholding justice. The prospect of being regarded as one of the most compromised judges in Zambian history would certainly be disheartening and strays far from the ideals that should guide one’s legal career.
It is imperative for a judge or officer of the Court to always act impartially, fairly, and without any external influence. Being compromised not only taints the reputation of the individual, but also undermines the trust and confidence that society places in the judiciary. The role of a judge is to administer justice, ensuring that each case is decided solely based on the merits, the law, and devoid of any personal biases or corrupt motives.
Historical records should reflect judges who have upheld the principles of justice, showing dedication to the rule of law and safeguarding the rights and freedoms of all citizens. These individuals should be remembered for their adherence to ethical conduct, their ability to dispense fair judgments, and their impact in shaping a just society. Ultimately, their legacy should inspire future generations of judges and officers of the Court to remain steadfast in their commitment to upholding integrity, empathy, and fairness.
In conclusion, no judge or officer of the Court would aspire to be remembered as one of the most compromised judges in Zambian history. Instead, their aim should always be to preserve the noble ideals of justice, thereby leaving behind a legacy of trust, respect, and equity for generations to come.
HUMAN RIGHTS COMMISSION’S SILENCE ON ALLEGED VIOLATION OF HUMAN RIGHTS WORRIES KATEKA
…..a case in point is pronouncement by Police IG that he will not permit opposition political rallies in the country
Lusaka… Tuesday January 9, 2023 (SMART EAGLES)
New Heritage Party President Chishala Kateka has expressed concern over the silence by the Human Rights Commission over the alleged violation of human rights by some state agents.
Ms Kateka points out that a case in point is the shameless and illegitimate pronouncement by Inspector General of Police Graphael Musamba that he will not permit opposition political rallies in the country till the campaign period for the 2026 presidential and general elections is declared.
Ms Kateka adds that stakeholders have noted with dismay that Zambia Police are now not allowing the holding of press briefings by Opposition Political Parties.
She says a lot of individuals and institutions have rendered their opinions and expressed grave concern over this pronouncement as it is not backed by law.
“The right to freely associate through membership of political parties; the right to freely participate in peaceful assemblies; and the right to thus exercise freedom of expression are all provided for within our Constitution. With the wide mandate the Human Rights Commission has on these matters, why have they chosen this loud silence when one individual holds a whole nation to ransom by choosing to violate the rights of the citizens of Zambia to freely associate, assemble and express themselves?” she questioned.
“The Commission has all the power to either summon Mr Musamba or walk into his office and ORDER him to retract his statement, just as they can take action if he is seen to be adamant about abrogating our Constitution and willfully violating our rights and freedoms. We are fully aware that the Police operate in great fear of and have undoubted respect for the Commission such that when a visit to their offices is in the offing, all illegalities are swept away e.g. through the removal or release from holding cells of all suspects that have been kept beyond the maximum 48 hours, and those that bear evidence of having been tortured during interrogation. The Police do recognize and respect the Constitutional powers of the Commission.”
Ms Kateka said her party is therefore very surprised and disappointed that when the most obvious and unquestionable violations of human rights by some agents of the state are being perpetrated, the Commission is conspicuously silent!
She said one would be excused for believing they either do not exist, or that the violations taking place do not fall within their mandate to thwart.
“At the New Heritage Party, we are aware that the Constitution of the Republic of Zambia, in Article 125, has provided for the establishment of a Human Rights Commission whose very broad mandate, among many other things, is the protection of the human rights of all people within the boundaries of Zambia. The Commission is the single most powerful authority on human rights, with powers to summon or even subpoena ANYONE who may be deemed to be palpable of violating human rights to appear before it. Their responsibilities and powers are outlined in the Human Rights Commission Act,” she added.
“The Commission is the human rights watchdog that should speak, and act, with the utmost authority as it derives the same from the Constitution. It is therefore inexcusable for the Commission to not operate within their mandate and tame this dangerous policeman, Graphael Musamba before he causes chaos in the land. If the Commission cannot act, and we are not talking about them issuing statements but ordering him to reverse these illegal pronouncements, we will conclude that they are willfully complicit to these and other violations of our rights which they are supposed to be religiously protecting.”
Consider other punishments, not just sending offenders to jail – Chilukutu
TO reduce the headache induced on him by the dehumanising congestion situation in prisons, Zambia Correctional Service Commissioner General Fredrick Chilukutu has urged adjudicators to consider alternative punishments for some wrongdoers rather handing everyone custodial sentences.
Chilukutu said the prison population has increased to 25, 372 against the prison correctional holding capacity of 10, 650.
The Prisons Bosd made this call during the ceremonial opening of the Lusaka High Court criminal session for this year themed “Better delivery of justice through improved coordination of Correctional and Judicial Services”.
Chilukutu appealed to the judiciary to make concerted efforts with the Correctional Service to alleviate overcrowding in prisons and correctional centres by prioritising the imposition of non custodial sentences for appropriate offences.
He said adjudicators should give reasonable bail conditions to accused persons facing bailable offences.
Chilukutu said the Judiciary should consider introducing Camp Courts that will provide a speedy disposal of cases.
“Out of that population 5, 101 are remandees, among them pending judgement by the courts of law those with bailable offences, prohibited immigrants and those on continued trial and criminal investigations by arresting agencies,” Chilukutu said.
“This category translates to 20 percent of the total prison population which is critically contributing to overcrowding in the prison and correctional centres. I would like to appeal to the judiciary to adress cases of pending judgements and remandees with bailable offences who are standing at around 1, 500 to help adress congestion.”
He indicated that the Correctional Service has taken President Hakainde Hichilema’s directive in decongesting prisons seriously by expanding open air correctional centres, strengthening collaboration with other players in the criminal justice system.
Chilukutu said on November 9, 2022 the Correctional Service and Ministry of Justice launched the second prison and correctional audit with support from the Germany Federal Ministry Economic Corporation and Development and the European Union under the enabling access to justice civil society participation and transparency program to conduct prison audits.
He said the objective of the audit was to generate practical and evidence based recommendations to adress the changes in the criminal justice system which contribute to overcrowding in correctional centres.
Chilukutu said the Ministry of Home affairs and lnternal Security has prioritised extradition of inmates through bilateral relations.
“In 2022 and 2023 the service has facilitated the transfer of 57 foreign convicted nationals to serve the remainder of their sentences in their countries of origin,” Chilukutu said.
“The service has been served with erratic judgment copies which are a basic requirement for the facilitation for transfer of foreign nationals. The system should be improved to ensure the documents are available on time.”
He added that the Correctional Service will soon introduce electronic inmate monitoring mechanisms for inmates on parole to enhance parole supervision and minimize parolees violation of parole conditions.
“The President has exercised his prerogative of mercy on 7, 225 if we didn’t have this provision in the constitution for the president to exercise mercy, the population in the correctional service should have been standing at over 30, 000,” said Chilukutu.
Session judge Charles Kafunda said the attainment of improved coordination between the Judiciary and Correctional Service will provide effective communication, which will ensure that punishments meted out by the courts of law are correctly implemented by the Correctional Services.
“Ultimately, it is the public which must be the beneficiary by way of enhanced public safety resulting from the reform of offenders and the incarceration of those who cannot be reformed,” judge Kafunda said.
He said fuandamental rights of individuals ought to be safeguarded and in the absence of effective cooperation with the Correctional Service they risk being compromised.
“One critical aspect that demands our immediate attention is the flow of cases in matters where accused persons are unable to meet bail conditions or are not eligible for bail and hence remanded for trial. The risk of losing track of the duration of remandees should be a cause for concern for all levels of courts and criminal justice system actors,” judge Kafunda said.
He advised his colleagues that the challenges faced by the judiciary should not be a deterrent to the provision of decent services.
And High Court judge in charge Charles Zulu said the optimal utilization of correctional services can help in achieving an effective case management system in courts with criminal matters.
“Inmates management system inherently imposes a duty of accountability on adjudicators to take stock of their criminal cases and where there are lapses you (ZCS) remain dependable stake holders to help us ascertain the status quo,” said judge Zulu.
“We (Judiciary) will harness beneficial results for the inmates.”
Taiwan sounded an alarm for the whole island because a Chinese satellite flew over its southern airspace just days before an important election for a new president.
People who use mobile phones on the island received a message telling them to “be careful and stay safe”.
The “presidential alert” made people nervous before important elections on Saturday.
China says that Taiwan belongs to them and has been accused of trying to influence the vote.
The island with 23 million people governs itself and is a very important point of conflict between China and the US in Asia. Experts believe that the elections will determine how the relationship between Beijing and Washington will develop.
The satellite was sent into space from the Xichang Satellite Launch Centre in China’s Sichuan province at 3:03p. mlocal time, according to Taiwan’s defense ministry. Around the same time as the alert, China’s CCTV said a satellite called Einstein Probe had been launched and it was a “complete success. “
Taiwan’s foreign minister Joseph Wu said that launching a satellite over Taiwanese airspace so close to the election is a risky and suspicious activity. Reuters news agency reported this.
Mr Wu said that when a rocket flies in the sky, some of its parts might fall in our area. He said this at a news conference when the warning was sent.
“Our national alert centre will issue this alert for that reason. “”It happened again. “
Taiwan’s defense ministry is keeping an eye on the path of the satellite so they can be ready to deal with it. The satellite was very high up when it passed over Taiwan, the ministry said.
Taiwanese news says that this is the first time the government has sent out an alert like this to the whole island.
Eric Chu, the leader of Taiwan’s main opposing party Kuomintang (KMT), said that the Democratic Progressive Party’s (DPP) government is scaring people, especially by using the word “missile” in their warning. The message said: “[Air raid alert] Missilesare flying over Taiwan’s airspace, be careful. “
This is the first time I heard that sending a satellite into space can cause such a warning. Everyone was really surprised and thought it was a missile, but it was actually a satellite. “I believe the National Defense Ministry is trying to fool the public by sending out this alert,” he said.
Taiwan’s defense ministry said sorry for giving the wrong information about a missile in a message to mobile phones.
The Einstein Probe is a project that involves the European Space Agency, the Chinese Academy of Sciences, and the Max Planck Institute for Extraterrestrial Physics.
The satellite will watch for special things happening in space,like twinkling fireworks, to learn more about the violent and hidden parts of the universe, China’s Xinhua news agency said on Tuesday.
In December, news in Taiwan said that Chinese rockets had flown over the island. A report from Focus Taiwan on December 10th said that a rocket launched from Xichang flew over southwestern Taiwan in outer space.
CHAOS ABOUT TO ERUPT: Congo’s Foreigner Military Intelligence Chief Among Tshisekedi’s Operatives Ordering Arrest Of Katumbi
An outbreak of violence has been predicted in the Democratic Republic of Congo following the move by the ruling government and army to place the popular opposition leader under house arrest.
Opposition Ensemble Pour la Republique party leader Moïse Katumbi has had his private residence in Kashobwe village of Haut-Katanga Province surrounded by heavily armed army soldiers and ordered that he does not leave his property.
Military Detection of Unpatriotic Activities (DEMIAP) chief General Christian Ndaywel, a Belgian, has ordered the arrest of Katumbi in a move to neutralize the former Katanga Province Governor.
With the legitimacy of fraudster President Fèlix Tshisekedi’s re-election in huge doubt after an election marred with fraudulent irregularities, General Ndaywel has been tasked with the responsibility of ensuring the popular opposition candidate does not carry out a suspected rebellion in the Great Katanga region.
Katumbi earlier had his flight permit to flyout of Lubumbashi revoked by the Civil Aviation Authority and the noose continues to tighten for the opposition leader whose private properties have been placed under surveillance by DEMIAP, the military security as well as the police.
The move has been predicted to be an act of provocation of the Congolese population as well as new opposition political-military coalition Congo River Alliance leader Corneille Nangaa.
Nangaa, the former Independent Electoral Commission (CENI) President, has returned to the DRC after going into exile and has already warned of his planned move to oust Tshisekedi.
Already, DEMIAP chief General Ndaywel carried out the assassination of Katumbi’s party spokesperson and former Transport Minister Cherubin Okende who was killed in July, 2023 in an act performed to silence opposition.
General Ndaywel has been the subject of a complaint filed in Belgium since November 7, 2023 under his Belgian nationality.
Known to be a hawk of the Tshisekedi regime, General Ndaywel had initially distinguished himself on May 30, 2023, in the kidnapping and sequestration of Katumbi’s special and political advisor, Salomon Kalonda Della.
Detained for more than 7 months, Salomon Kalonda is currently held in a military prison and deprived of access to healthcare abroad despite his poor state of health.
General Ndaywel has had a background of complaints of “war crimes including intentional homicide and torture” filed against him before the Belgian courts but that does not seem to have curbed the ardor of the head of military intelligence of the FARDC who is also involved in the kidnapping and sequestration of several Congolese civilians detained in the DEMIAP dungeons.- https://drcnewstoday.com/chaos-about-to-erupt-congos-foreigner-military-intelligence-chief-has-ordered-arrest-of-katumbi/
The leaders of the Ethiopian army and the self-declared Republic of Somaliland are talking about working together militarily. People are worried about a deal that could let Ethiopia have a naval base on the Gulf of Aden.
On January 1st, both sides agreed to let Ethiopia use the sea for trade and military purposes.
Somalia said it was a mean thing to do.
It thinks that Somaliland belongs to it and promised to protect its control.
Somaliland used to be controlled by Britain. In 1991, it broke away from Somalia. But other countries do not officially recognize it as its own country.
Ethiopia’s military leader Birhanu Jula met with Somaliland’s military leader Nuh Ismael Tani to talk about working together. The meeting took place on Monday in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia.
Somaliland and Ethiopia signed an agreement to let Ethiopia use part of Somaliland’s coast for a naval base.
Somaliland has agreed that in return, Ethiopia will acknowledge it as an independent country in the future.
Ethiopia has not said yes or no about this. Instead, they are thinking about it and will decide later about whether to support Somaliland’s effort to be recognized.
Somalia thinks the MoU is an attack on its land. On Sunday, President Hassan Sheikh Mohamud told people to get ready to defend the country.
The African Union and the US are trying to reduce tensions.
Somalia’s friends, such as Egypt and Turkey, have promised to help Somalia.
Ethiopian and Somaliland soldiers met in Addis Ababa. At the same time, Mr Mohamud was in Eritrea talking with Isaias Afwerki in Asmara.
The official statements did not directly talk about Ethiopia’s agreement with Somaliland, but it is probably that they discussed the matter.
Eritrea said the two leaders agreed to work together with patience and a positive attitude, while not reacting to provocative things.
On Monday, President Mohamud’s office said the two leaders will talk about things that will help both of them.
France’s Prime Minister Élisabeth Borne will no longer be working as the Prime Minister after being in the position for less than two years.
She quit her job at the same time as President Emmanuel Macron is likely to change his top team before the upcoming European elections.
Mr Macron said that Ms. Borne has been very brave, dedicated, and committed in her job.
We don’t know who will be chosen to take her place yet.
Ms Borne will stay in her job until a new prime minister is in charge, according to the Élysée Palace.
She was the second woman to be the leader of France and served for a longer time than Édith Cresson, who was also a prime minister under François Mitterrand from 1991-92.
In recent weeks, there have been many plans to change the government as Mr Macron tries to become more popular before the June election. This is also happening because France will be hosting the Olympic Games this year.
He has three years left as president. Commentators say he needs to make big changes to improve his government’s success after several protests and laws that were not approved.
The government lost an important vote on immigration rules in December, which was seen as a crisis.
The law was finally approved after making some changes to please conservative groups. However, Macron’s party will still have a tough competition in the upcoming European election.
Ms Borne leaving might start big changes, and some important people in the government might take her place.
The 34-year-old education minister Gabriel Attal is the top candidate for the job. He will be the youngest prime minister of France and the first to openly say he is gay.
The armed forces minister Sebastien Lecornu, who is 37 years old, and ex-agriculture minister Julien Denormandie are being considered as potential options for the job.
A new prime minister will not be announced until Tuesday, according to a spokesperson for the Élysée Palace who spoke to the BBC.
The leader of France is supposed to handle the government’s daily tasks and lead the Council of Ministers.
In 2022, Mr. Macron’s party didn’t have enough votes in parliament, so the new prime minister will have a hard time making the President’s ideas into laws.
The new prime minister will be the fourth person to be in charge since Mr. Macron became president in 2017.
Tiger Woods and Nike have decided to stop working together after being partners for over 27 years.
The famous golfer has been using the brand’s products and equipment since he started playing professionally in 1996.
Woods said on social media that the days have been great and full of wonderful moments and memories. There are so many that it would take a long time to name them all.
Nike said they were proud to work with “one of the best athletes in the world“.
Woods was 20 years old when he signed a five-year contract with Nike for $40 million in 1996.
The deal was very successful and made a lot of money. Woods was really good at golf for more than ten years and is now the second best male golfer, only three wins behind Jack Nicklaus.
Woods became one of the most famous athletes in the world and signed many deals with Nike, including a 10-year contract worth $200 million.
Tim Derdenger, a teacher at Carnegie Mellon’s business school, said that the partnership between Woods and Nike was good for both of them.
In 2013, a professor studied the effect of Tiger Woods using Nike golf balls instead of his old ones on Nike’s sales. Woods started using Nike balls in 2000.
Prof Derdenger said that Nike paid Woods $200 million to be their sponsor for 10 years. The research found that Nike made back 60% of that money through sales of their golf balls in the US.
He said that when Woods started playing golf professionally in 1996, Nike wasn’t very well-known in the golf industry. But they became very successful when they started selling golf equipment with Woods.
“Who better to introduce this amazing young golfer and launch their golf and apparel brand for Nike. He has been a big part of the game for the past 25 years,” said Prof Derdenger.
Nike’s way of doing things is to find really talented athletes and make them the face of their brand in order to sell more Nike stuff. And they still do it today.
Woods came back to playing in November last year after being injured for seven months. He said on social media that he was lucky to have worked with Nike for almost thirty years.
Nike stood by Woods throughout his career, even when there were tough times, like when there was a scandal about his personal life in 2009, and he admitted to cheating on his wife.
Big companies like Gillette, Accenture, and AT&T stopped working with Woods. Nike said they were still supporting him.
On Tuesday, Woods said thank you to the people who work with him and other athletes. He also thanked Phil Knight, who helped start Nike. Woods said Knight has a lot of passion and good ideas.
Nike told the BBC that they were thankful to have been a part of Woods’ career.
“During our time working together, we have seen how Tiger changed the game of golf and opened up opportunities for all sports,” the statement said.
We don’t know why Nike and Woods are not working together anymore, but a professor thinks it will make Nike look bad. He also said that Nike’s golf division has had a hard time for the past five to seven years.
In 2016, the company decided to stop selling golf clubs, bags, and balls because they were not selling well. Instead, they started focusing on selling golf shoes and clothes. They also made a deal to sponsor professional golfer Rory McIlroy.
However, Prof Derdenger doesn’t think McIIroy is as influential as Woods in promoting and selling products, despite McIIroy’s popularity.
Without Michael Jordan and Woods, Nike would not be as successful as it is today.
“Those two athletes are closely linked with Nike and the success of Nike. ”
In the last few years, Woods has been using TaylorMade clubs, but he switched to Bridgestone balls which was probably easier for him because Bridgestone used to make golf balls for Nike. That’s what Prof Derdenger thinks.
What comes after this.
In January, golfers and their sponsors often agree on new contracts.
Woods stopped people from asking about his future by saying: “People will wonder if there is more to come. ” Yes, there will definitely be another part of the story.
He said to his fans, “I’ll see you in LA. ” That’s where Woods will be hosting the Genesis Invitational next month.
Woods has not been able to compete much since he hurt his leg in a car accident in 2021. In December, he said he would only compete in one event per month in 2024 because of his ankle surgery. But he still thinks he can win on the PGA Tour.
Prof Derdenger said that Tiger Woods does not need to create his own line of products. He is already a well-known enough brand on his own.
“Even though Michael Jordan stopped playing basketball 20 years ago, people are still purchasing his shoes. “
A date for public bidding was set, and media companies in Africa like DSTV, Bien, and Canal were invited to bid for the CAF TV rights.
In the bidding war that ensued, one unknown New World TV based in Togo, a TV station that came as an underdog to the bidding war and outbidded DSTV and Canal World by offering to pay CAF.
A staggering amount of $80 million for 3 years, and the money will be paid upfront.
Interesting
CAF has never had it this good.
$80 million for just TV sponsorship of African football.
Something that DSTV used to pay a token in the past for
An elated and excited CAF president, waxing lyrically, said
This ‘is the biggest investment by a pan-African broadcaster in CAF’s history.’
And here is another interesting mix.
The promoters of New World TV were smart to partner with a bank owned by the CAF president.
The name of the bank is Sanlam, and they are the bankers for this new Wiz kid in town.
Just last year, New World TV won the right to broadcast World Cup matches to French-speaking countries.
Guess the bank that arranged the loan that New Worked TV used to pay FIFA.
Sanlam Bank, so this relationship with the CAF president made it easier for the man to sanction New World TV as the winner of the bidding war over DSTV.
The deal with CAF gives New World TV rights for both free-to-air and paid TV in most of Africa.
It covers 13 competitions, including the 2023 and 2025 AFCONs, and is reportedly worth around $80 million.
On the surface, this is a bold new step—an African broadcaster broadcasting the continent’s premier competitions.
Typically, major rights such as these go to big, internationally owned corporations, such as Canal+, BeIn, or South African-based Supersport.
HH personal farm programme took National focus from fighting cholera
It is curious that President Hakainde Hichilema is now reported to have cut short his holiday in Southern Province.
We are forced to ask whether his holiday has been cut or he has, in fact, concluded his programme.
The President also seems to have made his decision shortly after one opposition party leader posted a message asking what he was still engaged in personal work at his farm while the numbers of Zambians dying of cholera are on the increase.
If we were President Hichilema’s handlers we would have ensured whatever he was doing personally did not receive the kind of image building coverage that virtually all the government-aligned media accorded him.
For days, they have filled printed and online media outlets with President and his wife inspecting, vaccinating cattle, picking wild vegetable delicacies and other activities, taking away the country’s vital focus from the struggle by the Minjstry of Health to control the spread of cholera.
If the President felt his family programme was more important than his personal close involvement in the fight against cholera, his handlers should at least have blacked out his daily public relations coverage.
The number new cases of cholera and deaths recorded daily have been increasing. In the last 24 hours, 27 Zambians died of cholera.
Is it only now that PreIdent Hichilema has been moved to cut short his holiday? Why?
Others argue that the President can not be faulted because he was within the country. It is true he was within the country but it was better for citizens to be seeing Healh Minister Sylvia Masebo running around arranging Beds for Patients than seeing the President addressing people.
During the Hurrican Katrina in the United States of America ( USA) President George Bush was within the country but took long to act. The area which was ravaged by the Hurricane is predominantly black. Bush faced a Fall out in this area.
It is important therefore that Presidential Handlers understand the sensitivity of such actions because they unnecessarily bring contempt and ridicule to the Presidency. These small, small things can cause serious misrepresentation.
It should not be mandatory that everything the President is doing should be fed to the public. Praise Singers Twapapata. What we have stated here is just an illustration of what we would do if we were Presidential Handlers in the midst of a serious Cholera Outbreak
I have talked about this issue for years now, so forgive my strong language today! It is a Drinking Water Safety Problem and it has nothing to do with Silvia Masebo or her Ministry. There is enough blame to go around including the ordinary people, Town Clerks, and their Councillors who are not just reckless but notorious when it comes to land allocation. Danny Pule built his Church on an aquifer and Diego Cassli together with people from UNZA ransacked the other section on East Park. Do you realize that all these tall buildings coming up around Lusaka are built on land that was designed to accommodate less than 6 people? At most, if someone combines two or 4 plots in Rhodes Park or Kabulonga the maximum allowable is 24 people. That means the sewer load on the existing manholes and pipes should have the corresponding expansion otherwise it is just another hazard waiting to happen.
Some of the shallow wells that are contaminated are strangely close to the Lusaka Water Works that are drawing water from the ground!! Contamination can easily be traced but trust me, it will never lead you to Silvia Masebo and her Ministry. I had my disagreement with her when she was at local government but not here. How do you have the Ministry of Water that is divorced from the Local Government? You use water to clean up the city that is why your water bill comes with a component of sewer charge because the two go together.
There is a need to change the law to allow any professional who wants to become a councilor to do so without quitting their job. We have left the council chambers to be operated by the unemployed cadres or anyone who promises plots to his supporters. People tried to blame Garry Nkmobo for removing street vendors but imagine what would have happened had they still been allowed to continue.
Right now as I write this, a professional street vendor is building a structure right next to an Air Valve on Lake Road/Joe Kapilikisha opposite the former Horizon School near Hilltop Hospital. The reason he or she can do that is because the council and their local councilors allowed those Car Washers to build permanent structures and the next person thought it was fairly legal. Could have been political pressure but that is beside the point.
I went to Lusaka Water Last month to ask why they would allow such things to happen and I was told that some of these people have approved documents from the City Council. Who approves a plot on the road? I say road because the service lane is part of the road infrastructure. When you see an Air Valve it means there is a larger pipe under it usually transporting water from a treatment plant into a reservoir. It takes the air out of the pipe when water is being pumped to prevent airlocks for smooth flow and to prevent surge pressure or shock in pipes that may lead to burst pipes. The drinking water safety issue comes in when there are repair works on the pipe or in case of power failure at the pumping station. When this happens, Lusaka Water has to drain the water from these pipes through a washout valve for them to repair them and what happens this time is a reverse flow of water creates negative pressure and all the gunk coming from all those structures built on top of those pipes will be sucked into the pipes.
When power comes back or they finish repairs and Lusaka water starts pumping, all that gunk will be pumped into people’s houses and storage tanks at each and every building and this basically means unknowingly pumping contaminated water and poisoning the city because of the behaviour of a few arrogant and reckless human beings who want to build where they like. I have not even touched the issue of fire fighting because some of these spaces you are building on were left clear for Fire Hydrants are meant to clean the pipes through flashing. They are also left open enough for a fire truck to draw water easily so that they put out the fire. You constantly laugh at firefighters showing up to a scene without water not knowing that you have encroached on their tapping points. Next time, you will be crying about one of these newly constructed multi-story buildings catching fire and the Fire Brigades coming with empty trucks because they will have nowhere to draw water from.
There is a reason why there was a Paramilitary police office at every Water Treatment Plant during the Rhodesian wars under Kaunda. This is because if a bad person injected strong poison at the water works, the entire city could get killed if the poisoned water got pumped into households. The huge spaces left around water treatment plants are there as recharge zones to stop people from contaminating the water at the source with their activities. In Bemba, they even say you don’t muddy the waters at source but in town, people see nothing wrong with that. The encroachment of people on land for the Water Works near Chawama has nothing to do with the Ministry of Health. UTH Boreholes where we are demanding that people get treated get its water from land donated by Kenneth Kaunda and people have started encroaching on it already. What do you think will happen in the future?
The people have encroached on Water Works land and built houses with pit latrines and soakaways discharging all sorts of gunk into the ground where Lusaka Water gets its water from. This is not just a Lusaka Problem but an urban problem because in Copperbelt, the same thing is happening. Who do you think has poisoned our people? Chitalu Chilufya without any shame is talking about the Cholera vaccine! So you want the people to continue drinking dirty water as long as they take your vaccine wherever you will get that from? Why not propose a proper Drinking Water Safety Plan? This is not me making this up but it is the UN -United Nations that proposed this from as far back as the 80s. You can google it for yourself.
Silvia Masebo is being heaped with a problem that has been created by the people and their leaders over the years throughout Zambia and if you do not look at the real reason why this is happening, you will continue scapegoating people for years to come. The problem is Water and Sanitation and the lack of respect for land left for the purpose of service delivery.
Dear Citizens, I know most of you are aware that I resigned from Active POLITICS. I’m into Farming now and Goat rearing. In a long time I have been watching all the Political happenings from a Distance. But today, as a PILGRIM, as one of the Earth’s Guardian,I have this to say to Politicians especially Bally and the New Dawn members.
Your Exellency Mr President Hakainde Hichilema. Kindly find your time out of your busy schedule to go through this article.
Mr President.
… I know very well Sir how people especially your Members are too too scared of you that they’ll pretend all is well even when they can see how bad things are.
… I know very well how your Supporters praise and sacrifice to support you even when they know you are missing it.
… I know very well how you have instilled fear in Citizens by lessening the works of the Police by using institutions like D.E.C and A.C.C.Citizens are now back in the Kaunda error where even just to own a Television Set was a crime. Now this is happening in a free economy today.
… I know very well how you are managing to make people fail to make any form of money by calling them Corrupt. All Zambians should have cheap houses, cheap cars and should just NOT have nice things but only you Mr President and Your Colleagues.
… Your Exellency, I know how today in Zambia you are dimmed to be the only Innocent and none Corrupt Man in the entire Country.
… Mr President, I know how you praise yourself as the Smartest Man in Zambia today. You are the only President that has done extremely well more than any other since Independence.
… I know how you have condemned, and still condemn your predecessor’s Government and how you call them thieves making your major Topic in almost all your Press Briefings.
Note: But Why am I writing this article?
1… Is to let you know that I’m a breed that calls a Spade a Spade.
2… I don’t choose who to advise and who Not to.
3… If former President E.C.L listened to articles like this one, he should have been President even today. ..I’m therefore giving you and your team a very small advise which you are free to take or ignore just like I did to E.C.L and his Boys bene Kaizar Zulu .
YOUR EXELLENCY:
…I’ve lost Elections with MMD before in 2011.
…I’ve lost Elections with Upnd before in 2015 and 2016.
…I’ve lost Elections with the PF in 2021. I Know how Elections are lost. I so far have enough Political knowledge on how to manage Power and also on how to lose it.
Your Exellency.
Your Praise Singers and those surrounding you at STATE HOUSE are misleading you. Sir,No one remains on Top for ever. Power is always Temporal. Even the late K.K,Sadam,Mugabe,Gaddafi plus many other Powerful Leaders on the Planet time came that they had to be out of Power. You too Mr President will be out of Power some day.
Focus on the Economy and Citizens for now Mr President. Citizens voted you to Govern them and NOT reminding them of the PF whom they [Citizens] removed from Power. It is not you that removed the PF and E.C.L out of Power but the same people you keep telling them of PF. These people know PF far more than you do Mr President. They are the same people who Put P.F in Power and are the Same who removed it from Power. Your Exellency, in case your people are Not telling you the truth. You found a 25 kg of Mealie Meal at K140 and today it’s at K320. You found a bag of Fertilizer at K250 and today it’s at K850. You Found Petrol at K16 per litre and today it’s at K30 per litre twice the Price you found it in a Space of only 3 years. These are serious issues that you should be addressing each time you seat with your people.
Mr President.[BALLY]
In Case you are Not aware. You have devided your own political Party into 2. .. The New Dawn members and the Upnd members. Of these two groups, the most important members are the Upnd members whom you have neglected. They suffered for the Party and Your rise to being Republican President came through their endless efforts. Most of these people you have brought close to yourself were Not there when you were being blocked by Jerabos on the Copper Belt coming out of the Radio Station through the Roof.
Bradford, Chellah Tukuta Photography,even just Clayson Hamasaka,he’s my brother but he was Not there on the ground during the Struggle. We all know what he was doing.
We are not saying that you should chase them NO! But remember those Branch,Ward,District,Constituency,Provincial and National Upnd members that fought for the Victory you have today. Today,people will be lying to you if they tell you that Your Party Upnd is intact on the ground. What is Intact is the A.C.C and D.E.C.
Your Exellency, get to your Secretariet or to State House and Adress all your Constituency Chairmen, District and Provincial Chairmen. Hear them out. Listen to them, don’t threaten them. Just hear them freely then you’ll know what the ground is like. Today, Your Exellency, your biggest Opposition is NOT Lungu and his PF.
Your Biggest Opposition are the Zambian Citizens you Promised Mealie Meal at K50,Fuel at K10,Dollar getting to K5 just after Swearing in. Your Opposition are the Upnd members whom you are rejecting that they are on their own when they get into Problems today, Upnd members whom when you were arrested for 127 days stood by your side and never said that you were on your own but each time you were appearing they came to Court in numbers and gave Pressure to the Authorities. Some died along the way like Clance Zulu plus many others. These Upnd members gave Pressure to the Authorities that they were forced to have you out of Prison looking at the pressure they were receiving from these poor people.
Today, Your Ministers are seen in Dubais with their Families when these poor members that suffered for them are still terribly suffering. Mr President, No one will ever do an open article like this because they fear Authorities. I don’t fear Authorities but i respect them. The God I worship he has Not put a Spirit of fear that’s why I’m free to advise anyone regardless their Political Status. I will always advise the Leaders each time they abandone their Citizens.
Finally:
I know very well that I’ll be insulted by some New Dawn members because they are eating at the expense of Upnd members. People like Kabuswe who has been PF has continued eating even today as a New Dawn and NOT Upnd. He has even abandoned the very same people that welcomed him to the Banquet.
Your Exellency… Take this article as your own and find a way of bettering the Lives of Citizens and Upnd members. STOP threatening Your people and Citizens. All Zambians are Zambians regardless their Political Affiliations.
Habour No grudge and God will be happy with you. Vengeance is mine Says the Lord. If I could, I would have told you direct but the fact that You are at STATE HOUSE and I leave in Kanyama,it’s not possible.
HARARE – A group of Israeli businessmen allegedly swindled of US$3 million by Prophetic Healing and Deliverance Ministries (PHD) church leader Prophet Walter Magaya has warned that it will take the man of the cloth to international courts if they don’t get justice from local courts.
The matter is before the High Court of Zimbabwe under Case No. HCH621/23 and the Israelis are being represented by Doug Chanawa of Chanawa Law Chambers Investments and Commercial Law.
Magaya allegedly received the amount through Ronny Levi Musan, the Consul General of Zimbabwe in Israeli appointed by President Emmerson Mnangagwa.
Musan expressed shock at the scam although he says he still maintains confidence in President Mnangagwa and in Zimbabwe as a safe investment destination.
The agreement between Magaya and a group of Israeli partners which was chaired by Musan was signed on May 12, 2022 in the presence of their Israeli lawyer Akiva Rosner and Everson Chatambudza of Rubaya & Chatambudza Legal Practitioners who is Magaya’s lawyer.
The businessmen said in a statement released to The Mirror that it was unheard of in Israel that a man of God could swindle people in the name of God.
They also complained against swindlers using pictures taken with President Mnangagwa to deceive investors.
“We hope that we will get justice in the courts in Zimbabwe; justice that will give other foreign investor confidence that their money is safe and justice that will act as deterrence to would be swindlers.
“If we do not receive justice, we have all the power and financial capability to sue Magaya in international courts. We will not give up on our honour and on our money in anyway,” read the statement released by lawyer Rosner in Israel.
Magaya allegedly received US$3 million to start a joint venture gold mining project with the Israelis in Zimbabwe.
He however, disappeared immediately after receiving the money and did not fulfil any of the contractual obligations agreed upon. It is alleged that no major mining activity has started at the mine and no operating permits have been obtained.
The statement said apart from taking Magaya to Court, they now want him arrested.
“Magaya is lying to investors hiding behind the President’s pictures. It’s time for people to realise that not everyone who takes a picture with the President has the integrity of the President.
“We love the President, respect and appreciate him,” said the statement.
This is not the first time that investors with close links to Zanu PF or President Mnangagwa had duped international investors. Two years ago, Botswana-based investors were sent from pillar to post after Ragin Kassim of Bradfix Incorporated (Pvt) LTD in Masvingo allegedly duped them of US$795 000.
They tried every Police station, every court and every lawyer but the intrinsic network of the swindlers appeared too complicated for them to unravel.
The investors made an urgent chamber application under case number HC39-21, seeking interim relief for all mining operations at Golden Hill Mine Mashava to be suspended, barred or prohibited.
The applicants had turned a once dormant mine into a thriving business enterprise and injected US$795 000 into the said mining project.
The matter was heard by Justice Neville Wamambo who removed it from the roll on April 23, 2021 on the basis that it was not urgent. It is understood that the frustrated investors left the country and never came back.
The Isaralis’ statement said that the investors were exposed to Zimbabwe through the “excellent work” of Musan. They said without him they would never have set foot in Zimbabwe.
Magaya entered the picture following his many years of acquaintance with the Ambassador.
“He introduced us to his church, his hotel and his plan to develop a gold mine with a community participation programme. He used his connection to the Ambassador to get money from us. Without the Ambassador he would not have got a cent from us,” read the statement.
The statement further alleges that Magaya tried to give US$500 000 of the amount to the Ambassador who refused it. The Ambassador allegedly informed the investors about the unusual offer.
According to the agreement, Magaya was going to hold 57% shares and the Israelis 43% with a personal guarantee of Magaya on the principal investment that all the funds would be used to develop the mine.
The statement said Magaya unashamedly used his Church, God’s name and the trust that the Ambassador had in him to swindle the investors of their money.
“It turns out to us that there are people who use God’s house and name for greed and fraud and they still dare to call themselves God’s people,” read the statement.
According to the agreement, Magaya was supposed to use his properties including a hotel in Waterfalls as security but the stories changed after he received the money. He did not even comply with the terms for the transfer of the mine’s proprietary rights, alleges the statement.
“As soon as he got what he wanted, his lawyers stopped communicating with us,” reads the statement.
Ironically, Mnangagwa recently officially opened a state of the art stadium built by Magaya.
Musan said he was marketing Zimbabwe in Israeli on the basis that Israeli is the Biblical Promised land to the people of Israeli and Zimbabwe is the promised land for investment and economic prosperity for the whole world.
He said dishonest businessman were denting the country’s image and compromising the country’s chances of getting more investment.
Magaya’s spokesperson, Admire Mango, could not be reached for comment as his mobile went unanswered.
Former US President Donald Trump on Saturday suggested the American Civil War could have been avoided through “negotiation,” arguing that the fight to end slavery in the US was ultimately unnecessary and that Abraham Lincoln should have done more to avoid bloodshed.
The former president’s comments come a little over a week before the caucuses in Iowa, where he has a significant lead in the polls over his closest rivals, Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis and former South Carolina Gov. Nikki Haley.
“So many mistakes were made. See, there was something I think could have been negotiated, to be honest with you,” Trump said at a campaign event in Newton, Iowa. “I think you could have negotiated that. All the people died. So many people died.”
It’s not the first time Trump has tried to compare himself to Abraham Lincoln.
In 2020 Trump held a press conference virtually in the lap of Lincoln’s statute at the Lincoln Memorial to connect to his fellow “wartime President.” Trump even lobbied for a place next to Lincoln on Mount Rushmore. Now, the “Party of Lincoln” just finished its convention with the virtual deification of Trump as the “new Lincoln.”
The American Civil War has emerged as an unlikely talking point on the GOP primary trail. More than a week before Trump’s comments, Haley answered a question about the cause of the Civil War without mentioning slavery – the driving force behind the war. She has since backtracked.
According to American historians, there were a series of efforts before the Civil War began to cut a deal to save the Union. But the future of slavery in the South could not be settled through compromise and the nation went to war with itself. Trump did not say how he would have prevented the conflict, which he also called “so horrible but so fascinating.”
“It was, I don’t know, it was just different,” Trump said of the war. “I just find it – I’m so attracted to seeing it.”
After describing the wounds soldiers sustained on the battlefield, Trump said, “There’s nothing nice about it,” adding the war was a “tough one for our country.”
He also suggested that Lincoln would not have the same historical cachet “if he negotiated it.”
Former Republican lawmaker Rep. Liz Chene, who Trump helped unseat after she voted to impeach him, slammed Trump’s take on social media, asking how Republicans who have endorsed the former president can “possibly defend this?”
“Which part of the Civil War ‘could have been negotiated’? The slavery part? The secession part? Whether Lincoln should have preserved the Union?” Cheney wrote. “Question for members of the GOP – the party of Lincoln – who have endorsed Donald Trump: How can you possibly defend this?”
Farmers in Germany are blocking roads with tractors to protest against cuts in subsidies. Around 200 tractors are parked near Berlin’s Brandenburg Gate.
There are also traffic jams in Baden-Württemberg, North Rhine-Westphalia, Saxony and Bavaria.
The government reduced subsidies to save money because a court said their budget plan was against the law.
The cuts didn’t work and now people are worried that the argument will make the far right more popular.
In response to the blockades, Interior Minister Nancy Faeser said that blocking people from going to work, school, or to see a doctor will make people upset and cause arguments.
The farmers are very angry, and their group, DBV, wants the government to stop all the plans to reduce subsidies for farmers.
“Joachim Rukwied, the head of DBV, said that if things don’t change, there won’t be enough good food available. ”
Ministers are rushing to fix a money problem of tens of billions of euros after a big decision in November by Germany‘s highest court. The court said the government’s budget was not allowed.
However, later ideas to stop giving farmers tax breaks for agricultural diesel have been weakened. Now, the change will happen gradually over time. The government decided not to get rid of special treatment in vehicle tax.
However, farmers are still angry and a group of protesters stopped the Vice Chancellor Robert Habeck from getting off a ferry last week.
The protest caused a lot of people to be angry and worried that political discussions in Germany are becoming more extreme.
But the other leader of the far right Alternative for Germany (AfD) party, Alice Weidel, said that the incident proved that the vice chancellor was not being respected anymore.
“He would rather escape on a ferry than talk,” she wrote.
The AfD is getting more popular in the polls and has been scoring higher than the three parties in power.
The group in charge of Germany is having a lot of arguments and it’s causing tension.
Important local elections will happen later this year in three eastern states – Saxony, Brandenburg and Thuringia. These elections will show how the people in these areas are feeling.
Train drivers are going to go on strike, which will create more problems for the government.
The GDL union in Germany has announced that its members will go on strike starting this Wednesday because they are in a disagreement with the railway company Deutsche Bahn over their wages.
As the tractors arrive in central Berlin, it is a bad start to the year for Chancellor Scholz’s government. It also comes with predictions of slow economic growth for a country that is often called the EU’s “powerhouse”.
Stringent measures are being enforced at the Beitbrige border post as thousands of Zimbabweans return to South Africa after the festive season.
The Border Management Authority (BMA) said that the measures being adopted would ensure Zimbabweans returning to South Africa had the proper documentation.
It said by by Thursday nearly 40 000 people had entered the country’s borders, with numbers expected to increase on Friday. More than 4 000 people had also been intercepted while attempting to illegally enter without proper documentation.
BMA commissioner Mike Masiapato said that the key focus was on documentation.
“We are making sure that everybody who enters here for processing purposes are people who already have the correct documentation to enter South Africa. We have to use that approach so that we don’t have people in South Africa who don’t have documentation. It’s the people without proper documentation that are involved in criminal activities.”
Masiapato added that the measures were in place for both vehicle and pedestrian traffic coming through the border post.
“We also have deployments on the borderline where we have border guards deployed strategically in areas and also members of the SANDF so we don’t get people entering South Africa illegally.”
Masiapato said that during the festive season, more than 400 000 people were processed leaving South Africa into Zimbabwe.
“We are starting the return phase. We are also keeping an eye on the smuggling of illicit cigarettes.”
Masiapato said they managed to ensure an increased deployment of officials at the Beitbridge border following increased attempts by travellers trying to enter South Africa illegally.
He added the Beitbridge border as well as Lebombo and Maseru border posts were the most congested as foreign nationals return to South Africa.
“We have led operations at Beitbridge and we had three key roadblocks 3km from Beitbridge and another one 10km from that border. The last one was 30km from Beitbridge. All of those road blocks are intended to intercept anyone who might try to cross into the country illegally.
“To this point, we can indicate that the deployments are on the ground according to our deployment plan as we continue the operations,” Masiapato said.
Members of the Patriotic Alliance (PA), including party leaders Gayton McKenzie and Kenny Kunene, have taken it upon themselves to prevent returning Zimbabweans from entering South Africa through illegal means.
On videos on social media, members of the party were seen telling those using the Limpopo River as a port of entry to turn back. In one of the videos, a man in cycling gear and carrying a bicycle is seen being turned back.
McKenzie said it has become easy for undocumented immigrants to cross into South Africa undetected.
“I am proud of members of the PA for giving up holiday time to come and stop them from entering our country illegally,” McKenzie said on X (formerly Twitter).
Party deputy president Kunene told the SABC that the country needed to tighten its border management as the borders have become porous.
“People are coming in as they please because the country has porous borders and our government is not doing anything about it. We need at least 8000 soldiers to marshal our borders and our government is failing us,” he said.
Nicholas Mabhena, executive director of Africa Diaspora Forum, said it was important for people to have the relevant documentation.
“We have been indicating that when you get to the border you must have all your documents.
“For instance if you are on permanent residency, you can’t go to the border carrying only your passport. You need to carry your ID and relevant certificate.
“If you are on a Zimbabwe exemption permit, your permit will be in your old passport. You have to carry your two passports. We have had instances where people forget to carry their old passports and then they have to wait three days at the border as they won’t be allowed to enter South Africa.”
Meanwhile, the national transport department expressed their major concern over festive season driver behaviour, which has resulted in the loss of many lives.
“The main cause of crashes has also been the moving traffic violations by drivers, such as overtaking on the barrier line, overspeeding beyond speed limits and not wearing seat belts.
“It can therefore not be overemphasised that the rules of the road must be adhered to at all times. With road users making their way back, they must also ensure that they rest after every two hours or 200kms of driving because fatigue is also another silent killer,” said transport department spokesperson Collen Msibi.
He said the overall statistics will be released by Transport Minister Sindisiwe Chikunga later this month once they were done with the consolidation of numbers from the provinces and municipalities.
ZIMBABWE’s steady decline on The Human Freedom Index (HFI) has seen it slide to being worse than coup-ridden Niger and Gabon while taking the trophy for being the worst in Southern Africa. The report is co-published by the Cato Institute which is an American Liberitarian think tank, the Fraser Institute which is a libertarian-conservative Canadian public policy think tank, and the Liberales Institut at the Friedrich Naumann Foundation for Freedom a German foundation for liberal politics, related to the Free Democratic Party.
The 2023 results, shared recently, reveal that Zimbabwe is still part of the world’s least free countries category, a position which it shares with ‘all-weather friends’ Belarus and China.
With a score of 4.86 out of 10, Zimbabwe is just 1.9 points from bottom-placed Syria.
The HFI measures an absence of coercive constraints using 86 indicators that include the rule of law, security, freedom of expression, association, information, economy, and operations of a country’s judiciary.
“Human freedom deteriorated severely in the wake of the pandemic. Most areas of freedom fell, including significant declines in the rule of law; freedom of movement, expression, and association and assembly; and freedom to trade,” reads the report.
“The data shows that there is an unequal distribution of freedom in the world, with only 13.8 percent of the world’s population living in the top quartile of jurisdictions in the HFI and 37.6 percent living in the bottom quartile.
“Out of 10 regions, those with the highest levels of freedom are North America (Canada and the United States), Western Europe, and Oceania.
“The lowest levels are in the Middle East and North Africa, sub-Saharan Africa, and South Asia.”
Although Zimbabwe’s worst rating was between 2004 and 2008, the country has been steeply declining since 2016, a year before the November coup that got President Emmerson Mnangagwa into office.
It has consistently been below the regional average.
Zimbabwe’s already poor human rights record has not been helped by incidences of alleged state-sponsored abductions of opposition political figures, shutting of democratic spaces, and questionable handling of elections.
Several opposition Citizens Coalition for Change (CCC) Councillors and legislators have either been arrested, abducted, or jailed since August’s general elections.
A two-decade-long economic crisis that has devalued wages and impoverished millions also contributed to the poor rating.
Adds the report: “The HFI also finds a strong relationship between human freedom and democracy. The findings in the HFI suggest that freedom plays an important role in human well-being, and they offer opportunities for further research into the complex ways in which freedom influences and can be influenced by political regimes, economic development, and the whole range of indicators of human well-being.”
In light of recent events, where the legacy of our dearly departed Senior Prophet TB Joshua and the Synagogue, Church Of All Nations (SCOAN), has come under scrutiny through a BBC falsely staged and cunningly edited video so-called “investigative” report, we find it imperative to address the concerns raised with love, clarity, and the unwavering commitment to truth.
While Prophet TB Joshua and his ministry are no strangers to controversy, one might have anticipated that the transition to glory of the Prophet would bring an end to the onslaught of calumny and false allegations against his person. However, it appears that this marks the “commencement of another new beginning” — a formidable, world-institutional assault on the cherished legacy of our esteemed father, Senior Prophet TB Joshua.
The report, although touted as investigative, appears to be a continuation of the ongoing spiritual battle against the Church of Christ. Even as we mourn the passing of our beloved Prophet, it seems that forces opposed to the Gospel seek to tarnish the cherished legacy he leaves behind.
In the face of these challenges, we are compelled by our commitment to truth and transparency to provide a comprehensive response, addressing specific allegations presented in the report.
Addressing Allegations of Physical Violence and Torture: We categorically repudiate the allegations of physical violence and torture brought forth in the report. The SCOAN has consistently been a sanctuary of safety and refuge for those in distress. The absence of concrete evidence to substantiate these claims challenges the accuracy of the allegations, and SCOAN stand firm in prioritizing the well-being of their members and those that comes there for refuge.
Refuting Allegations of Sexual Assault and Forced Abortions: The report includes spurious accounts of sexual assault and forced abortions allegedly committed by our Father, TB Joshua. We vehemently reject these claims, understanding that similar accusations in the past were later recanted by individuals who admitted to being coerced and financially induced to make such allegations. We condemn all forms of sexual violence and call for a thorough examination of these allegations to ascertain their accuracy.
Clarification on Miracle Healings and Faith Practices: Allegations of manipulation of miracle healings have been raised. We maintain that the faith healings in the SCOAN adhere to the highest ethical standards. The countless documented instances of healing, supported by medical reports, attest to the authenticity of these miracles. We welcome independent investigations to validate the genuineness of these manifestations of God’s grace.
Prioritizing the Safety and Well-being of Former Members: Acknowledging the spiritual battle at hand, we extend love and forgiveness to those behind the fabricated report. Understanding the influence of dark forces, we do not see them as enemies but as individuals misguided by hatred. The SCOAN doors remain open to all seeking deliverance, and we invite those with grievances to come forward. Our commitment to justice and freedom remains unwavering, as we believe in the redemptive power of God’s love.
We stand dedicated to truth, justice, and transparency. The principles of compassion, integrity, and faith that Prophet TB Joshua and the SCOAN have exemplified over the years continue to guide us. We are convinced that, in the face of adversity, the gates of hell shall not prevail against the Church of God.
May the love and grace of our Lord Jesus Christ abound in our hearts, guiding us through these challenging times. Amen!!
The organisation of the elections were widely criticised as chaotic. By JOHN WESSELS (AFP) The Democratic Republic of Congo’s election authority has annulled recent election results for three government ministers and four provincial governors, citing fraud and voter intimidation.
The electoral commission Ceni stated late on Friday it had cancelled all ballots cast for 82 election candidates in the central African nation.
Three sitting government ministers are on the list, as well as four provincial governors — including the governor of the capital province Kinshasa.
The announcement comes after an election last month that was marred by bureaucratic chaos, and which the Congolese political opposition has rejected.
On December 20, impoverished but mineral-rich DRC held simultaneous votes to choose the president, lawmakers for national and provincial assemblies, and local councillors.
Disarray and massive delays pushed the electoral commission Ceni to extend the vote by one day. Some observers noted that voting continued in some remote areas until December 27.
On Friday, Ceni annulled the results of several prominent political figures due to fraud, acts of vandalism, voter intimidation and illegal possession of voting machines.
Antoinette Kipulu Kabenga, minister for vocational training, featured on the annulled list, as did regional-integration minister Didier Mazenga Mukanzu and Nana Manuanina Kihimba, a minister in the president’s office.
Four provincial governors also featured on the list, including the head of Kinshasa province, Gentiny Ngobila.
A Ceni spokesperson was not immediately available for comment.
The electoral commission has only released results from the presidential election so far.
Incumbent President Felix Tshisekedi won the presidential race by a landslide 73 percent of the votes, according to provisional results, which the Constitutional Court is expected to confirm this month.
Leading Congolese opposition politicians have rejected the election as a sham, however, citing irregularities and delays, and called for a re-run.
Church leaders in the country, who deployed their own election observers, noted numerous cases of irregularities and urged an investigation, but fell short of declaring the election fraudulent.
The UK Government is grappling with internal divisions over its endorsement of Emmerson Mnangagwa’s military coup that ousted Zimbabwe’s long-standing leader, Robert Mugabe.
Mugabe was removed by the military in November 2017, accusing his deputy, Mnangagwa, of conspiring against him.
According to Grace Mugabe, the late president’s wife, Mnangagwa had a history of plotting against Mugabe dating back to 1980.
In 2004, Mnangagwa, in collaboration with the former Information Minister, Jonathan Moyo, initiated an anti-Mugabe campaign later to be known as the Tsholotsho declaration, expressing his desire to become Zanu PF’s first secretary, challenging Mugabe’s continued leadership.
On his social media platforms, a UK-based Zimbabwean journalist, Stanley Kwenda, highlighted an excerpt from former British Africa Minister Rory Stewart’s book, “Politics on the Edge,” revealing the UK government’s miscalculation in trusting Mnangagwa as a reformist.
Kwenda paraphrased Stewart’s account of a crisis meeting at King Charles Street, where the former UK Ambassador to Zimbabwe, Catriona Laing, suggested embracing Mnangagwa without imposing conditions. Stewart proposed three conditions:
Fair elections for the opposition. Cleaning up the voters’ roll. Granting Zimbabwean expatriates the right to vote. The ambassador dismissed these conditions, asserting that the opposition couldn’t win elections and Mnangagwa would not allow expatriates to vote.
Commenting on British regrets, Garikai Chaunza, a Rhodes University Journalism PhD fellow, criticised the intelligence lapse at 10 Downing Street. Chaunza argued that the British underestimated Zanu PF, perceiving it solely as Mugabe’s project. The assumption that Mnangagwa would inherit Mugabe’s authority proved wrong.
“They needed to realise that Zanu PF isn’t just one person but a militarised, institutionalised mafia organisation, a misunderstanding also shared by the opposition since it began in 1999”, he noted.
Chaunza said the British wrongly believed Mnangagwa would dismantle the military infrastructure and make decisions favouring them.
” Zanu PF is controlled by a click benefitting from actions like land seizures and economic exploitation, this organised group fiercely protects its acquired wealth. They would never allow someone they don’t trust to lead the country, fearing the loss of their ill-gotten properties and potential imprisonment. The junta removed Mugabe because the elderly leader was undermining their influence, with many facing the threat of imprisonment. It’s reassuring that the British have now understood the true nature of Zanu PF,” Chaunza further noted.
However, warnings were given at the start of the coup month about the grave mistake of supporting Mnangagwa https://africanarguments.org/2017/11/zimbabwe-the-uks-misguided-role-in-the-rise-and-fall-of-mnangagwa/.
Sudan’s paramilitary chief spent the first months of the country’s war in the shadows. Now he has emerged to embrace civilian politicians and tour African capitals in a bid for international legitimacy, analysts say.
Mohamed Hamdan Daglo — commonly known as Hemeti — commands the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces (RSF) which the United States accused of ethnic cleansing and crimes against humanity in Sudan’s Darfur region during its war with the army.
The RSF has been fighting the Sudanese Armed Forces, led by Abdel Fattah al-Burhan, since April last year in the northeast African country where the US has also accused the army of war crimes.
Daglo had remained largely out of sight while Burhan emerged from a siege of military headquarters to make overseas trips and address the UN General Assembly as Sudan’s de facto leader.
But since late December Daglo has been on his first wartime trip abroad, meeting government leaders in Uganda, Djibouti, Ethiopia, Kenya, South Africa and Rwanda.
It is part of a strategy analysts see as likely linked to the United Arab Emirates.
Daglo is “in the ascendancy,” said veteran Sudan expert Alex de Waal.
[Image: During a demonstration in Khartoum on November 13, 2021, a Sudanese anti-coup protester carries a portrait of Prime Minister Abdalla Hamdok, who was under house arrest. By – AFPFile]
During a demonstration in Khartoum on November 13, 2021, a Sudanese anti-coup protester carries a portrait of Prime Minister Abdalla Hamdok, who was under house arrest. By – (AFP/File) So is the war’s death toll, estimated conservatively at more than 12,190.
Clement Deshayes, a Sudan specialist at Sorbonne University in Paris, said Daglo had been “welcomed with the attributes of a head of state” on his visits.
The most important, said Deshayes, came in Addis Ababa where Daglo met with and embraced Sudan’s former prime minister Abdalla Hamdok, who was placed under house arrest after an October 2021 coup orchestrated by Burhan and Daglo, then allies.
Their putsch derailed Sudan’s fragile transition to democracy.
After a brief reinstatement, Hamdok resigned in January 2022 and fled for Abu Dhabi. He remains Sudan’s foremost civilian politician and has reemerged as part of a new coalition known as Taqadum.
‘Kiss the ring’
In embracing Taqadum, Daglo was making “the single most important move that he could to gain legitimacy,” said Andreas Krieg, a security studies expert at King’s College London.
Although Burhan’s administration continues to put out statements as the Sudanese government, the RSF controls the streets of the capital Khartoum, nearly all of the western Darfur region, and in December pressed deeper into Al-Jazira state, shattering one of the country’s few remaining sanctuaries.
The United Nations says the violence is “imperiling regional stability”, having unleashed the world’s largest displacement crisis that has uprooted more than seven million people, including around 1.4 million who have crossed into neighbouring countries.
Daglo, a former camel and sheep trader, rose to prominence under Sudan’s former strongman Omar al-Bashir who unleashed Janjaweed militias after an ethnic minority rebellion began in Darfur in 2003. The militia campaign led to war crimes charges against Bashir and others.
When security personnel attacked pro-democracy demonstrators in Khartoum in June 2019 after Bashir’s overthrow, it was the RSF, descendants of the Janjaweed, that witnesses said were at the forefront of the bloodshed, killing at least 128 people.
[Image: Displaced Sudanese queue for aid in Gedaref, in the country’s east, after paramilitaries pressed further into Al-Jazira state. By – AFPFile]
Displaced Sudanese queue for aid in Gedaref, in the country’s east, after paramilitaries pressed further into Al-Jazira state. By – (AFP/File) However, Daglo’s embrace of a civilian partner offers the chance to gain international legitimacy, particular from the West, analysts told AFP.
That, said Deshayes, was “despite the ethnic cleansing in Darfur (and) the systematic rape and looting in central Sudan and Darfur”.
Kholood Khair, a Sudanese analyst, said rumours of a linkup between Hamdok and Daglo had been “rife even before the war” and were “kicked into overdrive” by the Addis meeting.
In videos of the Addis event, Hamdok and his fellow politicians line up to shake hands with Daglo, who wears a sharp suit instead of military fatigues.
“The optics of the meeting were that Hemeti is in charge,” Khair told AFP, with Hemeti “holding court and them coming to him, taking turns to say hello and kiss the ring.”
On social media, pro-democracy activists accused Hamdok of betraying civilians for political gain.
The army isolated
Hamdok has said he hopes for “an urgent meeting” with Burhan.
However, Cameron Hudson, an Africa expert at the Center for Strategic and International Studies, said the general was now “highly unlikely” to agree.
Burhan reacted with fury to Daglo’s tour, accusing the host nations of “partnering in the murder of the Sudanese people”.
That “is precisely the intent,” Hudson told AFP.
“It will make the army look opposed to peace and paint Hemeti as the more reasonable and responsible party,” he said.
Multiple analysts, including Krieg and Hudson, told AFP the strategy was probably not Daglo’s alone and likely originated with the United Arab Emirates.
[Image: Sudanese Army soldiers in southern Khartoum on May 6, 2023, around a month into the war in which paramilitaries gained control of the capital’s streets. By – AFP]
Sudanese Army soldiers in southern Khartoum on May 6, 2023, around a month into the war in which paramilitaries gained control of the capital’s streets. By – (AFP) The UAE, analysts say, already supplies the RSF with munitions via neighbouring African countries — a charge the UAE has denied.
Krieg said the UAE was “engineering a narrative whereby Hemeti comes out as a potential political leader”, with “Taqadum as a legitimate civilian umbrella for the RSF as the security sector”.
The army has grown “more and more isolated,” said Deshayes, with its military defeats pushing even close ally Egypt away and Daglo now able to “start (peace) negotiations from a place of strength”.
But at the same time, Burhan’s alienation “will only confuse and complicate the situation and create more time and space for fighting to continue,” said Hudson.
France is set to build eight new nuclear plants on top of six already announced, the energy minister has said, arguing more reactors are needed to hit carbon reduction targets.
A draft law set to be presented soon recognises that “we will need nuclear power beyond the six first European Pressurised Reactors” (EPRs) announced by President Emmanuel Macron in early 2022, Agnes Pannier-Runacher told Sunday’s edition of weekly newspaper Tribune Dimanche.
The bill will include a further eight plants that had until now been discussed as an “option” by the government, Pannier-Runacher said.
By contrast, the text would not include any targets for renewable energy generation by 2030, remaining “technologically neutral”, she added.
France is on the lower end of greenhouse gas emissions in the 27-nation European Union, at around 4.7 tonnes per capita in 2020, according to data from Climate Watch.
This is in part thanks to its fleet of 57 nuclear reactors built from the 1970s – some of which required long and costly repairs in recent years. Rocky start
“The historic nuclear fleet will not last forever,” Pannier-Runacher told the Tribune Dimanche.
France aims to reduce fossil fuels’ share of energy use from more than 60 percent now to 40 percent in 2035, which would require “further construction equivalent to 13 gigawatts” of energy from 2026, Pannier-Runacher said.
That matches “the power of eight EPR reactors, without setting in stone any particular technology”, the minister added.
Pannier-Runacher suggested that construction of even more than 14 nuclear reactors could be raised in talks with lawmakers once the energy bill reaches parliament.
State energy firm EDF’s next-generation EPR has had a rocky start.
Podcast: France’s nuclear renaissance in a post-atomic age
Three are online, one in Finland and two in China, after suffering massive construction delays and cost overruns that have also beset projects in Britain and France.
The first EPR in France, at Flamanville in Normandy, is set to come online for testing in mid-2024, EDF said last month – 17 years after construction started and at a cost of €12.7 billion ($13.9 billion), around four times the initial budget of €3.3 billion.
Thierry Henry has admitted he struggled with depression during his playing career.
The France and Arsenal legend told Steven Bartlett in a new interview that he spent his pandemic isolation in Montreal ‘crying every day’ and linked his issues back to a traumatic childhood.
Henry, 46, who currently coaches the France under-21 team, said his father Antoine constantly criticised his performances on the football pitch as a child.
Despite winning the 1998 World Cup with France and becoming Arsenal’s all-time leading goalscorer, Henry admits he struggled to find happiness and satisfaction in his accomplishments.
‘Throughout my career, I must have been in depression,’ he told Bartlett’s The Diary Of A CEO show.
‘Did I know it? No. Did I do something about it? Obviously no. But I had adapted in a certain way.
‘I was lying for a very long time because society wasn’t ready to hear what I had to say.’
Henry says he spent his childhood trying to please his father and then his entire playing career trying to please others, comparing it to wearing a ‘cape’.
‘Everything came at once, especially during the pandemic time,’ he said.
‘I knew it before but I was lying to myself. I was making sure those feelings weren’t going too far, I put the ‘cape’ on. But when you’re not a player anymore, you can’t put that ‘cape’ on anymore.
‘We tend to run instead of facing our problems, that is what we do all the time. We try to stay busy, we try to avoid the problem or not think about it.
‘The pandemic happened and I asked ‘why are you running, what are you doing?’ I was isolated and not being able to see my kids for a year was tough. I don’t even need to explain that one.
‘Something like that had to happen to me to understand vulnerability, empathy, crying. Understand that emotions are emotions. Anger is normal but don’t become angry. Jealousy is normal but don’t become jealous.
‘I was crying almost every day for no reason, tears were coming. I don’t know why but maybe they were waiting for a very long time.
‘I don’t know whether that needed to come out. It was weird, but in a good way. There was stuff I couldn’t control and I didn’t try to.
‘You have been told since you’re young, whether at home or in your job, “don’t be that guy, don’t show you’re vulnerable. If you cry, what are they going to think?”
‘I was crying but, technically, it was the young Thierry crying. He was crying for everything he didn’t get.’
Henry recalled a story from when his teenage years when he scored six goals in a 6-0 victory for his junior team and yet his father was still not satisfied.
‘I was 15 and you can already see if someone is good or not good. We won 6-0 and I scored six goals,’ he said.
‘I knew the aura of my dad, I could tell if the man was happy or not.
‘I turned around, I can tell you from any posture whether he was happy or not happy. We arrived in the car, there is silence. I am like, shall I talk or not talk? That was how we were.
‘He said: “Are you happy?” Should I answer? “Yeah”. “Yeah but you shouldn’t be because you missed that goal, missed that cross, whatever.”
‘We arrived at my mum’s house, I’m walking like this [head down] and she asked: “Did you lose?’ It was often like that.”‘
Henry said he had an epiphany when the time came to return to Montreal after he’d spent time with his children once lockdown restrictions had been eased.
It led to him giving up the head coach role with MLS club CF Montreal ahead of the 2021 season.
The Biden administration was not told for days that US Defence Secretary Lloyd Austin had been hospitalised, at least one official has told US media.
Mr Austin, 70, was admitted to the Walter Reed Medical Center on Monday due to complications following surgery.
An official told the BBC’s US partner CBS that the White House was not informed of this until at least Thursday morning.
Mr Austin has accepted responsibility for the lack of communication.
“I recognise I could have done a better job ensuring the public was appropriately informed,” he said in a statement.
“I commit to doing better.”
The defence secretary sits just below the president in the chain of command for the US military.
Mr Austin added that it was “important to say: this was my medical procedure, and I take full responsibility for my decisions about disclosure”.
“I am very glad to be on the mend and look forward to returning to the Pentagon soon.”
He is thought to still be in hospital but a defence department spokesperson quoted by the AFP news agency said he resumed his full duties on Friday.
It is not clear how many of his responsibilities Mr Austin has been able to carry out due to his illness, nor the extent to which Deputy Secretary of Defence Kathleen Hicks stepped in to help.
Officials told CNN that she had periodically taken on his duties during his time in hospital, while she herself was in Puerto Rico on holiday.
Meanwhile, Joe Biden is reported to have had a “warm” conversation with Mr Austin on Saturday.
“The president has full confidence in Secretary Austin. He’s looking forward to him being back at the Pentagon,” one official told AFP.
Republicans are among those to have expressed serious concern over the situation.
“The secretary of defence is the key link in the chain of command between the president and the uniformed military, including the nuclear chain of command, when the weightiest of decisions must be made in minutes,” Senator Tom Cotton in a statement.
“If this report is true, there must be consequences for this shocking breakdown.”
Fellow Senator Roger Wicker said that while he was pleased to hear of Mr Austin’s recovery, “the fact remains that the Department of Defence deliberately withheld the secretary of defence’s medical condition for days. That is unacceptable.”
The Pentagon Press Association, made up of journalists who cover the defence department, also criticised the apparent lack of transparency in a letter to the Pentagon on Friday.
“At a time when there are growing threats to US military service members in the Middle East and the US is playing key national security roles in the wars in Israel and Ukraine, it is particularly critical for the American public to be informed about the health status and decision-making ability of its top defence leader,” it said.
Mr Austin, a retired four-star general, became the first African-American defence secretary in 2020. BBC News
A Nashville husband has been charged with beating his wife to death with a hammer and then burying her body in a hole he hired a worker to dig on the couple’s land, according to police.
Joseph Glynn, 70, was arrested Saturday after he admitted to investigators he killed his wife, Jackie Glynn, 76, on New Year’s Day at their Green Hills, Tennessee home, according to the Metropolitan Nashville Police Department.
The following day, Joseph Glynn allegedly put his wife’s body inside a plastic cargo box before driving her remains about 60 miles to the couple’s other property in DeKalb County to dump her body in a hole previously dug out by contractors.
Joseph Glynn told their children that their mother had left because she was terminally ill, according to police.
Husband admits to killing wife with hammer on New Year day and burying her before lying to kids she left
Suspicious of their father’s account, the children reached out to their mother’s medical provider and were told she was not terminally ill.
Her body was discovered in a freshly covered hole — about six feet wide, ten feet long, and six feet deep — by the DeKalb County Sheriff’s Office on Friday, still inside the cargo box and covered in new roofing shingles and dirt, Fox 17 reported, citing police.
A Silver Alert was issued for the missing wife the same day her body was discovered.
Joseph Glynn had a contractor dig the hole on Dec. 16, claiming it would be used as a burn pit, according to investigators.
The allegedly murderous husband reportedly told detectives he disposed of the hammer he used to kill his wife murder in a community center trash compactor.
Jackie Glynn’s car was also found by police in DeKalb County, with her husband suspected of towing her vehicle in an attempt to hide it.
Joseph Glynn is also accused of selling items belonging to his wife in the days after he murdered her, as well as contacting a realtor to sell their DeKalb County property where he had buried her body, according to Fox 17.
He is currently being held in the Davidson County Jail on a $1,030,000 bond and also faces charges of abuse of a corpse and evidence tampering, according to police.
Husband admits to killing wife with hammer on New Year day and burying her before lying to kids she left
His first scheduled court date is Tuesday morning.
Jackie Glynn was a beloved member of the greater Nashville area who owned and operated the historic wedding venue, the Riverwood Mansion.
Lesli Emmetts, a friend and vendor regularly hired by Jackie Glynn as a photographer at the venue, described her friend as a “tiny woman with Big dreams” in a commemorating Facebook Post.
“Such a sad day with the tragic news of a friend of over 25 years whose life was horrifically taken,” her longtime friend wrote.
“Jackie was a tiny woman with Big dreams, and Bill and I were honored to watch her live, create, build, and curate her dream of having the most amazing wedding venue where Nashville Couples could say I Do.”
In a surprise move, Belgian politician Charles Michel announced on Sunday that he will step down early as European Council president after he runs in the European Parliament elections set for June.
“I’ve decided to stand as a candidate for the European elections in June 2024,” he told Belgian media.
The move is likely to heighten speculation about who will be the next European Union leaders as negotiations begin for a new round of top jobs in November, when Michel’s official mandate runs out.
EU Commission President Ursula von der Leyen of Germany, who like Michel was appointed in 2019, has so far kept quiet on whether she intends to seek a second term.
As Council president, one of Michel’s main tasks has been overseeing EU summits that have become critical to the search for joint responses to crises including the pandemic and Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.
“Four years after starting my term as a European leader, it’s my responsibility to give an account of my work these past years and to propose a project for Europe’s future,” Michel, the 48-year-old former Belgian prime minister, told Belgian media.
He said he would head the list of the liberal Reformist Movement (MR) party, of which he is a former leader, in the European Parliament elections and step down as Council president in July.
“That means I would continue my work as European Council president until being sworn in as an MEP on July 16,” he said.
A Council meeting is scheduled for just after the parliament elections, and “at this moment it will have to decide when my successor will take up the job”, Michel said. Accused of abandoning ship
The move came in for strong criticism, even from his own side of the fence, as it raises questions over who will take over from Michel.
Under EU procedures, the national leader of the country holding the EU’s rotating presidency, would assume the role until the November election.
That would be Hungarian nationalist Viktor Orban, the only EU leader to maintain close ties with the Kremlin following Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.
Michel said he thought the standard procedures could be “changed by a simple majority” vote.
Dutch MEP Sophie in’t Veld, of the liberal centrist Renew Europe party, took to social media and accused him of abandoning ship.
“The captain leaving the ship in the middle of a storm. If that is how little committed you are to the fate of the European Union, then how credible are you as a candidate?” she wrote on X, formerly Twitter.
The parliament elections, which are scheduled to take place between 6 – 9 June across the 27 EU member countries, are to choose 720 deputies in total.
They are expected to prompt fierce horse-trading for the top jobs in the European institutions, including the European Commission and European Council.
