ARCHBISHOP Telesphore Mpundu says the Church Empowerment Fund is a blatant form of corruption and it should be stopped. But Northmead Assemblies of God Church presiding Bishop, Joshua Banda, has defended the initiative, saying the Church, like many other sectors that benefitted from the Central Bank stimulus package, deserved government help to recover from the...

THERE was panic and finger pointing during a Parliamentary Public Accounts Committee (PAC) hearing of the Ministry of Health drug supply scandal yesterday as government officials and directors of Honeybee Pharmacy sweated to explain how a US$17 million contract was awarded to an unregistered company which delivered toxic drugs and substandard condoms. And Ministry of...

BLACKFIRE Mining Limited has written to the office of the Inspector General of Police, the National Prosecution Authority (NPA), and the Law Association of Zambia (LAZ), complaining about State Council Eric Silwamba’s alleged interference in the prosecution of some Stanbic Bank officers accused of theft of money amounting to US $125, 000. And the copied...

GOVERNANCE Activist Rueben Lifuka says Zambia will soon remain nothing but a pseudo democracy, with the only permanent feature being the holding of frequent and contentious elections. And Lifuka says it is annoying to read statements of PF cadres justifying police’s continued use of live ammunition on unarmed citizens. In a statement, Lifuka lamented that...

VETERAN politician Vernon Mwaanga says it is sad that a number of privileged politicians are using their ill-gotten wealth to mock citizens by giving them cash handouts and food. And Mwaanga says people have dropped their guard against COVID-19 at a critical time when the pandemic fatigue sets in everywhere. In a statement, Sunday, Mwaanga...

THE Parliamentary Public Accounts Committee (PAC) on Thursday heard how 539 officers from the Ministries of Home Affairs and Livestock and Fisheries were sitting on the Central Province payroll rather than their respective Ministries. Meanwhile, there was a heated confrontation between Central Province Finance Director Mordsen Chibuye and an officer from the Accountant General’s Office...

PRESIDENT Edgar Lungu has warned that is citizens stop adhering to the Covid-19 public health guidelines, the predicted second wave of the pandemic will be devastating. Quoting President Lungu in a statement, Special Assistant to the President for Press and Public Relations Isaac Chipampe said the Head of State was concerned that while the second...

UNIVERSITY of Zambia (UNZA) lecturer Sishuwa Sishuwa has been named the winner of the 2020 Terence Ranger Prize, awarded annually by the UK-based top ranked Journal of Southern African Studies (JSAS) for the best article by a first-time author in the journal during the previous year. Dr Sishuwa becomes the first Zambian to win the...

THE Road Transport and Safety Agency (RTSA) has donated assorted medical equipment to Ndola Teaching Hospital as part of commemorating the 2020 World Day of Remembrance for road traffic victims. And the agency says it is projecting a reduction in the number of road traffic accidents by end of 2020 due to the countrywide law...

A NEWS Diggers Investigation has revealed that the Ministry of Health paid a Chinese company called Ganzhou Etone amounts exceeding US$1.5 million (approximately K31.3 million) for supply of Coronavirus test kits under a tender that was awarded to a different firm called Kingphar Company Ltd. The investigation has also revealed that companies that ‘competed’ and...