Captain Chris Katongo scored with a deflected shot after 15 minutes to ensure home success after a week of snipping between officials and the team coach in the wake of their loss in Sudan last weekend.

Katongo's goal marked a successful opening of the new 40,000-capacity Chinese-built stadium on Zambia's copperbelt and will go a long way to easing tensions after the 2-0 defeat in Khartoum in their opening Group D game last Sunday.

Zambia's flamboyant French coach Herve Renard criticised sports ministry officials for botching travel arrangements to Sudan, which he blamed for the defeat, and then revealed he had not been paid for the last six months since Zambia won the Nations Cup in February.

He has a contract with government rather than the football association and was told to temper his criticism by irritated officials.

The row over-shadowed the buildup to Saturday's game against a weakened Ghana side, without many of the key players who helped them to a World Cup quarter-final at the 2010 finals in South Africa.

But Ghana, who Zambia also beat in last February's Nations Cup semifinal, started the World Cup qualifiers with a one-sided 7-0 win over Lesotho on June 1.

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