AG directs DPP to oppose M'membe's conviction
By Maluba Jere
Fri 02 Mar. 2012, 11:00 CAT
ATTORNEY General Mumba Malila has directed the Director of Public Prosecutions not to support the conviction of Post editor Fred M'membe.
Submissions filed in the High Court state that the prosecutors requested the Attorney General to provide an opinion on public policy considerations, if any, on the prosecution of The Post editor and the intended prosecution of US-based Zambian law Professor Muna Ndulo.
According to the submissions, the request was made as a reference to the Attorney General's office in terms of the proviso to Article 56(7) of the Constitution, which reads: "Provided that when the exercise of any such power in any case may, in the judgment of the Director of Public Prosecutions involve general considerations of public policy, the Director of Public Prosecutions shall bring the case to the notice of the Attorney General and shall in the exercise of his powers in relation to that case, act in accordance with any directions of the Attorney General".
This is in a case where M'membe appealed against his conviction for contempt of court arising from an article authored by Prof Ndulo titled "The Chansa Kabwela case: A comedy of Errors" published on August 27, 2009.
According to the state submissions, the Attorney General was of the view that M'membe's prosecution was a perversion of justice and that it should not have been undertaken in the first place.
The submissions state that Malila's opinion on the matter was that the conviction in the circumstances was equally a travesty of justice and directed that the conviction should not be supported.
Malila stated that the prosecution of M'membe and the intended prosecution of Prof Ndulo for contempt were undertaken under an exceptional background.
"I have studied the circumstances that gave rise to this prosecution. As I can ascertain, The Post Newspaper published the article entitled "The Chansa Kabwela Case: a comedy of errors in their Newspaper number 4697 of 27th August 2009...The President, according to the article should never have issued a directive to the police," said Malila.
"The police on the other hand should have exercised professionalism and independence, but they did not; the DPP should have stepped in to redeem the situation, he too failed."
He further said considering the political circumstances of the time and the totality of what transpired, the prosecution of Kabwela was not objectively and professionally undertaken as evidenced by the result of the prosecution which was an acquittal.
Malila added that in many ways, the author of the article complained of was vindicated and that its publication was justified saying the criticism was valid and apt.
He stated that M'membe's prosecution and subsequent conviction was driven by undisguised political interests.
"The effect of the prosecution of those perceived to be criticising injustice is to stifle the constitutionally protected freedom of expression," he said.
"Some prosecutions, including that of Mr Fred M'membe who appeared to be an ardent critic of the government of that time, appeared to have been driven more by undisguised political interests and the need to dole out political patronage rather than achieving justice. This was an affront to the rule of law and is consequently against public policy."
The state in their submissions said it was clear from the Attorney General's opinion that his view was that the conviction of the appellants should not be sustained.
"In the premise, pursuant to Article 56(7) of the Constitution aforesaid, we therefore abide by the Attorney General's direction and do not support the conviction," read the submissions in part.
In 2010, senior resident magistrate David Simusamba sentenced M'membe to four months imprisonment with hard labour after being found guilty of contempt of court together with Post Newspapers.
Magistrate Simusamba also sentenced M'membe to four months simple imprisonment on behalf of Post Newspapers.
However, M'membe appealed against the conviction and the High Court has since set April 2, 2012 as the date for judgment.
Labels: FRED M'MEMBE, MUNA NDULO, THE POST
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What human rights of MMD leaders are being violated?
By The Post
Sat 03 Mar. 2012, 12:00 CAT
WE are surprised that of all people George Kunda can loudly complain of MMD leaders being subjected to untold suffering by the government and law enforcement agencies. George says the first five months of the Patriotic Front rule have been hell for close members of the MMD and that during this period, security agencies have been violating the fundamental rights of citizens and especially the rights of leaders of the party with impunity.
He accuses the government of being on rampage brutalising MMD members instead of protecting them. George says the PF government is not committed to upholding human rights, observing the rule of law and constitutionalism and that members of the MMD are still being intimidated and brutalised merely because of their political views and affiliation.
George is not telling the truth. The Zambian people have not forgotten how George and his boss Rupiah Banda ran this country. They had no respect for the feelings and dignity of others. George and Rupiah never cared about brutalising and maligning others.
One must have a very short memory to forget how they brutalised leaders, cadres and members of the PF. Who has forgotten the vicious campaign they led to malign, defame and humiliate Michael Sata? George was in the forefront of all that. He praised all that. He saw nothing wrong with it.
Who has forgotten how they treated Rajan Mahtani and unjustifiably took away his bank, a business he had built over a period of close to three decades? We have also not forgotten how George, his boss and their friends treated us. George personally accused us of all sorts of things - racketeering, homosexuality and so on and so forth.
George knew the truth but this did not matter to him. What he was interested in was to malign and humiliate us. And in many cases he tried to be clever; he avoided being direct and would be throwing innuendoes on the floor of the House against us.
If Michael was a vengeful person, George wouldn't even be in a position to complain today because he would have been reduced to pulp, he would be a humiliated and broken man. But again, it comes back to treating "thy neighbour as thyself" (Lev 19:18).
It was okay for George and his friends to do what they did to Michael and his colleagues but it's not okay for them to be treated even in a manner that is far less severe than they did. They made life impossible, unbearable for most of us. But we are not and we will not seek revenge against them because one can't build a united nation on the basis of revenge.
And moreover, what is one revenging against? There is no need to carry out any revenge against some of these scoundrels, jackals and pathological liars, shameless characters who may even be sick in the heads due to some other illnesses they are suffering.
It was okay for George and his friends to criminalise innocent actions of fellow citizens. But it seems it's not okay for them to be questioned by the police and other law enforcement agencies for the crimes they are suspected to have committed.
Why shouldn't law enforcement agencies visit them or call them for interviews when they are suspected to have stolen public resources? Are they looking for impunity the Chiluba way? They want Michael to treat them the way they treated Chiluba? That is not justice, that's corruption and abuse of power. They abused their power to let Chiluba go scot-free and they are expecting Michael to do the same.
We can only remind George, and all others, including ourselves, of the need to treat others as we would want to be treated in their place. But this does not mean we should be allowed to commit crimes and go scot-free. The best way to show love to a wrongdoer, to a criminal or to a corrupt person, is to get them arrested, prosecuted and jailed for that.
In that way, they may be stopped from committing any further crimes. Impunity for wrongdoers doesn't help them, does them no good. If one has committed a crime, prison should be their place. But let them receive a fair trial. And all of us should look for a fair trial when we have done something wrong and we should ensure that everyone else receives fair trial when in trouble with the law.
George should expect to be treated the way he treated others. That's what the Golden Rule teaches and demands - one should treat others as one would like others to treat oneself or, put in another way, one should not treat others in ways that one would not like to be treated.
And treating others as you would want to be treated in their place will ultimately lead to your own protection and happiness. There are huge dividends in being honest, just and fair. Probably this is why there is universality about the Golden Rule in the world of religions.
In Christianity, we are taught that "all things whatsoever ye would that men should do to you, do ye so to them; for this is the law and the prophets" (Mt 7:12). In Islam, we are taught that " no one of you is a believer until he desires for his brother that which he desires for himself" (Sunnah). In Confucianism, it is said that "do not do to others what you would not like yourself. Then there will be no resentment against you, either in the family or in the state" (Analects 12:2).
In Buddhism, the equivalent teaching is: "Hurt not others in ways that you yourself would find hurtful" (Udana-Varga 5,1). In Hinduism, it is: "This is the sum of duty; do nought onto others what you would not have them do unto you" (Mahabharata 5,1517). For Judaism, it is: "What is hateful to you, do not do to your fellowman. This is the entire law; all the rest is commentary" (Talmud, Shabbat 3id). And in Taoism, they say: "Regard your neighbour's gain as your gain, and your neighbour's loss as your own loss" (Tai Shang Kan Yin P'ien).
Clearly, living by the Golden Rule will make one a better person and those around that person happier, and will make the community one lives in a better place. Of course, we will admit that there are strong arguments against the Golden Rule, that there are exceptions and logic arguments that the Golden Rule, taken to extremes, falls apart.
But that's not our worry, our concern. The truth is, on a day-to-day basis, living by the Golden Rule makes one a better person and with more better persons, a better nation. And people who look at life in this way have no time for revenge or retaliation and resist the tendency to strike back when treated badly. And this doesn't mean that we should be doormats.
We have to assert our rights but in a way where we still treat others well and not striking back just because they treated us badly first. If people are arrested, prosecuted and jailed for corruption, it's not revenge. That's what the rule of law demands. It would be lawlessness to allow people who have plundered the meagre resources of their poor people to go scot-free and keep their loot. We think this is what George is complaining about.
They don't want law enforcement agencies to visit them and make them account for what they are believed to have stolen. It's not difficult to see why George and his friends are behaving this way. They never, in the first place, wanted to be accountable. And in pursuit of this, they changed the law to allow for impunity, for stealing public resources and abusing public offices without being made to account. They abolished the law that made abuse of office a criminal offence.
Yes, it's true Michael is making some mistakes here and there. But none of those mistakes can be said to be a violation of fundamental rights of citizens, or an attempt to victimise, brutalise, humiliate MMD leaders and members. Michael doesn't seem to be concerned by that although he was their worst victim and bore the worst of their malicious propaganda.
Let them just face the law and cooperate with law enforcement agencies in their investigations. If their human rights are violated, we can assure them we would be the first to stand up and defend them.
That we can guarantee them. If at the end of the day they are imprisoned, we will, as we have done before to others, demand fair and decent prison conditions for them.
Labels: CORRUPTION, MMD
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Government to stop paying Rupiah
By Kombe Chimpinde
Sat 03 Mar. 2012, 12:00 CAT
INFORMATION minister Fackson Shamenda says the government will begin working out modalities to stop supporting former president Rupiah Banda.
Commenting on the Speaker of the National Assembly Dr Patrick Matibini's ruling on Friday that Banda had been violating the benefits for presidents Act by continuing to engage in active politics and that the onus of forfeiting his emoluments and other benefits he was entitled to was on the Executive, Shamenda said the government would soon start working out mechanisms to remove Banda even from the payroll.
"We shall implement the law. It's (matter) administrative so the government will just sort it out quietly. I can't state when this will be done however, but it's got to be implemented as soon as possible," Shamenda said.
"We have got to work out mechanisms first. For example, when an employee leaves a company, management has to remove them from the payroll and look at all the benefits which can be withdrawn. If one is entitled to benefits, immediately it is discovered that they are not entitled, it is supposed to be withdrawn immediately."
On Friday, Speaker Dr Matibini ruled that Banda had been violating the benefits Act by continuing to engage in active politics and told Parliament that the onus of forfeiting his emoluments and other benefits he was entitled to, was on the Executive.
The Speaker's ruling was as a result of a point of order raised by Chongwe PF member of parliament Sylvia Masebo who questioned the government's failure to implement the law in relation to Banda even when he had continued to involve himself in active party politics.
Last week, Banda declared during card renewal exercise that he was still MMD president.
Labels: PATRICK MATIBINI, RUPIAH BANDA
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Fitch downgrades Zambia's economic outlook
By Chiwoyu Sinyangwe
Sat 03 Mar. 2012, 12:00 CAT
GLOBAL rating agency Fitch has downgraded Zambia's economic outlook from stable to negative a few months before the country's planned US$700 million Eurobond is issued. But finance minister Alexander Chikwanda says it is "inglorious opinion" for Fitch to downgrade Zambia's economic outlook to negative.
Fitch Ratings which provides issuer and bond ratings last year assigned the Zambia Long-term foreign and local currency Issuer Default Ratings (IDR) of B+.
Zambia's rating is the same as that for Ghana, Kenya and Angola and one step above Lebanon.
In its latest outlook released on Thursday, Fitch downgraded Zambia's ratings from stable, citing concerns about the direction of economic policy in the southern African state.
"The revision of Zambia's rating reflects the agency's concerns about some of the government's recent actions and announcements, which bring into question the direction of economic policy," Fitch stated.
The agency affirmed Zambia's short-term issuer default ratings at B and the country ceiling at BB-.
Fitch stated that Zambia's recent decision to reverse a privatisation deal could undermine property rights, while planned reforms of the mining and banking sectors could negatively impact investment and consequently macroeconomic stability.
It stated that the government's decisions to reverse the privatisation of Zamtel and investigate the privatisation of Zanaco represent perhaps the most worrying recent development.
"The revision of Zambia's outlook to negative reflects the agency's concerns about some of the government's recent actions and announcements, which bring into question the direction of economic policy," says Carmen Altenkirch, director in Fitch's Sovereign ratings group.
"The recent decision to reverse a privatisation deal without as yet compensating the investing parties could undermine property rights, while planned reforms of the mining and banking sectors could risk unintended consequences in terms of their potential impact on investment, and consequently on the growth outlook and macroeconomic stability."
The government is investigating the 2007 sale of a 49 per cent stake in state-owned Zanaco Bank to Rabobank, in a case that Fitch said "could lead to a reversal of a deal involving foreigners".
On January 24, 2012, President Sata dissolved the board of directors of Zamtel and appointed Dr Mupanga Mwanakwatwe as acting chief executive officer and chairman as the government took 100 per cent ownership of the country's total mobile phone provider whose 75 per cent was corruptly sold to Libya's LAP Green Networks for US$257 million in 2010.
"A further concern surrounds a recent announcement by the Central Bank to significantly increase the minimum capital requirements for the banking sector," stated Fitch. "Although the government's objective of increasing the size and capitalisation of the banking sector is laudable, Fitch is concerned about the potential impact on asset quality, inflation and foreign bank participation in the sector."
But Chikwanda dismissed all the benchmarks on which Fitch demoted Zambia's economic outlook from last year's positive trajectory.
He said it was wrong for Fitch to state that government's decisions to reverse the privatisation of Zamtel and investigate the privatisation of Zanaco represent perhaps the most worrying recent development.
Chikwanda said the economic outlook for Zambia was positive premised on expected robust performance of key sectors like mining, agriculture and tourism.
"Zanaco is different from Zamtel. But that also shows how corrupt they Fitch are," Chikwanda said.
"A rating agency of its respectability, has read the report of Zamtel and the indefensible massive corruption that was involved in that transaction, and they are acting as very ardent high priests and supporters of the corruption perpetuated by Zamtel. Obviously this can only impinge on their Fitch integrity and credibility. The economic outlook for Zambia is very bright. And its not Fitch which is going to determine the future of Zambia. It's you and I who are doing to determine the future of Zambia individually and collectively, and not what the rating agency does or says."
Chikwanda said the probe into Zanaco and the reversal of Zamtel should not be misconstrued that the government did not respect and protect private properties, especially foreign-owned assets domiciled in the country.
"The PF government is based on the rule of law. We have total scrupulous respect for property," he said.
"So, the ideas of Fitch and other people are just a figment of imagination. Government is totally committed to the rule of law."
Chikwanda also said Fitch's assessment would not impact negatively the pricing of the US$700 million the country plans to borrow to fund expansionary budget with key focus on infrastructure development.
"I don't think so because the people who will be in the market to buy our bond are banks which have roots or connections with Zambia and are well-informed," he said.
Chikwanda also blamed inconsistent statements among some top government officials for the growing apprehension among investors, and partly for the decision by Fitch to portray "a gloomy picture for the Zambian economy".
He also said the government had no plans to raise its stake in foreign-owned mining firms, contrary to recent comments by former mines minister Wylbur Simuusa that the government would raise its shareholding in the mining firms to 35 per cent.
"This is an admission on all of us Zambians, government and citizens that we should be consistent. So, our policies are consistent, and of course people have the right to question us, especially if you journalists publish something which is alarming or some of the people in government, at whatever level, say things which appeal to be adrift with the set policies outsiders have the right to question us," he said.
"That is why they are fence-sitting. They sit on the fence, they want to assess our credibility, and our credibility comprises two major components: one of them is policy consistency because policy somersaults are not helpful to the countrys image. The other component of credibility is simply predictability. People including citizens must know where your government stands, not today is this."
Chikwanda said the significant increase in the minimum capital requirements for the banking sector would help solidify the financial sector lend to real sectors.
Labels: DEBT
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Corruption offshoots must be fought - Sata
By Moses Kuwema and Ernest Chanda
Sat 03 Mar. 2012, 11:59 CAT
PRESIDENT Michael Sata says corruption cannot be fought without fighting its offshoots. Speaking at the World Day of Prayer Service at the Cathedral of the Holy Cross yesterday, President Sata said where there is poverty and unemployment, people were bound to get tempted.
"Now when you have unemployment and poverty, that's the greatest injustice and we cannot fight corruption without fighting the offshoot of corruption... In America, Europe, unemployment is a campaign issue. Unfortunately in Africa poverty is a campaign issue," President Sata.
President Sata said events like the World Day of Prayer Service were important because they unite the nation.
"We need more of these functions to unite us because at the moment...I attentively listened to the poem and if I had a way I would have added more. Because they were talking about injustice; is it justice that some people don't know what they are going to eat in a day? Is it justice that some people don't know how it sounds to be at the end of the month," President Sata said.
And President Sata said he had very high regard for women.
"As majority of people here are women, I have very high regard for women. Across there, I can see my Permanent Secretary for Lusaka Province, she is a woman. On my left I can see the boss of police, she is a woman and the boss of drugs is a woman because very few women smoke drugs and the anti corruption boss is a woman," President Sata said.
Speaking earlier, Reverend Margaret Banda from the Reformed Church in Zambia bemoaned continued injustices where the law favoured more the rich than the poor.
Quoting the Bible on the theme ‘Let justice prevail', Rev Banda wondered why cases for the poor took longer than those for the rich.
"Where there is no fear of God there is injustice. And this brings about the attitude of considering other people as objects and not human beings. The law is there to protect everyone," said Rev Banda.
"But these days justice is only for those with money; those without money they see no justice."
Labels: CORRUPTION, MICHAEL SATA
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Scott explains why he doesn't act as President
By Mwala Kalaluka
Sat 03 Mar. 2012, 11:59 CAT
VICE-President Dr Guy Scott says he does not act as president during President Michael Sata's absence from the country because he is barred by the Republican Constitution as amended in 1996. And sports minister Chishimba Kambwili yesterday annoyed Monze UPND MP Jack Mwiimbu after he described him as a confused person during debate in the House.
Responding to a question from MMD Mpongwe member of parliament Gabriel Namulambe on why he does not act as president in President Sata's absence, Vice-President Dr Scott said people like him whose parents were not born in Zambia were barred from standing for presidency following the 1996 amended Constitution.
"I was very greatly wishing that the former vice-president was going to take us to court so that we go and explain this issue," Vice-President Dr Scott said. "However, he prefers just standing behind the tree and throw stones."
Vice-President Dr Scott said former vice-president George Kunda knew very well that if he took the matter to court he could not win and he further said there was sufficient precedence over the issue.
"It's not a big deal in my opinion," Vice-President Dr Scott said. "I don't think that this House is the court of law that will determine this matter, anyway."
President Sata usually appoints finance minister Alexander Chikwanda to act as president whenever he travels outside Zambia.
And during the Vice-President's question time, Mwiimbu raised a point of order over Vice-President Dr Scott's response that he could not give the reason upon which President Sata based his realignment of the two districts because it was privileged information.
Mwiimbu asked if Vice-President Dr Scott was in order to hide behind the veil of privileged information when responding to concerns from MPs on the realignment of districts when Article 54 of the Constitution states that Cabinet was collectively responsible to Parliament.
But as Mwiimbu raised his point of order, Kambwili, who was seated at the front bench on the right side of the chamber audibly retorted: "wali fulungana iwe you are confused."
Opposition members of parliament immediately asked Speaker Dr Patrick Matibini to send Kambwili out of the House following his remark.
"How can he say I am mad!" Mwiimbu stood and asked the Speaker.
In his guidance, Speaker Dr Matibini started by asking members of parliament to respect their fellow MPs' right to free expression as they debate on the floor of the House.
"It is important that we conduct ourselves with utmost dignity," Speaker Dr Matibini said. "We have all been installed with the title of being honourable and therefore we must match it with our conduct."
Speaker Dr Matibini asked Mwiimbu to recast his point of order and in response Vice-President Dr Scott said he was not in the pocket of President Sata to divulge to the House why the Chirundu and Itezhi-tezhi districts were realigned from Southern Province to Lusaka and Central Provinces, respectively.
Vice-President Scott said Chirundu and Itezhi-tezhi could be administered conveniently from the places where President Sata had placed them.
Labels: CHISHIMBA KAMBWILI, GUY SCOTT, JACK MWIIMBU, VICE PRESIDENCY
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Kabimba to head new Telegram board
By Chiwoyu Sinyangwe
Sat 03 Mar. 2012, 11:59 CAT
THE government has appointed a new board of directors for Zamtel to be led by PF secretary general Wynter Kabimba. On January 24, 2012, President Michael Sata dissolved the board of directors of Zamtel and appointed Dr Mupanga Mwanakwatwe as acting chief executive officer and chairman.
The dissolution followed President Sata's acceptance "withoaut reservation" of findings of the Sebastian Zulu commission of inquiry investigating the US $257 million sale of three quarters of Zamtel to LAP Green Networks of Libya in 2010.
According to sources, the new board of directors comprises former Chimwemwe PF member of parliament Willie Nsanda, PF member and Lusaka Province Permanent Secretary Charity Mwansa, Ministry of Finance permanent secretary Dr Abraham Mwenda and a Mr Mwiinga.
Last week, three top officials left Zamtel and their positions have since been advertised.
According to highly-placed sources, chief human resources and administration officer Eve Banda, chief commercial officer Amon Jere and Zamtel legal counsel Selina Luwisha left last Friday.
Upon the government taking back the 75 per cent stake in Zamtel "fraudulently" acquired by Libya's LAP GreenN on January 24, foreign top officers were forcibly expelled from Zamtel.
A combined team of security wings subsequently sealed off all Zamtel operations in the country, expelled foreign top officials led by former managing director Hans Poulsen.
Labels: WYNTER KABIMBA, ZAMTEL
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Subject Barotse Agreement restoration to referendum - Nevers
By Kombe Chimpinde and Abigail Sitenge
Sat 03 Mar. 2012, 11:59 CAT
PASTOR Nevers Mumba has suggested that the question of restoration of Barotse Agreement of 1964 should be subject to a referendum. Pastor Mumba told journalists in Lusaka that the issue of the Barotse Agreement was very sensitive and that it must not be distorted by political connotations or interests.
He said although President Michael Sata might have reasons for expressing reluctance to implement the agreement which he promised the people of Western Province, he must engage them on the merits and de-merits of restoring the said agreement so that they do not feel betrayed.
"The President can engage them at an intellectual level and if he was wrong, he can still make things right. The President in my considered view has only two options in this regard; the first one is to fulfil his promise and restore the agreement because he promised," said Pastor Mumba.
"The President has to address this very difficult situation by sincerely facing the people of Western Province. The people of Western Province are an enlightened people and would appreciate to work with an honest President when he goes back to them," Pastor Mumba said.
"The President has a leeway here, where he can say to the people of Western Province that 'I made that promise when I was opposition leader. I was not privy to some issues in government. Now I have come to discover that there are matters of security that border on the unitary state of our country and I seek your indulgence as a people of Western Province'."
And Pastor Mumba said that the PF would not be able to deliver if MMD does not survive as a strong and formidable voice in the nation.
Pastor Mumba who observed that the PF was allergic to criticism said the party in government would only be challenged to deliver if there was a strong voice in the opposition.
Pastor Mumba said the downgrading of Zambia's economic outlook from stable to negative by Fitch was evidence of the government's failure to consult and heed advice on its national policies and matters.
"I wish to encourage the PF government that it is in your interest that MMD survives as a strong party. The essence of democracy is the ability to allow opposing views, to co-exist in the hope of finding consensus, which becomes the basis for peace in the nation," he said.
Labels: BAROTSELAND AGREEMENT, NEVERS MUMBA
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Mpezeni should consult over renaming of institutions - chief Chanje
By Christopher Miti in Chipata
Sat 03 Mar. 2012, 11:57 CAT
CHIEF Chanje of the Chewa people in Chipata says Ngoni Paramount Chief Mpezeni should have consulted his colleague Paramount Chief Kalonga Gawa Undi before making his request for the renaming of Chipata General Hospital and other institutions. And chief Chanje says he is worried with the government's delay to open the tobacco market.
Commenting on chief Mpezeni's suggestions to rename Chipata General Hospital as Zwangendaba Hospital, Mwami Adventist Hospital and Mwami border post after him, chief Chanje said what should be appreciated is that there were two paramount chiefs in the province and that matters such as the suggested renaming of big institutions required consultation.
"The two paramount chiefs can share ideas on such matters. We should carry a research to find out who were the first ones to come between Chewas and Ngonis. So Paramount Chief Mpezeni should ensure he has an audience with his colleague and chart the way forward…," chief Chanje said.
He said the government should also realise that there were two paramount chiefs in Eastern Province.
Chief Chanje also said the delay to open the tobacco market had also delayed his annual consultative meeting with out-grower companies.
"Every year, I normally call for a meeting with out-grower companies especially end of February. The purpose of this meeting is look at the marketing season; how are these companies going to buy the crops? What about payments? How is the loan payment system? What will happen to defaulters and other issues are normally discussed at the meeting," he said.
Chief Chanje said it was worrying that the institutions that would run the tobacco floors had not yet been known.
He said he had instructed his indunas not to allow tobacco vendors in the area because the consultative meeting had not yet been held.
Chief Chanje said the delay to open the tobacco market might also give room to vendors who had taken advantage of the hunger situation in the area to exploit farmers.
Labels: CHIEF MPEZENI, CHIEFS, KALONGA GAWA UNDI
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Chikwanda cautions “unprinciple” cabinet Ministers and refutes Fitch negative outlook on Zambia Economy
TIME PUBLISHED - Saturday, March 3, 2012, 9:34 pm
Minister of Finance and National Planning Alexander Chikwanda has launched a scathing attack on his fellow ministers who have continued to issue statements not endorsed by cabinet.
Chikwanda said that President Michael Sata’s recent cabinet reshuffle proves that Ministers speaking aimlessly will not go unpunished. Mr. Chikwanda was speaking when he officiated at the 21st annual ball celebrations for the Zambia Institute of banking and financial Services in Lusaka last night.
Meanwhile, Government has refuted media reports suggesting that Fitch Ratings has revised the Outlook on Zambia’s Long-term foreign and local currency Issuer Default Ratings (IDR) to negative.
Mr Chikwanda explained that Fitch has only expressed a ‘series of doubts’ on Zambia’s policy directions affirming that the Issuer Default ratings (IDR) are at B-plus.
On Thursday, Fitch expressed concern at government’s decision to reverse the privatization of ZAMTEL and investigate the privatization of ZANACO.
According to fitchratings.com, Director in Fitch’s Sovereign ratings group Carmen Altenkirch the reversal of the sale of Zamtel without compensating the investing parties has potential of undermining property rights, and further destabilize the country’s growth outlook and macro-economic stability.
However, Mr. Chikwanda took a swipe at Fitch, saying it is not the first time that the ratings group was downgrading a country.
MUVI TV
Labels: DEBT, NEOLIBERALISM, TAXATION
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The US will continue to assist the government, even if the authorities refuse to legalise gay rights in Zambia-Schwartz
TIME PUBLISHED - Saturday, March 3, 2012, 7:27 am
THE United States (US) deputy chief of mission to Zambia Stephen Schwartz has said that his government has not asked the Zambian government to legalise gay rights as a pre-condition to receiving aid.
He said the US government’s provision of development aid to Zambia is on the basis of commitment to poverty reduction, respect for human rights and good governance.
Mr Schwartz said the US government engages in regular dialogue with Zambia to monitor its commitment to poverty reduction and other areas.
“The US government’s provision of development assistance to the Government of Zambia is on the basis of its overall commitment to reducing poverty, respecting human rights, improving public financial management, fighting corruption and promoting good governance and transparency,” he said.
Mr Schwartz said the US raises issues with governments when there are serious and systematic violations of human rights.
He said to date, the issue of gay rights has not arisen with the Zambian government, adding that the US will continue to assist the Zambian government, even if the authorities refuse to legalise gay rights in Zambia.
“My government will not cut aid to Zambia and what I can say at the moment is that our development aid to Zambia has increased and we will continue to assist Zambia as we promote human rights for all the people,” Mr Schwartz said.
His comment follows calls by United Nations secretary general Ban Ki-Moon that the Zambian government should discourage discrimination against anyone, based on sexual orientation.
Mr Schwartz said this in Lusaka during the week when he held a governance and public dialogue meeting with students at the National Institute of Public Administration (NIPA).
[Zambia Daily Mail]
Labels: AMBASSADOR, BAN KI-MOON, HOMOSEXUALITY, UN, USA
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COMMENT - Every year, Africa loses $1 trillion in raw materials, transnational corporations pay no taxes over that, instead taxes are paid by the western taxpayers, which are called 'Donor Aid', or $250 billion (1/4 trillion) a year. Charitable giving (Aunt Mabel's 5 pounds to charity on a sunday) is $6 billion. Donor Aid is a scam. It is even called 'donor aid' so people confuse it with charitable giving. 'Donor Aid' is substituting western taxpayer money for the taxes that should be paid by Anglo-American De Beers, Equinox, First Quantum, Glencore, Chevron, Royal Dutch Shell, Total, etc.
British parliamentarians to quiz Glencore and others over tax avoidance in Zambia
TIME PUBLISHED - Saturday, March 3, 2012, 7:13 am
Reuters reports that British parliamentarians have invited commodities trader Glencore and other unnamed companies in the resources sector to testify next month as part of an inquiry into tax in developing countries.
Parliament’s International Development Committee monitors the work of the
Department for International Development and is
probing tax payments and tax avoidance in the developing world. It has focused its investigation on Zambia, a copper producing giant where Glencore operates alongside other miners including Vedanta Resources and First Quantum.
A number of non-governmental organisations, but also Rio Tinto and brewer SABMiller, have already submitted written evidence as part of the inquiry.
Zambia is Africa’s top copper producer, but it is one of the world’s poorest countries, and its revenue from the sector accounts for barely 1 percent of government revenue. It said last month that it would audit all of its mining houses to dig for back taxes of up to $1 billion.
The committee quotes an estimated $160 billion each year lost by the developing world because of tax avoidance by multinationals.
“We are happy to take part in this inquiry, about taxation in developing countries,” said a spokesman for Glencore, which owns Mopani Copper Mines, one of Zambia’s largest producers.
“Mopani makes a major economic contribution to Zambia, providing over 17,000 jobs, paying its taxes, and making substantial voluntary contributions in education, health and infrastructure development.”
[Reuters]
Labels: DFID, GLENCORE INTERNATIONAL AG, MINING, TAX EVASION
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Law Society of Zimbabwe victimising Masimirembwa
Posted by By Our reporter at 1 March, at 00 : 49 AM
Zimbabwe Institute of Legal Studies chief, Goodwills Masimirembwa (l) and Law Society of Zimbabwe President Tinoziva BereTHE attack by Law Society of Zimbabwe (LSZ) on Goodwills Masimirembwa and his Zimbabwe Institute of Legal Studies (ZILS) smacks of victimisation and argument advanced carries no justice.
The Institute will be offering Diplomas in various fields of law. In particular it is offering about four law diplomas which are Diploma in Applied Law, Diploma in Forensic Science and Crime Investigations, Diploma in Commerce and Law and Diploma in Mineral Law and Policy.
The expected targeted market is not lawyers per se, but anyone whose job would involve elements of law.
This idea should be commended as it would increase and brigade the gap of knowledge which exists in some professions like Chartered Accountants, Economists, and Business Executives.
The corporate field has radically changed and evolved. It now demands that accountants or even geologists have a working knowledge of the law, hence the introduction of the Diploma in Commerce and Law and Diploma in Mineral Law and Policy.
This is knowledge one would not have acquired their specialized qualifications.
LSZ has taken upon itself to discredit this institution through its communication in the press.
It does not recognize the qualifications being offered by Zimbabwe Institute of Legal Studies.
One then wonders the motive and intentions of LSZ on its stance.
This is an organization which still holds that legal education is only for lawyers and that legal education should only be for a selected few.
It spearheaded the closure of the Faculty of Law at the then Great Zimbabwe University and Midlands State University sweated for its approval of the law degree.
It took the Midlands State University four or more years to get its approval.
Zimbabwe with all its sophisticated economy and society cannot be expected to have only two law schools.
We need legal education to be extended and made available to various professions without those professionals becoming lawyers.
Amongst other things, the LSZ has the powers to make recommendations in relation to training and to encourage and promote the study of efficiency and responsibility on the part of those seeking registration.
LSZ therefore only regulates the legal training of those who want to be registered by them and those people can only be lawyers.
Zimbabwe Institute of Legal Studies is not training lawyers. It is training people so that they can become legal technicians and legal executives.
If the Law Society of Zimbabwe was sincere in its “vested interest in legal training”, why does it not help the institute in establishing proper learning structures?
LSZ does not help the public which it purports to serve.
Is it not in the public interest for various professions to be taught the law component on which they would be encountering in the discharge of their duties?
Surely geologists and other related professions need to be educated about mineral law and policy without them becoming ‘learned friends’.
If the Council for Legal Education, the body tasked to ensure the maintenance of appropriate standards legal education and training in Zimbabwe gave them the green light, why then does the LSZ complain?
LSZ de-registered many lawyers before, including Dr. Lovemore Madhuku. For all we know LSZ had no objection in Madhuku lecturing in law at the University of Zimbabwe, but do not want the rehabilitated Masimirembwa to enter into academia and do the same as Dr. Madhuku. This time, Masimirembwa is not only lecturing, but owning the institution. Precedent?
We can only speculate that Masimirembwa is being persecuted because of his political affiliation with Zanu PF. If that is the case, then LSZ has gone to the dogs and it needs to be saved.
Tafadzwa Musarara
Labels: LOVEMORE MADHUKU
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Malema expelled from the ANC
Posted by By Our reporter at 1 March, at 01 : 11 AM
A SOUTH AFRICAN youth leader once tipped as a future president of South Africa has been expelled from the governing African National Congress (ANC). Julius Malema, president of the ANC youth league, had already been suspended for five years for sowing divisions and bringing the party into disrepute. His appeal against the sentence backfired on Wednesday when, instead of reducing it, the ANC disciplinary committee increased it to expulsion.
The committee described Malema as a “repeat offender” who had been reprimanded in 2010 and shown no remorse. It said: “He has now been found guilty of two serious offences in under two years …; has shown no remorse; is not prepared to be disciplined by the ANC and is not prepared to respect the disciplinary machinery of the organisation.”
His expulsion from the parent body meant his membership and presidency of the youth league would also end, the committee added.
The announcement was delayed for hours because Malema did not present himself at ANC headquarters in Johannesburg to hear his fate before it was released to the public, according to South African media reports.
Around 500 supporters of Malema gathered outside his house in Seshego in Limpopo province on Wednesday night, the eNews channel said.
Malema, after his suspension, had launched public attacks on the South African and ANC president, Jacob Zuma, in all but name.
At rallies he reportedly made the gesture of cupping his hand and extending his fingers to mimic a shower head – a satirical dig at Zuma, who infamously once said he took a shower after having sex with an HIV-positive woman.
It was therefore widely expected that prosecutors at the ANC hearing would press for Malema to receive the ultimate sanction.
The youth league said earlier on Wednesday that it would have no comment on the announcement. It has previously indicated it will not accept the verdict and will keep Malema in office until his term expires in 2014.
Malema was credited with helping Zuma come to power in 2009 before turning against him.
The youth leader was suspended in November on charges that included comparing Zuma unfavourably to his predecessor, Thabo Mbeki, for failing to promote the “African agenda”.
He was also found guilty of calling for regime change in neighbouring Botswana, seen as a diplomatic gaffe.
Malema is also facing a criminal probe into his finances and has reportedly complained that his lawyers are white.
The latest verdict, while nudging Malema closer to the abyss, appears to shore up Zuma’s position. He faces an elective conference later this year where Malema had been expected to play kingmaker.
The Guardian/TZG
Labels: ANC, ANC YOUTH LEAGUE, JULIUS MALEMA
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Third MP charged over CDF fraud
01/03/2012 00:00:00
by Staff Reporter
A THIRD MP was arrested on Thursday in a crackdown launched last week on lawmakers who looted a constituency development fund. Each of Zimbabwe’s 210 MPs received US$50,000 to develop their constituencies under a scheme introduced in November 2010.
Following concerns that some MPs were abusing the fund, the auditor general and the Parliamentary and Constitutional Affairs Ministry launched an investigation which reported unsatisfactory findings in 10 constituencies.
On Thursday, Pumula MP Albert Mhlanga (MDC-T) became the latest legislator to be arrested as it was revealed how he transferred thousands of dollars into his company’s account. The MP is due to appear before Bulawayo magistrates on Friday charged with fraud.
Officials from the Anti-Corruption Commission who are driving the prosecutions say Mhlanga transferred US$32,000 into an account of his company, Bulawayo Plumbers. He told investigators that his firm had supplied materials for his constituency.
Mhlanga is also accused of shifting US$9,000 into the account of a general dealer, Alex Company, and a further US$2,000 to his friend’s company, Silver Sharp.
The MP failed to account for a further US$7,680.
Prosecutors have already charged St Mary’s MP Marvellous Khumalo (MDC-T) over alleged abuse of the fund. He is accused of splashing on a truck which he was hiring out.
Magunje legislator Franco Ndambakuwa (Zanu PF) is accused of changing signatories to the constituency account and putting his wife and friend instead. They creamed the account of US$49,000, prosecutors say.
Khumalo was released on US$300 bail, and Ndambakuwa was freed on US$500 bail.
Labels: CDF, CORRUPTION, MDC CORRUPTION
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GM settles with S.Africa apartheid victims
By Reuters
Fri 02 Mar. 2012, 09:20 CAT
President Nelson Mandela admires the statue of anti-apartheid activist Steve Biko after unvailing it outside the East London city hall in a file photo. Biko, a leading member of the Black Peoples Convention, died in detention on 12 September 1977.U.S. car giant General Motors has agreed to pay a symbolic sum of up to $1.5 million to victims of South Africa's apartheid-era government, who are suing it and another four companies for helping prop up the white-minority state.
South Africa's Khulumani Support Group lodged a U.S. class action lawsuit a decade ago against more than 20 firms it accused of aiding and abetting human rights violations, including torture and extrajudicial killings, under apartheid.
Only five companies General Motors, which has since filed for bankruptcy, Ford, Daimler, German defence group Rheinmetall and computer giant IBM still stand accused.
"GM want to carry on with their business in South Africa and want to settle their scores and maintain good relations with the country's people," said Khulumani member Shirley Gunn, who was detained and tortured under the white-minority rule that ended in 1994.
"But we are very grateful and can seriously start to redress the legacy of apartheid."
General Motors said the settlement was agreed by a trust set up after the company declared bankruptcy in 2009, and as such would be a lot less than $1.5 million.
The company also said the settlememt contained no admission of wrong-doing and stressed it had "adamantly opposed" apartheid.
However, Khulumani laywer Charles Abrahams said the payment to more than 20 Khulumani claimants should help their case against the remaining four companies.
"The fact that GM has made a without prejudice offer to our clients clearly indicates that they acknowledge liability of some sort," Abrahams told Reuters.
"For us that is a significant step in corporate accountability and we hope it will stand us in good stead with our class action against Ford, Daimler, Rheinmetall and IBM."
A number of U.S. Supreme Court justices have expressed scepticism over whether companies can be sued in the United States for alleged complicity in human rights abuses abroad.
Labels: APARTHEID, REPARATIONS, SOUTH AFRICA
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Corruption doesn't pay, it destroys
By The Post
Fri 02 Mar. 2012, 11:00 CAT
NOTHING that comes from corruption will last, but the effects of honesty and loyalty will remain forever. It is said that wealth that has been obtained dishonestly is like a stream that runs full during a thunderstorm, tumbling rocks along as it flows, but then suddenly goes dry. Acts of honesty, in both private and public life, are as lasting as eternity. It doesn't work to rely on money, money stolen from the public for that matter, to make you an important political figure, to make you a president. This country has never known a rich president.
There is no need to steal public funds in the hope that having more money will gain you any political office you want. Dr Kenneth Kaunda was not a rich man but he became our first president; Frederick Chiluba was not a rich man but he was elected over people who were considered richer and became our country's second president.
The third president of our country, Levy Mwanawasa, was a well-to-do lawyer but he was not rich. Rupiah Banda didn't have any money when he weaved his way to become the fourth president of our country. Our current president, Michael Sata, is not a rich man and he doesn't seem to have any ambitions of being rich, of having a lot of money.
Chiluba tried to use the money he had stolen as president of the Republic to entrench himself in power and change the Constitution to give himself a third term. He bribed all sorts of scoundrels to support his third term bid but he failed. Stolen money couldn't get him a third term of office.
Hakainde Hichilema has been carrying himself as a very rich man but he has lost the last three presidential elections to people without deep pockets. Don't rely on dishonest wealth; it will do you no good; it will not make you politically powerful. Instead, it may just ruin your whole political career.
It is true, and Enoch Kavindele is right, that corruption has aborted the promising and brilliant public and political careers of some of our country's best sons and daughters. And one such person is Dr Katele Kalumba.
We have said it before, and we are not ashamed to say it again, that Katele has very good leadership qualities that have been destroyed by corruption. It's sometimes difficult to understand why such a nice man, such an intelligent and highly cultured individual could sink so low and get himself involved in all sorts of schemes that were designed to abuse public resources and trust.
We have had the privilege to socialise and work with this man. He is indisputably an outstanding individual, a man one would always find difficult to dislike. But he did something wrong - he got involved in corruption and was accordingly convicted for it by our magistrates' court.
What led to all this? It's vanity. It's greed. It's lack of discipline. It's loss of principles. It's also an issue of being in the wrong company - a political grouping without standards, without values and principles. Corruption was not something frowned upon, despised, disgraceful under the Chiluba regime. It had become a way of doing politics, a way of life.
They were very excited with money and the power, illusory for that matter, that accompanied it. They started to get deformed; they started to think with money, they could rule this country for as long as they want. Chiluba used to boast about that. He used to say there was nobody with enough to carry out an effective election campaign against him. We lost Chiluba to corruption.
Without corruption, Chiluba would have done more for this country because he had talents, great mobilisation talents, excellent oratory - he could move people to do good things if he had the right attitude. But he became big-headed with money and power. It got to his head and to his heart. He lost his sense of humanity, solidarity and duty.
And with that, his public respect was lost. Chiluba died a disgraced man despite the attempts of his equally corrupt friend, Rupiah, to make him a hero. Chiluba did not die a hero. Levy died a hero, and not Chiluba.
Katele is right in showing contrition. Such contrition can only come from someone who has a bit of decency in him. And Katele had some decency in him. And we have no doubt he must now be regretting what he did and how collectively they ran the MMD into the path of self-destruction through corruption.
Enoch is not right in saying that corruption was or is an individual matter and not a matter for the whole party, the MMD. It is a party matter. It is a matter for the MMD. The MMD, as a political party, is a disgraced party. Corruption has disgraced the MMD in the eyes of the public.
Their perception is of corruption and unfitness for public service. And if not handled with honesty and care, such distasteful perceptions may endure and do the MMD damage for a long time. There is need for the MMD to face the issue of corruption head-on. It cannot be denied that the MMD is a party of corrupt people, corrupt leaders, cadres and members who were there for nothing but enriching themselves.
This is not an individual issue. It is a collective issue for the whole party. The MMD is today associated with corruption. Of course, not everyone in the MMD can be said to have stolen public funds or abused public office. But the perception of the public is that this is a corrupt political party.
That's what people think and it must be appreciated as a deeply felt distaste, rather than a momentary irritation. It is very difficult for decent individuals, for honest individuals, to do well in a party like MMD with no decent principles, values and standards, in a political party led by the values, principles and standards of corrupt elements.
Many people joined the MMD to enrich themselves and not to contribute to the happiness of the suffering masses of our people; they joined the MMD not out of a desire to serve but rather out of a need to cheat or rape the nation; they joined the MMD because it paid to belong to the ruling party - there was endless eating, government jobs and contracts.
Some are starting to do the same thing they did with the MMD to the PF. They are quitting the MMD to join the PF for the same reasons they joined the MMD in the first place - to eat, to get jobs and contracts. There is very little, if not nothing, about serving the people, about sacrifice and selfless service.
We have many people in our politics who have been destroyed by corruption. It serves the individual and the nation to avoid corruption, to fight corruption. Imagine what great prospects would be there for our country with politicians like Katele maintaining their integrity and working side by side with the masses of our people to push our country forward!
But we hope Katele is not making these very positive and correct statements to get reintegrated into the political leadership of our country. It's finished for him. But he still can be of value to our country by taking another form of leadership - that of leading by example, by explaining to our people the dangers of corruption by giving his personal example.
If he does that, many people, including ourselves, will be willing to join hands with him and push that agenda. For now, he has to be made to meet the temerity of his actions.
Corruption doesn't pay, it destroys individuals and the nation.
Labels: CORRUPTION, FREDERICK CHILUBA, RUPIAH BANDA
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Speaker rules on Rupiah's benefits
By Kombe Chimpinde and Ernest Chanda
Fri 02 Mar. 2012, 11:00 CAT
SPEAKER of the National Assembly Dr Patrick Matibini yesterday ruled that Rupiah Banda had been violating the benefits for presidents Act by continuing to engage in active politics and told Parliament that the onus of forfeiting his emoluments and other benefits he was entitled to was on the Executive.
The Speaker's ruling comes in the wake of a point of order raised by Chongwe Member of Parliament Sylvia Masebo last Friday on the government's failure to implement the law in relation to Banda over his continued involvement in active party politics.
Dr Matibini ruled that the legislation on benefits and conditions which apply for one to benefit as a former president was very clear.
"To this effect, the benefits of the former presidents Act chapter 15 of the Laws of Zambia as amended by Act No 21 of 1998 or rather as follows, section 85: (1) The pension and other benefits conferred by this act shall not be paid as assigned or provided for the former president who (A) is in receipt of a salary from government, or (B) engaged in active politics, (2): the former President shall be disqualified from the pension and other benefits conferred by this act (a) if he ceases to hold office or on ground of willful violation of the constitution or of misconduct or (B) if he is convicted of an offence and he is sentenced to imprisonment for a term exceeding six months and the National Assembly through a motion supported by not less than two thirds of the members of the assembly, resolves that the former President shall not receive the whole or such part of the pension and other benefits," he stated.
"Therefore honorable members the law is clear on this matter and the onus is on the executive to implement the law."
Last Friday, Speaker Dr Matibini saved ruling on a point of order raised by Masebo on the matter.
Masebo had questioned the government payment of emoluments to Banda even when the former president is actively involved in politics.
Banda last week said he was still the MMD president until the party held its convention.
Labels: PATRICK MATIBINI, RUPIAH BANDA, SYLVIA MASEBO
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World Bank blacklists 2 companies over bribes
By Kabanda Chulu
Fri 02 Mar. 2012, 11:00 CAT
THE World Bank has blacklisted and fined two subsidiaries of a French engineering company,
Alstom SA, after
the companies allegedly offered bribes to gain a power rehabilitation plant contract in Zambia in 2002.The Alstom subsidiaries, Alstom Hydro France and Alstom Network Schweiz AG in Switzerland, will pay US$9.5 million (K50.1 billion) in restitution and be blocked from bidding on World Bank contracts for up to three years.
The sanctions are tied to an alleged bribe of 110,000 euros (K781 million), which the World Bank stated that Alstom paid to an entity controlled by a former senior government official for consultancy services for a World Bank-financed power-rehabilitation project in Zambia in 2002.
In a press statement themed ‘Enforcing accountability', World Bank vice-president for integrity Leonard McCarthy stated that the sanctions were a significant step in deterring the risks of fraud and corruption.
"This case demonstrates a clear commitment from the World Bank to ensure development funds reach their intended beneficiaries while setting a high standard for global integrity where project resources may be at stake," McCarthy stated.
"Alstom's settlement with the Bank is a wake-up call to global companies that are involved in development business that need to ensure their operations with the World Bank are clean. Alstom is a major player in the hydropower sector and their commitment under this agreement is a significant step in deterring the risks of fraud and corruption."
In 2002, Alstom made an improper payment of K781million (110,000 euros) to an entity controlled by a former senior government official for consultancy services in relation to the World Bank-financed Zambia Power Rehabilitation Project.
The number of companies on the World Bank's blacklist has increased sharply from 2008, when it banned just one company from bidding on its contracts.
Last year, 92 companies or individuals were put on the blacklist, which is published on the bank's website.
Two years ago, the World Bank signed agreements with other institutions including the Asian Development Bank and the Inter-American Development Bank agreeing to jointly blacklist any company that one of the banks finds guilty of graft or collusion.
Labels: BRIBERY, CORRUPTION, World Bank
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‘Government wants citizens to be involved in development'
By Moses Kuwema
Fri 02 Mar. 2012, 10:59 CAT
COMMERCE minister Bob Sichinga says the government does not want to develop the country without indigenous citizens' participation.
Speaking when he officially opened Handymans Group's unique retail showroom on the Great East Road on Wednesday, Sichinga said the government wanted to see the kind of development where every citizen could participate as long as they dedicated their time and energies to moving forward.
"No one else, not our donor colleagues, not the World Bank, the IMF International Monetary Fund nor any other institution, the EU European Union and others, however friendly they might be, can replace our own efforts as Zambians to develop our country. There is no replacement," Sichinga said.
He said as much as the country recognised the assistance from the cooperating partners, it must be regarded as assistance that enables the nation to get to the next level.
"Every child in their growth comes to a stage when they have to fend for themselves. Zambia is 48 years, it's about time we learnt how to walk and others that help must only compliment and supplement our own labour," he said.
And Sichinga said his ministry has undertaken a tour of all 10 provinces in the country to identify a number of resources that were inherent in the localities.
He said the government has decided to support five products for each province, which would form the basis for industrialisation.
"We have decided that we are going to create what we are calling industrial clusters based on the products that God has blessed us with in those localities," said Sichinga.
And Handymans Group chairman and chief executive officer Michael Pasquini said about K40 billion was spent to set up the building.
Pasquini said the building would specialise in the products that China exports to Europe and America.
And on the unfinished building at the corner of Katondo and Freedom Way which Handymans has purchased, Pasquini said the company intends to put up a multi-purpose structure.
Pasquini said what was holding the commencement of works on the project was approval by the Lusaka City Council.
Labels: DEMAND SIDE ECONOMICS, PF, ROBERT SICHINGA
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COMMENT - Enoch Kavindele is one of the bad eggs in the MMD. He started to sing the praises of the MMD after they promised him support for his contract.
Only bad eggs in MMD should apologise - Kavindele
By Chiwoyu Sinyangwe
Fri 02 Mar. 2012, 10:59 CAT
ONLY the bad eggs of MMD should apologise for stealing from Zambians when they served in government and for tarnishing the party's image, says former vice-president Enoch Kavindele.
And Kavindele says corruption has been responsible for cutting short some of the most promising and brilliant public and political careers the country has ever seen. Kavindele said it was wrong for former MMD national secretary Dr Katele Kalumba to issue a "blanket statement" that the entire fallen party was engulfed in unbridled corruption.
Dr Kalumba said Zambians were upset about corruption and other wrongdoings of the MMD, resulting in the fall of the once glamorous ruling party.
But Kavindele said members with cases before the courts for corruption should not drag MMD into their personal problems with the law.
"Those that are being probed are being investigated in their individual capacities; the MMD as a party, we are not facing any corruption charges," Kavindele said in an interview.
"We should expect that those that were corrupt, in their individual capacities, they should apologise and own up, and they will be saving everybody's time, including the court's time."
Kavindele advised all corrupt elements of the former ruling party to own up, return the plundered national resources, and subsequently apologise to the country.
"Those corruption cases are personal problems and you cannot invite the whole party to share personal problems for the party did not benefit from those individual initiatives," Kavindele said. "So, they should own up. And it's not in the interest of everybody so that the corrupt elements go and plead guilty so that the party is detached and cleansed from corrupt activities of individuals."
And Kavindele said corruption was depriving the country of good and future leaders.
He regretted that corruption cases had aborted the promising political life of Dr Kalumba.
Kalumba was last year convicted for corruption over Zamtrop-related offences. His appeal against his conviction is still pending in the Lusaka High Court.
"It is wrong to ask MMD leadership to apologize when these efforts where by individuals," said Kavindele.
"In the MMD, Dr Katele is very much liked by all our members, he is an affable and approachable man, but these things he got into problems with, those were individual initiatives. He didn't do those things as MMD national secretary. We miss him in the leadership because he was very accommodating. It's not the party that has let the people down due to corruption, it's the individuals. The MMD is still a very popular and respected party by the people of Zambia."
Labels: CORRUPTION, ENOCH KAVINDELE, MMD
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Secession not part of Chongwe's final inquiry report
By Mwala Kalaluka
Fri 02 Mar. 2012, 10:59 CAT
THE submitted issue of Barotseland seceding from the rest of Zambia is not part of the Rodger Chongwe commission of inquiry's final report but was instead presented to President Michael Sata as a minority report, The Post has learnt.
And late former Western Province Ngambela prime minister Maxwell Mututwa's grandson, Robby Siamana says Barotse youths aggrieved by the President's expressed 'reluctance' to restore the Barotseland Agreement should exercise restraint.
According to highly-placed sources within the Rodger Chongwe commission on the January 14, 2011 Mongu riots and killings, the commissioners failed to agree on the inclusion of the many submissions calling for Barotseland's total independence from Zambia.
The sources said while other commissioners were of the view that submissions in support of secession should be included in the final report to be presented to President Sata, others said a proviso for continued dialogue on the matter could instead summarise the secessionist calls.
The sources said it was then decided that the issue of secession, which came up through the commission of inquiry's term of reference number 11, should be presented as a minority report and this was signed by one commissioner, Nyambe Namushi, who was representing Barotse Freedom Movement/Linyungandambo on the commission.
But Namushi's minority report was not mentioned during Dr Chongwe's presentation of the commission's ultimate report at State House last week.
In his recommendations derived from term of reference number 11, which was about the concerns of the people of Western Province and recommended mechanisms of addressing them, Namushi stated that the people of Barotseland had told the commission in very clear and unambiguous language that they have finally accepted the unilateral termination of the Barotseland Agreement 1964 by the Government of Zambia.
"By that action they understand that Barotseland should now proceed to full and complete self-determination," Namushi stated. "The government of Zambia and Barotseland should commence discussions immediately to work out transitional arrangements towards Barotseland's independence."
Namushi urged the government to desist from making unilateral decisions on any matter affecting the constitutionality of Barotseland without engaging the people of Barotseland through the traditional leadership of the Barotse Royal Establishment.
And Siamana said in an interview from Senanga yesterday, that the PF through its secretary general Wynter Kabimba should not open old wounds that were healing by issuing threats of treason over dissent on the Barotseland Agreement 1964.
However, Siamana appealed to the youths of Western Province to remain calm over the developing issues around the Barotseland Agreement question.
"They should not just react anyhow over what has come out, more especially the way Wynter Kabimba responded to the issue," Siamana said.
"Let them Barotse youths remain calm and give ample time to the BRE Barotse Royal Establishment to follow all the normal procedures of converging the Barotse National Council."
Siamana said Kabimba was a wrong person to have commented the way he did over the Chongwe Commission report and he asked the government to tolerate divergent views over the matter.
"The tone of Kabimba's address to the nation was like somebody who was opening our wounds that are already healing," Siamana said.
"It's not about secession. I don't think that is what the people of Western Province are calling for."
Siamana cautioned that failure to effectively address the Barotse issue could lead to unrest.
Siamana's grandfather, Maxwell Mututwa, who died at the age of 91 last year, was among Lozis that were detained and charged for treason related to the January 14, 2011 Barotseland Agreement riots in Mongu.
Labels: BAROTSELAND AGREEMENT, SECESSION
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PF won't be taken seriously if they fail to enact FoI - Kabamba
By Kabanda Chulu and Kondwani Munyeka
Fri 02 Mar. 2012, 10:59 CAT
THE PF government will not be taken seriously if they fail to enact the Freedom of Information (FoI) Bill as promised, says Press Freedom Committee of The Post chairperson Leah Kabamba.
And several media freedom activists have said the term FoI must be changed to Access to Information (ATI) because it is not only journalists that will benefit when public information becomes accessible.
In an interview yesterday, Kabamba said the right to access information held by public authorities, alongside press freedom, would enhance democracy.
"The FoI Bill was withdrawn in 2002 from Parliament. Since there have been numerous pronouncements that it will be taken back but this has not worked and if this government says they will take it back, that is good but there will be no reason to believe or take the PF government seriously if they fail to honour their promise by July 2012," Kabamba said.
She challenged government to avail to the public the contents of the Bill that would be taken to Parliament.
"The Bill should be all inclusive by having views of all stakeholders and when in place, there will be increased transparency in the manner government operates. Since public bodies do things on behalf of people, the public have the right to request for any information about government activities," said Kabamba.
Last week, information minister Fackson Shamenda announced that government will take the FoI Bill to Parliament this July.
And participants to the budget transparency and access to information training workshop hosted by Jesuit Centre for Theological Reflection (JCTR) and the International Budget Partners last week stated that government pronouncements should not be taken for granted.
"There is need for political will and despite having allies in government, we should not take things for granted because politicians are the same," stated the participants. "And there is need to correct the misconception that FoI will only benefit journalists, hence we want it to be referred to as ATI."
Meanwhile, MISA-Zambia says the country's on-going debate about the independence of the state-owned media clearly shows how relevant the media is to the country's growing democracy and development.
Speaking at a press briefing in Lusaka yesterday, MISA-Zambia acting chairperson Nalumino Nalumino said the media enables individuals to access information and impart ideas in society.
"…It is an indispensable tool in any democracy, especially for a budding democracy like Zambia. MISA-Zambia has for this reason outlined in its strategic plan an objective to enhance media professionalism in the interest of good governance and Zambia's democratic growth," said Nalumino.
Labels: FREEDOM OF INFORMATION BILL, LEAH KABAMBA, PF, PFC, PRESS FREEDOM, THE POST
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Government to improve doctor-patient ratio
By Kabanda Chulu
Fri 02 Mar. 2012, 10:59 CAT
GOVERNMENT is putting in place various measures to mitigate the current national doctor-patient ratio that stands at one doctor to 12,000 people, says deputy health minister Patrick Chikusu. And opposition MPs have condemned the manner in which government has trivialised gender issues by not establishing a full ministry.
Responding to Luanshya PF MP Steve Chungu who wanted to know the national doctor-patient ratio, Dr Chikusu said the government had no system in place to calculate the ratio but was using the population criteria.
"We have 1,072 doctors and we divide this with a population of 13 million to result in one doctor per 12,000 population but the WHO recommends one doctor per 5,000 population and to mitigate this we have in place measures such as having modern equipment, housing and car loan facilities aimed at attracting medical personnel who left the country," he said.
At this point, UPND Gwembe MP Brian Ntundu referred to Dr Chikusu as a lazy minister who could not avail correct figures but works and supply deputy minister Mwenya Musenge rose on a point of order, prompting Speaker Patrick Matibini to ask Ntundu to withdraw his remarks.
Earlier, Zambezi East MMD MP Sarah Sayifwanda asked when the gender in division department would be turned into a ministry.
Deputy minister in the office of the Vice-President Edgar Lungu responded that the government had no immediate intentions to set up a full ministry.
Lungu explained that having a full ministry would lower the status of gender since it was a cross-cutting issue that was placed at Cabinet Office to provide opportunities to all government programmes.
Labels: DOCTORS, HEALTHCARE, NURSES
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COMMENT - Huh? The MMD is a party of the past. They had no strategy after they came into power in 1991, other than to do whatever the IMF and World Bank say.
Shamenda dismisses MMD ‘autocratic' allegations
By Bright Mukwasa
Fri 02 Mar. 2012, 10:59 CAT
FACKSON Shamenda says allegations by the MMD that the government was autocratic were a sign of panic and a strategy to divert attention from the ongoing crusade against corruption.
Shamenda, who is information, broadcasting and labour minister, said allegations of the government being undemocratic and totalitarian only existed in the former vice-president George Kunda's imagination. Shamenda dismissed the allegations as unfounded.
"They are calculated at attracting sympathy from the international community on former leaders being probed on various corruption offences during the MMD era," Shamenda told journalists during a media briefing yesterday.
"It is also evident that Mr Kunda is panicking and using these baseless accusations to divert attention from the ongoing crusade against corruption in which a number of former leaders in the MMD era, including himself, are being probed for suspected wrongdoing while they were in office. I wish to make clear that the PF government under the leadership of President Sata is on a serious mission to cleanse the Zambian society of corruption to ensure integrity, transparency and accountability in the management of public resources."
Kunda made the allegations during a press briefing on Wednesday where he announced that MMD had submitted to the United Nations that Zambia had become autocratic, totalitarian and undemocratic.
He said the government wanted to concentrate on various developmental projects and that could not be attained in an environment fraught with corruption by those charged with the responsibility of presiding over public resources, as the country saw during the MMD era.
Shamenda said there would be no sacred cows in the fight against corruption.
"I ask Mr Kunda to cite a case where former leaders have been harassed and arbitrarily charged with offences outside the due process of the law. All those that have been questioned or are appearing before the courts of law are doing so with their full liberties and legal entitlements as provided by the law, "he said.
He said the public could now appreciate why the MMD government removed the abuse of office clause from the ACC Act because those former government leaders anticipated that they would be questioned to account for their wealth.
Shamenda said questioning or seeking clarifications from leaders burying billions of kwacha did not amount to a police state.
He said allegations of the country heading for a one party state were Kunda's own imaginations and the government had no such agenda.
"What does the PF have to fear from the MMD and indeed the opposition at large when it single-handedly defeated the former ruling party from power in last year's tripartite elections? What is there to fear about the opposition that should make us so desperate as to want to create a one party state?" he said.
And Shamenda said the government had engaged Kansanshi Mine management and Nakambala Sugar over their employees' work stoppages to bring sanity to the two companies.
He said Kansanshi Mine's standoff was caused by a deadlock over pay rise.
Labels: FACKSON SHAMENDA, MMD
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RDA not impressed with road works in Ndola
By Fridah Nkonde in Ndola
Fri 02 Mar. 2012, 10:59 CAT
ROAD Development Agency (RDA) director Michael Mulenga says he is not impressed with the road works being done by Fratelli Locci, a company contracted to rehabilitate roads in Ndola.
Dr Mulenga, however, said he is confident that the road works will be completed by June this year and ruled out the possibility of terminating Fratelli Locci's contract.
During his visit to urban roads rehabilitation and upgrading projects in Ndola and Luanshya yesterday, Dr Mulenga said termination of the contract would not be the best way to go although the completion of road works had been delayed by six months.
"The roads were supposed to be completed by November last year but I am informed that the main challenges faced by the contractor have been the accessing of materials for rehabilitation. There has been a shortage of these material especially bitumen which is bought from South Africa," he said.
Dr Mulenga said it was good that the contractors had subcontracted the works so as to create jobs for the local people.
He said the contractors were imparting skills in those that had been subcontracted and that RDA was making sure that the road works were inspected from time to time.
"We have consultants who go round checking the work and we also test materials to make sure the roads are of high quality," he said.
Dr Mulenga urged the contractors to speed up their work because the stakeholders were only interested in seeing the end product.
And Fratelli Locci Limited company project manager Stefano Silanus said the works were going on well because the rainy season was slowly coming to an end.
Silanus said the rains were the biggest obstacle, adding that they were sure of completing the roads by June this year.
"We are working very well with RDA. We had challenges of buying construction material because our major supply is South Africa but we are pushing works and we are confident that we will soon have the roads completed," said Silanus.
Meanwhile, RDA regional engineer Thomas Zimba said they were making progress on the works and that they were trying to catch up because the project had taken some time to be completed.
Zimba assured stakeholders that the project was moving on well, adding that they were going to deliver as intended.
He said most of the roads that they were working on were very important because they would decongest the city centre.
"The designs are of high standard and most of the roads being worked on will help decongest town centre. The Twapia, Lubuto road known as Kantolomba road, Chipulukusu road which is 4.3 km, and kalewa raod, are almost complete. Most of the works have been done," said Zimba.
And Luanshya City Council director of engineering Frank Mwakanandi thanked RDA for considering the town in the project.
Mwakanandi said most of the roads in Luanshya were in a deplorable state, adding that the council couldn't raise funds to rehabilitate them.
"We just hope that this project is extended to phase two. Major works have been done by Gomes which has been contracted to do the work. What we can say is that all works on the road in town are done and we are only remaining with Roan and Mpatamato," he said.
Mwakanandi said the contractor, Gomes, also faced the challenge of heavy rains and the supply of bitumen in the implementation of the project.
Labels: RDA, ROADS
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AG directs DPP to oppose M'membe's conviction
By Maluba Jere
Fri 02 Mar. 2012, 11:00 CAT
ATTORNEY General Mumba Malila has
directed the Director of Public Prosecutions not to support the conviction of Post editor Fred M'membe. Submissions filed in the High Court state that the prosecutors requested the Attorney General to provide an opinion on public policy considerations, if any, on the prosecution of The Post editor and the intended prosecution of US-based Zambian law Professor Muna Ndulo.
According to the submissions, the request was made as a reference to the Attorney General's office in terms of the proviso to Article 56(7) of the Constitution, which reads: "Provided that when the exercise of any such power in any case may, in the judgment of the Director of Public Prosecutions involve general considerations of public policy, the Director of Public Prosecutions shall bring the case to the notice of the Attorney General and shall in the exercise of his powers in relation to that case, act in accordance with any directions of the Attorney General".
This is in a case where M'membe appealed against his conviction for contempt of court arising from an article authored by Prof Ndulo titled "The Chansa Kabwela case: A comedy of Errors" published on August 27, 2009.
According to the state submissions, the Attorney General was of the view that M'membe's prosecution was a perversion of justice and that it should not have been undertaken in the first place.
The submissions state that Malila's opinion on the matter was that the conviction in the circumstances was equally a travesty of justice and directed that the conviction should not be supported.
Malila stated that the prosecution of M'membe and the intended prosecution of Prof Ndulo for contempt were undertaken under an exceptional background.
"I have studied the circumstances that gave rise to this prosecution. As I can ascertain, The Post Newspaper published the article entitled "The Chansa Kabwela Case: a comedy of errors in their Newspaper number 4697 of 27th August 2009...The President, according to the article should never have issued a directive to the police," said Malila.
"The police on the other hand should have exercised professionalism and independence, but they did not; the DPP should have stepped in to redeem the situation, he too failed."
He further said considering the political circumstances of the time and the totality of what transpired, the prosecution of Kabwela was not objectively and professionally undertaken as evidenced by the result of the prosecution which was an acquittal.
Malila added that in many ways, the author of the article complained of was vindicated and that its publication was justified saying the criticism was valid and apt.
He stated that M'membe's prosecution and subsequent conviction was driven by undisguised political interests.
"The effect of the prosecution of those perceived to be criticising injustice is to stifle the constitutionally protected freedom of expression," he said.
"Some prosecutions, including that of Mr Fred M'membe who appeared to be an ardent critic of the government of that time, appeared to have been driven more by undisguised political interests and the need to dole out political patronage rather than achieving justice. This was an affront to the rule of law and is consequently against public policy."
The state in their submissions said it was clear from the Attorney General's opinion that his view was that the conviction of the appellants should not be sustained.
"In the premise, pursuant to Article 56(7) of the Constitution aforesaid, we therefore abide by the Attorney General's direction and do not support the conviction," read the submissions in part.
In 2010, senior resident magistrate David Simusamba sentenced M'membe to four months imprisonment with hard labour after being found guilty of contempt of court together with Post Newspapers.
Magistrate Simusamba also sentenced M'membe to four months simple imprisonment on behalf of Post Newspapers.
However, M'membe appealed against the conviction and the High Court has since set April 2, 2012 as the date for judgment.
Labels: DPP, FRED M'MEMBE, MUMBA MALILA, THE POST
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COMMENT - Reuters, owned by the same family that owns Anglo-American De Beers, Rio Tinto and sits on the board (with 'special shares') of The Economist Magazine, is afraid that governments may actually examine the legality of the privatisation they are driving. So much for their chants of 'rule of law'. All they want is for their corrupt deals to be protected.
Fitch revises Zambia outlook to negative
Fri Mar 2, 2012 8:34am GMT
Zambia's President Michael Sata speaks to journalists at the 18th African Union (AU) summit in Ethiopia's capital Addis Ababa January 30, 2012. REUTERS/Noor KhamisJOHANNESBURG (Reuters) - Fitch revised Zambia's rating outlook to negative from stable on Thursday, citing concerns about the direction of economic policy in the southern African state.
"The revision ... reflects the agency's concerns about some of the government's recent actions and announcements, which bring into question the direction of economic policy," Fitch said in a statement.
The agency affirmed Zambia's short-term issuer default ratings at 'B' and the country ceiling at 'BB-'.
It said Zambia's recent decision to reverse a privatisation deal could undermine property rights, while planned reforms of the mining and banking sectors could negatively impact investment and consequently macro-economic stability.
"The government's decisions to reverse the privatisation of Zamtel and investigate the privatisation of Zanaco represent perhaps the most worrying recent development," Fitch added.
The new government of President Michael Sata is investigating the 2007 sale of a 49 percent stake in state-owned Zanaco Bank to Rabobank, in a case that could lead to a reversal of a deal involving foreigners.
It has also said it will take full control of fixed-line operator Zamtel from Libyan owner LAP Green Networks after an inquiry in November ruled the 2010 transaction illegal.
"A further concern surrounds a recent announcement by the Central Bank to significantly increase the minimum capital requirements for the banking sector," said Fitch.
"Although the government's objective of increasing the size and capitalisation of the banking sector is laudable, Fitch is concerned about the potential impact on asset quality, inflation and foreign bank participation in the sector."
Labels: BANKING, CORRUPTION, FDI, NEOCOLONIALISM, NEOLIBERALISM
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COMMENT - Most of the hijackers were Saudi. Osama bin Laden was a Saudi, as is his extensive family - one of the most prominent real estate families in Saudi Arabia.
Saudi Arabia May Be Tied to 9/11, 2 Ex-Senators Say
By ERIC LICHTBLAU
Published: February 29, 2012
WASHINGTON — For more than a decade, questions have lingered about the possible role of the Saudi government in the attacks on Sept. 11, 2001, even as the royal kingdom has made itself a crucial counterterrorism partner in the eyes of American diplomats.
Now, in sworn statements that seem likely to reignite the debate, two former senators who were privy to top secret information on the Saudis’ activities say they believe that the Saudi government might have played a direct role in the terrorist attacks.
“I am convinced that there was a direct line between at least some of the terrorists who carried out the September 11th attacks and the government of Saudi Arabia,” former Senator Bob Graham, Democrat of Florida, said in an affidavit filed as part of a lawsuit brought against the Saudi government and dozens of institutions in the country by families of Sept. 11 victims and others. Mr. Graham led a joint 2002 Congressional inquiry into the attacks.
His former Senate colleague, Bob Kerrey of Nebraska, a Democrat who served on the separate 9/11 Commission, said in a sworn affidavit of his own in the case that “significant questions remain unanswered” about the role of Saudi institutions. “Evidence relating to the plausible involvement of possible Saudi government agents in the September 11th attacks has never been fully pursued,” Mr. Kerrey said.
Their affidavits, which were filed on Friday and have not previously been disclosed, are part of a multibillion-dollar lawsuit that has wound its way through federal courts since 2002. An appellate court, reversing an earlier decision, said in November that foreign nations were not immune to lawsuits under certain terrorism claims, clearing the way for parts of the Saudi case to be reheard in United States District Court in Manhattan.
Lawyers for the Saudis, who have already moved to have the affidavits thrown out of court, declined to comment on the assertions by Mr. Graham and Mr. Kerrey.
“The case is in active litigation, and I can’t say anything,” said Michael K. Kellogg, a Washington lawyer for the Saudis.
Officials at the Saudi Embassy in Washington, who have emphatically denied any connection to the attacks in the past, did not respond Wednesday to requests for comment.
The Saudis are seeking to have the case dismissed in part because they say American inquiries — including those in which Mr. Graham and Mr. Kerrey took part — have essentially exonerated them. A recent court filing by the Saudis prominently cited the 9/11 Commission’s “exhaustive” final report, which “found no evidence that the Saudi government as an institution or senior Saudi individuals funded” Al Qaeda.
But Mr. Kerrey and Mr. Graham said that the findings should not be seen as an exoneration and that many important questions about the Saudis’ role had never been fully examined, partly because their panels simply did not have the time or resources given their wider scope.
Terry Strada of New Vernon, N.J., whose husband died in the World Trade Center, said it was “so absurd that it’s laughable” for the Saudis to claim that the federal inquiries had exonerated them.
Unanswered questions include the work of a number of Saudi-sponsored charities with financial links to Al Qaeda, as well as the role of a Saudi citizen living in San Diego at the time of the attacks, Omar al-Bayoumi, who had ties to two of the hijackers and to Saudi officials, Mr. Graham said in his affidavit.
Still, Washington has continued to stand behind Saudi Arabia publicly, with the Justice Department joining the kingdom in trying to have the lawsuits thrown out of court on the grounds that the Saudis are protected by international immunity.
State Department officials did not respond to requests for comment on Wednesday on the impact of the court declarations.
The senators’ assertions “might inject some temporary strain or awkwardness at a diplomatic level,” said Kenneth L. Wainstein, a senior national security official in the George W. Bush administration. Even so, he said, “the United States and the Saudis have developed strong counterterrorism cooperation over the last decade, and that relationship will not be undermined.”
A version of this article appeared in print on March 1, 2012, on page A19 of the New York edition with the headline: Saudi Arabia May Be Tied To 9/11, 2 Ex-Senators Say.
Labels: AL-QAEDA, TERRORISM
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An attempt to falsify African history
Thursday, 01 March 2012 00:00
Dr Motsoko Pheko
On February 16 2012, speaking in a purported “New South Africa” Parliament, a former member of the apartheid colonialist National Party now leading the opposition Freedom Party Plus claimed that Africans are not the original inhabitants of 40 percent of Azania which colonialists called South Africa on September 20, 1909.
His name is Pieter Muller. He is the minister of agriculture in the ANC government led by President Jacob Zuma. Muller posits that Africans, whom he calls Bantu, never in the past lived in the whole of South Africa. “The Bantu-speaking people moved from the Equator down south while the white people moved from the Cape to meet each other at the Kei River.”
He does not disclose that the colonialists came from Europe. Their sole purpose was to take African lands by terrorist militarism. He does mention the Khoi and San people, whom colonialists called Hottentots and Bushmen respectively.
This reflects a despicable colonial attempt to falsify African history and conceal the genocide that colonialists perpetrated on the Khoisan African people.
They were not only in the Western Cape but all over Azania as were all various other African people. For instance, King Adam Kok, one of the Khoi Kings still has a town called Kokstad after his name.
The Khoi Africans in the Western Cape under King Koebaha Heijkon maintained trade links with the Xhosa-speaking Africans to the North East of the Cape. The Dutch officials kept records that show that Europeans were amazed that the Khoi Africans traded copper ore with the Xhosa-speaking Africans. The Khoi also traded in goats with the Batswana.
Hendrik Witbooi was a King of the Nama section of the Khoi Africans that lived in parts of both Azania and Namibia.
This was before colonialists gave colonial names to these African countries. It was also long before the imperialist Berlin Conference boundaries drawn by European imperialists.
In July 1892, Major Curt von Francis of the German army ordered King Witbooi to surrender his African country to the Germans.
The Khoi King replied, “Africa belongs to us, both through the hue of our skin and our way of life. We belong together. And this Africa is entirely our country. The fact that we possess a variety of diverse LANDS and variety of kingships does not mean any secondary division and does not sever our solidarity. The Emperor of Germany has no business in Africa.”
The beneficiaries of European colonialism have no business to claim an inch of African soil. Long before Jan van Riebeeck of the Dutch East India Company established a “provision station” in the Southern tip of Africa (Western Cape) the first war of national resistance against European colonial aggression was fought in this part of Azania (South Africa).
The colonial aggressors were Portuguese. Their war of colonial aggression was led by Dom Francisco de Almeida. The Khoi people with a section of the Xhosa allies won this war.
This was at the Battle of Salt River. It took place in 1510. All the Portuguese colonialists were killed. Probably as a result of this victory, it took 142 years before Europeans dared invade Azania.
It was after the arrival of Jan van Riebeeck through the Azanian Sea (now colonially called “Indian Ocean”) that Africans fought several wars of national resistance against colonialism. One of the first of such wars was fought beneath Table Mountain.
This war was led by a Khoi leader called Doman. The colonial wars against the Khoi, as against the rest of Africans throughout Azania were in 1657, 1659 and 1673 to 1677.
These three wars against colonialism by Khoi and San proved that the bravery of these sons and daughters of Africa was no match for the military terrorism of imperialist aggressors.
But even then, a Khoi African king in today’s Western Cape asked Jan van Riebeeck, “If we (Africans), were to come to Europe, would we be permitted to act in a similar manner you act here? It would not matter if you stayed at the ‘provision station’, but you come out here in the interior. You select the best land for yourselves. You never ask us even once whether we like it or not or whether it will disadvantage us.
“You say land is not enough for the pastures of your cattle and sheep as well as ours. Tell me, Jan van Riebeeck and your colonial settlers: Who then, with the greatest degree of justice should give way, the natural owner or the foreign invader?”
Colonialists are hungry for the riches of Africa and they have desperately tried to make their own wishful thinking the history of Africa ever since they landed in Africa. In 1961 the colonial prime minster of South Africa, Hendrick Verwoerd, told an audience in London: “More than 300 years ago, two population groups equally foreign to South Africa converged in rather small numbers on what was practically empty land. Neither group colonised or robbed the other by invasion.”
His foreign affairs minister, Eric Louw, had earlier said: “The Bantu began to trek from the North across the Limpopo when Jan van Riebeeck landed at Table Bay in 1652.”
The colonial “empty land” theory has no historical credence. It is conceived in the womb of imperialism. Pieter Muller suggests that the records of the Boer Trekkers must be consulted to prove his ridiculous point of view. This would be like asking the European Allies in the Second World to consult Nazi history records.
The colonisers of Azania have worked for centuries to turn Azania into an “Australia” or “New Zealand”. South Africa is the only British colony in Africa that was called a “dominion”.
Britain and its colonial settlers smuggled the African country it had colonised into the League of Nations and into the United Nations as a “sovereign state”, though the coloniser and its settlers could not tell the world on what date South Africa was returned to its rightful owners.
In 1930, reports on excavations at Mapungubwe in the Limpopo area revealed skeletal remains of what was called ‘ancient Azanians.’ (See also Old Africa Rediscovered page 95, The Lost Cities Of Africa pages 155-156 by Basil Davidson; Man In Africa by L.S.B. Leakey; The History Of The World J.M. Roberts pages 457-458; Apartheid: The Story Of A Dispossessed People published by Marram Books London 1984 with a foreword by former Professor of history at Harvard University, C L R James).
A British academic, Shula Marks, has pointed out that the carbon dates that have been processed from the Early Iron Age stretching over central, eastern and southern Africa reveal that the first Iron Age African farmers arrived here in the first millennium and not as had been previously assumed, relatively late in the second. Prof. Marks further stated: “The earliest dates we have for the Iron Age in South Africa go back to 1 200 years before the Portuguese rounded the southern tip of the Continent of Africa.”
This will be about 286 AD. When it is considered that there were some Europeans who passed through this country earlier than Portuguese Diaz in 1486, the date is much earlier.
Addressing a symposium in 1973 on ancient mining in Azania (South Africa), head of archaeology department of Witwatersrand University stated that “the early Iron Age Africans entered Transvaal between 27 BC and 473 AD.”
Heinous atrocities committed against the Khoi and San Africans is to the degree that they were exterminated. They are a few Khoi in South Africa today, but hardly any San people.
The San had to flee to Namibia, Botswana and Angola to survive their colonial extermination. Here are a few examples: In 1771, another war broke out between the San people and the Dutch settlers. The San people had begun to retaliate against the setters.
The settlers had taken large tracts of their hunting land for farming. As a result of this war, the settler leadership ordered that “every Bushman, Hottentot or Bastaad robber of any sex or age be delivered alive at Robben Island, there to serve the Dutch Company in chains . . . The Graaf Reinet turned out too late, but Jan van der Walt of the Koude Bokkeveld and Jonker Afrikaner . . . did yeoman service killing over 600 Bushmen and taking a few alive. As a reward for all this, Van der Walt was given two farms on the Nieuwveld,” writes Erick A Walker in his book “A History of Southern Africa”, page 118.
It is estimated that the population of the Khoi people when the colonisers arrived in the Western Cape was over a quarter million. Their extermination was not only with colonial guns.
Leprosy disease introduced from passing European ships decimated the Khoi people. They had no clue how to treat this foreign disease. They died in great numbers. As Peter Dreyer, author of MARTYRS AND FANATICS . . . puts it, ‘the Khoi were reduced to a landless proletariat — labourers or vagrants on the land of their ancestors.’
The colonial settlers having now subjugated the Khoi Africans and dispossessed them of their land employed them as labourers on their own robbed farmland. They paid them with food, old clothing and alcohol. The liquor is said to have been “hot ten tots” a month — hence the new colonial name “Hottentots” for the Khoi people.
Another false theory that colonialists and their historians have propagated is that there was deep hatred between the Khoisan Africans and other Africans in Azania. As indicated earlier in this discussion, King Witbooi one of the Khoi kings dismissed this colonial fallacy. Historian Shula Marks has written: “Contrary to much of the mythology which dwells on the inveterate hatred between them . . . there is much archaeological as well as linguist record of long peaceful interaction between them.
The clicks characteristic of the Southern Bantu languages, that are characteristic of the South Eastern Bantu languages, that are unique to this family, also bespeak a long and intimate relationship between Khoisan and Bantu-speakers. Oral tradition in many areas recalls the intermarriage even of Bantu-speaking people with Khoisan women. Chief Molhebangwe (sic) of the southernmost Tswana people, the Tlhaping — his mother was a Khoi.”
In fact, a Mofokeng King married a San woman as his senior wife in 1450. Intermarriage between Xhosa-speaking Africans and Khoi Africans was so common that Amagqwashu, Amangqunukhwebe, Amacira and Amasukwini have been described by some historians as half-Xhosa and half-Khoi (Peter Dreyer author of MARTYRS AND FANATICS page 81).These people spoke of their women as “Amalawukazi ampundu zibomvu” (The Khoi women who have fair red buttocks).
King Moshoeshoe of the Basotho was among kings who married San women. Their names were Rosaleng also known as Qea and Motseola known as Seqha.
The historical fact is that the colonialists exterminated the Khoisan Africans. Loss of land results in loss of national sovereignty and nationhood. The national tragedy of losing one’s land was highlighted by Eta when the Khoi African King Adam Kok III died on December 30 1875. In a moving funeral oration, Eta, the king’s cousin told the Khoi rather prophetically.
“We have laid in the grave a man you all knew and loved. He is the last king of our people. After him there will be no Khoi African in South Africa . . . Take a look into that grave. You will never look into the face of another king of our people. Do you realise that your nationality is buried there?”
When the Peter Mulders, the Hendrick Verwoerds, Eric Louws and their historians talk of “empty land” when colonialists arrived in Azania, they provoke very deep emotions in the hearts of the African people who were dispossessed of their land at gunpoint and are still dispossessed — hence rampart poverty among them, whether they be Zulu Africans or Khoi Africans.
Professor James H. Evans of the Faculty of Colgate Rochester Divinity College in America has asked: “Why does the white myth of South differ widely from reality?”.
He hits the nail on the head when he says: “The answer to this question in part is that the invaders found it necessary to justify historically, their invasion of a large portion of a black continent. By controlling the history of the region, they could control its inhabitants . . . the sole aim of which is keep the Black majority in slavery.”
— Pambazuka News.
Labels: APARTHEID, LAND REFORM
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