DAILY PARLIAMENTARY DEBATES FOR THE FIRST SESSION OF THE NINTH ASSEMBLY

Tuesday, 5th March, 2002

The House met at 1430 hours

[MR SPEAKER in the Chair]

NATIONAL ANTHEM

PRAYER
 

ANNOUNCEMENT BY MR SPEAKER

NATIONAL ASSEMBLY WEBSITE

Mr Speaker: Hon. Members, as you are aware by now, the National Assembly has a Web site. We wish to disseminate as much information about our Parliament as possible. This includes Parliamentary Debates.

The Parliamentary Publications Department would like to post the Daily Parliamentary Debates on the web site as quickly as possible. This is not being done because some honourable Members take too long to make corrections to their speeches. The department would not like to post uncorrected debates on the Web site. However, if the Publications Department has not received hon. Members’ corrections on time, it will have no choice but to go ahead and post the debates without your corrections.

I, therefore, appeal to hon. Members to immediately correct their speeches once they receive them and send them back to the Chief Editor as soon as possible. Hon. Members should ensure that, if there is any delay, their speeches are corrected and returned to the Chief Editor before 1600 hours each day to give enough time to the staff in the Publications Department to process the debates for onward transmission to the Web site. 

I call on you all to co-operate.

I thank you.

MOTION

BUDGET 2002

(Debate Resumed)

Mr Mulanda (Chifubu): Mr Speaker, thank you for allowing me to continue my contribution on the Motion of Thanks for the Budget Speech delivered to this House by the Minister of Finance and National Planning on Friday, 1st March, 2002. Mr Speaker, I should also like to add that this is also my Maiden Speech. 

Mr Speaker, I should, therefore, begin by congratulating His Excellency the President of the Republic of Zambia, Mr Levy Patrick Mwanawasa on providing a vision that has rekindled hope to the people of this country. 

I must also congratulate you, Mr Speaker and the Deputy Speaker, on your re-election in a most democratic and transparent way…

Hon. Government Members: Hear, hear!

Mr Mulanda: … to lead and guide this House for the next five years. Sir …

Mr Sikatana crossed the Floor.

Hon. Members: Order!

Mr Mulanda: Mr Speaker, it would certainly not be in order if I do not thank the National Executive Committee and the lower organs of our party, the MMD, for adopting me to stand as a parliamentary candidate for Chifubu Constituency. I thank the electorate of Chibufu Constituency for the confidence they showed in me by electing me as a Member of Parliament among ten other aspiring candidates.

Hon. Members: Hear, hear!

Mr Mulanda: Mr Speaker, I shall endeavour not to let them down.

Mr Speaker, Chifubu Constituency needs a lot of development projects in order to upgrade the living standards of our people. I shall do my best to influence the Government to implement as many of these projects as we possibly can.

Sir, the people of Chifubu Constituency have shown devotion and commitment to the New Deal by putting us in office. It is now our turn to show devotion and commitment to them. This can most effectively be done by improving their standard of living. The projects for Chifubu Constituency have been tabulated in another document that will be a subject of discussion with relevant ministries for the purpose of implementation.

Mr Speaker, the National Budget delivered to this august House by the hon. Minister of Finance and National Planning has been hailed not only by this august House but by the entire nation.

Major issues, Sir, that have tended to impede rapid economic progress have been addressed in this Budget. Issues concerning industry which have had an uphill battle, have been looked into with the view of lowering production costs and making our products more competitive on the regional market. This was done by looking at costs of inputs by power, raw materials and taxes

Mr Speaker, the hon. Minister has looked at all the factors that hitherto have made industry struggle. He has looked at dumping and smuggling. He has generally presented a Budget intended to oil cogs of industry to ensure that the loud speaking we have been hearing turns into a well oiled and smooth running machine.

The other major factor impeding rapid economic progress has been agriculture. The hon. Minister has spelt out clear measures intended to remove this impediment. He has done this by introducing, for example, the Crop Marketing Authority. Matters of cheaper and timely inputs have been attended to; and so have credit schemes. All other issues, Sir, which support rapid development like export processing zones, mining and tourism have all been critically looked at by the hon. Minister.

In this Budget, Sir, no stone has been left unturned. It is all systems go.

Laughter.

Mr Mulanda: Mr Speaker, I will leave my colleagues to debate the Budget in detail. Allow me, instead, to raise some preliminary issues. First and foremost, the goal of economic managers in the budget process in a market driven economy can be considered within the following:

1.    achieve rapid Gross Domestic Product (GDP);
2.    keep inflation low;
3.    keep a favourable current account balance, with exports exceeding imports; and
4.    keep unemployment low.

Of these four goals, Sir, the only one which most of your people understand is the fourth, to keep unemployment low. GDP and inflation are meaningless concepts to most of our people. Growth in wealth is less important than socially reinforcing patterns of redistribution. Growth in GDP and low inflation must be reflected in affordable food and employment for our people.

Mr Speaker, much has been said about Zambia’s rich natural resources but we have so far not found a way to turn these resources into a reliable source of income for our country. For example, losses in the mining sector have plagued the country throughout the 1990s. The difficulties encountered by the Governments of Zambia in efforts to privatise the mines have placed the Government under pressure.

The sale of the mines according to the original timetable, that is, full sale by mid – 1997, would have potentially eased some of these difficulties. However, Mr Speaker, as the prospects of the sale unravelled, there was a major loss of confidence in the economy. Now, the onus is on the Government to restore this confidence.

Mr Speaker, this House has had the privilege to sit here and listen to very upbeat statements of the prospects of the economy delivered by previous hon. Ministers of Finance in their Budget Speeches. For example, the 1998 Budget was presented as a ‘Medium Term Adjustment Programme’ through which Zambia could achieve macro-economic stability, promote economic growth and reduce poverty. Subsequent events now testify that these were very unrealistically optimistic.

Mr Speaker, if our economy is to move to a higher growth path and remain there, we need to address the factors that have been responsible for delays and reversals in policy, and to prevent them from recurring. Allow me, Mr Speaker, now to enumerate just a few of them.

The Allocation of Public Expenditure

Sir, the allocation of public expenditure has been one of the most problematic areas of budget making. Wages and salaries still take up most of the allocation due, in part, to the high inflation levels.

Mr Speaker, I want to submit that the entire process of budgeting in Zambia needs to be reformed. At present, there is little timely follow-up on the allocation of expenditure by ministries. Funding is, in fact, not matched against actual expenditure to ensure that ministries are allocated their resources, approximately. It is my hope that the money allocated under this year’s Budget will be released to the ministries concerned in time and in correct amounts.

Implementation of Tax

The Zambia Revenue Authority has done quite a good job in collecting taxes. Indeed, they often surpass their targets. However, tax fraud still remains a major problem. That is why revenues relative to GDP have been declining.

Poor Performance of Agriculture

Mr Speaker, agriculture accounts for around 20 per cent of our GDP and 70 per cent of employment. The solution to Zambia’s poverty should, therefore, be agriculture and the development of rural areas. Any strategy, therefore, to raise the overall rate of economic growth will require the revival of agriculture. In this Budget Speech, the hon. Minister of Finance and National Planning outlined the Government’s plans to revive the agricultural sector. I, therefore, propose that money must be released for feeder roads, dip-tanks, storage sheds, agricultural extension; adequate and timely delivery of inputs or, in short, a well coordinated plan that recognises that agriculture is both an economic and social activity from which the Government cannot fully divorce itself. Currently, the Zambian people are faced with famine. I, therefore, call upon the Executive to make a ministerial statement on how the Government hopes to cope with this national disaster in the next twelve months.

External Financial Assistance

Mr Speaker, in considering whether the current budget is adequate to meet the current demands of Zambia’s development, I am disheartened, once again, by your extreme dependency on donor assistance. In principle, it is possible for us to adopt policies to meet growth and poverty reduction goals without resources from donor community. For this approach to be credible, however, we must have a Budget that excludes donor contributions. The Budget, moreover, does not provide any suggestions of how the Budget will be modified if the anticipated donor support is not forthcoming.

This year’s Budget still contains a number of assumptions about the willingness of donors to finance much of what we want to do. In the previous Budgets, the shortage of external assistance has usually led to reduction of RDEs, Capital Expenditures and increases in domestic borrowing. This is itself not a sustainable solution for a growth-oriented economy. This Budget is, for example, comprehensive but I think it might be slightly over ambitious. The policies have good intentions but they just might be slightly under funded.

Mr Speaker, if, indeed, we want this Budget to deliver, may I propose this advice in the following areas: Firstly, I want to urge and caution in over-reliance in macro-economic policies, be they monetary, fiscal, trade, exchange rate, wages or incomes. These can only impact indirectly on development. Our people measure development not in terms of a favourable exchange rate of balance budget or balanced budgets but rather in such things as new roads constructed, better health care and the opportunity to eat three good meals a day. I am not saying that we should not be concerned about the state of macro-economics status . I am only concerned that we should not focus exclusively on macro-economic variables to the detriment of the poverty eradication programme.

I would further like to add prudence to Government’s spending on simple issues like foreign trips and cell phone bills. These take up a lot of money that could be used in the social sector. I would like again to advice Government to timely release budgetary allocations for productive programmes. This would increase efficient use of resources. Our declining productivity in the last ten years is due to weaknesses in budget management.

Productivity in the last ten years has also been adversely affected by financial instability due in large parts to collapses in the banking sector and the privatisation of ZCCM. Capital that could have been invested has gone elsewhere. Furthermore, unsustainable levels of debt have eroded the confidence needed to stimulate investment, innovation, and growth. I, therefore, urge the Government to exercise prudence to ensure financial stability in order to send predictable signals to investors and other market actors.

All in all, this is an excellent and exciting budget. Coupled with this is a highly committed executive and an extremely supportive back bench, both Government and Opposition. 

Hon. Government Members: Hear, hear!

Mr Mulanda: This budget has been hailed by Zambians. We shall, therefore, receive a lot of support from them. We have an excellent budget and a very good team to implement it.

We have support from other people countrywide. How then can we possibly fail to succeed? This budget has been hailed by us in the House and hailed by the people all over Zambia. We have a very competent executive to implement it. How then can it be possible that this budget fails? Failure can only happen if there is an external and powerful force actively working to ensure that we do not succeed. Here, I am referring to our co-operating partners. I would, personally, not put it past them to give us money but ensure that we do not succeed. We must, very consciously, guard against that happening. We must not over trust. We must remember that all governments work for their own people and that our colleagues are working for their own governments and their own people and we in Zambia are working for ourselves and our own people. So the possibility to impelling our budget is always there and the executive must always think about it and guard against it.{mospagebreak}

I am aware, Mr Speaker, that the world has become a very small place and that all nations must work together as a team. That we must help each other and especially richer nations must not only assist poorer nations but also help them to develop. We are living in a global village. The history of the relationship with our colleagues, however, gives us a very different message. On first contact, they turned us into slaves, when slave trade became a bit too extreme. They then introduced a more subtle form of slavery, and that was colonialism. The conditions attached to colonialism were not much better than those of slavery. That is why I am trying to say that we have to be conscious because the goodwill historically from our partners has not been there. So we can not have a situation where all of a sudden we expect that this goodwill will be over flowing and we can just live and they will do something for us. It may possibly be in their interest for us not to develop. We must always think about that. And that the development of Africa may not necessarily be in the interest of Europe or America. We have to guard against that so that we protect our backs as we try and get this country and the good lives of our people.

Hon. Government Members: Hear, hear! 

Mr Mulanda: This is the only thing I can think of that can make this country fail.

Mr Speaker, I would like to thank again the hon. Minister for the very good budget that he gave and I am confident that this time it is the way forward if all systems go and everything will come well and we shall succeed.

I thank you, Sir.

Hon. Members: Hear, hear!

Mr L. L. Phiri (Chipangali): Mr Speaker, thank you very much for giving me this opportunity to second the motion moved on the Budget Speech. It is not my wish to spend much time debating the Budget Address by the hon. Minister of Finance and National Planning as the mover has already covered most of the areas of concern.

Mr Speaker, a K5.6 trillion budget sounds superb in figures. As the English say, ‘the taste of the pudding is in the eating’. In Chewa, we say, ‘chikome kome cha nkuyu mukati muli nyelele’.

Laughter.                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                           

Mr L. L. Phiri: Mr. Speaker, since independence, however, the implementation of all Budget including the one previously presented by current Minister of Finance and National Planning, Hon. G. Kasonde, MP have ended in a disappointing *between authorised expenditure and actual expenditure. 

For example, Mr Speaker, funding to education in annual budget of 1997, 1998,1999,2000 and 2001,the release of funds has been a mockery.

Mr.Speaker, the challenge of all finance Ministers who including Hon. Kasonde, is that year in year out dignitaries from all walks of life have been invited to listen to nice English of sugar coated budgets but at the end of the day the actual release of authorised expenditure has been very disappointing and a failure. People have now and in the past clapped hands and ululated but the outcome at the end of year has been disappointing.

Mr.Speaker, what guarantee are people of Zambia being given that this K5.6 trillion budget will be implemented and will be a really, and the people of Zambia are not being mocked by the new Deal Government before people start calling it low deal. I want a true guarantee and the people of Chipangali should know how it reach them for them to benefit and people of Eastern Province ,Sir.

Mr.Speaker, however, I would like to stress five main points on how we make this budget a success. These are:

(i)    Public sector restraints;

(ii)    Government Saving;

(iii)    Institutional deepening;

(iv)    Constructive responses to globalisation; and

(v)    Ending aid dependency.

Mr. Speaker, to avoid the excesses of the past, the Government has to immediately reduce unwarranted public expenditure on luxuries if it is to venture beyond educative, health Infrastructure, an effetive judicial system, and sound macro-economic management. Priorities have to be established and mechanisms (such as the sale or lease of assets have to be found for disengaging from non-priority areas. No government activity should continue to subtract value or detract from welfare.

Mr Speaker, a practical indication of public sector restraint will be a sharp rise in government saving. In the past, this point has been stressed by development specialists, though few governments have taken note .Yet without large sustained increases in saving s, our government will have no permanent way of getting out of debt or moving beyond foreign aid. Indeed, the recent action by rich countries to provide more extensive debt relief is likely to be to be washed if our government continue to disserve

Mr, Speaker, as regards institutional deepening, most successful economies are characterised by popular input to public decisions, competent civil service, rule of law effective financial supervision, and prudent macro-economic management.

In a Government like ours, the above principals have to be applied by institutions like the executive; the Legislature; and other organ like the anti-corruption commission: the Human rights commission, the Drug enforcement commission and other institutions incidental thereto.

None of these institutions evolved overnight. All such institutional development, indeed all development, is 'work in progress' this is especially true with respect to Leadership. Vital at all times effective leadership has a special role of maintaining growth-oriented focus when key institution are weak. An enlightened leader would encourage such institutions and foster a setting, in which economic management becomes and remains both efficient and accountable. This is what we expect of leaders in the New Deal.

With regard to constructive responses to globalisation, the strategy of relying on "aid not trade ' in the last ten years has bankrupted our country and 'marginalised' our people. Opening up to trade and exchange involves risks, particularly when interntional markets are unstable. Nonetheless, the benefits of expanding markets and increased specialisation created by trade greatly outweigh the advantage that might accrue to any African country o the basis of its own real effective demands. Therefore, a constructive responses to globalisation will require the Government to shape its policies starting from the constraint and opportunities within the global economy. 

Iinterruptions.

Mr L. L. Phiri: Bembas are looking at me as if I want to make them laugh so that I continue.

Laughter.

Mr L. L. Phiri: Such an approach does not limit the sovereignty of the Government as often alleged. In reality, the harsher limits have already been imposed by debt, deficits, and declining real incomes 

Mr. Speaker, there is little doubt that foreign aid will stimulate growth and development when governments are dedicated to reform. But Government was and donors have difficulty breaking free of their tangled web of mutual dependency. 

Mr. Speaker, a start could be made if our Government was to divert its own medium term strategies for working itself off aid The adoption of such strategies would not end or in the short-term even substantially reduce aid. Hon.’ Mbala’ Iam a material of government material, not you who just came in the House and you cannot contribute.

Mr. Speaker, dealing with debt and reconstruction will take time. Furthermore, emergency situations will always need special responses. Nevertheless, the process of designs an Aid exit strategy will be invaluable for our Government. It will focus attention on the changes in Local policies, Institutions and links with donors needed to move our country beyond aids. Properly conceived, and 'Aid exit' would be a 'debt exit strategy as well, Sir.

In conclusion, Mr.Speaker, restarting and sustaining growth and development in Zambia will require our Government to re-take the initiative. Several issues are important. First, economic reform has to be sustained. Start-Stop reform is a dead-end. Second, our Government should design and begin to implement an aid exit Strategy. Aid will not end in a hurry but the process of beginning to wear the country from Aid will encourage the implementaton of appropriate growth -oriented policies. We have proper * in Nyanja and Chebas not fresh fish *Third, the Government should focus on measures that stimulate accumulation and raise productivity. Its own operations should provide an ideal starting point. Fourth, the organisations central to economic management have to be strengthened. Economic management is impossible with a dysfunctional budget office, Central Bank, and Revenue Departments. Fifth, the Government should recast its policies so as to take advantage of globalisation. There is no future in isolation and disengagement. Sixth, good leadership is required to bring these stands together.

Mr Speaker, I believe that the leadership in the New Deal will be able to stand by these principles in order to improve the living conditions of our people.

Mr Speaker, I thank you.

Mr Imenda (Lukulu East): Mr Speaker, I thank you for according me this opportunity of addressing this august House. May I also take this opportunity to thank the people of Lukulu East for electing me to this prestigious House. I promise to do my best in my role as a facilitator of development in our constituency.

Mr Speaker, I listened carefully to the Presidential Speech and paid full attention and carefully studied the Budget Speech and all books that go with it. Like all speeches of the last ten years, they talk of positive development, predict growth, job creation, boast food security, arrest the influx of professionals leaving the country for greener pasture, fight poverty, hunger and so on and so forth.

The reality, Sir, is that when MMD took over power, the country was in recession. Now, we are in depression.

Hon. Opposition Members: Hear, hear!

Mr Imenda: During the Second Republic, we heard of the famous light at the end of the tunnel. Now, we hear sweet words at the end of it, all we experience is hunger, misery and poverty. Lukulu District where my constituency is located, graduated from being poor to being the poorest district in the poorest province in one of the world’s highly indebted poorest country.

Laughter.

Mr Imenda: That is what is obtaining in Government statistics, Sir. And that, Sir, is our benefit from the macro and micro economics of the New Culture.

One hon. Member of Parliament one day, said that, ‘We Zambians are known for over- praising our National Team and when we lose, players are condemned mercilessly.

It is in view of the foregoing that I will not join those that have started over-praising the New Deal speeches before delivery.

Hon. Opposition Members: Hear, hear!

Mr Imenda: To me, the New Deal is just a concept. Speeches delivered are mere intents and purposes. I am saying so, Sir, because like ‘Humanism and New Culture’ before it, all they stood for were idealisms and nothing else.

We, the people of Lukulu have experienced the worst developmental neglect since 1964. To date, we do not have a secondary school funded by Government; we are yet to be allocated a district hospital; we do not have a district police station or camp. Our policemen are squatting in council offices and private rented homes; our life line, Lukulu/Kaoma Road is a hell-run; agriculture inputs are never seen or heard of; numerous primary schools are muddy and grass thatched with no desks. They are understaffed, whilst the multitude of graduate teachers from Mongu Teacher Training College are made to stay for months at home awaiting for placements; the district is not connected to the hydro-electricity power like most of the districts in the province; and our telephone exchange is out-dated etc, etc.

Mr Speaker, when I go through the speeches of the President and that of the hon. Minister of Finance and National Planning, all I see is a perpetuation of the status quo. It is a perpetuation of hunger, poverty and continued under development.

Lukulu is classified by the Central Statistical Office as being 97 per cent poor in the areas of access to social services, particularly, education and health facilities. And yet, the district has enormous potential for animal production, timber process, maize production and we posses the best soil in the province second to Kaoma.

It should, therefore, make great sense even within the context of the PRSP for Government to place high premiums on delivery of social services to us. It is not a secret that when donor funds are sort, our poverty is used as bait. When it comes to sharing of the cake, we find ourselves at the bottom of the league. This scenario, Sir, is evident in this year’s Budget. This is the contradiction to the Presidential Speech. We, therefore, do not know which one to believe.

The President dwelt and emphasized on the importance of education. Yet, the investment in that sector does not correspond with the pronouncements. 

Mrs Kakoma: Shame!

Mr Imenda: In reality, District Administrators are more important to Government than teachers.

Hon. Opposition Members: Shame!

Mr Imenda: Sustainability of a homegrown professional labour force can be achieved through equitable renumerations. Today, neighbouring countries are benefiting from handsomely intellectual content of Zambians in the diaspora, because these countries show appreciation for their services. Our priorities are wrongly placed because we want to feed them with patriotism.

In Lukulu District, the refugee crisis has reached an alarming state. The worst victims being Zambians. These misplaced Zambians have been forced to leave their villages and take refugee at Lukulu Boma due to inadequate Government intervention, misplaced victims are left to survive barely on little food and materials provided for by NGOs. This unfortunate situation has put unbearable pressure on the limited food reserves currently available in Lukulu.

The current national food shortage has hit us the most. The refugee added burden is unbearable. Angolan refugees through the support of UNHCR are in a much better position than that of their Zambian counterparts.

And as a mater of interest, and in conclusion, I wish to know the source of funding for the Institute for Democratic Studies. I have a feeling that …

Hon. Opoosition Members: Hear, hear!

Mr Imenda: … we have on our plate another UNIP Freedom House in the making.

Mr Speaker, I beg to move.

Hon. Opposition Members: Hear, hear!

Mr Speaker: There is silence on my right.

Hon. Opposition Members: Hear, hear!

Mr Nang’omba (Mazabuka): Mr Speaker, I would like to thank you for giving me the opportunity to deliver my maiden speech.

Firstly, Mr Speaker, I would like to congratulate all the elected Members of Parliament to this august House. The elections held on 27th December, 2001, were, indeed, not easy, particularly for the Opposition political parties, whose funding was from their own resources.

Hon. Opposition Members: Hear, hear!

Mr Nang’omba: Mr Speaker, I would like to give special thanks to the people of Mazabuka Constituency who first showed courage and determination to improve their lives by being the first to remove MMD in a parliamentary by-election.

Hon. Opposition Members: Hear, hear!

Mr Nang’omba: Mr Speaker, the poor state of our economy has seriously affected my constituency. Those who used to drive ten years ago can not even afford a bicycle now. This scenario is across the constituency and the country.

The people in my constituency are hard working and, indeed, just like many other Zambians in general. But given the mismanagement of our resources over the last ten years of MMD rule, our people have been turned into destitutes.

Mr Speaker, I would like to highlight the following aspects affecting my constituency:

Hunger Situation

The rainfall situation in the previous year coupled with the late delivery of fertiliser caused most peasant farmers to harvest very little food that could not take them to the end of the year. The issue of late delivery of fertiliser in my constituency and how it has affected farming operations is not new to this House. Last year, Mr Speaker, the then Minister of Agriculture, Food and Fisheries had assured the nation that fertiliser was going to be delivered by August, at the latest, for the planting season. Sir, at the Kaleya depot, which caters for the whole of Mazabuka District, basal dressing fertiliser is still arriving at the depot. Thirty metric tonnes of fertiliser, which were meant for this season, was just received last week. 

Mr Speaker, I would like to stress the hunger situation in my constituency which is going to go on up to April next year. Nearly 90 per cent of the maize planted this season has dried up because of the drought that has affected the whole of Southern Province of Zambia. Sir, certain parts of my constituency received the last rains in December last year. Sir, I must emphasise that the constituency has only one staple food which is maize, hence its failure means people will have no other alternative in terms of food. I, therefore, appeal to the hon. Minister of Agriculture and Co-operatives to introduce staple crops such as cassava and sorghum. 

Previously, people in my constituency had a lot of cattle, but corridor disease and other preventable animal diseases have killed most of the cattle. This, therefore, means people cannot sell any animals to buy food for their survival. The only hope, therefore, Mr Speaker, is relief food. This, as mentioned in this august House by the Provincial Minister last week, is extremely inadequate. I, therefore, urge the Government to allocate more resources to purchase relief food.

On irrigation schemes, adequate funding in the Budget should support the announcement by the New Deal to set up damming of rivers in the Southern Province. This will boost up food production particularly for the small-scale farmers who could engage in small-scale irrigation projects. However, Mr Speaker, funding for the National Irrigation Research Station situated in my constituency has been very, very poor. The New Deal, Mr Speaker, must find money to improve irrigation infrastructure and efficient running of the irrigation station. Adequate funding is necessary to ensure adequate research into water use and provision of extension services to the small-scale farmers on how to efficiently use the water for different crops.

Irrigation schemes of the Kaleya smallholder’s magnitude could be made possible in many parts of Mazabuka District, so long funds are secured to pump water to areas such as Nega Nega and Lubombo where there are over 300 settlement farmers, as they are close to the Kafue River. This, Mr Speaker, will not only improve food production, but will also provide employment and income to thousands of men and women and, considerably, reduce on the high poverty levels in the area.

On high cost of production, Mr Speaker, agricultural production has been drastically affected by the high production costs. This has scaled down most of the agricultural activities. Sir, the sugar cane industry at Nakambala and the Out Growers Scheme employ the largest number of people in Mazabuka, but in recent years due to the high cost of electricity, fertiliser, bank interest rates and fuel prices essential for their production, the companies have scaled down on manpower in order to remain in business. 

Sir, the announcement by the Republican President to work out measures to contain the high-energy costs should be implemented immediately. This will encourage those farmers with land potential for irrigation to seriously put their land into active use.

Sir, on the issue of road networks, a good road network is essential for the delivery of agricultural farm products to the markets. Many roads in my constituency were last graded or rehabilitated over ten years ago. This has become a source of concern for both peasant and commercial farmers who would like to deliver their farm produce to the markets. 

The levy that every fuel user pays, is never shown how it is used. Mr Speaker, many of our commercial farmers have offered to share the cost of rehabilitating some of the roads like Mbayamusuma, Kangila which is D386, where the National Roads Board and community agreed to pay 50 per cent each towards the cost. Sir, this project is at a standstill because the National Roads Board could not release their 50 per cent agreed contribution. Mr Speaker, then one wonders where the money collected as fuel levy goes to, as none of the roads in my constituency have ever been graded or graveled over the last ten years. This is despite the fact that the Government received heavy earth moving equipment that has not been put to effective use in the province. Mr Speaker, I want the hon. Minister to inform the nation, at a later stage, who the beneficiaries of this fund are.

Sir, on rural electrification fund, in the same vein,the marjority of our people who the beneficiaries of the fund are. The announcement by the Republican President to improve on the management of this fund should be done immediately so that the majority of our people wishing to have access to electricity should do so and the service should be made affordable.

Sir, rural parts of my constituency such as Mugoto, Mwanachingwala and Magobbo need electricity for such operations like hammer mills, boosting water for small-scale irrigation and domestic use. Sir, I would like to know from the hon. Minister responsible how this fund is being used and who have so far benefited from it.

On accountability, Sir, the statement by the New Deal, on development being top on the agenda, should be supported with accountability. For a long time, accountability of the Constituency Development Fund has been non-existent. This fund has often been used to reward or appease party cadres with full knowledge of concerned authorities with impunity. One wonders, Mr Speaker, what the role of the police is if they cannot protect property belonging to the public.

Mr Speaker, the guidelines regarding the disbursement and management of the Constituency Development Fund are very, very clear, but the MMD’s Chiluba administration policy of not developing areas belonging to the Opposition gave much authority to the party cadres to abuse these funds.

Hon. Opposition Members: Shame!

Mr Nang’omba: Mr Speaker, on corruption, as stated by the President and repeated by the hon. Minister of Finance and National Planning, serious measures must be put in place to rid our society of this scourge. Mr speaker, there have been numerous calls from my constituency to deal firmly with cases of corruption which have halted development in my area as funds meant for development are usually abused. The people of my constituency are calling for the opening of the Anti-Corruption offices in Mazabuka if development is to take place. 

Mr Speaker, on District Administrators, the role of the District Administrator in a UPND stronghold Mazabuka has shifted from co-ordinating Government departments to organising the MMD, which is almost non-existent in the area, following its crushing defeat in the area in the December elections. Mr Speaker, the District Administrator has gone to the extent of threatening civil servants with transfers, blaming them for the defeat. The conduct of the District Administrator is tantamount to stealing from the Government, as they are being paid by the Government and not by MMD. This office should be phased out, though it is hidden in this year’s Budget. This conduct must stop if meaningful development is to take place in my constituency. The savings from the District Administrators could be channeled to such areas like health and education.

Mr Speaker, with these few words, I thank you.

Mr Kombe (Kantanshi): I thank you, Mr Speaker, for affording me this opportunity to contribute to this important motion. In the first place, I would like to thank the Almighty God through his son Jesus for loving and giving us peace in this nation.

Hon. Members: Hear, hear!

Mr Kombe: Secondly, I would like to congratulate His Excellency the President, Mr Levy Patrick Mwanawasa, for having soundly beaten his opponents, especially the Opposition from UPND.

Hon. Government Members: Hear, hear!

Mr Kombe: Mr Speaker, let me also congratulate you on being reelected as Speaker of the Zambian National Assembly. Your election, and that of your deputy, reflects the confidence that hon. Members of this House have in you.  Please may you continue to dedicate your service to mother Zambia.

Hon. Members: Hear, hear!

Mr Kombe: Mr Speaker, allow me to pay glowing tribute to the MMD as a party. MMD is a propitious party that is improving all the time.

Hon. Government Members: Hear, hear!

Mr Kombe: As a pioneer of democratic principles in this land, it is ready to swallow all these smaller parties like FDD, UNIP UPND and Heritage.

Interruptions.

Mr Kombe: During the presentation of that meticulous speech by our beloved President, you could see heads of all Opposition leaders moving up and down in unison.

Hon. Government Members: Hear, hear!

Mr Kombe: Nodding in appreciation of the wisdom emanating from the MMD speech. I have no doubt myself that the Members of Parliament for Luena (Mr Sibetta) Lusaka Central (Mr Patel) and Munali (Miss Nawakwi) will be the first ones to cross over and rejoin MMD.

Laughter.

Mr Kombe: Mr Speaker, let me, at this juncture, turn to Kantanshi Constituency’s needs and problems. As a veteran resident of Mufulira, I am aware that the standard of living for my people has drastically gone down. I hope I am not offending the Front Bench. People have lost jobs. Our youths cannot find employment after completing their education. The streetlights have been vandalised. Our roads are in a state of disrepair, grass is over grown …

Hon. Opposition Members: Hammer them!

Mr Kombe: … and generally our communities have become poorer.

In peri-urban areas there are problems of lack of medicine in clinics and poor road infrastructure.

Hon. Opposition Members: Tell them!

Mr Kombe: There is need to construct bore-holes and put up hammer mills for community use as well as finding central markets for farm produce.

Interruptions.

Mr Speaker: Order! The hon. Member for Kantanshi is delivering his maiden speech and that is not subject to interruptions. May we listen to his delivery.

The hon. Member may continue.

Mr  Kombe: I thank you for your protection.

Mr Speaker after privatisation of the mines, several clinics and a hospital, Ronald Ross Hospital, where handed over to the Government as a donation. The deterioration of this once magnificent hospital is alarming, to say the least.

Ronald Ross used to be a referral hospital with many doctors, but now we have only a handful of doctors without surgeons and we have only a skeleton of nurses. We also have limited stocks of drugs. We do not have an ambulance. The theatre lacks anything that goes with decent operation. The intensive care unit is no more. The Government, through the Ministry of Health, should move in quickly.

Mr Speaker, even at the fee-paying hospital, Malcom Watson, which also falls within constituency, but under Mopani Copper Mines, doctors are refusing to work there because of poor salaries.  Nurses are also leaving at an alarming rate because of the syndicate to recruit Zambian nurses to go and work in Britain.

Mr Speaker, I am still on Kantanshi problems. Sir, due to retirement and other vices people are failing to pay for water and electricity. So, the taps are dry and electricity has been switched off. Sir, water is essential, so, there is need to put up bore holes in the town centre.

Mr Speaker, the worst scenario is where former ZCCM employees, close to 3,000 on the Copperbelt, have lost both their money and the houses. The money was deducted from their separation packages as costs towards houses and these houses had in them sitting tenants who have refused to move let alone, reimburse the owners of the houses. To add salt to injury, even the employees who purchased houses from ZCCM have got no title deeds up to this day.

Mr Speaker, allow me to talk about youth development. We need to develop youth schemes if we are to avoid catastrophic youth unemployment syndrome. I reckon youth development schemes are a step in the right direction. Youth development schemes help the youth to discover careers. They help to instill real life discipline and act as a stepping stone for better and more formalised training for employment.

Mr Speaker, forming youth co-operatives will be another answer. This will require business houses and donors to employ properly trained manpower and thereafter, initiate a pilot project that could prove viable.

Mr Speaker, the youth unemployment problem is spreading and charging at Zambia’s fragile economy like a Tonga bull for lack of Ngoni bulls. We have to ask churches, international organisations, private companies, Government departments, NGOs, co-operating partners and the labour movements to help create jobs and self-help skills for the youth. Otherwise, we are sitting on a volcano.

Youth programmes are necessary because the skills learnt such as carpentry, radio and television repair, motor mechanics, welding, plumbing, photography, panel beating and farming are used to earn an income thereby ending economic hardships.

Mr Speaker, I would, now, like to say a few words on agriculture in my area. My constituency is both urban and peri-urban. Historically, this was predominantly a mining area. But, now, due to loss of jobs on the mines and closure of industries that were dependent on the mines, the situation has worsened and reversed, with more residents turning to farming. The soil is good, the rainfall is more than adequate but what is hampering progress are bad feeder roads, lack of tractors for hire to till land, erratic supply of farming inputs and lack of markets for farm produce. It is for this reason that I salute His Excellency the President for spelling out change in the agricultural policy in his New Deal.

Mr Speaker, recently, the Government procured farming machinery from a friendly country and these machines are, now, in the hands of the Zambia National Service (ZNS). The general public has little access to it, if any. Those who manage to access them are hindered by prohibitive hire charges. The Government must not be seen to be discouraging people from growing more food by hiking charges for tractor hire.

Mr Speaker, food production go hand in hand with fish farming. While we propagate ideas to increase farm produce, let us also improve the fish industry. We want the ministry to provide banana boats and fishing nets, on credit, to fishermen. We want them to hunt down crocodiles that are a menace to better fishing methods. We want the ministry to revamp Mwekera Fish Project in Kitwe and produce millions of fingerlings that would be ploughed back into our lakes. Millions of dollars were spent to construct fish ponds at Mwekera in Kitwe and, now, they are going to waste. It is also my sincere hope that in the New Deal the ministry will create employment for our women and the youth by creating fish factories to export tinned fish from Lake Mweru and Lake Bangweulu. I cannot recommend Luangwa River because the fish there is poisonous.

Laughter.

Mr Kombe: Mr Speaker, let me, now, talk about mining vis a vis privatisation, KCM pull-out and the like. It is important to accord enough time to mining. At the moment, the mining industry is the most important sector of the Zambian economy and will remain so for some time to come.

When the mines were sold or privatised, the investors knew that they were buying obsolete mines that lacked meaningful safety programmes. They also knew that they were taking over obsolete machinery and a demoralised workforce because of lack of salary increment. So, they needed a longer timeframe for capital injection. These are essential components for higher productivity. Investors knew the movement trend of copper prices at the London Metal Exchange because they spent three years conducting due diligent studies.

In the sale agreement, they had indicated how much they would spend and for how long before they started making a profit. Despite their technical inability, they shoved Zambians around. Our Zambian underground engineers were displaced, most of them to areas and positions alien to their field of specialisation or study. The unlucky ones were laid off and immediately replaced by cooks and carpenters from South Africa.

Mr Speaker, Zambians are highly skilled employees because they were trained by ZCCM and they handle industrial matters competently. The only crime they have committed is being Zambian and poor.

Mr Speaker, I look forward to the day when Government, with the help of the World Bank, could obtain a substantial loan for recapitalisation in one of the mines on the Copperbelt or elsewhere. Let the Government allow our Zambian mechanical, electrical and mining engineers, with support from the mining technologists and technicians turn around some of the loss making mines within the shortest possible time. Give them incentives that are given to expatriates. Boost their morale with better education for their children. Better results will be instantaneous because they understand these mines better. They know the ore body configuration and they would employ local mining methods with quality blasting techniques. The bottom line is, therefore, equal work for equal pay.

Mr Speaker, let me, now, allude to the wonderful speech made by the Minister of Finance and National Planning. The Budget Speech presented last Friday has lived up to President Mwanawasa’s vision of promoting the agricultural sector as the main economic sector for growth in future. 

Sir, agriculture, being a labour intensive sector, will not only ensure food security but will also create jobs. I, therefore, agree with the proposed figures for this sector.

Mr Speaker, on the issue of concession to investors, I would like the House to know the interest Government has in the following companies:

1.    Cyprus Amax Kansanshi Plc – 20%
2.    Copperbelt Energy Corporation Plc – 20%
3.    Konkola Copper Mines Plc – 20%
4.    Chibuluma Copper Mines Plc – 15%
5.    Roam Antelope Mining Corporation of Zambia Plc – 15% (in credit receivership)
6.    N. F. C. Africa Mining Plc – 15%
7.    Chambeshi Metals Plc – 10%
8.    Mopani Copper Mines Plc – 10% {mospagebreak}

Mr Speaker, following what I have outlined above, all investors are one and the same, therefore, they should enjoy equal status. To that effect, all of them must enjoy favourable taxation. Sir, just like you do in this House, UNIP is in the Opposition, so is UPND and you accord them equal privileges because they are in Opposition. I do not know if they might stay that way forever.

Mr Speaker, probably, the only consideration to KCM and Mopani is their great use of electricity for pumping water from the wettest mine in the world in case of KCM and for their frequent use of the electrical furnace at the Mopani Smelter in Mufulira.

Some time last year, the hon. Member of Parliament for Zambezi and I were board members at ZCCM Investment Holdings and KCM had applied for zero electrical tariffs at Konkola. For this reason, I implore the Government to look at their issue of zero electrical tariffs. Maybe, they can be met half way on taxation.

Sir, while I commend the Minister of Finance and National Planning for increasing tax, free income threshold for individuals from K120,000 to K150,000, I feel the Minister should have sacrificed a bit more by moving up to K200,000. Otherwise, workers are not going to feel anything at all. If anything, the removal of ten and twenty per cent tax bands is going to work against the worker. I think a tax system should not only be fair to the taxpayers but Government must not place burdens on its citizens, especially over burdening a few workers in formal employment. Miners are crying for paying too much tax. Please, have mercy on them.

In the same vein, I salute the Minister for increasing the exempt portion on terminal benefits from K3 million to K5 million. Equally, I salute him for the increase in the commutable amount for pensioners from K1 million to K5 million. I would have even been much happier had the Minister pronounced that all retirees and pensioners’ benefits would never be taxed at …

Mr Speaker: The hon. Member’s time has expired.

Major-General Zulu (Lumezi): Mr Speaker, allow me to take this opportunity to congratulate you together with the Deputy Speaker, on being elected to these very important positions in this House. I wish to further thank you for your hospitality and keeping us well while in Lusaka. I am sure, Mr Speaker, even hon. Members of Parliament from Northern and Luapula provinces agree with me.

Laughter.

Mr L. L. Phiri: Mbala mafias!

Major-General Zulu: Mr Speaker, I also wish to take this rare opportunity to thank my party, United National Independence Party …

Hon. Opposition Members: Hear, hear!

Major-General Zulu: … for having adopted me as the candidate for Lumezi. I further wish to sincerely thank the noble people of Lumezi Constituency for having elected me as their Member of Parliament. To them all, I say thank you very much, indeed. The faith you have put in me will not be in vain.

Mr Speaker, I wish to thank His Excellency the President, Mr Levy Mwanawasa, …

Hon. Government Members: Hear, hear!

Major-General Zulu: … and the Minister of Finance and National Planning for their inspiring speeches to this House. I only hope a firm and realistic bridge will be found between these two important statements.

Mr Speaker, there is a serious shortage of food and, therefore, hunger in Lumezi. People were surviving on mangoes, which have just finished. The hunger situation, Sir, is acute and real. I wish to appeal to the Office of the Vice-President, once more, to save the people of Lumezi from dying from hunger by urgently sending relief food there.

Mr L. L. Phiri: Be careful, he is a soldier!

Major-General Zulu: Sir, Zambia, as a whole, is experiencing food shortages. I take this is due to lack of proper agricultural policies.

Mr L. L. Phiri: Hear, hear!

Major-General Zulu: For example, fertiliser is not easily available and when it is found, it is on the black market.

Mr L. L. Phiri: Shame!

Major-General Zulu: Mr Speaker, Zambia has a lot of fertile land and human resource capable, capable …

Laughter.

Hon. Members: KK! Kaunda!

Laughter.

Mr Situmbeko: Wamuyaya!

Mr L. L. Phiri: MCC material!

Major-General Zulu: … of producing enough food. If only, if only …

Laugther.

Hon. Members: KK!

Major-General Zulu: …policies on agriculture can be put in place. Mr Speaker, yes, yes…

Laughter.

Major-General Zulu: …there is great need to establish a crop-marketing authority, which should be directly, directly …

Laughter.

Major-General Zulu: …responsible to buy and distribute all farming inputs on loans to the farmers and at the same time buy all produce from farmers.

Mr L. L. Phiri: Hear, hear!

Major-General Zulu: This is important.

Farmers have suffered for the past ten years. Briefcase businessmen go to villages and rob the poor farmers. Mr. Speaker, the proposals by the President on agriculture are in line with the needs and aspirations of the people of Zambia. However, I believe that in order for the vision of the President on agriculture to achieve its intended goals, there is need for investments and implementation of the proposed New Deal on agriculture.

Mr. Speaker, I believe that in addition to investment, we shall still need experienced and well-qualified staff to run the proposed cCrop Marketing Authority.

Hon. Members: Hear, hear!

Major-General Zulu: Mr. Speaker, it is my considered suggestion that the Crop Marketing Authority should have two major divisions or departments. The first one should be the Grain Marketing Division, which should be responsible for all grain marketing and act as a buyer. This division should be responsible for settling and administering the floor price for agricultural produce. 

The second one is the Fertiliser Division, which would be responsible for the timely procurement of fertiliser and distribution to co-operative unions, farmers’ associations and individuals on a properly worked out system on loan or cash basis.

Hon. Members: Hear, hear!

Major-General Zulu: This should be done before the end of September of each year, before the farming season. Mr. Speaker, I believe these two divisions, working together, will help to ensure food security. There are indications already that this year, we are again faced with the terrible possibility of grain shortages.

Mr. Speaker, I have observed that current co-operative societies are highly politicised and some of the officials are dishonest with their members because when inputs like fertiliser reach them for distribution, they divert them for their personal benefit.

Hon. Members: Shame!

Major-General Zulu: This leads to shortages of inputs followed by hunger. I, therefore, propose, and appeal to this august House that before the President’s New Deal proposals on agriculture are implemented, the present co-operatives must all be dissolved and the Auditor-General should audit them all. All those officials found wanting; found wanting, found wanting…

Laughter.

Major-General Zulu: … must be brought to book, without fail.

Hon. Members: Hear, hear!

Major-General Zulu: Because we want His Excellency the President, Mr. Levy Mwanawasa to start on a clean page.

Hon. Member: You are right. Hear, hear!

Major-General Zulu: Mr. Speaker, the President’s New Deal proposals on agriculture are, to say the least, excellent.

Hon. Members: Hear, hear!

Major-General Zulu: Why do I say they are excellent? It is because I am a farmer. I have been a peasant farmer since 1991 in my village and as such I have suffered in the past ten years. At the same time, the people of Zambia at one time appointed me as Commandant of the Zambia National Service.

Hon. Members: Hear, hear!

Major-General Zulu: Mr. Speaker, I was very much involved in dealing with farming…

Mr. Sibetta: Say it again.

Laughter.

Major-General Zulu: Sir, when His Excellency the President talked about farming in the way he talked, I said yes, and I saw a light at the end of the tunnel in as far as agriculture is concerned.

Laughter.

Major-General Zulu: Mr. Speaker, I am a farmer and I love farming. I enjoy farming and farming is in me. Nevertheless, I would like to appeal to the President not to rely too much on the previous MMD Manifesto’s policy on agriculture because I believe that some of his good or excellent intentions may otherwise not take off.

Hon. Members: Hear, hear!

Major-General Zulu: He has started well and he should continue in that manner. I strongly believe that because the President does not hold an important position in the MMD, the Party’s National Executive Committee might derail the President’s vision for this country.

The Vice-President: No ways.

Major-General Zulu: Mr. Speaker, the state of roads in Lumezi Constituency is very bad. For example, these roads namely, Lundazi to Chief Mwanya, Lundazi to Chief Chitungulu, Lundazi to Chief Kazembe are so poor that during the rainy season they are impassable and thus communication between areas is cut off completely.

Hon. Members: Shame!

Major-General Zulu: The road between Chipata and Lundazi which was tarred at one time by Dr Kaunda …

Laughter.

Major-General Zulu: … has many potholes, if not fish ponds and is washed away in some areas. A journey, which used to take a few hours, now takes a very long time. Mr. Speaker, I wished that the Vice-President could undertake a trip to Lundazi by road so that he could see for himself what I am talking about.

Hon. Members: Hear, hear!

Major-General Zulu: The Lundazi-Chipata Road requires to be redone completely and not mending. Mr. Speaker, if that is considered, we want proper contractors and not briefcase ones.

Mr. L L Phiri: Tell them.

Hon. Members: Hear, hear!

Major-General Zulu: Mr Speaker, with regard to clean water, in many areas of Chiefs Mwanya, Chitungulu, Kazembe, Mwasemphangwe, Chikomeni and Zumwanda, there are few facilities for safe and clean drinking water. These areas need boreholes for clean water.

Mr Speaker, medical facilities are essential for the good health of our citizens in this country. I am afraid to report, however, that in Lumezi Constituency, there are very few clinics. The few that are there are very far for some communities to access them. The supply of medicines to these clinics is very erratic and a source of worry.

To address these problems, I propose that Government considers putting up new clinics at Mwimba and Ndaiwala in Chief Chikomeni’s area, Nkhanyu in Chief Mwansemphangwe’s area, Chanyalubwe, Chatemwa and Luamphamba in Chief Zumwanda’s area, Mkasanga and Chibande, up there in the valley, in Chief Mwana’s area, Zokwe in Chief Kazembe’s area. All these need clinics.

Mr Speaker, another area of concern is the poor state of conditions under which our school teachers work. Our teachers are the most forgotten Government workers, especially in rural areas. They do not have proper accommodation. Some live in grass-thatched houses despite the fact that some of them are degree holders. Some schools are manned by one teacher only. 

Sir, despite this, we have many trained teachers in the country roaming the streets without employment. Those that are lucky to get employed, are subjected to work for, at times, as long as two years without being put on the payroll. To make matters worse, when teachers are transferred, they are asked to find their own transport for shifting with the promise of being refunded later. How can our children pass with good results when our teachers work under such conditions?

Hon. Opposition Members: Shame!

Major-General Zulu: Mr Speaker, the money that has been provided for improving Conditions of Service for teachers and other professionals in rural areas should be made available soon to attend to the problems that I have alluded to above.

Mr Speaker, allow me to address other issues …

Mr Speaker: Order! The hon. Member’s time has expired!

Mr Lubinda (Kabwata): Mr Speaker, allow me to appreciate, above all else, God Almighty for his providence for beautiful Zambia, its people and the abundant natural resources He endowed it with.

Let me also appreciate the mothers of Zambia for enduring the burden of keeping this country alive. The motherly care with which they raise Zambia’s children, the leaders of yesteryear, the leaders of today including we gathered in this august House and those for the future.

Hon. Opposition Members: Hear, hear!

Mr Lubinda: Mr Speaker, this country is indebted to them. As for me, I pledge my total effort in reducing their burdens and my full support to their plight of making this country a better place in which to raise human kind.

Sir, may I join the other hon. Members of the House in congratulating you and your Deputy for your election to the Chair. I have no doubt in my mind that the confidence you enjoy after being elected through an open division surpasses that which you would have enjoyed had you been elected through a controversial secrete ballot.

Hon. Opposition Members: Hear, hear!

Mr Lubinda: Mr Speaker, I am greatly indebted to the people of Kabwata Constituencyfor honouring me to represent them in this august House. Memories of the long queues that they withstood throughout the day and night of 27th December, 2001, when they turned out en mass to cast their votes are testimony for their desire for diligent and full representation. Their voting for me is evidence that they judged the United Party for National Development (UPND) and me, as the best representatives they had in the race.

Hon. Members: Hear, hear!

Mr Lubinda: Mr Speaker, I will cherish the challenge of representing them and I will do my utmost to ensure that their aspirations are addressed. I am their voice and their voice I will be. Sir, they voted for me and for UPND. As such, with UPND, I will stay to serve the people of Kabwata to the best of my ability.

Hon. Members: Hear, hear!

Mr Lubinda: Sir, in adding my voice to the Motion of Thanks to the President’s Address to the Nineth National Assembly, please allow me to augment his statements concerning the entrenchment of democracy in our country.

Mr Speaker, the President stated that, and I quote:

“The recent tripartite elections where remarkable in many aspects. It was the first time since independence that so many political parties participated, featuring eleven presidential candidates. To me, the large number of parties and individuals who offered themselves to serving public office is a clear sign that democracy is well entrenched in our country.”

Indeed, Sir, this entrenchment could not have probably taken place at this particular time had it not been for the devotion and commitment of many gallant leaders of our beloved nation. and the likes of the late Mr Arthur Wina, Mr Akashambatwa Mbikusita-Lewanika, Mr Derrick Chitala, the late Baldwin Nkumbula and others who led the nation in a spirited agitation for multi-partism in 1990/91. 

Mr Speaker, Dr Kenneth David Kaunda played a pivotal role by graciously signing the amendment of the Law to dismantle the infamous One Party Participatory Dictatorship.

Hon. Members: Hear, hear!

Mr Lubinda: Besides these notable contributors to the democracy that we are proud of today, we should not fail nor shy away from recognising the men and women who, under extremely difficult circumstances characterised by political harassment of opponents, formed and laid their political parties to the tripartite elections of 2001. Special mention ought to be made of those presidential candidates whose parties managed to contribute to the beautiful complexion of this House

Hon. Opposition Members: Hear, hear!

Mr Lubinda: Hats must be raised for the one man who contributed forty-nine Members of Parliament. The man, Mr Anderson Mazoka, has won hearts and minds of many citizens.

Hon. Opposition Members: Hear, hear!

Mr Lubinda: Mr Speaker, after the President’s declaration quoted above, the Zambian people are hopeful that the harassment of Opposition Political Parties and their leaders will only exist in the archives of Zambia’s political history together with the deceptive New Culture syndrome, never to show its ugly head again.

Sir, given that the New Deal Administration has pronounced itself to be a Government of Laws and not of men, the people of Zambia expect that laws such as the Repressive Public Order Act will be applied equitably and as is provided and not at the whims of the Executive. It is lamentable, Sir, to be in a democracy where even an elected Member of Parliament should be subjected to applying, nay struggling for a police permit to hold a meeting in their own respective constituencies.

Hon. Opposition Members: Shame!

Mr Lubinda: Mr Speaker, other hon. Members before me have registered their disappointment and inuendos levelled against His Excellency, the President for attracting accolades from the Opposition.

Mr Speaker, it is, indeed, odd that one who claims to meet with the President on a weekly basis can elect to belittle him by referring to him with derogatory words in public. If such words are not a serious affront against the institution of presidency and therefore, the Zambian people, how do the words that were used by others sometime last year, some of whom are facing jail sentences be an affront? I trust that the New Deal will apply the rule of law over this matter. Failure to do so, Mr Speaker, will dent the whole New Deal arrangement.

Mr Kapita: Charge or arrest him.

Mr Lubinda: The President’s concerns on reforming Parliament and enhancing the capacity of hon. Members of Parliament to interact in their constituents, deserves immediate attention. I hope that the Leader of the House, His Honour the Vice-President and the hon. Minister of Finance and National Planning have provided for in the Budget, tangible strategies and resources to your office and administration to implement these very important improvements.

Above all, Sir, there is a desperate need for total review of the current constitution so as to make it a people’s constitution and not one developed to serve a few.

Hon. Opposition Members: Hear, hear!

Mr Lubinda: Mr Speaker, the President deserves to be commended for appointing all female Members of Parliament in his party as Ministers and Deputy Ministers and appointing quite a number in the civil service as Permanent Secretaries. This is, indeed, a show of his gender consciousness. However, his administration should be not complacent because of this, what our Zambian mothers and sisters and, indeed, all of us need are good strategies that will make the women folk an integral part of the intellectual resource base required for the development of Zambia and not cosmetic appointments.

Hon. Opposition Members: Hear, hear!

Mr Lubinda: Deliberate education policy and programmes that promote gender equity that enhance the participation of all those involved in the promotion and provision of girls’ education with special attention to science, mathematics and technical subjects could be a very good starting point.

Hon. Opposition Members: Hear, hear!

Mr Lubinda: The New Deal would do the country a good deal to abolish school fees for girl-child education at ‘O’ Levels.

Hon. Opposition Members: Hear, hear!

Mr Lubinda: I am pleased that the Ministry of Education has been tasked to develop and implement realistic strategies to increase girls’ and women’s enrolment, retention, progression, qualitative performance and completion at all levels of the education system. Empirical evidence is abundant, Sir, that the drop out rate for girls and women in our education system is higher than that of the male counterparts.

Mr Speaker, let me turn to the announced abolishment of fees for Grades One to Seven. When we in UPND promised free basic education to the people, we meant free basic education from Grade One to Grade Twelve.

Hon. Opposition Members: Hear, hear!

Mr Lubinda: This, Sir, was on the basis of hard facts that there has been a severe decline in the quality of education over the last ten years, the lost decade. Lost at the hands of the MMD during its phase under the New Culture.

Hon. Opposition Members: Hear, hear!

Mr Lubinda: For the sake of those who relish on figures, Sir, I quote the following from the Zambia Human Development Report, 1999-2000 and I quote:

‘There has been a severe decline in the quality of primary education. Only 2.4 per cent of pupils in Grade Six in 1998 had achieved acceptable level of reading ability and only 25.8 per cent had achieved minimum levels of masters. Three quarters of the pupils in Grade Six, Sir, were functionally illiterate and this is accordingly to a 1996supplement survey. Only 37 per cent of Grade Seven pupils progressed to Grade Eight and only 20 per cent managed to Grade Ten. Plus or minus 20 per cent o the children of school going age have access to basic education in this country.’

Mr Speaker: Order!

Business was suspended from 1615 hours until 1630 hours.

Mr Lubinda: When business was suspended, I was saying that the scenario that has been painted, indicates clearly that children aged between twelve and fourteen years would be ejected at Grade Seven to join the long queue of their unemployed parents in desolation and despair without having acquired any employable skills.

The President’s announcement that vulnerable children in grade eight and nine will be provided with Government bursaries is very interesting. Interesting, Sir, because if the responsible ministries develop instruments and systems that would indeed identity vulnerable children that qualify for bursaries then the children of the more than 85 per cent unemployed Zambians must all qualify.

Mr Speaker, there is no arguing that the formal employment sector has shrunk tremendously with very little hope for rejuvenation during the next five to ten years. Employment opportunities, only exist in the non-formal sector. Does this scenario not motivate the New Deal to redesign the school curricular to offer our children more relevant life survival skills.

Mr Speaker, what about the youths that are out of school? Do they not have any place in the New Deal? The problem of youths in this country is a time bomb, which requires urgent diffusion. Youths require urgent provision of appropriate alternatives. More than 60 per cent of Zambia’s population are youths and of these about one million are not engaged in any useful activity. My constituency has more than a fair share of such youths and as their Member of Parliament, I would be happy to hear from the Parliament on how the New Deal is planning to address their needs.

 I submit that the less than 350 skills training institutions of various sizes in Zambia, most of which are in a bad state are by far too few to meet the skills training needs of the youths. The New Deal Budget does not even have any capital provided for skills training and yet we only have dismal number of 350 skills training centres. Only about twenty thousand youths are engaged in skills training.

Further, Mr Speaker, the arrangement where youth skills is scattered among various ministries such as Sport, Youth and Child Development, Community Development and Social Welfare, Agriculture, Education etc, causes very serious administrative problems. I propose that with the establishment of TEVETA, skills training be a responsibility of a Government Department charged only with that duty. Then, Mr Speaker, we might start hoping that the syndrome of bringing Malaysians to come and build the Organisation of African Unit (OAU) Summit might come to an end.

Mr Speaker, none of the health indicators have improved in Zambia over the last ten years. Some have actually retrogressed. Life expectancy has come down to barely 38 years. Maternal mortality ratio has been officially recorded to be up to 1,000 per 100,000 live births and under-five mortality rate has risen to more than 200 per 1000. 

Mr Speaker, health is the most important asset that any one can have. Even the poor can only work if they enjoy health. A sick person is a burden not only to oneself but also to those who must support him including the state. It is thus imperative that the New Deal provides for and ensures the health status of its citizens if it expects to achieve anything with the so-called poverty reduction strategy. As a matter of fact, the often PRSP in its current form is at best simply an analysis of the situation and not a strategy at all.

In this vein, Mr Speaker, I urge the New Deal administration to take another look at the matter of medical fees. To provide free medical services to under-fives and not to their mothers who in the first place are under the stress of hunger, poverty and disease will not achieve much. It was in my constituency where a mother, a dear impoverished mother was dehumanised when she delivered in the veranda of a clinic. One would wonder how the new born baby would respond to medical care, free as it may be, when the mother does not have the fees to have herself attended to by our medical institutions.

Mr Speaker, it is pleasing that the senior citizens of our country are to be provided with free medical services. However, what good is it when the majority of the population is bed ridden, unable to attend hospital because they cannot afford the fees as the case is currently? The people of Kabwata Constituency are hopeful that the cost-sharing syndrome will be brought under check by the New Deal. The people of my constituency do not understand why when they are to be taken to the UTH in the ambulance from one of the three clinics, they are obliged to pay K5,000 per person including the patient. A taxi costs an average of K10,000 for four passengers, therefore, making it much cheaper to go by taxi than to go by an institutional ambulance.

Mr Sibetta: Bauze. Niba malukula.

Laughter.

Mr Lubinda: Mr Speaker, the new culture with its flamboyant oration coined a number of well sounding programmes over the last ten years. One of these was the home ownership empowerment scheme that saw the sale of Government, council and parastatal housing stocks to sitting tenants. The people of Kabwata Estates were unfortunately left to be last on the list of beneficiaries. It was only during the campaigns for the September, 2001 by-elections that the then President made a directive for the sale. Typical of the former Government, after the FDD won the seat, the talk of the sale stalled, only to be resuscitated again during the campaigns for the tripartite elections. The issue is that the prices and conditions that have been provided for these flats are in no way comparable to those offered to those who benefited from similar housing arrangements.

Mr Speaker, the people of Kabwata are part of this country, regardless of the fact that their representative is a UPND Member of Parliament, they are part of this country. Sir, 85 per cent of them are out of employment. They, therefore, cannot afford to pay  the exorbitant prices for shelter. Besides, it is surprising that a flat without any ground space and without a trickle of water should cost equal or more than a sprawling mansion, complete with a swimming pool and wall fence in a cosy high cost residential area of Lusaka. The people of Kabwata through the Association – the Kabwata Estates Tenants Association – have made representation to both the National Housing Authority and to the hon. Minister of Local Government and Housing and I would like to high light their plight.

Hon. Opposition Members: Hear, hear!

Mr Lubinda: Mr Speaker, I would like to suggest that Zambia applies to be recorded in the Guinness Book of World Records for being amongst the first country to have successfully reduced duty on alcohol for two years running. This is a Christian country and yet we are now saying that we want to promote alcoholism. Where are we heading?

Laughter.

Mr Lubinda: Mr Speaker, where are we heading when people are suffering because drugs are expensive and yet we are saying we shall subsidise alcohol?  It is not a mater of how much revenue Government is assured of generating but it is also a moral issue. How many accidents occur in this country as a result of drunken driving? How many hospital beds are occupied after accidents have happened arising from drunken driving? Which of our hospitals have the capacity to rehabilitate alcoholism in this country? Instead of saving money and using it where it is necessary, we want to subsidise alcohol. It is a shame.

Hon. Opposition Members: Shame.

Mr Lubinda: Mr Speaker, the 2002 Budget has been hailed by a lot of people. However, I would like to refer to the fact that very often, we hear Government complaining that the donors who were to meet more than 50 per cent of the budget did not release the money. This year, we are talking about 40 per cent and yet the same issue that concerns citizens of this country, the matters of corruption is not being addressed. If the New Deal Government is serious about its current budget, I strongly propose …

Mr Speaker: The hon. Member’s time has expired.

Mr Kasongo (Bangweulu): Mr Speaker, allow me to join other hon. Members of Parliament who have already complimented you and the Deputy Speaker on your election to your respective offices.

Hon. Government Members: Hear, hear!

Mr Kasongo: Let me also compliment the Head of State for having provided in broader context in which these instructions are supposed to be implemented. Further, allow me to pay tribute to the hon. Minister of Finance and National Planning for having provided the context in which the vision of the President will be implemented.

Mr Speaker, allow me also to pay tribute to my voters in Bangweulu Parliamentary Constituency …

Hon. Members: Hear, hear!

Mr Kasongo: … for having given me a mandate to be their representative, God willing, for five years.

Hon. Members: Hear, hear!

Mr Kasongo: Although the target of development that they have set for me far exceeds my capacity to implement all of them, I shall do my level best to live up to their expectations. 

Mr Speaker, much has been said about our budget and also the President’s Speech. You may wish to allow me to emphasise one or two points, namely, education. His Excellency the President made reference to the desire to the current Government to create other universities. I commend him for that effort. 

Hon. Members: Hear, hear!

Mr Kasongo: However, I would like to submit, Mr Speaker, that it is important for this Government to pursue a less costly window. There are a number of institutions that must be turned into universities, namely, the National College of Business Studies in Kabwe, and ZIT to name just a few. And I take it that the facilities are available. It is a question of making a decision and we should be able to make progress within a short time. 

Mr Speaker, let me also comment briefly on the importance of agriculture and in doing so, allow me to quote what the hon. Member of Parliament for Msanzala said, that is, the current Minister of Tourism, Environment and Natural Resources and, I Quote:

Laughter.

Mr Kasongo: I am referring to the motion that he moved effectively on 20th January, 1998.

to the President’s Speech. Allow me to quote, Sir:

‘A popular but very disturbing comment today on agriculture is that where as the  UNIP Government destroyed agriculture, MMD came to bury it.’

Laughter.

Mr. Kasongo: Mr. Speaker, I welcome the decision that has been presented to this House by the hon. Minister of Agriculture and Co-operatives. It is my prayer that we will be able to change this perception within a short time and we are waiting for the day when he is going to present this vision to this House. He should bear in mind the perception  that is valid up to this time.

Mr. Speaker, as you are already aware, His Excellency the President and also the hon. Minister of Finance and National Planning ably captured the importance of the private sector in our development endeavours. But I would like to slightly depart from their vision because they are trying to put emphasis on auctioning of our assets. That is not investment. My humble understanding of investment is that that effort must be seen to add value to our economy. But the moment you begin to privatise your assets, then you are not achieving your goal. This is what is obtaining in Zambia today. I think that as a nation we have over privatised our assets. Nowhere in the world and I would like to emphasise that point, can you come across a Government that does not own any asset.

Let us talk about Britain, for example, it is in firm control of BP. Talk about America, the energy sector is under the control of the President, that goes to show that these industries are very strategic but here in Zambia, we are failing to make a distinction between strategic industries and business entities, hence this concept which you are floating that you are going to privatise Zesco, Tazama and Indeni. I would like to submit, Sir, that these are security industries and the moment you tamper with them, then you are gone as a nation.

Mr. Speaker, in my humble submission, I would like the hon. Minister of Energy and Water Development to clarify what appeared in the Times of Zambia newspaper of Friday, March 1st, 2002. The Permanent Secretary of that Ministry is quoted as having said ZESCO was going to be transformed and that Zesco is going to be concessioned.

Mr. Speaker, this is not a simple issue to be given to a Permanent Secretary to make a statement. It is a policy statement and I know that certain processes are supposed to be undergone before a decision is taken. The information that I have is that, in fact, the Cabinet has not even debated this idea. Now, who gave the Permanent Secretary that mandate to announce that ZESCO is going to be transformed. We need clarification. There has not been any Cabinet document which has been debated upon and not even Cabinet has sat to make a decision and so, we would like the hon. Minister of Energy and Water Development to make a decision on the same issue in this august House.

Mr. Speaker, the question of ZESCO, TAZAMA, and Indeni are issues, which are supposed to be approached cautiously. They are our security industries and there is no way you can auction them. What lessons have we learnt from a number of industries that we just auctioned.

In Kapiri Mponshi, for example, that beautiful industry which used to manufacture or make glasses is now something like a monument. Mr. Speaker, if you are talking about privatisation or privatising our strategic industries, there is one thing that we should bear in mind. This is that the Government has opened a window to allow private investment in the energy sector. Why are donors insisting that before they release whatever dollar they have, we have to privatise this industry. What I know is that the Government has opened a window for the private sector to develop Itezhi tezhi in Southern Province, lower Zambezi and also Mkushi farm block. Why have they not gone ahead? Why are they looking at our industry  which was created with a lot of sweat and energy.

Mr. Speaker, we cannot allow that. I am not going to be part and parcel to a system that is going to auction Zambia, otherwise the young generation will not pardon us. We cannot allow Zambia to be auctioned. Enough is enough. It is such a painful decision. And if I may ask, what justification is there for us to concession ZESCO or to auction ZESCO? Are we not proud of our own Zambian managers? Are we saying that ZESCO is failing to deliver in order for you to bring outsiders to come and run our industries after so many years of our independence. These are questions that must be addressed. What justification is there for us to privatise ZESCO, TAZAMA and INDENI. There is no justification. 

Mr. Speaker, industries like ZESCO are making profits. What is even more painful is that we are trying to privatise or concession ZESCO when we know that the Government owes ZESCO a lot of money. It is a contradiction. You know that you owe the institution a lot of money as a Government,  then  you say, ‘we are aware that we owe you a lot of money but you have to go’. It does not make any sense, in my view. Pay them what you owe them and then give them targets. Tell them that if you do not reach a certain target, then we will pursue other options. But, Sir, as of now, we owe ZESCO as a Government colossal sums of money. If you pay back that amount of money, ZESCO will be able to make a lot of profit. ZESCO will be able to implement a lot of programmes.

Mr. Speaker, my colleagues from the other side, especially those who are looking energetic have said a word or two on the question of youth unemployment. Regrettably, this issue has not been addressed sufficiently and in fact, the Head of State was silent on the same issue. Even the hon. Minister of Finance and Planning was silent on the same issue.

Mr. Speaker, I wish to submit that, in fact, youth unemployment is no longer a time bomb, it has already exploded. We have seen the side effects of youth unemployment. Prostitution is on the rise. Crime is being committed by younger people. You many wish to confirm this if, for example, you visited Kamwala Remand Prison. Those who have committed petty crimes or even more serious crimes are there. It is an issue that must be addressed more aggressively.

Hon. Member: Hear, hear! {mospagebreak}

Mr. Kasongo: Mr. Speaker, allow me also to say a word or two on our sporting activities. Unfortunately, the speech by the President and the Budget Address were silent on this issue. You will recall, Sir, that in the past, Zambia used to bring honour whenever we took part in international competitions and so on. But for a long time now, no achievements has been brought to our nation.

Mr Situmbeko: Gabon Disaster.

Mr Kasongo: The moment you send our national team to go and compete at international level, they come back with gloomy faces. We are no longer a proud nation, that pride has been taken over by Cameroon, name them and so on. Even when you are watching television, you cannot even see that kind of excitement. We are always patient and so on, trying to find out as to what is going to be achieved by our gallant men and women and so on. It means something has gone wrong …

Mr Situmbeko: Hunger.

Mr Kasongo: … the Ministry of Sport, Youth  and Child Development must re-organise and the bodies that are responsible for all these activities. Time has come for us to go back to the past when we used to be admired by a lot of people, but that glory is no longer, Sir. We always walk with our heads down.

Mr Speaker, let me come to my constituency briefly. You are very much aware that Samfya itself and my constituency in particular, is endored with a lot of tourism potential. But I am happy that the hon. Minister responsible for that ministry took the trouble of visiting my constituency. Although I was not informed …

Hon. Government Members: Aah!

Mr Kasongo: … even when the Head of State went to tour the constituency, I was not informed.

Interruptions.

Hon. Government Members: Fault finder!

Mr Kasongo: In any given environment, if you like to go to the village, first of all, you have to get in touch with the village headman.

Laughter.

Mr Kasongo: I am in charge of that constituency whether you like it or not …

Hon. Opposition Members: Hear, hear!

Mr Kasongo: … and there is no way you can ignore me. Those quarters are firmly under my control.

Hon. Opposition Members: Hear, hear! MMD, you hear that?

Mr Kasongo: If you can ignore me simply because I do not belong to a political party, that is not my problem, it is your problem and even if my voters may not receive you warmly, do come back to me  and complain. You have to involve me and I am available. In fact, the President himself made it clear to the nation that I am prepared to work with anybody. So, why should little fish in Lake Bangweulu ignore me.

Laughter.

Mr Kasongo: Mr Speaker, …

Mr Situmbeko: Hear, hear! Hammer, tell the little fish!

Mr Kasongo: … so, I wish to emphasise that point that I am prepared to render that kind of support and co-operation so that we can develop this nation together. The question of politicking is over. All of us are looking forward to delivering goods and services to the people who gave us that mandate.

Mr Speaker, I thank you.

Hon. Opposition Members: Hear, hear!

Mr Patel (Lusaka Central): Mr Speaker, with the pomp and ceremony that goes with the Budget presentation and when the hon. Minister of Finance and National Planning makes statements like “I have increased agricultural-related expenditures from K88 billion to K231 billion, it is easy to get jubilant.

However, when one goes through the documents accompanying the Budget Address such as the Economic Report 2001, Public Investment Programme 2001-2003, Yellow Book and other relevant and critical documentation that are, most regrettably, not made available by our Government, but freely available on the Internet and done with letters of intent, the World Bank Reports and agreements, then reality begins to dawn on you.

Mr Speaker, my immediate reaction to the Budget was I have heard it all before. In fact, Hon. Kasonde’s Speech in 1992 had similar objectives. For him to repeat some of them in 2002 shows that after ten years, we have not progressed and are worse off. And If I quoted from last year’s Budget Address, it would probably embarrass the Government now that they know the true fiscal and good governance positions. There are contradictions in priority and there is complacency in the belief that donors will finance the remaining portion.

Mr Speaker, is there political will for economic policy reform and the implementation of the sound recommendations in the Public Sector Expenditure Review? Is there political will for good governance practices and enhanced rule of law? Does the Budget have integrity?

Budget Reform

Mr Speaker, the recommendations of the Committee on Estimates, in 2000, have been fully accepted by the Government. If this Government is talking about continuity with change, then that change must begin this year.

This year’s Budget documentation and process is the same we have had for decades. It is truly ancient. The Zambia Republic Expenditure Review of December, 2001, a product of the Government and the World Bank and the World Bank fiscal sustainability credit both discuss the issues of improving governance and public sector performance.

It is not enough to have a bulky Yellow Book and a long-winded Budget Speech. The Budget Speech and accompanying documents do not indicate the full fiscal position of our country. There are many “below the line items” which inexplicably remain unknown.

Mr Speaker, the Government has acknowledged that at the heart of the growth problem, the persistent poverty, and the issues of policy reform in Zambia is a Public Sector Reform Programme. There are three areas that the Government has acknowledged, but done little about and yet, they require significant and immediate action:

     macro-economic discipline, called the Stabilisation Problem - he key to understanding this is the huge liabilities and the drain on public purse that lie outside the Yellow Book, known as the “Quasi-Fiscal Deficit’ or the losses incurred by parastatal organization, local government and so on.

    need for strategic priority setting or allocation problem - to solve this problem, we have to identify the key priorities and accept that we simply cannot afford everything. Ignoring this problem as we tend to do means that we spend tool little on everything and get nowhere; and 

    - execution problem - the Public Sector Reform Programme has been in place for nine years and it has clearly not succeeded. What will this Government do different that has not been done in the last nine years? It remains unclear.

The Integrity of the Budget

Mr Speaker, considering the integrity of the Budget requires us to examine several questions. Is there political will to push through reforms that are needed? Is the programme realistic and achievable? And will it have the hoped results or is it an attempt to paper over the cracks, and hope that something else will crop up in the meantime. Let me examine some key concerns that suggest to me that the current administration is merely papering the cracks.

The real Budget deficit is a cause of major concern. The hon. Minister of Finance and National Planning tells us that he intends to run some 3 per cent Budget deficit of the GDP. However, the quasi-fiscal deficit actually running at 20 per cent or more of GDP. The hon. Minister must realize that not mentioning it does not help or make it go away. The Government must recognize the disaster, and it has to incorporate it into the Budget process. It has to factor in all the numbers. Your books hon. Minister are not balancing.

I have concerns over the amount and timing we except to receive, Hon. Kasonde went out of his way twice, to say that IMF and the World Bank always come through, but perhaps we should recall Shakespeare’s  observation that ‘the lady doth protest too much’

In the revenue section, at the beginning of the Yellow Book, it is indicated that approximately half the expected donor revenues are grants and the rest are loans. This is about K1.1 trillion each. In 2001, the donor grants totaled only 57 % of this year’s hoped for amount, and the loans were even less at 37 per cent. So, some 40 per cent of our Budget this year is based on the hopes of funds that are, by no means, certain to materialise.

 Political will and rule of law is critical to effective reform. In the first test, the Government failed. It took three opposition Members of Parliament to obtain a court order to stop the abuse of public resources that were illegally provided to a former President. There was nothing voluntary about it. This year, Mr Speaker, our Budget contains K277 million as benefits and K500 million for a house. Mr Speaker, it is immoral because it is illegal. I urge the Government to familiarise itself with the Former Presidents Benefits Act. We are lawmakers and yet the Budget is asking us to be lawbreakers. We cannot, must not and will not pass this component of the Budget, as it is clearly illegal. I am confident that this House will reduce the Vote to zero for the former President’s benefits. We will call for a division, if necessary, and Vote against it, to ensure that this wrong is put right.

Hon. Opposition Members: Hear, hear!

Mr Patel: Mr Speaker, on page XIV of the Yellow Book, foreign travel was allocated K7.8 billion last year and was given a supplementary allocation of K40.5 billion for travelling around the world. This year, it has been allocated K7.8 billion again. Can the Government stick to this? On Page XV, Presidential Travel, there was K1 billion in 2001 and this year, zero. So, what Vote was used for President Mwanawasa to travel to Malawi, Australia and South Africa? Is this item hidden elsewhere? If so, where and why? We need full transparency in the Budget and not concealment.

Mr Speaker, on page XV of the Yellow Book, again, an item called ‘Operations’ was given zero in 2001 and yet it received a supplementary allocation of K104.2 billion. It is illegal, Mr Speaker, to allocate money to a Vote that was zero. In any case, what is ‘operations’? This year the same line item has been allocated K58.42 billion, compare that to medicines which will get K50.1 billion, Mr Speaker.

Mr Speaker, there is no money allocated to district administrators in this year’s Yellow Book. That is good. However, they are still in office and are being paid by tax papers' money. Many of them are known MMD cadres. Why has the Government not made a categorical statement on the fate of the district administrators?

Hon. Opposition Members: Hear, hear!

Mr Patel: Mr Speaker, the law is clear. No civil servant can engage in politics. So, yet again, where is the rule of law? Yes, the Government quotes Article 61 of the Constitution. It is correct to say that the President can create offices, but it does not say he can create offices for party cadres, hon. and learned Minister of Legal Affairs.

Mr Speaker, on accountability, whilst I hold Hon. Kasonde in very high esteem, unfortunately, in terms of Government administration, there is no such thing as a clean slate. There are many outstanding scandals in the country, millions of dollars have gone missing or so-called losses or in World Bank terms, Mr Speaker, known as inefficiencies. We have the US$80 million in cobalt and many others.

Mr Speaker, these funds are very significant. Even the most recent ZNOC US$100 million so-called loss is currently worth K420 billion, approximately the same size as the entire poverty reduction programme for this year. That is how significant that amount is. The Government should inform the nation how such a loss was incurred at Zambia National Oil Company. Saying it was mismanagement is almost laughable. We need full disclosure.

Mr Speaker, whilst I understand that the President has the power to create ministries, it does not necessarily mean that it is right to have an overblown top-heavy Cabinet, consisting of twenty Ministers and thirty-three Deputy Ministers. The Government should lead by example in reducing the cost of the Public Service on the taxpayer. If Government does not tighten its belt, why ask the same of its citizens?

Mr Speaker, on page 274 of the Yellow Book, there is a Vote entitled Office of the President – Special Division. In fact, there is no such entity under the law. What there is, is the Zambia Intelligence Service. Hence, legally, we cannot allocate to a non-entity. I hope that correction will be made.

Hon. Opposition Member: Hear, hear!

Mr Patel: Secondly, it would also be immoral to allocate K49.737 billion in the current state of the nation with poverty-stricken people. The Zambia Intelligence Service has, for the past eight years, or so, consistently doubled or trebled its allocations through annual supplementary allocations. The Public Accounts Committee does not examine it and, therefore, is under no public accountability. In 2002, they received K37.17 billion as a supplementary allocation.

Mr Speaker, I have in my possession original bank documents, both for the United States dollar and the kwacha account which I will lay on the Table today. I have already provided the hon. Minister of Finance and National Planning with supporting documents. The hon. Minister should also examine the expenditure of the Zambia Intelligence Service in the past ten years in order to ascertain the full extent of the abuse of public funds. Therefore, I urge all Members of the House not to support the Vote of the Intelligence Service of K49 billion, but instead reduce it drastically.

Mr Speaker, I thank you.

Hon. Opposition Members: Hear, hear!

Mr Patel attempted to lay documents on the Table.

Mr Speaker: Order! First of all, for the sake of accuracy, while there is no such legal entity as Office of the President, Special Division, there is, in fact, either no such entity as Zambia Intelligence Service. There is Zambia State Intelligence Service.

Secondly, the hon. Member may not lay what he said he wanted to lay on the Table of the House because the information was not properly obtained. It is contrary to procedure, it may even be contrary to law to do so. So, I will not allow him to lay that information on the Table of the House. I will have to consider whether the information he has disclosed in the debate is acceptable or not, including the figures he quoted. That will be subject to confirmation or debate by the Executive.

Hon. Members, you have to understand that this House is governed by rules and procedures and, please, note, no presiding officer, at least, in the Commonwealth, will accept confidential or secret information from Government to be laid on the Table of the House. It is not allowed. I am not allowed to receive such information. Please, understand your rules and procedures.

Any further debate?

Mr Syakalima (Siavonga): Mr Speaker, I wish you and your deputy God’s guidance as you guide this House in its Ninth Session.

Mr Speaker, it is an auspicious time to enter Parliament as a Member of a relatively new party in Parliament, working with a new Government with what seems to be a bold new agenda for change. I take a more pessimistic mood in Zambia with regard to whether we shall have a sense of new possibilities or a feeling that we can change things and create a more equal and sustainable society.

It is, indeed, an auspicious time to have forty-nine UPND Members of Parliament. I want to pay tribute to president Anderson Mazoka whose courage, integrity and leadership paved way for our presence here today.

Hon. Oppostion Members: Hear, hear!

 Mr Sampa: Dirty leadership!

Mr Syakalima: I acknowledge the Siavonga electorate too. I would like to thank all those Zambians who helped to bring us here and pay tribute to those who fought against bad governance, drug trafficking, corruption and those who continue to fight for Press freedom, quality education and quality health care. I am here, in this venerable House to present and give voice to their deeply held views. I bring also my own views, my own set of experiences and my own agenda for change.

Mr Speaker, I came here as an inexperienced politician in the Zambian sense, but as someone who has had his fair share of knocks. My view on issues is based on common sense and my experience as an academic and trade unionist.

Mr Speaker, in making my maiden speech, I have something of a dilemma. I know that it may be the only opportunity in my entire career to get my message across uninterrupted. However, the reverse side of the bargain is that I have to be relatively non-controversial. 

Mr Speaker, for me, education is the starting point for any economic crusade. It is the starting pointing of breaking this vicious circle of poverty. This is why we are going to continuously state that education must be free at all levels in this country. The greatest wealth of any nation, Mr Speaker, is its people, the poor inclusive.

So, investing in the education of our people and increasing their health and nutrition is in itself an act of wealth creation. Wealth creation cannot take place in a vacuum. Intellectual resources must drive it. Thus education is the indispensable key, engine and fuel to better personal and national productivity. Hence, the education poverty alleviation nexus.

Mr Speaker, the danger is that an individual will find it difficult to increase personal, family, community and national productivity if they remain uneducated formally or otherwise. The social economic cost manifests as a lag in the creation of wealth on all fronts, namely: incomes, food, skills, labour time, tax revenue, longevity and overall national economic well being.

Mr Speaker, according to UNESCO’s ‘Education For All, an Expanded Vision’, and I quote:

‘Education produces substantial value for money. This is reflected both in national accounts and individual earnings. As people are educated, earnings grow, so do savings, so does investment and, in turn, so does the well being of society.’

For example, in an economy like Zambia where women are the pillars of household food security, the link between farmers’ education and farmer efficiency are just that more education for women could bring agricultural yields. This is the idea of the UPND’s farmer field schools.

Hon. Opposition Members: Hear, hear!

Mr Syakalima: Mr Speaker, education is not just a social service. Education creates wealth through skills and person power that create the ability to run the wheels of industry. Education produces knowledge which, of course, is the most important virtual raw material for industry. Education is, therefore, a factor of production and knowledge is an important economic resource.

In Zambia, today, 23 per cent of the people are illiterate while 27 are functionally illiterate. How can we increase the productivity of these people so that there is wealth creation? I believe that if there is the exercise of political will to change priorities from lavish expenditures for education, we can jump-start the process of wealth creation. This is because whether someone is in white, blue or gray formal employment, dependent on individual skills or in subsistence farming or is a labourer in industry or cash crop farm, education propels better performance. Education is the common denominator of personal and national development. The example of South Korea and Pakistan, perhaps, illustrates the potency of knowledge and education in national development. According to the World Education Forum, and I quote:

‘Both countries had the same per capita income in 1960, but different primary enrolments. The republic of Korea had 94 per cent while Pakistan had 30 per cent. By 1996, the Republic of Korea had three times the per capita gross domestic product of Pakistan.’

Mr Speaker, out of the entire population in Zambia, a paltry ten per cent of our children have attained Grade 10 to 12.  62 per cent of this 10 per cent, who left school between Grades 10 and 12, have cited lack of support as the reason for leaving school. 

So, if you can provide free education up to grade 7 and then a bursary up to Grade 9 and one is unable to proceed, what would you have achieved? This is why we are saying that Government just has to find money and provide free education up to Grade 12.

Mr Speaker, education is the favoured instrument for combating unemployment, the driving force for advancement in science and technology, the essential pre-requisite for labour intensive society. It is the spearhead of social progress, the safeguard of democratic values and the passport to individual and national success.

Mr Speaker, the two universities in this country have suffered mass cut-backs in the way funds are provided to them The current K53 billion which was given to the two universities of which the University of Zambia will get about K28.8 billion is actually causing one to have a feeling that this budget, if viewed in the prism of university allocation, is a budget of despair. It is creating hopelessness and helplessness. Therefore, even what His Excellency the President of the Republic of Zambia was talking about curbing the brain drain from the two universities, may not happen as long as, for example, K28.8 billion allocated to the University of Zambia remains that way. The University of Zambia owes the creditors to a tune of K49 billion, that was as at 31st December, 2001.

Now, when you compare the allocation of K28.8 billion against the indebtedness of the institution of closer to K50 billion and then in the similar vein you want to curb the brain drain, I am sorry, the brain is going to continue draining. Once the brain drains, the country is brought to a stand still.

Mr Speaker, to survive in peace and harmony, united and strong, we must have one people, one nation, and one Zambia. The greatest cause of family breakdown is unemployment. This country of ours has rich mineral deposits, vast rich lands for agriculture and so many rivers and lakes and yet, we are US$7.3 billion in debt. An average Zambian owing US$700 in external debt. 

This is a crisis that the recent Government ignored because of lack of the will. We have the highest interest rates in the world and we owe more money per capita than any other country. All we need, Mr Speaker, is a nail hole in the bottom of the boat and we are sunk. 

Mr Speaker the Government must be imaginative enough to become involved, in the short term at least, in job creating projects that will help establish the foundation for a resurgence of national development and enterprises. Such schemes would be the construction of rural road networks, water conservation, re-forestation and other sensible and practical environmental projects. 

The Government must do all it can to help reduce interest rates for business. How can we survive or compete with other countries with relatively low interest rates? Reduced tariffs on foreign goods that compete with local products seem only to cost Zambians their jobs. We must look after our own before lining the pockets of overseas countries and investors at the expense of our living standards and our future. Mr Speaker, time is running out. Zambians need and want leaders who can inspire and give hope in difficult times. Now is the time for the Mwanawasa Government to accept the challenge.

Sir, I am proud to represent Siavonga Constituency. It is the jewel in the eye of Southern Province and Zambia. It is the land that only God could have dreamed of to create. It will lead the way to tourism on its own terms and on community services. The average age of my constituents is about eighteen years. They are young, vibrant, dynamic and they have latent innate potential. Sir, I am proud of these people, I am proud of them  - they delight me. Their prowess in the face of poverty, deprivation and difficulty never ceases to amaze me. I am not proud of my people’s prison rates (over various offences). I am not proud of their hospitalisation rates. But I am proud of them whether they are in prison, whether they are in hospitals, whether they are failures in the education system that might well be a failure itself, because I understand their huge wasted potentials. Mr Speaker, systems have got a tendency of producing victims and then always blaming the victim. We cannot afford this failure. The nation cannot afford our failure. Siavonga progress, I believe, will be the true pendulum and the true fountain-head of this nation’s success. As Siavonga surges and swings forward, so too will this nation.

Mr Speaker, what I request of in this House is that, it matters not in our melting pot, whether you are Tonga, Lozi, Bemba, Mambwe, Luchazi or simply a Bantu, it matters not whether you are from Southern, Eastern, Northern, North-Western or Luapula. What matters is that we are all here together and we have no choice but to get on together. Personally, I am a product of destined relationships.

Hon. Opposition Members: Hear, hear!

Mr Syakalima: We must rejoice in our diversity, and not wallow in our differences.

Hon. Opposition Members: Hear, hear!

Mr Lubinda: Tell them!

Mr Syakalima: We should be like scholars who accentuate their disagreements, who like to sharpen the issues. The deeper each goes into a question, the more he disagrees with every scholar. And that is all to their good. It furthers understandings. Scholars, in addition, Mr Speaker, wish to win their battles by fact and logic and not by the number of their adherents. If someone applauds my statement who does not understand it, that is disagreeable. Therefore, the art of finding a ground on which we, who agree about little, can nevertheless stand together is not an art to be despised.

Mr Speaker, what sometimes we hear when people go to other people’s constituencies of saying you are not going to get development because you voted in a certain manner or in another pattern which another person does not agree, should be checked and, I think, stopped.

Mr Speaker, no one has the monopoly on our unending story of nationhood, and certainly no one has the manual for our nationhood. 

Hon. Opposition Members: Hear, hear!

Mr Syakalima: In the last decade, we were subjected to severe intolerance, thinly disguised by sanctimonious rhetoric. I hope this time around it should end.

Sir, good Government is about rationing scarce resources and prioritising where to place the spending. Every expensive Volvo purchased; every Millennium Village constructed, every Challenger jet pushed down our throats, on the basis of jingoism, cannot be sustained. We are a nation with a huge fashion chest. In fact, if you look at our current deficit you would have to say our nation has a huge sunken chest. We are our own worst enemies. That is why, Mr Speaker, Government is about seeking new priorities.

My people in Siavonga are not going to eat or feed on expensive Volvos. They cannot eat jets, neither can they feed on these new millennium villages. They need education. Mr Speaker, what great armory can you provide for your people than to educate them to be informed, discerning, participating communities so they can nurture their democracy and know the true taste of liberty in our times? What better investment to empower our communities to attack the new frontiers and defend ours? Hon. Members of the House, through you, Mr Speaker, let us pause and calmly think about this.

Mr Speaker, I hope I have spoken on behalf of my people and I take this seat today they have graciously bestowed upon me. Let it be known that from this day on, the young, vibrant, communities of Siavonga will be heard and they will be honoured and respected because now is their time to stand tall, be counted and take a right performing on merit to participate in the land of their ancestors.

Mr Speaker, everything I have said, is relevant to my electorate. I do have concerns for my country and I am going to do my best to speak my mind and stand for what I believe in. I consider myself just an ordinary citizen who wants to keep this great country strong and my greatest desire is to see all Zambians treat each other as equals as we travel together in the new century. I will fight to keep my seat in this place, but that will depend on the people who sent me here.

And finally, Mr Speaker, I would like to say, what a pleasure it is, having arrived at this male citadel, to see a number of strong and interesting women in this Chamber and to note how the face of Parliament has changed.

Hon. Opposition Members: Hear, hear!

Mr Syakalima: Hon. Members of Parliament, through you, Mr Speaker, I thank you for your attention and trust that you will not think me presumptuous if I dedicate this speech to the people of Siavonga and those Zambians who supported me. I salute them all.

I thank you very much, Sir.

Hon. Opposition Members: Hear, hear!

Mr Situmbeko (Senanga): Mr Speaker, I thank you for allowing me to deliver my Maiden Speech and, at the same time, thank the people Senanga for electing me as their Member of Parliament in this House.

Mr Speaker, let me also congratulate you and the Deputy Speaker, for having been re-elected to your higher offices of Speaker and Deputy Speaker respectively.

Hon. Members: Hear, hear!

Mr Situmbeko: The election has given you dignity because you were competing with other people unlike in the past where you were elected by acclamation, ‘the Ayes have it’. With this election, I thank you and your deputy.

Hon. Members: Hear, hear!

Mr Situmbeko: Mr Speaker, the level of poverty in this country has reached an alarming stage. Many people live below the poverty datum line and such poverty came about because of the previous Government’s failure to recognise the importance of the agriculture sector and invest in it. They were allergic to what Kaunda had put in place.

They forgot the philosophy of Dr Kaunda of ‘Go back to the land’. And because of this, today we are a hungry country.

Hon. Members: Hear, hear! {mospagebreak}

Mr. Situmbeko: Mr. Speaker, the New Deal Government, having appointed a Minister of Agriculture AND Co-operatives who is corruption-free, should take the following measures if the Budget is aimed at poverty alleviation.

(a)    Register the co-operatives put in place by Dr Kaunda in all the wards for easy crop marketing.

Hon. Members: Hear, hear!

Mr. Situmbeko: 

(b)     Early delivery of inputs to centres at the right time and not vice versa. There should be opening of feeder roads to production areas. In this regard, Sir, I request the Government to give me two feeder roads in my constituency. This is the Senanga Boma via Luyi embankment to Mumbula for easy marketing of maize and rice.

Mr. Speaker, we need another feeder road from Lunande to Luimwemba, Luimwemba to Lipuwe, Luimwemba to Namabunga, Namabunga to Lilela, Lilela to Wanyau joining the Senanga Road to Mombola. These are two roads on the runway of the Luyi Valley.

Mr. Speaker, loan facilities should be made available to peasant farmers in the Budget, if the Budget is aimed at reducing poverty.

Mr. Speaker, our Education System has been fluctuating like the Kwacha since Independence. It has not stabilised but remained like a laboratory where science experiments are carried out. It has, Sir, undergone numerous changes with syllabi different from one another. The first change was after Independence  which saw traditional teaching to Zambia Primary Course. From the Zambia Primary Course, we went to Zambia Basic Education Course; from the Zambia Basic Education Course to Zambia Teacher Education Course (ZATEC).

Mr. Speaker, such changes with different methodologies proved futile. The unstable education system forced the rich to send their children to other countries, leaving the poor with no option for the welfare of their children. And this type of education, if un-checked, will make us sit on a volcano because we are rich today because of the common person who has brought us here. Now, why should we ignore him when we come to education?

Mr. Speaker, worse still the ministry has been characterised by shortage of teachers in rural areas due to the poor state of accommodation. Nineteen schools in my constituency are of pole and daga with Grades 1 to 7 of which twelve schools have one teacher each. One teacher teaches from Grades 1 to 7. What type of education is that? That is not education.

Mr. Speaker, nine of these schools have two teachers. One teacher has from Grades 1 to 9. Imagine how one can teach from Grades 1 to 9. Sir, we should revisit the Ministry of Education, otherwise we are cheating the common person.

Mr. Speaker, the ministry should urgently employ the teachers who graduated in the years 2000 and 2001 and at the same time put them on the pay-roll to minimise the shortage of teachers. We talk about the shortage of teachers but those who graduated in 2000 and 2001 are still languishing in the villages and some have even opted to join private schools. What are we doing and where are we going and where are we taking the common person?

Mr. Speaker, this also applies to the Ministry of Health. Mr. Speaker, many nurses have graduated and since 2000 and 2001 these nurses are just languishing in their homes, they have not been employed. Why are we wasting public resources to take people to colleges and we leave them unemployed?

Mr. Speaker, for the reasons I have given above, there is no need for me to praise the Budget because I know that the people from Barotseland do not believe in showering praises before action is seen. We believe in pragmatic issues.

Hon. Members: Hear, hear!

Mr Situmbeko: We will praise the hon. Minister of Finance and National Planning when he delivers whatever is embodied in the Budget and we will say, ‘the older the bull, the harder the horns’.

Hon. Members: Hear, hear!

Mr Situmbeko: Mr Speaker, the Ministry of Home Affairs should address issues on the plight of police officers in Senanga. In the Public Investment Programme 2001-2003, there is a provision that they were rehabilitating police camps and stations and offices. But unfortunately, Senanga has no police camp. Where has this money gone? Or is it coming this year for the establishment of a police camp in Senanga? If that is the case, then I will thank the Minister of Home Affairs for the job he will do.

Mr Speaker, the poor police officers have been operating for more than three years without a vehicle. What security have you put in place for these people? So, Sir, I request the Ministry of Home Affairs to assist these people. I also wish to appeal to the Ministry of Health to solve the plight of the people in my constituency. Sir, they travel long distances of more than twenty kilometres looking for medication. I request that health posts be established in the constituency so as to eliminate the long distances my people are subjected to.

Mr Speaker, with regard to water, I am appealing to the hon. Minister responsible for environment to look into the plight of the people in my constituency. Some of them drink very dirty water mixed with mud and yet this constituency was run by a hon. Minister from the MMD Government. 

Hon. Opposition Members: Shame!

Mr Situmbeko: The hon. Minister was here. For ten years, the MMD Members of Parliament ran that constituency but nothing has been done. So we should ensure that when we assume positions of power, we should do it merely to serve the people and not to hurt other people. Even the laws that we enact here should be for the people.

Mr Speaker, I once said in this Parliament here that whatever law you are enacting, if it is a bad one, it will work against you. The law that we enacted to forbid Dr Kaunda from getting his retirement benefits because he was still in active politics, today, is working against Chiluba.

Laughter.

Mr Situmbeko: What can he say now?

Hon. Members: Hear, hear!

Mr Situmbeko: His immunity is now gone and he is now as common as Hon. Situmbeko.

Laughter.

Mr Situmbeko: Even you hon. Ministers, you are ministers today but you will not be hon. Ministers tomorrow. Whatever you do against us today, it will also be done against you tomorrow.

Hon. Opposition Members: Hear, hear!

Mr Situmbeko: Mr. Speaker, I do not want to mention someone here who was too adamant when he was holding a ministerial post. But today, Sir, he is as humble as a camel.

Laughter.

Mr Situmbeko: We are appointed to serve the masses and we are here as people of the same family. The opportunity we have now is not the same one we will have tomorrow. Tomorrow, you will come to me asking for water and I will say, ‘are you asking for water from me because when you were hon. Minister you were forsaking me?’

Mr Speaker, with these few remarks I wish to congratulate you once more on your re-election to the post of Speaker.

I thank you.

Hon. Members: Hear, hear!

Mr Speaker: Order! The House will recall that barely ten or so minutes ago we corrected the name of the Office of the President Special Division to the Zambia State Intelligence Service. That is the correct name.

The Chair did not wish to interrupt the hon. Member for Senanga when he made reference to a name that is not officially known in this House or elsewhere. Since this House deals in matters of fact, the record shall show that where he said or used the word ‘Barotseland’ that record will show that the correct name is Western Province.

Hon. Members: Hear, hear!

Mr Speaker: Any further debate?

Mr Nakalonga (Chikankata): Mr Speaker, I thank you for giving me this opportunity to speak. I wish also to congratulate you and your Deputy, including all members of the House for winning the battles during the heavily contested elections.

Mr Speaker, I come from a rural constituency where people are solely dependent on agriculture for their livelihood. To be specific, cropping maize and cattle rearing. Unfortunately, agriculture in Zambia is under severe stress due to poor policies in this field. Peasant farmers who used to grow about 60 per cent of the main staple food for the people of Zambia, have been neglected. In many instances, out rightly robbed of their produce since the coming of the MMD Government into power.

Mr Speaker, I need not go into detail about the promissory notes where poor rural communities were cheated out of their hard-earned maize crop. This was a cruel act of dishonest on the part of the MMD Government. As if this was not enough, the peasant farmers are again victims of the urban briefcase businessmen and women who offer ridiculously uneconomic low prices for the produce which they later resale to the urban communities at exorbitant prices, again exploiting urban communities. The majority of whom are unemployed and their terminal packages remain unpaid for as long as five years. We hope that the new vision in agriculture will be implemented to the letter.

Mr Speaker, poverty and its offshoots as one would call them, hunger, disease and ignorance will undermine peace and democratisation process and bring chaos in the country. We have seen this happen in other countries. I am not being an alarmist but merely stating facts. There is no dignity in poverty.

In this regard, Sir, the MMD Government has rightly taken full responsibility for the obtaining economic problems. Ten years is long enough period to correct all the perceived mal-functions of the economy. We cannot continue blaming the UNIP Government for the current economic and social malaise.

Hon. Opposition Members: Hear, hear!

Mr Nakalonga: If anything, this country is now a ghost of the Zambia we lived in ten years ago and has caused untold misery to the majority of Zambians.

Since 1991, so many policies on agriculture, health, education environment, etc, have been formulated. Both good and bad but very little has been done to implement them except where it benefitted a few individuals. We had created millionaires in so short a time out of nothing. This is at the expense of millions of Zambians. It is unacceptable.

Mr Speaker, treatable and preventable animal diseases have wiped out cattle in Southern Province and other parts of Zambia. This problem is serious in my constituency, Chikankata. Why do we not learn from our neighbour, Botswana, on animal diseases control since as a nation, we are good at copying from others?

Sir, both the President and the Minister of Finance and National Planning had said something to this effect but unless that is implemented, we shall remain where and people will continue wallowing in poverty.

Mr Speaker, education is another eyesore in Zambia, like others have said, where the MMD Government has performed dismally. Article 36 of UN Universal Declaration states that education is a human right and the elementary education in particular, should be free and compulsory. Although Zambia is a signatory to this declaration, albeit, with disclaimer has lamentably failed to honour it.

Sir, it is the same for many other covenants or declarations related to Economic, Social and Culture (ECOSOC). This means an increase in illiteracy among Zambians. Painting a gloomy picture for the future generations. Many speakers before me had talked about the effects of free education only up to Grade Seven. I need not repeat this. The Government should not pay lip service in addressing issues of illiteracy.

Among the common causes of illiteracy in Zambia whichthe  Government should address are:

1.    The Cost of Education – Many Zambians cannot afford school fees yet leaders are sending their children to expensive schools abroad at the expense of over-burdened taxpayers.

2.    Insufficient and poorly paid teachers – Most of the teachers are volunteering their services for salaries that they are getting are below living wages. HIV/AIDS has also a bearing on education. PAYE as proposed in the budget, will actually worsen those earning around K300,000 per month.

3.    Poor or complete lack of teaching materials and space.

4.    Economic opportunity costs – Parents have to choose between sending their children to school or engage them in child labour for the survival of the family.

5.    Teachers, especially in rural areas, need housing empowerment like their counterparts in other industries. Building of institutional houses at schools in rural areas as pronounced in the Budget by the Minister of Finance and National Planning is not an end itself. It should be empowerment to the teachers themselves.

Mr Speaker, I know that health is the concern of all Zambians, both in rural and urban areas. Health ranks highest in human development. A sick and weak person is a liability to the family and to the nation at large. Thus, health is an asset while ill-health is a liability. Health is key to poverty reduction and human development. A sick person just as is an illiterate person is unproductive thereby adding to poverty. Against this backdrop, the Government of the Republic of Zambia has tried to say so many things. Worst of all, they retired very young and energetic teachers for demanding good service to the patients and good Conditions of Service, which I think this was retrogressive enough. But of great concern in my constituency, Chikankata, are the wide variations where more than 50 per cent of the sick members of the households have to walk more than 10 kilometres to the health centres.

In Chikankata, we have two major health institutions. We have Chikankata Hospital and Namalundu Health Centre in Kafue Gorge. Chikankata Mission Hospital has 249 beds servicing patients from all over the country. More so relatives of the influential people in urban areas, including Members in Lusaka send their patients because of the good medical care. So far Namalundu Health Centre also has served some people with diseases like tuberculosis (TB). Otherwise the health centre lacks many required services such as an operating theatre.

Mr Speaker, Sir, the MMD hon. Minister of Health a few years ago, in a surprising manner cut the grant in aid to this hospital from Government, to 100 beds only resulting  in the closure of more than four wards. People of Chikankata have not forgotten this gesture and they will never forgive the MMD Government until the grant aid is increased to 249 beds because that is what the hospital can cater for.

The other problem, Sir, is the road to Chikankata. From the turn off along Mazabuka/Kafue Road it is only 31 kilometres. Of this, only 10 kilometres is tar-marked and this was done during the by-elections in 1994 after the demise of the late hon. Lumina. Since then, the other 21 kilometres has remained untarred and the road is in bad shape and it requires attention.

In the same vein, the rural roads in Chikankata Constituency are impassable. We have seen graders during the by-elections even during the rain season coming to make canals where there are supposed to be roads. We hope this will change, Sir.

Governance

Governance, Mr Speaker, is another sticky issue in Zambia. During the 12th Consultative Group (CG) meeting in July, 2000 held here in Lusaka, the Zambian Government presented a policy document to the donor community, it was on that document that Zambia based her letter of intent. But to-date, very little has been implemented. On economic governance we have seen the Auditor-General’s reports revealing glaring irregularities but very little has been done to stop the rot. We note the statements from His Excellency, the President and the hon. Minister of Finance and National Planning, but we hope these will not only remain statements. We hope the New Deal administration will allow the law to visit the culprits.

Our prayer is that His Excellency, the President’s pronouncement when he opened this august House on corruption and thieving will be implemented to the letter. We shall watch with an eagle’s eye.

In all, we want the governance document revisited possible brought in this House for debate and made part of Zambian laws for adherence to it.

Civil Society

Mr Speaker, the President made a mention of civil society activities in Zambia/ In this country NGOs and CBOs are of varying nature ranging from professional associations to community based organisations. Some of the organisations are self-sponsored while others are sponsored by taxpayers, in the North, that is from the developed countries and by the Zambia Government. The NGCs called GONGO and PAM are an example of this group. There is still another group. This includes the Private Volunteer Organisations (PVO) originating in the developed countries e.g. Care International and many others.

With such an array, Mr Speaker, it is very difficult to know and understand the motives, missions and mandates of all these CBOs and NGOs. Hence, the existing finger pointing.

Mr Speaker, the only way forward to end this problem is to have a clear policy on civil society. An attempt in this direction was made through the sponsorship of the donor community who sponsored an NGO bill production workshop. The work was done by NGOs and CBOs themselves and the draft bill was handed over to the Government through the Ministry of Legal Affairs through the Ministry of Community Development and Social Services for an enactment into law. This bill has been there for over three years now.

My humble request is that let the New Deal government reactivate the subject so that we can have a clear NGO policy as in countries like Tanzania, Ghana, South Africa and many more.

It is not my intention to debate the Budget as I know an opportunity will come. I will do so at an appropriate time.

I thank you, Sir.

Miss Jere (Luangeni): Thank you for giving me this opportunity to make my maiden speech in this august House. Allow me to congratulate you for your victory to the position of the Speaker of the House and indeed, to congratulate the Deputy Speaker on his election to his position and fellow hon. Members for being elected to this august House.

I also want to thank the people of Luangeni Constituency for electing me to be their representative from among so many capable candidates. I will endeavour to represent their interests to the best of my ability.

Mr Speaker, in Luangeni we have one perception and expectations of the New Deal Government that is of improving peoples’ lives. The Republican President touched on many important and interesting issues in his Speech of 22nd February, 2002, some of which issues I now want to comment upon.

First and foremost, the state of this nation can precisely be summed up as being in dire straits. The New Deal must, therefore, get real in order to make a positive difference.

Agriculture

What is remarkable about our performance in agriculture is that we have made the same mistakes year in, year out. We do not seem to learn from our past mistakes. I am not yet convinced that the New Deal will be any exception.

I hardly remember when I last saw Extension Officers or Agricultural Assistants doing rounds in my area. And yet, what these fellows need are items as basic as bicycles or motor cycles to provide them with mobility to cover designated areas.

When we talk of agriculture inputs, we seem to forgot one important input, which invariably, precede the use of physical inputs; that is technical knowledge. However basic, this may turn out to be. Peasant farmers as well as small scale farmers need to be equipped with basic know how for soil conservation, fertility, preservation and enrichments, proper use of chemicals and fertilisers. In the better days gone by, obviously, more than ten years ago, this used to be a regular feature in the farming activities. We need to employ better and scientific farming methods if we intend to make headway in agriculture. It is gratifying to note from the President’s Speech that late accountability of inputs of fertiliser and seeds will be a thing of the past. Late this be truly so.

Mr Speaker, rehabilitation of infrastructure should not only be restricted to targeted areas of farming blocks and resettlement schemes but must include many remote and inaccessible areas. And there are many such areas in my constituency. There are a number of key feeder roads and bridges that were not included in the budget for rehabilitation. These roads are critical to movement of agriculture inputs and produce. 

Mr Speaker, commercialisation of livestock farming is a very positive move. But for as long as I can remember, Eastern Province has been held to have swine fever and there is a permanent ban on transportation of live cattle past the Luangwa Bridge. Surely, are these diseases meant to be of a permanent nature? Eastern Province has great potential to increase and commercialise livestock farming. In order to achieve this, the Government needs to address certain matters first. We need to put into place deliberate policies and programmes that will expand livestock population per capita, such as the eradication of swine fever which has been said to exist in the province for many years now; lift the ban on movement of live cattle to create market opportunities for cattle farmers; make available affordable veterinary medicines, including construction of dip tanks and boreholes at central and strategic points to facilitate communal use; initiate programmes that will enhance the quality of livestock and meet products such as cross breeding of various spaces and encourage growing of stockfeed; provision of term loans, farmers must also extend to those involved in livestock farming to assist them in getting parent stockfeed farming, afford veterinary medicines and put up basic infrastructure; and inoculations and vaccination programmes must be a must.

Mr Speaker, pangs of hunger are really biting in Luangeni. While we might wish to tackle agriculture and food security, issues in the short and medium-term, there is now an immediate problem of food shortage that requires an immediate solution. I have deliberately taken up this issue with the Office of the Vice-President who has shown some generosity so far. Thank you. More needs to be done.

Mr Speaker, small-scale as well as peasant farmers will need to access some form of financing to start them off. We should look seriously at the re-introduction of the Co-operative Bank for agricultural loans.

Education

Mr Speaker, Sir, in my constituency, we have a large number of primary schools whose infrastructure is in a deplorable state. My view is that the state of physical environment impacts and does reflect on the quality of education a pupil will walk away with. There is now no quality control in the delivery of this service. The Government needs to effectively re-introduce school inspections to look into such aspects as quality of teaching, coverage of syllabus, assimilation of knowledge by pupils, the state of school buildings, teachers’ houses, sports activities and other extramural activities. Each and every Government school must be subjected to at least three of such inspections per year. There must be a set minimum standard of facilities for a school to run.

Mr Speaker, only half of educational problems can be attributed to such availability or lack of it. The other half is actually disorganisation. Take, for example, the issue of universities. The Government is entertaining the introduction of a third university, but how much success or rather how much of the mess have we made of the two existing institutions in the last ten years. Closures are the order of the day for whatever reasons. Now, if the two institutions cannot be managed sensibly, what makes think it will be any easier to run three or four institutions?

Mr Speaker, I suggest that we clean the present mess by returning schools, colleges and universities to the academic standards of 1970/71 as a minimum before we can apply funds to a third university or fourth or whatever.

Governance

Mr Speaker, this is a woolly and fluid topic. We hear people preaching democracy when they do not have the faintest idea what it is.

Laughter.

Miss Jere: Their actions and words are totally at variance. How does one, for instance, hold on to the helm of trade union affairs for 16 years or so without elections and wants to go for the Third Term against the Constitution? Or have they organised demonstrations against an arm of Government that is intended to strengthen good governance? Mr Speaker, it is very easy for anybody to claim and preach democracy but it is the actions that matter.

Coming to transparency and good governance, I hope we will have seen the beginning and the end of political murders. Let us spare a thought for the likes of Ronald Penza and his so-called killers who were slain in cold blood, Wezi Kaunda and Paul Tembo. All these at one time or another were Members of this august House and yet the truth surrounding their deaths is just mysterious today. And we have not heard much from the Human Rights Commission. I suggest that the human Rights Commission should be given some teeth to show and bite. This nation still awaits the Gabon Disaster Report, … 

Hon. Opposition Members: Hear, hear!

Miss Jere: … the sale and purchase of Presidential jets, the assassination attempt of the First Republican President at Kabwe, the Black Mamba and Zero Option Schemes are but a few mysteries that the nation has had to live with.

Hon. Opposition Members: Hear, hear!

Miss Jere: Can this House now resolve that all is well and all is forgotten and we must continue with business as usual?

Hon. Opposition Members: No.

Miss Jere: Mr Speaker, let us get real and let the New Deal deliver on these.

Employment, Labour and Social Services

Mr Speaker, the issue of employment was never addressed. Unemployment rate in the nation is increasing at an alarming rate with the consequence anti social results such as crime, pregnancies, HIV/ AIDS, urbanisation and recently street kids. Has anybody considered why there are no street kids in rural areas? We want to know what happens to our children when they drop out of school or indeed when they finish college or university? We need to chart a clear path for them, this is the least we can do as parents and a responsible Government.

Coupled with this is a career progression. Now that …

Mr Speaker: Order! 

Business was suspended from 1815 hours until 1830 hours

Miss Jere: The Government, Mr. Speaker, is the largest single employer. We, therefore, need a well-educated, well- trained and well-disciplined Civil Service. 

Hon. Member: Hear, hear!

Miss Jere: We must re-introduce active and well structured, career progression and in-service training programmes to continuously sharpen the skills of our civil servants We cannot afford to have a heavily politicised Civil Service full of cadres who now find themselves as civil servants because it is part of their reward for their party activities.

Hon. Opposition Members: shame!

Miss Jere: District Administrators are an example of this. To this end the Government needs to strengthen the Public Service Commission to handle all Government appointments up to the position of Permanent Secretary level. Equally important, the Government must urgently consider the introduction of career diplomats in the foreign service so as to do away with mediocrity in this very important area of the Civil Service. Unfortunately, The foreign service has been a fertile ground for political appeasements. Party cadres can hardly articulate Zambia's foreign policy nor can they project positively Zambia's image abroad, this must stop.

Hon. Opposition Members: Hear, hear!

Miss Jere: Zambia deserves a better deal.

As regard to power and fuel, Mr. Speaker, the President made a number of references with regard to the cost of these items in his speech. Surely, these are controllable and Government. They can actually be reduced at the stroke of a pen. Do we all know the cost structure of our electricity bill? Or that of a litre of petrol and diesel?

The reduction in diesel prices is very welcome. But the hon. Minister of Finance and National Planning should have gone further to look at the fuel pricing mechanism which disadvantages rural areas…

Hon.Opposition.Members: Hear, hear!

Miss Jere: …by way of higher fuel costs per litre, apparently on account of transportation. Why can't the fuel marketing companies adopt one uniform price for the entire nation, …

Hon.Opposition Members: hear, hear!

Miss Jere: … whereby higher urban area sales volumes make up for the deficient in rural areas. We have seen this before and currently coca-cola is sold on this basis national wide. What is so unique with fuel? All we need is a political will.

Hon. Member: Hear, hear!

Miss Jere: As for electricity, should  we not start by investigating ZESCO's operations and its latest expenditure patterns? All expenditure on matters not related to ZESCO's operations must be answered for. There are actually a lot of inefficiencies built in Z0ESCO's tariffs 

Hon. Opposition Member: Cabinet material.

Miss Jere: Mr. Speaker, as regard to economy, the introduction of development plans of predetermined planning horizons comes as a great relief to us all. At last the last ten year era of myopia, haphazard and the un-coordinated Government  action plan seems to have come to and end and orderliness is being assured in.

Mr Speaker, the development plans must reflect the wishes and aspiration of the people. I cannot think of a more effective way of achieving this than by Members of Parliament having direct input into this procession based on their intimate knowledge of their respective constituencies. Going by our campaign rounds, we are actually the best field 
officers.

Hon. Opposion Members: Hear, hear!

Miss Jere: We, as representative of our respective constituencies, must be tasked to draw up plans from ground zero for submission as input to the hon. Minister of Finance and National Planning, maybe through Provincial Permanent Secretaries. I feel we are better placed to properly identify our development proposals than a person sitting in Lusaka telling the constituencies what they need for their development. We know the schools, the brides, the roads, the health centres that need to be built or rehabilitated, I feel the Government can benefit from our knowledge in the planning process. Let us now try a hand on approach.

Mr Speaker, I wish to remind….

Hon. Opposition Member: Quality.

Laughter.

Mr Mwaba (Mpika Central): Thank you, Mr.Speaker, for according me this chance to deliver my maiden speech. 

Mr Speaker, may I congratulate you and your Deputy Speaker on having been re-elected to your positions in this august House.

Hon. Members: Hear, hear!

Mr. Mwaba: You have a great task ahead of you, Sir, which is that of coordinating the activities of the House in the face of the multiplicity of political parties here represented by the various Members of Parliament. So far, you have gone a long way in proving to the House how experienced and impartial you are in the deliberations of this august House.

Hon. Members: Hear, hear!

Mr Mwaba: Mr. Speaker, allow me to congratulate His excellency the President of the Republic of Zambia on his election victory during the just ended tripartite elections. It was not and easy task but eventually he made it.

Hon. Members: Hear, hear!

Mr Mwaba: I also wish to congratulate my fellow Members of Parliament on their victory in the various constituencies they represent here today. My message to all fellow Members of Parliament is that we have the mandate to the electorate and as such, the electorate must be served prudently at all costs. This, Sir, can only be achieved depending on how we interact as Government and Opposition. In this regard it would help us greatly if we could carry with business much above partisan politicking.

Mr Speaker, the President’s Speech as deliver by the Republican President, Mr. Levy Patrick Mwanawasa, State Counsel, has left confidence in all Zambians from all walks of life. The speech has shown how much the President wishes to serve the lives of the people not only in Zambia but the world at large. 

Hon. Members: Hear, hear!

Mr Mwaba: Much as I appreciated the speech, I also believe that its implementation is of paramount importance. Implementation, Sir, lies in the hands of the hon. Members seated here today, especially the Ministers and Deputy Ministers. The Opposition, I believe, will provide all the checks and balances …

Hon. Opposition Members: Hear, hear!

Mr Mwaba: … not necessarily to their own selfish earns but to the common good of the Zambian society as a whole.

Hon. Government Members: Hear, hear! Tell them!

Mr Mwaba: It is to this end, Sir, that I wish to insert just a piece of advice to my Government, that there is need that all ministries must reflect the President’s aspirations; high standards of performance and good professional conduct must be maintained at all costs; and ministries must be inter-linked to restore order, confidence and all that goes with good governance.

We are no longer quarrelling on party political lines, but rather harmonising on how best we can serve the people by delivering what is due to them at an appropriate time.

Hon. Government Member: Above MCC material.

Mr Mwaba: Mr Speaker, allow me this time to thank the hon. Minister of Finance and National Planning, Mr Emmanuel Kasonde, for his presenting to this House the most workable Budget under the prevailing circumstances. To him, I say ‘job well done’.

Hon. Government Members: Hear, hear!

Mr Mwaba: Mr Speaker, I am not an economist by profession, but rather just a teacher of Mathematics and Sciences. However, the Budget was presented in a form easy to comprehend, especially in the Orange Book …

Hon. Opposition Members: Yellow Book!

Mr Mwaba: … entitled ‘Public Investment Programme, 2001 – 2003, Vol. 1, sector Summaries and Investment Strategies.

In this book, Sir, I have discovered that the sectors which were better funded in the year 2001 have received less or no funding this year. This is to cater for other sectors, but above all, it shows me that if we can stick to this year’s Budget programme, in the year 2003, almost all sectors will, again, be well refunded. Heavily for that matter. What marvelous achievements that will be!

Hon. Government Members: Hear, hear!

Mr Mwaba: I wish also to praise the hon. Minister and the Government, as whole, for having taken the initiative to fund the agricultural sector adequately this year in a bid to combat the prevailing hunger situation. This has pleased everybody, Sir, including my colleagues on your left hand side.

Hon. Government Members: Especially Lucas Phiri.

Mr Mwaba: I also wish to commend Government efforts in funding the following sectors Sir: Energy; Transport and Communications; Education; Health; Housing and Resettlement; Science and Technology; and water and sanitation for their pivotal role in the lives of our people.

Mr Speaker, the constituency I represent is in Mpika Central and it is not spared in terms of hunger. However, I commend the Office of the Vice-President for availing relief food to my area …

Hon. Government Members: Hear, hear!

Mr Mwaba:  … though it may not …

Hon. Opposition Members: Mkudya mweka, that is the trend.

Mr Mwaba: … suffice. I hope the good Lord shall see my people through. My only worry, Sir, is the NGO called World Vision, that has the task of distributing this food. Much to the displeasure of the people being served, I have received complaints of food received by the NGO kept for months without it being distributed quickly to alleviate the hunger situation.

Hon. Government Members: Arrest them!

Mr Mwaba: I have been to most Government departments in my constituency, Sir, to familiarise myself with their problems most of which, I believe, Government will tackle sooner or later.

TAZARA in Mpika has a workshop that is capable of assisting all ministries in manufacturing of machinery such as grinding mills, mortars and many more and equipment such as school furniture.

Therefore, I urge the various ministries to make use of this facility (TAZARA Workshop) to alleviate some of the problems we face. Given the necessary support, Sir, TAZARA is also willing to embark on the extension of the Chipata/Mchinji Rail Line, all the way to Mpika where the workshop there will have the capacity to repair locomotives and wagons. This anticipated link will also inject a new life into Mpika and Zambia as a whole.

Mr Speaker, I thank you.

Hon. Government Members: Hear, hear!

Mrs Musokotwane (Katombora): Mr Speaker, let me thank you for giving me this opportunity to give my maiden speech. 

First of all, I wish to congratulate you and your Deputy Speaker on being re-elected into those hot seats. I want to believe that with the guidance of the Lord, you are going to guide us well.

Hon. Opposition Members: Hear, hear!

Mrs Musokotwane: I also want to congratulate the people of Zambia on expressing their wishes by voting for some of us who are here today, especially the people on the Opposition side.

Hon. Government Members: Hear, hear!

Mrs Musokotwane: Mr Speaker, it is poverty in this country, lack of employment and the unstable economy that has brought some of us into this House.

Hon. Government Members: Aha!

Mrs Musokotwane: Definitely!

Sir, let me also congratulate the President on the speech which was really inspiring to all the Zambians. It is commendable that President Mwanawasa was not too proud to borrow liberally from the Opposition party’s manifesto.

Hon. Opposition Members: Hear, hear!

Mrs Musokotwane: I take particular note of what the President said about agriculture and rural development where he has adopted the UPND Manifesto.

UPND Members: Hear, hear!

Mrs Musokotwane: Mr Speaker, I represent Katombora, a rural constituency, and I am conscious of the responsibility that has been placed on my shoulders because I represent an area which, like any other rural constituency, has been grossly neglected by previous Governments through mismanagement of our national  
wealth and resources. 

Hon. Opposition Members: Which Government?

Mrs Musokotwane: The MMD Government, of course. Which other?

Hon. Opposition Members: Hear, hear!

Mrs Musokotwane: Like other areas, Mr Speaker, Katombora has great potential, should we overcome our fixation with the line of rail and begin to exploit the rural areas. During the First and Second Republics, people in the rural areas did not run out of food…

Hon. Opposition Members: Hear, hear!

Mrs Musokotwane:…a phenomenon that we are seeing today. In those days the Government cared about the small producer who is a peasant farmer. Through the co-operatives, the UNIP Government was able to support small-scale farmers and ensure food security for the rural areas. At present, Mr Speaker, in Katombola Constituency, for the peasant farmers to get fertiliser and seed loans, they have to pay what they call a down payment of K200,000. I do not know about other constituencies.

Hon. Opposition Members: Shame!

Mrs Musokotwane: Are we serious when we say 80 per cent of Zambia is poor? If we are serious, where do we expect a peasant farmer in Katombora to get the down payment of K200,000?

To make matters worse, Mr Speaker, sometimes, those that manage to raise the K200,000 will not get the inputs at all. Some times when they get the inputs, it is late and it becomes irrelevant and useless. The Government should realise that in Zambia subsistence agriculture is cheaper, commercial farming is expensive. Therefore, timely support and food security in the rural areas will mean better support for the commercial farmer.

The decline in agricultural production in the rural areas is what has led to this current national catastrophe where rural people are no longer able to feed their families, while those that are in the urban areas cannot afford to buy mealie meal.

Mr Speaker, as the President aptly observed, many areas in the Southern Province are well watered, but that is only during the rainy season. During the rainy season, there are places like Sikaunzwe in my constituency, that are even water logged. Once the rains stop, this water runs disappears and water becomes a problem. This affects agriculture and contributes to the perpetual poor yields because of dependency on rain-fed crops. 

In his speech, the President said that irrigation would become part of the agricultural culture in Zambia. It is my sincere hope that Government will not think of commercial irrigation only, but that it will create communal irrigation schemes for small-scale farmers. The damming of rivers and building of reservoirs should be done, now, because we need to prepare for the coming rainy season. We can only hope to harness the water that we receive during the next season. However, it is still important to encourage people who are in areas that do not get enough rain to grow crops like sorghum and millet because those are drought-resistant.

Mr Speaker, Livestock is another area that the President touched. The people in my constituency used to keep lots of animals, especially cattle. Today, because of animal diseases, there is no animal at all to supply farmers with cow dung.

Laughter.

Mrs Musokotwane: We cannot talk of restocking, Mr Speaker, if measures to eradicate corridor and foot and mouth diseases are not taken. When the diseases have been eradicated, then we can talk about creating loan schemes to help people start re-building their herds again.

I listened attentively when the President talked about tackling poverty through programmes that offer opportunities to people to fend for themselves. In my constituency, Mr Speaker, only improving agriculture for the peasant farmer would be meaningful. There is no public assistance scheme that the Government can put in place to help people in rural areas. I do not know about other constituencies, but, please, give me one example of a welfare scheme that worked anywhere in Zambia. I will be very grateful to try it in Katombola Constituency.

On transport, Mr Speaker, there was a time when the wards in Katombola Constituency were nicely linked by well-graded roads. Now, the roads have not been graded for the last twelve years, even though we know very well that economic and social life of the people depends on transport. Today, Mr Speaker, it is impossible to get to certain areas, especially during the rainy season. Three days before elections, a ten kilometre stretch of the road between Zimba and Nyawa was graded. This was just a campaign strategy for the MMD, which did not work anyway. They lost miserably, for your information. Those election tactics can no longer fool people. We need to do the roads now because the people of Katombola Constituency knew that those were election gimmicks. So, they voted for UPND.

Part of the Nakatindi Road passes through my constituency. I am sure we remember very well when Princes Nakatindi Wina spoke about the road. If this road was well maintained, Zambia was going to benefit. The road provides the country with the shortest route to Walvis Bay and the sea. Imagine, if Mulena Mukwae Nakatindi rose from the dead today, that road is named after her, and sees how they are keeping her road and finds the road in the condition it is, are you sure she will be happy we named it after her?

Mr Speaker, I want to believe and appeal that during your leadership, during this Parliament, please, can we do the Nakatindi Road.

Hon. Government Member: If funds are available.

Mrs Musokotwane: They are supposed to be available. We are not going to re-name it, we are going to rehabilitate it. The road between Livingstone and Kazungula looks even worse because we usually cross there to go to Botswana. When you cross into Botswana and you compare the roads there and in Zambia, it is really embarrassing. Not only are the roads embarrassing, Mr Speaker, we are still using old pontoons that are breaking down day in day out. Really, we are capable of putting a bridge there. It is just a matter of planning by the Government. We are looking forward to the New Deal Government to do the bridge between Zambia and Botswana because, really, that route is very much used by the cross-border traders. It is very busy. So, we need a bridge there, Mr Speaker.

There is supposed to be a rail line in Katombola Constituency, the once famous, Mulobezi train. At the moment, this train can take up to seven days to travel from Livingstone to Ngweze. People travel at their own risk, the train breaks down constantly and people find themselves stranded without food or water while frantic efforts are being made to repair the train. Many risk their lives getting lifts on private ramshackles, piled on top of each other with their luggage on their heads and laps.

Mr Situmbeko: Kwasha mukwenu!

Mrs Musokotwane: Mr Speaker, why should people of Katombora be treated like they are not Zambians? We are Zambians. We need the Government to treat us like Zambians and give us the services we need.

Mr Speaker, I am emphasising the network in my Constituency because of timber. Chief Musokotwane’s area and Chief Sikute have a lot of timber that can be exploited. But right now, there is wanton destruction of forests because the Government has not taken interest in the timber industry, leaving the exploitation of this natural resource in the hands of foreigners and individuals whose only interest and aim is to line their pockets.

Mr Speaker, Kazungula was upraised to boma status five years ago. Yet, up to now, we have no boma. There is no building to show where the boma is. The constituency’s administrative centre is still in Livingstone.

Mr Situmbeko: The DA is there to harass the people.

Mrs Musokotwane: Yes, the DA is there to harass the people like somebody has said …

Laughter.

Mrs Musokotwane: …to feel pompous because he thinks, he lives in the district and yet, he is not doing anything to see that the district is developed.

Mr Situmbeko: Hear, hear!And when you drop him, he comes to us.

Mrs Musokotwane: Mr Speaker, in his speech, the President bemoaned the fact that local people do not visit tourist spots in the country. This is because the people spend their lives trying to eke a living. In addition, the tourist industry does not target the local people. Chief Sikute and Chief Mukuni’s areas in my constituency can be developed to attract tourists. Chiefs Nyawa and Moomba’a areas can attract tourism because of many varieties of game parks in those areas. Instead of tourists, what we get are professional hunters. Game hunting does not bring any money to the local communities at all, but if these areas were developed for game viewing, it would create employment for the local communities. With money in the hands of the local communities, they would learn to relax and enjoy life as Zambians.

Mr Speaker, Katombora Constituency faces one major problem and that is education. In our area, education is different from urban areas. Most of the schools go up to Grade 4 only.

Mr Chulumanda: Why?

Mrs Musokotwane: Do not ask me, ask the Government and mind you, you are in Government. 

When they reach Grade 4, they go back home to wallow in poverty. Do they learn to read and write in the four years that they have been school?

Sir, my Constituency, has only two basic schools. There is no regular secondary school. When those that go up to Grade 7 complete, that is the end of the road to the future for them. The position for girls is worse because of the poverty situation, They are the easiest commodity to sell. They are taken out of schools for early marriages.

Interruptions.

Mrs Musokotwane: Parents see this as a solution to their poverty because when a girl gets married, one mouth has gone. So, they lose a mouth. To them, that is better. Mr Speaker, lobola money is used to feed members of the family for a short time.

Interruptions. 

Mrs Musokotwane: Mr Speaker, I would like to appeal to the hon.Minister of Education to correct this situation between urban and rural education.

We all know well, that an educated wife will make a better wife, mother, farmer and everything.

Hon. Members: Member of Parliament.

Mrs Musokotwane: She will make a better Member of Parliament.

Hon. Members: Hear, hear!{mospagebreak}

Mrs Musokotwane: I would like to appeal to the Ministry of Education that the grant they are promising should also be given to rural areas and these grants should not only buy benches and books. To tell you the truth, most of my schools are just poles in the grounds. We would like to see development of primary and secondary schools in the rural Constituencies.

Mr Speaker, as regards health, which is another problem, I will not debate HIV/AIDS because a lot of people have debated that. We should take into account that HIV/AIDS has given us a lot orphans. This problem is looming over us when the extended family system is dying mainly because of the extreme levels of poverty to which the once mighty nation of Zambia has sunk. 

However, Mr Speaker, in my Constituency, the greatest problem is malaria. Even though, there are some interventions that has been taken such as selling of treated mosquito nets at subsidised prices, these nets do not reach some of the areas and even when they do, some families cannot afford them. They do not have money to buy them. 

The water logged areas, Mr Speaker, should be given attention because these are the areas where mosquitoes breed. My Constituency has no district hospital. There are only health centres.

The Deputy Speaker: Order! The hon. Member’s time is over! Hon. Member for Kabushi, is he here? No!

Mr Chibanga (Chama North): Mr Speaker, I would like to thank you for according me this opportunity to deliver my Maiden Speech.

I would like to congratulate His Excellency, Mr Levy Patrick Mwanawasa, SC, for his wonderful speech to this august House on the Official Opening of the Ninth Parliament.

Hon. Members: Hear, hear!

Mr Chibanga: Mr Speaker, I would further, like to extend a very warm hand to my party UNIP for adopting me for the just ended tripartite election. Mr Speaker, not forgetting my sincere gratitude to my loving and caring electorate. Sir, I would like to thank them all, for voting for me as their representative in this House.

Mr Speaker, I would like to complain that even though the speech was good, people in Chama North do not know His Excellency the President Levy Patrick Mwanawasa SC, Maybe, because the airstrip which was used by the UNIP Government has now turned into a thick forest …

Laughter.

Mr Chibanga: … and the road which this businessman transporter, the so called Sable Transport who made money and left, leaving the road in a deplorable state.

Mr Speaker, my Constituency, Chama North, in the Eastern Province has many problems that need immediate attention from the Government.

The Government was misinformed by a party cadre last season, who is a district chairman that the warehouse was full of maize. I suggest as serious representative of people of Chama that the Government should declare hunger situation as a total disaster even this year. There was no positive reaction from the Government. Hunger in Chama has been as a result of floods which damaged crops as our people do their farming along the banks river and damp areas. 

This year, Mr Speaker, we expect the hunger situation to continue as it is raining heavily. This situation has forced many of our people to abandon farming to go and look for food in Malawi and other districts like Chinsali covering long distances of about 200 kilometres on foot resulting in sickness and death on their way to and from.

Mr Speaker, another influencing factor has been due to non-existence of good feeder roads that existed during the UNIP era.

For example, the road from Chama to Sitwi is a bad road. Because they thought we are in UNIP no development should take place. On this point, I should emphasise that this Government as far back as 1991 when it was voted into power, they still thought that that place was full of UNIP people and they hindered development there. So, these roads are really bad and need construction of bridges at Kampemba, Mbwanta, Kalinkhu and small bridges and culverts between Zandu and Luwumbu River. The other road is from Luwumbu to Luangwa construction of the two bridges requires more financial and material resources. Engineering knowledge is also required not like the one, which is used by Sable.

Sitwe to Chibale via Mulilo Road, building the road require more equipment and finance. There are many more major feeder roads, which have been neglected to mention a few which have resulted into spending more money. If we had a good road network, our districts were not going to suffer from this sad situation of hunger. Roads that were left by the Second Republic are damaged and now bridges look like tombstones in an old graveyard. I would be very happy to see the Government react immediately using helicopters to distribute food as roads have become impassible due to heavy rains.

Most of the few schools in my constituency have lost shape. For example, Chama Secondary School, the only high school in the district has not undergone repairs for a number of years now. The school has no fencing hence exposing it to external vandalism and theft.  Mr Speaker, I am not ashamed here to declare that the school looks like an abandoned military camp. Some of the buildings are falling apart. Sir, Chama High School is one of the outstanding secondary schools in the province, but since the Science Department is out of use and no laboratory, then, with this sad situation, Sir, how can you proudly say that we are educating our future leaders?  Sir, I would like to state that there are a few schools in my constituency where pupils have to walk long distances exposing themselves to dangerous animals and reptiles, when crossing rivers that have no bridges. Provision of books and other educational materials have always been a castle built in the sky.

Mr Speaker, I would like to say that from grade one up to nine there is only one trained teacher because there are no teacher’s houses and these teachers are old lions of KK era. There are no young teachers with new tactics of teaching because they cannot be accommodated. Sir, I am asking the Minister of Education to find money and build teachers houses, otherwise this free education in my constituency will not work. It is like a foolery. Teachers are sent but there are no houses, and they go back.

Coming to roads, Sir, I would say that Chama North is a rich constituency in agriculture and human resources but all these have been hindered due to none existence of a good road network. I believe, Sir, that there can be no development without good roads. Transporters are scared of reaching these areas because of the fear that their vehicles will be damaged. The road which was recently done by Sable has been washed away and bridges have all been broken. Mr Speaker, I suggest this needs immediate action to make our people understand and acknowledge that they are part of Zambia. As most of goods and services come from Malawi due to poor infrastructure that has been in existence for along time now.

Mr Speaker, Chama people are asking for a tar road from Lundazi to Chama. Let us spend dearly once on good work that will last for a period of time then spend little money on a gravel road keep going back for repairs.

Mr Speaker, Sir, Chama people want Matombo Road to be constructed so that goods and services can start to flow. We cannot be subjected to be Malawians. Many of the Members of Parliament who are now deceived have been talking about Matumbo Road, but there is nothing, which has been the executive of the government since independence. They have been talking about Matumbo Road but there is no sign of constructing it, may I be clarified about Matumbo road?

Hon. Government Members: Ask Kaunda!

Mr Chibanga: On the question of clinics, there cannot be a development of any kind if people are not in good health. I feel like my constituency  feels that Chama Clinic is too small a centre to contain the ever increasing population

Sir, I suggest that the clinic be expanded extensively by means of building a new hospital in the district. There are very few clinics in my constituency forcing our people to walk long distances to receive medical attention. In these same clinics, there are no drugs and are manned by environmental health technicians who fail to prescribe the correct medicines to the sick. Mr Speaker, may I suggest that correct personnel be sent to man these clinics. Additionally, this has in turn led to many pregnant women dying before giving birth. This is a sin.

Last but not the least, these already few clinics have been struck by the problem of basic drugs for our people. As you know there are no places where people can buy essential drugs like here in town. Will the Ministry of Health look into this matter seriously. The same few clinic buildings are falling apart due to lack of frequent repairs. My constituency is in need of more modern clinics and qualified medical personnel, preferably doctors.

Agriculture – Over the last ten years, we have seen the heavy down fall of the agriculture development system. This has been due to very poor agriculture policy. Mr Speaker, I suggest that the Minister in the Ministry of Agriculture and the MMD Government apologies to the people of Zambia for subjecting them to these ever-increasing prices due to their over looking the good old policies…

Hon. Government Member: Iwe!

Mr Chibanga: … which the UNIP Government was implementing. 

Laughter.

Mr Chibanga: The following factors have made my constituency face difficulties in improving the agriculture system especially the growing of rice:

Late Delivery of Inputs – I have seen fertiliser being delivered almost at the end of the rain season or nothing at all is delivered. This makes our people lose hope and morale in farming.

Bad Road Infrastructure – We need a tar road from Chama to Lundazi for agriculture to make sense other than sing during campaigns. People are tired of briefcase promises, which are making you MMD to govern. People want action driven economy. They want you to implement what His Excellency said. 

We can also exploit agriculture by opening the Matumbo Road. As you know in Chama we grow rice, millet, groundnuts and many more produce. This road Matumbo connects Malanga Mission Hospital. In Chinsali and the neighbouring Tanzania to market our produce. Mr Speaker, Sir, we have been crying for this road for too long a time since UNIP was in power, why is it that we cannot be heard? Are we speaking to foreigners or Tanzanian government?

Laughter.

Mr Chibanga: We have been talking of Matumbo Road since UNIP Government was in power. We hope the “New Deal” now will take this into consideration.

Interruptions.

Mr Chibanga: With full hope in the “New Deal” we are going to carry this capital project.

Mr Speaker, may the Ministry of Transport and Communication look into this matter seriously and with minimum delay. We want Matumbo Road in Chama District. If you give us Matumbo Road you will see how much rice we can supply to National Assembly Motel. That is not good rice you are eating there. Taiwan Rice, but we have the potential ourselves to give you rice from Chama with good aroma. Can you give us Matumbo Road, please if you are a serious Government.

Mr Speaker, the Government police is completely leaving the buying of agricultural produce to briefcase grain buyers has left a lot of people swindled out of millions of kwacha. This has left a lot of our people with a lot of unanswered questions.

Mr. Speaker, they wonder whether the Ministry of Agriculture and Co-operatives is under receivership or liquidated like the Meridien BIO Bank. Dunavant, the cotton growers who are so-called investors have not yet finished paying the hungry stricken farmers in my constituency.

Mr Speaker, on loans and electricity, I would like to say that farming today is a business one should start. This is a business where one has to have capital. Such facilities are nowhere in my constituency, farmers have no access to loans. In Chama North Constituency, there has never been HIP, which is hydro-electric power. If this was in existence, the people were going to start poultry farming, irrigation farming and many more. In short, Chama North has not benefited from the rural electrification project  which has become a white elephant now.

Mr. Speaker, we say, no to no development of electricity because this is money from SADC. This project should start because we want power (HIP) in Chama North and this is from Malawi.

Hon. Member: HEP, please.

Laughter.

Mr. Chibanga: Thank you, HEP. 

Mr Speaker, I would like to know from the hon. Minister why they have neglected Chama District as a whole.

Mr. Speaker, in conclusion, I would like to thank the President, Levy Patrick Mwanawasa, State Counsel for his speech, which appears to be self-contained. You do not require any further input to the speech except for practical implementation.

I thank you, Sir.

Hon. Members: Hear, hear!

Mr. Shakafuswa (Katuba): Mr. Speaker, I thank you for this opportunity given to me to make my maiden speech.

Mr Speaker, allow me to congratulate you and the Deputy Speaker on your re-election in your positions of this House. I trust that your re-election was as a result of respect and trust which Members of this House have in you, especially your impartiality with which you handle and direct the debates of this House.

Mr Speaker, it is such qualities which I, as a youngman and a vibrant new Member of this House, look forward to harnessing in my quest for a better and just country for our people.

Mr Speaker, allow me to congratulate all hon. Members of Parliament who fought spirited battles to get to this House. I congratulate you all. I also want to thank my President and my National Management Committee for forming UPND, a party I joined for the first time in my life because of the vision and foresight they had for this country.

Hon. UPND Members: Hear, hear!

Mr Shakafuswa: Mr Speaker, I want to say, thank you to the people of Katuba Constituency which is the domain of my Chief Mungule for the confidence and trust they have shown by voting for me as the area Member of Parliament. And in return and God willing, I will serve them to the best of my strength and ability to help better their lives and surroundings.

Mr Speaker, Katuba is the land that has contributed enormously to the development of Lusaka and its satellite. Our contribution of sand to the construction industry cannot be underestimated. Companies like the Chilanga Cement, Tap and others, which are giants in the construction industry, cannot just ignore Katuba. It is my intention that these companies have to pay homage to our land by assisting us in infrastructures like schools, clinics and other structures as a contribution towards the welfare of my people. I will be a regular visitor at their doorsteps.

Mr Speaker, I say the above because Katuba with the population of 50531 people has no secondary school of its own. We rely on areas like Mandevu and Matero constituencies for health care. There are no social amenities you can ride home about. Energy is a luxury, which only about less than 5 per cent of the population enjoy. I am overjoyed by the Government’s commitment to rural electrification programme and I hope it will be disbursed equally to the demanding sectors of our constituencies.

Mr Speaker, I am at pains to explain how, after 37 years after independence, my people who actually walk to the village when other people have to be on the bus for long hours have no clean water supply. Some of our people use water from the Chunga stream, which is polluted by the people of Mandevu and Matero constituencies. 

Laughter.

Mr Shakafuswa: Mr. Speaker, I would like to take this opportunity to appeal to my hon. Colleagues from these areas to make sure that the affluent from their areas is treated before it passes through my constituency to avoid an injunction.

Laughter.

Mr Shakafuswa: Mr Speaker, my area is dependent on agriculture. Sir, my area is a source of the Chongwe Mwembeshi River and so, we are talking of an area with abundant water, which can be used to feed the country. The most unfortunate thing with agriculture in my area is the agricultural policy, which discourages hard working farmers – unlike in Mufumbwe where the area Member of Parliament said the people are not hard working. The people in Katuba are very hard working. They depend on the land but the only problem is the late delivery of agricultural inputs and the slave prices, which are being offered on the market for their produce.

Mr Speaker, I would like to help the hon. and learned Minister of Legal Affairs in his quest to get loans from the Food Reserve Agency. They say peasant farmers got loans but failed to repay the loans. My experience in the constituency is such that there are agents who formed cartels. They go to FRA, get loans and flood the markets here in town denying the vulnerable and voiceless. They go back to FRA and say that the farmers are not paying. I think with the help of the police and the Anti-Corruption Commission, I will be approaching them soon so that we can bring to book people who are misusing public resources.

Hon. Government Members: You are one of them!

Mr Shakafuswa: I never got any loan. Mr. Speaker, the hunger situation the nation is faced with is assuming embarrassing proportion. This is a result of lack of vision by the previous MMD Government. I say previous because the new Government is forecast. Sir, with its failed policies on agriculture and food security, the phasing out of FRA is manifest and evidence of a system which could not focus or address its own shortcomings. This is also as a result of greed and dishonest behaviour of some hon. Members who sat and still sit in this House.

Mr Speaker, I humbly request His Honour the Vice-President to do a good job on the distribution of relief food . This should be done in a most efficient and transparent way. I sometimes wonder how MMD cadres are getting hold of relief supplies to their party members when I am told that there is no relief supplies for my constituency. These supplies should be targeted at Zambians and not only some Zambians. Yes, I know that all animals are equal although some are more equal than others.

Mr Speaker, national resources should be jealously spent and unless legislated so by this House, should never be diverted for any other use, even partisan use as this amounts to theft and misuse of public resources.

Mr Speaker, let me comment on the tripartite elections. We have just come out of a controversial election. It is my prayer that the New Deal Government learns a lesson or two from the results. It shows that 72 per cent of the country said, no, to MMD and I do not think they said, no, to Mwanawasa alone. This is a story of an electorate trying to give a message to the Government that things are not all right. 

Mr Speaker, we should learn from the just ended elections that it is the people we are trying to give a message. And if we are going to sit here and enjoy the luxuries of this House and whatever, and forget what the people are saying, next time, no amount of rhetoric or rigging is going to save you from being booted out.

Hon. Opposition Members: Hear, hear!

Interruptions.

Mr Shakafuswa: Mr Speaker, we should learn not to take the people for granted. We should learn to listen.

Mr Sibetta: Carry on. Do not listen to them!

Mr Shakafuswa: Mr Speaker, let me come to a point which brought me here. I think most of us do not know why we have come here. Modern politics today has its origin from Greece. To the Greeks, it comes from satellite cities that they used to call polis.

These cities, to the Greek politics, were …

Hon. Government Member interrupted.

Mr Shakafuswa: Let me lecture you. You need a lecture.

Hon. Members: Go ahead!

Mr Shakafuswa: To the Greeks, politics afforded every eligible citizen an opportunity to participate in directing their welfare. It afforded all those who were residents in a particular satellite or polis a chance to direct their well being. Sir, I believe the word politics comes from the word polis which I have mentioned and today, we have representative politics where because of modernisation and population growth, politics has evolved to these chambers where people are elected to come and discuss on behalf of their kins and folks.

Mr Speaker, the rationale has not changed. Instead of improving with time, politics has instead evolved to become a dirty game where people’s representatives who come here choose to forget the reasons and purpose of sitting in this House.

Modern politics has become a battle of words and weaponry, not against other nations as in the barbarian era, but against our own citizens, neighbours, brothers and sisters. People who ascend into power use the humble authority entrusted to them by the people to enslave, persecute and prosecute the people they are supposed to diligently serve and protect. Today, some politicians look at politics as a source of power than an honourable opportunity to serve. They use the political arena to subdue and enslave the nation, depriving it of necessary amenities and an atmosphere to exist in a peaceful, basic acceptable standard of human existence.

Mr Speaker, today, politics means spending millions of dollars on personal security rather than State security to ensure perpetual existence of dictators whose popularity is derived from watching citizens’ every move and word and ensuring that people parrot praise to leaders who are not praise-worthy. There is an enabling environment which ensures persecution and prosecution of those with dissenting views instead of learning and building from opposing views.

We spend money creating imaginary enemies and ensure that all those associated with them lose their rights to existence. In our midst, we have some examples of people who were persecuted because of their opposing view.

We have seen situations where State machinery has made people who were very rich become very poor. People who were very poor have suddenly become wealthy through drawing State resources for their personal gain, depriving the people of basic needs for their existence as if we are in a State of war.

Sir, I kindly note that men of outstanding stature like Mr Mbita Chitala, Mr Emmanuel Kasonde and even President Mwanawasa and others, at one time, did not want to associate themselves with such a system.

Sir, I am looking forward to honourable existence in this House based on principles and maturity, based on love for ourselves in this House and the nation at large. I also look forward to the transformation of this House from being a tool of enslavement of our people to a tool for liberation of our citizens where they become proud to belong to this nation instead of belonging to political parties. In addition, I look forward to spending my effort on the development of this nation instead of making dictators out of little empty buckets.

Mr Speaker, I welcome the Speech by the Republican President on agriculture and I hope it will be used as a tool to alleviate the suffering of the masses. I look forward to timely delivery and continuous availability of inputs, which are subsidised by the State to enable cushion our vulnerable masses.

Sir, let me quote from the President’s Speech when he said, and I quote:

‘All Zambians should know that this House is not a battle front or battle ground. The men and women elected to this House have the great and solemn responsibility to facilitate the achievement of the Zambian dream. A dream where every citizen had a decent life. Free of all hardship, poverty, crime and ill-health.’

In this sense, the problem is not that the economy was unable to meet the basic needs of the people, but the economy was organised in such a way that it failed to do so.

His Excellency the President has already committed himself to improving the welfare of the nation and I hope he will do better than his predecessor who was the man of many words, but kept none of his words.

Laughter.

Mr Shakafuswa: He is just enjoying the retirement package and many others.

Sir, I would like to urge my President - I hope he will continue in the face of the impeding legal battle.

Hon. Government Members: Hear, hear! Gross over!

Mr Shakafuswa: President Mwanawasa should look at himself as the father of this nation as he directs the resources of this nation. As a father, you do not go about buying luxuries when you cannot afford to feed your children and take them to school. On macro-level, it is the same as a country. If you go for luxuries as a country at the expense of looking after your citizens, then you cannot be a good father.

Hon. Opposition Members: Hammer!

Mr Shakafuswa: Sir, I am looking forward to the improvement of conditions in the Police Service as a whole. The Government should not only beautify Police Headquarters when my rural police station has no vehicle to combat crime for my people, especially theft of cattle which have been spared by the grace of God from denkente.

I look forward to police officers being handsomely rewarded to reduce the incidence of corruption. The worsening economic situation has made police work very difficult. We should ask ourselves how the unemployed, retrenched without pay, school drop-outs and many more economic refugees make a living apart from getting form the haves. Crime today has become an alternative source of income.

Mr Speaker, you cannot have a country where you fight doctors when they ask for medicine and tools to serve lives. It is unheard of and borders on insanity. Let us remunerate our doctors adequately and provide them with tools to serve this nation from depopulation which I hope is not the Government policy to ensure that the number of its citizens reduces to reduce the number of mouths to feed.

Mr Speaker, His Excellency the President appreciated the fact that the most valuable asset any nation has is its people. An adequate investment in people is the best any nation can be proud of. You talk of investors in the economic ventures. Their investment alone cannot develop a country unless there is equal investment in human capital.

Education is very important and can only be appreciated by someone who has been to school like President Mwanawasa. Our expectation was for free education up to university level like I had to go through. Sir, free education has to be supplemented with very good conditions of service for teaches.

On good governance, Sir, we hope to see the rule of laws and not of men. We want to see responsibility, professionalism and impartiality of the Inspector-General’s office, Office of the President, the Zambia Army, the Zambia Air Force, and Zambia National Service Commanders. To ensure this, I recommend that the positions be put to the scrutiny and ratification of this august House so as to ensure accountability in their noble services.

Standards of the House, Sir, have to be maintained. People always wear suits and ties on their wedding day. Which for many of us were borrowed. I see nothing wrong with maintaining the standards for hon. Members and our guests in the galleries.

As regards the rule of law, it is the duty of this House to ensure accountability of the Executive. I quote Ngona Mwelwa Chibesakunda, an able and long serving professional Clerk of this House in his book ‘Parliament in Zambia’, which says, and I quote:

‘In Zambia like in other Commonwealth countries, Parliament has always played a very important role in scrutinising the performance of the Executive. This is based on the principle that those who govern should be accountable to those they govern. Since direct governance of the people is not feasible, a constitutional framework has evolved through which the Executive is made accountable to Parliament, the representative organ of the people.’

It is in this vein that I offer my energies to this House, a golden opportunity to ensure that our beloved former President and present MMD President are given a chance to clear his name from the charges of misappropriation of public funds through the disappearance of oil worth US$100 million, cobalt and copper scandals and others.

It would be wise to allow our beloved former President a chance to defend himself against these accusations of misrule, plunder of national resources and converting of national resources.

Mr Deputy Speaker: Order! Those ideas you are trying to expand were not contained in the Presidential Address and they were not also contained in the Budget Speech by the hon. Minister of Finance and National Planning. Stick to the contents of the two speeches. If you go out, you are derailing yourself. 

Will you, please, continue.

Mr Shakafuswa: Mr Speaker, a budget is a balance sheet that shows sources and intended use of public resources. For it to be an effective tool in dealing with issues facing the New Deal Government, it has to be implemented to the letter. I know my uncle the hon. Minister of Finance and National Planning will do a commendable job to ensure that our scarce resources that has been allocated actually reach the intended beneficiaries. And at the end of the day, you will be able to evaluate and determine the impact of Government intervention. I will be happy to be told what effect the sale of shares in parastatals has on the budget as incomes from the proceeds of the privatisation has not been treated as income to the national resources. I hope the hon. Minister will later on come and tell us on how these resources have been applied.

Lastly, Mr Speaker, efforts should be directed to those hit directly by the impact of HIV/AIDS.

Mr Deputy Speaker: Order! The hon. Member’s time has expired.

Mr Badat (Mumbwa): Mr Speaker, I thank you for allowing me to deliver my Maiden Speech in the House. 

Hon. Members: Quality.

Mr Badat: Firstly, may I congratulate you and the Deputy Speaker for your re-election as Speaker and Deputy Speaker respectively. Secondly, I also wish to congratulate all my hon. Colleagues for the elections to this august House. Thirdly, I thank my party, UPND, for adopting me to contest Mumbwa Parliamentary seat and I also thank the people of Mumbwa Constituency for their tremendous support and confidence. In return, I promise to serve them diligently.

Mr Speaker, I intend to stick to the problems arising from my constituency only. I am not going to touch other issues.

Agriculture

Mr Speaker, in Mumbwa Constituency, 90 per cent are farmers with agriculture as the mainstay of economy. For our farmers to sustain themselves, the Government must not only deliver inputs in time to allow plan for the agriculture season but must also fix a guaranteed minimum price of K40,000 for a 50 kg bag of maize.

Hon. Opposition Members: Hear, hear!

Mr Badat: Mr Spaeker, at the moment, the Government is importing maize at more than US$200 per tonne which is a lot more than the suggested K40,000 price for a 50 kg. By importing maize, the Government is sustaining other countries instead of local farmers. For increased productions and to ensure that farmers are busy throughout the year, medium and long-term loans must be given instead of selecting a few commercial farmers, and irrigation must be countrywide.

Mr Speaker, Mumbwa is one of the major producers of cotton in Zambia.

Miss Nawakwi: Hear, hear!

Laughter.

Mr Badat: The Mumbwa Cotton Ginnery is currently under utilised because production has gone and reduced tremendously due to poor intensive given to farmers by Dunavant, the company that bought former Lint Company from Lonrho Cotton.Dunovant is paying white farmers in Mazabuka twice as much as they pay the farmers in Mumbwa.

Hon. Opposition Members: Shame!

Mr Badat: I propose that the Government should have a minimum price per kilogramme for all farmers. Mr Speaker, with cotton going to one world market, we expect the cotton in the region to be the same.

Laughter.

Mr Badat: Mr Speaker, my personal experience in Mumbwa is that, Dunavant which bought Lonrho Cotton was paid more for the same cotton than they pay farmers who are the silent majority.

Hon. Member: Read your speech.

Mr Deputy Speaker: Order! Gay, or guys is unparliamentary. Will you refer to human beings as they are supposed to be. You are talking about employees, men or women is it not so? 

Will you, please, continue.

Mr Badat: Mr Speaker, I withdraw the word ‘guy’.

Hon. Members: Read!

Mr Badat: Mr Speaker, during this agriculture season, Mumbwa is experiencing a drought. I propose that Mumbwa be declared a disaster area and the farmers be considered for debt cancellation. This will enable the farmers to have a good start in the next season.

Hon. Opposition Members: Hear, hear!

Mr Badat: Mr Speaker, as regards, local Government, the welfare of councilors leaves much to be desired. The councilors accommodation is at K20,000 per night and the cheapest meal is K3,500, K5,000 sitting allowance and K10,000 as subsistence allowance per night.

Mr Speaker, councillors end up failing to pay their expenditure from their allowances. This has resulted into councillors shunning meetings. We are requesting the Minister of Local Government and Housing to fund councils for evaluation of the property and surveyors for plots. We also request the Minister to reduce the time it takes to approve proposed by-laws. Sir, these issues would enable councils to collect revenue.

Mr Speaker, Mumbwa District Hospital does not meet the required standards for a hospital. A plot has been allocated by the council for the construction of a proper district hospital and funds are, therefore, required for the construction works to begin. Mumbwa Constituency has only five clinics as compared to thirty-four schools. It is clear, therefore, that this imbalance has caused some people to walk for more than 50 kilo metres to have access to clinics.

Hon. Opposition Members: Hear, hear!

Mr Badat: Mr Speaker, of these five clinics, one was completed more than two years ago at Kapwanga and is now being vandalised because the Government has failed to send medical staff and medicines for it to open.

Hon. Opposition Members: Hear, hear, shame ba Chituwo!

Mr Badat: Sir, the most worrying aspect is that the Mumbwa District Hospital Board has not been constituted for more than two years due to political interference.

Hon. Oppostition Members: Shame!

Hon. Opposition Member: Baza manga ba Sondashi.

Mr Badat: Mr Speaker, while education is Government’s responsibility, it is running away from effectively managing schools the burden, which it has left in the hands of PTAs. Parents have been over burdened by building classrooms and teachers’ houses.

Sir, I have been a PTA chairman for more than five years.

Laughter.

Hon. Members: Very good man, congratulations.

Mr Badat: So, I know that the Government has even stopped supplying stationery to schools. 

Staffing in schools is very poor. Some schools are run only by two or three teachers.

Mr Sibetta: Or one!

Mr Badat: This has led to poor education standard and poor results.

Mr Speaker, the Lusaka/Mumbwa/Mongu Road is the worst road in the country.

Hon. Opposition Members: Hear, hear!

Mr Badat: The road in question connects Lusaka to Central and Western provinces through Kaoma, Mongu and North-Western Province to Kasempa, Southern Province; Itezhi tezhi and it also leads to a number of tourists attraction, national parks, lodges and many more.

Mr Speaker, the road has more potholes than clear tarmac spaces. What is allocated in the Budget is far too little for the road as it requires resurfacing and not mere patching.

Hon. Members: Hear, hear!

Mr Situmbeko: Bamvelela Ba Sondashi!

Mr Badat: The feeder roads have not been graded for more than ten years. Zambia National Service graded one feeder road during the rainy season just for campaign purposes, which made it worse than ungraded.

Hon. Opposition Members: Shame!

Mr Badat: Mr Speaker, the Government knows that the road networks are pre-requisite for any development.

Privatisation.

Mr Speaker,  privatisation in Mumbwa Constituency has brought miseries to a number of households, the privatisation of the La-Hacienda Hotel, where the buyer was to pay employees the benefits and re-employ them was not done. Those employees who are still there are not paid their wages. 

Mr Situmbeko: That is why they went on leave.

Mr Badat: The Hotel is currently leased to another businessman who has a dispute with the hotel owner.

I, therefore, request the Zambia Privatisation Agency to come to the aid of the poor workers.

Mr Speaker, I thank you.

Hon. Opposition Members: Hear, hear!

Mr Pwele (Roan): Mr Speaker, …

Hon. Government Members: Hear, hear, Mr Pwele!

Mr Pwele: Mr Speaker, I thank you for according me this opportunity to deliver my brief maiden speech which will cover thanks to the President’s Speech during the opening of the Ninth Session of the National Assembly and Budget Address, presented by the hon. Minister of Finance and National Planning on Friday, 1st March, 2002.

Mr Speaker, I, therefore, begin by thanking His Excellency Mr Levy Patrick Mwanawasa, State Counsel for delivering such a responsible speech during the opening of the First Session of the Ninth National Assembly on the 22nd of February, 2002. I am sure he is not going to divorce his wife like his predecessor.

Laughter.

I hope the Executive will be equally serious in implementing what had been said by the Republican President.

Mr Speaker, I am warning that the Executive should not be using the word in Bemba which says, ‘Ubomba mwibala, kulya mwibala’ which means when you are working in the farm, eat from the farm because one day, they will be answerable.

Hon. Opposition Members: Hear, hear!

Mr Pwele: Mr Speaker, I congratulate you and your Deputy on your re-election to your positions in the House and I am confident that you will prove to the 80 % poverty stricken Zambians that you were the right choices.

Hon. Government Members: Hear, hear!

Mr Pwele: I would like to congratulate all hon. Members of Parliament on their election to Parliament and I wish to remind them that they are here in this august House as national leaders with national interests not as party cadres.

Hon. Opposition Members: Hear, hear!

Mr Pwele: I sincerely thank the people of Roan Constituency for electing me as their Member of Parliament and I applaud their mature approach to politics, which has shown a true sample of leadership quality analysis. I love them, they are great and I can only assure them that together we shall fight for our human rights until death.

Hon. Government Members: Hear, hear!

Mr Speaker: Order!

(Debate adjourned)

Question put and agreed to.

The House adjourned at 1956 hours until 1430 hours on Wednesday, 6th March, 2002.