'Day by day, we seem to be left with a people who are embryos of themselves; people who never grow out of themselves. They dream and never work their dreams, hold visions and never live them – frightened at failure and scared to venture out. People after sound opinions of others; looking to be forever...

On 9 April 2020, the Independent Broadcasting Authority (IBA), Zambia’s broadcasting regulator, cancelled the broadcasting licence of Prime TV, the country’s most popular and leading independent television station, established eight years ago. In a letter to Prime TV Executive Director Gerald Shawa, IBA Board Secretary and Director General, Josephine Mapoma, stated that the action has...

On 13 March 2020, the Judiciary’s Acting Chief Registrar, Prince Boniface Mwiinga, announced that prominent constitutional law expert John Sangwa would no longer be allowed to appear before any court in Zambia. In a notice to all judges of the Supreme Court, Constitutional Court, Court of Appeal, High Court, Registrars and Magistrates, Mwiinga stated that...

On 23 February 2020, Electoral Commission of Zambia (ECZ) chief electoral officer Patrick Nshindano appeared on Sunday Interview, a Zambia National Broadcasting Corporation television programme hosted by Grevazio Zulu every Sunday evening that typically consists of an in-depth, one-on-one 60-minute interview with a prominent guest. Zambians who had hoped that Nshindano would use the platform...

On 4 February 2020, the government, through the Labour Commissioner, cancelled the Recognition Agreement between the University of Zambia Lecturers’ and Researchers’ Union (UNZALARU) and the Council of the University of Zambia (UNZA), sometimes referred to as UNZA Management. The Agreement is the marriage certificate that confirms the formal relationship between an employer (in this...

In contrast to the shortage of authentic, consistent heroes in public life, Zambia had a huge surplus of disappointing individuals and institutions in 2019, as the competition for uninspiring conduct grew even fiercer. Indeed, such is the surplus that if we are really serious about diversifying and resuscitating Zambia’s ailing economy, we will do well...

Across 2019, Zambia experienced no shortage of disappointments and setbacks. Yet there are some individuals whose courage and principles made them inspiring figures in the political landscape. In this and the next article, I list two sets of citizens of 2019: those who through their actions offered hope to Zambians and those who were huge...

Ordinarily, I do not respond to reactions to my articles that make no attempt whatsoever to engage with the substance of my writing. I believe that ad hominems, however well presented, are not arguments.  The Patriotic Front (PF) media director Sunday Chanda’s reply to my article, ‘Lungu should cut his term of office, not the...

A few days ago, President Edgar Lungu announced a 15 to 20 per cent reduction on his salary and the salaries of both cabinet ministers and the chief executives of parastatal companies. Lungu further directed the Secretary to Cabinet to extend the measure to top-earning non-unionised civil servants, which, in effect, means all workers in...

On 8 November 2019, President Edgar Lungu, speaking in his first press conference for four years, brought up Zambia’s elections scheduled for 2021 before declaring: “I am game”. Breaking with his usual practice of governing through press aides and off-the-cuff remarks delivered on airport tarmacs, he stressed publicly that he would be the presidential candidate...

Dear Vice-Chancellor, I write in relation to media reports that the institution that you lead, the Copperbelt University (CBU), has directed all returning students to pay K 1, 500 as a penalty for alleged damage to property that occurred when a number of students protested, for whatever reasons, earlier this year. Why does the university...

Dear Minister Luo, On 29 April 2019, News Diggers published the most recent public comments you have made on the continued closure of the Copperbelt University (CBU). In the published story, you were quoted by the newspaper as expressing the hope that ‘President Edgar Lungu will decide to reopen the Copperbelt University now that the...

The first building that one comes across when entering the University of Zambia, which sits on the terraces of a busy motorway to and from the country’s main international airport, is an imposing and massive structure known as the Confucius Institute. That the institute, named after a major icon of Chinese culture, has been erected...

The thuggery of ruling Patriotic Front (PF) cadres never seems to cease and appears to grow more frequent as time passes. Media reports on their latest antics can be read or heard almost every week and produce much tutting and shaking of heads around dinner tables in Kabulonga, Ibex, Woodlands, Rhodes Park, Kalundu, Sunningdale, Longacres,...

For a long time now, many of us have complained, sometimes with very persuasive arguments, that Zambia is where it is today because of bad leadership at the national level. We explain our country’s deepening crisis, illustrated by extreme cultural and material impoverishment, sustained institutional deterioration, heightened political divisions and economic decline made worse by...

On 19 March 2019, the heart of Brenda Muntemba, 49, ceased to beat, cutting short a soaring career in public service that was so distinguished that few would match it even if they were given a chance to start theirs all over again. Is this how fleeting life is? Yes, l had heard that she...

On 5 March 1988, Shem Michael Mlevhu, commonly known as Keith Mlevhu, a multitalented artist and upstanding citizen of our country ceased to breathe. Born in the mining town of Chingola 37 years earlier, on 14 September 1950, Mlevhu grew up on the Copperbelt, the economic power of Zambia and the training ground for political...

On 6 February 2019, Minister of Higher Education Professor Nkandu Luo announced that her ministry had with immediate effect stopped disbursing the stipend, popularly known as ‘meal’ allowance, paid to government-sponsored students in public universities for their upkeep. Luo said the move was necessitated by the need to extend the government’s financial assistance to students...

Last Tuesday, the opposition United Party for National Development (UPND) scooped the Sesheke parliamentary by-election after defeating the ruling Patriotic Front (PF) and two other opposition parties, namely, the United Prosperous and Peaceful Zambia (UPPZ) and People’ Alliance for Change (PAC). Previously held by the UPND’s Frank Kufakwandi, the Sesheke seat fell vacant after his...

Last week, the Anti-Corruption Commission (ACC) arrested Minister of Infrastructure and Housing Development Ronald Kaoma Chitotela on suspicion of corruption. Chitotela, 46, was subsequently charged with two counts of concealing property suspected of being proceeds of crime, contrary to Section 71 (1) of the Forfeiture of Proceeds of Crime Act Number 19 of 2010. The...

On 30 December 2018, voters in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) went to the polls to choose a successor to President Joseph Kabila who had been in power since 2001. The election featured 21 presidential candidates, though only three were frontrunners. These included Emmanuel Ramazani Shadary of the ruling People’s Party for Reconstruction and...

In the 2019 national budget, the Minister of Finance proposed a few changes to Zambia’s mining tax regime. As well as introducing a 1.5 per cent increase in mineral royalty rates, Margaret Mwanakatwe also imposed a 5 per cent import duty on copper concentrates and a 15 per cent export duty on precious metals. Mwanakatwe...

Appearing on Radio Christian Voice’s Chat Back programme last week, opposition United Party for National Development (UPND) leader Hakainde Hichilema revealed that mining companies in Zambia have told him that they cannot wait for him to ascend to power because they see him as someone who will clean up the mess in the sector. ‘“The...