Posts in category: Uncategorized

 A TRAGIC incident has occurred during an Easter church event, as two teenage members of the United Church of Zambia (UCZ) lost their lives in the Luapula River. Polyne Mwansa and Charity Mwelwa both aged 17 were among a group of five girls who decided to swim in the river near the Miloke Secondary School […]

By NATION REPORTER

SIX trucks loaded with about 200 metric tones of Manganese Ore have been impounded by a combined team of the Zambia Environmental Management Agency (ZEMA) and the Ministry of Green Economy and Environment.

Ostensibly, all the trucks intercepted and impounded were coming from a mine which was closed by ZEMA in September last year for non-compliance to the Environmental Management Act No. 12 of 2011.

A team of officers from the Ministry of Green Economy and Environment comprising the Forestry and Meteorological Departments, and ZEMA is in Central Province to inspect manganese mining and mineral processing facilities, forest reserves and meteorological infrastructure.

During the spot monitoring of manganese processing plants in serenje, the Minister of Green Economy and Environment Eng. Collins Nzovu, was happy with the improvements in the compliance levels of some of the Manganese Processing Plants in the district. 

He commended those complying and urged others to adhere to the environmental regulations to promote sustainable economic development and create employment for the local people.

Mr Nzovu however noted with concern that there are still a lot of illegal mining activities in Serenje District despite the continued sensitization programs the Ministry has embarked on to the manganese mining facilities in the province.

“Members of the public may wish to know that Serenje has become a hive of illegal mining activities leading to pollution that has affected land, water, air and human health. 

This is evident by the current situation at Southern Africa Ferro Alloys Limited where 28 employees were found with a strange disease (manganese poisoning). If this is left unchecked, it may retard economic development which the country has achieved,” Mr Nzovu said. Mr Nzovu was however glad to note that the source of the manganese poisoning that affected the workers was traced and Government, in collaboration with the manganese mining companies was doing everything possible to prevent the reoccurrence.

Mr Nzovu said in a quest to reduce pollution and damage to the environment, the manganese processing plants have implemented measures such as stopping the use of charcoal in manganese processing and the installation of the requisite pollution abatement equipment on their processing plants.

He said the Manganese mining companies had also installed continuous online and real time air monitoring equipment and were providing appropriate Personal Protective Equipment (PPE) to employees as well as putting in place of measures to suppress dust emissions around the processing pants.

I, therefore urge the manganese mining facilities to emulate what the manganese processing plants are doing. It is now a mandatory requirement that all manganese mining and processing facilities must comply by ensuring that all the employees must be tested for manganese levels in their blood every six months. My Ministry would like to stress that the well-being of employees and the environment is of the utmost importance and will continue to enforce the law and those found wanting shall be prosecuted,” Mr Nzuvu said.

And speaking when he met the commercial farmers at Silverland Farm in Nansanga Farming Block in Serenje District, Mr Nzovu encouraged Commercial Farmers to work with Government to increase food production for local and the regional market. 

By PRINCE MABUMBA

SCIENCE and Technology Minister Felix Mutati has disclosed that the Ministry of Education has identified about 1, 200 secondary schools to be connected to the internet.

“This follows the memorandum of understanding that was recently signed in Doha with Liquid Telecommunications Jersey Limited for the provision of internet services in schools,” Mr Mutati said.

The minister said, Liquid Telecommunications Jersey Limited is commoted to provide internet service to all the secondary schools in Zambia.

Mr Mutati said, this means government will be able to deliver meaningful education and pupils will add a critical education system that goes beyond reading and writing.

He said, government is also cognizant of the fact that a lot of rural schools have inadequate access to electricity hence may not have meaningful use of the internet connectivity.

Mr Mutati said, is it, therefore, for this reason that all constituencies have been requested to allocate K1 million under the Constituency Development Fund for the purpose of connecting electricity to public infrastructure such as schools in rural areas through the Rural Electrification Authority.

Mr Mutati said, the Liquid Telecommunications will be connecting Zambia to the fiber optic network from Angola, landing in Northwestern Province.

Experts have found that at the start of the COVID-19 outbreak in early 2020, Americans chose not to become pregnant as they grappled with stay-at-home restrictions, anxiety, and economic hardship. Now, a new study led by researchers at NYU Grossman School of Medicine shows that some states actually experienced steeper decreases in fertility than others.

Controversy surrounds the effects of policies to reduce opioid prescriptions on suicide rates. There are concerns that rapid reductions in prescription opioids might provoke increased suicide risk among people who become desparate after they are taken off opioids.

Adding mint flavor to e-cigarette liquids produces more vapor particles and is associated with worse lung function in those who smoke, report researchers from the University of Pittsburgh in Respiratory Research today.

California has begun stockpiling abortion pills, the governor announced Monday, joining other liberal states in fighting a conservative-led effort to restrict access to reproductive care in the United States.

Hundreds of pharmaceutical executives on Monday condemned a US judicial ruling outlawing a leading abortion pill, saying it threatens the development of needed medications in the United States.

An emulated randomized trial performed using observational data from more than 43,000 adults with primary hyperparathyroidism found that parathyroidectomy had no estimated effect on long-term kidney function in older adults when compared to observation. However, early parathyroidectomy may preserve kidney function in patients younger than 60 years of age with primary hyperparathyroidism. The study is published in Annals of Internal Medicine.

It is unacceptable that political hooligans have continued to attack innocent journalists for merely doing their work.

Political leaders must go out of their way to impress upon their cadres that journalists are not their enemies.

They merely help to transmit information between those in government and the opposition parties.

The reported attacks on two radio stations by suspected United Party for National Development (UPND) cadres in Serenje and Petauke must be condemned in the strongest terms.

The nation can longer accept the usual response from the political leadership that “the perpetrators are not our members.

They ought to take responsibility for the illegal acts carried out by their members and ensure that the ringleaders are identified and handed over to the police.

In Serenje, the cadres descended on Serenje Radio where they harassed and attacked three members of staff at Serenje Police Station while in Petauke, the cadres attacked and beat up Chimwemwe Charles Banda, a journalist at Radio Explorer.

Serenje Radio management has reported that the UPND cadres attacked media personnel who were following a story on the stand-off between the Socialist Party and the governing party.

“The media personnel were following up a story on the standoff between the Socialist Party and the ruling UPND. 

This was on allegations that the Socialist Party shot a UPND member during campaigns in the run up to the April 20, 2023 Muchinda Ward By-election in Serenje,” Serenje Radio management said in a statement. 

We find it strange that the cadres misbehaved at the police station where the journalists were filming their protest.

Why did the police not make any arrests?

The Zambia Police Service, for all their claims to be a professional unit failed lamentably to ensure law and order by turning a blind eye to the illegal activities of the UPND cadres.

It appears to be the modus operandi of the police not to take action when the transgressors claim to be acting on behalf of the ruling party.

In Petauke, the UPND cadres led by the party’s information and publicity secretary only identified as Mwika and commonly known as Mandevu descended on journalist Chimwemwe Banda for playing music for Petauke Member of Parliament Emmanuel Jay Banda.

The unruly cadres are reported to have initially called the journalist to follow them to some unknown place so that he could record a story they claimed to have.

But after the journalist refused to follow them, they instead decided to raid Radio Explorer where they attacked him and ordered him to stop playing music for the Petauke MP.

Apparently, the radio station was playing a song on a radio programme sponsored by the Petauke Member of Parliament.

This is an affront on the operations of the media which the party must not defend.

We can only imagine what the cadres could have done to the journalist if he had gone where they had called him.

As we have noted, the media is not an enemy of the politicians, particularly the party in power  and must be allowed to operate without any outside interference as expected in a functional democracy.