Four RDA top managers dismissed

By James Muyanwa
Road Development Agency (RDA) chief executive officer, Erasmus Chilundika and three other senior managers who were sent on forced leave last month have been fired with immediate effect.
The RDA board of directors has terminated the contracts for Mr Chilundika, manager – construction and maintenance, Stephen Malubila, senior planning an design Daniel Mulonga and manager procurement, Charles Mushota.
RDA board chairperson, Luambe Mondoloka confirmed the termination of the contracts of the quartet in a statement in Lusaka.
Mr Mondoloka said the decision to terminate the contracts was made during a special board meeting held on October 26 2010 during which the board received the recommendations made by the subcommittee which has been sitting since September 21 September 2010.
The subcommittee has been carrying out a review of the Auditor General’s report for the period January 2006 to September 2009.
“The findings of the subcommittee were reviewed and after discussions the board resolved to terminate with immediate effect the contracts of the four senior managers,” he said.
Mr Mondoloka said that Nason Balashi who has been acting as chief executive officer would continue until further notice.
He said that the board was striving to ensure the retention of public confidence in the road sector saying every effort was being applied.
The board sent the four on forced leave to pave way for investigations into allegations of mismanagement of resources following consideration of the Auditor Generals report covering the period 2005 to 2008.
Other reasons cited include the parliamentary Accounts Committee (PAC) recommendations regarding the disregard for the 2008 Annual Work Plan resulting in over commitment of the Zambian Government K1 trillion, the non observance of Acts governing the sector, procurement irregularities and unsubstantiated payments to contractors.
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Mwanachingwala urges HH to leave Pact

United party for national development (UPND) president Hakainde Hichilema should own up and accept the truth about the demise of the Patriotic front-UPND pact and formally move on to seek a way forward for his political career.

Chief Mwanachingwala of the Tonga speaking people in Mazabuka district has said that Mr Hichilema risks his political career going into extinction if his party does not quickly forget about the pact and look for a way ahead.

The traditional ruler told the Sunday Times during the week that Mr Hichilema should own up and star looking at ways in which her can enhance his chances for his political future.


The Chief said that from inception, he had advised Mr Hichilema that he would be duped by Mr Sata but that Mr Hichilema had decided to disregard his counsel.


He said that the UPND on its own would not achieve much politically because it was a regional party just like the PF, hence the need for Mr Hichilema to work with others.

The chief said it would be prudent for Mr. Hichilema to work with president Rupiah Banda to secure his political future and enhance his chances for 2016.


He said Mr Hichilema still had a chance to make it in politics because he was young but that there was need for him to position himself especially for 2016 by which time he would have ripened fully politically.

“There is completely no pact there, Mr Hichilema should work with RB (President Banda) if he wants to have a chance for State House in 2016. For now HH should forget about State House and instead he should support RB,” the outspoken traditional ruler said.

He said that as a traditional leader he had been interacting with the people at the grassroot level all over the country and he knew what they wanted.

He said that politicians should be realistic and identify their weaknesses instead of always pretending to be stronger than they actually were.

Confusion and acrimony has engulfed the PF-UPND pact with officials from both sides issuing statements that are at variance with the originally stated mission for the pact.

Officials from both PF and UPND have asserted that their respective parties were more popular than the other countrywide, this has created doubts as to weather the parties will follow the format where they don’t contest elections in the same constituency but give chance to which ever party appears stronger in a particular area to contest elections.

But Chief Mwanachingwala said that both political parties were not strong enough to match the popularity of the MMD because they did not have a national character.

“We should be sincere when we talk about this, UPND can’t make it alone just like my friend’s party the PF.” he said.

And former Patriotic Front member, Mubanga Chileshe said the intentions of the PF in forming the pact were to destabilizing the UNPD structures in the country.

Mr Chileshe, who was mobilization chairman for the committee of founders of the PF, said PF leader Michael Sata wanted to weaken the UPND structures by claiming to be popular than his counterpart Hakainde Hichilema after the two had been seen to work together.

“This is why you have heard that he is already claiming to be popular in Chilanga constituency where the UPND came second in the 2006 elections.” he said.

Mr. Chileshe said time had come for the UPND leader to immediately pullout from the alliance before he was tossed out at the eleventh hour by Mr Sata.

“In the case of the pact, Mr Sata will do everything to frustrate HH so that he (Mr Hichilema) pulls out of the pact and he remains alone after destroying the UPND party structures.” Mr. Chileshe said.
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Matantala is Chona's political launch pad - MP

MOOMBA Member of Parliament (MP) Vitalis Mooya has challenged Matantala rural integrated enterprise (M-RIDE) founder Mark Chona to come out in the open and state what the purpose of the organization was because there were indications that it was being used as a political launch pad for a number of people.
Mr Mooya said in an interview during the week that Mr Chona who is former Taskforce on Corruption executive chairperson, should come out in the open and state whether it was t true that the organization was being used to prop up some people close to him for political positions.
Mr Moomba said that indications on the ground were that Mr. Chona wanted to use the Matantala to prop up some relatives and friends for political positions.
“I am challenging him to state whether Matantala is not being used as a political launch pad for himself, his close relatives or indeed for a political party for his friends. He should tell the nation whether Matantala is not being used to prop up some people politically.” he said.
Mr Mooya said as the area MP for the constituency in which most of the activities were being undertaken by Matantala and where meetings were held with political pronouncements, he was concerned about the operations of Matantala.
He cited the recent political pronouncement by economist Chibamba Kanyama at a workshop at Kasaka in Moomba constituency that Tongas would not produce a president unless they see opportunities in networking with others.
The parliamentarian said the statement, which was published in the September 25 2010 edition of the Post Newspapers was very political and challenged Mr Kanyama to state whether he was misquoted or not.

“Many Tongas like myself were injured,” he said.

Mr Mooya said even if Mr Chona had said he was not involved in politics given the issues raised during Matantala functions it was difficult to believe and it was the reason why he should come out in the open and tell the nation the true position.
He, however, stated that as area MP he was not scared of whoever the project might come up with because he was close to the electorate who would have the final say.
And Commenting on the assertion by Mr Chona on radio Phoenix’s “Let the people talk’ program on Tuesday that his organization had done a lot in the three chiefdoms in which it operates in Mazabuka and Monze, Mr Mooya said the organization was merely supplementing government efforts.
He said that the government had put in place various development projects in the country aimed at meeting the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) saying even if there were no Matantala in the three chiefdoms, the projects could have been undertaken by the government.
Mr Mooya also scoffed at Mr Chona’s assertions that Matantala had managed to significantly bring down poverty levels in the area saying that one organization could not manage to do that.
Matantala operates in Chiefs Chona and Mwanza in Monze as well as in Chief Hanjalika in Mazabuka.
E
Mr. Mooya is the second person to carpet the operations of Matantala Development association in recent months.

In June, chief Chona of Monze announced that he would ban all activities of the association next year if Mr Chona failed to meet him to explain the organisation’s operations.

Chief Chona who had called on donors that support Matantala to thoroughly audit the operations of the organization said Mr Chona was operating illegally in the area because he had sidelined chief who was supposed to be a co-signatory to the contract for the organization to work in the chiefdom.

The traditional ruler accused Mr Chona of refusing to recognize his authority by dealing directly with some of the village headpersons in the area.

The chief said he had been waiting for Mr Chona to sit down with him and explain why Matantala operates in secrecy since 2007 and he had now, therefore, run out of patience hence the ultimatum which ends in December 2010.

He said Mr. Chona was leaving a lot of room for all sorts of speculation because of the secrecy with which he was operating the Matantala.


Mr Mooya said he did not want to come in and air his observations then as he thought the two should resolve their differences saying, however, that he had been keenly watching the operations of Matantala and thought it was now time to speak out.
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Focus on real issues - Hikaumba

By James Muyanwa

ZAMBIA Congress of Trade Unions (ZCTU) president Leonard Hikaumba has advised Zambians to focus on positive aspects of their political activities for the country to forge ahead in its development process.

Mr Hikaumba said it is important for all Zambians to concentrate on building peace in the nation because it was the basis for all endevours including development, democracy and social cohesion.

Mr. Hikaumba said in an interview that some of the trends in Zambia’s political and social arenas were not conducive to national development because they were diverting people’s attention from the real issues to triviality.


“Democracy , national unity and development can suffer in such an environment, the sooner people realized that what was happening has a negative bearing on all these, the better, so that they can change the approach,” he said.

He said that the labour movement was worried about the current situation in the country where people could not speak to each in a brotherly manner and appealed to Zambians to work hard to change the current culture.


He said it was strange that the culture of confrontation and acrimony had now even spilt to the non political arena to include churches, labour movements and sport.


Mr Hikaumba said holding different of opinion was allowed in a democracy and all citizens should realize that so that they could respect each other’s views no matter how divergent adding that every Zambian should strive to make peace and co-existence the foundations of national stability.
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Kahenya speaks out on Pact.

FORMER United Party for National Development (UPND) general secretary Tiens Kahenya has said the Patriotic Front(PF)-UPND pact was ill-fated from inception because it was wrongly conceived and the two political parties lack national character.

And Mr Kahenya, who was expelled from the party in 2008 called for civilized and issue-based politics among the opposition instead of continuing to insult President Rupiah Banda and his leadership.

Mr Kahenya said in Lusaka that the two major oppositions political parties do not offer a sound alternative to the ruling MMD.

Breaking a two-year silence since his expulsion in an exclusive interview with in Lusaka during the week, Mr Kahenya said PF and UPND were not ready for an alliance with each other when they rushed into the pact.

“It really matters how you come together as a pact, alliance or merger. The current pact unfortunately was not well conceived from the start and the leaders have not bothered to put things in order,” he said.

He said from inception, everything about the pact was wrong as there was no consultation among the cadres and the grassroots leaders hence only the two party presidents knew what was happening.

Mr Kahenya said the situation was compounded by the two leaders’ failure to come up with deliberate measures to harmonise their respective programs into a pact agenda.

He advised them to return to the drawing-board and relook at their positions instead of continuing with their current fantasies adding that the two leaders also exhibited a lot of selfishness which was not good for any alliance.

Mr Kahenya was expelled from the UPND on December 4, 2008 by the party’s national management committee for alleged gross misconduct, insubordination and behaviour detrimental to the party interests.

He said, however, that his comments were not as the result of his expulsion but because he was a nationalist and Christian who believed in a bigger picture of the nation.

He said he was privileged to have been part of the leaders who charted the short-lived United Democratic Alliance (UDA) whose negotiations he said took about two years from 2004-2006,unlike the current pact which he said was hastily announced before the leaders could even work out the modalities.

On the lack of national character by both parties Mr. Kahenya sdaid this is exhibited by just looking at the composition of the national leadership which he said tended to incline to one region or another.

He said it would prudent for the parties to bear a national character as opposed to just one region or tribe.


“Political parties should have national character. But these two parties do not have the national presence. You find that most of the members of the national leadership come from one area and could even be related to their president.

That is not how politics should be. We should endeavour to be inclusive to reflect the countrywide presence,” he said.

Mr Kahenya said the quality of opposition politics being practiced by both UPND and PF had sunk very low as the leaders have resorted to insults at the expense of issue-based politics which aims at addressing the plight of the people.

He said he did not believe that since the day he was elected President Banda has only been making mistakes and nothing else.

He called on the opposition to give president Banda a chance saying people should learn to give praise where it was due as opposed to criticizing all that the government has done.

Mr Kahenya said that he would unreservedly defend President Banda for as long as he remained Republican President because elected leaders should be given a chance to carry out their mandate.

He called for peaceful co-existence in the country to foster national development.

Sewer Veggies on Sale

SOME residents of Lusaka’s Chamba Valley area are growing vegetables using sewer waste from the nearby Kaunda square stabilisation pond to fertilise and water their vegetables.
The vegetables, mainly rape and Chinese cabbage, find themselves in some bonafide shopping out lets within the city while some are sold directly to individual consumers.
A Sunday Times crew which visited the gardens in the area near the Zambia National Service Chamba Valley camp discovered that the residents have been using human waste to fertilize and water the vegetables regularly.
Further investigations also revealed that there were about five businesspersons in the area who buy the vegetables in bulk and later sell them to a local firm which is one of the major suppliers to a number of out lets.
Some traders found in the area said that the owners of the gardens were selling the vegetables at wholesale price of K10, 000 per bed.
A woman only identified as ‘Amake Esther’ (Mother of Esther) said that there were about five people who buy the vegetables from garden owners who resell the vegetables to a local firm which was a key supplier to the supermarkets.
When asked what they thought about the suitability of the vegetables for consumption given the fecal waste used in fertilizing it, another woman who declined to state her name, said that no one would know that the vegetables were contaminated.
The owners of the gardens proved uncooperative and refused to talk to reporters.

Some Lusaka residents expressed disgust at the conduct of the people involved in this kind of activity gardening and wondered how safe the vegetables were for human consumption.
“We are being fed on dirty vegetables by these people while the council and other people are just watching. This is not good,” said Mike Musonda a Lusaka resident in an interview at the town centre.
Another Lusaka resident Martha Phiri said that the local authority and the Lusaka Water and Sewerage Company (LWSC) the owners of the pond should come up with measures to curbing the trend by the garden owners in order to protect consumers.
“Even the supermarkets that purchase vegetables should come up with ways of ensuring that what they are buying is safe for their customers. If most of the people hear about this they will start shunning buying the vegetables from them,” said Ms Phiri.
Some people from the Chamba Valley area said the sewer pond emits a repugnant smell in the evenings and wondered why other people could use the water and refuse from such sewerage as manure.

Lusaka City Council spokesperson Chanda Makanta said the council was aware about the situation in Chamba Valley and condemned the people behind such acts.

Mrs Makanta said the use of the sewer material for gardening and other activities which endanger the lives of the consumers was against the Public Health Laws and the garden owners should stop using the sewer waste as manure.

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Son, Dad’s Day Out

By James Muyanwa

IN Africa it is rare to meet a boy and his father on a day out just the two of them.

More often than not the mother has to be involved in any adventurous outing for the children, both girls and boys while the man will think that his job ends at just looking for money to facilitate such an expedition.

The women always create chances to spend quality time with their children both girls and boys but it is rare for men to do so exclusively for their children.

Mathew Kaoma, of Lusaka’s Chalala residential area admitted that men were not mainly involved in the pastime of their children and leave most of the works to their mothers.

Mr Kaoma, a banker who said he has three sons conceded that most of the time his boys are taken out by their mothers while his preoccupation is to find the money for the occasion.

“You know, I feel guilty, just yesterday (last Saturday) my children came to me saying that they wanted to go to Adventure City, but I gave their mother the car and the money to take them. Even after they insisted that they wanted to go with me, I count not and thought I rather go and get their school report forms on Monday,” he said.

Emmanuel Ndhlovu of Chilenje South said that there are few men who took time to be exclusively with their sons and also pleaded guilty of that failure.

“Yes I think it is true that, as fathers, most of the time we only think of expensive presents for our children and not having quality time with them. We really need to change because by not spending quality time with them we are creating a gap in terms of information.

“I think it is for this reason that usually the girl child looks more knowledgeable about the facts of life than boys of the same age are,” he said.

It is against that background that the women from the Pentecostal Assemblies of God Northmead congregation in Lusaka last week chose to make a difference for their spouses and their sons.

They organized what was dubbed “Father-Son dinner” at Hotel Intercontinental which was for exclusively men with their sons to celebrate that magnificent relationship.
One of the people who attended the function, Moses Phiri said the occasion had given him an opportunity to interact with his two sons and hailed the church for the initiative.

Mr Phiri said even if he was not a Pentecostal he had to pay to attend the function because he thought it was important for him to have a good time with his sons.

One of Mr Phiri’ sons, Joachim, said he was happy to be with his father for an evening out.

Martin Hamainza said such gatherings were strategic as they gave an opportunity for the fathers and their sons to spend some time together.

Mr Hamainza said most men did not want to go out with their children and spend less time together because they felt raising children was for the mothers alone.

“But this is wrong. Our children’s proper growth needs the input from both the fathers and mothers. There must be that balance,’ he said.

Who could have been the better guest of honour than President Rupiah Banda, himself a dedicated father and a key supporter of family values! Mr Banda wished he had been informed that children were “welcome.” He could have gone with his young son.

Accompanied by First Lady, Thandiwe, Mr Banda urged men in the country to be role models for their children and give them the loving care for them to grow up into responsible fathers for the betterment of the nation.

He said fatherhood went far beyond the provision of money, food and other material things to the children, albeit that was important.

Fatherhood, he said, encompasses spending quality time with the children especially sons and help to mould them into responsible adults who would one day successfully takeover the mantel of fatherhood for future generations.

“In the divinely-ordained course of life, boys should grow into men and girls into women. The process depends to a great extent on the quality of fatherhood.

“Fatherhood does not stand only for material and financial provision in the family. It stands for character development, which fathers must carry out on their sons. Fathers must be there to spend quality time with their children,” he said.

Fatherhood, beyond biological child-bearing, is a God-given commitment that men in families should fulfill.

Mr Banda went on to emphasis on the mutual responsibility the father and the son have to each other saying that while the father provides the love and care it is the child’s responsibility to respect and obey the father.

The effect and impact a father has on his children particularly boys is exceptional. The son picks up certain traits and behavioural elements from the father willy-nilly. The learning usually is unconsciously.

In his article to the Georgia Psychological Association on father-son relationship, psychologist Charles Williams starts this way:

“Have you ever noticed how children want to be just like their parents when they are young, nothing like their parents when they are teens, and then become just like their parents for better and worse when they become adults?

“This could not be more evident than in the relationship between fathers and sons. From the evolution of childhood through older adult, predictable stages occur in the way sons view and relate to their fathers,” he said.

Dr Williams comes up with an acronym I.D.E.A. to describe the changing stages into the child’s movement towards becoming like his father. As children, he says, sons idolize their father but as teenagers sons experience a period of discord or conflicts against their fathers.

As young adults, sons experience a period of evolving although distance may still be there while as full adults the sons start moving towards acceptance for their fathers and ultimately becoming like them so much that by the time they reach about 50 years they are a legacy of their father’s influence for better or worse.

Pentecostal Assemblies of God Northmead Pastor Joshua Banda told the gathering at the hotel that the relationship between father and son was paramount as it also represents that of God the father and Jesus Christ.

Bishop Banda said that the relationship is also reflected at various levels from a family unit to the national leadership.

He said it was for that reason that his congregation wanted to celebrate even the national fatherhood as exemplified by the Republican Presidency.
In that vein Bishop Banda presented President Banda with a painting depicting the current president and all the three past presidents as a way of the church’s honouring the national leaderships past and present.

Similar presents were awarded to First Republican President Dr Kenneth Kaunda and his immediate successor, Dr Frederick Chiluba both in absentia, while late President Levy Mwanawasa’s was presented to his son, Patrick.

Bishop Banda said the church was proud of the four presidents and recognized the roles each played during their respective reigns.

He said the church was aware that mistakes could have been committed while the four presidents were separately in power but it was equally mindful of the fact that they were not angels and therefore were bound to make mistakes.

In his sermon, Reverend Yohan Cronje from Cape Town South Africa, who was the guest speaker, said that presidents and other leaders of any nation carried a special grace because of their mammoth responsibility.

Rev Cronje said the leaders therefore deserved to be honoured and recognized.
After that the fathers and their sons continued with their day out.
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