UPND CADRES PLEAD GUILTY

THE 30 United Party for National Development (UPND) cadres who were arrested for disorderly conduct on Youth Day in Kitwe, have pleaded guilty to the charge.

The suspects who include 15 females and three juveniles are charged with one count of idle and disorderly conduct.

When the matter came up for plea before two magistrates, Kampinda Chipamo and Malota Phiri, the cadres pleaded guilty to the charge.

According to the facts, on March 12, this year the 30 conducted themselves in a manner likely to cause the breach of the peace

After the court appearance, the cadres were sent to Kamfinsa Correctional Facility and will be back in court on Friday for presentation of written facts, hearing of bail application and sentencing.

LUSAKA Lawyer, Dickson Jere has launched a vegetable growing scheme at the Matero Aftercare to help the vulnerable and homeless old people have access to good nutrition.

The project is being done in partnership with Grow Drip Zambia Limited who will supply and install irrigation systems at the Matero Aftercare which houses homeless old people and the vulnerable.

“We will start with the pilot project this week and see how it will work before we expand the garden. The package comes with the full irrigation systems, installation and seedlings,” Mr Jere said when he launched the project.

Mr Jere said the garden at the centre has not been effective as they use buckets to water the vegetables.

And Grow Drip Zambia Limited Managing Director, Adewale Grillo, said his firm will provide the cost-effective irrigation system and vegetable seedlings to help ease the food situation at the Matero Aftercare

He said his company will provide an easy to use irrigation which has proven to be effective in most parts of the country as it does not require a lot of water and manpower.

Dear Editor,

A COUNTRY’S Balance of Payments (BoP) is a statistical record of all transactions between Zambians and the outside world. If the BoP is negative, then it means we import more than we export. If BoP is positive, then we export more than we import.

Balance of Payments has the following accounts:

Balance of Current Account (BCA) - which accounts for imports, exports and aid

Balance of Capital Account (BKA) - which accounts for FDI and portfolio investments

Balance of Reserve Account (BRA) - which accounts for official reserves, gold etc

Balance of Statistical Discrepancy (BSD) which is a figure inserted to account for omissions or errors in recording BoP.

Zambia always has a positive BKA because we receive more investments than Zambians invest abroad, negative BCA because we import more than we export, Positive BRA because we always have reserves.

Zambia has for almost two years now been recording a positive BCA meaning the overall BoP has been positive.

Copper and Cobalt which accounts for 78 percent of forex has been performing very well.

Copper prices now stand at $9147 per ton on LME.

Zambia has more mines now than at any stage in its history!

There are hundreds of small and artisanal mines scattered across the country quietly creating holes in the bushes of Zambia.

Zambia has not been making debt payments since mid last year almost.

The big question is, where is the forex and all the money from copper, cobalt, gold and manganese mining going to?

When you drive from Kapiri up to Solwezi all you see are trucks! Trucks full of mineral resources!

Now the question is where is all that money going to? Why are we not seeing the money in Zambian banks? Why aren’t our forex inflows not increasing despite increased mining?

Who keeps the money from economic activities in this country? Who owns the economy? It’s just not adding up.

For me we need to answer these questions before we look at politics.

Thanks