President Michael Sata has fired Road Development Agency Director Bernard Chiwala and replaced him Charles Mushota, according to highly placed sources.

Chiwala who was appointed to the position just after the Patriotic Front government took over office was one of a bunch of officials that were annointed through their connection to Post Newspapers editor Fred M’membe and Director of Public Prosecutions.

Chiwala was an official at the defunct Zambian Airways that was run down by M’membe and Nchito owing to their heavy indebtedness.

The Road Development Agency is a touchy subject for the huge influence it has in
giving contracts and at the moment the office is controlled from State House with
PF strongman Willy Nsanda at the helm of the agency as Board Chairman.

Nsanda was rewarded the position after an embarassing turn of events that saw his appointment as deputy minister withdrawn as President Michael Sata had nominated more than the required 8 members threshold.

The post Sata Fires Roads Agency Boss appeared first on Zambia Reports.

The Council of Churches in Zambia says it is strange that the Patriotic Front that are the architects of by-elections are finding it hard to accept defeat.

But acting chief government spokesperson Fackson Shamenda says the PF officials have a right to politique because they are still a political party.

“The PF has been causing by-elections and now when they lose they seem not to accept defeat and are harassing the Electoral Commission of Zambia. They are the ruling party and are failing to lead by example,” said CCZ chairperson Reverend Suzanne Matale.

“Why should they cause by-elections not be ready to accept defeat. This is very sad that they have found it convinient to harass the ECZ instead of being their supporter as a public institution.”

But Shamenda said PF officials had a right tyo politique because they were still a political party.

“Reverend Matale should learn to distinguish between people in government and party officials because party officials are politicians and they have the right to politique. Just like the opposition is politiquing.

“We are still a political party remember there are elections around the corner in 2016 and the people have to vote us backl,” he said.

The Electoral Commission of Zambia has endured abuse from the Patriotic Front government has endured abuse after the opposition won three out of four of the recent by-elections.

Justice Minister Wynter Kabimba has been the lead vocalist in the anti-ECZ sentiments.

The post It’s Strange PF Can’t Concede Defeat – CCZ appeared first on Zambia Reports.

The dismissal of Southern Province Political Secretary Brian Hapunda did not come as a surprise; maybe the only surprise was how long it had taken to fire Hapunda. Hapunda’s appointment to borrow from legal parlance was ab initio meaning it was ‘void from the beginning’.

Shortly after the Patriotic Front government took over power in September 2011 opportunistic Hapunda sprung up to join the PF at the banquet, shedding off his then United Party for National Development (UPND) DNA and sung louder than the long time PF defenders.

Long standing PF foot soldiers like Erick Chanda were thrown out the cold as Hapunda took the limelight. But being the naïve enthusiastic political noise maker he has always been, Hapunda forgot one thing – old habits die hard.

He had not become PF by simply soliciting and getting a position and was initially stationed in Lusaka as youth chairperson but soon the PF establishment sensed his hunger for the limelight and shunted him to the quieter waters of Southern Province carrying an obscure role modeled along the Communist style politics.

Without any political clout the PF aligned media were forced to tolerate him as he issued statements and sprung to react to anything at the slightest hint including demands for the expulsion of Kabwata Member of Parliament Given Lubinda.

Hapunda enjoyed acres of space to spew his rubbish on Lubinda but the same vomit has caught up with him in the same medium he mistakenly thought had adopted him as the darling source.

For a man who was laundering his tattered image at the University of Zambia where in 2007 he was bundled out of campus for being found with a leakage in an exam room, it was surely a matter of time. All this information is a matter of public record.

The brother who had just entered unionism as University of Zambia Students Union Secretary General had his wings clipped as he fizzled into the cold. He was later resurrected by the opposition United Party for National Development that picked him at Cavendish where he was trying to pick up what remained of his public image.

The UPND gave him a lifeline as he fed off them until the PF won power and he took the first flight out. They never said anything but once he nestled into the hot seat in Southern Province, he always threw jibes at them.

There is nothing he has never called them – regionalists, opportunists, hoodlums, cheats and now he is back in the cold. And you can imagine the number of PF cadres that will be falling over each other to remind Zambians what a ‘crook’ he has always been. After all His Excellency has set the tone and the cadres will surely take the hint.

The brother did not only solicit for money once high on anything alcoholic but did do police drills, firing arms in night clubs and also moved with a party headed paper intimidating business persons with his party connections. He recently threw his powers around a magistrate when they differed in Livingstone town.

But for now, Hapunda will for the umpteenth time take his place in the gutter and look back on what could have been had he not fallen prey to his excesses once again. In the end to borrow from one Robert Nesta Marley “What should be must be” and for brother Hapunda, his hour was always going to come and now is the time to come aboard reality.

No illusion of power under grand titles like political secretary and in true PF STYLE his exit may have marked the end of a position created solely for him. In the two years PF have been in power, we have only heard one POLITICAL secretary! Shame.

Maybe brother General Secretary Wynter KABIMBA could learn something here – he has no political clout and somehow seems to think he is this political oracle BUT hey sir your hour too is coming.

The post Opinion: Hapunda’s Fall from Grace appeared first on Zambia Reports.

Deposed Chief Mwamba Henry Kanyanta Sosala has been appointed the new Paramount Chief Chitimukulu of the Bemba in what observers say is a snub of President Michael Sata’s attempt to meddle into the traditional set up.

Sosala, who was degazzetted as Senior Chief Mwamba by the PF government, was announced as the succcessful candidate by the Shilubemba.

Sosala said he was happy to take up the command position in the Bemba leadership structure.

The council ironically allowed Sosala, who government degazzetted as senior chief Mwamba, to take over as Chief Chitimukulu.

The post Sosala Becomes Chief Chitimukulu appeared first on Zambia Reports.

Opposition United Party for National Development Kalabo Member of Parliament Chinga Miyutu has emotionally apologized for having accepted a deputy ministerial position in the ruling Patriotic Front government.

Miyutu, who has become the second parliamentarian to opt out the Patriotic Front government’s decision to poach opposition MPs, said his mind had not been free serving in government.

“I have decided to let go of my position in government because right now no one who joins government from a position other than what he was elected on is free,” Miyutu said.

“I am sorry for the injury I caused a lot of UPND members when I joined the PF government. I am very ashamed because I did not mean to hurt the people. I am very sorry for the people that were offended by my action I am now back home.”

Miyutu said, “I am back home and hope the opposition MPs in parliament have a free conscience. I am really sorry.”

The post I’m Ashamed to Have Joined PF Government – Miyutu appeared first on Zambia Reports.

United Party for National Development (UPND) leader Hakainde Hichilema has charged that the Patriotic Front is under pressure following the ruling party’s purported loss of popularity throughout the country as evidenced by the losses suffered in the recent by-elections.

Hichilema says the ruling party has messed up on so many things which has angered the majority of the Zambian that voted them in office.

Hichilema says time has passed for the Patriotic Front to make up for the unfulfilled campaign promises because the people of Zambia are not ready to be cheated anymore.

He adds that he is aware that the Patriotic Front is very angry with him because his party has managed to penetrate in areas they did not expect the UPND to do so.

The UPND leader says his party is ready to stand its ground and tell the Zambian people the truth.

Meanwhile, Hichilema has appealed to the Patriotic Front to stop contravening the electoral Act.

He says the ruling party should also allow the Electoral Commission of Zambia to operate independently.

The post PF is Under Pressure – Hichilema appeared first on Zambia Reports.

Patriotic Front Secretary General Wynter Kabimba used his visit to the Southern Province to attack Allaince for a Better Zambia President Father Frank Bwalya saying he can never be the leader of the country as he was just a station manager at the time he served as Catholic priest.

Kabimba, who before his nomination as Member of Parliament by President Michael Sata, had never won any electable public office he had aspired for said Father Bwalya was too junior in the Catholic establishment to claim popularity.

“What was he before he joined politics? He was just a station manager. What is a community radio director in the Catholic Church hierachy? It is nothing,” Kabimba said while appearing on a community radio station Falls FM in Livingstone.

“Even the red cards that he used to flash when we were campaigning against Rupiah Banda, we used to buy for him. So we do not take him seriously.”

He said Father Bwalya could never be president of Zambia as he lacked political experience.

“What was he before he became a politician? A station director and he wants to become president.”

Kabimba was accompanied to the radio station by disgraced former Southern Province political secretary Brian Hapunda.

The post Fr Bwalya Can’t be President – says Kabimba appeared first on Zambia Reports.

Post Newspapers Editor Fred M’membe could not have been more right when he recited one of his memorized quotes from his Communist mentors that “Creatures prefer their own kind”.

No one could fault even the ‘all mighty’ Fred when he is at his memorizing best quoting anything from scripture to czarist literature. For indeed M’membe and Republican President Michael Sata share a long standing affection for dictators, it does not matter on which planet they are – Zimbabwe, North Korea, China and Cuba.

The duo that is currently driving the country deep into the shackles of dictatorship have in a proverbial emperor without clothes style curved in individual libeterties and seeking to control the lives and thinking of citizens.

A scan into Emperor Fred’s philosophy hints at a man given to ruling anything around him by an iron fist through the inspiration derived from his idols among them Cuba’s Fidel Castro, Robert Mugabe, Paul Kagama, Yoweri Museveni, the now deceased Hugo Chavez and closer to home Kenneth Kaunda and Michael Sata.

Over the years, M’membe has dedicated acres of space to eulogizing these dicatators and has even donated generous amounts of space in his newspaper propping their philosophies.

M’membe for all the help that he has received through more democratized and civilized nations over time has opted to align himself to the whims of dictatorships.

To demonstrate his admiration for long standing Cuban leader Fidel Castrol, he has given him a column through which the ailing Cuban leader spells out his thoughts something that hardly connects with the Zambian leaders. It is one of the excessess that M’membe abuses for his long grip on the local media.

How Cuba has been run in terms of citizen’s freedoms is a matter of public record. While it is all too easy to sit and propagate the perceived glories of socialism, the ordinary Cuban citizens who endure the daily dictatorship are best placed to give that testimony.

It is all too easy for M’membe to massage his ego about the little high school fantasies he had about Communism and shove it down his readers but in reality it is all a great shame.

Look at the legacy Kenneth Kaunda left until he was forced out by the collective might of the Zambian people. Who can forget how even being alone in a private place was a fearsome experience as citizens feared that even walls could tell on anyone holding divergent views to that of the State in the Kaunda era.

What about the several detentions? The party dictatorship remains one of the darkest legacies this country has ever been shoved with, second only to colonialism. Now this is what M’MEMBE adores.

He also donated acres of space to Kaunda to feed his fantasies about anything he ever dreamt of but thanfully the Zambia readers saw through the sham and the poor response made the weekly column colapse.

Now M’membe is in bed with another archtypical dictator Michael Sata whose democratic credentials or the lack of them is a matter of public record. Nobody did a better service to remind the Zambian people of the dicator that Sata was than M’membe himself when he documented Sata’s atrocious public service record in the run up to the 2006 general elections.

He reminded us of the savage that forced everyone out of the MMD to pave way for himself as successor to Frederick Chiluba who was trying to go for a third term-which Sata supported.

Sata had alcohol driven youths hack at opponents as was the case in Chawama and now M’membe wants to launder Sata and sing praises to SAINT MICHAEL Sata as the editorials in The Post have now become hym books of how GLORIOUS SAINT Michael is overseeing the affairs of the poor Southern African nation.

Yet political gatherings in the country have been frozen, church, opposition and civil society leaders are beaten up or arrested for expressing their opinions and of course he does occasionally publicly dress down his opponents at swearing in ceremonies and critical media is being shut down through technlogy imported from fellow dictatorships like China and Russia.

And all this to M’membe is saintly. Today the only gospel M’membe preaches is saint Michael. Kindly note the partnerships the Patriotic Front has been forging- China, Russia, Zimbabwe, North Korea among others.

So let not anyone be fooled the M’membe/Sata love affair is consumated by their deep affection for dictatorship. For anyone with the sense to check, kindly do an independent audit of how he runs his newspaper and how employees with independent views are flushed out. And surely everything will make sense.

I rest my case! By the way who would think Wynter Kabimba is a worthy national leader ahead of Given Lubinda? At least in the M’membe secret society that is the way it works.

The post Opinion: M’membe and Sata’s Love for Dictators appeared first on Zambia Reports.

Forum for Democracy and Development (FDD) leader Edith Nawakwi says the policies for the Patriotic Front are shocking and misleading.

Nawakwi says the introduction of the structural adjustment programme was to see how monies were being spent.

Nawakwi says the Patriotic Front was going to make the first ever budget in the history of the nation after the change of government.

She explains that there is need for government to sit back and listen from every piece of advice and be able to plan within what has been budgeted for.

The FDD leader adds that if government continues to over spend, then the majority Zambians will continue to live in abject poverty.

Nawakwi has since maintained that the Patriotic Front has walked in the same shoes as MMD.

The post PF Policies Shocking and Misleading – Nawakwi appeared first on Zambia Reports.

The knives are out for Patriotic Front Secretary for his statement that the Patriotic Front will continue in their quest to cause by-elections by poaching opposition Members of Parliament.

United Party for National Development chief whip Garry Nkombo said Kabimba’s statement was a sign of impunity and should be condemned.

Kabimba on Saturday featured on Muvi TV’s The Assignment Programme and said the PF would continue poaching opposition MPs even if it meant all the 150 legislators belonging to the ruling party.

“For Kabimba to say that is a sign of impunity but weknow that it is Mr Kabimba who has been intimidating MPs into wanting to cross the floor. For anyone with any doubt as to who was causing by-elections the matter was put plainly to all by Kabimba,” Nkombo said.

“Our member honourbale Chinga Miyutu who has come back to his senses after giving up his position in government has told us everything so PF should not fool Zambians.”

And MMD president Nevers Mumba says Kabimba’s statement was unfortunate especially that it took away the electorates’ right to enjoy their freedom of choice to be represented by an MP on the ticket they voted him or her on.

“The electorates vote for an MP on an MP on a particular ticket but the PF wants to violate that right. We know that the PF has no respect for the people’s freedoms,” Mumba said.

Kabimba said it was his duty as secretary general to recruit members from the opposition.

The post Kabimba Comes Under Fire over By-Election Remark appeared first on Zambia Reports.

United Party for National Development (UPND) Moomba Member of Parliament Vitalis Mooya says government may be delaying in releasing the Constituency Development Fund (CDF) due to having diverted the money to by-elections.

Mooya said it was unacceptable to have had the CDF not released eight months beyond schedule.
He said not disturbing the K1.2 billion CDF had made it difficult for rural constituencies to develop.

“Up to now we are still waiting for the 2013 Constituency Development Funds because we cannot take development in the absence of that money. Our suspicion is that maybe this money which we should have had by now may have been diverted to other projects and maybe by-elections,” he said.

“This money should have been released in January but up to now nothing. We really appeal to the PF government to seriously think about this matter.”

The post CDF Goes to By-Elections – Alleges UPND Lawmaker appeared first on Zambia Reports.

Panic grip Patriotic Front officials have spread across the country diluting the impact of their loss in by-elections recently.

Party Secretary General Wynter Kabimba is in Southern Province where he has so far met 300 headmen in Choma urging them to support the Patriotic Front.

Kabimba is in the company of Southern Province Minister Daniel Munkombwe and seem to be laying the ground for the incessant by-elections the country has been witnessing with Itezhi Tezhi and Sinazaongwe elections in the picture.

Kabimba told the headmen that the PF government was counting on their loyalty.

And in Kasama defence minister Geoffrey Mwamba launched the re-elect Michael Sata campaign in 2016 saying the President should run for 10 years.

Mwamba said Kasama had endorsed Sata for a second term to ensure that he reigned for 10 years.

The Kasama Central lawmaker who has never hidden his ambition to take over the leadership for the PF seems to have diverting attention from himself as he lays the ground for his presidential bid.

The post Panicky Kabimba, GBM on Campaign Trail appeared first on Zambia Reports.

A pharmacist at Kabwe General Hospital has bemoaned the critical shortage of anti retroviral (ARV) drugs across Zambia, saying HIV patients will suffer the consequences of missing drugs in future and the government must take responsibility.

The senior pharmacist John Kabwe (not his real name; speaking on the condition of anonymity) said the current shortage of ARVs had a lot of negative effects on both the HIV patents and society at large.

“It is so amazing that we have heard the President Mr Michael Sata has flown out of the country secretly to go and receive proper healthcare abroad, while his people have no basic medicines such as ARV drugs at in the health centres. We thought as a leader, he should have been at the centre of the efforts to resolve the problem. It does not auger well because the subject of ARVs is a big matter in our health delivery system but the president is is quiet,” he said.

Kabwe said this was not the first time Zambia was experiencing a shortage of the HIV drugs in the last two years. He said the adequate supply of ARVs must be the government’s major priority under the health delivery plan.

“It is people like me who work with people on ARVs that understand the real challenge and consequence of the current shortage of drugs. The situation is critical compared to what the politicians are making it look. People are panicking because they do not want to experience relapses. Our hospital has a big catchment area that caters for people who come from many far flung areas in the rural districts and since we are rationing drugs with two week packages instead of three months doses, people are being made the travel long distances every two weeks and they have to spend lots of money but this is apart from other costs,” he said.

Kabwe said pharmacists at the hospital were rationing drugs and very soon, there will be reports of pilferage to the black market because HIV patients were desperate for medication.

He said proper combinations ARVs were being combined with wrong elements because the shortage of truvada was making it impossible to make the right doses.

“Very soon, some unscrupulous workers will start pilfering the ARVs because the market is already there. Many people on ARVs are ready to buy the drugs that are being supplied freely by the government, but because of the shortage, people are willing to pay so that they can have enough supply,” he said.

Kabwe said the government was not telling the truth on the ARV situation in Zambia because they ministers n government were saying it was only truvada, which was in short supply.

He said truvada was in short supply but this situation had forced people to resort to other drugs which could instigate other health complications such as hallucinations.

“It would be great if the minister of health could listen to the people’s cries. Health workers who are on the ground are really worried about the situation because they are the one who deal with people on ARVs. The people on ARVs are really worried because they are being forced to go on strange doses, which spark effects such as temporal madness,” he said.

Kabwe said the shortage of ARVs in Zambia was not being handled with the seriousness that it deserves.

Kabwe said there would be disastrous consequences if the supply of ARVs does not stablise in the next two weeks because some health centre would have run out of the life prolonging drugs.

The post Kabwe Hit by Shortage of HIV Medicine appeared first on Zambia Reports.

From the Facebook page of the Media Network on Child Right’s and Development

Last week, after months of relative silence, Pastor George Kalamo stepped into a Lusaka courtroom to stand trial for allegedly murdering his teenage niece, Ruth Mbandu. As the news media churns out headlines related to the case, 16-year-old Kanengo Nakamba will be watching – and possibly producing some media of her own.

“It’s just this case that has been looked at with attention,” she says, lamenting the mainstream media’s patchy coverage of defilement in Zambia.

Nakamba is one of 72 young Zambians working with the Children News Agency, a national news crew based in the Chilenje South offices of Media Network on Child Right’s and Development (MNCRD). Trained under the aegis of Prisca Sikana – affectionately known as Coach P – school children between 12 and 16 years old dabble in all media streams, producing online content and partnering with mainstream entities like Radio Phoenix, Muvi TV and, most recently, the Times of Zambia. The agency has been in full swing since 2009, and Sikana envisions some form of at least minor partnership with all of Zambia’s media outlets by the end of 2013.

“We want to empower children with media skills and children’s rights knowledge, so they’re able to articulate on the issues that affect them so they can be part of the decision-making process,” Sikana says. “When they write, when they do radio programs or TV, they will reach a larger audience.”

Children’s rights in Zambia, as in many developing countries, are in shambles. The country is a source, transit link, and destination for trafficked children destined for lives of sexual exploitation and forced labour. While the country has both signed and ratified the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child, it’s often criticized for spotty implementation of the convention’s protocols.

In a 2012 report on child trafficking, the United States Embassy in Lusaka put forward a plethora of recommendations, from investigate capacity building in the judiciary and law enforcement to the development of bilateral agreements between nations like South Africa and the Democratic Republic of the Congo. The report did applaud the government’s decision to quadruple its anti-trafficking budget from $3 million to $13 million.

But 17-year-old Victor Kanguya, also a reporter with the agency, sees little progress, citing child labour situations as the precipice from which many other issues tumble into existence. Children who are born into poverty, he says, are sent into city streets to make money, and they’re victimized from there.

“They are taken advantage of,” he says. “They are defiled. They are trafficked.”

Young girls, meanwhile, face different challenges to their convention rights. Reporter Elsie Samboko, 16, sees traditional labour divisions in the household as hurdles to progress. Many families often chose to educate boys instead of girls, leaving the latter at home to do housework.

“It’s normal by virtue of being a girl,” she says, adding that early marriage is another common, traditional practice that violates the rights of young girls. “You find these girls in rural areas, and even urban areas, they get married early without their permission and mostly to older men.”

Before starting the agency, staff at MNCRD audited Zambia’s mainstream media and found little in the way of informed reporting on children’s rights issues. In addition to the agency, MNCRD also performs sensitization seminars, visiting media houses and teaching with editors and reporters about children’s rights issues and their legal contexts. This year, the sensitization program is expanding into the University of Zambia’s journalism program.

“Our biggest challenge as an organization is the media doesn’t want to focus on children,” Sikana says. “They don’t see children as newsmakers. They cover politicians and celebrities.”

Paul Carlucci is a Lusaka-based freelance journalist. He contributes often to Think Africa Press and is the author of The Secret Life of Fission, out this fall through Canada’s Oberon Press. Follow him on twitter @paulcarlucci

The post Youth Journalists Raise Awareness of Children’s Rights appeared first on Zambia Reports.

Things are getting clearer on the real motivation behind the Post Newspapers’ aggression towards their coverage of the month long ZAMBEEF imported meats preservation process.

M’membe has told his employees that he is expecting to take a back seat at the end of the year and concentrate on ranching, one of the businesses the ZAMBEEF global empire have been dominating growing their company into a multi national.

During the onslaught on ZAMBEEF, The Post Newspapers dedicated prime space to any comments bent on villifying the meat company including covering their road shows where anything said was noted for publication.

M’membe, in an internal communique, said he would take a backseat to grow his newly acquired farms including one in the livestock dominated Itezhi Tezhi where he has been exerting his muscle to weigh up against United Party for National Development leader Hakainde Hichilema who owns huge agricultural interests in the area.

The presidential ally still retains massive grip on the publication and will continue even in his new role as the key people appointed to to oversee operations are members of his family.

M’membe will restrict his contribution, mostly, to editorial comments where he will still channel his messages in the hope of driving opinion in a particular direction.

An enquiry was eventually set by the PF government to investigate the levels of Aromatic Aldahydes a chemical the Post Newspapers alleged was used to embalm bodies.

Since the PF took over, M’membe has been spreading his business empire having been given free hand in running the courier business where he couriers Copper to neighbouring countries.

The post M’membe Takes Back Seat at The Post appeared first on Zambia Reports.

With Republican President Michael Sata allegedly on bed rest and his health unpredictable in the run for a second term in 2016, the battle to inherit him in the ruling Patriotic Front is becoming even clear.

Presently, defence minister Geoffrey Bwalya Mwamba and his justice counterpart Wynter Kabimba have shown express interest to take over and are beginning to build their strongholds within and outside the ruling party.

Kabimba, who is also PF general secretary, has embarked on a countrywide tour to popularise his name in the guise of re-organising the party while Mwamba, popularly known as GBM, has gone flat out with an endorsement strategy of the allegedly unwell Sata. Kabimba was recently in Livingstone and will feature on various public fora as part of the campaign.

PF sources have disclosed that while Kabimba’s strategy is to market himself during the tours, GBM wants to canvass support by being sympathetic to President Sata such that when the incumbent fails to go ahead on medical grounds, the bulky businessman will become the automatic choice.

And Kabimba’s camp has already picked GBM’s strategy and are upset that he is organising lower organ officials to endorse President Sata for 2016.

Lusaka Province Patriotic Front chairman Geoffrey Chuumbwe, who is one of Kabimba’s trusted foot soldiers, has openly shot down GBM’s talk about launching President Sata’s 2016 elections bid for the presidency.

Mwamba is a well known aspirant to the top job and last weekend paraded ward officials in Kasama where he said the Kasama Constituency had endorsed President for the 2016 presidential elections.

The Kasama Central lawmaker was in the company of party chairperson for transport Willy Nsanda.

Chuumbwe, whose group supporting the unpopular Kabimba includes Slyvia Masebo, told a party gathering in Shibuyunji area that it was strange that GBM had found it fit to talk about 2016 candidates when the PF had not even done two years of their five year term.

“Why are people talking about endorsements for 2016? Ati ine nifuna nikankale president (Me I want to be president), olo nikukamba ati tikachite endorse (even if it is saying we should endsorse). So bamene bakamba ati endorse, endorse baleta musokonezo (so those who are saying endorse, endorse are bringing confusion),” said Chuumbwe.

“We should wait until the president serves his term and and aspire for the next one, maybe if we want him to go for a third term we will then talk about endorsement.”

Mwamba is in Kasama Constituency where he has been mobilizing party officials and ironically talking about the PF presidency. President Sata, according to well placed State House sources, is currently in hospital in Asia and most PF officials are aware his health is an impediment to 2016 aspirations.

The post Kabimba, GBM Differ over PF Presidency appeared first on Zambia Reports.

Two people have died in a road traffic accident on the Great North Road after the car they were travelling in collided with a light canter truck.

The accident happened around Big Leaf area with the two injured rushed to the hospital while the deceased who were in a Toyota Corolla ACL 6844 were yet to be identified.

Police acting Public Relations officer Esther Katongo said the accident happened around 17:45 hours.

The Great North Road has become notorious for accidents that have been happening with alarming regularity.

The post Two Die in Great North Accident appeared first on Zambia Reports.

A 17 years old girl of Mazyopa compound in Lusaka has been stabbed to death by his boyfriend.

Police assistant public relations officer Esther Katongo has identified the girl as Maggie Phiri who was repeatedly stabbed before she died.

Katongo said Maggie was stabbed with a knife around 03:30 hours. She said police received a report concerning Maggie and rushed to the scene to verify.

She said Maggie was at her aunt’s place in Mazyopa compound where her boyfriend went to pick her so they could spend time together at his home.

Katongo said at 03:30 hours, Maggie was stabbed repeatedly by her boyfriend and the cry for help alerted his uncle who stays nearby and rushed to the rescue of the girl.

She said when the boy’s uncles reached out to stop him from stabbing his girlfriend, the boy also attempted to stab him but he escaped unhurt.

Katongo has also confirmed the arrest of Steven Lungu who poured acid on his former wife after a tip off from members of the public.

The post Girl, 17, Stabbed to Death in Lusaka’s Mazyopa appeared first on Zambia Reports.

President Michael Sata has admitted that governing a country is difficult.

Sata said through defence minister Geoffrey Mwamba that people should not lose trust in him as he is working around the clock to put in place a proper strategy for governing the country.

Mwamba delivered the message that Sata gave him to parishioners in Kasama district of Northern Province where he was a tour of his constituency.

He said Sata plans to embark on a country-wide tour to remind people that he has not forgotten about the development promises he made.

He said Sata noted that he needs time to put everything together and map out a strategy for governing the country.

The post Sata Admits Governance is Difficult appeared first on Zambia Reports.

Auditor General Anna Chifungula has sniffed corruption in the manner contracts for the United Nations World Tourism Organisation (UNWTO) general conference are being awarded.

Chifungula has said his office has discovered irregularities in the manner UNWTO contracts have been awarded in preparations for the general conference which Zambia is co-hosting with Zimbabwe.

Chifungula says most of the contracts were approved in dubious ways that raised suspision of serious irregularities.

She said there is need to avoid wastage expenditure through corruptly awarded contracts.

The post Chifungula Notes Corruption in UNWTO Contracts appeared first on Zambia Reports.