COMMENT - More arrogance and adamancy of the Minister. There is only one reason not to tax the mining companies, and that is corruption. Dr. Musokotwane, during his stint as non-executive director of ZCCM-IH, did not manage to collect one cent in dividend payments, even though foreign mining companies owe hundreds of millions a year in dividend payments to ZCCM-IH. Now he is the finance minister, he is shielding them from paying a billion a year taxation. At best, he is a fool who has lost any credibility, at worst, he himself is deeply corrupt. Japan did not develop because it "attracted as many investments as possible". That is complete nonsense. Domestic producers in Japan are heavily protected from foreign competition. There are no US, German or Italian car manufacturers in Japan. In all of East, South and Southeast Asia, government owned businesses dominate the economy. Japan and Korea's Keiretsu and Chaebol are heavily government supported. The difference between Asia and Africa, is that in Asia, the economy is owned by Asians, while in Africa it is owned by Europeans, Americans, and Australians, and now Indians and Chinese. That is why Zambia is not benefiting from foreign investment, and you don't even need a PhD to know and understand that you do not benefit to any great degree from businesses you do not own.
Musokotwane labours to win audience over windfall tax
By Chiwoyu Sinyangwe and Salim Dawood
Sun 07 Nov. 2010, 04:01 CAT
FINANCE minister Dr Situmbeko Musokotwane on Friday night said people pressuring the government to raise taxation from the mining sector to enable the country benefit from current copper boom are preaching economics of the 1960s.
And veteran mineral economist Dr Mathias Mpande said there is need for the country to transform and reposition itself by focusing on attracting quality investments which should be taxed to benefit everyone.
During the Christian Council of Zambia (CCZ) and Press Freedom Committee of The Post (PFC) organised public discussion at Golden Bridge Hotel, ordinary citizens took Dr Musokotwane to task on why the government was under-taxing foreign investors in the mining sector.
The mining sector, the country’s economic mainstay contributes 9.7 per cent to the country’s gross domestic product (GDP), about 80 per cent of the foreign exchange earnings, while tax revenues to the Treasury stands at a paltry one per cent.
Dr Musokotwane was seemingly irked by the number of people who denounced the government taxation policy on the mining sector and perceived favouritism of the mining firms at the expense of economic benefit to the country.
He said increasing taxation of the mining sector higher than what the government had given would kill the mining sector.
“I have earned no applause…I would actually be very happy to walk out of here without an applause but having imparted something important to you and I believe in the deepest of my heart, with the deepest of conviction with all I have been studying and teaching economics, applause or no applause what I have been telling you is the future of this country,” Dr Musokotwane said.
“I know you disagree. There is internet, please invest time into what’s happening in the world. When I listen to many of you speak, I realise that unfortunately and I apologise, we have lost you behind because you don’t know what has created development and what has made countries to lag behind.”
Dr Musokotwane said debating that foreign investors were responsible for the current economic woes in the country owing to their low contribution to the country’s economic basket was outdated.
“When I listen to many of you, it reminds me of the discussion of 1960s. When I listen to you…the debate in the 1960s is precisely what I am hearing today,” he said.
“‘…foreign investors are exploiting us, they are making us suffer and many African countries including Zambia cast exactly the direction we went. We don’t want investments, they are troubling us, they are making us suffer.’ That is exactly what we did. Asian countries - the likes of Taiwan, Singapore, Hong Kong, Philippines - took a complete opposite view of that. They attracted as many investments as possible. They had lower and stable taxes. Today, where are we? We are still fighting poverty, the Asian countries have moved on. So, when I hear so many of you saying we don’t want investors, we don’t want foreigners, be open-minded, take time to study. If you don’t do that, you are going to regret it.”
Dr Muskokotwane said there was need for Zambians calling for increased mining taxes to read widely and research on countries that were prospering.
“I have been an economist since 1979, reading books, working in other countries. Please take it from me, I am appealing to your hearts, this attitude you have is completely wrong,” said Dr Muskokotwane.
“You can laugh, you can insult me, you are free…If you are going to be like those Chinese, the Indonesians, you have to change your thinking. But I think some day, some of you are going to appreciate this.”
But Dr Mpande said Zambia needed to start attracting investments that need to boost industrialisation rather than continuing to boost copper output.
Dr Mpande explained that as most copper producing countries like Zambia and Democratic Republic of Congo ramp up output in view of the current high metal prices, copper prices were likely to fall from the current record highs of over US $8,500 per tonne.
He disagreed with assertions by Dr Musokotwane that most Zambians were against foreign direct investors.
“We need investments and we need a lot of investments. But we need the investments that the Taiwanese, Koreans, Japanese and Chinese…most of the Germany Mercedes Benz, VW are made in China,” Dr Mpande said. “We want to make transformers here.”
Dr Mpande explained that tax breaks given to mining firms only benefitted the firms' countries of origin.
“We need investments from all sources. We need quality which we shall tax and benefit and everybody else in the world wants to pay tax, including Chinese. If you don’t tax them here, they will be taxed in China,” said Dr Mpande.
Labels: CCZ, MATHIAS MPANDE, NEOLIBERALISM, SITUMBEKO MUSOKOTWANE, WINDFALL TAX
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Abuse of health funds
By The Post
Sun 07 Nov. 2010, 03:59 CAT
Health is an essential right of all men and a responsibility of society as a whole.
We all know the severity of the tragic health conditions that adversely affect the great majority of our people. It is clear to all that the solution for this and other serious problems lies in the elimination of under-development, but a lot can be done right now.
We need to struggle urgently to tackle the present critical situation of health in our country through the massive mobilisation of national and international financial and human resources required. It is absolutely necessary to combat malaria, the leading cause of mortality in our country. There is a crying need to extend health services, train the required technical personnel and guarantee the essential basic medicines which such conditions demand.
And as long as health fails to be considered a fundamental right of every citizen and a duty of the community; as long as the responsibility of the government and of society in regard to healthcare fails to be recognised; as long as inequalities in the distribution of health services fail to disappear; as long as poverty, hunger, ignorance and squalor fail to be directly fought against, little will be achieved in improving the human health in our country.
And special attention needs to be paid to the health of our children. Whatever efforts are made today to protect them, to prevent their death and illnesses, to provide them with food, housing, medicine, clothing and education will shape the basic human qualities of that decisive percentage of the future population of our country. And yet, in view of the present trends, what sort of country will we hand over to those children? What sort of life lies ahead for these children? What will their quality of life be like?
Everyone has the right to a standard of living adequate for the health and wellbeing of oneself and of one’s family. The right to live a dignified life can never be attained unless one has reasonable access to health care and other basic necessities of life. The right to health implies that everyone has the right to medical care when sick. This obliges the government to create conditions in which every person has access to medical services and attention in the event of sickness. This right obliges the government to provide enough funds for preventative healthcare and basic healthcare assistance. This right extends to preventative aspect of health care. This includes imporved nutrition, sanitation, immunization, education on health, improvement of all aspects on environmental and industrial hygiene. This right also obliges the government to pay special attention to epidemic, endemic and occupational diseases. There should be policies oriented at prevention, control and treatment of such diseases. This right also obliges the government to pay special attention to the improvement of health conditions of the children.
Given all this, it is difficult to understand how a government that claims to uphold the sanctity of life can allow funds provided by donors to combat malaria and generally improve the health of our people to be squandered, misused, misapplied, misappropriated or stolen. Many nations throughout the world have generously donated to the Global Fund to help improve the health of our people. But this money has not been used or accounted for properly. People have enriched themselves from such funds, at the expense of the health or lives of our people. What type of people are these who can steal from the sick, the dying?
And as Ray Chambers, the UN Secretary General’s special envoy for malaria, has correctly observed, “It is an integrity duty of the highest moral requirement to ensure that those funds are taken care of and not abused." The irregularities in the use of such donor funds at the Ministry of Health raise a lot of questions about our ethics as a nation.
Life is sacred, a gift from God to be valued from the moment of conception until death. One cannot claim to uphold the sanctity of life if there is no provision for minimal healthcare for all; if funds provided by donors to save the lives of our people, especially the poor and the vulnerable, are allowed to be abused, squandered or stolen .
There is no future development without healthy citizens. And every person, whether rich or poor, has an equal right to receive healthcare. But this will not be possible if money provided for this purpose continues to be stolen. And in most cases, those stealing or misusing such funds are the people entrusted with our lives. These are political leaders and other public officers at very high levels.
Instead of ensuring that our people benefit from such funds, they make it a point to enrich themselves in all sorts of ways at their expense. They find ways to siphon off these funds for their own personal use through all sorts of schemes. Whenever they see that there are funds provided by donors, they position themselves to invisibly become the suppliers of this or that service or goods to the units disbursing such funds. Workshops are carried out in their lodges where exorbitant rates are paid. All sorts of services and equipment are supplied through companies they indirectly own and control or are owned and controlled by their friends or family members. At the end of the day, very little is provided from such funds. The net beneficiaries are themselves. And the politicians in power have never hesitated to abuse funds and other resources given to the Ministry of Health for their election campaigns. Compromised public officers belonging to them are strategically placed to man the Ministry of Health and other units controlling or disbursing such funds and help them to abuse or steal whenever they have something that needs funding. This is one of the most abused ministries when it comes to elections. It’s not only money that dubiously leaves this ministry for elections but also automobiles and fuel. We saw this in the 2001 elections that brought Levy Mwanawasa to power.
Frederick Chiluba used the Ministry of Health to fund Levy’s campaign. And Kashiwa Bulaya played a very key role in all that to a point where when it came to prosecuting him for corruption, Levy and George Kunda connived with Chalwe Mchenga, their Director of Public Prosecutions, to grant Bulaya a nolle prosequi. And today although convicted and sentenced to prison, Bulaya is serving his term in the comfort of the University Teaching Hospital and not Lusaka Central Prison where he is supposed to be. This is what corruption does to the country. We also saw the abuse of Ministry of Health resources in the 2008 elections by Rupiah Banda’s campaign. Ministry of Health automobiles were being used as transport for his image builders and other members of his campaign team. And when all this was happening, the sick in many parts of our country had no transport to take them to hospitals. This is how heartless our public officers can be. This situation should not be allowed to continue because we risk losing the vital international financial support that our health sector desperately needs. Right now we do not have the capacity to finance all our people’s health needs and we have to rely on donor support. But the use of other people’s money calls for very high levels of accountability and prudence in the use of such funds. Failure to meet these expected standards may result in our country losing donor support in this critical sector. If we love our people, especially the poor, we cannot continue to allow such abuses that risk international financing to go unchallenged. With the removal of the abuse of office offence from our Anti Commission Act, we may see an increase – and not a reduction – in the misuse and theft of funds given to the Ministry of Health to combat malaria and other diseases. There is need for us to be vigilant on this score at all times.
Labels: HEALTHCARE
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Rupiah thrives on tribalism - Sata
By Chibaula Silwamba
Sun 07 Nov. 2010, 10:28 CAT
RUPIAH Banda thrives on tribalism and he should not fool Zambians that he abhors it, PF leader Michael Sata said yesterday.
Commenting on President Banda’s statement that tribalism was the most abominable thing that any Zambian could commit, Sata said President Banda was not making sense because he was one of the people campaigning on tribal lines in his homeland of Eastern Province.
“Rupiah was trying to fool the people thinking Zambians are stupid. When he is in Eastern Province, he survives by tribe. When he goes somewhere else, he doesn’t want others to be practicing tribalism. That is typical of Mr Banda,” Sata said.
During the commissioning of the Zimba-Livingstone road on Friday, President Banda said he did not like tribalism.
However, during the 2008 presidential elections campaign, President Banda, then acting President, urged easterners to vote for him because he was their ”own son”. A fortnight ago, he repeated the same message as he appealed for re-election votes in next year’s polls.
And commenting on Konkola Copper Mine’s (KCM) latest contamination of the Kafue River, which is the main source of drinking water for people on the Copperbelt, Sata said the government did not care about the mine’s pollution of the Kafue River in Copperbelt Province because government officials drank water from bottles. Sata said the government had neglected the people that depend on the river for their drinking water.
“They can’t act as a government, they can’t act on FAZ; they can’t on violence in Western Province, they can’t act on the endangering of water, which a lot of people drink in Copperbelt Province because there is no government,” said Sata.
“They are not only neglecting the people of Copperbelt but all Zambians because Kafue River doesn’t start and end up in Copperbelt. Kafue goes right through even here in Lusaka Province. If Kafue is contaminated even people in Lusaka will die. And because government leaders drink water from bottles, they don’t care about the lives of people exposed to contaminated water.”
Labels: KCM, MICHAEL SATA, RUPIAH BANDA, TRIBALISM
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FRA assures farmers over unpaid dues
By Mwila Chansa in Kitwe
Sun 07 Nov. 2010, 03:59 CAT
THE FRA has assured all farmers that supplied maize grain to the agency that they would all be paid their dues by mid-November.
And Food Reserve Agency (FRA) executive director Dr Anthony Mwanaumo has disclosed that the agency has received export inquiries from four Southern African Development Community (SADC) states - Zimbabwe, Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), Botswana and Namibia.
Speaking to journalists after a tour of the FRA storage sheds at Chambishi on Friday afternoon, Dr Mwanaumo said there was no need for farmers to panic because resources to pay their dues were available.
“We’ve paid over K900 billion and we are remaining with about K100 billion. We are going to pay off all the farmers,” he said. “There is no need to panic. By the end of the season, we would have bought slightly over 800,000 tonnes of maize and spent about a trillion kwacha.”
And in response to complaints that the country’s bumper harvest had remained with farmers because FRA had not bought their maize, Dr Mwanaumo said all genuine farmers had delivered their maize to the agency.
He also said immediately after paying off all the farmers by mid-November, FRA would review the season to identify its shortcomings and note areas of improvement.
And Dr Mwanaumo said export prospects were very bright and that the export inquiries that the agency had received were actually more than the maize they had in stock.
He said exports were good because they attracted foreign exchange and enhanced economic growth.
Meanwhile, Dr Mwanaumo said FRA had bought about 1,380 metric tonnes of rice from Western, North Western, Luapula, Northern and Eastern provinces. He added that all rice farmers had been paid a total of K2 billion.
Dr Mwanaumo said FRA also offered to buy cassava from farmers but that no farmer had supplied the commodity to the agency, saying the private sector were probably offering a better price for the crop.
Labels: ANTHONY MWANAUMO, FRA
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Eastern Province party elections divide MMD
By George Chellah
Sun 07 Nov. 2010, 04:03 CAT
PARTY elections have left the MMD in Eastern Province divided. Well-placed sources within the provincial executive committee yesterday disclosed the problems the party was facing in the region.
“In terms of party organisation and leadership, we have serious challenges here. And our provincial chairman Kennedy Zulu has caused all these divisions in the party due to the manner in which he conducted party elections as well as the way he is running the party,” the sources revealed.
“The party has managed to hold just a semblance of elections in all districts except Chadiza and Nyimba. We say semblance because the elections were not democratic and they didn't meet party guidelines. Kennedy was literally filling positions with his own people under the pretext of elections.”
The sources disclosed that Zulu had been planting his own people in most district executives to enable him sail through once the provincial conference is held.
“And it's these manouevres that have left the party in the province divided. For instance, even in the provincial executive committee, Kennedy only works with the chairlady Martha Mulenga and the provincial secretary Ezekiel Mtonga. As for the rest, we are not regarded as part of the executive even though we are bonafide provincial officials,” the sources said.
The sources said the party in the province risked losing some loyal members and sympathisers to the opposition Patriotic Front.
“Since Kennedy wants to run the party here like his own construction company, people are saying that they will vote but they will not assist in campaigning for President Rupiah Banda in the province. A good number of our members have vowed that they will let Kennedy campaign alone since he doesn't listen to anyone,” the sources said.
“People are bitter with Kennedy because it seems he is untouchable and no one can even dare to take him on simply because he is the President's blue-eyed boy. Actually, Kennedy himself even boasts that 'It's only the President who talks to me and no one else.' We have tried to raise these issues with senior party officials in Lusaka but it appears they are all afraid of Kennedy because of his close links with the President.”
The sources urged President Banda to moderate Zulu.
“Our advice to the President is that if they don't manage Kennedy well, this party will not perform as expected in the forthcoming general elections. It’s not a secret that PF is breaking new ground here in Eastern Province and internal squabbles being created by Kennedy may lead to failure in certain districts. This region is the President's stronghold and one expects the President to outdo PF next year,” the sources said.
“But with the way things are going, President Banda here is not guaranteed of a landslide victory. Sata and PF's performance might improve if Kennedy is left to do as he pleases because people are frustrated. The fact of the matter is that PF has seriously penetrated areas like Chama North, Chama South and Nyimba. Even Todd Chilembo, Boniface Nkhata and Forrie Tembo who are the MPs in these areas know that there are problems in their constituencies.”
But Zulu said in any election there were always people that complain.
“Of course, they will recover from their losses. I don't expect everyone to be happy because we all have different interests. I know there are people who feel the elections didn't go their way. That's why we say 'Olila siamugwila pakamwa' meaning don't stop one who is crying. Let them remove all the emotions,” he said.
He denied dividing the party.
“We have done elections in seven districts. In Nyimba, we did elections already and we are waiting for Chadiza. We delayed in Chadiza because of funding problems,” he said.
When asked about his decision to sideline other provincial leaders, Zulu said: “Even the President, who is close to him? It's the Vice-President. So even in the province you work with the closest.”
He also said as MMD provincial chairman, he was senior to the provincial minister. “It’s not that I am close to H.E. His Excellency the President. Every provincial chair is close to H.E. because the President works through the chairman. The provincial chair is senior to the minister. When the President is visiting, it's the provincial chairman that receives him, then the minister. That's why the provincial chair is an ex-officio of the NEC,” he said.
Zulu said he has delivered to the people's expectations.
“We Eastern Province have delivered a President, won two parliamentary by-elections and nine wards across the province,” said Zulu.
Labels: BY-ELECTIONS, EASTERN PROVINCE, KENNEDY ZULU, MMD
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Magande is a frustrated man, says Rupiah
By Sandra Lombe in Livingstone
Sun 07 Nov. 2010, 04:01 CAT
PRESIDENT Rupiah Banda has charged that Ng’andu Magande is a frustrated man who thought Zambia would collapse after leaving as finance minister. But Magande said President Banda is a wrong person to assess him because he never worked under him.
President Banda on Friday before departure for Lusaka at Livingstone International Airport said Magande has no issues to raise anymore. He was commenting on Magande’s statement that he had clearly exhibited stubbornness in dealing with public issues. Magande said Zambia’s current economic gains were as a result of the sound policies that had been initiated by late president Levy Mwanawasa.
But President Banda said: “He Magande has no issues to raise anymore. He lost his job as Minister of Finance and now he wants to take us back to Zamtel. He is like his brother whom I won’t mention. I don’t want to listen to him, that is why he is calling me stubborn.”
President Banda said Magande thought he would fail to find someone to take over as Minister of Finance and that the country would collapse after he (Magande) left.
“I don’t listen to frustrated people. That is why he is calling me stubborn. He thought that since he is not Minister of Finance, this country was going to collapse but I have found someone that is ten times better,” said President Banda.
But Magande, in an interview yesterday, said he had issues which had been raised in the story carried on Friday.
“Who is telling the truth? I even said that I was so positive that even when we change government, the country had a strong economy, which would not collapse. Where did he hear that the country would collapse? I am surprised. The issues were in the article. I talked about issues,” Magande said.
“I never worked under President Banda for one day, not even a minute, so where is he assessing me from? Let me tell you now that the road (Zimba-Livingstone) was started under late president Mwanawasa. EU didn’t have enough money to do the 72 kilometres road so the 30 kilometre was done by the Zambian government and the 42 kilometres under the EU money. That is how we started. For the 30 kilometres I had to convince works and supply workers who were adamant, so the 30 kilometres was done under government budget. I convinced the EU to do the 42 kilometres. All this information shows that before President Banda I was working with president Mwanawasa.”
Magande said he worked with late president Mwanawasa to get the contract to quickly work and finish the Zimba-Livingstone Road.
“He is praising his Minister of Finance (Situmbeko Musokotwane) because what he has done is fulfillment of his (President Banda’s) instructions. He (President Banda) is instructing someone. Me, who was issuing instructions? It is late Mwanawasa. Unfortunately, I don’t have my supervisor to talk for me, to speak on my behalf and assess me,” Magande said.
“He President Banda will not assess me because I didn’t work under him. He is completing late president Mwanawasa’s works. He has to remember that the chief planner was Magande, who is alive. If he forgets Magande who is alive, how can he remember Levy’s works?”
Magande said he did not want President Banda to bring him into comparison on who was better between him and Dr Musokotwane.
“Let Zambians judge my service. I intend to put myself to the ballot,” he said.
Magande said he would form a political party next year before the elections.
“Yes I am standing. I am forming one (political party) before the elections. I want the people of Zambia to judge for themselves.”
Labels: LEVY MWANAWASA, NG'ANDU MAGANDE, RUPIAH BANDA, SITUMBEKO MUSOKOTWANE
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Retired magistrate warns against removing abuse of office clause
By Mwila Chansa in Kitwe
Sun 07 Nov. 2010, 03:59 CAT
KITWE-based retired magistrate Kambanja Chinyemba has observed that the removal of the abuse of office offence from the revised ACC Act will breed anarchy and open a Pandora's box for all sorts of corruption.
And Chinyemba said only individuals involved in shoddy deals can be against the abuse of office offence because they regard it as a stumbling block since they do not want to explain how they acquire their wealth.
In an interview in Kitwe, Chinyemba observed that the abuse of office law had been there for a long time and that courts had been applying it and securing both convictions and acquittals.
He said arguments that the law in question was being repealed because it put the burden of proof on the accused person to explain how they amassed their wealth had no merit because there were many other statutes that required accused persons to explain to the courts how they found themselves in a given situation.
“Notably, section 319 (a) of the Penal Code Cap 87 - being in possession of property suspected to have been stolen or unlawfully obtained - under this section, the burden of proof shifts to the accused person to explain as to how he or she came to be in possession of such property,” he said.
“Further, section 305 (c) of the Penal Code talks about having possession by night without lawful excuse of house breaking implements or explosives. This again places the burden on the accused after the prosecution has proved possession of the said items and the burden shifts to the accused to explain how he came to be in possession.”
Chinyemba also cited section 51 of the immigration and deportation Act of 2010 which places the burden on the immigrant to prove that he or she was in the country lawfully by way of producing documentation.
“With these few sections and many others, I find it strange that they should only pick on the ACC Act as being archaic. If their removal of section 37 is genuine, then they should go through all statutes and remove those which place the burden on the accused person,” he added.
Chinyemba said there was nothing wrong to ask a public officer to explain how they acquired their wealth.
Chinyemba urged the government through the Ministry of Justice to revise archaic laws, especially the precedence forms in the Criminal Procedure Code (CPC) that are outdated, instead of targeting good laws that deter people from committing crimes.
Labels: ACC, CHINYEMBA KAMBANJA, CORRUPTION
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COMMENT - I guess this is the new 'normal'. This is what happens when you are not seen to deal decisively with this kind of behaviour.
Chinese threatens to shoot workers
By Salim Dawood
Sun 07 Nov. 2010, 03:59 CAT
POLICE have arrested a Lusaka-based Chinese national for threatening to shoot his workers. The Chinese man was arrested yesterday and detained at Emasdale Police Station after his garden boy, Sankulani Phiri and his wife, Monica Sitali, a maid, reported that their employer threatened to shoot them on Friday evening.Emasdale Police recorded a warn and caution statement from Bo Khan of house number 11068, Ngwezi Road in Roma Township before charging him for threatening violence.
Emmasdale Police officers could not give more details on the matter and referred all queries to Police spokesperson Ndandula Siamana who also referred queries to Lusaka division commanding officer Greenwell Nguni.
But when contacted, Nguni said he had not yet received report on the matter.
And narrating their ordeal in an interview, the couple said their employer threatened to shoot them after she asked for permission to go and buy food from the neighbouring Chipata Compound on Friday evening.
Monica narrated that they live in a servant’s quarter within Bo’s yard.
“When I asked him (Bo), he told me to go and call my husband but when I called him, he chased both us saying ‘get out’. I sat on the verandah wondering how we would work with such an employer because he locks us in the yard from morning to evening,” she narrated.
Monica says she was surprised to see Bo coming out of the house with a pistol which he pointed at her husband before turning to her, threatening to shoot both of them.
“He told us that we wanted to steal the money which he was counting, but I apologised to him saying I did not even know that he was counting any money,” she said.
Monica said after 30 minutes, Bo asked her and husband to pack their belongings and leave because he did not want to see them.
She said a Mr Zimba was then instructed to drive and dump the couple in Makeni using Bo’s bus.
Labels: CHINESE, GREENWELL NG'UNI, LABOUR, NDANDULA SIAMANA
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PF MPs query Rupiah’s ‘achievements’
By Darious Kapembwa in Kitwe
Sun 07 Nov. 2010, 03:59 CAT
NCHANGA Patriotic Front member of parliament Wylbur Simuusa has said the MMD is using cosmetic expressions about President Rupiah Banda’s achievements in his two years in office in order to cheat people.
And Nkana PF member of parliament Mwenya Musenge has said President Banda’s greatest achievement in the two years he has been in office has been the weakening of laws that fight corruption.
In an interview, Simuusa advised President Banda and the MMD to let the ordinary Zambian people, especially those that live in poverty-stricken areas, to judge his performance in the last two years.
Simuusa, who is PF chairman for mines, said heaping praise on President Banda’s works in the last two years he had been in office could be likened to parroting because there were still a lot of challenges which had been created by the MMD government in the mining sector.
“I can summarise as parroting; these guys like parroting. They use too much cosmetic expressions to cheat people about so-and-so achievement. Can he tell us the figures that the country will gain from the variable profit tax he has insisted on since his government had rejected the re-introduction of windfall tax? The only achievement is that he is engrossed into campaigns too much. He’s every day campaigning and if he has achieved so much in stabilising the economy, why is it that it is still a challenge for people to eat?” asked Simuusa.
And Musenge said commissioning another person’s project was no achievement at all.
“Personally, I think that he has achieved so much in trying to create lacunas in our statutes that fight corruption in order to weaken them for his personal gains, and you see you cannot make and blow your own trumpet and judge to be the best. Let other people judge the strength of your trumpet,” Musenge said.
He wondered how the economy could be said to have improved when many families went without adequate meals per day.
Musenge said clean water and access to quality health care was still a challenge to many Zambians especially in the peripheral areas in his constituency.
And Chipili PF member of parliament Davies Mwila said President Banda had achieved a lot in weakening the labour movement in the country.
Mwila, who is PF chairperson for labour, wondered why there should be four unions in the mining sector.
“First and foremost, are the people benefiting from the so-called economic growth, even the so-called bumper-harvest? Why is mealie-meal still very costly? What are the benefits to the workers if a government can allow companies to subcontract in the mines and employ foreigners to render Zambians jobless; do you call such achievements? Has he addressed the issue of the minimum wage? It seems he is comfortable with workers getting K258,000 as a wage so much that he can call it an achievement,” said Mwila.
Labels: ACC, DAVIES MWILA, MWENYA MUSENGE, PF, RUPIAH BANDA, WILBUR SIMUSA
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Chiluba has destroyed many professional careers
By The Post
Sat 06 Nov. 2010, 03:59 CAT
Frederick Chiluba’s corruption has destroyed the professional careers of so many people at home and abroad. Since Chiluba’s highly questionable acquittal by magistrate Jones Chinyama on theft charges and the corrupt withdrawal of the appeal against his acquittal, he has been trying to posture that he is innocent of corruption and other abuses.
From what has happened to his solicitor in the United Kingdom, Bimal Bhupendra Thaker, it is clear that Chiluba and his tandem of thieves are guilty of more crimes than they were ever prosecuted for here. Anyway, this is why we called Chiluba a thief and continue to call him a thief. We paid a very high price for exposing Chiluba’s crimes. As president of the Republic, he unleashed the full might of the state machinery to crush us.
Instead of pursuing the thief, the police pursued us like we were common criminals. Workers at the residence of the editor of this newspaper were physically molested and live rounds of ammunition fired at the gate to gain entrance to his property.
This is how vicious Chiluba was when we revealed to the nation that the chap who was occupying the highest public office in our country was nothing but a common and shameless criminal. Chiluba had us prosecuted, alleging that we had criminally defamed him. To cut the long story short, we were vindicated when we managed to show that Chiluba, in fact, is a thief.
In the intervening years, Chiluba has used all sorts of political tricks to try and hoodwink our people into believing that his prosecution for corruption and other abuses of public office were nothing but political witch-hunt by his enemies, in this case, Levy Mwanawasa and ourselves, among others.
In Rupiah Banda, Chiluba has found a willing ally prepared to defend his crimes and to protect him from facing the temerity of his corrupt actions. It cannot be denied that Rupiah has gone out of his way to try and rehabilitate Chiluba’s tattered image in the hope that he will help him secure a second term of office. To Rupiah, Chiluba is a political engineer whose skills will help him to hold on to power. To Chiluba, Rupiah is a saviour who has to remain in power.
If Rupiah is not in power, Chiluba knows that he is finished. This is why Chiluba has continued to do everything that he can to demonstrate his usefulness to Rupiah. There is no doubt that Chiluba is doing everything he can to ensure that Rupiah returns as president after next year’s election. And Chiluba has been telling friends that he will not sit idle and watch his life being endangered by Rupiah’s electoral defeat; he will do everything possible to ensure that his saviour retains power next year and continues to save him.
The case of Chiluba’s lawyer in London is an important demonstration of the crimes that Chiluba and his league were involved in. One of the criminal actions that has caused Thaker to lose his licence is the activities that he engaged in in November 2001. On July 10, 2001 and November 6 the same year, US $199,995 and US$399, 995, respectively from the Zambia Intelligence Services were sent to Thaker’s law firm in London.
On November 7, 2001, Chiluba called Thaker to ask him if Faustin Kabwe had called him to instruct him to give him some money. Thaker confirmed with Kabwe and withdrew 30,000 British pounds cash, which he gave to Chiluba. The law society in England found this conduct to be “spectacularly stupid” and a breach of the money laundering regulations that govern lawyers in the UK.
Thaker was also found guilty of facilitating the criminal movement of funds amongst Chiluba’s league, including Access Financial Services Limited and its directors that Chiluba used to steal Zambian government funds. There can be no doubt once somebody reads the findings of the solicitor’s disciplinary tribunal that Chiluba, as far as they were concerned, was engaged in criminal activity that should not have been facilitated by a lawyer, a solicitor.
And because Thaker flouted his professional regulations in furtherance of Chiluba’s criminal schemes, today this poor chap is without a lawyer’s practicing licence, his professional career has come to an end – Chiluba’s corruption has ended it. Thaker joins the long list of casualties of Chiluba’s corrupt presidency.
There is a lesson for those that surround Chiluba. One of the reasons that Thaker has been so severely dealt with is because the tribunal of his peers found that his conduct was not innocent. He was dealing with Chiluba in highly suspicious transactions at a time when it had become known to the whole world that Chiluba was a thief or was at least linked to very serious allegations of theft. But Thaker chose to ignore all that and continued to pay for Chiluba's children’s cars, Xavier Chungu’s children’s school fees, Faustin’s private expenses.
He also did the same for Francis Kaunda. The tribunal did not look very kindly on Thaker. His pleas of innocence could not be believed by anyone. This is the lesson that those who today are trying to help Chiluba to keep the loot that he plundered from our people should learn. A man who thought he could hide behind just being a lawyer has found himself drawn in deeper than he could have wished for.
Today Thaker is being suffocated by the same blanket – the blanket of a solicitor – that he thought could cover him or shield him from accountability for his complicity in the thefts of Chiluba. The legal profession that he thought he could abuse to commit crimes has done him in to protect itself.
We have no doubt that Thaker is not the last victim of Chiluba’s corruption. There are many more to come. There are those who are still trying to launder Chiluba’s stolen assets because of the protection that Rupiah is giving him. They too will face a day of reckoning.
Chiluba did not steal from an individual; he stole from our people, the poorest of the poor. Justice may be long in coming but we have no doubt it will come. Chiluba may think he has gotten away because of his friendship with Rupiah, but let him think again. Tomorrow, Chiluba will wake up to find there is no Rupiah to run to because he is on the run also. The blanket that Chiluba is trying to use to shield himself from accountability will not always be there to cover him.
Even his protector Rupiah will one day not only be unable to protect Chiluba but also himself. And that day is near. This is why the only protection someone can have is always doing the right thing – whatever the consequences.
What has happened to Thaker should also serve as a warning to those who today surround Rupiah. The allure of power is such that those who possess it think that they will always have it. This causes people to fall into a pattern of carelessness and recklessness because they control the system, they make the rules and enforce them. We have seen this in the current debate that is going on regarding the Anti Corruption Commission Act.
Rupiah and his minions know that they are up to no good. They know that soon they will be in trouble for the wrong things they have been doing. Their hold on power is fooling them into believing that they can avoid accountability forever by simply removing some inconvenient law or other. We have no doubt that Rupiah has no shortage of legal and other advisors who are telling him that this is the best thing to do. And because of the problems that he has, he is prepared to believe them. But wrong things being what they are, Rupiah and his friends can run but they won’t be able to hide forever.
Those who work for Rupiah should learn from Thaker. He, like other hangers-on that surrounded Chiluba, thought that he could get away from responsibility for the crimes they were committing because he was working for a president, a very powerful man controlling everything and everyone. But where has that left him today? We have no doubt that Thaker made a lot of money through his dealings with Chiluba, Xavier, Faustin and other crooks of the Chiluba tandem. But where will that money take him?
Labels: BIMAL THAKER, FREDERICK CHILUBA
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Rupiah’s lies have been exposed - Mpombo
By George Chellah
Sat 06 Nov. 2010, 04:02 CAT
GEORGE Mpombo yesterday said UK lawyer Bimal Tha-ker’s loss of practising licence over his corrupt conduct with Frederick Chilu-ba has exposed Pre-sident Rupiah Ban-da’s faulty judgment and lies. And Mpombo said the decision to remove Thaker from the roll of solicitors in the UK has curtailed Chiluba’s celebrations and claim of innocence.
Commenting on the findings and decision of the Solicitors’ Disciplinary Tribunal over Chiluba’s UK lawyer, whose licence has been revoked because of his conduct with the former president, Mpombo, who is also Kafulafuta MMD member of parliament, said the Tribunal’s outcome has embarrassed President Banda.
“This landmark decision has shown that Mr Banda is a pathological liar. It exposes his faulty judgment because they have been protecting Mr Chiluba. It shouldn’t have taken the people in the UK to show us that we are doing things the wrong way as far as the fight against corruption is concerned. It’s really a shame,” Mpombo said. “It’s a victory to the fight against corruption and it is an indication that whatever is covered will be uncovered one day regardless of who is doing it. Just look at how people are being exposed even before the dust on the acquittal settles.”
He said President Banda should be feeling very ashamed due to the turn of events.
“Mr Banda’s conduct is on the verge of ridiculous given this kind of radical decision by the Tribunal in the UK who have clearly said that Mr Chiluba’s lawyer brought the reputation of the legal profession in the UK into disrepute. This also vindicates late president Levy Mwanawasa that he had no axe to grind with anyone when he embarked on the fight against corruption,” Mpombo said. “Although some of Mwanawasa’s colleagues he started the fight with like Vice-President George Kunda had turned into Judas Iscariots. It will be interesting to know what those who were accusing Mwanawasa of victimising Chiluba will say now. Are they going to be naïve and argue that even in his death Mwanawasa is still victimising Chiluba by influencing decisions of the Tribunal in the UK? This is a totally independent Tribunal, which sat in a place far away from Zambia, so what do they have to say now?”
He said President Banda and his colleagues are turning the clock backwards in terms of the fight against corruption.
“The landmark decision by the Tribunal is a clear indication that Mr Chiluba is not innocent, he is not standing on firm ground. Mr Chiluba is not totally free because if he is innocent, how come people continue to pay for his misdeeds?” Mpombo asked. “The Tribunal’s decision has curtailed Mr Chiluba’s celebrations and claim of innocence. It has cut short Mr Chiluba and Mr Banda’s celebrations. Their celebrations have been shredded into pieces.”
He said the Tribunal’s findings have thwarted President Banda’s manoeuvres.
“All those adverts they are showing amount to cheap political shenanigans. The findings are a slap in the face. It has revealed how we are viewed as a country on the international scene,” he said.
He said President Banda and Chiluba should apologise for feeding Zambians on a diet of cheap political concotions.
“This is actually food for thought especially for those who have been protecting Mr Chiluba. People should be able to stand on firm ground in terms of justice. The only way out of these problems is to vote out Mr Banda since people now know his true colours following what has been happening in his two years ‘accidental’ term,” Mpombo said. “This kind of leadership should never be allowed in this country ever again. People like Mr Banda who are puffed up with cheap pride should never be near this country’s leadership again. Therefore, Zambians must register as voters in huge numbers so that they can vote Mr Banda out of office next year.”
Thaker's practising licence was revoked because of his conduct with the former president, which has been described as ‘spectacularly stupid’.
This is according to the Solicitors’ Disciplinary Tribunal findings and decision dated July 15, 2010, filed with the Law Society in the UK.
The allegations which have since been proven and action taken, were that Thaker abused his integrity through dealings involving the payments of money belonging to the Zambian treasury to Chiluba and his children, former Zambia Security Intelligence Services director general Xavier Chungu’s children and Ireen Kabwe, wife of former Access Financial Services Limited’s Faustin Kabwe, among other transactions.
Thaker met Chiluba in London and had been asked by him for a cash payment of 30,000 pounds.
It was further observed that Thaker’s involvement in the payments “had clearly not been in any way connected with any legal work but had been consistent with the provision of banking facilities in transactions that bore the hallmarks of money laundering.”
David Barton, who was acting on behalf of the Solicitors’ Regulation Authority, was the applicant and Bimal Bhupendra Thaker of Cave Malik was the respondent in the matter.
Labels: BIMAL THAKER, FREDERICK CHILUBA, GEORGE MPOMBO, RUPIAH BANDA
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Banda’s leadership is a danger to democracy - Hansungule
By Ernest Chanda and Chibaula Silwamba
Sat 06 Nov. 2010, 04:01 CAT
PROFESSOR Michelo Hansungule has asked President Rupiah Banda to be sober minded and show leadership over Parliament’s removal of the abuse of office clause in the ACC Act. And SACCORD executive director Lee Habasonda said Parliament has been turned into a rubber stamp.
In an interview, the Pretoria based Professor of human rights law said it was a shame that President Banda had chosen not to listen to people over the removal of the abuse of office offence clause. He described President Banda's leadership as a danger to democracy.
“The unacceptably high level of ignorance in President Rupiah Banda’s Cabinet over simple issues is worrying. MMD spokesperson Dora Siliya has just expressed her ignorance over the abuse of public office clause by invoking the UNIP old order to justify why her government is in order to strip the law of this clause. Is this what they discuss in Cabinet? ‘UNIP brought this clause, therefore, we must remove it because it is outdated and will prevent us from owning property.’” questioned Prof Hansungule.
“Why should Zambia be so unlucky to have such raw people as leaders? Put simply, the letter and spirit of the clause is that you cannot be allowed to abuse public office to build yourself a house. The clause does not prevent you from building your house from your salary or from your other lawful resources earned from lawful activities. All it does is to bring honesty in public office by ensuring those who occupy public office use it (not abuse it) for private gain. President Banda's leadership is a danger to democracy.”
Prof Hansungule questioned how President Banda acquired his Chipata farm during the UNIP era if at all the clause had barred leaders from acquiring assets.
“How did President Banda acquire his Chipata farm if the clause is what he and Dora say it was? Is he suggesting he abused his office to acquire his farm? I think leaders like Dora Siliya and President Banda have a duty to understand simple things to avoid confusing the people,” said Prof Hansungule.
“President Banda must show leadership on this issue. He should think and act beyond the likes of Dora Siliya. The issue at stake is very simple. A whole President cannot be seen celebrating those that abuse public office as ‘new dispensation’. What is this ‘new dispensation’? Abusing public office for private gain with impunity is ‘new dispensation’? President Banda can do better than that. He must restore public confidence in the country's anti-corruption programme. He should not be seen kissing corruption.”
And Habasonda said it was unfortunate that Parliament had become a place of formalities and rituals without ability to challenge the executive’s actions, particularly those that threaten good governance, rule of law and systematic conflict resolution.
“We cannot have a Parliament that always rubber stamps things. Something must surely be wrong,” Habasonda said.
“SACCORD notes with sadness that the justification of the removal of the abuse of office clause by President Banda signifies a loss of legal and political direction for the country. It is clear that the executive is only listening to its own voice.”
He said Zambia was at a crossroads and stood the risk of an international perception that Zambia was now a haven of corruption where it was fashionable and gave pride to legalise abuse of office without any scruples at all.
Habasonda said it was worrying that this would have implications on donor support and domestic accountability.
“It is becoming very clear that capricious individuals have captured the statecraft and the leadership cannot appreciate the value of those persuading them to abandon the path they have taken over this law,” Habasonda said.
“As SACCORD we wish to serve timely notice that those scheming these laws and forcing them on Zambians must be mindful that while they can triumph for a season, what is certain is that their day of reckoning is surely coming. And it will be that day when they are no longer secured and protected by the trappings of government and the state machinery that they will discern reason in what we are saying now, but it will be too late. Zambia needs laws that serve the interest of the majority rather than the minority.”
Habasonda appealed to President Banda to send the amendment Bill back for further consultation instead of signing it into law.
Labels: LEE HABASONDA, MICHELO HANSUNGULE, RUPIAH BANDA
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'Govt to amend constitution in line with NCC recommendations'
By Ernest Chanda
Sat 06 Nov. 2010, 04:00 CAT
VICE-PRESIDENT George Kunda has disclosed that the government has drafted a bill that seeks to make necessary amendments to the constitution in line with the recommendations of the National Constitutional Conference (NCC).
Responding to a question from Mapatizya UPND parliamentarian Ackson Sejani during the Vice-President's question time who wanted to know if the country would have a new constitution before the 2011 general election, Vice-President Kunda who could not be categorical on the matter said there were many things to take into consideration.
"I have answered that question before. The matter is being presented before Cabinet. We have to be very careful because it involves issues with a lot of financial implications. For example, we proposed in the NCC that there should be 280 members of parliament," said Vice-President Kunda. "So we have to consider the chamber those members of parliament will be using; is it to extend this one or to build a new one? There is also the new Court of Appeal. So, in the next few days we should be able to discuss this thing. We have crafted the particular bill and we will make amendments as advised by the NCC."
And later debating the 2011 estimates of expenditure for the Ministry of Local Government and Housing, Mazabuka UPND parliamentarian Gary Nkombo called on the government to abolish the Zambia National Marketeers Association (ZANAMA).
Nkombo contended that ZANAMA has been mutilating the law and abusing the rights of marketeers across the country.
"ZANAMA remains the wing of MMD and championing the cause of MMD. And if this organisation continues to exist, they are going to incite people to bring anarchy. They are mutilating the law by purporting to have the power to change laws of this country," debated Nkombo. "When they came to Mazabuka I chased them. I told them that there is no place for anarchy here in Mazabuka. ZANAMA is a very bad organisation. It is a terrible organisation which must be disbanded forthwith."
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Labels: CONSTITUTION, GEORGE KUNDA, NCC
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Tribalism is most abominable - Rupiah
By Sandra Lombe and Bivan Saluseki in Livingstone
Sat 06 Nov. 2010, 04:00 CAT
PRESIDENT Banda says tribalism is the most abominable thing that any Zambian can commit. And President Banda has said the Zimba-Livingstone Road was a miserable and terrible sore in the daily lives of Zambians.
Speaking upon arrival at Livingstone International Airport yesterday shortly before he commissioned the Zimba-Livingstone Road, President Banda eulogised Livingstone member of parliament Sakwiba Sikota. President Banda told the people that Sikota was a good member of parliament who did not like tribalism.
President Banda said right through his campaign in 2008, Sikota closed his office and was with him throughout.
“And I was very happy that he asked if he could join us today to open this very important road for the people of Livingstone,” he said.
President Banda said Livingstone was very special in the province.
“This is the only place where I defeated the UPND in 2008 and is the only place where our member of parliament is not from UPND. So I think that between the two of us is a winning formula,” said President Banda. “And you have a member of parliament who is above the most abominable thing that a Zambian can commit, that of tribalism. He is above that. And you are above that because you elected him in spite of your various tribes.”
He said the country had many problems and challenges.
“Today is a special day when that road, which made us miserable…that road was a terrible sore in our daily lives but we promised that we will fix it and we have fixed it.
We have problems, many challenges as a country. As people we are ready to overcome them. We have overcome the road,” President Banda said.
He thanked the traditional leaders whom he said had worked with the government.
President Banda said there was need for Zambians to work together in order to overcome the problems the nation was facing.
He said youths in schools and colleges were being told that the MMD does not want them.
He said the government wanted the youths to help them and work together.
President Banda said he selects his ministers very carefully according to the needs of the areas.
And MMD Southern Province chairman Solomon Muzyamba said the opening of the Zimba-Livingstone Road was a milestone development in the country.
Muzyamba congratulated President Banda for his achievements in the past two years.
He said President Banda’s performance had been remarkable.
Muzyamba said the projects were there for all to see, including the blind, because they were tangible.
He said the country had a bumper harvest and saw growth in the construction sector.
Muzyamba thanked President Banda for appointing Elijah Muchima as Southern Province minister.
“It is no secret that Elijah Muchima is a cadre. He is a cadre, friendly cadre,” he said.
Muzyamba said apart from that, Muchima was a tribal cousin and a ‘giant-killer’ who managed to remove UPND vice-president Richard Kapita from Mwinilunga.
Muzyamba said the province wanted to tap into Muchima’s experience.
And Muchima said he was fitting in very well.
He said he was not threatened by tribal politics.
“These tribal groupings have no room in Zambia,” he said.
Muchima said a tribe that could enhance peace was needed.
Sikota said tribal groupings were not good for the country.
“Those politicians who come to appeal to you on the basis of tribe, those should be given a red card. For us, we will receive your blue card,” said Sikota.
Labels: MMD, RUPIAH BANDA, SOLOMON MUZYAMBA, TRIBALISM
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Kabwe town clerk ‘improperly’ awards land survey contract
By Maluba Jere
Sat 06 Nov. 2010, 03:59 CAT
KABWE town clerk Vivian Chiwila Chikoti has allegedly awarded a contract worth over K700 million to a local land surveyor for the survey of plots without following procedure.
And Chikoti has allegedly disregarded advice from the director of finance at Kabwe Municipal Council (KMC) on the awarding of a contract which is above the institutional tendering threshold of K500 million.
In a memorandum to the director of finance dated August 30, 2010, Chikoti stated that the council under resolution number PWD/126/01/2010(b) agreed that William Mhango of Geopractica be engaged to survey all the plots.
The memorandum was also copied to Kabwe mayor and all chief officers at KMC.
“…engaged Mr William Mhango a registered land surveyor to survey plots in Kabwe that were advertised and formally allocated to successful applicants last year because the public who were interviewed in November/December, 2009 have waited for too long to be allocated the plots in Mulungushi, Mukobeko, Natuseko and Katondo site and service,” read the memorandum in part. “
Chikoti stated that Mhango had already surveyed some plots and was demanding payment of K24 million, adding that the release of these funds should be expedited to enable the surveyor proceed with the works.
According to documentation obtained by The Post, the contract worth K778,100,000 signed on September 1, 2010 has been awarded to Mhango who is expected to execute the works by February 6, 2011.
The contract states that payments would be made in part upon certification of the works by the director of engineering and social services or any other person so appointed by the council upon demand.
The contracts also state that the surveyor would be paid 58 per cent of the total fees whilst the council would retain 42 per cent of the total fees.
It further indicates that the contract may be terminated in the event of breach of any part of the contract.
“If the employee is in breach of any part of this contract, the employer may terminate the contract without incurring any liability for any payment in addition to that already made or agreed to be made,” it stated.
But KMC director of finance Kate Leo Mukonde wrote to Chikoti saying she had difficulties to proceed to pay Mhango for the works because the quoted amount was above the institutional tendering threshold of K500 million and that the contractor has been awarded a contract sum of K778 million without going through tender procedure.
In a letter dated September 3, 2010 addressed to Chikoti, Mukonde stated that she had difficulties paying the said surveyor because he was single sourced by the director of engineering contrary to procurement procedure.
She also explained that the director of engineering should not have had a part in the contract signing because he was the requisitioning officer.
“According to the contract agreement, the provincial local government officer will play the role of arbitrator in case of a dispute and will make final and binding rulings on both parties,” Mukonde stated. “However, since Kabwe Municipal Council is a corporate body capable of suing and being sued, it is only the court of law that can act as an arbitrator in cases of dispute.”
Mukonde further stated that the contract sum was not budgeted for and that it had a huge impact on the budget adding that it was not approved by the council.
She noted that the contract sum was K778 million while the same agreement stated that the surveyor would be paid 58 per cent of the total fees without specifying which fees nor what that percentage translated to in monetary terms.
“It is also stated in the contract agreement that the contract sum of K778.1 million must be paid within six months from the date of agreement, 1st September, 2010 or by 6th February 2011. I wish to advise that there is no reasonable assurance that this amount will be raised or available for payment to the contractor as agreed,” Mukonde stated.
“If the assumption is that the contract sum will be paid from survey fees, I wish to advise that survey fees unlike developmental charges are paid as and when the developer feels it necessary to pay or when the developer wishes to develop the plot.”
Apart from advising Chikoti on the concerns regarding the contract, Mukonde also sought further guidance on how to proceed.
But in response to Mukonde’s concerns, Chikoti in a memorandum dated October 10, 2010 stated that she had noted her concerns as well as her refusal to pay.
She explained that she sought legal advice on the matter and established that Mukonde’s refusal to pay was unjustified because the issues raised by her Mukonde should have been originated by the chief internal auditor while she should have harmonised the situation since the council had already given Geopractica Ltd authority to survey the plots in question.
“I take this opportunity to remind you that this council has collected huge sums of monies in form of development charges and those individuals who have paid are now demanding to be shown the plots allocated to them but this is not possible because the land in question has not been surveyed,” Chikoti stated.
“This situation has put unnecessary pressure on the council which could have otherwise been avoided if you had released part payments to the surveyor appointed by the council.”
Chikoti directed Mukonde to find an alternative solution to the impasse within 48 hours and that failure to do so would leave her with no option but initiate disciplinary proceedings against her.
Both Mukonde and Chikoti were not available for comment by press time.
Labels: KABWE MUNICIPAL COUNCIL, SURVEYORS, VIVIAN CHIWILA CHIKOTI
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‘Imprudent use of donor funds will affect Zambia’s MDG on health’
By Chibaula Silwamba
Fri 05 Nov. 2010, 08:50 CAT
THE imprudent use of donor funds meant for fighting malaria and HIV and AIDS will lead to Zambia not reaching the MDG on health, Parliamentary committee on health chairperson Jean Kapata yesterday warned.
Concurring with the UN Secretary General’s special envoy for malaria Ray Chambers’ call for prudent use of donor funds meant to combat malaria which is the leading cause of mortality in Zambia, Kapata, who is Mandevu parliamentarian, said the government should wake up and use the money properly.
“If the donors stop giving us money, it’s not the people in government who are going to suffer, it’s people on the grassroots who are going to suffer, our people, our voters. It’s people like those in my constituency in Mandevu who are going to be affected who do not have malaria drugs,” Kapata said.
“Malaria is one of the diseases that have been cited under the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) number six and if we have such a situation it means that the achievement of that MDG is a non-starter.”
Kapata said donors had the right to question the Zambian government’s use of their money.
“The donors would like to see their money being used for the right cause. Currently, the government is not using donors’ money correctly,” said Kapata.
Chambers said the irregularities in the use of donor funds at the Ministry of Health were unfortunate.
“These are special funds generously donated to the Global Fund and World Bank by nations throughout the world. Public servants have an obligation, not just to donor nations, but to Zambians that funds are properly used. It’s an integrity duty of the highest moral requirement to ensure that those funds are taken care of and not abused,” said Chambers on Tuesday ahead of his two-day visit to Zambia, scheduled for yesterday, to meet government officials.
Labels: CORRUPTION, DONORS, JEAN KAPATA, MDGs
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AAG meets Israel’s chief rabbi
Welcome ... Tafadzwa Musarara with the Chief Rabbi
by Staff Reporter
06/11/2010 00:00:00
THE Affirmative Action Group (AAG) has met the Israel chief rabbi Shlomo Moshe Amar in Jerusalem as it steps up its diplomatic offensive to get Zimbabwe’s right to deal freely with its diamond resources re-asserted.
AAG President Supa Mandiwanzira and secretary general Tafadzwa Musarara met the Israel chief rabbi at his private residence in the holy city of Jerusalem. The chief rabbi is to the Jewish people what the pope is to the Roman Catholics. He is the supreme halakhic and spiritual authority for the Jewish people in Israel.
The AAG leaders refused to disclose how they arranged such a high level meeting.
“I can confirm that we met the chief rabbi late Thursday night in Jerusalem and the meeting was special. He is a man revered by the Jewish people across the world but has exceptional humility,” said AAG president Supa Mandiwanzira in a telephone interview from Tel Aviv, Israel.
He said the AAG asked the Chief Rabbi to use his influence and religious authority by talking to countries like the United States to stop standing in the way of Zimbabwe trying to exploit its natural resources for the benefit of its people.
At the just ended Kimberley Process plenary meetings in Jerusalem, the US with the support of Canada and Australia desperately tried to frustrate Zimbabwe’s right to unconditionally sell its diamonds from Marange to the chagrin of African, South American and Asian countries that make up Kimberley Process.
“I told the Chief Rabbi that Zimbabwe was a peaceful country that seeks only friendship and economic cooperation with all countries of the world including the United States, Canada, Australia and members of the European Union.
“I asked him to please assist in talking to some of these countries to stop being fixated with our country and work harmoniously with our government,” Mandiwanzira said.
Secretary General Tafadzwa Musarara told the Chief Rabbi that the AAG would be most grateful if he visited the country to see for himself.
He told the Chief Rabbi that a small but very active Jewish community in Zimbabwe was doing a lot of charitable work and this work could be lessened if Zimbabwe dealt with its resources freely for the benefit of its people.
The chief rabbi promised the AAG leadership that he would discuss Zimbabwe’s issue with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu so that the country can be supported in selling its diamonds without hindrances.
“He told us that as the Chief Rabbi – he fell directly into the office of the Israeli Prime Minister and he would engage the Israeli government to support Zimbabwe as a starting point,” Said Mandiwanzira.
Labels: AAG, BLOOD DIAMONDS, CHIEF RABBI SHLOMO MOSHE AMAR, DIAMONDS, KIMBERLEY PROCESS, SUPA MANDIWANZIRA, TAFADZWA MUSARARA
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Zim gardner sues Cadbury heiress
Accused ... Felicity Loudon with her dogs outside Pusey House estate
by Daily Mail
06/11/2010 00:00:00
ZIMBABWEAN Leonard Rwodzi, 41, is suing the heiress to the Cadbury chocolate empire, Felicity Loudon, for alleged abuse at her £27million country estate in Oxfordshire. The great-great-granddaughter of company founder John Cadbury is faces an accusation of unfair dismissal from her former gardener who claims she made his life a misery.
Rwodzi, 41, who worked for Loudon for eight years, alleges that she:
Racially discriminated against him by shouting: ‘Don’t you look at me with your dark, evil, African eyes.’
Told him his wife Annah, 30, was ‘too fat and lazy’.
Tried to make his wife become her maid when she did not have a work permit.
Hired ex-Army security guards to watch his every move after allegedly dismissing him unfairly.
A friend of Rwodzi said: “His tribunal case could be for more than £100,000, but it’s justice he wants.”
Other former workers have claimed up to eight gardeners were sacked by Loudon, 61, in a single fortnight – and they allege numerous butlers and maids have received the same treatment.
The security firm hired to monitor Rwodzi is also taking legal action against Loudon, claiming she failed to pay bills totalling £7,500.
The saga began in 2001 when Rwodzi, a former horticulturist for the Harare city council, fled increasing violence under President Robert Mugabe’s regime.
He came alone to Britain to claim asylum and soon became a £26,000-a-year head gardener at Pusey House – a 14-bed, Grade II listed mansion, set in 650 acres near Faringdon, Oxfordshire, and presided over by Loudon and her second husband John Loudon, 74.
The heiress, who favours only white flowers in her gardens, was initially so delighted with Rwodzi that she allowed his wife to join him in his free two-bed cottage on the estate in 2003, and a son was born to the couple the next year.
Then, in 2008, Loudon her husband provided the Rwodzis with £8,000 to fund the escape of their elder children, a girl and boy, now 12 and 11, from Zimbabwe, where they had stayed with relatives.
But the problems began soon after.
A former employee at the estate said: “Loudon can have terrible moods. With Leonard, she wrongly told people he was an illegal immigrant, and he didn’t feel he could refuse when she got him, a non-smoker, to puff a cigar and dressed his son as a girl for adverts for her luxury design firm. He just put up with it. But she did not like him spending time with his family.
“She said his wife was too fat and lazy. Last October Loudon told Leonard she wanted his wife to work as her maid. She said her work would pay off the £8,000 the Loudons had “lent” Leonard to bring his children to Britain.
“Leonard refused, saying he thought the money was a gift, and that his wife did not then have the correct immigration status to work. Loudon could not forgive him.”
Matters came to a head in April. The former colleague said: “He just looked at her, and she suddenly said “Don’t you look at me with your dark, evil, African eyes”.
“Soon after that, Leonard was told to resign. He refused, but was told to leave his cottage within the month. Loudon hired a security firm and moved them into the cottage next to his until he left.”
Rwodzi refused to comment at his new home in Farringdon, London. But Loudon told a friend that, after she helped move the Rwodzi children from Zimbabwe, the garden “started to suffer”.
She added: “Leonard’s mood turned ugly and threatening. The once sad asylum seeker, so grateful for a plate of food and a chance to live and work in one of England’s most beautiful gardens, shows his real colours.”
A lawyer speaking for the heiress said: “The allegations are strenuously denied.”
Labels: FELICITY LOUDON, LEONARD RWODZI
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Call for closure of Collum Coal Mine
By Mubanga Luchembe
Thu 04 Nov. 2010, 03:59 CAT
Editor,
I cannot help responding in support of the National Union of Commercial and Industrial Workers (NUCIW) deputy general secretary in charge of finance and administration Adams Chipeta for having demanded the closure of Collum Coal Mine pending resolution of all unresolved safety, health, financial, legal and compensation concerns.
Locals who were not shocked by the shooting of about 11 Zambians working for this Chinese-owned mine in Sinazongwe, perhaps, do not understand Chinese investment in Zambia at all. China, contrary to MMD’s official claims, does attach conditions to its investments. For instance, the profits are externalised, leaving the locals poorer and empty-handed. The working conditions are also terrible. Unlike the MMD ruling elite who enjoy all the deal outcomes, the rest of ordinary Zambians languish in abject poverty.
Albeit the close ties between Zambia and China go back decades, today Zambia is not only the destination for an ever-increasing number of Chinese goods, but also its nationals – doctors, farmers, engineers, shop owners and market traders among others.
Not only are the Chinese seen as killing local businesses, but their commitment to health and safety regulations is questionable.
Medicines are labelled in Mandarin in breach of Zambian health legislation. These are immoral and harmful things which ordinary Zambians must all stand up against.
Let us be clear, Chinese do not treat locals as human beings. To the Chinese, locals do not deserve to be treated with respect and dignity.
So what is to be done? Calls for closure of Collum Coal Mine are justified and must be heed. But structural change is also needed and educating the Chinese managers in local labour, health and safety regulations - with great emphasis that Zambian workers deserve to be treated with respect and dignity.
Yes, Zambian workers should be taught that Chinese migration can also be a positive force for economic growth. After all, Zambia’s relative success can, in part, be attributed to the arrival of skilled, entrepreneurial labour from China.
Still, without saying much, the response to Chipeta’s demand must come quickly and decisively from the MMD leadership.
Failure to do so could mean that union and government leaders will be fire-fighting Chinese-related labour disputes at Collum Coal Mine and other Chinese-owned businesses for some time to come.
Mubanga Luchembe,
Lusaka
Labels: ADAMS CHIPETA, CHINESE COLLUM COAL MINE, MUBANGA LUCHEMBE, NUCIW
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Empowerment rules out in a month: Kasukuwere
by Reuters
05/11/2010 00:00:00
THE government will publish guidelines this month on local ownership of various types of companies, ending months of uncertainty that has weighed on the stock market, a cabinet minister has said.
Zimbabwe introduced a law early this year saying 51 percent of firms worth over $500 000 should be owned by locals but accepted that most sectors, especially the capital-intensive mining industry, will take time to get there.
Fourteen committees set up to determine minimum initial local ownership thresholds for various sectors had now finished their work, Saviour Kasukuwere, Minister of Youth Development, Indigenisation and Empowerment said.
"We will review them and publish them before the end of the month," he told Reuters on the sidelines of an investment conference in South Africa's commercial capital.
"We are moving. We need to bring about certainty. We can't keep people hanging there."
This year, the country’s stock market has failed to build on the strong gains it posted immediately after the government scrapped the worthless Zimbabwean dollar in favour of US dollars in February 2009.
The lacklustre performance - in contrast to other frontier African equity markets - has been widely blamed on concerns the indigenisation act was an attempt by cronies of President Robert Muagbe to get their hands on foreign-owned assets.
The uncertainty has also deterred the billions of dollars of foreign investment required to rebuild the economy after a decade of disastrous mismanagement under Mugabe's ZANU-PF administration.
Mugabe told Reuters in an interview in September that he would press ahead with plans to transfer control of foreign firms - including mines and banks - to local blacks.
Kasukuwere sought to allay those external fears, saying the bill was simply addressing the unresolved economic imbalances left by decades of white minority rule, and would ultimately create a stable and fair economy and society.
"This is not about nationalisation or expropriation of businesses. This act is to bring our people on board the economy," he said.
"We accept foreign direct investment is critical in getting our economy to work. But it is necessary to balance foreign interests and the aspirations of our people."
Labels: INDIGENIZATION AND EMPOWERMENT ACT (ZIMBABWE), SAVIOUR KASUKUWERE
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Countries back Zim on Marange diamonds
by Staff Reporter
06/11/2010 00:00:00
CHINA, Russian, India and South Africa are among the countries backing Zimbabwe’s decision to go ahead with the massive export of rough diamonds mined from Marange despite the stand-off at the Kimberly Process plenary meetings held in Israel.
Despite four days of meetings in Jerusalem, the 75-nation Kimberley Process was unable to reach agreement on whether to allow exports of Zimbabwe’s diamonds, which could represent up to 25 per cent of the world’s diamond exports within the next two years.
The United States, Canada, Australia along with European representatives opposed Zimbabwe’s bid to export its diamonds freely on world markets and since the system requires a unanimous agreement, no deal was possible.
However, Mines Minister Obert Mpofu, who led Zimbabwe’s delegation, declared that exports would resume immediately nonetheless.
“Like I have said before and I would like to say it again — Zimbabwe is going to proceed with the exports of its diamonds immediately because it has met the KP minimum requirements as confirmed by the review mission and the KP monitor.
“I have consulted my superiors in Harare and this is our position and it’s not going to change,” he said.
Sources at the meeting told The Herald that the announcement received applause from the audience and was immediately endorsed by South Africa, Namibia and Brazil which all said they supported Zimbabwe’s exports as the country had met KP minimum requirements.
The country also has the backing of India, China, Russia and most African countries.
Meanwhile Mpofu slammed the politicization of the Kimberly Process and what he described as US attempts to bully Zimbabwe at the plenary.
“We have been treated very unfairly by Kimberly process … as if we don’t matter in this organisation. In a civilised world that we live in, surely countries must recuse themselves on issues where they are conflicted.
“The United States has imposed sanctions and at the same time, it wants to come in here and dictate what Kimberley should do about Zimbabwe. Colleagues, this is not fair,” said an emotionally charged Minister Mpofu.
He said the arrogance of powers like the United States was a threat to the Kimberly Process.
The Marange diamonds are one of the richest discoveries in decades, and Zimbabwe could become the world’s biggest diamond producer.
But human rights organisations claim that hundreds of people have been killed or beaten by Zimbabwe’s military and police as they seized control of the diamonds.
The Zimbabwe government dismisses the allegations and local analysts say the West is concerned that open trade of the diamonds might render irrelevant sanctions imposed on the country.
The government says it needs the revenue from the diamonds to fund the country’s recovery from decades of economic decline which President Robert Mugabe’s Zanu PF party blames on the sanctions.
Labels: KIMBERLEY PROCESS, MARANGE DIAMOND FIELDS, NEOCOLONIALISM, OBERT MPOFU
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Cosatu, ANC rift deepens
2010-11-02 18:59
Johannesburg - A civil society gathering hosted by Cosatu last week had taken an "oppositionist" stance toward the ANC-led government, party secretary general Gwede Mantashe said on Tuesday.
"We noted that the ANC, the (SA Communist Party) and (SA National Civics Organisation) were not invited, positioning the conference as an alternative block to the alliance," Mantashe told reporters at Luthuli House in Johannesburg.
"We call it oppositionist because there is a difference between political criticism of an ally or an organisation you are party member of and you position yourself opposite to that party.
"It's not an opposition party, but the stance is oppositionist. And we think it's a dangerous populist approach to disagreements and it is intending to create a crisis where there is no crisis."
He was speaking after a meeting of the ANC's national working committee on Monday. The conference last week was hosted by ANC ally, Cosatu, and included civil society formations.
At the two-day gathering, a labour breakaway from the ANC was mooted, but shut down.
Cosatu general secretary Zwelinzima Vavi also denied suggestions the conference was testing the waters for a new political party.
Mantashe said the ruling party did not believe the majority of Cosatu's leaders intended to effect regime change in the country.
"... but we nonetheless caution that an action like the one of leading a charge for the formation... of a mass civic movement outside the alliance and the ANC might indeed be interpreted as initial steps for regime change in South Africa."
Vavi's attacks on "black political parties" and the "notable omission" of the Democratic Alliance further reinforced the conference being interpreted as a move toward a breakaway.
Mantashe said despite assertions the conference was not "anti-government or anti-ANC", Cosatu's failure to invite the ANC and to allow the government to respond to criticism levelled at it, pointed to the opposite.
Despite this, Mantashe said the ANC's relationship with Cosatu remained "working" and "workable".
There were disagreements, but in the end, the ruling party and its labour ally would talk to each other, he said.
Mantashe acknowledged there were problems, saying perhaps these could be attributed to an "ideological shift" within Cosatu.
"Many of these issues... old debates that were defeated in the 80s and in the 90s, and if they re-emerge now and they have the resonance in the federation, it may point to the ideological shift in the federation itself and the shifting of the balance of forces to the extreme.
"If that happens within the federation, it will also create difficulties in the working of the alliance."
No disciplinary action
A temporary cease-fire between the ANC and Cosatu emerged after the ANC's national general council (NGC) in September after months of tension over the country's economic trajectory and the ANC's perceived soft stance against corruption.
The fall-out prompted the ANC to mull disciplining Vavi, but the idea was eventually canned. Vavi remained vocal and critical over what he termed the "predatory elite" and "political hyenas" in the ranks of the ruling party.
ANC Youth League president Julius Malema urged the ANC to discipline Vavi over his "political hyena" comments, saying this went against an NGC resolution to avoid public spats.
Mantashe on Tuesday said the NWC was "appalled" over Vavi's "predatory elite" remark. He added that public spats were directed at a particular person, while Vavi's comments were "generalised".
"... when you generalise and say there's a smell of predatory elite here, you are not attacking a person... we can't go out and say 'listen you are attacking comrade so and so... therefore there is a public spat... therefore we must punish you'."
He however added that generalising was more harmful than being specific.
"... those generalised statements cause more harm than being specific... because when you throw generalised statements... actually you are casting aspersions and innuendoes that cause more damage then specific cases."
No disciplinary action could be taken against Cosatu as it was an "independent" body in an alliance with other independent parties, the ANC and the SACP.
"They are not a labour desk of the ANC, they are the trade union federation independent of the ANC, but in an alliance with the ANC."
The ANC would convene an urgent meeting with Cosatu to discuss its qualms.
- SAPA
Labels: ANC, COSATU, GWEDE MANTASHE, JULIUS MALEMA, MALE, ZWELINZIMA VAVI
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Egg and poultry cartels in the wings
LLOYD GEDYE - Nov 05 2010 12:13
Never mind the bread cartel, wheat cartel and flour cartel, while we're at it let's throw in an egg cartel and a poultry cartel for good measure.
Pioneer Foods's whopping R1-billion fine for anti-competitive practices may have grabbed the headlines, but the real story was hidden in the detail -- Pioneer Foods has not only been involved in bread, flour and wheat cartels, but also in poultry and egg cartels.
The Competition Commission's statement on the settlement reached between it and Pioneer, detailed for the first time investigations into the poultry and egg markets.
The statement made it clear that the fine imposed on Pioneer was also aimed at settling these matters, which are under investigation, and that Pioneer would rat on alleged colluders in the egg and poultry cartels.
The commission's investigation into the poultry market was initiated in April last year and its statement claims that Rainbow Chickens, Astral Foods, Country Birds Holdings, Afgri, the South African Poultry Association and the Animal Feed Manufacturers' Association played a part in the cartel.
Paying too much
They are alleged to have divided up markets and shared information and the statement suggests that South Africans could be paying 25% too much for chicken as a result.
The egg cartel investigation was launched in May this year and 20 egg producers are being investigated -- Nulaid, Hy-line South Africa, Avichick, Eggbert, Top Lay, Fair Acres, Heidel Eggs, Lund Eggs, Waterglen Pluimvee, Paardeberg Flinkwink, Golden Yolk ND Lay Well, Rodendal, Nantes Eggs, Eikenhof, Elkana, Windmeul Eggs, Morningside, Sunrise Eggs, Eden Rock and Cocorico.
Pioneer has applied for corporate leniency for the involvement of its subsidiary, Nulaid, in collusion in the egg market and so it will help the commission prosecute the other members of the cartel.
Pioneer's involvement in these alleged cartels has highlighted the fact that, while the agreed settlement of more than R1-billion is the largest settlement in South African history, Pioneer still got off fairly lightly.
According to current legislation, the commission could ask for a maximum fine of 10% of the Pioneer Foods Group's annual turnover for each individual case it chose to prosecute involving Pioneer Foods.
'Pioneer could have faced a maximum fine'
So, with a turnover for the 2009 financial year of R16,3-billion and anti-competitive practices flagged in the bread, wheat milling, flour milling, egg and poultry markets, Pioneer could have faced a maximum fine in the region of R8-billion, which is 80% of the company's market capitalisation.
The Black Sash took umbrage over the fine this week, arguing that it was not high enough.
"Not only did Pioneer Foods fix the price of bread, a staple food, but it inflated and profited illegally from the sale of other basic goods, including wheat, maize, poultry and eggs," said the Black Sash in a statement.
Pioneer Foods have been locked in negotiations with the commission for months, trying to bring to an end its reputation-damaging involvement in the bread and milling cartels.
In May 2008 the commission referred its case against bakers Sasko and Duens (Pioneer Foods), Albany (Tiger Brands), Blue Ribbon (Premier Foods) and Sunbake Bakeries (Foodcorp) to the Competition Tribunal, alleging that they had colluded in a bread cartel.
Later three of them admitted guilt and settled with the commission, but Pioneer decided to take the commission on, claiming it was not part of a bread cartel.
Determined to clear their name
If Pioneer had agreed to settle with the commission its fines would probably have been calculated on the R3,4-billion turnover of its baking and milling division from the 2007 financial year -- an effective fine of R340-million if the full 10% had been sought, which would have been unlikely. But the company's managing director, André Hanekom, was adamant that it had a strong case and that it was determined to clear its name.
In the end Pioneer's defence came unstuck, with Sasko general manager Andries Goosen admitting to perjuring himself before the tribunal.
The commission was looking into laying perjury charges against Goosen, which could result in jail time, but it is unclear how the current settlement will affect those charges.
KK Combi, the Premier chairperson, refused to comment on Goosen, saying Goosen was facing action from the National Prosecuting Authority.
In February this year the tribunal announced its ruling, fining Pioneer R195-million. But the commission was not impressed with the fine and took the matter on appeal to the Competition Appeal Court to get it increased, which sparked the round of negotiations that resulted in the settlement.
Tribunal hearing
Pioneer also had a tribunal hearing into its milling business hanging over its head after the commission referred charges against it to the tribunal in March this year.
As agreed in the settlement, which has to be approved by the tribunal, Pioneer will pay a R250-million fine to the National Revenue Fund and R250-million to a new agro-processing competitiveness fund, which will be administered by the Industrial Development Corporation to promote competitiveness, employment and growth in food value chains.
Pioneer has also agreed to adjust its flour and bread prices over a defined period, which will cost it about R160-million.
Ebrahim Patel, the minister of economic development, told Parliament this week that it was anticipated that this would "stimulate price competition in the bread and wheat market".
"I take this opportunity, subject to confirmation by the Competition Tribunal of the settlement, to call on bakeries, supermarkets and the retail trade to pass the price reduction on to consumers," said Patel.
Capital expenditure to be increased
Pioneer has also agreed to increase its capital expenditure by R150-million over a two-year period, to R1,35-billion.
Patel said this commitment was intended to support efforts to improve the company's competitiveness through innovation and the upgrading of equipment and expansion of operations, instead of relying on price-fixing and collusion with competitors.
This was on top of the R195-million fine that was handed down by the tribunal in February, taking the total to just over R1-billion.
Commissioner Shan Ramburuth said the settlement with Pioneer went beyond just a penalty and included price adjustment for the benefit of consumers and a fund to promote competition in the agro-processing industry.
"The commission welcomes Pioneer's approach, as evidenced in this agreement, to resolving the matters and agreeing to undertakings aimed at a more competitive and dynamic economy in these crucial sectors," said Ramburuth. Labels: DAIRY, KARTELS
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ANCYL: 'Our relevance is determined by the needs of the people'
KARABO KEEPILE | JOHANNESBURG, SOUTH AFRICA - Nov 02 2010 16:35
"Sixteen years into democracy, our people are still suffering. Therefore we need to ensure that this period sees the full translation of who becomes owners of our mineral assets and economy. Our task is to ensure this happens under this generation," ANC Youth League (ANCYL) spokesperson Magdalene Moonsamy told the Mail & Guardian on Tuesday.
The ANCYL, which celebrated its 66th anniversary in Stellenbosch on Saturday, says it will remain relevant as long as young people are exposed to injustice, something it predicts will happen for "the rest of the existence of humanity".
"As long as young people are exposed to injustice there will always be a need for a voice. Our relevance is determined by the needs of the people," Moonsamy told the M&G.
Formation of the youth league
When the ANCYL was formed in 1944, youth leaders declared that they were "laying their services at the disposal of the African National Congress, in the belief, knowledge and conviction that the cause of Africa must and will triumph".
President Jacob Zuma reminded audience members in Stellenbosch, in the words of the first league president, Anton Lembede , in 1944: "The formation of the African National Congress Youth League is an answer and assurance to the critics of the national movement that the African youth will not allow the struggles and sacrifices of their fathers to have been in vain. Our fathers fought so that we, better equipped when our time came, should start and continue from where they stopped."
During the league's existence, its young leaders have included the likes of Nelson Mandela, Anton Lembede, Walter Sisulu, Oliver Tambo, Jordan Ngubane and Robert Sobukwe.
During the president's address, he said the ANC Youth League had never disappointed the ANC, "even during the most trying times during the struggle for liberation. The league was always there, providing ideas and initiating activities for the ANC in all phases of the struggle."
First president
According to South African History Online, Anton Muziwakhe Lembede, a former teacher, swapped professions in 1943 to become a lawyer. He moved to Johannesburg to serve articles under Dr Pixley ka-Isaka Seme, co-founder of the South African Native National Congress, which was later renamed the African National Congress (ANC).
Lembede was instrumental in the formation of the ANC Youth League, and was a member of the national provisional committee that was formed in 1944 to oversee the process of the formation of the ANCYL. The youth league was officially formed on September 10 1944, and Lembede became the youth league's general president. He contributed to the drafting of the ANC Youth League ManifestoYouth League Manifesto before serving in various ANC positions. Two years later Lembede was seconded to the ANC national executive committee and national working committee under the leadership of Dr Alfred Bitini Xuma, a former ANC president in the 1940s.
Lembede is also regarded as the architect of the 1949 Programme of Action. According to Zuma, the Programme of Action "outlined the campaigns to be undertaken by the ANC, which contained many important elements which changed the character of the ANC".
New struggle for the youth
Now that a new democratic order has been achieved, what struggles face the youth of today?
According to Moonsamy, the new struggle is very diverse, as challenges change daily.
"Today, young people are writing exams but they are exposed to drugs, alcohol and violence. Outside of HIV/Aids and other sexually transmitted diseases, there are numerous health challenges, unemployment and the challenge of poverty."
During the celebrations in Stellenbosch, Zuma urged the youth not to lose the militancy, bravery and radicalism that characterised the youth league, especially during the struggle for freedom.
"We have attained freedom and democracy but the struggle continues on another realm, one that requires the same commitment and impetus that was demonstrated by the youth of 1944 -- the struggle of attaining a better life for all," Zuma said.
However, young South African Ayanda Ngidi said she believed there was a disconnect today between the youth league and the young people of South Africa.
"It doesn't speak to me in anyway. I am not even aware of any projects it is tackling to assist the youth in South Africa. All I've heard from it is complaints and firing up the youth, but not doing anything after that," she said.
Labels: ANC YOUTH LEAGUE, MAGDALENE MOONSAMY
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