GOVERNMENT SLASHES DOWN DRIVING SCHOOLS REGISTRATION FEES

Lusaka, 25th March, 2022, ZANIS—Government has with immediate effect slashed the Driving Schools registration and accreditation fee by fifty percent in an effort to encourage skills development and job creation among youths.

Technology and Science Minister, Felix Mutati said government recognises the important role played by the private sector in the youth empowerment and job creation agenda and is therefore committed to strengthen the partnerships with the private sector.

Mr. Mutati said the transport and logistics sub sector is one that provides lot of job opportunities for young people and therefore the removal of barriers in this area is a matter of urgency.

He said the registration fee of K9,000 that driving schools pay to TEVETA has been identified as one of the barriers to acquisition of driving skills among youths, which prevents them from benefiting from the Constituency Development Fund skills development provision.

“We have taken a decision that the 9,000 that was being charged to register with Teveta be removed. First you the driving skills company must be registered with RTSA because we want to be assured with safety and other road usage parameters. Once you have registered with RTSA we will give you a discount of 50% and this will be valid up to the end of the year” he said

Mr. Mutati however emphasised that the discount applies on condition that the driving schools are registered with the Road Transport and Safety Agency (RTSA) to ensure safety and compliance.

Meanwhile, Outgoing President of the Driving Schools Association of Zambia, Hope Kumalo has thanked the government for the move, stating that the fee has been unaffordable for many driving schools and a blockage to their growth.

“We really just want to thank you for your very prompt and positive response to our request. Indeed we are beginning to remove our doubts that we have put in place the right government. The thing that drew the young entrepreneurs to the UPND was your promise that your are going to groom and support SMEs and your statement today has shown that your promises were genuine” she said.

The registration fee which was pegged at ZMW 9,000 has been reduced to K4,000 effective from Monday

ZANIS

The United Party for National Development (UPND) Youth Wing has described as timely President Hakainde Hichilema’s request that the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia considers converting Zambia’s loan facility into a grant as the country restructures its debt.

Speaking when he met special envoy of Crown Prince Mohammed Bin Salman of Saudi Arabia Ahmed Kattan, and Ambassador to Zambia, Osamah Krenshi at State House this week, President Hichilema has also stressed the need to relook at issues surrounding fuel and fertilizer deals between the two countries, so that Zambia can access the two commodities from Saudi Arabia in view of the ongoing political tension between Russia and Ukraine.

The Head of State said Zambia and Saudi Arabia enjoy warm relations and already cooperate in areas of health, disaster management, agriculture, fertiliser and energy.

UPND Deputy National Youth Information and Publicity Secretary David Chikwanda has described President Hichilema’s request that the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia considers converting Zambia’s loan facility into a grant as appropriate and wise.

Mr. Chikwanda said Zambia needs a proactive and pragmatic leadership like that of President Hichilema amid economic challenges that have negatively affected the entire global.

He said President Hichilema has proved that he has a vision and a heart for the people of Zambia by engaging Saudi Arabia in the quest to deal with the rising fuel prices.

Mr. Chikwanda said the conflict between Ukraine and Russia is likely to slow down the growth of most world economies and push prices of food up hence the need for countries like Zambia to be proactive.

“We applaud the president’s efforts in forging strategic ties with Saudi Arabia. The entire world is definitely feeling the impact of the conflict in Ukraine which is likely to slow down the growth of most world economies and push prices of food and commodities upwards. Developing countries like Zambia are likely to be affected the most. In times like these, any country needs a proactive and pragmatic leadership like President Hichilema has exhibited so far. The call by President Hichilema to the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia to convert Zambia’s loan facility into a grant is timely and we support the President. It will be extremely difficult for a developing country like Zambia to deal with a debt burden amidst the global challenges resulting from the war in Ukraine,” Mr. Chikwanda stated.

“President Hichilema has proved that he has a vision and a heart for the people by engaging Saudi Arabia in the quest to deal with the rising fuel prices. The world is going through a tough time and this too shall pass but we thank God for the mature, responsible and visionary leadership exhibited by President Hichilema,” he said.

Mr. Chikwanda said the New Dawn Government was on the right path to make Zambia more prosperous.

“With the planned recruitment of 11,200 Health workers, recruitment of 30,000 teachers and ongoing payments to retirees, we definitely expect our political opponents to frustrate this goodwill shown by the government through propaganda, deceit and lies. We appeal to the people of Zambia not to be deceived by jealous political opportunists. We have no doubt that the UPND-led Government will endeavor to fulfill every promise made to the Zambians even under difficult circumstances,” Mr. Chikwanda said.

Mr. Chikwanda further saluted President Hichilema for showing leadership by visiting the Ministry of Health and ensuring that the concerns of the public are addressed on the shortage of medical drugs.

“In conclusion, As UPND youth leadership we sincerely thank President Hichilema for showing leadership by visiting the Ministry of Health and ensuring that the concerns of the public are addressed. It is our prayer that it should not always take the president to resolve issues that can be sorted out by those charged with the authority to do so. Loyalty is very important and those who are not willing to work with the current government must be excused because we are desperate for positive changes in our country. God bless Zambia,” Mr. Chikwanda said.

PF UPROOTED IN WESTERN PROVINCE

…as influential wings ditch the party to join the UPND

UPND Secretary General, Batuke IMENDA has charged that the ruling party is strategically and steadily growing its membership across the country in order to win the 2026 elections big and better.

Mr Imenda was speaking in Lewanika ward of Mongu District at the launch of the Mayoral campaign for elections slated for 14 April 2022 in which the UPND is fielding youthful blood, Nyambe MUYUMBANA.

Over 20 Patriotic Front influential wigs led by Zambia’s former Ambassador to France and Nigeria, Cadman Luhina have ditched the party to join the UPND.

Mr Luhina thanked the UPND leadership for welcoming his team into the beautiful family, as they collectively pledged loyalty to President Hakainde Hichilema and the party.

And UPND Chairperson for elections, Garry NKOMBO said the UPND will bag the mayoral seat by 07:00 hours beause there is strength in numbers.

Some of the PF big wigs who have joined the ruling party are as per attached list:-

LIST OF NEW MEMBERS JOINED THE RULING UPND TODAY IN MONGU.

1. AMBASSADOR CADMAN LUHILA *ZAMBIA’s FORMER AMBASSADOR TO FRANCE AND NIGERIA*.

2. HON. RICHARD S MWAPELA *FORMER WESTERN PROVINCE MINISTER*

3. HON PONISO NJEULU *FORMER WESTERN PROVINCE MINISTER*

4. HON. PATRICIA MULASIKWANDA *FORMER GENDER MINISTER*

5. MR MWANGALA LYOMBA *FORMER PERMANENT SECRETARY, SOUTHERN AND WESTERN PROVINCE*

6. NANCY MBOLOLWA SUBULWA *FORMER MP SIOMA*

7. MRS FRIDAH LUHILA *FORMER DC KALABO DISTRICT, FORMER FRA CEO*

8. MR KAMWI MAKOKWA *FORMER DC KALABO*

9. MR HONZY MANG’WATO *FORMER DC MONGU*

10. MS LYDIA MUTELO *FORMER COUNCILLOR MAMBOLOMOKA*

11. MRS ALBERTINA MWANAMWALYE *FORMER DC NKEYEMA*

12. MR SAM MWAPELA *2021 LIUWA PARLIAMENTARY CANDIDATE ON DP*

13. MR KENNETH NYAMBE *2021 KALABO CENTRAL PARLIAMENTARY CANDIDATE ON DP*

14. MR KWIBISA LUBINDA *2021 NALALO PARLIAMENTARY CANDIDATE ON DP*

15. MR NASH KWALELA *2021 MONGU CENTRAL PARLIAMENTARY CANDIDATE ON PF*

16. MR LUBASI INAMBAO *FORMER DC KAOMA RETIRED DAO*

17. MR DOMINIC SIMUCHINGA *FORMER DC SHANGOMBO MMD*

18. MR BRIAN KANDELA *DISTRICT CHAIRMAN SHANGOMBO FOR PF*

19. MR SHAFT MUKUBESA *2021 SESHEKE CENTRAL PF CANDIDATE*

20. MR CHINYAMA *FORMER DC KAOMA LUKULU MMD*

(C) THE FALCON NEWS

Mbinji Mufalo – Of Sishuwa Sishuwa & “Zambia’s democracy is still under attack”

By Mbinji Mufalo

It is always a fresher breath of air, when once governance activists like this relic about to be shelved in the Archeological section of the Livingstone Museum read an article about our obtaining governance that ‘says it, as it is’. Good thing though is. Relics, are patient because they most often have nothing to do other than watch the wind. Thence. They will always have, ‘but’ buts.

And the ‘buts’ are.

1. “This move is widely seen as targeted at three private newspapers, since state-owned publications face no consequences for failure to meet their tax obligations”.

– This argument needs evidencing. It is assumptive.

2. “Fourth, the UPND has emulated its predecessor’s legacy of denying coverage to opposition parties in the state-run media. In opposition, Hichilema
pledged to stop this culture by transforming the state media into genuine public platforms, establishing legal safeguards for editorial independence, and reviewing legislation that undermine their governance structures and leave them vulnerable to political interference. In power, however, it has been business as usual”.

– Statistical evidence of this trend should have been provided. Oops! I forget I am a Geomatician. This is political analyses. Will let this one stand.

3. “On 15 March 2022, for instance, the Deputy Speaker of the National Assembly banned 30 opposition lawmakers from parliament for 30 days. This followed their peaceful protest in November 2021, when the PF MPs noted that the finance minister had referenced constitutional provisions that no longer exist and asked for these anomalies to be corrected..

The ongoing suspension of 39 of the PF’s 51 MPs suggests an organised effort to weaken the main opposition or intimidate it into submission. It also means there is effectively no opposition party in the National Assembly currently.”

– This can only be valid, if Sishuwa’s argument is that the House Standing Orders used were misapplied.

4. “When Shebby Chilekwa, a PF member and suspect in a murder investigation, recently complained that he had been tortured by the police while in detention and showed his scars, not even major human rights bodies expressed outrage…”

– Couldn’t the fact that the torture images circulated where from Uganda, and not Zambia (Chilekwa’s) have minimised this concern? Shouldn’t Sishuwa have also raised this likely disinformation?

5. “Weakening Civil Society

The first is that many of the critical voices from academia, civil society and the church who spoke truth to power under Lungu have failed to remain impartial since Hichilema’s election. Previously neutral voices have become part of the choir of praise or gone silent..”

– Any examples of this impartiality? Sishuwa, really, has not provided substantive evidence as to how the weakening of Civil Society is the case. For, it is not all individuals in Civil Society that have been appointed into the public service.

6. “The first is the lack of example. Despite being elected a platform of anti-corruption, accountability and transparency, Hichilema has so far failed to disclose the value of his assets. Along with Lungu, he is the only major party nominee and president to do so”.

– He did under the provisions of our electoral Law. What we really should be arguing is a call for him to do so outside the “walls of the Law”. Thence, to argue that he “has so far failed” is otiose.

End thought.
Fact is. The article is a damn good needed watchdog treatise. Mwanange, Sishuwa Sishuwa, keep the fire burning. And I believe, we will always be their to use our nostrils as bellows.

Kozo.

—–
Reference

By NewsMakers

OPPOSITION Patriots for Economic Progress (PeP) leader Sean Tembo says it was wrong for President Hakainde Hichilema to beg Saudi Arabia to forgo the $13 million loan which it gave to Zambia.

He says it was morally bankrupt for the President to beg for such given that Saudi Arabia is already doing so much for Zambia.

Tembo says President Hichilema lacks proper diplomatic etiquette and must be ashamed of himself.

“Republican President, Mr. Hakainde Hichilema met a Special Envoy of the King of Saudi Arabia at State House. The President took advantage of this occasion to publicly appeal to the King to convert the $13 million loan that we owe the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, into a grant.”

He further said “If the President possessed sound diplomatic skills, he was supposed to utilize the occasion of the visit by the King’s Special Envoy to thank the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia for all the good deeds that they have done for this country, and further offering what we can do for them.”

“It is my humble submission that the President behaved in a morally bankrupt manner when he publicly requested the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia to cancel our $13 million loan.”

Tembo says:

“If we are going to sustain good relations with countries that like us, our foreign policy must seek to add some kind of value to such countries. For instance, during the many visits by former Heads of State to the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, in which we solicited for cheaper oil, the Kingdom did express a need which they have and which they hoped we could fulfill. That was to export some goats to them, possibly because they are largely a desert, and their goats do not have enough pasture. But up until now, we have not exported a single goat to them. But they proceeded to donate a $145 million hospital, which will be the biggest hospital in Zambia once completed. And when the King’s Special Envoy visits Hichilema at State House, instead of hosting a huge state banquet for him, as a way of saying thank you and also as a way of apologizing for our failure to send any goats up there, he is met with a public request from the President for more freebies in the form of debt forgiveness. And also, the fact that the debt forgiveness request was made publicly instead of privately, smacks of blackmail by the President. As things stand, the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia will be compelled to forgive our $13 million debt even if they have no capacity to do so. Just because our morally bankrupt President blackmailed them to do so. That is shameful diplomacy by the President.”

DISCUSSING ALTERNATIVE ECONOMIC SOLUTIONS WITH MR. SEAN TEMBO- HIS SOLUTIONS ARE BUILT ON WRONG ASSUMPTIONS

By Alexander Nkosi

A few days ago, Mr. Sean Tembo shared an article where he argued that by making mineral royalties tax deductible, government was losing USD5 billion per year. While I also want us to get the best from our mines, I find his alternative policy proposals incorrect and inconsistent. Let me explain this with fine details, making reference to correct figures and demonstrating how Mr. Tembo’s USD5 billion allegation contradicts his own alternative budget.

Let me start by highlighting 2021 and 2022 domestic revenue and total tax revenue so that readers understand how these two compare with the USD 5 billion (K90 billion) Mr Tembo is alleging we are losing as a result of re-introducing tax deductibility of mineral royalties when calculating CIT. Total domestic revenue in 2021 budget was K66 billion and total tax revenue was K53 billion. In 2022 budget, total domestic revenue is K98.9 billion and total tax revenue is K77.9 billion.

Government made mineral royalties tax deductible resulting in K3.2 billion revenue loss as indicated by the Minister of Finance. However, in his submission, Mr. Tembo indicated that the minister said the revenue loss from this measure was USD2.6 billion (K46.8 billion). This is not correct, he misquoted the Minister of Finance. He further indicated that even the USD2.6 billion was an understatement as according to his calculations the correct figure was USD 5 billion (K90 billion). This is more than the total tax revenue for 2022. It is is also way more than domestic revenue for 2021.

During his budget speech, the minister said, “Madam Speaker, to attract investment and boost production in the mining sector, I propose to re-introduce the deductibility of
mineral royalty for corporate income tax assessment purposes. This measure is in
line with international best practice. The revenue loss from this measure is projected
at K3.2 billion.” In Mr. Tembo’s own alternative budget, he put mineral royalty tax at K17.5 billion and CIT at K29.5 billion. These two combined give us K47 billion, so why is he now arguing that making mineral royalties tax deductible led to a USD5 billion revenue loss when his own alternative budget where this was reversed targeted to collect USD47 billion from mineral royalties and CIT?

The challenge is while some people are opposed to the IMF deal, they have not come forward with any practical solutions on how to deal with our huge debt and attract both local and foreign investments. They further wrongly assume that pursuing an IMF deal means abandoning local solutions. The reality is that we need breathing space to realistically pursue our local solutions and this is where IMF deal comes in.

Thank you.

GEARS Executive Director, MacDonald Chipenzi has called on Zambia to harmonize section 7 and 12 of the Electoral Process Act if the nation is to have uninterrupted voter registration.

Recently, the Electoral Commission of Zambia (ECZ) announced the postponement of the continuous voter registration among other prominent reasons were due to the forthcoming by-elections in Luwingu, Monze and Mongu.

Mr. Chipenzi said there is need to seriously reflect on how section 12 on the suspension of voter registration of the Electoral Process Act sits with the overall goal of section 7 on continuous voter registration of the same Act.

The GEARS Executive Director said the fact that ECZ has wholesomely suspended voter registration exercise in all the 10 districts it wished to start with perhaps and purposively using the provisions of section 12, evidence enough to revisit and harmonise the cited provisions.

Mr. Chipenzi said this today in a Press statement made available to the Zambia News and information Services in Chikankata District in Southern Province.

“In this regard, the ECZ must also learn to anchor its decisions on law when communicating its position to the public to avoid unnecessary misunderstandings and also help informed Debates,” Mr. said.

He said in the recent past sets of communication to the public among them suspension of the voter registration, ECZ never anchored its decision on any law which is extremely sad.

Mr. Chipenzi noted that this is raising questions as to what law ECZ was using to drag on the start of the continuous voter registration from April to June across the country.

“Scanning through the provisions of the law governing elections, it may be guessed that ECZ invoked section 12 (1) which talks about the suspension of the voter registration for purposes of holding an election,” Mr. Chipenzi stated.

Mr. Chipenzi noted that, nonetheless, Section 12(2), talks about the suspension of voter registration in district where the by-election is being held, in this case, Mongu, Monze and Luwingu districts.

“Succinctly put, Section 12(1) states that the Commission may suspend the registration of voters whenever an election is due for the purposes of the conduct of the election, Mr. Chipenzi noted.

He said subsection 2 further stating that the Commission shall, where it prescribes the polling day for a by-election, immediately suspend the registration of voters in the district in which the by-election is to take place until the by-election is concluded.

“The question which remains is, what would happen if the country, again, will have another set of by-elections by June and the trend continues up to 2026?”, he questioned.

Mr. Chipenzi wondered whether the ECZ will continue to suspend and drag on the start of the voter registration exercise on continuous basis based on the by-elections reasons.

“It is our recommendation that section 12 on suspension of voter registration and section 7 on continuous voter registration be harmonized and mechanisms be put in place for voter registration not be curtailed due to the holding of the by-elections,” Mr. Chipenzi said.

He said that if the status remains the same, Zambia, in general, and ECZ, in particular, will never embark on any continuous voter registration exercise anytime soon.

REMOVAL OF GHOST WORKERS SHOULD BE DONE IN EVERY MINISTRY- KANEMA

…..As he call on the UPND New Dawn Government to make sure that those who have been benefiting from the Ghost workers to pay back to the people of Zambia.

26/03/2022

UPND North Western Province Youth Chairperson Mr Bruce kanema has called on the UPND New Dawn Government to strictly and seriously conduct the head count of civil servants in all the Government Ministries.

He stated that in almost all the ministries have such Heads of Departments who are benefiting due to Ghost workers thereby disadvantanging job opportunities for the Youths in the country.

He indicated that it is on public domain that PF constitution allowed all public institutions to be headed by their political party cadres who came with such evil plans of employment freeze but they decided to create ghost workers even in positions of those who died, resigned and retired without replacing them.

He stated that with the revelation by the minister of Health , it’s clear that most of Government payroll is full of ghost workers but the question is, who withdraws such huge amounts of money on behalf of these ghosts?

Mr Kanema has commended His Exellence president HH for taking up a strong stance on the fight against corruption and that the fight against corruption Should not just be heard but seen to be done and time is now.

He has urged all Civil servants to familiarise themselves with the ruling party the UPND manifesto if they are to perform well in line with president Hakainde Hichilema’s vision and deliver to the expectations of the people of Zambia.

He stated that the situation of having ghost workers should never be tolerated because it leads to low productivity and inefficiency and creating unemployment to the young people when alot of offices are vacant wanting People to take up the jobs.

He has stated that the Government must get lead of these ghost workers in order to create more job opportunities for the young people in the country and better Services will be rendered to the public.

Mr Kanema was reacting to the revelation by the Minister of Health Hon Sylvia Masebo who told parliament yesterday in her ministerial statement that there were alot of the ghost workers in her Ministry.

(C) THE FALCON

PRIVATIZATION CREATED OLIGARCHS LIKE HH-AZWELL BANDA

HH, corruption and capitalism: our hypocritical hope of a real fight against corruption is fading fast

By Azwell Banda

More than six months after the August 2021 elections, there is no real progress in the fight against corruption.

It is very hard to continue to sustain the belief that the police and investigating agencies are busy at work unearthing evidence which can stand in a court of law. Rather too soon, the PF leaders suspected of having stolen and corruptly enriched themselves are fast finding their voices, and starting to openly fight back. Now they are even talking about getting back into government before 2026!

The PF are mocking HH to stop begging thieves and corrupt people to return stollen and corruptly acquired wealth. The PF are right; we all want the police, DEC and the ACC to find the evidence, arrest, charge, prosecute and let the courts convict the suspected criminals for the crimes the majority of Zambians are certain many PF leaders have committed. We are every day fed stories by the media of PF leaders being invited to report to the ACC, DEC and the police; and all sorts of things then follow these invitations, but no real progress in the anticipated persecutions and convictions of PF suspects. It is fast becoming hard to avoid the impression that in fact the PF leaders are largely being persecuted.

The PF leaders, ever the crafty noise makers, are making a mockery of the actions of the police, DEC and ACC. Why shouldn’t they, especially as the searches at the homes of PF leaders and call outs by the police, DEC and ACC have not yielded anything worthy singing home about, yet?

The confidence and arrogance of the PF as a result of government hypocritical efforts to bring to book suspected PF criminals has made the acting president of the PF publicly announce that the PF have their people, which is true, deeply imbedded in government who are reporting to them about the goings on in government. Why should such PF informers not be in the police, DEC, ACC, judiciary, and all government departments, and in all provinces and districts? HH has replaced heads of government departments and agencies but done nothing to transform and overhaul the layers beneath these heads, in which corruption and stealing actually happens.

What exactly is happening? Not finding and catching the big thieves and the corrupt has dire consequences for HH and the UPND. Zambians are fast being fed stories of corruption taking place in the UPND government – add this to the fast-rising cost of living and doing business – soon there will be no difference between the PF and the UPND, apart from the cosmetic improvements in the political climate in the country.

Here is our problem; when we overthrew Kenneth David Kaunda in 1991, the MMD and Fredrick Chiluba opted for a vicious and backward reversion of Zambia to a “neo-liberal capitalist state” tutored to, and controlled by the International Monetary Fund (IMF), World Bank and Western European donors. We never respected, let alone recognise the fact that the IMF, World Bank and Western donors were also interested in wiping out all trace of political and economic independence the Kaunda era had created and built for Zambia. And so, we passively watched as Chiluba dismantled the state-owned businesses and collapsed government into a thoroughly corrupt tender issuing organisation.

Within no time, employment collapsed dangerously in Zambia. Mass poverty hitherto unheard of exploded. Many workers overnight found themselves out of work, and had to confront the poverty and hunger in their homes.

Amidst this Tsunami of poverty and hunger and a job bloodbath, a connected and tiny Zambian elite, among whom HH belongs, became fabulously rich by, shall we politely say, ‘participating’ in privatising previously government owned businesses. This group became the darlings of the US, West European countries and of course the IMF and World Bank. Today, it is these US and Western European oriented ‘Zambian Oligarchies’ who are running government.

Survival of the fittest suddenly became the order of the day in Zambia. The values of solidarity and community which Kaunda flirted with through his incoherent ideology of “Humanism” were thrown out the window and in flew pure lying, ruthless completion, private greed, stealing, corruption, and making profits as the sole purpose of life. Everything needed to become a “profitable business” or it would die. Our trade unions collapsed under the combined weight of political interference and massive loss of membership, as businesses previously owned by the state were privatised and retrenched workers, or went under.

You have obviously heard it said that “money is the root of all evil”.

Let me correct this: it is money in a system powered by lying, corruption, stealing, competition, private greed, commodities and profits – capitalism – that is the root of all evil. It is not money, but capitalism, which is the root of all evil. Money on its own is just a means for measuring, storing and exchanging value. Under capitalism, money becomes an end in itself, something to use, buy, sell and accumulate; then it becomes evil, it becomes “capital”, hence the name of the system in which “capital” is supreme is called “capitalism”!

Money in a system powered by love, human solidarity, social and economic equality, genuine freedom and full democracy is merely a measure of value, means of exchange and a storage of value. Of itself, it is useless. In such a system, people are not controlled and ruled by money!

We live in a country in which post 1991, money has become more important to many people than God, whom they hope to deal with only after death! It is not important how one gets it, as long as one is not caught, get it we must, by all means necessary. This is another meaning of the word “capitalism”.

It is in these circumstances that to survive, the majority of Zambians must lie, steal, bribe someone or accept bribes, or even, in extreme cases, kill others to take over their wealth. This is the first reason HH and the UPND are jokers when they talk about fighting corruption without simultaneously uprooting its roots: capitalism.

We hypocritically think that Zambian politicians are the most corrupt individuals. The truth is the majority of us would not survive without hustling including by lying, stealing and accepting or giving bribes, to get what we want. Lying, stealing and corruption in Zambia are not just individual weaknesses and problems; they are a necessary mass tool kit for survival.

Politicians, being in the public domain, are the most visible liars, thieves and corrupt people. All of them when in opposition lie and promise to sort out thieves and corrupt people. When in government, their fear of poverty and appetite for money makes them bigger liars, more corrupt and cause them to steal big! This is the second reason HH is playing with us, on the fight against corruption.

HH is a businessman whose assets and liability declaration has not been made public. Why? How sincere is such a man in the fight against corruption and stealing public funds if he does not reveal to all Zambians what he owns and owes, and exactly how all this has happened, so that we may all cheer him on as he runs the government for all Zambians rather than largely for himself?

Is HH afraid we may arrest him and also charge him with possession of property believed to be corruptly or fraudulently obtained? All rich people hide the truth about how they become rich, because, believe me, it is impossible to be rich and enter the Kingdom of God!

HH is a capitalist, he can only largely use the fight against corruption and stealing public funds to weaken his political opponents. He cannot lead, let alone win, the fight to eliminate the very means by which private wealth is acquired: lying, stealing and corruption, in capitalism.

It is time to stop lying, stealing and being corrupt, all of us, if we want our country to be free from poverty.

Send comments and or only genuine good insults to banda.azwell@gmail.com.

By Nelson Zulu

THE Anti-Corruption Commission (ACC) has instituted investigation against Alpha Commodities a company owned by a husband to a named Minister in the UPND led government.

Different sources at ACC have confirmed to The New Dawn Newspaper that the Commission is investigating the US$50 million contract awarded to Alpha Commodities and Nitrogen Chemicals of Zambia (NCZ) for the supply of fertilizer.

According to officers close to the investigation, the contract was awarded in November, 2021 through single sourcing.

However, investigations were instituted after the Commission received a complaint from the Economic Freedom Fighters (EFF) president Kasonde Mwenda last month.

Kasonde says the delay to update the nation on the progress in the matter, this afternoon forced him to visit the ACC offices to look at progress.

Commenting on the matter, Kasonde said the allegations of single sourcing leveled against Alpha Commodities and NCZ is a case study for President Hakainde Hichilema led government.

“The fight against corruption by President Hakainde Hichilema and his Cabinet (is) on trial…as the EFF reported the $50m fertilizer scandal. ACC has confirmed (our letter of complaint) to have reached the ACC Director General. Apart from impeachment, what will happen if the current UPND cabinet is found guilty of corruption involving $50 million used to ‘illegally’ procure fertilizer (17, 727 metric tonnes of Urea and 19, 300 metric tonnes of D Compound)?” Kasonde wondered.

He said officers at ACC have asked him to get back on Monday for the meeting with the acting Director General.

“…this afternoon paid a courtesy call on the Anti – Corruption Commission (ACC) to inquire on the progress on the alleged corruption involving $50m fertiliser deal under the new dawn. The ACC has confirmed that the letter of complaint we delivered on the 18th February, 2022, which, for a while was lost has been found and finally reached the ACC acting Director General. It is currently on his desk. We have been advised to meet him in person next week Monday,” he said.

According to Kasonde, on November 2021, Alpha Commodities and and NCZ were single sourced for the US$50 million contract to supply fertilizer to Southern and some parts of Western Provinces.

“Single sourcing is illegal under Zambian Laws and amounts to corruption but the HH led Cabinet went ahead and broke the law. The said Alpha Commodities has since been paid by government. If cabinet is found wanting on grounds of corruption, the President risks being the first Zambian President to be impeached. It is thus a test of integrity on the UPND government to see if they are just witch hunting the PF or they are genuinely capable of fighting corruption especially if UPND members are involved,” stated Kasonde.

By Kombe Mataka

LAUGHTER characterised part of Tuesday’s parliament session when Malole Constituency PF member of parliament Robert Kalimi said infrastructure minister Charles Milupi is presidential material because of the honest manner in which he responded to questions.

Kalimi, who rose to ask what criteria was being used to assess the viability of roads during questions for oral answers, said it was possible for Milupi to be president one day.

“I want to assure my honest minister that you’re a minister because you came as a UPND Alliance and anything is possible. You can be a presidential candidate in 2026,” he said amidst laughter.

And Kabushi PF member of parliament Bowman Lusambo, who wanted to know on why Public-Private-Partnership initiatives were not being employed in building township roads, said he would support Milupi’s candidature for president in 2026.

“I was following my minister who is my son,” joked Lusambo. “I am happy that he will try to stand on the UPND ticket. I will support him because he is very honest.”

In his response, Milupi, who could not hold his laughter said: “My young brother, Hon member for Malole, no matter how much you try you will not divide us. In the Alliance, we have a good candidate. Myself and Hon Mutati (Felix), yes we are presidents of parities but we are in a solid Alliance that first time was able to defeat you.”

Instead he advised the opposition not to field a candidate in 2026 because UPND had the best candidate.

“With regards to 2026, we are doing everything possible to support him [Hakainde Hichilema] so that come 2026, the plans that we have for this country are actualised. And therefore, for him it will be easy sailing,” Milupi said. “So there is no room for either that side or this side to have another candidate. In fact, if they want to be good citizens we expect that they will not even have a candidate.”

And Milupi told the House that there was so much damage that was done to the economy through road contracts.

“This new dawn administration has made it very clear that we have three focal points. If you want to know what we are doing just listen to the President. You know our Lord Jesus Christ when he came he reduced the commandments to two. The President has reduced our focal points to three elements, one, reuniting the country, number two, bringing law and order in the country, and number three rebuilding the economy with our resources,” he said.

And responding to a question by Chama South PF member of parliament Davison Mung’andu on what was the alternative recovery plan from IMF, Milupi said without debt restructuring and necessary negotiations with creditors “we would be expected to pay the Euro bond debt in cash”.

“He must be reminded that in 2022, this year, is the 10th year after the first Euro bond of $750 million. The original plan was when that Euro bond was obtained that 10 years later we would pay back $750 million at once. One day. This is this year,” explained Milupi. “Next year we were to pay to $1 billion and 2024, the third Euro bond…that is amount of damage that has happened to this country. There is need therefore to engage creditors. You have got to have trust of the creditors. They will be able to trust you if you are able to reach the IMF deal so that we can reduce on the amount of money that is supposed to be paid every year.”

ABOUT ZAMBIA’s FOREIGN POLICY: WHAT IS IT?

By Sean Tembo – PeP President

1. As one of the residents of the global village, Zambia has to maintain good relations with all other countries at regional level, continental level and global level. As former United States Secretary of State, Henry Kissinger once said; there is no friendship among nations, only common interests. That means, in order for Zambia to sustain its “friendship” with another country, we need to be adding some kind of value to that country, either as a trade partner or as a diplomatic ally or something to that effect. In other words, for us to cultivate long lasting friendships with other countries, we need to add some value to those other countries. It has to be a two way street. Like Marilyn Monroe, the American actress, model and singer once said; give and take is a fair game.

2. This brings me to the events of the past week in which the Republican President, Mr. Hakainde Hichilema met a Special Envoy of the King of Saudi Arabia at State House. The President took advantage of this occasion to publicly appeal to the King to convert the $13 million loan that we owe the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, into a grant. In other words, that the loan should be cancelled.

3. This public request by the President did not sit well with me for a number of reasons. First of all, historically, Saudi Arabia has been an all weather friend of Zambia since the days of KK. They have done a lot for this country over the years. Currently, the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia is constructing a $145 million hospital in Chalala area of Lusaka, which is poised to be the biggest hospital in Zambia taking over from UTH, and is a donation to this country. If the President possessed sound diplomatic skills, he was supposed to utilize the occasion of the visit by the King’s Special Envoy to thank the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia for all the good deeds that they have done for this country, and further offering what we can do for them.

4. It is my humble submission that the President behaved in a morally bankrupt manner when he publicly requested the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia to cancel our $13 million loan. At a personal level, if you have a friend who is apparently well-to-do than you, and that friend occasionally gives you some handouts and also some loans, it would be wrong for you to ask that friend to convert one of the small loans into a handout. It is a dishonorable act which is likely to reduce your standing in the eyes of your friend. If you borrow money from someone, you need to take it back. It should be up to the lender to say; no just keep it. It is not up to you to ask the lender if you can just keep it. Such is the behavior of a morally bankrupt person.

5. Some people have argued that there is nothing wrong with asking for debt forgiveness, and that late former President Levy Patrick Mwanawasa also did it, which resulted in more than $7 billion of Zambia’s debt being forgiven. That may be true, but the context is totally different. Before you copy and paste something, always pay attention to the context. Some of the salient facts about the $7 billion debt that was forgiven by various creditor nations are that; firstly it was not only Zambia’s debt which was forgiven by these creditor nations who called themselves the Paris Club. The total debt forgiven was in excess of $300 billion to more than 40 developing countries mostly in Africa.

6. There are two moral issues that made the debt forgiveness possible. Firstly, the creditor nations that made up the Paris Club were former colonial masters of the debtor nations whose debt was being advocated to be forgiven, and the argument was that during the time that these countries, including Zambia, were colonized, the creditor nations looted alot of natural resources and that the debt could therefore be netted off against the looted assets. The second argument for debt cancellation was that the debtor nations had been servicing these debts for decades, but due to high interest rates and penalties, there was little amortization to the principal amounts, despite the debt amount having been paid out many times over. It was more a case of kaloba. These two are very compelling arguments and the rich creditor nations, who are also former colonizers, had no option but to forgive the outstanding debt to poor debtor nations, of which Zambia benefited about $7 billion in debt write downs.

7. Clearly, the circumstances in which Mwanawasa advocated for, and managed to achieve debt forgiveness in the early 2000s, are totally different to the circumstances in which Hichilema is now seeking to obtain the $13 million debt forgiveness from the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia. Unlike the former colonizers rich creditor nations that made up the Paris Club, the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia is neither a former colonial master of Zambia nor are they a first-world country. They are also grappling with issues of poverty, disease, lack of education, etcetera for their people. Their per capita income for 2020 was only $21,000 against about $63,000 for the United States. So when they decide to donate a $145 million hospital to Zambia, it is not because they have too much money, and it is not in our place as a nation to beg for a further $13 million in addition to the $145 million being given to us. That is the behavior of a morally bankrupt person. If they wanted to write down the $13 million loan, they would have done it by themselves without being hustled. Just like they decided to donate a $145 million hospital to us without being hustled.

8. If we are going to sustain good relations with countries that like us, our foreign policy must seek to add some kind of value to such countries. For instance, during the many visits by former Heads of State to the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, in which we solicited for cheaper oil, the Kingdom did express a need which they have and which they hoped we could fulfill. That was to export some goats to them, possibly because they are largely a desert, and their goats do not have enough pasture. But up until now, we have not exported a single goat to them. But they proceeded to donate a $145 million hospital, which will be the biggest hospital in Zambia once completed. And when the King’s Special Envoy visits Hichilema at State House, instead of hosting a huge state banquet for him, as a way of saying thank you and also as a way of apologizing for our failure to send any goats up there, he is met with a public request from the President for more freebies in the form of debt forgiveness. And also, the fact that the debt forgiveness request was made publicly instead of privately, smacks of blackmail by the President. As things stand, the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia will be compelled to forgive our $13 million debt even if they have no capacity to do so. Just because our morally bankrupt President blackmailed them to do so. That is shameful diplomacy by the President.

/// END

SET 26.03.2022

A secret DNA test gave me the shocking revelation of my life. That my daughters Joy and Vallery, were not actually, MINE.

I had been married 11 years; Joy was 6 years old while her younger sister Valerie just turned 4 years, a week before I decided to conduct a secret DNA test on the my two lovely girls.
My wife Rebecca had been so loving and faithful (or so I thought)

Our first 9 years in matrimony was very blissful. Marriage was kind to us and the years had brought us immeasurable grace in our young matrimony. Rebecca and I were truly in love. Our collective desire was to raise a beautiful God fearing family and go through into blessed years of parenthood.
The birth of my daughter Joy was such a fullfilling moment for me as a man. Her little eyes at birth gave me a reassured sense of parenthood and each evening I spoke to God and asked him to guide me to be the best dad to Joy and supportive husband to Rebecca.
Life was good.

When my second child Vallery was born, something strange begun to happening..

First, it all begun by receiving a friend request from Facebook from a unfamiliar profile. I innocently accepted the request and there’s wasn’t much of information on the profile. Save for the gender was female and a few cartoon images as profile picture. Maybe it was some fake Facebook profile. I didn’t notice, I didn’t care.
Barely a week after receiving the said friend request, I randomly checked through my Facebook messages and realized that the person had dropped me a DM.

Without properly introducing themselves, the Facebook friend went ahead to state that I should get a new wife and father my own children. That my two little daughters were products of a carefully executed extra marital affair between my wife and some other man that wasn’t mentioned. She further dared me to visit the nearest private clinic and conduct a secret DNA on my two girls.

My world temporarily stopped!

Who in God’s name was this! Why on planet earth were they questioning my paternity to my kids! Why in Jesus name was she insinuating that my loving and caring wife was a cheat?
I felt shaken for real. Terribly shaken.
With utter desperation, I rushed back to the profile to catch a clue of who this person was. With shaking fingers, I schemed through the entire Facebook timeline.
Boy! There was zero clue to who this person was!
No mutual friends, no relatable post, no education background. No nothing.

Who was this?
What was going on?
Why was ‘she’ saying my kids weren’t mine?

I knew better not to confront my wife Rebecca on such a sensitive matter; especially now that it was coming from a mysterious person online. I dismissed it as some other desperate attempt by a hater to distabilize my family. I made a mental decision to delete the message from my DMs, block the profile and move on with life.

If only I knew what awaited me..

Roughly nine days later, I received another Facebook DM. This time the sender was not on my list of Facebook friends, as such it was a message request. I gladly accepted to read the message.
The following three well detailed paragraphs from this strange Facebook user completely ruined my life.
The message accurately highlighted my background as a person, and even that of my life.
He/she gave correct dates of when and where I was born. The names of my parents and where they presently live. The person went ahead to give details about my wife Rebecca, her exact age, her career and all.
What was completely harrowing is the fact that after correctly highlighting our background, the sender begged me to urgently perform a DNA test on my two kids. Because he or she was damn sure that Joy and Vallery weren’t my biological kids. And that Rebbeca my wife had played me big time!

I shuddered!

Who were these people.
How come they had every detail about my family and I?
Why were they insisting that my kids weren’t biologically mine?
What exactly was going.
These questions made me sick, and completely scared.
These strange allegation surrounding my paternity and marriage shook me to the core.

The following day, I decided to do the unthinkable. I was going to secretly perform a quick DNA test for my two girls and put everything to rest.
At the outskirts of where we lived, there was only one private clinic offering such services.
I would have not dared to carry out the DNA tests under a public health institution, it wouldn’t have been a secret anymore. So I Preffered a local clinic within Athi River.
It’s not like I was giving in to the instructions of Facebook strangers to validate my paternity, I just wanted to be clear headed on this issue and put it to rest.

4th August 2021, 8:00AM

I drove into oasis doctors plaza and asked for a confidential appointment with the lead clinic officer.
Dr. Benard was an easy guy in his mid 30s. He was very proffesional and kept reassuring me that he would conduct the in utmost privacy and that in less than 3 hours, the results would be out.
Dr. Benard was the lead consultant at the oasis doctors plaza and despite not having met him before, he was a popular medic within the environs of Athiriver.
Many residents loved him because he was prompt, professional and a people’s person.

I presented the things he needed to conduct the tests; that was basically the spoons my two lovely girls had used last night for dinner, as well as the combs they had used to groom up this morning before heading to school. Dr. Benard had assured me that the two afformentioned items would perfectly help in sampling the DNA of myself and either one or both of the girls.
Dr. Benard reassured me that it was not in his place to judge why I was doing this, for he said he had dealt with doubtful dads before and that it was a normal thing in disfunctional marriages for such secret DNA tests to be undertaken.
Trust me, I was careful not to tell him that I was doing this because of some random Facebook messages claiming I was raising kids that weren’t mine.
If I had told Dr. Benard that, I would have looked stupid.

The 3 hours of wait for the test results to come through were the longest.

I knew that I was wasting my precious time there. These kids were mine. Rebecca was the most caring woman I ever met. No way she had sired these kids outside our matrimony. But I needed to get these accusations outside my head. Especially now that the person who was tabling them knew almost everything about me and my family.
To make matters worse, it was the second time I was receiving this request for DNA in a span of two weeks. I had to fullfil my curiosity.

3 hours. The wait was over.

I was sitted at the hospital’s waiting Bay, and I could see Dr. Benard approaching where I sat. He was holding a large white envelope. Perhaps the envelope that was bearing the reality of my daughter’s paternity.
His face was unsuggestive.
He had the usual blank smile that medics gave despite the urgency at hand.
With a pat on the back, he handed me over the DNA results and excused himself as he had emergency surgery at the maternity wing of the hospital. He then dashed off.

I left the hospital lobby area and headed to the parking lot. My car was the third from the exit.
The plan was to read the DNA results, confirm paternity, the trash the papers before driving home to join my family for dinner.
At the car, I ripped off the envelope and glanced at the results right in front of me.
The words NOT MATCHING and NEGATIVE screamt back at me in large writings.

My heart sunk.
My entire well being shut down.
The shock I had, completely formatted my entire existence.

To be very honest, I don’t know how I got home.
All I remember is that I wanted to get hold of Rebecca, dead or alive.
This was high voltage betrayal.
The DNA results boldly indicated that my neuro-systems weren’t matching with those of my two daughters. And that meant only one THING.
I was raising someone’s else’s children.
My wife Rebecca had forfeited our sacred covenant. She had badly insulted my manly endeavor.
My wife Rebecca was a complete bitch. A good for nothing slut who had the audacity to get children outside our home and make me raise the kids!
I drove home with lethal anger. I didn’t want any explanation from that woman. All I wanted was to get her into my hands, dead or alive.

My anger had reached a point of no return.

All I remember is that I drove into my compound and with the DNA results on my arms, made to the house in search of this lousy daughter of Satan.
I found Rebecca watering our backyard orchard and with acidic fury, I blindly landed a heavy kick on her lower belly.
To be honest, I never pictured myself as a violent man. But to make the damning realization that I was raising kids that weren’t mine, I wanted to literally strangle this woman Rebecca.
In full, agonizing and blinding fury, I descended on Rebecca with blows that were powered with insane adrenaline.

I only came to my senses when my daughters Vallery and Joy were painfully screaming and trying to pull me from Rebecca’s badly bruised body. I hadn’t noticed that she had bled so much from my anger driven blows.
In total panic, I realized what I had done.
The screams had attracted the attention of our neighbors and I could see them trying to break the wooden backyard gate and get in to save Rebecca from my lethal anger and acidic disappointment.

Men, you can relate
Raising kids who you thought were yours.

Well, one of the neighbors called in an ambulance and my wife Rebecca was rushed to Mlolongo level 3 hospital. It was such a horror occurrence.
My blood pressure had shot and nothing was making sense to me. Part of me wanted Rebbeca dead for betraying my love and commitment to her. Part of me wanted to get her to hospital and help her stop the bleeding due to the outrageous blows I had subconsciously given her due to anger.

We got to Mlolongo level 3 hospital and together with my neighbors who had intervened the fight, we rushed my CHEAT wife Rebecca into the emergency room.
The doctor who received us was so shocked at the amount of blood that Rebecca had lost, that he opted to take her into emergency surgery.
Together with the two neighbors accompanying me, we were asked to remain calm at the hospital’s waiting Bay for an hour. During the said one hour, the attending doctors would be effecting a massive blood transfusion surgery on Rebbeca.
I sat pensively on one of the benches and cursed the day I was born. An extremely injured wife, two kids who weren’t mine and a looming gender based violence case to answer to.

I felt so defeated.

After what seemed like 2 hours, my phone beeped. On checking I received a text message that read:

” Socrates, sorry for texting you this late, this is Dr. Benard of Oasis Doctor’s Plaza. I am the one who conducted the DNA test on you and your 2 daughters. To be honest Socrates, your wife Rebecca was my campus crush and I felt so heartbroken when I didn’t end up with her. I was not able to move on Socrates. So I kept stalking her, her love life and whoever she was with.
Truth is, when u walked in at our private doctor’s plaza for assistance in DNA testing, I saw that this was the perfect chance to revenge on your wife Rebecca for declining my approach for all those years.
Socrates, The two little girls, Joy and Vallery are your biological children bro. I gave you the wrong results. I was just bitter.
Forgive me.
Lastly, keep and protect Rebbeca, she’s a faithful and caring woman’

That message made be rise from my seat at the waiting Bay, scream my lungs out, and curse the day I was born.

WHAAAT??
Dr. Benard faked the DNA results just to revenge on my wife who had regected him during their campus days?
And now Rebbeca my wife was fighting for her life in a surgery room for a mistake she didn’t commit?

How wicked can people be surely????

It’s at that moment that the Surgery room’s door, opened and one of the surgeons attending to Rebbeca walked towards us at the waiting Bay. He walked straight to where I was standing and with a firm grip on my left shoulder, he painfully looked into my eyes and said

‘Socrates, we tried our best.
Sadly, Rebbeca lost alot of blood. She didn’t make it’

By Socrates

GOVT JOBS ARE FOR ALL ZAMBIANS – HH

President Hakainde Hichilema writes below….

Fellow citizens.

Today, the 25th March, 2022, we witnessed the pass-out parade of 927 Zambia Correctional Services cadets and recruits at Nyango Training Institute in Kaoma of Western Province.

We are resolute and determined to creating more jobs and business opportunities for all of our citizens. We have no doubt in our mind that Zambia is set to realise its full potential and this is why we are working round the clock to ensure that this comes to fruition.

In our address to the new officers we stated that there is need to help those that are in various detentions to realise that being in jail does not mean the end of life and also that anyone is a potential customer of detention facilities, and therefore when such a one is placed under their custody, they must ensure safety of such citizens.

We have been to these detentions before and drew a lot of lessons, among them the need to modernise these facilities so that they can be more habitable.

We are working round the clock to ensure that detention facilities can be of life saving standards and not the current status and perception that these are death chambers. Detention facilities are now being turned into behaviour rehab.

We also called upon those charged with responsibilities of recruitment into public service to begin ensuring inclusions and not exclusions and especially giving a priority to local citizens in a particular area. We want jobs and business opportunities to stay in local areas and ultimately within Zambia but where and when necessary export expertise.

However and in order to realise the dream of Zambia being a better place, we need to join hands and work together both in bad and good times and it is under this score that we paid a courtesy call on their Royal Highnesses; Senior Chief Kanongesha of Mwinilunga and Chief Mwene Mutondo of Kaoma in North Western and Western provinces respectively. They joined us in witnessing today’s event.

With their two Royal Highnesses, we illustrated how we are determined and working round the clock to ensure a better Zambia and we were glad to hear that they are aware of our strides in making Zambia better. We were also pleased to learn of their assurance that we work together. While in office, we will work with all the traditional leaders to foster peace, unity and development.

Once more, congratulations to the new officers and we wish them God’s guidance as they begin to serve the Nation.

Zambia is getting better and indeed will be better. Let us all get involved and get it solved.

May God bless our Country.

Hakainde Hichilema
President of the Republic of Zambia.

Fri. March 25

Pledges to carry all youths along on the journey

Smart Eagles Reporter

Newly appointed National Youth Chairperson of the Patriotic Front, Hon. Christopher Kang’ombe says he is well equal to the task that has been given to him of mobilizing the PF Youth wing .

Kang’ombe who is also Kamfinsa Member of Parliament on the Copperbelt admits the task is huge but quickly adds that it is surmountable.

Speaking on the Round Table Talk with host Nakiwe Simpungwe, Hon. Kang’ombe said he was bringing to the table an all inclusive style of leadership which is accommodating not only to youths in the PF but the nation at large .

On the 12th of August 2021 , the PF Government was kicked out of power when Zambian’s voted in favour of the now ruling United Party for National Development.

Hon. Kang’ombe however indicated that the 7 months of the UPND in government leaves a lot to be desired because issues such as unemployment and high cost of living which people complained about during PF ,have escalated further in the UPND .

He said for this reason, that the PF stands a chance of a come back if only they undo the wrongs they did to the Zambian people during their tenure of office .

He stated that PF had achieved a lot in terms of development during their reign and that all that was required now was to make amends in the areas where they had errored.

Kang’ombe took time to invite all the youth in the party to go along with him on the journey of rebranding the youth league and promised to make the journey fruitful and enjoyable for all.

Kang’ombe who has ambitions of becoming President of Zambia one day , indicated that he might not contest for the PF Presidency in the forth coming convention because he has a huge task ahead of him as National Youth Chairperson but was quick to mention that he would keep the public posted on his political path which has being President of Zambia one day, firmly rooted in it .

The United Nations says it has identified a mass grave in the besieged southern city of Mariupol it says could hold about 200 bodies.

Russian bombardment of Mariupol is so heavy that local officials estimate 80% of its buildings are destroyed or badly damaged with citizens trapped in the city without much food, water or even shelter.

Earlier this week, local Ukrainian commanders said they thought Mariupol’s death toll alone could be more than 3,000. Bodies are often left in the streets because it is too dangerous to retrieve them, and many of them later end up in mass graves.

On Friday, March 25, Matilda Bogner, head of the UN Human Rights Monitoring Mission in Ukraine, said her team was trying to assess the scale of the civilian casualties.

“One mass grave we’ve been able to get satellite information on, and we estimate that one of those mass graves holds about 200 people,” she said.

But “that does not mean all those people are civilian casualties”, she added – since the UN’s numbers do no include military deaths or those who die for other reasons during a war.

At least 1,035 civilians have been killed, she said though the UN has consistently said it believes casualty numbers are “considerably higher” than its official numbers, due to the difficulty in verifying reports and getting information from war-hit areas.

A maternity and children’s hospital in Mariupol was bombed last week. While a theater with a sign of ‘children’ clearly marked outside it was also bombed by Russian forces.

Ukrainian officials say Russia’s use of explosives with “wide area effects in or near populated areas – including missiles, heavy artillery shells and rockets as well as airstrikes” could amount to war crimes, the UN’s human rights monitoring mission for Ukraine has said.

The head of the UN human rights mission in Ukraine, Matilda Bognor, cited two specific examples: An attack on a school in Chernihiv, and the attack on the maternity hospital in Mariupol.

The UN also has reports of Russian forces shooting at and killing civilians who were trying to evacuate by car. The UN also says there are reports of civilians being killed during peaceful assemblies.

The United States imposed new sanctions on entities and people in Russia and North Korea after Pyongyang’s latest intercontinental ballistic missile (ICBM) test.

The targeted persons and organizations are accused of “transferring sensitive items to North Korea’s missile program,” according to a State Department statement.

“These measures are part of our ongoing efforts to impede the DPRK’s ability to advance its missile program and they highlight the negative role Russia plays on the world stage as a proliferator to programs of concern,” the statement said, using the official acronym for North Korea.

The new sanctions were quickly derided by Moscow’s ambassador in Washington Anatoly Antonov, who said: “serial sanctions will not achieve their goals.”

Thursday’s launch was the first time Pyongyang had fired the country’s most powerful missiles at full range since 2017, and it appears to have travelled higher and further than any previous intercontinental ballistic missile tested by the nuclear-armed nation.

Kim Jong Un personally oversaw the test-firing of a “new type” of ICBM to boost his country’s nuclear deterrent against the US “imperialists,” North Korea’s state media reported early Friday.

In response, the State Department said Washington has sanctioned the Russian entities called Ardis Group, PFK Profpodshipnik and Russian national Igor Aleksandrovich Michurin.

It also sanctioned North Korean citizen Ri Sung Chol and a North Korean entity called Second Academy of Natural Science Foreign Affairs Bureau.

The statement did not detail the specific allegations against these people and entities.

Secretary of State Antony Blinken spoke with South Korean Foreign Minister Chung Eui-yong late Thursday to reaffirm Washington’s alliance with Seoul.

The two top diplomats reiterated that the launch violated multiple UN Security Council resolutions, and “demonstrates the threat the DPRK’s unlawful weapons of mass destruction and ballistic missile programs pose to the DPRK’s neighbors and the broader international community,” State Department spokesman Ned Price said in a readout of the call.

For its part, the Russian embassy accused the United States of seeking to punish officials in Moscow because they hold a view that “does not correspond to the views of Washington.”

“It is obvious that the next ‘package’ of anti-Russian sanctions is aimed at destroying the economy and undermining the domestic political situation in our country,” Antonov posted on the embassy’s Facebook page.

MASEBO HAS NO POWERS TO FIRE CIVIL SERVANTS

“She is creating a diversionary tactic away from the deep crises facing the Ministry of Health”

By Amb. Emmanuel Mwamba

A disturbing report emerged last evening that the Minister of Health, Hon. Silvia Masebo had fired five directors at her Ministry and at the Public Service Management Division (PSMD).

Ministry of Health Permanent Permanent Secretary (Administration), Dr. George Magwende confirmed that the Ministry has suspended five officers; Director – Human Resource, Frederick Mwila and his assistant, Dennis Siamphwisi, Director- Planning, Henry Kasembe, Chief Human Resource Administrator, Ireen Bwalya, and Senior Human Resource Officer, James Makasa.

Also affected is Mrs. Peggy Chirwa, Director at Public Service Management Service Division (PSMD) under Recruitment and Placement, who has allegedly been fired.

The six are accused of promoting irregularities during the delayed process to recruit the 11,200 health workers.

This came to light especially during the case of a radiographer, whose letter of employment was leaked to social-media.

It must be made very clear that the employment, discipline and termination of employment of a public officer is the sole constitional preserve of the President, delegated through relevant Public Service Commissions.

ARTICLE 185 provides:

Public Officers

185. (1) The President has, in accordance with and subject to the other provisions of this Constitution, the power to:

(a) appoint and confirm public officers;

(b) exercise disciplinary control over public officers; and

(c) terminate the employment of a public officer.

(2) The President’s functions, as specified in clause (1), shall be exercised by the relevant Service Commission as specified in this Constitution and as prescribed.

(4) A function of a service commission may be delegated to a public officer, as prescribed.

It has been reported that the suspension and dismissal have been done at the instigation and direction of the Minister of Health, Hon Silvia Masebo.

In this case Masebo and her team must be alive to the constitutional provisions and the consequences of the breach.

But clearly, this is a side-show designed to divert our attention to a matter that has raised anxieties and preoccupied the nation with concern-the critical shortage of medicines and medical supplies in hospitals and Clinics.

SHORTAGE OF MEDICINES AND MEDICAL SUPPLIES

A critical shortage of medicines and medical supplies have hit hospitals the last six months and has also affected ancillary facilities such as laboratories. In many cases laboratories have shut due to lack of consumables and reagents.

Patients have been advised to send laboratory samples to private facilities and forced to buy medicines from private pharmacies.

Masebo and her technical team have not bought any medicine and medical supplies in the last six months claiming that they are re-organising the sub-sector.

With the medicine and medical supplies left by the Patriotic Front Government running out, hospital operations country-wide have been adversely affected.

Masebo has strangely directed hospitals to use, in the interim, monthly grants sent to hospitals for operations and administration, to buy medicines.

In Zambia, the purchase of medicines and medical supplies is the statutory preserve of the Zambia Medicines and Medical Supplies Agency (ZAMMSA) (formerly Medical Stores).

Therefore this directive is not only illegal but constitutes the misapplication and misuse of public resources and will likely attract audit queries.

She should ask someone near her; Anna Chifungula, the newly appointed Board Chairperson for the Zambia Medicines and Medical Supplies Agency (ZAMMSA) as she is one of the best Auditor Generals this country has ever produced.

CONCLUSION

It is interesting to note that President Hakainde Hichilema took time to spend time at Ndeke House, the Ministry Headquarters, to familiarize himself with the challenges the Ministry is facing in the recruitment of the 11,200 workers and the critical shortage of medicines in hospitals.

However, checking his views about the crisis as posted on his Facebook page, reveals a worrying scenario.

He has regurgitated what constitutes the lies and narrative that Masebo has peddled to the nation, in the last six months.

President Hakainde Hichilema blames procurement, legacy issues such as pilferege and corruption, as factors affecting timely delivery of medicines to hospitals.

The actions so far taken by Masebo, to reinvent the wheel, abandon a working system that has taken decades to establish and refine with cooperating partners, and her quest to tackle the alleged corruption, has collapsed the health care system resulting in the critical shortage of medicines and medical supplies in hospitals in the last six months.

The numerous deaths that have occurred during this period and attributed to this confusing scenario must be documented and Masebo and her team made to account.

REPUBLIC OF ZAMBIA
JOB ADVERTISEMENT
RECRUITMENT OF 11,276 HEALTH WORKERS

The Civil Service Commission will be recruiting suitably qualified health workers during the 2022 recruitment exercise. In this regard, the Civil Service Commission is inviting applications from suitable applicants in the following positions :-
NO. — POSITIONS — PROFESSIONAL QUALIFICATIONS NEEDED

Biomedical Scientists— Degree in Biomedical Sciences

Clinical Officer General — Diploma in Clinical Medicine

Clinical Officer Psychiatry — Diploma in Clinical Psychiatry

Community Health Assistant — Certificate in Community Health Assistant

Data Entry Clerk — Certificate in Information Technology

Dental Assistants — Certificate in Dental Assistant

Dental Surgeon (Intern) — Degree in Dental Surgery

Dental Technologists — Diploma in Dental Technologist

Dental Therapist — Diploma in Dental Therapy

Environmental Health Technologists — Diploma in Environmental Health Technology

Junior Resident Medical Officers (Interns) — Bachelor of Medicine and Bachelor of Surgery (MBCHB)

Medical Equipment Technologists — Diploma in Medical Equipment Technology

Medical Laboratory Technologists — Diploma in Medical Laboratory

Medical Licentiates — Bachelor of Clinical Medicine

Medical Records Clerk — Certificate in Records Management

Nutrition Technologists — Diploma in Nutrition

Nutritionists — Degree in Nutrition

Pharmacists — Degree in Pharmacy

Pharmacy Technologists — Diploma in Pharmacy

Physiotherapists — Degree in Physiotherapy

Physiotherapy Technologists — Diploma in Physiotherapy

Psychosocial Counsellor — Certificate in Psychosocial Counselling

Public Health Nurses — Diploma in Public Health Nursing

Public Health Technologist — Diploma in Public Health Technology

Radiographers — Degree in Radiography

Radiography Technologists — Diploma in Radiography

Registered Nurse Midwives — Advanced Diploma in Registered Midwifery

Registered Nurses — Diploma in Registered Nursing

Registry Clerk — Certificate in Records Management

Zambia Enrolled Nurse — Certificate in Nursing

Detailed information on available number of positions in each district can be accessed on the Civil Service Commission website: www.csc.gov.zm and the Ministry of Health website: www.moh.gov.zm.
In addition to the Professional qualifications outlined above, candidates must meet the following:

Must be a Zambian Citizen

Must have a Green National Registration Card (NRC)

Must be between 18-45 years old

Must have a full Grade Twelve (12) School Certificate with five (5) O’ levels or better including English Language

Must be registered with Nursing and Midwifery Council of Zambia (NMCZ) or Health Professions Council of Zambia (HPCZ) and possess a current Practicing License where applicable

Must have a valid temporal or full Registration certificate where applicable

Must be ready to work anywhere in the country where their services are needed for a minimum period of four (4) years

All interested persons meeting the above criteria are encouraged to send their written/typed applications to the District Health Director with a copy to the District Commissioner attaching copies of their Grade Twelve (12) School Certificate, Professional Registration Certificate and Practicing License. Professional Qualifications and NRCS.
Applicants with disabilities , who meet the minimum requirements, are highly encouraged to apply Applicants who have been volunteering in public health facilities should clearly state in the applications and attach proof. The Civil Service Commission is an equal opportunity employer.
The application letters should be addressed to:
The District Health Director,
District Health Office,
[Your District]
NOTE:

Candidates must only apply to one District/Province.

This recruitment will benefit all the 116 districts countrywide.

Multiple applications will lead to Automatic Disqualification .

The Ministry of Health – Headquarters, Hospitals and other Health Facilities shall not receive application letters.

Applications earlier submitted to Ministry of Health – Headquarters, Provincial Health Offices, District Health Offices, Hospitals and other Health Facilities shall not be considered.

Applications for Junior Resident Medical Officers (Interns), Dental Surgeons (Interns) and Pharmacists / Pharmacists (Interns) shall be addressed to:

The Provincial Health Director,
Provincial Health Office,
[Your Province]
A copy of the application should be sent to the Provincial Permanent Secretary.
The closing date for receipt of applications by the District Health Director is Friday, 1st April, 2022
Jean Matebele Chilengi (Mrs.).
Commission Secretary
CIVIL SERVICE COMMISSION

FACT FILE: HH WAS AMONG PIONEERS OF UPND IN 1998!

DID you know:

Mr Hakainde Hichilema was among the pioneers of UPND in 1998 but remained in the background until the death of the party’s founder, Mr Anderson Kambela Mazoka, in 2006?

For details, follow the excerpt below from (Conversations with Memorable Personalities)

Amos Malupenga:

I have heard some people say that you were not a UPND supporter per se but a Mazoka supporter because you thought that Mazoka would be President of Zambia and thereafter he would pay you back your investment in UPND after taking over power…

Hakainde Hichilema:

That cannot be right, Amos, because Mr. Mazoka was not the owner of UPND. He was one of the critical members of UPND, a very respected dignified Zambian, one of the best individuals this country will ever produce. And I think the country owes Mr. Mazoka that dignity.

But having said that, he worked with a team. Some of the team members know me; some may pretend not to know me. I think it is just a question of a competitive process going on now. I believe in the UPND manifesto. It is the best. Just look at it. The MMD have tried to copy it but they can’t implement as it was envisaged by the UPND.

I am not an opportunist. I have been offered several jobs in different places. You didn’t even ask me earlier, I went to study in the United Kingdom, to do a Master of Business in Finance and Business Strategy. I am a trained business negotiator. I am a qualified change management practitioner. So I had many offers out there but I wanted to be home.

Amos Malupenga:

But someone told me that you were much more on the reserved side of things at campus (UNZA) …

Hakainde Hichilema:

Largely people see me as quiet especially those who don’t have a close relationship with me because I tend to look at what is going on, observe and help out without wanting to be given credit. That’s my nature. But you find me in a boardroom situation, ask my colleagues, they will tell you a different situation. I am quite active.

Amos Malupenga:

How would you describe yourself, are you an introvert or extrovert?

Hakainde Hichilema:

You just have to look at the list of my friends. I have a lot of friends all over the country and the world over. I have friends in the business community, among the donors, in government and literally everywhere. And you will be amazed at the number of emails and phone calls I have received from the time I made this decision, encouraging me to go ahead because they know I can make a difference.

Amos Malupenga:

As you sat in the UPND’s back seat, did you ever think that one day you would take the leadership of the party or play an active role in the front seat?

Hakainde Hichilema:

I didn’t plan to take the position I have agreed to run for at the moment. But if you mean well to work with colleagues, they decide that you can play a role bigger than what you offer yourself for. That’s what I know about leadership. Let the people be the ones that decide that you can play a leadership role. This is what has happened.

I am sure you have been observing at The Post that when the request came for me to take up the challenge, I basically ignored it. The pressure built up and developed a life of its own until I gave up to that pressure.

Amos Malupenga:

To the best of your knowledge, where did this request come from?

Hakainde Hichilema:

Amos, I think let’s talk about it because it is important. A lot of people say the request came from Southern Province only. That’s incorrect. It’s only that people from Southern Province were mourning and angry and they talked about it first and talked about it openly.

But the request came from all over – the party members and people from all walks of life, the business community and my fellow village people. By the way, I do a lot of community work. Over the last fifteen years, we have done schools, clinics, deep tanks and we assist a lot in the areas where we have farms. I pay school fees for children numbering fifty who are not mine.

Amos Malupenga:

Why is it that this pressure was heaped on you who has always been in the background and not Sakwiba Sikota who is the vice-president and now acting as party president? I am asking this because it was much more expected to look at Saki as Mr. Mazoka’s natural successor considering the fact that he is vice-president…

Hakainde Hichilema:

It’s quite a tricky question but I like answering questions. I don’t like dodging them. I can only imagine that it is what people saw in me. If people thought that I would come in and destroy the party, they wouldn’t have asked for me. If they thought that I would fail them, I think that they wouldn’t have asked for me. They asked for me because they knew that I would contribute towards advancing the party’s vision, economic development and social agenda for Zambia through UPND and UDA. And I would like people to understand that it’s a more fair position to take up a role when people want you to do it.

Amos Malupenga:

From what many people are saying, I get the impression that you were settled for, for two reasons – your wealth and your tribe, being Tonga. What’s your comment on that?

Hakainde Hichilema:

Amos, you saw my comment in your paper the other day that I do not subscribe to that. This country needs quality leadership, an inclusive leadership, a leadership that would bring the country together and not polarise the country.

Amos Malupenga:

But those Tongas who proposed your name from Southern Province categorically said that Mr. Mazoka should be succeeded by a Tonga. Some even suggested that they needed someone with resources to run the party and you seem to meet these two requirements in the sense that you are a Tonga who is considered to be very wealthy…

Hakainde Hichilema:

I wouldn’t consider myself to be very wealthy. I would consider myself as one who is willing to help…

Amos Malupenga:

So how rich are you?

Hakainde Hichilema:

Do you think a Tonga man, as you call me, will tell you how rich he is? Tongas are basically humble and they will not tell you things like that. In our culture, you never talk about how rich you are, let people say what they see.

Amos Malupenga:

So what do people see of you?

Hakainde Hichilema:

Amos, I pay school fees for many children including those who are not mine. We help out in the community because our culture encourages us to share even in a large family. UPND is a large family. UDA is a large family. Zambia is a large family but nobody would anchor a large family like Zambia on his personal resources. It is the efforts of all members and citizens in supporting a good cause.

But I have to answer your Tonga question because I would really love to answer that.

Amos Malupenga:

Before you do, it is said among some UPND people that Mazoka’s successor should have resources, and not just have resources but also be generous with those resources. From what I have heard so far, you seem to me to be a generous person. Is that one of the reasons that has qualified you to contest the UPND presidency?

Hakainde Hichilema:
…

An excerpt from (Conversations with Memorable Personalities)

In the picture below, the author taking Mr Hichilema on a conducted tour of The Post in 2006.

Source: Conversations with memorable personalities Facebook page S

(FUN FACT!!!!)

DID you know:

Renowned Lusaka lawyer, Sakwiba Sikota, got expelled in grade 3 for being stubborn?

For details, follow the excerpt below from (Conversations with Memorable Personalities)

Amos Malupenga:

I have heard some people say that you hero-worship Mr. Mazoka, is that the reason why you cannot challenge him?

Sakwiba Sikota:

I think Mr. Mazoka would not appreciate me if I was the kind of person that hero-worships him because he is somebody who is very consultative. And when he consults, he is not asking you to say ‘very good boss you are right’. When he consults, he is more interested for you to pick out the loophole in whatever he is suggesting. That is his style. He would not appreciate somebody who would be following him blindly. …

But I can tell you that I am somebody who is very stubborn when you say that I do everything that Mr. Mazoka wants. You are now forcing me to give away a detail which is very personal. I think that I may hold the record for being one of the youngest people expelled from school. I got expelled from school in grade three due to my stubbornness.

Amos Malupenga:

What did you do?

Sakwiba Sikota:

At that time, for some reason or the other, I enjoyed writing using a green pen. At that time in Zambia it was very easy to get a pen with whatever colour you wanted. At that time, the government used to give us textbooks as part of the free education. So we were doing this particular exercise due to be marked by the teacher and I was doing it in my usual green ink.

Then one boy comes, grabs the pen from my hands and scribbles in my book. So I said to myself, ‘he is just a silly boy, I will carry on’. All I did was to turn over my page and copied whatever I had written on the other page.

When I finished the exercise, I took it to the teacher for marking. For some reason the teacher flipped up the page and saw that scribbling. So the teacher was annoyed with me asking why I could do that in the book when the government was spending a lot of money buying that.

I tried to plead my innocence saying ‘it was this guy who did it’. The teacher said ‘no it can’t be him because you are the only one who writes in green’. I said ‘he pulled my pen and used it to write on the page’ but the teacher didn’t buy that and decided that she was going to punish me.

The usual punishment then was the hand out and with the ruler she would whack you. When this happened, the whole class was laughing including the culprit. I looked at him and lost it. I went straight where he was and whacked him a good one. So the teacher sent me out from the class to stand in the corridor.

As I was standing there and as misfortune would have it, the headmaster was doing his round and he asked what I was doing there. I tried to explain my case but he too didn’t believe me and asked me to follow him to his office. At that time canning was legal but we have now changed the law. But that’s not why I voted for the change of the law, by the way.
So the headmaster gave me one or two strokes of the cane and I really felt that it was an injustice on me. Break time came and I went over to this guy. We had a fight and basically I beat him up. The teacher was informed after break time and she sent me with a note to the headmaster who said ‘you are incorrigible. The teacher has punished you and you are still insisting, I canned you and you are still insisting. I can’t cane you anymore so I will throw you out of school’.

So I was expelled. It took time for me to get back. I lost a term of school because of that. You know I have got an easy-going nature but I have got this very strong streak of stubbornness when I am wronged. But it doesn’t mean that I am stubborn to the extent of not listening. I try to put up my case in a civilised way. I do admit I wasn’t civilised the way I put up my case but I was young then.

And with that kind of background and with the grounding as a lawyer, they say lawyers are argumentative, I don’t see how I can be somebody who is a cowed person. I am somebody who is always ready to give my viewpoint. And that is what my colleagues like about me because I always try to tell it the way it is. …

An excerpt from (Conversations with Memorable Personalities)

ABOUT AN ILLICIT LOVE AFFAIR: THE CASE OF UPND AND THE MINES

By Sean Tembo – PeP President

Good morning fellow citizens.

1. There is no question that Zambia’s economy has gone through ups and downs since independence. Due to the fact that we are heavily dependent on copper exports, our economy has performed exceptionally well during the times that copper prices have been high on the world market, and has performed poorly during the times when copper prices have been low.

2. During the first and second republics, KK managed to build various national infrastructure out of proceeds of copper. He managed to provide free education from grade 1 to university, he managed to set up industries in each and every district of Zambia, all from proceeds of copper. This gravy train came to a screeching halt when copper prices fell on the world market in the late 80s, which was totally understandable.

3. Similarly, during the second term of the Mwanawasa administration, we benefited from high copper prices in terms of high economic growth, extremely low exchange rate between the Kwacha and the Dollar and a generally low cost of living as well as a huge accumulation of foreign reserves.

4. However, this time around copper prices on the world market are not just high, but they are the highest ever, at more than US$11,000 per metric tonne. But the nation does not appear to be benefiting in any way. There are no visible infrastructure projects being undertaken. The few that are in the pipeline are not funded by taxpayers but through private public partnerships (PPP). There is no significant appreciation in the Kwacha against the dollar. The cost of living is extremely high. Economic growth is stagnant. Government is even failing to buy medicines in hospitals. Our foreign reserves are depleting at a very fast rate as BOZ tries to support the Kwacha. ZRA is failing to meet its targets.

5. In other words, there is nothing to show for the current highest copper prices on the world market in recorded history. Nothing at all. The question is why? Why should this country suffer when copper prices are low and then suffer again when copper prices are high? When are we ever going to take a break from suffering?

6. The answer is simple. We are unable to benefit from high copper prices because we have an administration in office which decided to give the mines a de facto tax holiday. Based on recent studies, on average the mines are able to make a decent profit and sustain their operations when copper prices are at US$4,000 per metric tonne. So imagine the amount of supernormal profits which the mines are currently making with copper trading at more than US$11,000 per metric tonne? And yet, we as a nation are not benefiting a single Ngwee from those profits, yet it is our copper!

7. According to the Minister of Finance’s own admission in the 2022 national budget, this de facto tax holiday has resulted in loss of more than US$2.6 billion in tax revenue. And that is even a conservative estimate. Our estimate is that the net loss in tax revenue is north of US$5 billion. That money would have been enough to pay off the entire Eurobond and further clear all local contractors who are owed money.

8. But how does the new dawn administration give the mines a tax holiday when we are supposed to be reaping the benefits of high copper prices on the world market? That is the question which every well-meaning Zambia should ask. Well, it is because most mining houses actually funded UPND during the 20 plus years that it was in the opposition, and now it is time for pay back. But since UPND as a political party is just as broke as any other political party, they cannot pay back their nkongole to the mining houses by themselves, so they have to use government resources to do so. They have to give the mines a de facto tax holiday. All at the expense of the Zambian citizens who are currently dying like flies in hospitals due to lack of medicines. What a sad day in the history of our nation indeed.

///END

SET 25.03.2022

U.S. President, Joe Biden has stated that the United States will respond if Russia were to use chemical weapons in its invasion of Ukraine.

Accordingly to Biden, who attended a NATO, EU and G7 summit in Brussels on Thursday, March 24, the US’ response would depend on the kind of weapons of mass destruction, Russian president, Vladimir Putin will deploy.

“So you’ve warned about the real threat of chemical weapons being used. Have you gathered specific intelligence that suggests that President Putin is deploying these weapons, moving them into position or considering their use? And would the US or NATO respond with military action if he did use chemical weapons?” the Associated Press asked the US President during his news conference.

Biden responded that he could not provide information on intelligence, but added on the issue of chemical weapons; “We would respond if he uses it. The nature of the response would depend on the nature of use.”

Also earlier, NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg said the alliance will reinforce its chemical, biological and nuclear defense systems on fears Russia is planning to use such weapons against the people of Ukraine.

Biden said “we’re determined to sustain” efforts outlined during the emergency NATO meeting right after Russia’s invasion of Ukraine and “to build on them.”

“The United States is committed to provide over $2 billion in military equipment to Ukraine since I became president. Anti-air systems, anti-armor systems, , ammunition and our weapons are flowing into Ukraine as I speak. And today, I am announcing the United States is prepared to commit more than $1 billion in humanitarian assistance to help get relief to millions of Ukrainians affected by the war in Ukraine,” Biden said.

Biden said the US is ready to welcome 100,000 Ukrainian refugees in to the country.

Biden also said Putin thought he could catch NATO off guard, but said his actions in Ukraine only tightened the alliance .

“NATO has never, never been more united than it is today. Putin is getting exactly the opposite what he intended to have as a consequence of going into Ukraine,” he said.

PF IS A FINISHED POLITICAL ORGANIZATION, BUT UPND SHOULD BE EXTRA CAREFUL WITH THEM

Prior to the August general elections, I submitted in one of my statements how PF was divided and possibility of camps emerging as many leifutenants of President Edgar Lungu, believed and trusted that he (ECL ) was not saleable. Those who expressed interest in challenging him were threatened to be dealt with accordingly e.g Mr. KBF.

When I warned the PF about the danger of mantaining Mr. Lungu, they insulted me. But we all started hearing voice notes of PF members complaining after the elections that adopting president Lungu to go for a third term caused them to lose the elections so on and so forth. Yes, I do agree with that and beyond this fact, PF lost the elections because they became too arrogant and pompous after stealing public resources and stopped listening to the Zambian people.

As PF try to regroup, it is wise for the UPND administration to be on the lookout that PF is not rebranding to bounce back into power again no! deep down their hearts they know that it can never happen. Infact there are more chances of the devil repenting than them bouncing back into power. However, their sole agenda right now is to sabotage the new government of Mr. HH. Because the failure of the UPND Government means a win for PF.

Right now, there are alot of PF agents in these public institutions who haven’t yet adapted and repented, this is why the arrogance PF leaders still exhibit. They have the information of all what the UPND administration is doing at their finger tips and they’re very equipped. UPND wake up, their agenda is to mess up your government even when the president is trying to do something better for all Zambians.

Just imagine how hard it was for any one to get a job without a connection under the PF. The same agents of PF in the system have embarked on a parallel operation such as recruitment of civil servants and sabotaging government directions.

In politics information is power. Once you are equipped with information about your opponents then you are good to go. You can dismantle them with facts and claim to be a hero even when you’re not. We managed to dismantle the brutal PF regime on 12th August as Zambians because, we knew very well all their movements and exposed them. They too now want to reciprocate.

My humble advise to all new office bearers in the new administration is that, help the president, help him to deliver, help him with truth so that he can make decisions in line with facts on the ground. He can’t achieve the Zambian dream alone thus he has assembled you all, don’t take the opportunity for granted, please. Tell him facts and not lies of what is going on in the background and grassroots. PF criminals will have no way out to tarnish his image if you as leaders do your best. Mind you, nobody not even a dog kept by a PF leader or member once believed that Mr. HH would be the president of Zambia today. PF are hurting inside and they will use the money they stole to try by all means to bring down the current administration. But why should a criminal organization, the real hypocrites be allowed to do that ?

SIKAILE C SIKAILE
GOOD GOVERNANCE AND HUMAN RIGHTS ACTVIST FOR AFRICA AND AMNESTY INTERNATIONAL

MIRACLE VEHICLES OWNER ISSUES THREATS TO INVESTIGATIVE WINGS

COMMENT: EVEN FAITH MUSONDA ISSUED THREATS LIKE THESE.

22/03/22.
Chairperson,
Joint Investigation Team,
Independence Avenue,
Lusaka.
“Very Urgent”
Dear Sir,

Re: Demand for immediate release of 31 unlawfully seized motor vehicles
We have been retained by Broadwaters Executive Motors (Z) Limited(BEM)(our client), kindly therefore note our legal interest herein.

Our client instructs us that on or about 20 March, 2022 at around 22: 00 hours, combined officers from Anti- Corruption Commission, Office of the President, Zambia Police, Drug Enforcement Commission and Finacial Intelligence Center(collectively joint team) entered into property known as Subdivision F of Farm 605 which trades as Moonlight garage and seized 31 motor vehicles. The seized motor vehicles include 13 VX Land cruisers, 10 Toyota Cruiser and 8 Toyota landcruiser Prados. Refer to the attached schedule which lists the specific vehicles with their attendant chassis and engine numbers for ease of identification.

Our client informs us that at the time of the raid, your officers refused to furnish the security guard on duty on the material day ,Mr. Joseph Mulenga, with a copy of a search warrant but rather insisted that they could only talk to the owner of the motor vehicle. Mr Mulenga was further notified that the vehicles were being seized on suspicion that they were acquired from proceeds of crime. Our client further informs us that they vide the said guard, agreed to meet the officers at their office the following day. Your officers further requested our clients to avail them with the documentation relating to the motor vehicles which they agreed. We as a law firm were then engaged for the purpose of engaging your team to resolve the impasse.

However, before the documents could be availed, your officers maliciously issued a statement to the media purporting that the 31 motor vehicles seized were ambandoned and a purported manhunt has since been launched for the owners of the vehicles. This is despite the fact that the vehicles were seized at a known place and your officers were communicated to through the guard as they refused to directly contact our client, the owners. The position adopted by your officers is not only appalling but it is an attempt to prejudice our clients claim on the motor vehicles that they legally procured and imported into the country in accordance with the Customs and Excise Act Chapter 322 of the laws of Zambia. Our client are and were at all material times the bonafide owners of the motor vehicles. We hereby enclose copies of the Bill of lading, proof of payment to the sellers and customs documents as proof thereof.

By reason of the foregoing and in view of the documents duly availed to your office, we have instructions to demand as we do now the immediate release of the 31 motor vehicles to our client.
Kindly note that should you fail to abide by the said demand, we shall proceed and seek legal recourse to which all incidental costs shall be borne by yourselves should you be found liable.
In the interim, kindly acknowledge receipt by signing and returning the accompanying letter hereof.

Yours faithfully

MYM Legal Practitioners
A member of International Bar of Lawyers

C.C Attorney General