PF officials are scheming against me, says Chishiba
By Allan Mulenga and Kombe Chimpinde
Tue 04 June 2013, 14:00 CAT
FORMER Kafulafuta MMD member of parliament James Chishiba has accused some PF officials of scheming to block his application to re-contest the Kafulafuta seat on the PF ticket. In an interview on Sunday, Chishiba said the PF officials were peddling lies against him.
"If there are any acts of corruption in this country, the Anti - Corruption Commission have capable tools to investigate. This is coming up because of by-election, which is very unfair. There are people who are peddling allegations of against me," he said.
Chishiba claimed that among the people vying for the seat under the PF ticket, he was the only candidate popular at the grassroots.
"There are some individuals who are saying that I have been imposed on the people of Kafulafuta. But I am the one who won the elections in Kafulafuta, in all the seven wards; that was actually landslide victory. Out of the 29 polling stations I scored highest in 26 polling stations," he said.
Chishiba claimed that his defection from the MMD to the PF was endorsed by the people in Kafulafuta.
"And my defection has been caused by the people of Kafulafuta and not myself. The people of Kafulafuta want to work with the government," he said.
Chishiba has since vowed to go ahead with his application to re-contest the seat.
"Someone went round and twisted the whole story about my defection to the PF. For me, I am going ahead to file in my application tomorrow. But I have heard that there already three applicants who have already done that, including the one who is blowing up these issues of corruption. No one should stop others from applying for adoption and I will be picked on merit," he said.
On the accusation that he had been imposed on the people of Kafulafuta by PF secretary general Wynter Kabimba, Chishiba responded: "It is very unfair for some people to say that I have been imposed on the people of Kafulafuta because that is my stronghold. No one can dispute that. I can't answer for the PF secretary general Wynter Kabimba on the issue to do with adoption. Mr Kabimba has put it very clearly why the PF is adopting people who have defected from MMD to contest by-elections on the PF ticket.
And PF Chipata Central Constituency chairman John Mkhazika has differed with former PF Eastern Province chairperson Lucas Phiri over the adoption of candidates in the forth coming by-elections.
Reacting to the assertions by Phiri, who is currently serving a suspension slapped on him by the central committee of the PF, that Lameck Mangani was better placed for adoption in the forthcoming by-elections on the PF ticket because he knew the area well, Mkhazika said Mangani was not among the three popular candidates for the grassroots.
Phiri recently said that Mangani was best suited to be a leader of a cosmopolitan area like Chipata Central.
But Mkhazika said as far as the constituency executive was concerned, Mangani was not among the top three candidates in the constituency, namely Hanif Badat, Moses Mawere and Pilila Jere.
"Firstly, (Mr Lucas) Phiri has been suspended from the party, so we don't know the capacity in which he is speaking. Secondly, it is not true that Mangani is the best suited candidate for this adoption, no! Lucas is just saying that because he is Mangani's 'boy'. Even those wrangles which existed sometime back, it is Phiri who orchestrated them," he said.
"Right now, I can tell you that popular candidates among those that have applied are Badat, Jere and Mawere because they are on the ground. If you meet people here and ask them, it is those names that will be mentioned. Mangani also has his own people although most of them are only loyal to him and not the party."
Mkhazika said the constituency would on Friday conduct interviews for the candidates that had applied and later vote for their preferred candidate through a primary election.
Labels: BY-ELECTIONS, JAMES CHISHIMBA, KAFULAFUTA, PF
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Indian firm displaces 400 Masaiti families
By Darious Kapembwa in Kafulafuta
Thu 09 June 2011, 03:59 CAT
OVER 400 families at Alitoni village in Kafulafuta Cons-tituency in Masaiti district of Copperbelt rural have been displaced from their land without compensation by an Indian firm to pave way for the construction of a Lime plant. Nikant Mining Limited has already graded a huge chunk of villagers’ fields destroying the farming area claiming that they have authority of senior chief Chiwala.
According to representatives from the village committee constituted to speak on behalf of the affected villagers, the chief forcibly notified them about the need to relocate to the rocky lake Chilengwa area.
“They have evicted us from our ancestral land to Chilengwa area, where there is no farming land, no water for our gardening and we have animals…we need compensation for our land so that we can find alternative land of our own not the chief’s choice,” said Goodson Chepeshi, a committee member.
Another committee member Livius Langeni said the villagers were being threatened so that they don’t raise any questions over their land.
“We have sent emissaries to the palace so that we can meet the chief to discuss the matter but nothing has come out and people have been threatened in all means possible so that they don’t raise questions about the behavior of the chief.
The chief has refused to talk to us apart from commanding us to obey his orders but we are ready to die for our land,” said Langeni, who is also the eldest son to the village head woman at the same village.
The villagers said they were not opposed to development but contended that development should take on board concerns of the local people.
“We can’t be living like refugees in our own land and this government is quiet, let them pay us money before we vacate so that we can find land maybe in Kasama because here our own chief with whoever he is working with has sold us for three pieces of silver,” they said.
Two site supervisors, Tharon and Mohan, who were in the company of the chief’s retainer Fidelis Kasongo, said they had nothing to do with the villagers because as far as they were concerned, they were dealing directly with the chief.
“We will create employment here for the villagers what more do you want?” asked Tharon.
But Kasongo sided with the people saying their concerns were genuine as nobody had been compensated, which ignited more anger from the two Indians.
“What I can say is that the chief is in the fore-front of this project, people’s complaints are genuine because I have also heard just a rumour that they will relocate to another area but no compensation,” said Kasongo.
There was no comment from chief Chiwala as he has returned back to Nairobi, Kenya where he is first secretary at the Zambian embassy.
A similar situation is obtaining at Majaliwa village a Kilometre apart in the same locality where a cement firm, Dangote of Nigeria, is developing a factory.
Labels: CHIEFS, FDI, INDIA, KAFULAFUTA, LAND RIGHTS, MASAITI DISTRICT, NEOLIBERALISM
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SACCORD accuses Speaker of being bias
By Mwala Kalaluka
Sun 26 Sep. 2010, 04:00 CAT
SACCORD has accused Speaker of the National Assembly Amusaa Mwanamwambwa of being clearly biased in the manner he handled Kafulafuta MMD parliamentarian George Mpombo for referring to President Rupiah Banda as a liar.
Commenting on Speaker Mwanamwambwa’s ruling on Wednesday that he could not act on Mpombo’s behaviour because the latter had challenged his expulsion from the MMD in court, Southern African Centre for the Constructive Resolution of Disputes (SACCORD) information officer Obby Chibuluma said Speaker Mwanamwambwa was violating the law and undermining the separation of powers.
“It is actually very disappointing that the Speaker can clearly be that biased,” Chibuluma said. “Whether someone is an MP or not they still enjoy their freedom of expression.”
Chibuluma said the courts of law that Speaker Mwanamwambwa had referred to in his ruling were conflict resolution institutions and whenever there was a process within the courts, it had to be respected no matter who was involved.
“Whether you like them or not or whether they praise sing for your boss,” Chibuluma said. “We are actually shocked that the Speaker could be talking to Mr Mpombo in that manner when there are about 22 members of parliament who have been undermining their institution and they were actually chased from PF a long time ago.”
Chibuluma charged that Speaker Mwanamwambwa was expressing double standards.
“We are actually surprised that the Speaker could be inciting the police to act on Mr Mpombo over those remarks. That is actually a clear abuse of the law now that the Speaker wants to assume the role of the prosecutor,” Chibuluma said.
“We are hoping that the police are also not going to get excited and act on the statement from the Speaker.”
Chibuluma said Speaker Mwanamwambwa should have been the last person to make such a political ruling.
“We believe that is a very political statement,” said Chibuluma.
Speaker Mwanamwambwa made the ruling after Bahati PF ‘rebel’ parliamentarian Besa Chimbaka raised a point of order on whether or not Mpombo was in order to call President Banda a liar through a story he gave to The Post, which was published on Tuesday, September 21, 2010.
Making a ruling on Chimbaka’s order, Speaker Mwanamwambwa said his hands were tied by the court where Mpombo had taken his party for expelling him.
“The courts have tied my hands because if I do anything that would be contempt of court. We have to abide by the rule of separation of powers. But consider if it’s a Zambian culture for adults to insult each other.
Is it normal to call one another liars?” Speaker Mwanamwambwa asked. “When it comes to this House each one of you subscribes to the oath of allegiance. Be careful what you say here or there. And the oath says allegiance to the President. What that means is that wherever you are, inside or outside this House you must represent the President.”
Speaker Mwanamwambwa warned that it was an offence under the law to insult the president.
“If some of you are privately friendly out there to any head of state, current or past, you leave it there. There is a section in the Penal Code and it’s still intact, which clearly stipulates that making disparaging remarks against the President is a serious offence and describes a penalty. I have heard many of you on radio referring to the Head of State in name only; that is an offence,” warned Speaker Mwanamwambwa.
“I don’t know where the law enforcement agencies are when this is happening. Honourable member, when you insult, you are not immune to prosecution. If you insult the law enforcement agencies should visit you. Insulting is not a sign of heroism or political championship. Honourable Mpombo is an honourable member of parliament, honourable! And no honourable member can utter such words. I’m assuming The Post quoted Honourable Mpombo correctly. If not he could have asked for a retraction, but he hasn’t. Why should the whole honourable member avoid to discuss these matters in the House and go outside.”
Labels: AMUSA MWANAMWAMBA, GEORGE MPOMBO, KAFULAFUTA, OBBY CHIBULUMA, PARLIAMENT, SACCORD
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Mpombo highlights flaws in Rupiah's Parliament address
By Kombe Chimpinde
Mon 20 Sep. 2010, 04:02 CAT
EXPELLED Kafulafuta MMD member of parliament George Mpombo has described President Rupiah Banda’s thinking as disillusioned over his speech when he opened Parliament on Friday.
And Mpombo has urged MMD to concentrate on ensuring that they retain the parliamentary seats they currently hold in 2011 rather than explaining developmental issues that they are incompetent to deal with.
Mpombo told Post Online in an interview after the opening of Parliament on Friday that President Banda’s speech was ambiguous and punctuated with boasting about not his own but late president Levy Mwamawasa’s projects.
“Generally I found it (speech) flat as well as ambiguous and also it went into engineering for next year’s election and a departure from the normal procedures in addressing the issues on the ground. For instance, he talked about the uniform fuel prices for all areas in the country,” he said.
“What he said was ambiguous because he did not give a time frame and measures that will be in effect and also he didn't tell the nation whether proper measures have been set up to be able to absorb transportation costs because it does make sense. People cannot take fuel to Kasama and sell it at the same price as those in Lusaka without their costs being subsidised.”
Mpombo said most projects that President Banda had boasted about in his speech where originated by the late president Mwanawasa.
“I would say that the issues that he talked about, for instance the road, development of roads, have been ongoing for a long time.
So what I would say is that I think there is disillusionment in Rupiah Banda's thinking that these road developments and most other projects are attributed to him,” he observed.
“He only became President in 2008 and these projects were there. The Mutanda-Chavuma road, he found the projects on the ground, even the Mchinji railway line, you remember it was started by Dr Kaunda then the project collapsed. Mwanawasa resuscitated the projects with Bingu wa Mutharika.”
He also dismissed government's self-praise that the country had recorded a bumper harvest due its good agriculture policies, adding that Zambia is not the only country that recorded a bumper harvest last season in the southern African region.
“That’s why you find that Congo is buying more maize from South Africa than Zambia because it is landing at a price which is much cheaper,” he said.
On the commissioning of Lusaka district hospitals, Mpombo said that the projects were not new as they were were commenced in the late Mwanawasa's administration. Mpombo has since urged the MMD government and its leader President Banda to embark on something that they were competent of doing.
“MMD should concentrate on retaining those constituencies under MMD rather than explaining issues that they are not competent to deal with,” said Mpombo.
Labels: GEORGE MPOMBO, KAFULAFUTA, MMD, RUPIAH BANDA, SPEECHES
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Nigerian firm to dislodge families Kafulafuta
By Darious Kapembwa in Kitwe
Fri 10 Sep. 2010, 04:01 CAT
OVER 300 families are threatened with displacement in Lupiya area in Kafulafuta Constituency as Nigerian cement manufacturing company, Dangote Industries Limited, intends to start operations in the area.
But Dangote Industries logistics manager Kampewa Nundwe said the company would not remove households but admitted that farming areas might be affected and the victims would be compensated.
According to sources close to the transaction, management of the company had identified Lupiya, an area with more than 300 families, to set up their operations.
The sources said senior government officials involved in the transaction were displeased with the kind of opposition the project faced from area member of parliament George Mpombo and some people from members of the Chiwala Royal Establishment.
“As you are aware, there was that chieftainship wrangle where the person who was widely believed to be the rightful heir John Malokotela stood for the people when this company just came with their displacement proposal and so they saw him as a threat and was dribbled in the courts. Majaliwa was only installed for two things: Firstly to make things right for MMD which are upside down and secondly to protect the interests of the powers in government that are involved in this cement company,” the source said.
The source said Dagonte was back with its plans now that Majaliwa had been installed as chief.
But Nundwe said it was not true that people would be displaced but that the company would establish its quarry in the swamp area.
Nundwe said the company was currently conducting an Environment Impact Assessment on land which had settlements.
He, however, admitted that there was a possibility that people might lose their farming land but the company was ready to compensate them for the loss.
Nundwe said the company would start a scheme for the displaced families and compensation would be set up to ensure that no affected person went away complaining.
“There is land that is available with nobody there. If we find land that is inhabited, we will talk to the chief again and if it is established that there are people doing farming activities, we will start a resettlement scheme on an alternative land for farming and we’ll dig boreholes and we will also give them subsidies for them to start up their lives once again,” he said.
Nundwe said his company had not yet sensitised villagers on the plans because they feared that everybody would rush to the new land in order to benefit from the scheme and other benefits that would come with the programme. Meanwhile, Mpombo said he was opposed to the idea of displacing people from the river area to pave way for the construction of the cement plant.
“What we did is that I found these guys trying to displace people from the river area and I stopped them. But of late I have heard that they have been going ahead but I am yet to consult the local councillor. I have had two meetings in Lupiya area and Lubendo, and I am consistently opposed to the displacement of the people. I am surprised but I have arranged for the meeting with them this weekend,” said Mpombo.
Labels: FDI, KAFULAFUTA, LAND RIGHTS
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