Chongwe aspiring councillor upbeat
THERE is power in working together in order to effectively contribute to the development of communities, PF Chinkuli ward aspiring councillor in Chongwe, Saul Simukulwa has said.
Mr Simukulwa has meanwhile expressed confidence that the PF would emerge victorious in Chongwe Constituency when the country goes to the polls on August 12, this year.
He said in an interview that he was already working with the church and other community based groups in the ward in addressing some challenges.
"I feel there is so much we can do in the community to foster development. I am therefore calling on all members of the community, starting from the youth, aged, children and women to come on board and see how we can contribute to our ward," Mr Simukulwa said.
Mr Simukulwa said that the PF in Chongwe constituency had done a lot hence the need for the people to give the party another chance to continue with the developmental agenda.
Meanwhile, the aspiring candidate recently helped struggling Moriah Community School in the ward with exercise books, chalk and Covid-19 protective equipment among other basic needs.
He said he would continue from where the current representative will stop when elected as ward councillor.
"It is about serving the vulnerable people so that we can uplift their standard of living. We have a working Government and once adopted, I will start working from where the current councillor will end.
Mr Simukulwa who is PF mobilization committee member for Chongwe Constituency has predicted a victory for his party the PF in Chongwe constituency
BANKERS Association of Zambia (BAZ) has warned against fraud in the advent of Covid-19 which has increased the uptake of electronic channels for banking, bill payments and money transfers.
The skewed levels of knowledge among citizens has resulted in fraud being more attractive, says BAZ Fraud Prevention Committee Member, Paul Luo.
Mr Luo said this was because fraud could now be perpetrated remotely and presented an unprecedented opportunity for intending fraudsters.
In his write-up on fraud, Mr Luo said the vice was more common now due to the increased uptake of digital channels.
“What traditionally were low risk activities such as completing attendance registers when entering premises or completing manual applications when sending money on mobile money platforms are now a critical source of information for fraudsters to ply their wares.
“Full names, phone numbers and NRC numbers can now be used for SIM replacements and activate Mobile Banking accounts impersonating unsuspecting owners by unscrupulous individuals,” Mr Luo said.
He said the capability of buying goods and services online from foreign countries only using card details as another example, introduced scary possibilities for account holders.
Mr Luo explained that during such transactions, customers left their banking and identity documents unsecured even only for short periods of time.
He indicated that the design and ease at which national identity could be falsified spoke also to unprecedented opportunity.
Mr Luo said leading surveys remained unanimous on findings that the highest risk to corporates was its staff.
“If you provide the opportunity for staff to commit fraud then you surely find that fraud be rife in your entity.
“Estimates speak to a portion of up to 20 percent of all staff in corporate entities being criminally inclined and having joined institutions with the sole purpose of perpetrating fraud,” he said.
He added; “This is compounded further by many professionals being unemployed and willing to use their skills to earn a living in any way.”
“When therefore such professionals collude with staff in corporate or business entities, losses are inevitably perilously high.” will will
ADZOPE, Ivory Coast - Opposition parties led by two former presidents will try to shake the grip of Ivory Coast President Alassane Ouattara in a parliamentary election today, five months after a presidential vote that led to deadly unrest.
Former President Henri Konan Bedie’s Democratic Party of Ivory Coast (PDCI) and former President Laurent Gbagbo’s Ivorian Popular Front (FPI) both boycotted the presidential election last year, which Ouattara won in a landslide.
Eighty-five people died in violence around that election, although the situation has since cooled.
A faction of FPI loyal to Gbagbo and PDCI are now fielding a joint list of candidates against Ouattara’s Rally of Houphouëtists for Democracy and Peace (RHDP). With no reliable public opinions polls available, their prospects are difficult to forecast.
Clear control of parliament would strengthen Ouattara’s hand to pursue an agenda based on attracting foreign investment and cutting red tape during his third term, while the vote could be decisive for the opposition to show it remains relevant.
“Their credibility is at stake because in the event of defeat, the opposition will be reduced to nothing, and risk dividing further, and this can only benefit the party in power,” said Ousmane Zina, a political analyst.
Other opposition figures, such as former Prime Minister Pascal Affi N’Guessan who leads another FPI faction, are also standing, outside the main joint list.
The PDCI, which dominated politics in Ivory Coast from the 1940s until Bedie was overthrown as president in 1999, backed Ouattara for years but split with him in 2018.
Gbagbo’s FPI faction will be fielding candidates for the first time since 2011, when Gbagbo was sent to The Hague to face war crimes charges after a brief civil war sparked by his refusal to concede an election defeat to Ouattara.
Gbagbo, acquitted of war crimes by the International Criminal Court in 2019, is expected to return to the country soon. – REUTERS.