Nigeria: Is Halliburton Bribery Case Dead?
27 June 2010
Lagos — With the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) getting more active and showing greater courage, the impression that there are still fat, sacred cows strutting the grazing field of corruption is disappointing.
As the Commission vigorously investigates the Siemens bribery scandal with the interrogation of some highly placed Nigerians, it is a mockery of justice that it has no-go areas in the investigation and prosecution of perpetrators of financial crimes and corruption-related cases.
One would have expected the Commission to handle the high-profile Halliburton bribery case with its renewed vigour. But no, the Commission said last week that it would not revisit the controversial case unless it is so directed by the Presidency.
The Commission initiated the investigation of the case and had progressed it steadily, but its spokesman said it is a no-go area because " a Presidential Committee headed by the office of Inspector-General of Police is now in charge."
The late President Umaru Yar'Adua set up a Presidential Committee in 2007 to take the case off the EFCC. The Committee headed by the then Inspector General of Police, has EFCC Chairman, and representatives of the National Security Adviser, State Security Service and National Intelligence Agency as members.
Its terms of reference, among others, are "to establish the extent of involvement or culpability of any Nigerian in the bribery scandal and the sums of money allegedly paid out to any person in Nigeria by Halliburton as bribes in respect of the Bonny LNG Project; and to liaise with the Swiss authorities with a view to tracing and recovering any sum stashed in Swiss banks for the benefit of those involved in the Bonny Liquefied Natural Gas Project bribery scandal."
Between then and now, while many Nigerians have been sentenced to jail or have been kept behind bars to await trials over far lesser offences; while various reports have revealed Nigerians suspected to be involved in the scandal, nothing seems to be happening.
The bribery scandal began in 1994, when the NLNG board under the chairmanship of MD Yusuf, opened bids for the award of contract for the Liquefied Natural Gas Project in Bonny, Rivers State. A consortium of four companies - Technip of France, Snamprogetti , a subsidiary of ENI SPA of Italy; Kellog of the United States later known as KBR and Japan Gasoline Corporation, which was registered as TSKJ, bid for the contract with BCSA. TSKJ is a subsidiary of Halliburton. TSKJ subsequently won the contract for $1.8 billion in September, 1994.
However, the lid over the bribery scandal that influenced the contract award to TSKJ was blown open in June, 2003. Further investigation into the Nigerian deal was opened in France in October, 2003, where it was deposed at the hearings that Jeffrey Tesler, a 60-year-old British lawyer, was the intermediary between Halliburton and the Nigerian government, who channelled the bribery money through Tri - Star Investment Limited owned by him.
All that is public knowledge now! Also of public knowledge is Tesler's confession in court that the payments he made included two transfers amounting to $75,000 to Yusuf, then chairman of the LNG, that awarded the original contract to the consortium. His testimony showed that the bribe was used to secure Yusuf's support in facilitating a meeting between TSKJ officials and the late Sanni Abacha.
Why Nigeria should dilly-dally with such a high profile case, with a big impact on the country's image and its attraction as an investment destination, has become a sad statement on its anti-corruption efforts.
Labels: CORRUPTION, HALLIBURTON, LIQUID NATIONAL GAS, NIGERIA, OIL
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Tell nation how you will clean up voters’ roll, Lubinda tells ECZ
By Moses Kuwema and Christopher Miti in Chipata
Wed 07 July 2010, 17:40 CAT
PATRIOTIC Front (PF) spokesperson Given Lubinda has called on the Electoral Commission of Zambia (ECZ) to explain to the nation how they intend to clean up the voters roll before the 2011 general elections. In an interview, Lubinda said there was much more that the ECZ needs to do if next year’s elections are to be free and fair.
“ECZ should ensure that all the glaring areas are clarified because the credibility of an election lies in the events leading to and the announcements of results, how is ECZ cleaning up the voters roll? People who have moved to other centres, how will ECZ capture these people? For those that have moved to other areas, what is happening to their voter’s card? If ECZ is getting them what assurance is there that they won’t be manipulated? And if ECZ is not getting them what assurance is there again that they won’t be manipulated? Lubinda asked.
He said there was need for the ECZ to come out clean on these matters.
And Lubinda has said it is the duty of the government through the ECZ to encourage people to register as voters and not political parties.
“The Rupiah Banda government has heard the complaints from the ECZ about lack of money, so can we please give them money for them to sensitise people to vote…it is not the duty of political parties to sensitise people to register,” he said.
Lubinda said government should release sufficient resources in order for the ECZ to carry out its duty.
“It is a pity for the ECZ to be complaining that officers from ZANIS Zambia National Information Service are not sensitising people because they want allowances, but these are the same people who are running around following Rupiah Banda, so let government release enough money to sensitise our people,” he said.
Meanwhile, Lubinda has said it is unacceptable for police officers to be taking photos of people who want to obtain National Registration Cards (NRCs).
Reacting to a front page picture which appeared in The Post on Saturday, where a police officer was photographing youths who went to obtain NRCs at Kalundu Basic School in Lusaka, Lubinda said the practice has to be stopped.
“It is totally unacceptable and it has to be stopped because we can’t have a referee in soccer to be a goal keeper, police have a different function clarifying that indeed this person lost their NRC,” he said.
He said there was no justification for the Ministry of Home aAffairs to use police officers to take photos for the NRCs.
And Chipata district has registered 1,847 voters in the ongoing voter registration exercise.
District electoral officer Golden Banda who is also Chipata town clerk said the people have been registered from the time the registration exercise commenced on June 21st.
Banda said 1,367 were new voters while 480 were those who replaced their voters cards and other details.
He said there were more people that have registered in rural areas like Kasenengwa, Chipangali and Luangeni than urban places like in Chipata central.
Banda said the exercise that started on a low note was not picking up.
“I think there is an improvement from the time we started and this is because of publicity,” he said.
Eastern Province UPND chairperson Paul Thole said the current voter registration has received low publicity.He said a lot of stakeholders were supposed to be involved in the sensitization programme.
“Unless you involve the stakeholders and the local radio stations, above all even the traditional ceremonies which we normally have if these also can be used to publicize the voter registration to capture a lot more people,” Thole said.
He said government should be able to listen to people’s advice on the voter registration.
Nyimba’s Ngozi ward UPND councilor Paul Daka said some rural people were not aware of the voters registration exercise.
Daka who is the only UPND councillor in Nyimba said the voter registration needs a lot of publicity especially in rural areas.
Labels: ECZ, GIVEN LUBINDA
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Hansungule rules out possibility of new constitution before 2011
By Ernest Chanda
Wed 07 July 2010, 04:00 CAT
PROFESSOR Michelo Hansugule has observed that there will be no new constitution anytime soon considering the processes that have to be undertaken. In an interview, the South Africa-based human rights law lecturer expressed disappointment that from the beginning, the government and National Constitutional Conference (NCC) had never treated the constitution-making process as a serious matter.
“The NCC has been bedeviled with so much controversy from the time it was launched that by now, one would have expected authorities that be to have started listening to the public. Why should Zambia be such an unfortunate country when it comes to good governance?” Prof Hansungule lamented.
“The draft constitution even when submitted to the Minister of Justice has to undergo several processes. We have about four articles that have to undergo a referendum, plus the entire Bill of Rights before the document is submitted to Parliament. The NCC also has to send a team to go round the country explaining the document to the people. And already the 40 days is almost halfway done. With all these and many other considerations, it is not possible to have a new constitution any time soon. Once again our money has been wasted by an arrogant government and NCC team.”
Prof Hansungule appealed to President Banda to shelve the rest of the constitution and pick a few critical clauses that should be used in next year’s general election.
“Surely, President Rupiah Banda must rush through necessary amendments and extend the period in the spirit of the principles so obviously implicit in the whole idea of a constitutional review. In fact, an extension of the entire process, without extending the NCC seems inevitable. Given the looming elections not so long from now, the atmosphere would be too poisoned to have balanced discourse on the country’s basic law. The NCC should immediately be disbanded for the extremely bad work it has done,” Prof Hansungule demanded.
“Only one or two clauses that can expand and extend our democracy need now go to Parliament for enactment, the rest later. In particular, 50%+1 for the presidential election as earlier recommended by people should be enacted into law so that next elections are held on this basis. The rest of the document should be shelved till after elections and more importantly to allow for effective participation of people.”
Prof Hansungule wondered how prepared the NCC had been before they launched the draft constitution to the public.
“As I was deep in the rural areas of Ethiopia on Tuesday 22nd June when NCC chairperson Mr Chifumu Banda launched the documents, I could not, of course, be privy to the information. However, as soon as I discovered this on Friday, June 25th, I quickly visited the websites in question, and, to my disappointment, I only found the Draft Constitution on the NCC website. As I write, the summary of the resolutions have not yet been posted to the websites,” Prof Hansungule said.
“The NCC has sat for all these years and now it gives us forty days to comment on the documents, which are not there within forty days. Why is Zambia so unfortunate to have such bad arrogant governance? What Mr Banda and government are doing is similar to a poorly prepared incompetent teacher who puts the class in an examination room, announces that the examination will last three hours but says examination papers are still being awaited! Zambia cannot be this hopeless. It should have dawned on someone in the government by now that giving people forty days to read through and acquaint themselves with largely unavailable large and voluminous documents printed in foreign language is equivalent to an arbitrary deprivation of the elementary right of participation.”
Labels: CONSTITUTION, MICHELO HANSUNGULE, NCC
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Sata warns Kunda over ACC Act
By Chibaula Silwamba
Wed 07 July 2010, 04:02 CAT
Patriotic Front leader Michael Sata yesterday warned that even if Vice-President George Kunda waters down the ACC Act, there are other laws that will be used to catch him and his corrupt colleagues who abuse their offices in the current government.
And Sata challenged the government to explain why presidential spokesperson Dickson Jere stopped the Times of Zambia from publishing the story about President Rupiah Banda’s private meeting with his Chadian counterpart Idris Deby in Mfuwe last month, instead of demanding an apology from him, which he will not do.
Meanwhile, Anti Voter Apathy Project (AVAP) executive director Bonnie Tembo has urged Zambians to stand up and oppose Vice-President Kunda’s attempts to weaken the Anti Corruption Commission (ACC) Act.
Commenting on Vice-President Kunda’s threats against Katuba MMD member of parliament Jonas Shakafuswa with arrest and imprisonment when the latter questioned government’s motive for removing the offence of abuse of office from the revised ACC Act during last Friday’s Vice-President’s oral question and answer session in Parliament, Sata vowed that the clause would be reinstated.
“These criminals are preparing for themselves. Even if they remove it, it takes less than two minutes to reinstate it. And there are other offences. They might remove it from the Anti Corruption Commission Act but there will be other Acts. There are so many laws which will catch them,” Sata said.
And Tembo wondered why Vice-President Kunda was so jittery about the abuse of office clause in the ACC Act that he wanted it removed.
“If the government wants to tamper with the clauses that add value to the ACC Act, I think the citizens have the right to stand up to say, ‘we say no to this’ because we have been crying for political will. We know that the fight against corruption is being supported by the donors, who President Banda is saying, ‘we didn’t ask them to help us’. The British are giving us resources to fight corruption,” Tembo said.
“Government should not do that and we must commend Shakafuswa for showing patriotism and being courageous and say, ‘this is what is happening’. And even for the Vice-President to become so jittery, I was surprised. Why should he become so jittery? Is he part and parcel of the scheme? I believe that we ought to ensure that all these clauses that are meant to protect this country are protected and are not tampered with.”
He said former president Frederick Chiluba, who was acquitted of corruption charges in August last year but convicted in the London High Court, was the architect behind the ploy to eliminate the ACC.
“If we are not careful, we may have the whole Anti Corruption Commission removed because I know that the coming of Chiluba, he was not happy about the ACC itself,” said Tembo.
“It was in 1980s when then president Kenneth Kaunda thought the need to fight corruption. So the political will was developed in the early 80s that we need to have the Anti Corruption Commission put in place and this Commission, I am sure, it took time for it to spread to all the provinces. So what is happening now is like undoing what Kaunda did.”
Meanwhile, Sata vowed that he would not withdraw his statement that President Banda met President Deby.
“Why have they taken so long? Why didn’t they deny immediately? It was President Banda’s spokesperson Dickson Jere who stopped the Times of Zambia from publishing that story and a very senior official from the Ministry of Foreign Affairs confirmed that story to the Times of Zambia. Dickson phoned the Times of Zambia from Mfuwe, instructing them to drop that story. Even when you The Post exposed this, John Phiri Times managing editor complained against his colleagues at the Times, saying someone was leaking information to The Post. So what are they talking about? Why come and deny today, what are they hiding?” Sata asked.
“The Chadian government has not complained, the Libyan government has not complained, why B.Y Mwila? They even forgot that Dickson had earlier denied that the Chadian President had visited Rupiah in Mfuwe. Three weeks later, they ask State House chief of staff Austin Sichinga to dispute the story again. Before issuing that press statement, Sichinga should have found out from Dickson why he stopped the Times of Zambia from publishing that story. Anyway, the question is, what has come up now that has forced them to deny the story once more? Where were Vernon Mwaanga and B.Y three weeks ago when this happened for them to start issuing useless statements now? This shows you how State House is disorganised. They are just exposing themselves more and more.”
Sata said National Democratic Focus’ only parliamentarian, Ben Mwila, was just a job seeker.
“Since when did B.Y Mwila become a government spokesperson or party spokesperson for MMD? Tell Mr Mwila, it’s not a lie and it will not be withdrawn,” said Sata.
“B.Y is just trying to get a job because his friend Lundazi UNIP parliamentarian Mkhondo Lungu has got a job as Minister of Home Affairs. He is fighting Mkhondo Lungu because Mkhondo Lungu has got a job. We know B.Y has become so desperate. We know even the role he is playing in arranging and facilitating for some of the so-called documentaries being shown on television by the MMD.”
Mwila had demanded that Sata apologise for allegedly lying that President Banda met Deby in Mfuwe last month.
Labels: ACC, BONNIE TEMBO, CORRUPTION, GEORGE KUNDA, SATA
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TIZ quizzes govt over weakening the ACC Act
By Chibaula Silwamba
Wed 07 July 2010, 14:50 CAT
TRANSPARENCY International Zambia (TIZ) has demanded that the Rupiah Banda government rescinds its intention to tamper with abuse of office clause in the Anti Corruption Commission (ACC) Act.
In response to a press query on government’s manourvers to remove the clause from the revised ACC Act, which is due to be tabled in Parliament, TIZ executive director Goodwell Lungu said if the government would not reverse its decision, it would be another direct act of the current government that lacks political will in the fight against corruption to completely bury the little hope that is there in fighting corruption.
“Transparency International Zambia (TIZ) wishes to advise government to immediately rescind its intention to tamper with section 37 of the current Anti Corruption Commission (ACC) Act number 46 of 1996 if at all they have indeed done such an act,” Lungu said.
“We say so bearing in mind that the current Section 37 of the ACC Act gives powers to the Commission to ‘investigate any public officer where there are reasonable grounds to believe that such public officer is in possession of unexplained property’.”
He said as TIZ, they believed that Section 37 in its current form was very important in the fight against corruption and in ensuring that public officers do not acquire wealth or property to which they fail to account on how they acquired the same.
“If anything, this section needs to be strengthened. We are worried if at all this issue is true that these are the tactics that Dr. Frederick Chilubas regime also did and weakened the 1996 ACC Act by removing a section that provided for the protection of informers/whistleblowers,” he said.
“We are also aware that in terms of Section 99 of the Penal Code, Chapter 87 of the Laws of Zambia, “Any person who, being employed in the public service, does or directs to be done, in abuse of the authority of his office, any arbitrary act prejudicial to the rights or interests of the Government or any other person, is guilty of a misdemeanour. If the act is done or directed to be done for purposes of gain, he is guilty of a felony and is liable to imprisonment for three years’.”
Lungu said much as the offence of abuse of authority of office was provided for in the Penal Code, the provision under the ACC Act was better as it did not only provide for abuse of authority of office but also being in possession of unexplained property.
He said, it was, therefore, TIZ’s considered view that any progressive drafting of the revised ACC Act should not only retain Section 37 of the Act in its current form but also strengthen it.
“This is more so that much as the offence of abuse of authority of office is covered in the Penal Code, this law is enforceable by the Zambia Police Service as provided for in the Criminal Procedure Code, Chapter 88 of the Laws of Zambia,” Lungu said. “We are currently aware that the Zambia Police Service which is supposed to enforce this section has in the recent past come under a lot of attack for unprofessional discharge of their duties.”
He said TIZ wondered if government, by removing Section 37 from the revised ACC Act, was not trying to compromise and weaken further the fight against corruption.
“This action if true needs to be reversed before the Bill is presented to Parliament and if this is not done, this will be another direct act of the current government that lacks political will in the fight against corruption to completely bury the little hope that is there in fighting corruption,” he said.
“We thus wish to advise the government that since this law has not yet been taken to the National Assembly for enactment, it will be appropriate for the Ministry of Justice to retain Section 37 of the ACC Act. This will not only prevent the apparent acrimony that the report of tampering with the Act has created but also prevent citizens from believing that the current government under the leadership of Mr. Rupiah Bwezani Banda has completely no political will to fight corruption.”
Lungu said TIZ also recommended that the draft ACC bill of 2004 needed to be discussed by all stakeholders before being presented to Parliament to avoid presenting a weak bill.
Labels: ACC, CORRUPTION, TIZ
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Sharpen alliances to dislodge tired MMD, Ngondo urges opposition
By Christopher Miti in Chipata
Wed 07 July 2010, 04:01 CAT
THE opposition should sharpen their alliances in order to dislodge the already tired MMD from power next year, All People’s Congress president Ken Ngondo has urged.
And Ngondo said the constitution-making process is a futile exercise.
In an interview at his Mbaula Farm last Sunday, Ngondo, who boasted of a bumper harvest, said it was nice to have a PF-UPND pact.
“Last time, I commented that we need a united front in order to dislodge the current government which has overstayed and tired but we need to sharpen our alliances. It’s nice to have a UPND-PF pact, but what does it mean? Come next year, the pact could be different just on the position of leadership. We should sharpen our alliances and choose a particular leader who should lead us to fight this regime which is tired,” Ngondo said.
He said the opposition should do what was done in 1991 when they defeated UNIP.
“Just like in 1991, Chiluba emerged and everybody rallied behind him.
That’s what we need to do,” Ngondo said.
On President Banda’s claim that the MMD was popular, Ngondo said it was normal for a ruling party to profess to be popular.
“Dr Kaunda said the same in 1991, among the outsiders, one leader, a guy like me I saw Dr Kaunda three times at State House and I assured him he was not winning the 1991 elections but he assured me that he was winning. I said to him that I will win Chipata Central but I don’t think you will win yours. What happened? He lost and blamed the women who didn’t vote. It’s normal to be blinded when you are seated there (State House). Ask how many cabinet ministers now have doubts about them (MMD) winning, many,” Ngondo said.
He said there was a big problem with politics of appeasement in the country.
“As long as I have a job, I have to praise the boss, if I don’t I will lose it. Isn’t that the case? Let’s see when we get closer to elections whether it will be the same attitude, whether people will have the same guts like they are having now because there had been so many problems, you know it and you can see it,” Ngondo said.
“I think even the old man Rupiah Bwezani Banda can see a lot of red in front of him, is it a lot of red or red card? Why are they afraid of the red card? They have been red-carded by other people, isn’t it?” Ngondo asked.
He said Fr Bwalya was a good young man whom he had no quarrels with.
And on the submissions to the draft constitution, Ngondo said many people who supported the constituent assembly which turned to be NCC were very disillusioned.
“President Levy Mwanawasa meant well, but he was also skeptical because I was one of those advocates who had the last say in having the NCC. The man (Mwanawasa) told us that you can call it anything, a constituency assembly, NCC or whatever but his officials, like the Vice-President, they are the ones who have manipulated the draft constitution and this forty days they have given (to make submissions on the draft constitution), they don’t tell us when it started because as political parties we never even received the draft constitution,” Ngondo said.
He said he was sure that even the district commissioners did not have copies to give to the people.
“You go to NCC secretariat, they say you should go to government printers and buy a copy. How can people buy a copy which is a public document? When millions were spent on the NCC! What should happen is that the period should be extended and, secondly, we already made our wishes known to the Mung’omba Constitution Review Commission, which this NCC has taken out. Things like the human rights issues, they are not there, they have removed the 50 per cent plus 1; all the things that were suggested by people, they have been removed,” Ngondo said.
“…people will repeat the same things and are they going to consider them? This is how insincere the whole exercise has become; they are concentrating on conditions on presidential candidates to be a degree holder. Who told them? The people of Zambia should choose who they want to be their leader and that’s discrimination like what they did to Dr Kaunda,” Ngondo said.
He said the draft constitution should not be accepted for the sake of the 2011 elections.
“The draft constitution is for the future because time is not there to do justice to it,” said Ngondo.
Labels: KEN NGONDO, MMD, PF-UPND
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President Banda appologises to HH
By Chibaula Silwamba
Tue 06 July 2010, 17:00 CAT
PRESIDENT Rupiah Banda on Tuesday apologized to UPND leader Hakainde Hichilema and the Indian community over mwenye statement.
In a statement issued this afternoon by special assistant to the President for press and public relations Dickson Jere, President Banda regretted the statement he made in Ndola in which he made reference to Hichilema’s wife, Mutinta, and consequently brought her name into politics.
“The President said it was not his intention to bring the name of Mrs Hichilema into politics by the comments he made at Ndola International Airport when he addressed his supporters. Further, President Banda said the context in which he inadvertently used the term mwenye did not deliver the intended message,” Jere stated.
“What the President meant was that for cultural or religious reasons, some Asians do not expose their wives in public and that is understood. However, the President has realized that he should not have made that statement, which has been misconstrued.
“Nonetheless, President is sorry and has regretted his statement and has unreservedly apologized to Mr Hichilema and his family.”
Jere stated that in the same vein, President Banda had also apologized to the Asian community for his statement.
“President Banda believes in equality of all races and therefore regrets that his statement has given the impression that he was a racist or against the Indian Community in Zambia. The President has, once again, unreservedly apologized to Mr Hichilema and the Asian community for the statement,” stated Jere.
On arrival at Ndola International Airport on Friday, President Banda said Hichilema needed to reveal a lot about himself before he could ask Zambians to vote for him as President.
“Who has even seen a picture of Hakainde’s wife in the newspaper or even a picture of him playing with his children? Why is he hiding his wife? Nimwenye? Is she an Indian?” asked President Banda.
Bu Hichilema expressed disappointment at President Banda’s racial statement.
“I respect all of them races but here is a President who does not respect certain races. Beyond his promotion of a tribal agenda, he is now extending this abuse into racism. An Indian is a human being,” said Hichilema.
He said his wife was never involved in politics and wondered why President Banda wanted to drag her into petty political talk.
“The President chooses to abuse my wife,” said Hichilema. “My wife and I discussed this matter this Sunday morning and we agreed that she will not respond to the President’s invitation to go and swim in the sewer pond.”
Labels: HAKAINDE HICHILEMA, INSULTS, RUPIAH BANDA
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Expect more dirt from MMD, Hichilema warns Zambians
By Mwala Kalaluka
Wed 07 July 2010, 04:01 CAT
UPND president Hakainde Hichilema yesterday warned Zambians to expect more dirt from the MMD against their perceived opponents as the country approaches 2011 general elections.
And Hichilema said the ongoing voter registration exercise by the Electoral Commission of Zambia (ECZ) is chaotic and the beginning of rigging.
Addressing the press at the UPND secretariat in Lusaka yesterday, Hichilema said the UPND were aware that MMD was circulating alleged ‘dossiers’ purporting that UPND and what he referred to as small parties were going to form a coalition with the MMD ahead of the 2011 general elections.
“We are all aware that the MMD has begun a vicious propaganda machine against those of us who I call genuine opposition. You have seen a lot of documentaries. I think there was one yesterday on Muvi TV,” Hichilema said.
“There were also two others particularly dealing with Mr Sata and I understand there is one coming on me. I am ready for it. You are also aware of the vicious attacks coming through the public media; Daily Mail, Times of Zambia.”
Hichilema said this heightened propaganda was seen from how some people that had been in PF and one person who was in the UPND had become darlings of ZNBC, where they were being given sufficient airtime to attack the Pact. He said now that the MMD had realised that the Pact was not breaking, it had changed its propaganda tactics.
“They can’t,” Hichilema said. “I have had sight of that document they will be circulating.”
Hichilema said the MMD was now taking the propaganda documents to Michael Sata, his colleague in the Pact, so that they create an impression in Sata’s mind that Hichilema was an insincere person. But Hichilema said the MMD propaganda would not get anywhere.
“You will remember when you see these documents. I have had discussions with my colleague Mr. Sata over the weekend. He told me how in PF they have been infiltrated,” Hichilema said.
“The Pact is here to stay with any propaganda or no propaganda, and we will not change our position because if we change our position we are arming the MMD to rig us out of an election.”
Hichilema said the Pact had once again caught President Rupiah Banda and his MMD napping and exposed.
“I am preparing you that ahead of 2011, there will be a lot of dirt. There is a lot of money that is going to be dangled in front of you,” Hichilema said.
He said the way the MMD was behaving ahead of the 2011 polls was a signal of a regime that was going out, and that it fitted one Tonga saying that the elephant gets vicious in its dying minutes. Hichilema said the MMD’s propaganda against the UPND would not work because people were thirsty for change and they would not tolerate anything that diverted the process of change.
“So, try something else, sir!” Hichilema told President Banda.
He urged the UPND and PF membership to be strong and not waiver amidst the propaganda and intimidation from the MMD.
“They will send people to sit with us in our structures. They will send people to sit with PF in their structures, as we discussed with Mr. Sata. Please ask yourselves are you going to be the one to kill the agenda?” Hichilema asked.
“If you are not convinced about the Pact, ask more questions and also tell us about the alternative. But what is the alternative? To rule with who?”
Hichilema reiterated that there was no way he could agree to form a coalition government with President Banda’s MMD, as the MMD propaganda machine portends, because he does not agree with their leadership style.
“That is cheap (propaganda), completely cheap. It will not get anywhere. We entered into the Pact with all our hearts and minds. We looked into the history,” Hichilema said. “We are not going to do that, to go into 2011 with a divided opposition. Yes, they can have the other small parties. After all, the division has already been created.”
Hichilema asked his members not to sell their souls to the MMD and not to be convinced by wrong convictions.
He said the people of Zambia had waited for 12 years for change, and that they could still do so for about 11 months to bring about the change they wanted.
“Together we shall make it,” Hichilema said. “Frankly speaking, I think that Rupiah Banda is lazy. I think he is not serious about running this country…can I go and work in a government that is extravagant?”
And Hichilema said it had become clear that the ECZ was spending little time to register voters in areas that were seen to be opposition strongholds when it had given an impression that the exercise was for three months. Hichilema said this was the beginning of the rigging of the 2011 elections.
Meanwhile, Hichilema said President Banda’s government wants to remove the ‘abuse of office’ crime from the ACC Act because it wanted to ensure that come 2011 when it got out of office, they would have laws that would shield them from going to court for corruption.
Labels: HAKAINDE HICHILEMA, MMD
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Rupiah is the real number one mambala - Syakalima
By Chibaula Silwamba
Wed 07 July 2010, 04:01 CAT
PRESIDENT Rupiah Banda is the real and number one mambala in Zambia, UPND Siavonga member of parliament Daglous Syakalima has charged. And Syakalima said President Banda, who is supposed to be a marriage counsellor at 73 years of age, was an extremely disappointing old man who had been badly brought up.
Commenting on President Banda’s statement that UPND president Hakainde Hichilema was a crook and that his wife had not been seen in public, making him wonder whether the opposition leader could be married to a “mwenye” – a derogatory reference to an Indian, Syakalima advised the head of state to stop making derogatory remarks against other Zambians.
“He President Banda is the real mambala crook. He was doing umambala crookedness when he was in Namboard. That Zamtel saga is umambala saga. The Chiluba acquittal is umambala saga. Wanting to bend the Anti Corruption Commission Act to remove abuse of authority or abuse of office clause, those are all signs of umambala,” Syakalima said.
“So we can classify him as the number one mambala in this country. I don’t think that he should be calling others mambalas crooks when he knows that his rule from day one, in fact, his adoption as presidential candidate for MMD was umambala. So from day one, even when he was sworn in up to today, nobody sees something good about his government apart from flying around, which does not bring anything to the Zambian people.”
He alleged that President Banda’s attempt to stifle international donors’ demand for accountability by his government in the use of the funds given to Zambia was indicative of his crookedness.
“Wanting to scare away the donors when you know very well that you depend on them for our health system is umambala. If those people stopped giving us money, wouldn’t that be umambala when your people continue dying?” Syakalima asked. “He must stop talking about HH in such a manner.”
He said President Banda should set an example instead of being disrespectful to matrimonial lives of other citizens.
“The mere fact that HH’s wife is not appearing in newspapers the way he is appearing... Did we know first lady Thandiwe ourselves before he became President? She was just some obscure teacher in Chipata,” Syakalima said.
“So if he doesn’t see HH’s children in the newspaper, did we know his old children apart from now when they were involved in RP Capital scandal? Also just saw them when he took a backload of his relatives and children for a holiday in Mfuwe. That is when we saw them.”
He said the President must respect other politicians’ wives and stop dragging them in issues they did not know about.
Syakalima said he was extremely disappointed with President Banda’s conduct towards Hichilema and his wife, Mutinta.
“So would Banda want me now to go and show him my wife in order for him to prove that I have a family? He must be a cultured old man. Where we come from, that is not the way we behave. He is culturally wrong on that. So if somebody wanted to have a family counsel, can you go to Banda who is talking like that? I wouldn’t,” Syakalima said.
“Not only is he a head of state but he is also an old man. That is what is disappointing. If the Presidency has gone into his head, let him stop talking about other people’s families. I think he is the one who was badly brought up. But you know, we always say in old age maybe you can forget about your old habit but they say ‘old habits die hard’.”
Last Friday, President Banda, on arrival at Ndola International Airport, said Hichilema had no right to accuse the government of corruptly privatising Zamtel because he is a man who acquired his wealth through privatising 18 companies.
“Who has even seen a picture of Hakainde’s wife in the newspaper or even a picture of him playing with his children? Why is he hiding his wife? Nimwenye? Is she an Indian?” asked President Banda. “He has no brothers, no sisters, no uncle, acokela kuti wamene uyu mambala? Where does this crook come from? Perhaps he had a quarrel with his father and that is why he has no respect for old people.”
Labels: DOUGLAS SYAKALIMA, INSULTS, RUPIAH BANDA
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EAZ urges translation of reduced inflation rate into benefits
By Fridah Zinyama
Tue 06 July 2010, 18:00 CAT
THE Economics Association of Zambia (EAZ) has said the drop in rate of inflation should translate into a meaningful improvement in the lives of poor citizens.
And University of Zambia (UNZA) economics lecturer Webby Wake said the reduction in the rate of inflation from 9.1 per cent in May to 7.8 per cent in June is going to strengthen the purchasing power of the general citizenry.
The reduction in the rate of inflation in June is mainly attributed to the decrease in some food prices such as mealie-meal, maize grain, fresh vegetables and dried Kapenta.
The annual rate of inflation recorded in June is the lowest rate that the country has recorded in a long time.
In an interview, EAZ national secretary Isaac Ngoma said although the reduction in inflation was a positive development, it should translate into the growth of the economy, job creation and a reduction in poverty levels in the country.
“It is also important that ways are found in sustaining this low inflation rate,” he said, adding that inflation targeting was worrisome as it does not affect the people on the ground.
Ngoma said the low inflation rate was good for the country as it would attract investment in key sectors of the economy.
“Inflation is a major macro-economic indicator which is used to attract investment,” he said. “But the worrisome thing that might take away from this positive development is the high pump price for fuel which the country is currently experiencing.”
Ngoma said it was worrisome that production was being affected by the high fuel prices which the country was currently experiencing.
“Something should be done about the high fuel prices such that if inflation drops it should also be due to a drop in the cost of production and not just a decrease in food prices,” he said.
Ngoma observed that the drop in inflation in June was mainly attributed to the decrease in food prices as this is the harvesting period and not to any other factor in the process of production.
“We have produced a bumper crop and people are still consuming what they have harvested but if the country offloads the surplus crop, we might experience higher prices once the harvesting period is over,” he said.
Ngoma said it was very important for the country to diversify its agricultural production to other sub-sectors like livestock and dairy production which can be used to grow the economy.
“It is also important that our currency also appreciates so that it has compounding purchasing power in order to allow the ordinary people to buy basic needs,” said Ngoma.
And Wake said the drop in the rate of inflation for month of June was good for the business community, as a high inflation rate was very disruptive to planning.
“Due to an increase in the purchasing power, there is going to be an increase in demand for imported goods which might affect the country’s balance of payment if the country is not exporting more goods than it is importing,” he pointed out.
Wake said this might also affect the local currency, as demand for the dollar might increase as people wish to import more products.
“But this might not be the case if all goods were produced locally,” he said.
Wake added that the drop in inflation in the month of June was an indication that the country’s economy was on a path to true recovery.
The effects of inflation on an economy are manifold and can be simultaneously positive and negative.
Negative effects of inflation include a decrease in the real value of money and other monetary items over time; uncertainty about future inflation may discourage investment and saving, or may lead to reductions in investment of productive capital and increase savings in non-producing assets like selling stocks and buying gold.
This can reduce overall economic productivity rates, as the capital required to retool companies becomes more elusive or expensive.
And high inflation may lead to shortages of goods if consumers begin hoarding out of concern that prices will increase in the future.
Positive effects include a mitigation of economic debt relief by reducing the real level of debt.
Labels: EAZ, UNZA
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More jobs coming at Lumwana
By Staff Reporter
Tue 06 July 2010, 18:10 CAT
Lumwana is projecting a copper output of about 135,000 metric tonnes this year
MORE than 10,000 jobs will be created in addition to the existing 3,800 in Lumwana’s North-Western Zambia on the border with Angola following the government’s decision to sign a Statutory Instrument allowing Lumwana Mining Company (LMC) to operate the historical Lumwana Multi Facility Economic Zone (MFEZ).
Company managing director Adam Wright said during the launch of the LMFEZ, “the economic activity that shall come out of the LMFEZ is aimed at benefiting the local economy and not Lumwana as a company directly.”
Wright said the company was projecting that up to US $50 million will be pumped into the zone by various local and international investors once it is operational.
In addition to the US $50million that Lumwana was envisaging will be brought into the zone in the initial stage of operations, commerce minister Felix Mutati who officially signed the SI said the government had sought further investment in the facility to increase the number of people that shall benefit in the area.
“On our part as government we have convinced Japanese company Hitachi to come and set up a manufacturing plant,” said Mutati, “they have agreed to invest about US$10million in starting the plant that shall create lots of skilled well-paying jobs.”
The LMFEZ, a brain child of the Equinox owned company, is part of the company’s plan to help Zambia in its bid to diversify into sustainable projects which shall complement the mining activities that have breathed a new life to the province in particular and Zambia in general.
Among the industries expected to operate in the zone are agro processing, petrochemicals, construction, manufacturing and hospitality among others according to Mutati.
The zone by virtue of location—near DRC and Angola—is also expected to increase trade integration with the two neighbours and therefore expected to generate substantial amounts of foreign currency for Zambia.
It is the first such zone to be operated by a mine in Zambia and Lumwana is doing this in a bid to be a responsible corporate partner to the Zambian government whom it thanks for having given it the opportunity to do business in the country.
The company is projecting a copper out-put of about 135,000 metric tones in 2010.
Labels: LUMWANA MFEZ, MFEZ
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Luapula: sleeping giant
By Chiwoyu Sinyangwe in Mansa
Tue 06 July 2010, 18:00 CAT
At the risk of being misunderstood to be championing religious cynicism or tribal fascism, I can say that the natives of Luapula Province will, one day, have to answer before the Creator for allowing the province to be so poor and desperate despite its vast natural resources endowment.
Perhaps, the first person to take issue while agreeing with my statement would be Charles Kabamba, a local businessman of Luapula, who declared that “now is the time for Luapula to start moving.”
To lay my case bare and probably preaching to the already converted, the profile of Luapula Province reads as follows: The province is located in the Northern part of the country and covers an area of 50, 567 square kilometers, about six per cent of the total area of Zambia.
Luapula shares its borders with the Democratic Republic of Congo in the south, South-Western and North, in the east with Northern Province and in the South-east with Central Province.
From Lusaka, the province can be accessed either through Central Province via the Tuta Road or through the Copperbelt via the infamous Pedicle Road – our modern ‘Hell run.’
The four major physical features of the province include the valley along the Luapula river, the plateau running parallel to the river in the north-south direction, then lake Mweru in northern Chienge and Nchelenge districts and Bangweulu in Samfya district. The last characteristic feature of Luapula Province is the swampy areas to the east and south of Lake Bangweulu. And the beautiful and clean white sand makes the Samfya beach on Lake Bangweulu one of the best beaches in the world, a prime area for any type of resort facilities.
In fact, 30 per cent of Zambia’s water resources are in Luapula…talk about abundant water resources, one would be excused to state this water haven has been nothing but a curse in some countries who boast high aqua concentration. Zambia is a case in point because despite the country boasting 40 per cent of water resources in Southern Africa, this advantage continues to be a mere piece of statistics, at worst, a curse.
Perhaps Luapula is not very different from Zambia if viewed from that perspective.
The vast water resources of Luapula provide potential for all economic activities associated with responsible or is it sustainable water usage, apart from, of course, excessive plunder of fish species.
The province is estimated to be sitting on hydropower potential of 950 megawatts, thanks to its large number of rivers and numerous waterfalls.
Name them…the Lumangwe water falls in Kawambwa, affectionately called the Young Victoria Falls due to its stark resemblance to the mighty Victoria Falls in Southern Province. There is also the Kabwelume waterfall just a few kilometres downstream. This piece of divine architecture is another spectacle of natural gift which has gone begging for attention and investment. In-between the two waterfalls is a natural typical Savanna grassland which can compete with all the tourism hot spots in the entire Africa…but alas, it is deserted, neglected and poached to the bone!
One only needs to stand in-between the two waterfalls to appreciate the rhythmic sounds emanating from both ends as the Lumangwe waterfall pours its excitement into the Kalungwishi river while the three powerful cascades at Kabwelume, each spilling into the next fall in tune. And there is the Ntumbachushi Falls, also in Kawambwa…
Apart from providing hydropower potential, these beautiful sceneries could easily be transformed into tourism hot spots – only if there is will from the Luapulans.
Despite the heavy poaching that has depleted most game parks in the area, Luapula boasts some animal sites in Lusenga National Park in Kawambwa: the Black Lechwe of Bangweulu Wetlands and the Shoebill stock of Bangweulu Wetlands.
According to the locals, some animals found in the game parks in Luapula include Zebra, Sable, Anetlope, and Elephants…the monkeys of course. I certainly did not get a chance to verify this ‘good news’ as time was not my best ally on this trip.
Lest we forget, the internationally renowned Umutomboko Ceremony of the Lunda people is also found in Luapula.
Away from tourism potentials, the province also boasts huge reserves of mostly base metals, as well as semi-precious minerals. Luapula has enormous reserves of copper ore deposits and several other mineral deposits. Among the prominent minerals in the areas are copper, iron, gemstones, silver, gold, iron, ruby, emerald, green tourmaline, blue sky among others while manganese seems to be trailblazing the growth of the mining sector in the region.
Already, Luapula Base Metals Limited and Genesis Group of Companies, two local Zambian companies have jointly invested US $3 million to develop 3 manganese mines in north-eastern Zambia with a projected annual output of 60,000 tonnes and boost exports to its main market of China.
This is the work of Willie Crook, the managing director of Genesis Group and Kennedy Sakeni, the chief executive officer of Luapula Base Metals Limited.
Crook MD says the JV project wants to ramp up output at its three mines at Kansambo, Kabulu and Kabasa mines in view of the improving global metal prices in the aftermath of the global economic crisis.
Against the backdrop of the activities by JV of Crook and Sakeni, Indonesia's Earthstone Metals Group last April started mining for manganese after it acquired mining rights for three manganese concessions in Luapula Province with a total combined area of 140,000 hectares, and planned to peak production at 1 million tonnes a year within three years.
Simply stand at Mukuku bridge on Tuta Road every late afternoon and watch the number of 60-tonne trucks exiting Luapula and laden with all sorts of mineral ores. Then you will fully appreciate the extent to which mining has developed in the area.
“The mining sector is yet another sleeping giant that needs to be tapped in order for the province to contribute to economic development of the country,” are the words of provincial minister Dr Boniface Kawimbe.
“However, the mining activities need to well coordinated to avoid loss of revenue to the government as well as environmental degradation,” he adds.
Plenty of water, tourist spots and mineral deposits…perhaps Luapula is the only province which can brag about having enough potential to effectively spearhead the development of this country from three fronts: tourism, agriculture and mining.
Despite this seemingly beautiful picture on paper, the reality on the ground for the over 784, 613 dwellers of Luapula province is harsh.
The province is one of the poorest in the country with extreme poverty levels estimated at 69 per cent, the HIV prevalence rate is at 16.5 per cent whereas national rate is at 14 per cent…an experience on the ground reveals hopelessness and despair.
On my latest tour of duty to the province, I joined other journalists from different media houses as we accompanied Zambia Development Agency (ZDA) on its sensitisation tour and interaction with the business community in the area.
The problems retarding development in Luapula province are in the public domain. However, they are not insurmountable. According to Dr Kawimbe, the growth of Luapula is inhibited mainly by poor and weak connectivity infrastructure and lack of power infrastructure.
Although the provincial minister laboriously tried to peddle the issue of attitude among the inhabitants of Luapula, to a large extent, the mighty choir of Luapulans has continued to sing for a long time – at least for current dwellers there.
According to the government and its praise singers, agriculture development in the province has been prioritised with the establishment of the Luena Farm bloc to house large-scale agriculture activities in sugar growing, palm oil growing and banana plantation among other things.
But as Dr Kawimbe would confess: “Just the Luena alone needs about 40 to 60 megawatts to be fully operation and yet as a province, we only produce 13 megawatts...”
Thanks to the indiscriminate plunder of the water bodies of the province, the need to diversify from mono-dependence on the fishing industry has never been more urgent. After all, even if the natives wanted, where would they find the fish in abundance any way? Those days are certainly long gone.
If you are to measure growth of the tourism sector in Luapula by the number of lodges – I mean classic lodges springing up in the area, especially in Mansa which boasts two classic lodges: Teja Executive Lodge and Henry Courtyard with a combined investment of over US $3 billion, one would certainly think the ‘Visit Luapula campaign’ is taking shape.
But as the owners of the exclusive lodges confirm separately, most room occupants are business travellers, prospective mine investors, and of course, government officials on official duties.
Very few are flocking to Luapula for tourism. At least if the statistics from the two lodge owners are anything to go by.
The potential of the province needs to be harnessed as a matter of urgency and to achieve this, it will require pragmatism and realism…no room for fantasies and praise singing.
“The first thing is the decision by the business community in Luapula to exploit this potential in the province and then wealthy creation will happen,” Kabamba says. “There is always time for everything and now is the time for Luapula…”
According to sources on the ground, apart from the mineral resource-hungry Asians pouring into the province, the Russians are touting to pour their Ruble into rubber plantations and also hydropower developments.
Granted, Zambia’s growth in most sectors has been characterised by poor planning and lack of leadership from our ‘able’ leaders as everything is left to the whims of foreign capital in the name of Foreign Direct Investments (FDI). Luapula should pioneer the shift from this ill-conceived economic theory which any first-time visitor to Zambia would be forgiven to think is the only topic taught at economics schools.
As Kabamba rightly put it, “Since we have got people interested in investing in Luapula…then once we cement all these relationships, then we can turn all these potentials into reality.”
FDI is okay but for a change, let the people of Luapula take full responsibility for their own course of development.
I know of enough Luapulans from within and in the Diaspora who are capable of spearheading development in their province.
The time is now.
Failure to act immediately will have grave consequences. It may be just a matter of time before you realise that your right of ownership to the province does not go beyond the information on your green National Registration Card (NRC)!
While most of the time the province is in the media for ‘wrong reasons,’ foreigners are taking possession the province’s most critical area... and single handedly so - not in partnership with locals.
No wonder the province is so insanely highly politicised despite non-activity on the ground… ask the Patriotic Front where the bulk of ‘rebel MPs come from.”
The need for Luapulans to partner with investors going into the area will certainly need a proper incubation machine and a platform.
“We are holding these sensitisation workshops to get the people understand what foreign direct investment means and local participation because…it’s all about partnerships and if the people don’t understand, they don’t accept and that investment won’t be successful, so, there we need to do some work,” says Margaret Chimanse, ZDA communications manager.
According to Chimanse, the seminar drew participation from 148 Luapula-based entrepreneurs. It also attracted input from Investrust Bank Plc, Zanaco Plc, Citizens Economic Empowerment Commission and Bank of Zambia.
“For us, it was a successful seminar,” declares Chimanse.
The government support, through agencies like ZDA, will be crucial in providing a platform for harnessing investments in the area but ultimately, the people of Luapula will need to take full charge of their own destiny.
The talk of establishing a northern corridor, a link from Dar es Salaam to DRC through Luapula and not Copperbelt; the establishment of a stable and lucrative mining sector to contribute to making a dent on high poverty levels in the province; the development of the Multi-Facility Economic Zones at the Levy Mwaanawasa Bridge and subsequent development of the Luena farm blocs to take advantage of the 12.5 million market in Katanga province will forever remain a fantasy and fleeting illusion if the basic fundamental bottlenecks are not immediately dealt with.
In this case, I am talking about power blues and the poor road network linking the province to key markets.
Already, Copperbelt Energy Corporation (CEC) has shown willingness to put up a power line from Copperbelt to Luapula through the pedicle stretch. Certainly, CEC need to be encouraged in this vein while at the same time foster efforts to make Luapula Province self-reliant in power supply – the 950 megawatts the province is sitting on!
By the way, Pedicle Road is only a 68-kilometre stretch which sadly takes two and half hours to be cover in good weather and using a roadworthy vehicle.
For sure, in the abundance of water, only a fool is thirsty…maybe, it is too early for me to take this position?
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Labels: LUAPULA PROVINCE
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Cheryl will be too sick to do X Factor
By The Sun
Wed 07 July 2010, 14:00 CAT
SERIOUSLY ill CHERYL TWEEDY may have to pull out of X Factor this year as she battles to survive the killer disease malaria, it emerged last night. Frail Cheryl, 27, could also be forced to scrap a gig at the V Festival. And her management are ready to put the October launch of her new album on ice.
The GIRLS ALOUD singer spent a THIRD night in intensive care yesterday at a Surrey clinic and faces a six-month struggle back to fitness. Her condition is understood to be worse than feared and she is plagued with headaches and fever.
A source revealed: "It is a lot more serious than first thought. Everyone thought she would pull through after 24 hours but there have been no signs of improvement.
"She is very ill and will not be out of hospital for a while. Everyone is holding their breath.
"Because of her hectic schedule, the malaria has really taken a hold.
"She has not got the physical strength to beat it. She is going to need all of her Geordie grit to win this battle."
Cheryl is now in a specialist unit that deals with tropical diseases.
A source said she was also "hit hard" by powerful medication used to combat the mosquito-borne illness - which can be fatal.
He added "It isn't pretty. There are fears that because she is so delicate, permanent damage has been done to her liver.
"She is so tiny - the medication is hitting her hard."
Cheryl was rushed to hospital on Sunday night.
Dancer pal DEREK HOUGH, 25, has been at her bedside along with her mum Joan Callaghan.
The source said: "Joan is beside herself with worry."
The Sun told yesterday how Cheryl caught the disease on a trip to Tanzania, Africa, with Derek three weeks ago. She took malaria tablets but they failed to protect her.
She collapsed during a photoshoot on Saturday.
Comic Relief advisers were worried by her tiny physique when she joined a charity walk up Tanzania's Mount Kilimanjaro last year.
Labels: CHERYL TWEEDY, MALARIA
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WATSON K. LUMBA,
MEMBER OF PARLIAMENT- SOLWEZI CENTRAL
MAIDEN SPEECH TO PARLIAMENT
Mr. Speaker, Sir, I rise to make my maiden speech in this august House.
Mr. Speaker, Firstly, I want to begin by thanking you most sincerely for giving me this opportunity to deliver my maiden speech to this august house.
Secondly I want to salute and say thank you to the people of Solwezi Central Constituency. It is my honour and previlege to represent and serve them all as their Member of Parliament. I express my appreciation to them and my commitment to work conscientiously towards the achievement of our shared objectives.
I thank the many supporters, of various political thinking, who supported our candidature, the United Party for National Development (UPND), the Patriotic Front, MMD Party members who were not able to come out in the open, and particularly the longstanding and dedicated electorate committee workers who have stood with us and worked so tirelessly. This result is a credit to their efforts. I see it as a portent for 2011. To the other candidates, I thank them for providing me and my party a tough contest. They fought and marshalled a tough campaign and I was declared the victor because of them. To the many hard working people of Solwezi that worked tirelessly for the other candidates, I wish to thank them for their earnestness. I want to say to them that I will be their Member of Parliament too, and will represent their interests as vigorously as I can. I look forward to working with them all.
Mr. Speaker, I also thank the President of my Party, Mr. Hakainde Hichilema, his colleague Mr. Michael Sata, of the Patriotic Front, my Campaign Manager Honourable Katuka and the entire leadership of the UPND/PF Pact, for their confidence in my candidature and for tirelessly directing an informed, issue based and spirited campaign. The unity shown by the UPND/PF members from the top leadership right down to the grassroots portends well for the future of this country.
Mr. Speaker sir, Allow me to thank my wife, Patricia and daughter, Racheal, my family, and my close friends—people whose love and support I have depended on. Finally, above and under all this is God’s love and enabling grace. I am grateful to the Almighty for this privilege to serve his people in this way.
Mr. Speaker, as Member of Parliament for Solwezi central, I follow a string of illustrious predecessors whose political history and contribution to this country is immense. There was Mr. Humphery Mulemba, Dr. Ludwig Sondashi, inter alia, who served Solwezi Central Constituency with distinction. Allow me now to pay particular homage to the memory of my immediate predecessor, Honorable Benny Tetamashimba, who passed into eternity in September 2009. Mr. Tetamashimba will be remembered as one of Solwezi Central Constituency’s great Members of Parliament. I honor his memory (MHSRIP).
Mr. Speaker, deciding to enter politics didn’t come natural to me. Some of my family members and close friends argued against it. “What are you thinking?” they asked. “You’ve got a family, a successful career, why jettison all that for a life in politics?” Their view reflects the same frustration any attentive listener hears across Zambia, that our politics is not listening or responsive to people; that out politics is “dirty”. My decision ultimately came down to believing that I can make a real and positive difference—something that has motivated my life; and something that I have done elsewhere.
Mr. Speaker, I wish to pick, for my extended discussion the state of politics in our country. Politics is about power. It is about the power of the state. It is about the power of the state as applied to individuals, the society in which they live and the economy in which they work. Most critically, our responsibility in this Parliament at Manda Hill is how that power is used: whether it is used for the benefit of the few who have access to power or to the many who give those few the power. In this my first speech I want to speak on the fundamental principles that I believe should govern the exercise of political power and the reasons, therefore, that I am a member of the United Party for National Development (UPND) and why I have sought election to this parliament. I want to speak on how these beliefs shape my approach to some of the great policy challenges now facing our young nation. I also want to speak on some of the practical problems facing the local community that I am now privileged to represent in this august house. I believe that ideas are important, Mr. Speaker. Ideas shape behaviour — the behaviour of governments, of bureaucracies, of business, of unions, of the media and of individuals. As is it written in the old Book of Life, the Bible: “Whatever a man thinks, so is he”.
And as a noted Economist John Maynard Keynes wrote in his General Theory:
“The ideas of economists and political philosophers, both when they are right and when they are wrong, are more powerful than is commonly understood. Indeed the world is ruled by little else. Practical men, who believe themselves to be exempt from any intellectual influences, are usually the slave of some defunct economist.”
Keynes notes here that we are all influenced by some ideas. The crux of the matter is whether those ideas are founded on sound ideas or based on some false notions.
Debate, therefore,is about fundamental ideas, particularly ideas about the how political power must be used in developing our young nation and the proper role of the state in the economy and society, is critical to an informed discussion on policy in this House. Unfortunately, this is lacking. For as long as I can remember, it has become fashionable in our young country to accept that politics do not deliver sustainably and lack imagination; the notion that hard work doesn’t pay; the death of principled positions; the triumph of neoclassical economics which are less understood even by their proponents; and the politics of non-issues which are devoid of any discernable ideological position. We continue to waste time and resources on non-issues. Put crudely, it is the degrading view gaining ground in our nation that says “forget the ethics and morals, everything goes, the end justifies the means”; and also that “everything is up for sale at the right price”. In Solwezi, however, the concept of the highest bidder secures clearly failed. Politics on this argument becomes little more than theatre—a poorly staged public performance necessary to convince the electorate that the country is moving, or needs a new management.
Mr. Speaker, I disagree, and I disagree fundamentally. I believe that there remains a fundamental need for us as a people of Zambia to clearly define and articulate our national interests that transcend party affiliations. Under girding such national interests should be ethical and moral issues that include setting for ourselves to honor virtues of hard work, honest, trustworthiness and decency.
I believe that there remains a fundamental need for us as a people of Zambia to clearly define and articulate our national interests that transcend party affiliations. Under girding such national interests should be ethical and moral issues that include setting for ourselves to honor virtues of hard work, honest, trustworthiness and decency.
Mr. Speaker, at this stage in our national development, it is unavoidable that politics plays a very important role in determining the direction of our young country. And this is precisely where the use of the political power becomes very important. Our people want to move from underdevelopment to development.
Individually, this is a lifetime journey. But for politics to lead, it must of necessity contain some basic fundamental moral values and correct knowledge. How can we hope to develop when our politics are used not to serve the larger public good but the people in politics? How can we move this young country forward if we do not possess the basic understanding of the sound tenets of governance such as democracy, liberty and economics? Mr. Speaker, the rest of the world is marching on forward through globalization, with or without us. If Zambia will not stand up to be part of this march, it will be sucked in nonetheless.
How have we done in the past few years on this account of making progress? Admittedly, Zambia has made progress, but it is the progress that we should be ashamed of because we could have done much more. Progress in some areas, like in growth in the trade and non-traditional agriculture sectors, has been negated by backslides in the quality of education and health systems amongst others. I wish to suggest Mr. Speaker that this is due to our failure to articulate clearly our national interests and putting these in priority. Our fate as a nation is bound together and no section of our society can prosper sustainably while leaving behind the vast majority of people in ignorance and abject poverty. This is where ethical politics come in. Our government has a role of ensuring that we begin to put in place an organized Zambia. Why is it that as a country, we are more disorganized now than pre-1991? My view is that we have wrong politics.
Mr. Speaker, allow me to digress and give some aspect of my life story that inspired me to seek to serve the people. I come from a family of 14. My father, who is 79 years old and he has spent the last 40 years as a pastor in the Christian church. Growing up in that family, we were taught, as many in this house I am sure were, values and virtues rooted in scripture that called on us to love God first and then our fellow man. I therefore believe that without a sense of wanting to serve fellow man, man used generically to include woman, politics becomes devoid of its soul. But how can one serve man without love for him/her? And how can one love man without the love of God, the giver of true love? Mr. Speaker, I strongly believe that service to our fellow Zambians and our country should be informed by principles of virtue that will once again make our people proud of themselves. It is only when we believe that we can and should take care of our neighbours that we will have a fearless energy to drive this country forward. With this, we must reject an infamous proclamation of one of the leading western leaders of the last two decades when she said that “ there is no such thing as society.”
Mr. Speaker, Zambia has natural vast resources that we need to harness. But I fear that the Government is taking too much of a minimalist interest in the management of the exploitation of these resources, and the income therefrom. We had better take charge and control of proceeds from these resources or else we are doomed. I am sure it is clear to us all Mr. Speaker, that the often heralded foreign investors will leave Zambia one day once these resources are finished. And we will be left with large holes in the ground and serious environmental issues. My call is that politics and leadership should be used to get our fair share of these resources.
Mr. Speaker, as people, we are all the product of our own experiences and the ideas with which we have been confronted. These are the simple experiences and unremarkable beliefs which cause me to sit proudly here rather than on the benches of those opposite. I believe unapologetically in an active role for government in leading the development of this country. I believe that this activist role should have, as its foremost guiding principle, a commitment to equality of opportunity that is real rather than rhetorical. It is a principle that should permeate all that we do in education and health, water supply and sanitation and mining, to mention but a few sectors. I also believe that the government must actively look after those who, through no fault of their own, cannot look after themselves. Our economy is small and weak, and therefore I believe that the government while fostering its growth must regulate it.
I also believe that any government in power should not just turn in on itself, but instead have a fundamental responsibility to pursue the public good, first locally, then internationally, in the promotion of national and regional security, democracy and economic development and the protection of the planet. These are the fundamental beliefs that continue to drive our Party. Ours is a dynamic, and not a static, movement. Our beliefs are clear but their applications to the policy challenges facing the nation require creativity and experimentation. Our Party is a combination of experience and youth. Through this it possesses the intellectual horsepower and the policy craft necessary to carve out an alternative vision for the nation as well as a program of action for the realisation of that vision.
Mr. Speaker, We are not afraid of a vision in the UPND, nor are we afraid of doing the hard policy work necessary to turn that vision into reality. Parties devoid of any ideological stand (and by ideology we mean a well thought-out political and economic system) will tend to react to issues; are caught unawares by the obvious and offer no solutions to the complex challenges of the 21st century. If Zambia must survive in this century, we need new thinking.
We are a decade in this new century, the nation is confronted with an array of opportunities and challenges of bewildering complexity in the economy, in education, in the environment, in the collapse of our local communities, in the structure of the local government and, perhaps most importantly, in the deepening contempt with which the institution of political infrastructure, is held. We are at present in a period of unprecedented global economic developments which at the same time are uncertain, driven by fundamentally unstable international financial markets. To meet these challenges, we need new politics and new thinking people in government who are dedicated and imbued with moral-ethical political and intellectual energies.
The first fundamental challenge for this country is to learn to feed ourselves. Feeding ourselves is fundamental to anything else that we may wish to do. It is not only a matter of national pride and confidence but of national security as well.
The second fundamental challenge facing our nation lies in our nation's education system. Education is both a tool of social justice as well as a fundamental driver of economic development. I believe that the nation needs a revolution in its education system. We have state curricula of highly variable quality and a decline of critical subject areas such as science. Some schools teach science without laboratories. We have a demoralized teaching profession whose energies are now dissipated in school administration and fee-driven tuitions rather than in syllabus delivery. We can call for and receive all the foreign direct investment in the world, but with an ill-educated population, we will reap the whirlwind.
I believe that if we are serious in our national rhetoric about having the next generation of Zambians attaining and driving a middle income country by 2030, then we must, through the school system, equip them to do that. I understand that my remarks will be met by the inevitable chorus of, `There is no money,' but I ask the question: `As a nation, can we afford not to?' I believe that equity and economic development demand it. In a global economy, a first-class education is one of the few forms of real security that the state can provide to its citizens. An educated citizenry may be the main key that we need to make progress as a people.
Mr. Speaker, Zambia once had an enviable position regionally and internationally. Lusaka used to be a must-stop destination to influential world leaders. Our first and second republic leaders stood shoulder-to- shoulder with their peers. Not only did we pride ourselves on our achievements, but we were also respected as an effective international citizen. This is no longer the case and we ask ourselves: “what happened?” The answer may again be related to our current politics. We have allowed ourselves to assume mental dwarfism that refuses to think critically and beyond our narrow self interests. We are content to visit political Tuntembas translated as tea cants or prefabricated sheet corner stores when we can get more from political malls with their polished knowledge. To get back to that place requires leadership—leadership that the current government appears demonstrably incapable of providing. Our future challenge is to build across this nation a robust domestic constituency in support of Zambia's future international engagement, one that will not be neglected by inferiority complex.
Mr. Speaker, I am in this place, first and foremost, as a representative of my local community, Solwezi Central Constituency, which has done me the great honour of electing me as their representative. My time here will be dedicated representing the interests of, the humble and hardworking people of inter alia in Kiafukuma, Kimasala, Kamiteto, Kyawama Mushitala, Zambia Compound Sandangombe and Kapijimpanga.
In these communities, there are three main challenges that I wish to bring here.
The first of these is health. The existing health infrastructure is poor and inadequately equipped. The health centres are also sparsely distributed resulting in people walking long distances to access them.
The second issue is poor road infrastructure. We all know the poor condition of the Chingola – Solwezi Road. This road should pay for itself given the economic activities of the two towns that it links. The other roads are equally in poor condition and need urgent attention to facilitate the rapid economic activities taking place.
The third issue is the low access to clean water supply and sanitation. Many people depend on hand-dug wells which maybe unsafe and of a poor water quality. Poor sanitation too is of major concern and is responsible for preventable diarrhoea diseases especially in infants.
As for education, the story is no different. Infrastructure is in a dilapidated state, no desks, few teachers and a very de-motivating learning environment. Community schools have sprung up in many areas but unfortunately these are not regulated and therefore unlikely to be offering education of an acceptable quality.
Mr. Speaker, one of the major employers in my electorate is Kansanshi Copper Mine, which is responsible for hundreds of jobs. The story of the interaction between the mines and the community is a sad one, and I am not seeking to blame anyone but have no choice but to place the blame on someone - the government of the day.
What we are seeing is that the benefits in terms of jobs and other benefits are not being shared equally. I would wish to call on government to look seriously in the matter of how to create a win-win situation between the people of Zambia and the foreign companies exploiting the mineral wealth.
Mr. Speaker, I do not know whether I will be in this place for a short or a long time. That is for others to decide. But what I do know is that I have no intention of being here for the sake of just being here. Together with my colleagues in the UPND/PF it is my intention to make a difference; starting with decent politics; informed politics, and ethical politics.
God bless the Republic of Zambia.
Thank you Mr. Speaker.
Labels: DEVELOPMENT, MINING, NEOLIBERALISM, POLITICS
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Africa's Decade
By Dr. Selwyn R. Cudjoe
July 01, 2010
I don't know who you are supporting for the World Cup but I have picked Brazil although Joel Villafana and some of the Wakka Wakka boys on Channel 6 are rooting for Argentina. When Trinidad and Tobago participated in the last World Cup my second pick was Brazil. Now that we are not there I have no qualms about supporting the samba magicians. As I marvel at the grandeur of the game and its international reach, I also rejoice at the marvelous job South Africans are doing to pull off this world event.
But do you remember the naysayers who said South Africa could not do it; that it could not finish infrastructural development on time to host this event; could not refurbish its airports in Johannesburg, Cape Town and Durban; build new stadiums in Cape Town, Soweto, Nelspruit and Rustenberg; add commuter rail links, build enough hotels and widen the highways to accommodate the people they were expecting for the games.
This was a monumental task for South Africa. It is estimated that it spent US $40 billion (about six times our annual budget) on infrastructure for stadium enhancement and transportation improvement. A Deloitte report entitled "2010 FIFA World Cup: A Turning Point for South Africa" acknowledged that "a strong technological and economic base put it [South Africa] on a par with the well developed nations of the world." South Africa, a Deloitte spokesman said, "has already realized many of the benefits hoped for by any national host of a major international sporting event."
South Africa is one of the most important economies in Africa and the games are likely to improve that position considerable. Prior to the games Foreign Direct Investments (FDI) in South Africa outpaced the performance in any other African economy. United Nations Conference on Trade and Development (Unctad) World Investment Report of 2008 indicated that close to $9 billion dollars had been invested in South African in 2008 as compared with $5.7 billion during 2007. So that South Africa was on an economic take off before the World Cup began.
However, what seems to be lost on most of us is that Africa has been on the upswing economically for the last few years. Direct foreign investment in Africa rose from $9 billion in 2000 to $62 billion in 2008. From 2000 to 2008 Africa's economies grew twice as fast as they did in the 1980s and the 1990s and as The New York Times reported "African was one of only two regions–Asia was the other–where the collective economy rose through global recession in 2009 by 1.4 percent."
Reports in the Economist are equally as favorable. In its "The World In" five African countries were among the top ten fastest growing economies in 2009 and four were expected to do so in 2010. The report noted that "what is striking initially is that three of the five have begun to exploit their energy producing resources, Angola and Congo gaining high rates due to oil product expansion, whilst Malawi is producing uranium. Madagascar and Mozambique are driven by raw materials in nickel and steel respectively. Angola has fallen from the peak experienced in 2006 where they had just under 20% growth." So that although they started from a small base their progress has been remarkable.
While our eyes have been turned away Africa has been doing some good things. Over the last ten years Africa's growth rate has averaged around 6 per cent a year; the European Union has been around 3%, Asia without Japan at about 5% and South America 3%. The Economist Economy Watch has placed four African countries (Botswana, Republic of the Congo, Angola and Liberia) among the 12 fastest growing economies in 2010. With figures like these, 2010–2020 could very well be an African decade.
The New York Times has begun to hail the progress in Africa. On June 23, 2010 it noted that a new McKinsey and Company Report "paints a much more optimistic portrait of a continent with growing national economies and an expanding consumer class that offers foreign investors the highest rates of return in the developing world." Arend van Wamelen, an author of the report noted: "The growth we've have seen in Africa recently is much more widespread than is generally recognized. There are a lot of underlying good things going on in the economies."
Unctad's recent "Economic Development in Africa Report 2010" has made it clear that the new South–South co–operation in terms of the rapidly developing trade, investment and financial relationships with large emerging economies, including China, have begun to make a difference with Africa. Where prior too, Africa had depended almost exclusively on assistance from the Organization for Economic Co–operation Development (OECD) who channeled their aid into the social sectors, the new Southern partners are more concerned with getting involved in the physical infrastructure and making technology transfers. World Bank figures indicate that in 2006 sub–Saharan Africa received more finance for infrastructural development from non–OECD economies ($8bn) than they did from its traditional donors (5bn).
As we watch our soccer for the next two weeks and listen to the vuvezelas let us understand that Africa has come of age. South Africa is now a member of the G20 and the OCED in recognition of its importance as an emergent market and a leader. It has shown the world it could manage the soft aspects of world power such as managing crime (there was no more crime in South African than there was in Germany four years ago) and keep crowds under control.
There is also a down side. Although its expenditures on the World Cup open up greater capacities forty billion dollars is a lot of money by any standard. Investments in stadiums are known to have limited long–term development benefits. However, South Africa can take heart from the fact that it completed the first section of Gautrin, the first high–speed rail line in Africa. According to Professor James Steward of Penn State University, when it is completed it will "significantly enhance the attractiveness of the industrial corridor between Johannesburg and Pretoria to potential foreign investors."
South African has done us proud. As we enjoy the games we should be cognizant of the rapid strides that are taking place on the continent today.
Professor Cudjoe's email address is scudjoe@wellesley.edu
Labels: SELWYN CUDJOE
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From Independence to Colonial status
Tony Fraser
Published: 30 Jun 2010
We are into a period of national shame and disgrace, calling back the cork hat, the khaki-clad foreigner to lead the natives: Captain Baker on his horse, 48 years after independence, unable as our governments, the political directorate and the elites of the society have been to create a self-sustaining civilisation.
logoAnd this is so notwithstanding the fact that interdependence is demanded of 21st century nations. But as Lloyd Best would have said: a civilisation has to have something in hand, a culture, and a set of national institutions to be recognised as having self-worth in the global village.
This column, in holding to the position that the job of the CoP is one of those which should be held by a national, makes no apologies to the view that competence and not nationalism is the objective required to select a Commissioner of Police. Indeed, those who take that position do so having already concluded that competence and foreign go hand in hand; as do local and incompetence and incapacity. As indicated in last week’s column, selecting a CoP is about demonstrating national capability and confidence in nationhood; it is about cultivating a civilisation. The recommendation to install a foreigner, with four others in the line behind him, is indicative of a retreat from independence. Unfortunately, the Police Service is not the only example of this form of non-self. After 35 years of having a local for an archbishop, the Catholic Church here was taken back to colonial status having an American installed as leader, with scraps of an argument being offered for a rationale.
To lead the multi-billion dollar state construction sector, we had a foreigner; to refloat an airline, we imported a series of foreigners; we have had individual foreigners and management companies take charge of winning and processing of water. After the sterling and creative performance of Gally Cummings as local coach, inserting a local cultural self into the football and taking us to the brink of qualification for World Cup 1990, we back-tracked in the decade of the 1990s and beyond to find foreigners where ever we could rather than build on the legacy of the Strike Squad. Interestingly, this return to learned helplessness is occurring while energy multinationals such as BP, BG and BHP have placed locals in charge of their operations here. The said locals have pioneered in previously marked-off areas of complete foreign control, such as the construction of off-shore platforms. The multinationals have greater faith in our locals than we do. The gravity of this shameful incapacity to rise to nationhood was highlighted on Friday last as the MPs in the House of Representatives realised to the nation the “bad law” passed by a previous administration, and agreed to by the entire Parliament, without a murmur from the society.
But it is not just a matter of bad law; it is law passed with the deliberate intention to contract a foreigner because of the colonial frame that believes that when there are problems, this neo-colonial society could not possibly handle such matters and has to turn to foreigners. But the disaster does not end there. The Police Service Commission, through inadvertence and/or incompetence, did not eliminate two people with prior knowledge of the process from competing unfairly against others. Prime Minister Persad-Bissessar has said that the implications, both in perception and possibly law for such incompetence, are potentially dire. The problems of this country have been the result of incompetence, corrupt and self-seeking politicians at the top of the social and political ladder and those without the capacity to liberate the society from its colonial history. That is not xenophobia; it is a statement that indicates that our people, derived from the great civilisations of the world, have got to stop being seen to be incapable of governing ourselves in the basics of modern society.
This is a comment not on the senior officers in the service, but rather on the politicians and bureaucratic class of rulers who have not been able to overcome their deep sense of being second-class. “They could not say what federation meant. They are unable to say what independence means,” observed CLR James in his assessment of the middle class in office in the 1960s. It remains true in the early 21st century. But to clinically understand why the law was passed is to appreciate that the Manning government reached to the point of seeking a foreigner for the office of CoP after it completely misunderstood, mishandled and politicised criminality in the society. Instead of facing the reality of growing criminality, the then government went into denial: people being murdered amounted to mere collateral damage; the kidnappings were being faked; the opposition was colluding with criminals. At a second stage, the government began to openly engage with known criminals, it sought their assistance in electoral campaigns, public works programmes were turned over to the criminal enterprise, and the then Prime Minister went public with a commitment to hand state lands over to insurrectionists.
An hotelier was put in charge of national security as the Prime Minister minimised the importance of expertise and experience to handle the portfolio. For over five years he did nothing to replace a minister who had not achieved results. These were among the major factors which allowed criminal activity to grow and take hold of the society in the manner it has over the last decade; not the suggested incapacity of a local as CoP. But the previous Prime Minister and government do not have complete responsibility for the failures. What of the voices of the Opposition of the day when the legislation and rules and procurement procedures were being adopted? Whey did they not warn the national community of what the government was attempting. In similar manner, the local media failed to systematically analyse the unfolding events; ditto for the intellectual elites. But the present Parliament cannot hide behind “the law.” Parliament is sovereign and must find a way out without subjecting the country to this indignity. One way is to install one of the local deputies to act as CoP for a year while the legislation and procurement procedures are being fixed.
Labels: NEOCOLONIALISM, TONY FRASER
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COMMENT - Time for sanctions against Rwanda? Oh, I forgot, President Kagame is a staunch ally of the US and UK. Don't hold your breath for any campaign to get rid of 'the Tyrant Kagame' any time soon.
Rwandan Elections: Kagame Regime Orders Torture and Arrest of Opposition Candidates
by Ann Garrison
Global Research, July 5, 2010
Embattled Rwandan presidential candidate Victoire Ingabire Umuhoza reported that officers of her FDU-Inkingi Party are being tortured in a Rwandan prison and that Kagame has now arrested and tortured Theogene Muhayeyezu, her Rwandan lawyer.
Listen to AudioIt seems that no lawyers, neither Rwandan nor foreign, will be able to defend Victoire Ingabire Umuhoza without themselves facing arrest by the Kagame regime, which arrested and incarcerated William and Mitchell Law Professor and international criminal lawyer Peter Erlinder for alleged "genocide ideology," after he traveled to Rwanda to defend presidential candidate Ingabire against the same charge. "Genocide ideology" is a vague Rwandan statutory crime, which means disagreeing with the official history of the 1994 Rwanda Genocide, or, it often seems, disagreeing with the Kagame regime.
Erlinder, is back in the United States, after three weeks incarceration in Kigali, speaking out about Rwandan President Paul Kagame, whom he accuses of ordering the political assassinations that triggered the Rwanda Genocide, costing a million Rwandan lives, then racketeering to control the mineral wealth of neighboring D.R. Congo, at a cost of more than six million more lives. Rwanda, Ingabire reported that officers of her FDU-Inkingi Party are being held and tortured in a Rwandan prison and that Kagame has now arrested and tortured the Rwandan lawyer who took Erlinder's place.
Umuvugizi journalist Jean Leonard Rugembage was gunned down outside his home on the day of last week's arrests, right after reporting that Kagame had ordered the attempted assassination of Rwandan exile General Kayumba Nyamwasa in Johannesburg, South Africa. Rugembage's Umuvugizi Editor, Jean Bosco Gasasira, who fled to Uganda, accuses Rwandan President Paul Kagame of using violence, assassination, arrest and torture to remain in power, and says that the US and UK are the leading donors supporting his regime.
"The US and the UK are the main donors to Rwanda, but unfortunately, they are quiet," Gasasira said. "We are really desperate and we are really disappointed by their silence."
Rwandan Police Chief Eric Kayiranga denied the allegations of torture and said that those who remain in prison are visited regularly because the prison does not provide food for them, which means that they have been getting food from those who visit them every day.
Ann Garrison is a frequent contributor to Global Research. Global Research Articles by Ann Garrison
Labels: GENOCIDE, JEAN BOSCO GASASIRA, JEAN LEONARD RUGEMBAGE, PAUL KAGAME, POLITICAL VIOLENCE, RWANDA
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DPP unmask intentions for a ‘Mutharika dynasty’
By Nyasa Times
Published: July 7, 2010
The northern region has been turned once again into a testing ground for the gurus in the ruling Democratic Progressive Party (DPP), who have started selling the name of young brother to President Bingu wa Mutharika, Professor Peter Mutharika (pictured), as heir to the presidency of Malawi after his brother vacates the office in 2014.
On June 20th. 2010, the party invited three senior party members from each of the northern region’s six districts to converge at St. John of God Hall without pre-announcing the agenda of the meeting.
According to an inside source at the meeting, Local Government and Rural Development Minister Goodall Gondwe, touted Peter –Justice and Constitutional Affairs minister – at the meeting as the right person to take over from his older brother Bingu.
“I have known Professor Mutharika for the last 51 years,” Gondwe was quoted as saying.
Next to speak was Ephraim Chiume who is Deputy Minister of Natural Resources and Energy.
Nyasa Times source says Chiume was blunt, saying that the development projects that have been started by Bingu in the north can only be completed if he is replaced by his younger brother, Peter.
DPP regional governor for the north, Ancent Nkhata, told the younger Mutharika, who was present during the rally, that the only stumbling block in the region is the Livingstonia Synod which has been antagonizing the Bingu administration over a number of issues.
“We can assure you, Sir, that we are equally religious people and we will explore other avenues to counter the synod,” said Nkhata.
There were however mixed reactions from the members after the meeting who were told to start spreading the candidature of Peter Mutharika in their respective districts. Most that came said they needed more time to consult.
DPP officials were given envelopes containing money for the campaign.
The Malawi media which is currently operating with its tail between its legs has been aware of the events surrounding the meeting but failed to muster enough courage to carry any news item for fear of reprisals.
These meetings are happening in the context of a fierce succession struggle between the president’s brother and the Vice President, Joyce Banda, who considers it her rightful role to succeed the incumbent.
Labels: BINGU WA MUTHARIKA, DPP, GOODALL GONDWE
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