KASEBA

By BRIAN HATYOKA-
FIRST Lady Christine Kaseba has said Africa must start thinking of feeding its people and the entire world.
Dr Kaseba said Africa had more than seven billion people and the continent was endowed with natural resources enough to feed itself and the rest of the world.
“Hunger is a potential killer for many children that will be born but think of Africa with all the natural resources and excellent youth, what can we do as Africa to rise up to this challenge and not only feed the African population but feed the entire world?” she asked.
The First Lady was speaking in Livingstone at Zambezi Sun Hotel on Saturday night during the Zambia National Broadcasting Corporation (ZNBC) and Zambia Information and Communication Technology Authority (ZICTA) Debate Time International grand finale between Zambia and South Africa.
Dr Kaseba also donated US$10,000 towards this year’s Debate Time project for schools to enable competing teams invest in Information and Communication Technology (ICT).
She said the donation should be distributed among the competing teams so that they could invest in ICT and have all the software of the required literature to strengthen their debate capabilities.
The Zambian team, which comprised three pupils, beat their South African counterparts and received a cash prize of $5,000 during the event, which also attracted several schools from other Southern African countries.
Dr Kaseba thanked ZNBC and ZICTA for giving young people in schools an opportunity to debate issues affecting their countries.
“I do realise ZNBC’s constraints in hosting the Debate Time project and I am appealing to ZICTA and other sponsors to continue supporting this wonderful project,” Dr Kaseba said.
“On my part, I want to contribute for this year $10,000 to be distributed among the competing teams so that they can invest in ICT and have a software with all the required literature to strengthen their debate capabilities.”
Dr Kaseba said Debate Time was an excellent programme that gave young people an opportunity to be part of decision-making and become critical thinkers while also giving young people a platform to demonstrate their capability to contribute to national development.
“The President of Zambia His Excellence Michael Sata and I have watched some of the debates on ZNBC and I must say that I personally found them intellectually exciting,” Dr Kaseba said.
“I was very impressed not only with the wealth of information being presented which could only have been due to many hours of research, but also with the creativity in the way arguments were being put forward with confidence.”
She said Debate Time was, without argument, the biggest debate stage in Zambia and the Southern African Development Community (SADC) region for school-going children.
Dr Kaseba urged ZNBC to consider expanding so that it could have more educating and entertaining programmes.
She also acknowledged the contribution by the Government in supporting the welfare of learners by constructing more schools and universities in the country.
Speaking during the same event, Southern Province Minister Daniel Munkombwe described Dr Kaseba as a distinguished person who was always showing love and care to vulnerable people, especially the younger ones.
ZNBC Board Chairperson John Mulwila said Debate Time started as a small project four years ago and it had currently grown to become an international programme with the help of partners from the private and public sectors.
ZICTA child online protection ambassador Catherine Phiri, who is also World Professional Boxing Federation bantamweight female champion, urged young people to avoid misusing or abusing the Internet.