Showing posts with label Lusaka. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Lusaka. Show all posts
Monday, 27 August 2012
AVERAGE, MINIMUM AND LIVING WAGES
The Zambian Government has recently raised the minimum wage. This is not before time, as the cost of living continues to rise, making Zambia one of the most expensive countries in Sub-Saharan Africa.
It is good, too, that this rise appears to be non-negotiable. There have been the predictable complaints about stifling investment and threats of redundancy from the usual suspects - agri-business, construction, the mines and the Employers’ Federation.
Annual inflation is around 10%. According to the Jesuit Centre for Theological Reflection, the JCTR’s Basic Needs Basket’s (BNB) for June 2012 total amounts to K3, 395,660 for an average family of five living in Lusaka. See www.jctr.org.zm
The new basic wage, although an improvement, is woefully inadequate. Another JCTR survey shows that low incomes and high living costs make it impossible for people to save any money. In fact, it is even worse, as families all over the country are reducing the number of meals they eat, to eke out family income, so that they can reach pay-day. By raising the tax threshold to K2m or $400, the Government has helped to take many low-wage earners out of the tax bracket.
The minimum monthly wage for domestic workers has increased from K256 000 ($50) to about $105 (K525 000). The wages of other workers - such as shop assistants, farmworkers, and construction workers, will increase from $50 to $220 (K1 100 000).
Almost two thirds of the Zambian population of 13 million people live on a dollar or less a day, and only around 500,000 people are employed by the formal sector, according to the country's Central Statistical Office.
However, with these recent measures, Zambia seems to be giving a nod in the direction of the post-war Beveridge ideal of full-employment, something that was the political consensus here in Britain until the 70s, when tackling inflation became more important than decent jobs for the working population. Now, casualisation, short-term contracts and minimum-waged jobs are the norm.
Since inflation reduces the value of money, neo-liberal governments and the financial sector wish to control it tightly. As a result, we are now beginning to see: greater poverty, a wider gulf between the rich and poor, and the smallest amount of disposable income for many since the 1930s, as people lose their jobs and have their pensions cut.
Here in Scotland, Members of the Scottish Parliament, MSPs, are trying to ensure that private companies who work for public organisations pay their staff a "living wage" to help those many families who suffer from “in-work poverty”. Child poverty campaigners reckon that 60% of Scottish children live in such households.
The lowest paid worker for the Scottish government now earns at least £7.20 an hour. MSPs want this to be the case for all workers from private firms on contract to the government. £9 billion is spent by Scottish authorities to pay for services provided by private companies, but between a quarter and third of these workers earn less than the living wage.
To make the living wage a condition of any government contract, may breach European Union law some complain. However, European Law is not the Law of the Medes and Persians yet, and should not be used as an excuse to stop doing what is right.
The Joseph Rowntree Foundation reports that a couple with two children now need to earn £36,800 a year to have a "socially acceptable" standard of living in Britain. This has increased by one third in 4 years, due to rising childcare costs, food prices, utility bills and transport costs, combined with cuts to benefits.
The minimum income standard (MIS) study was commissioned by the Foundation and undertaken by Loughborough University. Its main finding was that increasing numbers of people in Britain live below what is an acceptable standard of living. This MIS standard includes earning enough to eat a balanced diet, run a car and heat a house.
A couple with two children each need £18,400 a year.
Single people need £16,400 a year.
A single parent with a child needs £23,900 a year.
A pensioner couple need £12,000 each.
Like the JCTR basket, the breadline is not being considered, but instead a level of income that is required for an acceptable standard of living.
Childcare has risen by nearly a third since 2008.
Travel:
Bus fares have doubled in 10 years.
Public transport has been cut, so for a family with children, a car has become essential.
The minimum weekly amounts for “socially acceptable” life essentials are listed below.
Childcare: £147.85
Beds and bedding: £3.29
Garden equipment: £0.66
Meat: £18.08
Vegetables: £11.27
Snacks: £3.65
Parent social activities: £30.00
UK holiday: £18.52
Birthday gifts: £8.42
Car: £60.25
Public transport: £12.38
Cycling: £1.40
(Based on a couple with two young children with a weekly income of £685).
All this talk about minimum wages, living wages, MIS or BNBs in Scotland, Britain and Zambia leads on to the question: "What is the world's average wage?". The United Nations' International Labour Organization (ILO) recently had a go at working it out.
First, they worked out the total wage bill for every country in the world. To do that, they took the average salary from each central statistics office, and multiplied that amount by the number of earners in each country. Unfortunately, the data covered only 72 countries and only formal wage earners were counted - not the self-employed or people on benefits, so in some countries the data is incomplete. Then they added the total wage bill for each country, and divided that by the total number of earners in the world. That gave an average salary of $1,480 (£928) a month, which is almost $18,000 (£11,291) a year.
The ILO then used a specially adjusted exchange rate called Purchasing Power Parity (PPP) dollars. One PPP dollar is equal to $1 spent in the US. This is because it is cheaper to live in some countries than others. In other words, it takes account of what dollars can buy in each particular country, compared with the United States.
Some Average Salaries in PPP$:
Luxembourg: $4,000 Monthly; $48,000 Yearly
US & UK: $3,000 Monthly; $37,000 Yearly
Bulgaria: $1,500 Monthly; $18,000 Yearly
Tajikistan: $225 Monthly; $2,700 Yearly
The world average comes to $75 a day for a 20-day working month - but a third of the world's population lives on less than $2 a day, and no account has been taken of child labour, pensioners, children and stay-at-home parents, and the self-employed. The number of self-employed is also huge. In developed countries, about 90% of working people are paid employees, but that figure is much lower in many developing countries.
In Zambia, most people are self-employed or work as independent farmers, and less than 20% of workers are salaried. In the same report, ILO Global Wage Report 2010/11, the PPP$ minimum wage for Zambia was given as $77 per month or $924 per annum, which is not the same as the average, but nonetheless it gives a good idea of the starting threshold. In 2011, Zambia was surprisingly awarded middle income status by the World Bank, with an annual Gross National Income per capita of $1160, even though the average national wage remains under $100 per month.
Tuesday, 24 August 2010
Getting there
On Sunday 15 Aug, Gregor, Mum and Dad accompanied us to Edinburgh Airport and bade us farewell. Our 4 months furlough has passed so quickly, yet we feel that much has been accomplished. It was a cloudless and sunny summer afternoon and it was fun sitting in the window seat on the flight to London matching the landscape below to the screen chart showing our flight path.
The onward flight to Lusaka was crowded and full with the usual universal flurry of returning families heaving and humphing, probably overweight, hand-luggage up the aisles and then carefully stowing it away in the overhead bins before everyone finally settled and relaxed.. A Carry on carry on, indeed!
We flew over a dry, red and khaki-coloured Lusaka, before landing in the early morning at the airport, Mubita was now wearing my sweater with rolled up sleeves to disguise the fact he had no trousers on. They had been removed during the night following a major spillage of apple juice!
We processed without difficulties through the Immigration and Customs formalities, luggage in tact (though now minus a pair of Mubi's shorts), and found a taxi that took us to a warm welcome back at Synod. After greeting the staff, the first thing on the 'To Do' List was to pick up our Entry Permits. After 16 years in Zambia we no longer need a Work Permit. This will save much time effort and money as these had to be renewed in Lusaka twice every five years. A visit to Immigration HQ was required, not an appealing prospect, as it is always hot, overcrowded with long queues there. However, we were fortunate as the officer dealing with our case we had got to know when he was stationed at Sesheke. He greeted us warmly with an 'Ah, my family!' So the issuing of the Entry Permits was done in under an hour.
The next problem to solve was to get our cell phones to work again. Being out of the country for 4 months meant that we needed to buy a new SIM card as our phones had been deactivated. K30 000 later to keep the same number, I was told the phone should work again after two hours. However nothing here is ever that simple and another visit to the ZAIN shop (Cell Phone Company) was required on Tuesday morning to rectify the failure of the new SIM card to operate the phone and to buy another new SIM cars for our Internet dongle. Another major inconvenience is that you lose all the numbers saved on the previous SIM card. Consumer rights and customer service are unfamiliar concepts here. You just have to learn to be grateful that ZAIN condescends to take your money!
We stay in a self-catering guest-house at the Beit CURE Hospital when we are in Lusaka so we were able to catch up with Harold and Susan Haamumba who are chaplains there. Mubita stayed with them after he was denied the visa to visit the United States. So it is like meeting up with family. Likewise we had afternoon tea with the Sitalis, other dear friends.
In the course of Tuesday afternoon we started to try and track down our 7 suitcases of unaccompanied luggage containing baby clothes, medical supplies and other donated goods that we had been given during our furlough. There was paperwork and e-mailing to be done for this. We also met Grant who was up from Mwandi to collect computer supplies that Fred Coates had sent from the States earlier on. Fred was now waiting for them at Mwandi. The day ended with shopping for supper then home to the Beit.
Wednesday morning started with a trip to the barber's for Mubita and me and the hairdresser for Ida. The car too was put into Autoworld for some much needed TLC after being parked for 4 months.Time was then devoted to visiting various retail outlets to price goods and materials for the house. The day was rounded off with a special Mwandi supper and fellowship evening graciously hosted by the Rev and Anne Sitali with the Sitali family, us and the Bangladeshi Mission Partners, Sulota from Mbereshi,and Leya Liton and Akash from Chipembi all of us first getting to know one another at Mwandi.
On Thursday the car was delivered again to Autoworld for wheel balancing and alignment and to correct the pull to the left that NISSAN is unable to fix. Both our Zambian driving licenses had expired during our furlough. Driving licenses need to be renewed here every 5 years..A medical examination and an eye-test are also required as part of the process. We had tried to have them renewed prior to our leaving but the computerisation of the process made this impossible. It was too soon! We could not drive back to Mwandi without valid licenses. So a day at the Road Traffic Department was envisaged , generally another place of officious bureaucrats ,crowds, heat and long lines. So, it was refreshing to meet Mr Mulongwe who listened sympathetically to our story, and when we explained that all the renewal paperwork was in Mwandi and ready to be processed at Livingstone on our arrival, suggested that the renewal be done in Lusaka. He was incredibly helpful in pushing this through and issuing us with temporary licenses which would last for a month, though this will mean another trip to Lusaka within the month to collect them.
We had been in touch regularly with Bridge Cargo who were clearing our suitcases and Fred Coates's computer supplies. At 1500h we were told that we could go to the Cargo Village at the Airport to collect our suitcases. Customs were releasing them early as a special delivery. The computer supplies were at the company warehouse on the Great North Road. Grant had been hoping to catch the night bus but this was increasingly a forlorn hope. We drove out to the Airport and joined the queue with the clearing agents to pay the handling fee and collect the goods. There was only one long-suffering and stoical female cashier to deal with the queue of mainly male agents and their cheeky and good-natured banter. The conversations switched easily from English to vernacular and back again. The agent from one of the major embassies was coming in for some stick as he was clearing tax free! We also met a lady we sat opposite to on the plane who was also in the queue to pick up some goods. We finally paid and picked up our suitcases. The agents from Bridge Cargo had arranged for us to pick up the computer supplies after hours. We arrived at the warehouse and squeezed the 3 boxes and the large dish into the back of our pick-up along with Grant as we had to drive with the tail gate down so the dish would fit. The two Bridge Cargo employees whom we dropped off on their way home were in the backseat along with two suitcases..
We had missed the evening Mazhandu bus to Sesheke so we left the dish in the care of the guards at Synod and arranged for Grant to be picked upby Eddie, a Synod driver, at 0600h and taken to the bus station with the over-sized dish to return to Mwandi on the first morning bus. Grant was staying next door with the Bangladeshis at the YWCA Hostel.
We then picked up Mubita who had been cared for by Mercy Sitali the whole day, allowing us to do what we had to without having to worry about him, otherwise we could not have achieved so much.
After that we bought an Indian carry-out meal and went home to watch the programme commemorating the second anniversary of the death of President Mwanawasa. So ended our 32nd Wedding Anniversary.
The onward flight to Lusaka was crowded and full with the usual universal flurry of returning families heaving and humphing, probably overweight, hand-luggage up the aisles and then carefully stowing it away in the overhead bins before everyone finally settled and relaxed.. A Carry on carry on, indeed!
We flew over a dry, red and khaki-coloured Lusaka, before landing in the early morning at the airport, Mubita was now wearing my sweater with rolled up sleeves to disguise the fact he had no trousers on. They had been removed during the night following a major spillage of apple juice!
We processed without difficulties through the Immigration and Customs formalities, luggage in tact (though now minus a pair of Mubi's shorts), and found a taxi that took us to a warm welcome back at Synod. After greeting the staff, the first thing on the 'To Do' List was to pick up our Entry Permits. After 16 years in Zambia we no longer need a Work Permit. This will save much time effort and money as these had to be renewed in Lusaka twice every five years. A visit to Immigration HQ was required, not an appealing prospect, as it is always hot, overcrowded with long queues there. However, we were fortunate as the officer dealing with our case we had got to know when he was stationed at Sesheke. He greeted us warmly with an 'Ah, my family!' So the issuing of the Entry Permits was done in under an hour.
The next problem to solve was to get our cell phones to work again. Being out of the country for 4 months meant that we needed to buy a new SIM card as our phones had been deactivated. K30 000 later to keep the same number, I was told the phone should work again after two hours. However nothing here is ever that simple and another visit to the ZAIN shop (Cell Phone Company) was required on Tuesday morning to rectify the failure of the new SIM card to operate the phone and to buy another new SIM cars for our Internet dongle. Another major inconvenience is that you lose all the numbers saved on the previous SIM card. Consumer rights and customer service are unfamiliar concepts here. You just have to learn to be grateful that ZAIN condescends to take your money!
We stay in a self-catering guest-house at the Beit CURE Hospital when we are in Lusaka so we were able to catch up with Harold and Susan Haamumba who are chaplains there. Mubita stayed with them after he was denied the visa to visit the United States. So it is like meeting up with family. Likewise we had afternoon tea with the Sitalis, other dear friends.
In the course of Tuesday afternoon we started to try and track down our 7 suitcases of unaccompanied luggage containing baby clothes, medical supplies and other donated goods that we had been given during our furlough. There was paperwork and e-mailing to be done for this. We also met Grant who was up from Mwandi to collect computer supplies that Fred Coates had sent from the States earlier on. Fred was now waiting for them at Mwandi. The day ended with shopping for supper then home to the Beit.
Wednesday morning started with a trip to the barber's for Mubita and me and the hairdresser for Ida. The car too was put into Autoworld for some much needed TLC after being parked for 4 months.Time was then devoted to visiting various retail outlets to price goods and materials for the house. The day was rounded off with a special Mwandi supper and fellowship evening graciously hosted by the Rev and Anne Sitali with the Sitali family, us and the Bangladeshi Mission Partners, Sulota from Mbereshi,and Leya Liton and Akash from Chipembi all of us first getting to know one another at Mwandi.
On Thursday the car was delivered again to Autoworld for wheel balancing and alignment and to correct the pull to the left that NISSAN is unable to fix. Both our Zambian driving licenses had expired during our furlough. Driving licenses need to be renewed here every 5 years..A medical examination and an eye-test are also required as part of the process. We had tried to have them renewed prior to our leaving but the computerisation of the process made this impossible. It was too soon! We could not drive back to Mwandi without valid licenses. So a day at the Road Traffic Department was envisaged , generally another place of officious bureaucrats ,crowds, heat and long lines. So, it was refreshing to meet Mr Mulongwe who listened sympathetically to our story, and when we explained that all the renewal paperwork was in Mwandi and ready to be processed at Livingstone on our arrival, suggested that the renewal be done in Lusaka. He was incredibly helpful in pushing this through and issuing us with temporary licenses which would last for a month, though this will mean another trip to Lusaka within the month to collect them.
We had been in touch regularly with Bridge Cargo who were clearing our suitcases and Fred Coates's computer supplies. At 1500h we were told that we could go to the Cargo Village at the Airport to collect our suitcases. Customs were releasing them early as a special delivery. The computer supplies were at the company warehouse on the Great North Road. Grant had been hoping to catch the night bus but this was increasingly a forlorn hope. We drove out to the Airport and joined the queue with the clearing agents to pay the handling fee and collect the goods. There was only one long-suffering and stoical female cashier to deal with the queue of mainly male agents and their cheeky and good-natured banter. The conversations switched easily from English to vernacular and back again. The agent from one of the major embassies was coming in for some stick as he was clearing tax free! We also met a lady we sat opposite to on the plane who was also in the queue to pick up some goods. We finally paid and picked up our suitcases. The agents from Bridge Cargo had arranged for us to pick up the computer supplies after hours. We arrived at the warehouse and squeezed the 3 boxes and the large dish into the back of our pick-up along with Grant as we had to drive with the tail gate down so the dish would fit. The two Bridge Cargo employees whom we dropped off on their way home were in the backseat along with two suitcases..
We had missed the evening Mazhandu bus to Sesheke so we left the dish in the care of the guards at Synod and arranged for Grant to be picked upby Eddie, a Synod driver, at 0600h and taken to the bus station with the over-sized dish to return to Mwandi on the first morning bus. Grant was staying next door with the Bangladeshis at the YWCA Hostel.
We then picked up Mubita who had been cared for by Mercy Sitali the whole day, allowing us to do what we had to without having to worry about him, otherwise we could not have achieved so much.
After that we bought an Indian carry-out meal and went home to watch the programme commemorating the second anniversary of the death of President Mwanawasa. So ended our 32nd Wedding Anniversary.
Tuesday, 4 May 2010
Eruption disruption: Notes from last week
On Thursday last, Ida, Mubita and I arrived expectantly at Lusaka Airport at 0630h in the golden light of dawn, the bus carrying us out was throbbing to Lozi music as this weekend is when the Kuomboka Ceremony takes place, where the Litunga (King of the Lozis) moves from the flooded plain to the drier and higher ground – a wonderful and colourful traditional ceremony. We checked in our luggage and went on to Immigration. There was a slight complication here, as we are moving from Work Permits to Entry Permits in July Mubita is not on our present work-permit, however, we showed the Adoption Order and were allowed to proceed but advised to visit Immigration HQ on our return. We escalated, much to Mubi’s delight, to the Departure Lounge and awaited our flight to Heathrow to be called. 0850h came and went. We were not really concerned as punctuality and exact time-keeping here is the exception rather than the norm. At 0900h came the astonishing announcement that BA had cancelled our flight because of volcanic activity. We were told to proceed through Immigration again and collect our luggage. In the baggage hall we were met by a BA Rep, who arranged for us to be transferred to the Taj Pamodzi, Hotel where we would be accommodated until we were able to fly again. We are grateful to BA for taking care of us so well.
We have been allocated a very comfortable double room on the fourth floor. We have a satellite TV whose variety of news channels(BBC SKY & ALJEZEERA) keep us constantly updated on developments or the lack of them concerning the flight ban. We have our little Celtel modem which allows us to e-mail and keep in touch with family and friends. We went to Synod HQ to let them know our departure had been delayed. At the same time we took the opportunity to submit our entry permit, this process being expedited by Synod staff, and pleasant and helpful Immigration officials. They issued us with a Report Order and our receipt so we enter Zambia and pick up our Entry Permits in August on our return.
It has been unusual but enjoyable for us to be in Lusaka with so little to do. We bought Mubita a swim vest and have been enjoying a daily dip in the hotel swimming pool. On Saturday afternoon we caught up with some much-needed sleep with an extended siesta. On Sunday we worshipped at Holy Trinity, just round the corner. It was a wonderful time as we met up with two former pupils from Chengelo. Nawa is in his final year at UNZA doing a BSc and we were there to witness Kazynski’s Confirmation followed by Communion. This made up in some way for our missing the Sunday Service at Kildrum.
This time of frustration and waiting has been a good lesson for us, it shows that despite Western civilisation’s much vaunted pride in its technology and sophistication, thankfully they have still a long way to go before ‘nature is tamed’. We need still to use our God-given skills, gifts and talents to live with and overcome these challenges in a rational and moral fashion that glorifies God. It also underlines the danger in relying on one form of transport, even for long haul journeys, and points to the necessity of having a more balanced and integrated world transport network. It also points to the lamentable underdevelopment of alternative terrestrial modes of transport in Africa. Finally it is a clear demonstration of how interrelated and interdependent we all are in this world. To reduce it to a Sunday Post headline: Icelandic Volcano strands Scottish Family in Zambia…….. but the difference this time is there are millions of other similar personal stories world wide.
We have been allocated a very comfortable double room on the fourth floor. We have a satellite TV whose variety of news channels(BBC SKY & ALJEZEERA) keep us constantly updated on developments or the lack of them concerning the flight ban. We have our little Celtel modem which allows us to e-mail and keep in touch with family and friends. We went to Synod HQ to let them know our departure had been delayed. At the same time we took the opportunity to submit our entry permit, this process being expedited by Synod staff, and pleasant and helpful Immigration officials. They issued us with a Report Order and our receipt so we enter Zambia and pick up our Entry Permits in August on our return.
It has been unusual but enjoyable for us to be in Lusaka with so little to do. We bought Mubita a swim vest and have been enjoying a daily dip in the hotel swimming pool. On Saturday afternoon we caught up with some much-needed sleep with an extended siesta. On Sunday we worshipped at Holy Trinity, just round the corner. It was a wonderful time as we met up with two former pupils from Chengelo. Nawa is in his final year at UNZA doing a BSc and we were there to witness Kazynski’s Confirmation followed by Communion. This made up in some way for our missing the Sunday Service at Kildrum.
This time of frustration and waiting has been a good lesson for us, it shows that despite Western civilisation’s much vaunted pride in its technology and sophistication, thankfully they have still a long way to go before ‘nature is tamed’. We need still to use our God-given skills, gifts and talents to live with and overcome these challenges in a rational and moral fashion that glorifies God. It also underlines the danger in relying on one form of transport, even for long haul journeys, and points to the necessity of having a more balanced and integrated world transport network. It also points to the lamentable underdevelopment of alternative terrestrial modes of transport in Africa. Finally it is a clear demonstration of how interrelated and interdependent we all are in this world. To reduce it to a Sunday Post headline: Icelandic Volcano strands Scottish Family in Zambia…….. but the difference this time is there are millions of other similar personal stories world wide.
Wednesday, 6 January 2010
Happy New Year
We have just been up in Lusaka for a couple of days. After bringing in the New Year at Livingstone we motored up with Catriona, Gregor and Mubita. On the first of January we also saw Ruairidh and Fiona off to Australia for Fiona’s maternity leave. The baby should arrive all being well at the end of February. Catriona had some dressage and jumping to do for her PE Course Work which she did on Saturday. We also did a bit of school shopping for them, mainly clothes and toiletries.
They left on the early Monday morning flight with a number of other ‘children’ they knew, who had been home for the Christmas holidays as well. We said goodbye with the usual tearful eyes and lump in the throat, and from the other family farewells taking place at the same time, you can see and hear it is an emotional time for all concerned. Mubita cried all the way back into town from the airport.
We had educational commitments to pay for other members of our extended Zambian family and did Aids Relief business for Ida and then visited UCZ Synod Headquarters. We have been in Zambia for 15 years so should now qualify to receive an entry permit and will no longer require a work permit. We were lodging the paperwork for that through Synod.
It is fair to say that in Zambia the concept of a civic citizenship is not allowed for in the present constitution. Citizenship is difficult to acquire and comes really only through descent. Dual citizenship is not permitted at present. The new constitution to be enacted this year partially addresses and partially modernises some of these issues. But some old-fashioned restrictions will remain - holders of dual citizenship cannot serve in the army or police for example.
The UCZ Educatiol Secretary had been in touch with the Western Province Education Authorities to try and arrange the round table talks concerning the Mwandi UCZ High School that the Ministry of Education suggested but the Province were being puzzlingly elusive. She was determined to try and nail them down. Yesterday out of the blue she heard in a phone-call from the Provincial Education Officer, that provincial opposition to the High School was being lifted and that a Grade 10 could commence this year after all.
This is wonderful news. Our thanks to you all for your prayers in this matter.
They left on the early Monday morning flight with a number of other ‘children’ they knew, who had been home for the Christmas holidays as well. We said goodbye with the usual tearful eyes and lump in the throat, and from the other family farewells taking place at the same time, you can see and hear it is an emotional time for all concerned. Mubita cried all the way back into town from the airport.
We had educational commitments to pay for other members of our extended Zambian family and did Aids Relief business for Ida and then visited UCZ Synod Headquarters. We have been in Zambia for 15 years so should now qualify to receive an entry permit and will no longer require a work permit. We were lodging the paperwork for that through Synod.
It is fair to say that in Zambia the concept of a civic citizenship is not allowed for in the present constitution. Citizenship is difficult to acquire and comes really only through descent. Dual citizenship is not permitted at present. The new constitution to be enacted this year partially addresses and partially modernises some of these issues. But some old-fashioned restrictions will remain - holders of dual citizenship cannot serve in the army or police for example.
The UCZ Educatiol Secretary had been in touch with the Western Province Education Authorities to try and arrange the round table talks concerning the Mwandi UCZ High School that the Ministry of Education suggested but the Province were being puzzlingly elusive. She was determined to try and nail them down. Yesterday out of the blue she heard in a phone-call from the Provincial Education Officer, that provincial opposition to the High School was being lifted and that a Grade 10 could commence this year after all.
This is wonderful news. Our thanks to you all for your prayers in this matter.
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