Top news in major Zambian media outlets

The following are the news highlights in Zambia's major media outlets on Saturday.

-- Zambian President Edgar Lungu said the southern African nation is food secure and is poised to become the food basket of the region because of good agriculture policies the government is implementing.

Zambia will remain food secure because it is envisaged that 2 million tons of maize will be produced this year, he added.

He said the fact that the country is able to export its food to neighboring countries is evidenced enough that it is food secure. (Zambia Daily Mail)

-- Authorities in Zambia intend to limit the number of hours drivers spend on the road as a way to reduce road carnages.

The Road Transport and Safety Agency (RTSA) said it has proposed a law which will regulate the number of hours spend on the roads after research showed that most drivers were over worked and fatigued, resulting in avoidable accidents.

The law will also ban public service buses from moving at night. (The Post)

-- A union representing teachers in Zambia has expressed concern over the poor reading culture in the country.

The Zambia National Union of Teachers (ZNTU) has however attributed the poor reading culture to lack of reading materials in schools.

Newman Bubala, the union's secretary general said teachers were finding it difficult on how to monitor children's performance in schools because reading materials were few in most cases. (Daily Nation)

-- The Office of Zambian President has dismissed predictions by Britain's Economic Intelligent Unit (EIU) that President Edgar Lungu will lose this year's election to the opposition.

Presidential spokesperson Amos Chanda said most predictions by the EIU should not be relied upon because the institution does not seem to understand the electoral demographics of Zambia.

The EIU has predicted that the current governing party will lose the August 11 general elections on account of discontent from voters. (Zambia Daily Mail) Endit