The Zambia government has signed a financing agreement worth over Euro16 Million with the Germany bank called KFW Development Bank to finance a rural transport programme for poverty reduction in Southern Province.
KFW Development Bank Senior Programme Manager Stefanie Peter disclosed the development during the signing ceremony held at the Road Development Agency (RDA) in Lusaka yesterday.
She stated that that the loan agreement would not only be used to improve the road sector in the southern province but also used to alleviate poverty in the entire country.
Ms Stafanie said part of the money would be used to improve the health facilities in all districts of Southern province adding that the programme is scheduled to commence by 1st March, 2011.
She said the aim of the programme is to rehabilitate pro-poor growth relevant rural roads in Southern province as well as giving support to RDA in the province through capacity building and carrying out training for local authorities and emerging contractors on the area.
She stated that some of the funds would be used to contribute to the sector programme ROADSIP 11 in order to support Zambia's national poverty reduction and development strategy.
Ms Stafanie said the programme would be confined to cover 10 rural districts in Southern province namely ; Mazabuka, Choma, Monze, Kalomo, Siavonga and Gwembe.
She said others includes Sinazongwe,Kazungula, Ithezhi-Tezhi and Namwala adding that the works has been packaged into three implementation programmes.
The implementation programme No 1 signed yesterday will comprise of the rehabilitation of 217 km of rural feeder roads in Mazabuka, Monze, Choma and kalomo districts.
The rest of the districts will be covered under implementation programme No. 11 and 11 respectively adding the total value of the contracts is worth over 20 billion Kwacha.
Ms Stafaine added that three contracts in Monze District were sub-packed into small lots with the maximum length of 17.8 km and the works would be undertaken through labour based methods while the remaining contracts will be undertaken through machine based method.
The African continent is saddened by the situation in Cote d'voire where efforts to see a negotiated settlement to the crisis in the troubled West African state have not been successful.
Foreign Affairs Minister Kabinga Pande says unity and integration will not be achieved if democracy and good governance are not respected in Africa.
Mr Pande told ZANIS in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, that the continent has millions of refugees as a result of conflicts in some parts of Africa.
The foreign Affairs minister who is part of the advance delegation at the AU summit said Africa should be moving away from a situation where the wishes or will of people are not respected.
" At the moment Zambia is hosting 60 thousand refugees because of conflicts. This is sad for Africa,' Mr Pande said.
Mr Pande said the on-going Executive Council meeting in Addis Ababa ahead of the AU summit is likely to deliberate on the situation in the strife-torn West African state, if the AU Peace and Security Commission and the Economic Community of West African States(ECOWAS) presents a report on crisis.
" When we look at the report, the Executive Council meeting will then make proposals to the Heads of State Summit on the way forward," he said.
The crisis in Cote d'voire was triggered by incumbent President Laurent Gbagbo's refusal to cede power to the man widely seen to have won the November 28 Presidential runoff, Alassane Quattara.
Malawian President and African Union (AU) Chairperson Bingu wa Mutharika has endorsed Code d'voire opposition leader Alassane Quattara as legimate President and has since called on Laurent Gbagbo to respect the will of the people and stand down.
The AU had sent Kenyan Prime Minister Raila Odinga as an emissary, but came back with little success.
ECOWAS has also been making frantic efforts to see a negotiated settlement in the Ivorian crisis but to no avail, despite threats of using force to remove President Gbagbo if necessary.
Political analysts here say the issue is very urgent and the AU summit which opens this week-end cannot afford to skip it.
A- 12- year’s old Girl of LundazI’s Water Affairs Compound in Eastern Province is fighting for her life in the district Hospital after being defiled by her step father.
The victim’s grandmother, Lyness Mwale, 49 told ZANIS yesterday in an interview that Stephen Sikaonga 42, believed to be her step father, on the dates unknown last December had carnal knowledge of the minor on three occasions.
Speaking at the victim’s hospital bed,Mrs. Mwale disclosed that she learnt of the development early this month after confronting the victim who at the time was in a critical condition before taking her to the hospital prompting her to reveal the ordeal.
And the victim’s mother ,Anna Sikaoga 31 revealed that she was aware of the ordeal, but could not report the matter to Police because she was intimidated and threatened with divorce and subsequently death by her husband.
A Nurse on duty at Lundazi District Hospital who declined to disclose her name revealed that the minor had virginal discharge and swollen pelvic organs and complained of headache, stomach pains and vomiting.
The Medical Officer however described the girl’s condition as stable after medication.
Local Police at Lundazi Police Station confirmed receiving a defilement report but have not yet arrested the suspect. They said investigations had been instituted to trace the whereabouts of Sikaonga who was currently reported to have fled the district.
Meanwhile, Police expressed worry with the rising defilement cases in the district and called on members of the public to be responsible enough and educate girl children on the dangers of defilement cases.
The Police warned that defilers would not be spared to deter would be offenders.
And reports reaching ZANIS from the Water Affairs Compound indicate that Police in Lundazi on Wednesday this week directed the neighborhood watch to apprehend the suspect but attempts to do so failed after the suspected defiler dived into Lundazi River and swam ashore to the other side of the river banks, before boarding a Katete bound minibus.
British High Commissioner to Zambia Tom Carter has hailed Zambia’s contribution to peace and security in Africa and the world as a whole.
Mr. Carter said Zambia has contributed significantly to peace and security around the world through peace-keeping mission operations by the United Nations.
He stated that Zambia has over 700 defence and security personnel deployed in various hot-spot areas around the world and 600 of these are in Sudan under the United Nations Mission to Sudan (UNMIS).
Mr. Carter said during the closure of the Defence and Security Management Course at the Defence Services Command and Staff College in Lusaka today.
The training programme has attracted defence and security personnel from countries within the Southern African Development Community (SADC) and other countries including Rwanda, Kenya, Tanzania and Uganda.
Meanwhile, Mr. Carter has urged participants to consider strategic and geo- political factors that the countries must address to maintain peace and security.
Mr. Carter said security is the central theme in human development and further challenged participants to explore opportunities and challenges people in their respective countries are facing.
He has also commended the Zambian government for choosing to work with the British government in delivering the course.
“Am sure you expect the UK places a high level of importance on the development of its own government employees, be they military, police, or civil servants and I am therefore delighted that the Zambian government has chosen to work with the UK government in delivery of this course. We are also close partners across a wide range of Government areas of interest, and I hope that you feel that this course has strengthened your understanding of how UK values this partnership” he said.
The British High Commissioner has since reiterated his Government’s continued support to defence and security in Zambia and the region.
And speaking earlier, Defence Services Command and Staff College Commandant, Brigadier General Boniface Musoba said the programme has achieved its objectives and will help participants advise leaders on matters of defence and security.
He said the programme was designed to highlight security challenges the SADC region and participating countries were facing.
Brigadier General Musoba said the students have being exposed to strategic programming in defence.
ZANIS
With a view to improving development and management of ground water recourses in the region, the Southern African Development Community (SADC) is developing several tools to empower persons and organisations involved in the management of ground water in the region.
SADC Water Division Senior Programme Officer Phera Ramoeli explained that ground water is likely to play an even greater role for human development under changing climatic conditions hence the need for the resource to be well protected, and properly managed as a measure to mitigate climate change effects.
The tools being developed by the SADC Water Division through the Ground water and Drought Management Project will also assist in raising the profile of groundwater.
Mr. Ramoeli says this in a statement obtained by ZANIS, today, signed by SADC Water Division Communications and Research Officer Barbra Lopi in Bostwana
The Programme Officer explains that the tools include ground water management plans for communities, maps that will give visual representation of the vulnerability of ground water and its location dependant ecosystems in the region.
“ All ground water resources are vulnerable to various degrees, hence, the ground ater vulnerability maps will assist in guiding planners and resource managers in determining which areas are more susceptible to groundwater contamination within the region, “ He says.
Ground water Dependent Ecosystem (GDEs) are a vital yet poorly understood component of the natural environment. Typical examples of these systems are spring (hydrosphere) and wetland ecosystems where groundwater seeps to soil surface occur.
In these systems ground water contribute to water and nutrients which maintain a rich and unique biodiversity adjusted to these special conditions.
Methodologies on how to assist member states establish economic value of groundwater are also being developed to determine the economic value of the hidden resource, thereby, creating an environment for its better management.
All these tools and methodologies will aid decision planning and thus assist decision makers in proper management, policy analysis and development of ground water resources.
Mr. Ramoeli says awareness is needed to make groundwater and its economic value, importance, and potential role towards socio-economic development, poverty alleviation and climate adaptation, more visible in the eyes of policy and decision makers, parliamentarians, the media and the general public in southern Africa.
The Declaration of Zambia as a Christian Nation by former Republican President, Dr Frederick Chiluba on December 29, 1991 was received with mixed feelings and differing ideas by many people.
Some thought the Declaration was imposed on the Zambian society while others were of the view that there should have been a lot of consultation before the Declaration was pronounced.
To this effect, non-Christians felt they were not part of the Zambian society and were thus reduced to a status of second class citizens.
However, the debate subsided in May, 1996, with the inclusion of the Declaration clause in the Preamble of the Republican Constitution. And since then, many things and activities such as prayers in line with the Declaration have been taking place within the country.
The Declaration was, and still is, founded on the understanding that Zambia shall be a Christian nation that would be governed by the righteous principles of the Word of God and thus Righteousness and justice must prevail at all levels of authority.
One fact that can not be disputed by anyone is the obvious mushrooming of churches since the Declaration. Other churches have since split due to various reasons, including the way of worshiping.
One new church that was born of the Declaration is the Goshali.
Goshali is actually an acronym of ‘God Shall Live’ forever. The church, which is more of sect than other religions, is found in Chongwe district of Lusaka Province.
The Goshali church was introduced by a group of people who migrated from doted parts of the Southern Province, including Magoye, and surrounding areas in the late 1990’s.
It is believed that the Goshali are a splinter group of the Seventh Day Adventist Church (SDA) whose believers came to Chongwe as small scale farmers and were granted land to settle among the Soli-speaking people in Shiyala village of chief Bunda-Bunda.
Unique characteristics of the Goshali followers started becoming evident in the year 2000. They refused to be enumerated during the 2000 Census of Population and Housing and it was during this time that it was discovered that they did not have National Registration Cards (NRCs) and did not want to own them.
As if that was not enough, the Goshali do not get medical treatment or immunization against any disease because they believe that they are already known and counted by God and it is God alone who cures through prayers.
In other words, they do not belong to any government but to God only whose rules they follow and obey.
The Goshali do not take their children to any conventional school as they have their own way of teaching their siblings whom they do not want to associate with any person within the society in which they live.
They teach themselves and their children a language called Kefho and ensure that their children do not associate with other children, especially those who do not speak this strange language or anyone who is not a Goshali.
On December 30, 2010, the Goshali distributed a set of commandments or rules to neighbouring communities and villages.
It was the distribution of these rules and an attempt to enforce them on non-Goshalis which marked the beginning of problems which consequently caused an uprising and displacement after the local people burnt their village and church building and the subsequent decision by government to repatriate them to their places of origin. The 31 verbatim blue print of the Goshali rules, which are hand-written, are as follows:
“Neighbours and friends living near the Goshali home, due to the Goshali’s unstoppable greatness, you are ordered to obey these rules starting from the day one receives them onwards. The Goshali wants to see decent neighbours who are ethically principled according to these rules:
1. Do not brew alcohol (beer) at your home.
2. Do not be an adulterer, adulteress or fornicator
Do not put on indecent clothes
Do not plant, sell, buy or consume marijuana (dagga)
Do not quarrel using noise and insults
Do not fight your neighbour
You must have decent marriages
Each family’s head must be responsible for any wrong deed found happening in the family
If you can’t sit down with your neighbour to solve a dispute, take it to the Goshali home for help
Do not be a sorcerer, witchdoctor, magician, and do not keep a sorcerer, witchdoctor or magician at your home
Do not build a church at your home
Do not dig rats, hunt animals or birds every Sunday 17.00hrs to Tuesday 04.00hrs in Goshali farm because the Goshali worships God during that given time
Do not be a thief and do not keep a thief at your home
Do not bring disputes on Monday (seiso) 08.00hrs to 11.00hrs at Goshali home because the Goshali is restricted to spiritual lessons during that time
Do not bury your dead at Joe Mumba grave yard or anywhere near the Goshali home
Family heads must give the Goshali about family members’ status whether they have HIV virus or not for them to be helped
All people living near the Goshali farm must have their names at Goshali home for easy identification of strangers
Family heads must be reporting all visitors who come at their homes to the Goshali home ecause the Goshali do not want bad strangers in the area
Do not be a Rastafarian
Family members must know that their lands (farm boundaries) may be changed when need be because the Goshali farm will undergo many extensions to accommodate its growth
Do not sell the land
Do not fight or help a fighter against a Goshali member
Do not run away from your family as one who deserts his or her own family
Do not be a false witness against the Goshali to any secular authority in the land
Do not willingly abort your pregnance
Do not allow your friend from afar to shift from his place and come to settle in your farm without informing the Goshali
Do not speak to Goshali children using your language rather than Kefho which the Goshali uses
Do not refuse to obey these rules, but if you choose to disobey them, two months are given to you to decide what to do about it because no disobedient man continues to live near the Goshali, but if you decide to obey them, one week is given to you to inform the Goshali and you will live in the land as long as you want
Do not pass at the Goshali home during night 20.00hrs to 04.00hrs
Keep your homes and surrounding areas clean to avoid disease outbreak
Keep this paper of rules safe as it serves as your licence to peaceful living as neighbours with the most powerful society in the modern world where God has set his foot. The Goshali members will be checking on you to see if you are doing what the rules order you.”
These rules were also translated into broken Chinyanja and all those who read them had to append their signatures to acknowledge receipt. The rules were meant to be enforced rather than to convert the local people voluntarily or peacefully.
But things turned upside-down on January 6, 2011 when a non-Goshali, local peasant farmer was catapulted on the head by a Goshali ‘law enforcer’ who found him working on his farm at what was considered a wrong time according to the sect’s rule.
Another peasant farmer was abducted and locked up in the Goshali church building which was painted black from wall to roof.
When word went round about what had transpired, local villagers mobilized themselves and attacked the Goshali village, beat up the sect believers and gutted their houses and property.
In the process, many Goshalis were left injured, some seriously. The ‘pastor’, Ronnie Mweemba, fled to an unknown place, leaving his flock under the responsibility of his deputy, Ody Nyangu, who also sustained two deep cuts in his head.
Due to the gravity of his injuries, Nyangu defied Goshali rules and sought treatment from Chongwe clinic where his wounds were also stitched.
Quick action by police saved the situation as they did not only provide sanctuary and security to the homeless Goshalis but also embarked on investigations which led to opening of dockets ranging from assault to arson.
The Goshali, who are yet to be repatriated to their home areas in Southern Province, are still being kept at Chongwe police station for safety while government, through the Disaster Management and Mitigation Unit is providing them with food till their repatriation day.
It was during a consultative meeting on January 18, 2011, chaired by Lusaka Province Minister, Charles Shawa, when a decision was reached that government should repatriate the members of the Goshali sect to their places of origin for their own safety.
During the same meeting, it was discovered that the Goshali sect was not registered, hence it was illegal.
“We are not asking them to go back to their homes because they are not Solis. We want them out of our land because they have brought confusion and threatened peace with their faith,” said Chief Bunda-bunda who had offered them land to settle as peasant farmers.
During the heated consultative meeting, Her Royal Highness, Senior Chieftainess Nkomesha Mukamabo II supported Chief Bunda-bunda’s sentiments that for the sake of peace and security, the Goshali members had to go back as the local people openly warned authorities that they would not accept them back in their communities, saying they had suffered enough.
On the other hand, ‘Pastor’ Mweemba has been sending threats though telephone SMS messages to authorities that the Chongwe people had declared total war by attacking the Goshali sect members.
The case of the Goshali sect is similar to the Lumpa Church led by the then self-acclaimed prophetess, Alice Mulenga Lenshina in 1953 in Kasomo village of Chinsali district in Northern Rhodesia, now Zambia.
Lenshina, formerly a Presbyterian Mission Christian, claimed that she had died and resurrected four times before forming the Lumpa sect. She claimed then that she had died and resurrected after she regained consciousness from a deep coma following an attack by severe cerebral malaria in September the same year.
In 1958 Lenshina, who also claimed that she had a vision of Christ during her ‘death’, boasted that Jesus showed her a book of life. Lenshina preached baptism, attacked witchcraft and sorcery, condemned alcohol and polygamy.
She also rejected registration of her church by government, refused to pay tax and declared that she had nothing to do with government and politics. UNIP considered the sect as a rival group, resulting in violent confrontations.
At independence in 1964, the Lumpa church challenged the supremacy of the new government under Dr Kenneth Kaunda and UNIP. Serious violent clashes ensued and more than 700 Lenshina followers were killed.
Lenshina was arrested but was released in 1975 and re-arrested two years later for illegally holding a church service although her movement was essentially non-existent after many followers fled to Zaire (now the Democratic Republic of Congo) where they exiled themselves.
Lenshina died in 1978 under house arrest at her New Chilenje house but was buried at Kasomo village, her birth place.
It was the late Republican President Levy Mwanawasa, SC, who welcomed back the disbanded Lenshina followers from the DRC to Zambia in 2007. By then, the Lenshina sect members had already started working with Faith Based Organizations (FBOs) under the name of Lenshina Support Group in Mufulira district on the Copperbelt Province.
It is hoped that the Goshali does not replicate itself into the disbanded Lumpa sect of the ‘prophetess’ Lenshina. As a Christian Nation, Zambians expect unity, peace, love and tranquility.
Christians follow the teachings of the risen Lord Jesus Christ who says he is the way, the light and life.
Do the Goshali sect members believe that Jesus is the way, the light and life if they paint the interior of their church building black?
Is the use of violence to convert people to the faith Biblically acceptable? Does the Goshali faith support the country’s governance by the righteous principles of the Word of the Almighty God?
These and many others are the questions the Goshali faith members need to reflect upon as they settle down elsewhere.
A Kafue based company has entered into partnership with a South African manufacturing company to set up an assembly plant for livestock handling equipment in Kafue district in Lusaka Province.
Fens Investment Chief Executive Officer Felix Nseluka told ZANIS in an interview in Kafue today that his company has finally clinched a deal with TALTEC; a South African based Agriculture Company, to market and assemble livestock handling
equipment.
He said Kafue District Council has since allocated the company a piece of land where it is expected to soon start constructing a ware house and plant.
Mr Nseluka said the company which has been dealing with TALTEC for the past three years, is happy that Government policies have been favourable to local investors like him.
He also expressed happiness that for the past seven years, the company had managed to manufacture spray races, domestic and commercial trailers without any difficulties.
Mr Nseluka said with the partnership it had entered into with TALTEC, the company would be assembling mobile dip tanks for livestock animals, trailer loads, and animal scales adding that the introduction of these products on the Zambian soared demand by farmers.
He also assured that the products which would mostly target medium and small scale farmers would be affordable for the country to make progress in tackling animal diseases that have ravaged cattle and other livestock.
The Chief Executive Officer said Government through the Ministry of Livestock and Fisheries Development had also shown
interest in purchasing some of its products for distribution to rural areas so that farmers use them for treating their animals.
ZANIS
Government says the country is still in dire need of foreign investment as this was the only way the economy would grow and subsequently improve living standards of locals.
Kafue District Commissioner Winford Ngoma said it always pleased Government whenever foreign investors showed interest to set up industries in the country as this was an indication that the country’s economical and political climate was conducive for foreign investment.
ZANIS reports that Mr Ngoma said this in Kafue today when representatives of TALTEC a South African based company specialised in livestock handling equipment paid a courtesy call on him at his office.
He said the country is in a hurry to develop and welcomed investors willing to bring in development adding that Kafue was one district which had of late been attracting investment and seen a number of companies being set up.
Mr Ngoma said once plans for the plant were finalised and implemented, more jobs in the district would be created.
He advised Zambian investors to explore and partner with outsiders for the economy to continue growing.
And TALC-TEC Managing Director Greg Talbot informed the District Commissioner that his visit to Zambia was to meet the company’s partners in the country and discuss how they could make their products easily accessible to customers.
He added that the company was also in discussion with its Zambian partner FENS Investment to start constructing a warehouse to be followed by a fully fledged assembly plant in Kafue district.
Mr Talbot said the company was happy with the investment climate the country was offering.
He disclosed that TALC-TEC operates in other sub Saharan countries would ensure that it makes products that could easily be afforded by peasant farmers.
Mr Talbot noted that the majority of cattle farmers were peasant farmers who lacked proper livestock equipment which the company intends to fill up.
He expressed optimism that with livestock equipment among peasant farmers, cattle production was poised to grow and thereby reduce animal diseases.
ZANIS
Southern Water and Sewerage Company (SWASCO), this morning disrupted water supply in Livingstone in a bid to regulate the water which had a strong brownish colour.
SWASCO Regional Manager Gift Monde said the water utility company was alert and shut down water supply in the entire Livingstone town to avoid supplying water they suspected to be unsafe to residents.
However Mr Monde said after testing the water, it was established that it was safe to use but needed to be calibrated in order to change its strong brownish colour.
He said this in an interview with ZANIS in Livingstone today.
Mr. Monde stated that the appearance of the water was not due to bacterial contamination but merely a strong brownish colour of water from the Zambezi River, which he attributed to heavy rains.
He has since revealed that water supply had resumed and urged Livingstone residents not to panic as everything was back to normal.
And Mr. Monde apologised to Livingstone residents for the abrupt disruption of water supply adding that, there was no adequate time to issue a prior notice to the public to minimise the inconvenience caused.
Suspected members of an Islamist sect opened fire at a checkpoint in northern Nigeria, killing a soldier, the military said today, the latest in a spate of such attacks that have left dozens dead.
The attackers killed the soldier last night and wounded two others at a checkpoint in the town of Biu, 200 kilometres (125 miles) south of Maiduguri, the epicentre of a 2009 uprising by the sect known as Boko Haram.
We lost a soldier to motorcycle-riding gunmen who attacked a military checkpoint in Biu, army spokesman in the region Lieutenant Abubakar Abdullahi told Agence France Presse (AFP).
The attack came after another soldier was shot dead and his rifle stolen while guarding a church in Maiduguri earlier in the day.
Authorities said the sect, which launched an uprising in 2009 that was brutally put down by the military, has also been behind a spate of recent armed robberies.
Officials said the group wanted to raise money to buy weapons.
The group also claimed three attacks on churches on Christmas Eve that left six people dead and one of the churches burnt.
