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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