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...

In the first week of January 2020, Social Media was full of pictures showing the effects of flash floods in Mambwe District. Over 50 families were displaced with crops destroyed. A photo, which caught my eye, was the one posted by Mr Antonio Mandala Mwanza (the Patriotic Front Deputy Media Director) on his Facebook page....

The Patriotic Front government’s legalisation of marijuana for commercial and medicinal purposes is a welcome, if overdue, development. It is a victory of reason over vocal opposition likely from those who neither research nor smoke marijuana. That said, the legalisation needs a more broad-based consultative process to produce a comprehensive marijuana policy satisfactory to all...

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...

The PF administration under the leadership of President Edgar Lungu, reached the mid point of its five-year term in April 2019. In total, the Patriotic Front has been in power for 39 months out of a possible 60 months and this is a propitious time to take stock of what has been achieved or not...

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...

One would have thought that by being an academician, UNZA don Sishuwa Sishuwa would be a person whose outlook would be guided by empirical evidence and objectivity. Far from it! The prejudice and cynicism in his recent article in News Diggers wherein he attempted to disparage and “hex” President Edgar Chagwa Lungu’s announcement that he...

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...

Albie Sachs, the celebrated retired judge of the South African Constitutional Court, while delivering a lecture, once asserted that every judgment he wrote was a lie. By this he meant that the formality of every judgment masks the underlying considerations that birthed it, that is, the final format of the judgment belies the manner in...

The Zambian economy has faced challenges of constricting fiscal space and the devastating effects of climate change. Fiscal space is commonly defined as the budgetary room that allows a government to provide resources for public purposes. How has the constricting fiscal space and the devastating effects of climate change affected the livestock subsector? In this...