President Lungu Sworn In, Promises To Utilise Nuclear Energy

President Lungu takes oath of office

By Paul Shalala

President Edgar Lungu has been sworn in for a full five year term following the dismissal of several opposition election petitions which were aimed at stopping him from taking office.

This follows his victory in the August 11 general elections.

Last year in January, Mr Lungu was elected to serve the remaining term for his predecessor Michael Sata who died in London in October 2014 after an illness.

President Lungu took his oath of office before Chief Justice Ireen Mambilima at exactly 11:00 and his running mate Inonge Wina also took her oath as Vice President 4 minutes later.

Zimbabwean President Robert Mugabe, his Botswana counterpart Ian Khama and Vice Presidents from Malawi, Tanzania and Kenya were part of the international dignitaries who attended the inauguration which took place at the fully packed 60,000 capacity National Heroes Stadium in Lusaka.

Several opposition leaders among them FDD’s Edith Nawakwi, Fourth Revolution leader Eric Chanda and Elias Chipimo of NAREP attended the event.

After being sworn in, President Lungu gave a 43 minute speech on a wide range of issues.

Its central theme was the need for unity, peace and development in the next five years.

Below are the summaries by sector:

Industrialisation

In his speech, President Lungu said Zambia needs to improve his manufacturing sector.

He further declared Kafue town, an iron and steel economic free zone.

This means that investors in this sector can now set up plants in the riverside town and exploit its huge potential.

Kafue hosts the country’s largest steel plant which is owned by Trade Kings, a holding company for several subsidiary companies involved in several businesses.

The largely agricultural district also has a fertiliser manufacturing plant run by government.

Opposition

President Lungu thanked a number of opposition parties like the MMD and Christian Democratic Party which went into an alliance with the ruling Patriotic Front during the campaigns.

Vice President Wina with Presidents Khama and Mugabe

“There are no winners or losers at the moment. Zambians are the winners…….. No group of people will hold me ransom to serve their interests,” said President Lungu.

He said he will not disappoint all those who supported him and he will work hard to leave Zambia a better place than he found it.

President Lungu also paid glowing tribute to other opposition parties that contested against him.

He said they fought a good battle and he had nothing against them.

President Lungu also announced that he would visit all areas including Dundumwezi Constituency in Kalomo were he got 252 votes against 30,000 votes which UPND’s Hakainde Hichilema got.

“Am coming to Dundumwezi to thank those 252 voters. Without them I would not have won by 50 plus one. I want to develop all areas including where people did not vote for me.”

Energy

President Lungu announced that in the next five years, Zambia would invest in nuclear technology to boost its capacity to produce power.

With the current energy crisis which has been characterised by loadshedding, President Lungu hopes nuclear energy is the answer.

Zambia has huge deposits of uranium, a mineral which is used to produce nuclear energy.

 “I also have good news, exploration for oil and gas in underway in block 31 in the north of the country.”

Currently, the country heavily relies on hydro power whose equipment were installed over 50 years ago and are in desperate need of re-investment.

Post Election Violence

With the reports of people’s houses burnt and some displaced following the announcement of the election results last month, President Lungu has announced a commission of inquiry.

He says the inquiry will help the country learn lessons from what transpired.

A scene at the National Heroes Stadium

“We cannot look away when such things happen. Violence will not be tolerated,” he said.

Road Safety

This year, Zambia has recorded hundreds of deaths on the road and operating licences for some bus companies were even suspended.

In his inaugural speech, President Lungu vowed to use technology to protect travelers and reduce road accidents.

“No life must be lost carelessly on our roads. My office will work closely with the road traffic agencies to ensure we reduce on road traffic accidents.”

Earlier this year, the Road Transport and Safety Agency announced plans to pilot the use of Global Positioning System to detect over speeding buses especially on the Great North Road which annually claims hundreds of lives.

Robert Mugabe

Zimbabwean President Robert Mugabe, who had a thunderous welcome at the stadium, spoke on behalf of other international leaders who graced the event.

President Mugabe’s speech was punctuated by cheers from the crowd, the same way Zambians did two years ago when he spoke at the same venue during the country’s Jubilee celebrations in October 2014 when President Lungu was acting President.

In his unscripted speech, President Mugabe paid glowing tribute to Zambia for its historical role in the liberation struggle.

“The voice of freedom which started in Zambia became the voice of freedom to the whole continent of Africa.”

He also had words for Zambians: “This victory is the people’s victory. I congratulate all Zambians because this is your victory.”

The veteran Zimbabwean leader added that organisations which were trying to violently take over power must not be tolerated in a democratic country.

Zambia Starts Preparing Its Proposals For Paris Climate Change Talks

By Paul Shalala

A flooded maize field in Zambia

Zambia has started preparing its position paper for the 21^st United Nations Climate Change Summit to be held in the French capital Paris in December this year.
 

At the talks which are abbreviated as COP 21, Zambia is expected to present its recommendations for adoption into the final legally binding climate change deal.

So far, Zambia has held four inter-provincial workshops for climate change and environment experts to consolidate its position over climate change.

The workshops which were attended by technocrats from various government ministries and agencies, produced the country's Intended Nationally Determined Contribution (INDC).

This INDC will be the guiding document which Zambia will present to the United Nations Climate Change talks.

The Zambian proposals in the INDC are aimed at reducing the amount of harmful gases in the atmosphere as a way of fighting climate change.

Chief Environmental Management Officer in the Ministry of Lands, Environment and Natural Resources Richard Lungu told the workshop in Kitwe a week ago that this year's climate change talks were an opportunity for countries to present real proposals for climate action.

"All previous climate talks had proposals from scientists on how to reduce harmful gasses in the air. But this year's talks will focus on individual countries' proposals which is good'" said Mr Lungu.

And Lands Permanent Secretary Barnaby Mulenga urged the technocrats to put the interests of the 13 million Zambians first.

Barnaby Mulenga

"As you sit to come up with the INDC, ensure you look at the plight of the 13 million Zambians. Also look at issues of adaptation and mitigation so that the people who suffer most from climate chanage can find relief," said Mr Mulenga.

Meanwhile, environmental activist Lovemore Muma has called on more scientific research to help government formulate a good INDC.

"We call upon government to embark on a scientific research which will help the country come up with a scientifically-backed INDC. This will help us put our point across in Paris," said Mr Muma in an interview in Kitwe.

In the recent months, Zambia has been experiencing massive loadshedding.

According to the country's power utility firm Zesco, the loadshedding is as a result of the reduction of water in the Kariba Dam which is the major producer of electricity to Zambia and neighbouring Zimbabwe.

This reduction in water is blamed on a drought which is also another form of climate change.

According to figures from the United Nations, emissions of green house gases has risen by 40 percent from the year 1992.

This has heightened calls for a new binding document that will help stop temperatures from rising beyond the two percent Celsius which many scientists say may be catastrophic.

Over the past decade, the world has been trying to come up with a legally binding climate change deal since the expiry of the 1997 Kyoto Protocol which unfortunately was shunned by big polluters like China and the USA.

In recent Climate Change talks, disagreements between the industrialised and least developed countries have made this process a pipe dream.

Therefore, the 21^st Climate Change talks in the French capital Paris will present another opportunity for the world to save itself from unforeseen environmental consequences like a rise in temperature, reducing in rainfall and increase in floods

40% Of Itezhi-Tezhi Power Station Completed

By Paul Shalala in Itezhi-Tezhi

Construction of the Itezhi-Tezhi Power Station is said to be moving at an impressive pace.

The US$250 million project is being implemented by the Chinese firm Sino hydro.

The project involves the construction of two generators which are worth 120 mega watts of electricity that will be added to the national grid.

350 Zambians have been employed alongside 100 Chinese who are working at the construction site.

Finance Minister Alexander Chikwanda was on 18 December, 2013 was in Itezhi-Tezhi District to inspect the works.

Mr Chikwanda was told that 40 percent of the works were already done.

However, Itezhi-Tezhi Power Corporation Technical Manager Kelvin Kamwale expressed concern at the way funding is being disbursed by the four banks funding the project.

But Mr Chikwanda assured Itezhi-Tezhi Power Corporation that all financers have assured him that funding is safe and will be disbursed smoothly.

All equipment for the project are on site and parts of the components for the two generators have already already arrived in the country.

Sino hydro is expected to complete the construction and installation of the two generators by mid 2015.

The hand over of the project is expected to take place in October 2015 when the one hundred and twenty mega watts will be added to the national grid.


Currently, Zambia faces an energy deficit and huge parts of the country face loadshedding.


The addition of the 120 mega watts of electricity once the Itezhi-Tezhi Power project is completed, is expected to ease the country's energy crisis.