A 30 year old teacher of Chifunabuli district in Luapula Province has been found dead in her house after she was allegedly murdered by her boyfriend.
And an undisclosed amount of money meant to pay Social Cash Transfer beneficiaries that the late teacher was keeping in the house has also been stolen by the suspected murderer.
The teacher identified as Anety Lutanda, is believed to have met her fate between 19.00 hours on Thursday January 14th to 06.00 hours on Friday 15th January, 2021 and is suspected to have been murdered by her boyfriend who robbed her of the said funds.
Confirming the incident in the district yesterday, Luapula Province Deputy Commissioner of Police, Davis Simwanza said the deceased was a teacher at Saashi Primary School in Chifunabuli and was the Social Cash Transfer Pay Point Manager for Saashi and Mwita communities.
The government says it is pleasing that there has been increased confidence by cooperating partners on the Social Cash Transfer ( SCT ) programme following the introduction of the smart system of administering cash which has led to transparency and accountability.
Community Development Minister Kampamba Chewe says the reduction on the physical handling of the cash through the smart system is meant to reduce misappropriation of funds and promote accountability in the management of the mainly donor funded cash.
Mr Chewe however noted that the new smart system being used has resulted in challenges as some people were having problems with the use of phone password pins numbers to access the funds and in the end the money is sent back to Lusaka.
Government has secured funding from cooperating partners to pay beneficiaries of the Social Cash Transfer programme in 67 priority districts across the country.
Mwansabombwe District Social Welfare Officer Bridget Chola who disclosed the development during a sensitization meeting, said that soon all beneficiaries in Mwansabombwe will start getting their entitlements.
“The 67 districts implementing the Keeping Girls in School (KGS) and Supporting Women Livelihood (SWL) projects have been prioritized in order to complement social cash transfers, in order to achieve positive impact on the beneficiaries,” Ms Chola said.
She said providing a package of benefits through KGS, SWL and SCT to the poorest livelihoods is in line with government’s policy of ensuring enhanced impact and increasing the chances of households to come out of poverty.
North Western Province Minister, Nathaniel Mubukwanu says despite the country facing the challenge of Covid-19 in the year 2020, the province has recorded significant achievements in various sectors.
Speaking at a press briefing over the performance of the province for 2020, Mr Mubukwanu said major successes were recorded in various sectors such as non-tax revenue generation, water and sanitation, social protection, fisheries and livestock development among others.
Mr. Mubukwanu said massive progress was recorded in Social protection where the province had significant achievement.
He said during the year 2020 the province targeted 55,209 households’ beneficiaries and a total of 47,177 households benefited under Social Cash Transfer program, adding that a total amount of K11, 844,568.45 that was disbursed.