compiled by Maggie Currey


15 March - 7 April 2003 No.764

MPs POISONED WITH PESTICIDE: Lusaka City Council's Food and Drugs laboratory has confirmed that a batch of bottled mineral water served in Parliament on 7 March contained dimethoate, trade name Rogor, an organo-phosphorus pesticide. The contaminated drink, produced by a Copperbelt bottling firm, caused severe diarrhoea amongst MPs and members of staff. Health inspectors and police are investigating the company. (Times 31 March; 2 April).

KONKOLA TOUGHS IT OUT: Dealt a crippling blow by Anglo American when the corporation pulled out of Konkola Copper Mines early last year and beleaguered by poor production figures so far in 2003, KCM is nonetheless pushing ahead with ambitious survival plans under Chief Executive Officer Russell Alley, who replaced Robin Mills in February. Mr. Mills steered KCM through a grim 2002, setting up the 2003 'Buyantanshi 2' project, which Mr. Alley says will enable the company to reduce costs to 65 cents per pound, while increasing copper production to 100,000 tonnes a year from the Tailings Leach Plant and 150,000 tonnes from the Nkana Smelter in Kitwe. KCM is also investing in costly new computer technology. This will link operations at Chingola and Chililabombwe with its smelter at Kitwe and with Nampundwe mine outside Lusaka. Meanwhile the government says it is currently in discussion with an unnamed mining group interested in taking on the potentially lucrative company, and claims matters will be finalised by July. (Konkola News, March; Post 27 March, 2 April)

FIRST QUANTUM GRANTED 14M-EURO LOAN: Canada's First Quantum Minerals has met conditions laid down by the European Investment Bank (EIB) that will enable the company to finance the expansion of production at the Bwana Mkubwa mining operation at Ndola from 10,000 to 30,000 tonnes of copper cathode. The first disbursement of 14 million Euro ($15, 250,000) was made on 21 March. FQM Chairman Philip Pascall said that the EIB would also be providing funding for the development of the Kansanshi project in the North Western Province. (Mail, 20 March)

$16M SUGAR PROJECT TAKES OFF: Sugar from a $16m project on the Kafue flats goes into production in August. Consolidated Farming Limited is a wholly Zambian-owned operation on 5,000 hectares, 2,000 of them planted with sugar cane. Plant and machinery for irrigation, packaging and processing is being set up and CFL's public relations manager Stanislous Chisowa said the plant would have the capacity to crush 1,000 tonnes of cane a day, rising to 2,000 tonnes. The project would create employment for 400 permanent and 800 seasonal employees and would lead to "the future creation of a town, with various facilities to cater for about 600 households." (Times 25 March)

WAR SCUPPERS OIL DEAL: The war has scuppered a proposed deal to import crude oil from Iraq and made doubtful subsequent plans to import it from Iran, instead. Now, with only enough oil for two months, Zambia has turned to South Africa, which can provide oil through the parastatal Petroleum South Africa. Saudi Arabia and Angola are also on the list. The government is looking for a permanent, direct supplier to help reduce sky-high petrol prices (Times 18 March, 47 April)

ELEPHANTS RAMPAGE: Elephants in Itezhi Tezhi are destroying people's fields and causing deaths, claims district administrator Godfrey Beene. "They have over bred and the national park has become too small for them." Mr. Beene says he called on the Zambia Wildlife Authority to control the situation, but nothing was done. (Post, 25 March)

KK SINGS SOLO: The first president of Zambia Dr. Kenneth Kaunda, 78, who is enjoying an Indian summer of prestige and influence as a leading AIDS campaigner and as first occupant of the Balfour chair at Boston University, was star speaker and singer at round table anti-poverty discussions at UN headquarters in New York. He warned that support of the United Nations and a proper balance between government and private enterprise were needed to ensure that African nations were not marginalised in the drive towards globalisation. He described the fight to halve the number of the world's poor by 2015 as 'the second liberation struggle' and brought appreciative applause when he spoke eloquently about the AIDS campaign and ended with a solo rendering of its marching song, "Every Revolution Needs a Song.' The meeting was chaired by Wilfrid Grenville-Grey, erstwhile head of Mindolo Ecumenical Foundation in Kitwe. (Sources, New York 2 April)

ZIP UP, PASTOR TELLS ZAMBIAN YOUTH: "Zip up your trousers and skirts to avoid dying from HIV/AIDS," said the politician/pastor Nevers Mumba when he launched a gospel music album by Matthew Ngosa at a youth concert in Lusaka. The president of the National Citizens Coalition (NCC) said Zambia was in crisis because HIV/AIDS was claiming so many lives in the productive age group. Pastor Mumba urged young people to lead responsible lives and avoid pre-marital sexual activity. (Post, 30 March)

ROAN'S $35M IN SWISS ACCOUNT: The $35 million paid in 1997 by the Binani brothers to Frederick Chiluba's government for Roan Antelope Mines went into a numbered Swiss bank account. This was confirmed by Vice-President Enoch Kavindele. "We shall ask the Swiss authorities to help us recover that money," he said. In an earlier interview Mr.Kavindele said that in current negotiations the government had opted to sell RAMCOZ directly to J and W Investments and not to Anglovaal (Avmin) because the latter group had tried to buy the mining company for as little as $4m: a sum it would have defrayed against $4.9m in concentrates which it was hanging on to, because of money owed by the Binanis. Avmin were then planning to sell Roan on to J and W Investments themselves, said the vice-president. "We discovered that selling the mines to Avmin really meant the company getting them for nothing." Roan Antelope went to J and W last month for £12m. (Times, 19, 20 March)

THE LITUNGA SAYS NO: Simmering hostilities never far below the surface between the Zambian government and the erstwhile Kingdom of Barotseland have boiled up over the proposed sale of two Western Province parks. The government wants to lease Sioma Ngwezi and Liuwa Plains parks to South Africa's African Parks Management and Finance (APMF) at $4 million for 25 years, because refugees fleeing the recent Angolan war have wrought havoc in an area with considerable tourist potential. But the Litunga, Lubosi Imwiko, is blocking the transaction: the properties aren't parks, he claims, they are kraals for the Lozi people and he will not have them plundered for gain. He has summoned Western Province MPs to a meeting. Meanwhile APMF spokesman Mr.R.Vissingen says that leasing the parks would bring employment for 200 and redevelopment to the area. The row goes on. (Times, Post, Mail, 18, 19, 23 March, 3 April)

NEW LIFE FOR POLISH MONUMENT: The government is to make the Polish monument and graveyard in Ndola a tourist attraction and part of Zambia's national heritage, said tourism minister Neddy Nzowa when he visited it. Caretaker Helena Ravensdale said proximity to the vibrant Bwana Mkubwa mine and the chimpanzee orphanage could help to bring tourists. She would publicise the site through the Internet and among Polish communities abroad. (Times, 16 March)

NEW ZAMBIAN HIGH COMMISSIONER: The new Zambian High Commissioner to London is HE the Right Hon. Anderson Chibwa. He was sworn in at State House by President Mwanawasa on 31 March. (Times, 1 April)

EXCHANGE RATE, 7 April: £1 = K7, 739. 62

Mark Harford, who is running in the London Marathon on 13 April to raise funds for the Zambia Society Trust's AIDS orphans, has had minor problems with his left knee, but our plucky representative at this great national event remains confident he will complete the 26 miles for which we are sponsoring him. If you would like to send Mark good wishes and a last-minute cheque, his address is 36, Drayton Avenue, London W13 0LF; email him on: mark.harford@bbc.co.uk

When England beat Ireland 42-6 in the Grand Slam rugby match on 30 March, it left undimmed the reputation Jack Kyle OBE has held since 1948, as the revered fly-half who led Ireland to the only Grand Slam victory they have ever had. To celebrate a sporting career that ended in the 1950s with Jack 'on the short list of the great,' The Daily Telegraph carried a full-page interview with him on 26 March 2003, including an account of his time as chief surgeon at Ncbanga, 1966 -2000.

The Zambia Society Trust is offering two of Gabriel Ellison's colourful bird designs on folded cards without greetings that are useful throughout the year. They come in separate packs of 10 and feature either two elegant double-collared sunbirds, or a black sunbird with a glowing lucky-bean flower. They cost £4.50p per pack. Order from Mrs. Mary Cleminson at 143, Capel Road, Forest Gate, London E7 0JT; tel: 020 8553 5252. She will invoice you with your order.

Lawrence Vambe, Lord and Lady Plunkett, Michael Wood and Oliver Carruthers were among key members of the Capricorn Africa Society who attended the launch in South Kensington of 'Capricorn: David Stirling's Second African Campaign,' by Richard Hughes.289 pp, £24.50p, ISBN-86064-919-X. Published by IB Tauris, 6, Salem Road, London W2 4BU; tel: 020 7243 1225; fax 020 7423 1226; sales@ibtauris.com. This excellent account of a unique multi-racial organisation set up in the 1950s by the founder of the SAS and active in pre-Independence Zambia, will be reviewed in the summer Spotlight.