Bridge At Kazungula, Zambia

The Kazangula Bridge saga rumbles on. Here’s the latest from the Zambia Daily Mail. 
Kazungula is the border crossing (above) between Zambia, Botswana and Zambia and is situated 75 kms from Livingstone.

THE design review of the US$259 million Kazungula Bridge will commence in February next year, the Road Development Agency (RDA) has said. RDA Kazungula Bridge Zambia project engineer Lazaros Nyawali said the 923-metre long bridge has a complex design and that it is important to ensure that a workable one is put in place. Mr Nyawali said this in Livingstone on Tuesday after RDA officials inspected rehabilitated roads in the tourist capital. (Which cannot have taken them very long! ed)

He said a consultant to review the design has already been identified and that the process will take six months after which the tendering process for the contractor to build the bridge will start. And Mr Nyawali said compensation and resettlement mechanisms for people who will be affected by the construction of the bridge are being taken care of. He said most people who bought land in the surrounding area where the bridge will be built have already been compensated and that 38 families in Lumbo village will be relocated.

“Prior to construction of the bridge, there are environmental issues which should be looked into. There is need to resettle and compensate people. This exercise should be completed before works on the bridge start,” he said. Mr Nyawali said the Kazungula Bridge is of strategic economic importance as it will facilitate the integration of the Southern African Development Community (SADC). He said the bridge will also enhance transport operations along the North South corridor which links mineral rich regions of Zambia and the Democratic Republic of Congo to Botswana, Zimbabwe and South Africa.

The Kazungula Bridge project is a joint project involving the governments of Zambia and Botswana which have sourced financing from the African Development Bank (AfDB) and the Japanese International Corporation Agency (JICA).

JICA is financing 57 percent of the project while AfDB is contributing 31.5 percent. The European Union has provided a 1.8 percent grant to the two governments which are funding the rest of the project.

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Bridge At Kazungula

Seeing is believing after all these years but this is potentially good news for Livingstone – interesting that Japan is helping with the money. We hope that if they are also doing the bridge building it’s done better than the main road from the water tower on the outskirts of Livingstone to the Falls which is hopeless and gets worse day by hot day even though the work was only completed by the Japanese two years ago! Picture is the existing form of river crossing!!!

Zambia Daily Mail

Zambia and Botswana have finally signed a loan agreement with the Japanese government to finance the construction project of Kazungula Bridge at a cost of US$124.22 million. The bridge project will be jointly financed by the Japanese government through the Japanese International Cooperation Agency (JICA) and the African Development Bank (AfDB). The signing ceremony which took place at the JICA headquarters in Tokyo on Friday was witnessed by Minister of Foreign Affairs Given Lubinda and Bank of Zambia Governor Michael Gondwe.

Under the agreement, JICA will provide US$41.77 million, AfDB US$78.41 million while Zambia will contribute US$1.57 million. The project comprises the construction of a new toll road, railway bridge with one stop-border post facilities and access roads at Kazungula border. Zambia’s Ambassador to Japan Mwelwa Chibesakunda signed on behalf of Zambia while Botswana’s Minister of Finance and Development Planning Ontefetse Matambo signed for the neighbouring country.

Mr Chibesakunda said the signing of the loan agreement marks another milestone in the history of the warm bilateral relations that exist between Zambia and Japan, describing the development as a significant step in regional integration.He said the bridge project which seeks to replace the current Zambezi river pontoon, will improve the efficiency of transit traffic through the Kazungula border thereby leading to increased trade activities and improvement of regional connectivity of the north-south corridor.

Mr Domichi said JICA is considering going beyond construction of the bridge to streamlining administrative processes at border posts for trade facilitation. And Mr Matambo, the Botswana Minister of Finance and Development planning, said the construction of the bridge at Kazungula will improve people’s movement between Botswana and Zambia.

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Free Wifi…..or not!

TNooz is the place to find stuff about hotels and hospitality! This piece about the importance of offering free wifi in hotels caught my eye. Chanters Lodge was one of the first small lodges in Livingstone to offer this facility some years ago and we have battled with various ISP’s to meet our goal. Right now our supplier is Zamtel but we have a back up ISP as well. Get in!

It is possibly one of the most fiercely debated topics in (consumer) travel technology – should consumers be entitled to free wifi and web access in hotels? And it now turns out that travellers are becoming more discerning about the destinations they are likely to visit, based on the quality of mobile coverage.

A study of 500 travellers (52% from Western Europe, 16% Northern Europe, 13% Southern Europe, 17% Middle East) found that 86% now expect wifi connections to be made freely available in hotels. Amazingly, over a third (37%) say that good mobile coverage is important when choosing a destination, although the study doesn’t explain how consumers are checking such requirements.

Elsewhere in the study (commissioned by Brocade), over half admitted to using their mobile devices to check on work emails during a leisure trip – hardly surprising in some respects given that 95% of people will take a mobile phone away with them on holiday. Pressure is increasing on hotels to loosen their policies over tariffs for wifi services, although property owners and others still claim costs in large hotels are often prohibitive.

Interestingly, live streaming appears to be becoming an increasingly important consideration, with a third claiming they will attempt to watch content from the London 2012 Olympics if it coincides with a trip.

Brocade VP and CMO, John McHugh, says:
“There is significant blurring between personal time and work time in modern society, with the consumerisation of IT and BYOD (Bring Your Own Device) working policies leading many people to rely on smartphones and tablet devices around the clock, wherever they may be and whatever they may be doing.”


That’s it!






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Zambia Electricity Supply Company

 
Do my eyes deceive me???

WASHINGTON, May 15, 2012 – The World Bank Board of Directors today approved a US$60 million credit to reinforce the existing electricity transmission network and increase Zesco’s power transfer capacity to Kafue town and the Southern Province. The development objective of the project is to improve the reliability of Zesco’s regional power trade transmission network infrastructure along the Kafue Town – Muzuma – Victoria Falls corridor.

 According to the Task Team Leader of the Project, Bobak Rezaian, the project will have three components. The first phase will focus on replacing the existing 220kV transmission line with a new 330 kV transmission line from Kafue to Livingstone. The upgrade will increase the power transmission capacity to satisfy the growing domestic power demands not only in the Southern Province but also across the border to Namibia and Zimbabwe.

 Complementing these improvements, the second phase involves constructing a new 330/220kV substation in Livingstone and upgrading the two substations at Kafue town and Muzumato. This will create a functioning transmission system which will provide a high level of security and an enhanced quality of supply for the regional power trade. Moreover, the improved system configurations will allow Zesco the capacity to satisfy increased demands at Kafue town.

The third component will focus on project management, training, and environmental and social mitigation.

Reacting to the news, Country Director for Zambia, Malawi and Zimbabwe, Kundhavi Kadiresan said, “Access to electricity is very vital for all round development in Zambia. This project will not only benefit  the people of Southern Province and Kafue  alone,  it will also bring additional revenues for ZESCO through wheeling charges gained from cross-border power trade, enabling Zesco to more actively participate in the short-term energy market.

The picture? Victoria Falls Power Station

 

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Adrian Mvula – Technical Manager Zambezi 107.7 fm

“What’s the biggest challenge you face in your job” Milli Jam asked Adrian Mvula (above), when he appeared as a Guest on the latest edition of The Chanters Lodge Experience with the Milli Jam Ingredient featuring George da Soulchild Kaufela, last Sunday night. Adrian is technical manager at Zambezi 107.7 fm, Livingstone’s leading local radio station which hosts our sponsored weekly Sunday night show. “Power cuts from Zesco” Adrian replied, with no hesitation. “That makes two of us” I commented. “What inspired you to train in technical management?” Milli Jam continued. “I’ve always been passionate about repairing things” said Adrian “bringing things back to life, so it was a natural career for me.”
Adrian told listeners that he’d been employed by Zambezi 107.7 fm for the past five years. He joined the station almost ‘by accident’ – he’d been stranded in Livingstone on the way to Namibia. The person with whom he’d been able to stay had a technical problem at 107.7 fm and asked if Adrian could help. He solved the issue for them and the then station manager – Chanda Mfula – told Adrian he was just the person they were looking for, so Adrian applied and was employed! He had two and a half years previous experience with Choice FM, one of Lusaka’s leading radio stations. Adrian explained that he’d completed his Grade 12 at Chongwe High School near Lusaka and thereafter had undertaken a one year six month course in telecommunication electronics at the Greenwood Institute, also in Lusaka.
The music on the show was good as usual. As well as music and chat, we also brief listeners on the latest news from the US and UK charts, as well as all the news from social media sites such as Twitter, Facebook, Pinterest, the Chanters Lodge blog and Klout scores. George was happy that his Klout score had reached 61 that week – he has a lot of friends on Facebook – and I mean a lot! One of the highlights of the music on the show was Sade’s ‘Bullet Proof Love’ which was our ‘oldie of the week’. We give a prize of a dinner for two at Chanters Lodge to the first person to text us telling us who’s singing the oldie and although there was a delay while they thought, the prize was won. Other tracks were from Far East Movement featuring Justin Bieber, Rita Ora and Damien Junior Gong Marley. George’s local selection featured the latest from Petersen ‘Osanisiya’ (‘don’t leave me’ – apparently penned for his Swedish model girlfriend).

Adrian told listeners that he was married with a young daughter. He supports Chelsea and his favourite player is – predictably – Didier Drogba. Asked where he would like to be and what he would like to be doing in ten years’ time, Mr Mvula said he would like to be the director of a technical company, and gave the example of Swithin Haangala who had started as a broadcaster with ZNBC but now owned his own big company – which includes 107.7 fm. We wished him the best of luck with his ambition.

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Wendy Callaway on ‘The Experience’

Wendy Callaway (above) was the guest on the most recent edition of our regular Sunday night radio show – The Chanters Lodge Experience with the Milli Jam Ingredient featuring George da Soulchild Kaufela. The show airs on Zambezi 107.7 fm, Livingstone’s leading local radio station, from 20.30-21.30 hrs and also streams live on the internet. The programme is a good mix of music and chat, popular locally not least because we give away a dinner for two with drinks at Chanters Lodge on every show to the first person to text us telling us who’s singing our ‘oldie of the week’. On this show the track was ‘Umbrella’, the singer was Rihanna, and the winning answer appeared on my phone within seconds! Great, seeing that the previous week no-one had won!

Wendy was a very interesting guest. She told listeners that she was in Zambia for a couple of weeks to work with the The Butterfly Tree, a charity which supports rural communities in Zambia often badly affected by illness. The organization’s aim is to help in the provision of safe drinking water and feeding programmes as well as improved health and education facilities. The NGO also has an orphan sponsorship programme and Wendy explained that she had been sponsoring five orphans in Zambia for six years through this scheme. She was delighted, on this her first visit to Zambia, to have already met four of the five orphans whom she had sponsored, now teenagers aged between 14 and 18 and she said they were all doing very well academically. Most of the The Butterfly Tree’s work in Livingstone is based at Mukuni Village and this was where Wendy had been spending time since she arrived.
The music on the show featured tracks from R Kelly, Calvin Harris ft Ne-Yo, Lionel Richie, Lana del Rey and Jason Derulo from an international point of view. Local tracks were from Red Linso and Winston with ‘Kamwala’ and Exile’s ‘Walimbikila’ – ‘old but good’ was the Chanters Girls verdict on this Exile track. The lodge staff are avid listeners to the show and don’t hesitate to let me know what’s good!
Milli Jam asked Wendy if she’d managed to do any of the tourist activities on offer in Livingstone during her first week with us, and she replied that she’d just come back from Chobe in Botswana where she’d been on safari for a few days. She’d also squeezed an elephant safari, lion encounter and a rhino walk into her busy schedule. She told listeners that she’s an accountant by profession, and that having her own business in Southern England affords her the chance to travel and to do the things she wants to do – a chance that might not be there were she working for other people. She told us that she’s an active member of the Rock Choir and had been involved in their best selling 2011 album as well as appearing on ITV TV in a show featuring 8000 choir members in the Wembley Arena. “Wow!” We said – without asking her to sing for us!

Asked about her plans for the future, this serious minded, hard working, married British lady (she had greeted husband Pete listening to the programme live back in UK) told listeners that she hoped to be able to expand her business and therefore be able to grow her charity work and other interests. “Great!” We said.

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Working On A Dream?

Working on a dream? Pie in the sky? We’ll wait and see whether this piece from Bikya Masr turns out to be true words!

Botswana and Zambia’s telecom operators have agreed to establish a new fiber-optic cable through Kazungula. Botswana Telecommunications Corporation (BTC) and Zamtel in Zambia announced they have signed a memorandum of understanding for the new cable.

The new project will cost approximately $260,000 and should take between three and four months to construct and be operational. Zamtel CCO Amon Jere said the project “would help reduce the cost of international connectivity and improve the quality and speed of Internet services.”

Early this year, BTC inked a similar $5 million deal with Powertel of Zimbabwe. That deal means BTC provides the Zimbabwe company with bandwidth capacity for two years after the two organizations completed cross-border fiber connections at Ramokgwebana in De­cember 2009.

“BTC has already committed to invest BWP 504 million to secure reliable bandwidth from the West African Cable System (WACS),” the Botswana company said in a press release on Tuesday.

“BTC has also committed USD 210 million to the Eastern Africa Submarine Cable System (EASSy) to further increase Botswana’s bandwidth capacity,” it added.

The construction of a number of cables across East Africa has boosted telecom and Internet capacity in the region, and investors and operators hope they will push the industry into the next generation of development.

 
 
 
 
 
 
 
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Old Folk Down Under

Some more radical suggestions from Judy in Perth as to how to sort out Australia!
Let’s put the pensioners in jail and the criminals in a nursing home.

Pensioners would:

– have access to showers, hobbies and walks.
receive unlimited free prescriptions, dental and medical treatment, wheel chairs etc
– receive money instead of paying it out.
– have constant video monitoring, so they could be helped instantly, if they fell, or needed assistance.
have bedding washed twice a week, and all clothing would be ironed and returned to them.
– have a guard to check on them every 20 minutes and bring their meals and snacks to their cell.
– have family visits in a suite built for that purpose.
– have access to a library, weight room, spiritual counseling, pool and education.
– have simple clothing, shoes, slippers, PJ’s and legal aid free on request.
– private, secure rooms for all, with an exercise outdoor yard, with gardens
– have a PC, TV, radio and daily phone calls
– have a board of directors to hear complaint
– the guards would have a code of conduct that would be strictly adhered to.

The criminals, on the other hand:
– would get cold food,
– be left all alone and unsupervised,
– lights off at 8pm,
– showers once a week,
– live in a tiny room,
– pay $600.00 per week,

– and have no hope of ever getting out!

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The Kashitas Repeat ‘The Experience’

The latest edition of The Chanters Lodge Experience with The Milli Jam Ingredient, featuring George da Soulchild Kaufela, was rather different for several reasons. Firstly it aired at an earlier time of 18.00 hrs, so that the show did not clash with the final of the Africa Cup Of Nations in which Zambia was participating (and won, whoopee!) Secondly the show went out on the day Whitney Houston’s untimely death was announced, so we revised the play list at the last moment to feature many of her top hits. Sad…

Last but not least, for once we talked some ‘politics’ on the show with our guests Andrew and Caroline Kashita (above). Andrew was a senior minister in both the UNIP and MMD governments in Zambia and we wanted, and got, his expert opinion on a couple of important national and local matters.
Andrew and Caroline have appeared on our show twice before.
‘The Experience’ airs every Sunday, usually from 20.30 to 21.30 hrs and is sponsored by Chanters Lodge, Livingstone, Zambia. The show is a great mixture of music and chat and is popular locally especially as we give away a prize of a dinner for two at the lodge each week, to the first person to text us telling us who’s singing our ‘oldie of the week’. On this particular show the track was ‘My Heart Will Go On’ by Celine Dion and the prize was quickly snapped up.
The Kashitas told us they’d been married for 32 years and had a total of four children (two together), all of whom were doing well overseas, they also have one grandchild, Chansa, aged 3. They told listeners they enjoyed coming to Livingstone for a week twice a year to relax away from the hustle bustle of Lusaka. The break also afforded them the opportunity to rest and recuperate at Chanters, and to catch up with some reading, as well as developments in Livingstone. “Why do you always choose Chanters?” Milli Jam wondered “Richard’s an old friend and his lodge just suits us very well!” Was the sweet reply. They also mentioned the ‘convenient location’.
The Whitney Houston tracks we featured on the show were ‘One Moment In Time’, ‘I Will Always Love You’, ‘Dance With Somebody’, Saving All My Love For You’ and ‘I Look To You’. Great selection! Our pick of the week was Lady Antebellum’s ‘Dancing With You In My Heart’. We also featured one song for the Zambian footballers ‘Chipolopolo’ by MAG44, T10, Pompi and Chungu.

We asked Andrew Kashita about the sale of a large share holding in Zanaco (Zambia National Commercial Bank) to a Dutch bank, currently under investigation by the Sata PF Government. Andrew told listeners that as a former chairman of the bank, he felt the sale of the bank to a foreign bank had been against the spirit in which the peoples’ bank had been created in the first place, and also that it had been severely undervalued at the time of the sale. He very much hoped that the situation would be corrected by the sale of more shares to ‘ordinary’ Zambians. He was not however in favour of the sale being reversed but he did feel that the bank should have a Zambian chairperson.

We also asked him to comment on the state of the road from the outskirts of Livingstone to the Falls and he said that he felt the ‘shameful’ situation had arisen from either wrong specifications, poor work by the contractors or poor supervision. He felt that the culprits should be identified and the road repaired free of charge by those concerned, as soon as possible.

We wondered if the Kashitas would be doing any of the many tourist activities available in Livingstone and they told listeners that they were very much looking forward to the sunset cruise on Lady Livingstone the next day. They also planned a visit to the Drift Cemetery in the Mosi-o-Tunya National Park. They told listeners they would return to Lusaka towards the end of the following week using Mazhandu Family Bus Service, as usual.

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Pick N Pay Zambia

There have been consistent rumours of these people opening in Livingstone but as yet there are no definite signs. We have Spar (currently moving from Falls Park to the city centre) and two Shoprites but there are still plenty of basic items that it is difficult, if not impossible, to find. I doubt if there is enough business for a third chain store – unless of course they could compete on price and variety and put Shoprite or Spar out of business in the city. Business Live reports:

Retailer Pick n Pay has announced the opening of its third Zambian store in Lusaka, further signalling the group’s confidence in the Zambian economy. Pick n Pay opened its first store in Lusaka in July 2010 and its second in Ndola in March 2011. “The third store, which will be situated in the Levy regional shopping centre, is one of five planned for the country over the next four years,” the company said in a statement on Thursday.

According to Pick n Pay head of group enterprises Dallas Langman, the southern African region represented an increasingly attractive market. “As disposable income continues to grow, the region’s retail potential remains largely untapped and there is considerable opportunity for foreign investors who are willing to enter intro constructive partnerships with local communities, suppliers and government agencies,” Langman said.

“The incredible success of our first two stores and the enthusiasm with which it has been welcomed by our customers, has exceeded our expectations and has fully vindicated our decision to expand our presence in Zambia rapidly in coming months,” he added. A fourth store will open in Makeni on 1 December. “The combined investment of both the Levy and Makeni stores is in excess of R40 million, signalling our confidence in the Zambian economy,” Langman added.

Situated in Zambia’s second largest shopping centre, the 4,000 square metre Levy store will sell in excess of 20,000 lines ranging from fresh produce, clothing, home-ware and liquor. The store has created employment opportunities for a further 150 Zambians. “Investment in African talent, the growth of our employees and skills development is a crucial part of our expansion strategy and it has been gratifying to be a part of job creation and socio-economic development in Zambia,” Langman said. He added that at least 65% of stock was locally sourced while 70% of fresh produce was provided by Zambian suppliers.

“Pick n Pay has a total of 230 local suppliers in Zambia which include agencies which supply imported products to the company’s stores. “The company has a total of 10,100 grocery lines listed in its Zambian stores, of which 6,700 products are derived from local suppliers.” The range includes canned vegetable products, coffee, legumes and an organic range of sauces as well as processed meats.

“It has been very satisfying to be able to source much of our produce from local suppliers, particularly small scale farmers who have proved themselves more than capable of providing foodstuffs at a price and of a quality demanded by Pick n Pay’s customers.”


















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