Pretoria – 23rd August, 2015 – ZAMBIA’S High Commissioner to South Africa Designate, His Excellency Mr. Emmanuel Mwamba has called on Zambians living in South Africa to form a single body that will collectively represent their interests across the country.
Mr. Mwamba has said that it was important that legitimacy for whatever body that claimed to represent Zambians in South Africa was derived from across the country. He said the existing regional associations should unite so that they could have a “strengthened voice.”
“You can have your branches or regional bodies but there is need for all these to be affiliated to a central body which will comprise individuals who will be recognised as the national leadership across South Africa. As a Mission, we want an association that encompasses all as that will make our work easier,” Mr. Mwamba said.
He pointed out that Government was concerned about the hardships Zambians go through whenever issues of funerals, destitution and other social welfare related matters arose.
The High Commissioner was speaking when he met Zambia Association in South Africa (ZASA) president, Mr. Ferdinand Simaanya in Pretoria at the weekend. “Your association can act as a pool to collect resources and open a fund from which you can draw whenever one of us is in need. As Government, we will play our role to help wherever we can. The Mission is open to you and we want you to work with us as we have a lot of projects lined up,” Mr. Mwamba said.
In response, Mr. Simaanya said ZASA will, with effect from 1st September, 2015, start a funeral fund with contributions from the membership. He said Zambians living in Gauteng province have faced difficulties whenever they had bereavements as a number of them failed to raise money for transporting of bodies back to Zambia and making other funeral arrangements.
ZASA has been in existence since 1996 and represents Zambians living in Gauteng province. Mr. Simaanya said the association, with a membership of about 1, 900, has 10 branches in Gauteng with each presided over by full executive committees.
Issued by:
Nicky Shabolyo
PRESS SECRETARY
HIGH COMMISSION OF ZAMBIA IN SOUTH AFRICA
Mobile: 00 27 810027548 Email:press@zambiapretoria.net; nshabolyo@gmail.com