Maravi

LETTERS - Workers' safety, Nevers Mumba, Cousins

Workers' safety
By Concerned Citizen
Sunday July 08, 2007 [04:00]

Magande’s comments about the Chinese investors not exploiting Zambian people cannot go without comment. I’m Zambia living in England and I definately heard what the finance minister said. Its actually amazing that such an educated man doesn’t know what is happening in his own land. What is he saying, that the government didn’t hear about people who died in Chambeshi at the mine being run by the Chinese?

What is going to take for the government to realise we are losing lives and people in the name of investment. Chinese people compromise the safety of our people and no one seems to care.
I would really like to know among other people that want to know, what was the verdict on the investigations at Chambeshi mine where over forty people died?

Its very painful to hear people that in the forefront of running our country pretend not to know how the safety of miners is being compromised. Please our government you may not be directly involved with people whose lives are at risk, but these are Zambians and brothers and they need protection and if it means getting rid of people that are exploiting us, so be it. I rest my case and wait to hear what the government is going to do about it.



http://www.postzambia.com/post-read_article.php?articleId=28767

The Church and good governance
By Malama Sokoni
Monday July 09, 2007 [04:00]

The former vice-president Dr Nevers Mumba is at pains that a response to a fellow member of the clergy should be done in the public domain but has no option since that is the avenue that Rev Thomas Lumba chose when he wrote in The Post of July 6, 2007 a letter under heading “Attacking the Church”, intentionally directed at Dr Nevers Mumba; even when other means existed for Rev Lumba to seek clarity upon what he was misinformed about.

It is hoped that Rev Lumba will appreciate that the former vice-president has a duty to maintain his public image and as such his letter will be responded to in order to set the record straight.
The Church and indeed the nation are aware that when Dr Mumba responded to the call for entering politics, Rev Lumba in his capacity as Director of the Evangelical Fellowship of Zambia (EFZ), was the first to condemn his fellow clergy and relentlessly sought to influence the Church in general and other faint-hearted Christians against Dr Mumba.

However, the tide has changed and it must be very hard for Rev Lumba to live with the fact that the Church in general has realised their role in governance issues and will not be cowed down into silence by voices like his.

Unless Rev Lumba is a stranger to Zambian politics, he must know that Dr Nevers Mumba was actively involved in fighting the third-term campaign, then as President of the National Citizens Coalition (NCC) and worked in close collaboration with the Oasis Forum, participating in various activities and sharing the podium with several political, civic, religious and ordinary citizens who at the time felt aggrieved. As Republican vice-president, Dr Mumba collaborated very well with His Excellency President Patrick Mwanawasa SC, in ensuring that the present-day constitutional process was embarked on and has been diligently committed to this process even before then. It is erroneous for Rev Lumba to mislead the nation by alleging that Mumba was not there when the Church was voicing out for a better constitution.

Contrary to what Rev Lumba is insinuating, Dr Mumba has a record of being committed to the cause of justice and utmost service for his country. Therefore, it becomes morally incorrect to assume that the former Republican vice-president would not have the audacity to speak the way he did had he been in MMD and at worst that is very cheap political propaganda and religious manipulation by Rev Lumba.

Dr Nevers Mumba is alive to the fact that the church mother bodies have played a very important role in the life of this nation. His message to the church members was for them to develop interest in issues of national importance in order to acquaint themselves with the constitutional process and others important national issues.

It is therefore the duty of all Church mother bodies to motivate their members to interact with documents such as the present Constitution and the Willa Mung’omba Draft Constitution and that is what responsible citizenship demands. Dr Mumba has a lot of regard for the church mother bodies and the Churches in general and would never want to antagonise the Church in the process of national building. Dr Mumba is alive to the fact that the Church can do better and his advice was never construed to disparage the effort made by the church in general in the past. Rather, it was to implore the Church to become more proactive.

We take Rev Lumba’s attacks as being emotionally driven but we are wise enough to note at this stage that in the struggle to better our nation, some of our colleagues will betray the cause and choose to condemn everything that comes into contact with their sight. Rev Lumba finds himself in this position due to gross misinformation and misunderstanding that can only be blamed on him as a person.

Unfortunately, his illusion is such that misunderstanding has become understanding to him because he has decided to misunderstand. They say that if the only tool you have is a hammer, everything else looks like a nail, and unfortunately that is Rev Lumba’s predicament. It is therefore possible that according to Rev Lumba, Dr Nevers Mumba will never say or do what will please him.
This is often the case when people like Rev Lumba who were absent from the meeting will want to comment on a meeting he did not attend and that is why we find it hard to appreciate his input because not even the article covering Dr Mumba’s message to the Christian fraternity warrants such a reaction from Rev Lumba.

This is equivalent to trying to collect the smoke, leaving the fire and is strange because it is coming from a senior member of the clergy. So then what is Rev Lumba’s problem with Dr Mumba that he deliberately ignored the importance of interacting with facts and hence reacting to a good message out of context? They say envy digs the mud which jealousy throws at success and that is the conclusion of Rev Lumba’s reaction.

That said, Dr Mumba wishes to maintain the same position and further encourage the Church that it can do better, in ensuring that Zambia gets to the promised land.





http://www.postzambia.com/post-read_article.php?articleId=28769

Moral decay
By Mobbray Mwewa
Monday July 09, 2007 [04:02]

I would like to remind Kalikonga Singogo who is insisting on marrying his niece that we are human beings and not wild animals.

It is only wild animals which cannot distinguish between a brother, sister, mother, father, uncle, aunt, niece, nephew and cousin. The only distinction wild animals can draw is between male and female. This man should know that if he has already had carnal knowledge of his niece he is insisting on marrying.

To me this marriage he is insisting on is worse than homosexual marriage. How can your biological sister become your mother-in-law? This is what it will come to if this man goes ahead to marry his niece.
Worse still, the offspring from this marriage will be his sister’s grandchildren. How can the grandmother of my children be my sister? This is not normal.

Does Singogo realise the embarrassment he is causing to the family and mankind as a whole? My advice is that the elders in this family should stand firm and stop this rot.

Labels: CHINESE, FDI, FIRST COUSIN MARRIAGE, NEVERS MUMBA

posted by MrK @ 3:43 AM