Mon, 02 Oct 2017 12:19:39 +0000
ELECTRICITY BILL SHOOTS UP DRAMATICALLY
Dear Editor,
Our electricity bill at home has increased dramatically – roughly from K500 per month to K700 or so per week. This is not a complaint but time to face facts as they are.
We need to humble ourselves about our false sense of abundance. Our large share of the Zambezi Basin water and forests is threatened by one of the highest deforestation rates in the world! With 90% of households dependent on an unregulated charcoal industry and large scale agriculture prioritized above forest management the threat is real.
My personal household energy vision is to be charcoal free by December 2017 and a total switch to gas and solar by December 2018.
The water used to generate electricity is very expensive. The trees that bring back the water and the soils that hold it are even more expensive. The ecosystem that guarantees this service is sacrosanct and woe to you if in any way and at whatever level – you are compromising this heritage and gift to the future. Gas on the other hand is cheaper. Solar is free!
It is time to adjust. I have resolved to invest in gas and solar – 50% cooking and lighting to be with gas and solar respectively within the next six months; 100% switch by the end of 2018.
As a sign of concern and a contribution to environmental integrity, I will plant trees – two hectares of red mahoganies on degraded land. The seedlings collected from under the mother trees are almost ready!
MWAPE SICHILONGO, COSERVATIONIST
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Is there space for scrap metal dealers in heaven?
Editor,
I have not been to proverbial heaven for a long time but I am certain that, this side of heaven, there is no scrap metal deal that is not corrupt. As some say, the road to hell is strewn with scrap metal dealers and politicians with grubby hands.
Zambia, a country that has been regarded as a beacon of political and general morality by many in the world, seems set on the path to hell if accusations of corruption by the minister for the Copperbelt Bowman Lusambo against expelled Roan PF member of parliament Chishimba Kambwili over the alleged decade-old stripping off of the railway line between Ndola and Luanshya are anything to go by.
This is a country that produced the first president Kenneth Kaunda – a colossus whose heroism, humanity and white handkerchief’s symbolism of morality stand as high as the Findeco House above our political landscape. The Copperbelt minister also pointed out that while Chishimba Kambwili was insisting that “he is as clean as Kenneth Kaunda’s handkerchief”, he had been in court “concerning bad activities on the Copperbelt and I can assure him that I know a lot about him.” I think by now you can see where all this might lead to.
The “Messiah” for the newly formed National Democratic Congress (NDC) might be facing criminal charges, and the accused may be the one who is vociferously smearing others still in PF with filth.
Speaking on ‘Let the People Talk’ programme on Radio Phoenix, Bowman Lusambo pledged to release a detrimental dossier against Chishimba Kambwili. It is, therefore, not surprising that political morality of late has become such a hot topical issue. The ruling party smells blood because Chishimba Kambwili seems vulnerable when it comes to matters nefarious and venal. So far, all the latter has been able to do in response to allegations of corruption in scrap metal deals is to mumble incoherently when he phoned-in to refute some of the former’s allegations.
This is but a snapshot that partly explains why the PF will still win a majority in 2021 despite the incessant corruption allegations by noisemakers like Chishimba Kambwili and others. Add to this the fact that the PF blessed with the advantage of fragmented weak opposition parties. It is for this reason that the formation of the NDC by expelled PF member of Central Committee (MCC) Mwenya Musenge and his loudmouthed “Messiah” Chishimba Kambwili has aroused so much interest.
Some hope that the new party – led by expelled former PF MCCs – will be the answer to the problem of weak opposition to the PF. I am not holding my breath.
I believe that the 2021 election will deliver another PF victory since the expelled former PF leaders who have formed NDC are partly responsible for the rot we see in the ruling party today – despite who is put forward as the ‘public face’ of the newly-formed party. One thing is for sure – we can rely on the voters’ sense of divided morality to downgrade the scrap metal deal involving a decade-old stripping off of the railway line between Ndola and Luanshya as an election issue. The 2021 elections will not be won and lost on who may be first or last to get into heaven. But it still remains down to the scrap metal dumps on the Copperbelt which include those at the ex-ZCCM
Copper Mine Smelter in Luanshya and Black Mountain in Kitwe.
Mubanga Luchembe, LUSAKA
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Zambia my home, influenced my beliefs and passions
Dear Readers
I grew up here the child of expatriates stationed in Zambia from 1968 for 23 years.
Although I was sent to school in England from the age of 16 years, I realise now at the age of almost 60, that Zambia was the country that most influenced my beliefs and my passions. I returned this year with a number of ‘girls’ who attended the Dominican Convent and graduated from there in 1974.
I was pleased to observe that some of my Zambian classmates had done so well- strong women standing ‘proud and free’ but sad to also observe as I travelled through Mpika, Kapisha, Kasama, Mpulungu and then in to South Luangwa that so little had changed for so many of Zambia’s people. You are a people who have been down trodden for so many years – I still remember the name of the first black girl allowed in to the Dominican Convent as she was not that much older than me – but you have maintained a quiet humility, dignity and kindness that never fails to impress me. As I say goodbye, perhaps forever, I am filled with pride but also sadness that some have not been enabled to achieve what is their birthright. I wish you the courage to strive for everybody and not only the few. You must do this for this country to become great, whatever your race. I also thank you for what you have given me: friendships, a wealth of experiences and a lot of fun and the ability to understand that problems are easy to define but it is the solutions that are complex.
Renuka Jeyarajah- Dent
