Zambia News Online - Edition (1), 09/13/96

ZAMBIA NEWS ONLINE/ZAMBIA NEWS ONLINE/ZAMBIA NEWS ONLINE

Edition (1) 13 September 1996

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A fortnightly update of news from Zambia

ZAMBIA NEWS ONLINE is written by Zambian journalists in Zambia and brings you the news from their point of view. It is assembled and edited by South Africa Contact, the former anti-apartheid movement in Denmark, publishers of i'Afrika, a quarterly magazine concentrating on Southern Africa.

ZAMBIA NEWS ONLINE joins MALAWI NEWS ONLINE in providing up to date news from our established network of journalists in Southern Africa. These newsletters will be followed, in the very near future, by individual news updates from other countries in the region.

ZAMBIA NEWS ONLINE is brought to you through a co-operation between South Africa Contact and Inform, Denmark's leading alternative information network. The next edition will appear on 13 September 1996.

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In this edition:
Feature: WORKERS IN BROKE COUNCILS FACE STARVATION
Articles:
1 UNIP TREASON SUSPECTS FREED
2 UNIP STILL WITHOUT PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE
3 CHILUBA'S CONCESSIONS FALL SHORT
4 UNIVERSITY BAN ON POLITICS IGNORED
5 GOVERNMENT STILL BATTLING FOR DONOR SUPPORT
6 TOWNSHIP'S GET POWER, BUT...
7 WIDOWS CONTINUE LOSING PROPERTY TO IN-LAWS
8 WATER BLUES DOG ZAMBIAN TOWNS
9 MUSICIANS PRESS FOR COPYRIGHT
10 ZAMBIAN SOCCER AT CROSS-ROADS

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Feature: WORKERS IN BROKE COUNCILS FACE STARVATION

JOHN Mukuka is a fireman who has a raging fire inside him that he cannot put out. As a worker for the broke Kabwe Municipal Council he has gone five months without pay and this makes him angry and constantly worried about where to get the money to feed his wife and five children. He often finds that he has to swallow his pride and go out begging, just to get enough food for one meal for his family.

His dilemma is shared not only by his scores of his work mates in Kabwe, but by thousands of others in almost all 61 councils. The agony of being employed, doing the work but not being paid has long been a problem in many councils. For others, the problem has increased, because of a government decision to sell council houses to sitting tenants. When President Frederick Chiluba directed that local authorities sell off part of their housing stock at virtually give away prices, he received a round of applause. The few who saw this as a political gimmick were rudely told to shut up. Six months on, even as the MMD government still justifies its decision as a measure to "empower the people", the folly of the move is beginning to show on the local government authorities.

The very existence of district councils is now under threat. All councils are heavily dependent on revenue from house rentals to fund projects, provide services and pay workers. But, with the money pipe-line being narrowed or shut altogether, they now have the dilemma of how to survive. 58 of the 61 district councils are in salary arrears with some of them having failed to pay their workers for up to eight months. The government has refused to reconsider its decision to sell the houses.

President Chiluba said councils should learn to raise money from other sources than house rentals, adding that most councils have been charging exploitative rates for houses that are rarely maintained. He contends that houses built before 1959 should be given free of charge to the sitting tenants because total cost of building them has long been covered by rents. The just released MMD election manifesto states that it plans to continue the scheme.

Although government has frequently told councils to raise its own funds, most of the local authorities were caught off-guard by the directive to sell houses. In September last year, Local Government and Housing Minister, Bennie Mwiinga, said the state had no money for grants to councils and advised other means to revitalise operations in the respective institutions, repeating this in March, soon after the presidential directive. He said councils should review their operations, find new sources of income, warning that only innovative ones would stay afloat.

Chilambwe, MMD local government and housing chairman and a former mayor of Lusaka, says government should not approve salary increases of council workers without considering the ability of the respective councils to pay these. He notes there is little logic in increasing salaries of workers not receiving any and suggests that government first settles the arrears.

When council administrators met at their 45th Local Government Association of Zambia annual general meeting recently, the call was for government's financial assistance, demanding that government should share local taxes with local authorities and fund them adequately. That government should consider legislating local authorities as issuing authorities for motor vehicle licences for them to build up a financial capacity to meet their obligation of providing at least the basic services.

Councils could not hope to raise much from property rates because most property owners are reluctant to honour their obligations to pay and an ineffective law on this makes it impossible for councils to seek redress in the courts. Even if this was successful, the number of people with property is so low that very little is realised from this scheme. However, even the MMD home ownership scheme is hardly going to change this because the people getting the council houses are poor and cannot afford rates.

Most new home owners believe is that now that the houses are theirs, they won't have to pay rentals. They do not realise that there are other charges. This ignorance could partly be blamed on the weak laws in the country. Until last year, when the Lands Act was amended, land in Zambia had no value with local authorities not able to charge if you owned land.

There is no quick solution to the councils' financial problems and the government's social partners in development are equally concerned. The trade unions too are concerned about the plight of the councils and their members, with union representatives holding talks with government in an effort to help find a permanent solution to the problem.

The Zambia United Local Authorities Workers Union (ZULAWU),stresses that government should help the workers because the worsened financial problems were as a direct result of councils being directed to sell their houses. The Zambia Congress of Trade Unions (ZCTU) president, Fackson Shamenda, says talks with government "have gone on well" and hopes that this would soon yield positive results.

For workers like Mukuka, however, such hope is somewhat far-fetched. He has no choice but to harbour his burning anger as he continues to report for work that does not pay and beg for food to feed his family.

1 UNIP TREASON SUSPECTS FREED

To many legal observers, the release of two of the eight UNIP suspects in the treason and murder case, was expected and long overdue. Some observers also agree with the defence lawyers insistence that all the other suspects are also innocent and must be released. The release of UNIP secretary for finance Rabbison Chongo and Kenneth Kaunda's press aide, Muhabi Lungu, after the State entered a nolle prosqui (an entry on a record to the effect that the plaintiff or prosecutor will proceed no further with (part of) the suit..editor), is seen by some as the beginning of the end of the trial. None of the state witnesses had given evidence to link Chongo or Lungu to the allegations of either treason or murder.

Some state witnesses, including some so-called 'star witnesses', have been giving contradictory statements, which defence lawyers have taken advantage of to claim that the whole issue was cooked up to implicate the suspects. The prosecution has, however, pushed on, though not too convincingly.

Meanwhile, President Chiluba has refused to release the suspects as demanded by UNIP because he says they were not arrested by presidential decree.

2 UNIP STILL WITHOUT PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE

With possibly only weeks before the presidential and parliamentary elections, UNIP, the main opposition party, still insists that their leader Kenneth Kaunda is their presidential candidate although he is constitutionally ineligible. The party's former secretary general, Benjamin Mibenge, who has been urging the party to pick another candidate, has been fired for being disrespectful.

However, with President Chiluba yet again saying that the forthcoming elections will be based on the new constitution (which bars Kaunda because his parents were foreigners), UNIP might after all have to pick another candidate. The decision of whether to stick to Kaunda or choose another candidate is expected to be made on September 22 when UNIP holds its national congress.

3 CHILUBA'S CONCESSIONS FALL SHORT

Some opposition political parties are still unsatisfied with the extent President Chiluba and the MMD government have gone in giving in to some demands on various issues linked to the forthcoming elections. Parties like UNIP contend that the government has fallen far short of the main demands of doing away with the Nikuv voters register and using the 1991 constitution in the elections.

President Chiluba has explained that using the 1991 voters register would deprive hundreds of thousands of legible voters the right to participate in the elections, and that the 1996 constitution was now law and can only be changed by parliament. Among issues that the government has conceded are making the Elections Office independent, counting of votes at the polling stations and reducing the number of days a party is required to give notice of holding a public meeting, from 14 to 7 days.

4 UNIVERSITY BAN ON POLITICS IGNORED

A month after the University of Zambia banned its staff from holding political positions, the directive has evidently gone unheeded with two lecturers at the university continuing to hold senior positions in UNIP. Publicity Secretary Bwendo Mulengela and Commerce Secretary Tiyaone Kabwe, continue to lecture and attend to party business. Asked why this was still so, Mulengela said: "You ask the (University) administration. They should know better about this directive."

The university insists that the directive is in effect. The university has also banned students from forming political wings at the institution saying this could cause conflict among the students. Recently, some students formed a branch of the MMD at the campus, but the university administration promptly banned it.

5 GOVERNMENT STILL BATTLING FOR DONOR SUPPORT

The government's opening up to opposition parties for dialogue, as many donor countries and agencies have been demanding before more financial assistance could be given, could be a key to a resumption of aid to Zambia. The government has been under pressure to prove that it has been truly democratic in efforts to get back into the good books of the donors, who are also stake holders in the World Bank, Zambia's main source of international financial assistance.

The World Bank says $90 million pledged for the enhanced structural assistance facility (ESAF) would only be paid out when Zambia's bilateral relations with donors improved. The first part of the $90 million should have been released in July but was withheld because the World Bank was pressured by donors, including the USA and UK, to withhold funding until there was satisfaction on the democratic process in the country.

The UK and Germany are currently the remaining major bilateral donors offering balance of payments support. However, since their June payment totalling $22.1 million, neither country has released any financial support in Zambia's direction.

6 TOWNSHIP'S GET POWER, BUT...

Thousands of households in Lusaka have benefited from an initial implementation of a major electrification project. But, the supply to these homes and others which have long been receiving this power, will not be smooth flowing. The Zambia Electricity Supply Corporation (ZESCO) says it has to cut the supply at intervals because it does not have sufficient energy to provide power all round throughout the year.

Director of Generation and Transmission, John Wright, says that because of the drought during the 1994-95 rainy season, water levels were still very low at the Kariba Dam and the Itezhi-Tezhi Dam, from where power is generated. He said out of 7802 megawatts needed this year, only 6841 megawatts were available. Part of the shortfall will be imported from neighbouring Zaire.

Despite the need for more energy, Zambia is exporting some of its power to Zimbabwe, because of a long standing contractual obligation.

7 WIDOWS CONTINUE LOSING PROPERTY TO IN-LAWS

Despite the existence of a law of succession and settlement of an estate, many women when their husbands die are still being harassed by their in-laws. However, some women activists have began to fight against this injustice, the practice of which often includes the grabbing of property the woman shared with her husband, often with no concern shown to the welfare of children involved. These "grabbers" go for items like cars, radios, refrigerators and furniture.

The women activists, with civic education and legal support, wish to fight the practice described by President Chiluba as uncivilised, but evidently have a tough task ahead because some of the victims hold back when it comes to receiving the help. Some widows have fears for a traditional belief which demands that some of a dead person's property should revert to his family (mother or father) to pacify the spirits.

8 WATER BLUES DOG ZAMBIAN TOWNS

While city, town and health authorities around the country continue to urge citizens to maintain high standards of hygiene, water, the commodity essential in attaining this goal, remains elusive for many households. Many Zambian housewives, even in major cities like Lusaka, Ndola and Kitwe, spend many hours walking long distances and queuing up at communal taps for the commodity.

In some homes, taps have long gone dry, forcing tenants to draw water from other sources, usually many kms away. With limited storage facilities, many of the households have long abandoned backyard gardening and the growing of flowers and keeping of lawns.

For some Lusaka resident's, insult is added to injury by the local water supply company, the Lusaka Water and Sewerage Company, which continues billing the residents.

9 MUSICIANS PRESS FOR COPYRIGHT

AFTER three decades of slumber, some musicians in Zambia have woken up to a realisation that they have been losing out on their works by not effecting copyright. Four major musical bands and three solo artists have now put a firm mark of copyright on their works and, backed by the law, they hope the pirating of their products will end, or at least reduce, to give them a better income.

Zambia is notorious for pirating of musical productions of both local and foreign releases, thus rendering hopeless any effort to make a living through music. Most foreign musical audio and video tapes are 'imported' through Tanzania and they sell at one-tenth of the price of a genuine product.

10 ZAMBIAN SOCCER AT CROSS-ROADS

During the past two months soccer administrators have spent their time arguing over who should be in charge of the sport in this country. On one hand, some club officials demand that elections be held immediately for the Football Association of Zambia (FAZ) positions now held by an interim committee. The clubs, guided by the FAZ constitution, petitioned the association to hold an emergency meeting but the bid was shot down by the National Sports Council of Zambia which, on the other hand, insists the current executive continues until work on the amending of the constitution is completed.

The constitutional amendments were directed by FIFA, the world soccer governing body, but with over four months since this directive was issued, clubs are concerned that the open-ended directive has given the FAZ executive a perfect excuse to stay on for as long as they wish on the pretext that they are still working on the constitution. They wish FIFA had given a deadline by which this job should have been done.
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From: AfricaNN@inform-bbs.dk (Africa_news Network) Subject: Zambia News Online - Edition (1) Date: 14 Sep 1996 05:18:36 GMT Message-Id: <1262350302.40240717@inform-bbs.dk>

Editor: Ali B. Ali-Dinar

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