public transport to have individual paint

During the reign of Professor Nkandu Luo as Minister of Communication and Transport in Dr. Chiluba's regime a directive was issued that all public transport vehicles be painted sky blue a move that received some opposition but not as to warrant any reversal of the decision. Professor Luo also gave a two week ultimatum so as sanity can be restored in the transport sector. Now that this decision has been reversed one wonders what will become of Zambia's transport sector. Each transporter will be required to paint his or her vehicle in the color that impresses them.

FORTY SEVEN YEARS DOWN THE LINE ZAMBIA FAILS TO ENACT A CONSTITUTION.

FORTY SEVEN YEARS DOWN THE LINE ZAMBIA FAILS TO ENACT A CONSTITUTION. With only a few months before Zambia clocks forty seven years when it got its independence from colonial masters the country’s efforts to have a new and people driven constitution have all been thrown into the drain by parliament failing to pass the constitution bill. Zambia had her first constitution in 1964 the year when the country gained its independence. Four years later which is 1968 Zambia under the United National Independence Party-UNIP amended some clauses which saw the country go for referendum. In 1972 a first commission was set up with Mainza Chona at the helm of it. Zambia was reviewing its national document and it was during this commission that saw all political parties except UNIP WERE abolished. Eighteen years after the Mainza Chona commission the UNIP government set up yet another commission now led by professor Patrick Mvunga to look at the Mainza Chona reviewed National Document. This saw the country returning to multipartism and in the process the new movement that turned into a political party was born. This movement and a number of of big brains in the name of the Bob Sichinga, Akashmabtwa Mbikusitak Lewanika, Dipak Patels among others brining together their brains to liberate Zambia from from the misery of one party rule under Dr. Kenneth Kaunda. Due to this pressure Zambia’s first republican president Dr. Kaunda cut short his term of office to pave way for the an election that took place in 1991. In 1991 Zambia changed government that saw the MMD led by a Former trade unionist Frederick Chiluba at the helm. Three years with the MMD at the helm a John Mwakatwe commission was appointed and Zambia was during the same period declared a Christian Nation. Other aspects that saw themselves into the national document included any presidential candidate to have both his and her parents born in Zambia. The commission further included in the amended constitution that any person wishing to contest for presidency to have lived in the country for twenty years. This was between 1994 and 1996. Seven years later, under the late Levy Mwanawasa in 2003 set up yet another commission led by Lusaka Prominent lawyer Willa Mungomba to look at the 2996 amended constitution that saw a National Constitution Conference birthed to look at the recommendations gathered by the Willa Mungomba led commission that went around the country getting comments from Zambian people. Huge amounts of money were spent on these two projects that saw the Zambian National Assembly failing to allow the Zambia Constitution Bill of 2010 to go through the second reading. George Kunda, the Republican Vice President was hopeful that Zambia was going to have a new constitution by 2011 but alas this was not the case as the law makers rejected the document with impunity leaving the country without any option but to fall back on the 1996 amended constitution. Zambia is this year 2011 expected to go for the polls but under an old condemned constitution as the constitution bill will only qualify to go back to parliament after six months. But once this bill is taken back to parliament what will change as to warrant this bill succeed as from what the writer’s view is that almost all the parliamentarians in this house of representatives are not willing to step aside to pave way for new comers in the house? .

LUSAKA, Zambia, Nov. 2, 1991— In a rare democratic transition, Frederick Chiluba, a trade union leader, was sworn in here today as President of Zambia. Tens of thousands of people walked miles in the hot sun to a grassy square in the front of the nation’s High Court to witness the inauguration.

They listened to the new President pledge that “freedom to work and freedom of speech” would replace the “corruption, repression and dictatorship” of the past.

Earlier in the day, the only other President Zambia has known, Kenneth D. Kaunda, conceded defeat by a landslide at the polls on Thursday.

In a televised speech, the 67-year-old Mr. Kaunda, an often-emotional man who clutched his signature white linen handkerchief in his left hand, offered an apology to the people of his south-central African nation, saying, “I tried to do my very best.” Comeback Seen as Unlikely

He said he would work to pick up the pieces of his shattered political organization, the United National Independence Party, which had virtually run the country. But few took the idea seriously. Zambians seemed to agree with former President Jimmy Carter, leader of an election observer team, that Mr. Kaunda now deserved a role as a “respected senior statesman.”

The ousted President, well known in Africa and internationally, achieved far less success with the Zambian economy. He has bequeathed to the 48-year-old Chiluba a bankrupt country.

This is a comedown from Zambia’s position as one of the richest nations on the continent after its first decade of independence from Britain, beginning in 1964. In colonial days, what is now Zambia was known as Northern Rhodesia.

In Thursday’s voting, widespread disgust with the decrepit state of the economy and the low esteem in which many had come to hold Mr. Kaunda helped provide Mr. Chiluba’s stunning majority.

Although the returns were still incomplete 48 hours after the polls closed, Larry Garber, a senior consultant with the National Democratic Institute in Washington who came here with Mr. Carter, said he believed that final counting would give Mr. Chiluba about 80 percent of the vote.

Officials of Mr. Chiluba’s party, the Movement for Multiparty Democracy, said partial results showed they had won more than 100 of the 150 seats in Parliament. Dissent Had a Price

For many members and supporters of Mr. Chiluba’s party, today’s swearing-in represented a hard-earned victory. Sitting on the stage behind him were several civilians who had gone to jail for plotting a coup against Mr. Kaunda in the early 1980′s.

Zambians seemed proud that, in contrast with much of Africa, their country was able to carry out multiparty elections without violence. “It was good Kaunda had to stay and face it,” said Masiye Nyirenda, 26, a bank clerk. “We helped him pack his things and leave by voting. No shots have been fired. The people have rejected him.”

Many voters credited the relatively smooth running of the elections to the presence of international monitoring teams including Mr. Carter’s, as well as two Zambian teams, which fielded more than 3,000 observers.

Mr. Chiluba, as leader since 1974 of the nation’s robust labor union movement, the Zambia Congress of Trade Unions, was a clear choice to lead the country’s newly invigorated political opposition in the election.

But some now question whether he has the political acumen to carry through the promise of democracy and the economic skills to straighten out the troubled economy. Senior supporters say Mr. Chiluba was chosen for his vote-getting ability rather than experience in government. Austerity Will Be Needed

Those views notwithstanding, Mr. Chiluba, who describes himself as a believer in free enterprise, faces the need to make some unpopular moves. He tried to prepare the way during the campaign by telling voters that Government-subsidized food — one of Mr. Kaunda’s methods of keeping city dwellers happy — was not a viable economic policy.

He has pledged to remove the subsidies in stages. When Mr. Kaunda reduced subsidies last year, there were riots, and out of fear of violence just before the election, he broke a commitment with the World Bank to reduce the subsidies again in September.

Mr. Chiluba has argued that the subsidies have helped break the nation — huge amounts of state revenue has been spent on keeping grain prices artificially low for the consumer — leaving little to pay the farmers who grow it. Thus, many farmers did not grow corn this year, leaving the country with a substantial shortage and predictions of famine in some regions. Avid Reader

Frederick Jacob Titus Chiluba was born the son of a miner in Kitwe, a major city in the northern copper belt, on April 30, 1943. He dropped out of school because of lack of money and completed his secondary education in 1971 through a correspondence course from London. Since then, he has continued to read political science and history, often quoting from the biographies of world figures.

As a young man, he went to Tanzania to work as a clerk on a sisal plantation, where, he has said, he developed his interest in the labor movement.

In 1966, he joined Atlas Copco, a Swedish mining-equipment company in the city of Ndola as an accounts assistant, and stayed at the company, rising to credit manager, until last year, when he took a leave of absence.

He started in the labor movement as a shop steward for the National Union of Building, Engineering and General Workers and became its president in 1971. In 1987, he left the union, the loser in an intramural political struggle, but soon established a new organization so he could retain his leadership of the national trade union congress.

Eight months after a coalition of politicians, students and businessmen pressed hard for multiparty elections, the Government legalized the opposition, and he was elected chairman of a new political party. Jailed and Born Again

Unlike many other union leaders in Africa, Mr. Chiluba refused to be co-opted, declining Government job offers from President Kaunda. Instead, he used his position to criticize economic policies.

Angered by such criticism, Mr. Kaunda arrested Mr. Chiluba in 1981 on charges of trying to overthrow the Government.

In three months in prison, Mr. Chiluba has said, he became a born-again Christian.

The new Zambian President is very short by the standard of most Africans — just under five feet tall.

Courtesy of New York Times

VEEP KUNDA UPSETS PRESIDENT BANDA

President Rupiah Banda is said to be upset with vice president George Kunda for allegedly misleading him on the constitutional amendment bill which failed to through the second reading stage on Tuesday.

According to sources, President Banda had a meeting with parliamentary Chief Whip Vernon Mwaanga, vice president George Kunda and other senior officials before he left for Livingstone the for ZIBAC and SADC Troika meetings were he issued instructions that MMD MPs agree with the United Party for National Development UPND on the voting process of the constitution amendment bill.

Among the issues said to have been agreed upon are that the MMD was supposed to accept the inclusion of the 50 plus one vote clause in the new constitution, as demanded by the UPND.

This was to facilitate that in the event the MMD does not win the coming elections with an outright victory, then the UPND would back the MMD in a run-off and form a coalition government with the UPND in an eventual victory.

Mr Kunda is said to have assured the President that the terms of reference were agreeable by the UPND.

But in the surprise turn of events, the UPND decided not to vote for the constitutional bill after voting in favour of the same bill during the first round of voting.

President Banda is said to have been upset after receiving assurances that the constitution bill voting process was going in the favour of the ruling party.

The president is said to be upset and has told vice president Kunda to sort out what has been described as a mess.

Meanwhile, sources have further explained that MMD spokesperson Dora Siliya has issued instructions to all ruling party supporters, including some named Civil society organizations to stop attacking the UPND on the constitution bill failure.

The MMD is said to be making frantic efforts to ensure that the UPND agrees to work with them in the coming elections.

QFM

Mugabe remains defiant

Zimbabwe’s President Robert Mugabe on Friday said regional leaders can not tell him what to do in his country.

Addressing the 84th Ordinary Session of the Zanu PF Central Committee meeting in Harare on Friday afternoon, President Robert Mugabe said the facilitator of the Zimbabwe talks should facilitate and not dictate on what Zimbabweans should do.

“The MDC thinks SADC or the AU can prescribe to us how we run our things. We will not brook any dictation from any source. We are a sovereign country. Even our neighbours cannot dictate to us. We will resist that.”

Mugabe’s response came after an unusually strong rebuke from regional leaders criticising slow pace on the power-sharing deal with Movement for Democratic Change (MDC) leader Tsvangirai and demanding an end to political violence.

The 87-year-old said President Jacob Zuma of South Africa, which brokered the Southern African Development Community (SADC) backed unity deal with Tsvangirai as prime minister, should not dictate what should happen in Zimbabwe.

“The facilitator is the facilitator and must facilitate dialogue,” Mugabe was quoted as saying.

“He cannot prescribe anything. We prescribe what we should do in accordance with our laws and our agreement.”

Tsvangirai has accused Mugabe of cracking down on his supporters ahead of new elections expected later this year.

The presidents of South Africa, Mozambique, Zambia and Namibia did not mention either rival by name but echoed concerns raised by Tsvangirai in a statement issued after the SADC’s security body met in Zambia.

“The summit noted with grave concern the polarisation of the political environment as characterized by, inter alia, resurgence of violence, arrest and intimidation in Zimbabwe,” they said in the communique.

“There must be an immediate end of violence, intimidation, hate speech, harassment, and any other form of action that contradicts the letter and spirit of the GPA” (unity pact).

The chairman of the Troika president Banda said during the meeting that SADC government should respect legitimate interests of citizens or face uprising like in the Northern part of Africa.

Zambian Watchdog

PRESIDENT BANDA BLAMES PF MPS FOR CONSTITUTION FAILURE
President Rupiah Banda says it is the Patriotic Front not the UPND that should be blamed for parliament’s failure to pass the Constitutional Amendment on Tuesday.
And President Banda has refused to dissolve parliament as demanded by PF leader Michael Sata.
He said the failure will not affect the smooth-running of Government as it is being portrayed by some people he referred to as ‘political opportunists’.
He said United Party for National Development (UPND) should not be blamed because it supported the constitution-making process at the National Constitution Conference (NCC).
He said it was the Patriotic Front (PF) which has always wanted to frustrate the constitution- making process by boycotting the NCC.
This is in direct contrast with vice president George Kunda who has been issuing statements that the UPND is to blame. Kunda said the UPND has been ‘eating with both hands’ and that they wanted to include the 50 plus one clause in the amendment because they want an alliance with the MMD.
There are ongoing discussions between the MMD and UPND to form an alliance where the UPND will get the vice presidency and ministry of finance. This move is being opposed by vice president George Kunda and some ministers like Dora Silya and Peter Daka.
President Banda said the failure by Parliament to pass the Constitutional Amendment does not suggest that Zambia is going through a constitutional crisis which requires an immediate dissolution of Parliament.
He said the country will continue operating on a new constitution and Government organs will continue to operate normally.
He said the power to dissolve the Parliament is vested in the President and he will exercise that power at an appropriate time without undue influence ‘from any political quarters or individuals wishing to create unnecessary political anarchy in the nation’.
President Banda said the country will hold the Presidential and Parliamentary elections this year as per the current Constitution.

FAZ takes Simataa, Finance Bank to court

he Football Association of Zambia (FAZ) has sued Simataa Simataa and Finance Bank Zambia for freezing its US Dollar and Kwacha accounts.
FAZ is seeking damages from Simataa Simataa who has been sued as first defendant.

FAZ is also seeking damages and other relief the court may deem fit from Finance bank for closing its accounts without instructions from signatories.

Simataa, a former Finance Bank employee wrote letters to Finance bank instructing the bank to close FAZ accounts for some unclear reasons. Simataa is not a signatory of FAZ accounts. Finance bank immediatelly blocked FAZ signatories from withdrawing money thereby affecting the adminstration of football in Zambia.
FAZ says in its statement of claim that Finance bank obeyed orders from Simataa without express or implied instructions from the owners of the accounts.