. KATEMA

By CATHERINE NYIRENDA –
OPPOSITION members of Parliament yesterday questioned Government on why it had not yet awarded a contract to a company to supply a set
of boxes for digital terrestrial migration with less than one year to the deadline.
This was after Information and Broadcasting Services Minister Joseph Katema stated, during questions-for-oral-answers, that the Government had to date not yet awarded the contract for the set of boxes.
Dr Katema said the Zambia Information and Communication Technology Authority and the Zambia Bureau of Standards (ZBS) had set guidelines
of how the set of boxes were to be designed.
MMD Kembe MP Ronnie Shikapwasha asked why the Government was reinventing the wheel when it was already agreed that the set of boxes would be supplied locally.
“The digital terrestrial migration is not a new programme. Trials for a set of boxes were done and an agreement was made that these should
be produced locally. Why are we reinventing the wheel?” Gen Shikapwasha asked.
Dr katema said the Government was setting standards for the boxes to correlate with the transmitters to be set up by a contractor, and
assured the House that the Government was optimistic that Zambia would meet the June 2015 deadline to switch to digital terrestrial migration.
A number of measures had been put in place, including the approval of the digital migration policy by Cabinet and the awarding of a tender
for a company to undertake the exercise.
Patriotic Front (PF) Chipili MP Davis Mwila asked about the progress on the implementation of the digital migration, how much money was
spent on the programme as of August 2014 and the challenges the Government was facing in implementing it.
Meanwhile, Parliament also heard that the Government was addressing the concerns raised by students at Zambia College of Agriculture in
Mpika to facilitate the reopening of the institution next month.
Agriculture and Livestock Deputy Minister Greyford Monde told the House that his ministry had made arrangements to transfer three lecturers to the college to beef up staffing levels.
The Government had allocated K2 million for the construction of hostels and lecture theatres at the college.
Mr Monde was responding to MMD Chadiza MP Allan Mbewe who wanted to know what caused the early closure of the college and when the Government intended to reopen it.