Site Root

Trim Ministerial Positions, Please

Administrator — Tue, 01 Dec 2009 11:36:00 GMT

The recent massive reshuffles of Permanent Secretaries and government Ministers are a clear indication of President Rupiah Banda’s utmost insensitivity to the expectations of the Zambian people. Instead of trimming his government to make it smaller and more efficient, he seems to be more obsessed with lining up the pockets of his friends, political supporters and sympathizers. It is both irresponsible and inexcusable for Banda to continue to maintain sinecures at public expense while the country drifts further into socio-economic decay and backwardness. In fact, his failure to abolish the positions of Deputy Minister and District Commissioner, and to reduce the size of his Cabinet, defies his own sentiments and the sentiments of the late President Levy Mwanawasa.

In his speech in June 2009, for example, he decried the fact 50% of government’s domestic revenues are spent on 1% of the population, including Ministers, and wondered how provision for roads, hospitals, schools, energy, and defence and security could be met. The late Mwanawasa, too, expressed his misgivings about the bloated government when he revealed that 65% of the national budget was devoted to the sustenance of a bloated state apparatus, and that only a paltry 35% was left for education, agriculture, healthcare, roads and bridges, and so forth.

There is a need to reduce the size of the government to a smaller number of Cabinet portfolios, such as the following:

(a) Education, Training and Sport;

(b) Public Health and Sanitation;

(d) Finance and Revenue;

(e) Commerce and Industry;

(f) Defence and

Security;

(g) Works, Supply and Transport;

(h) Culture and Community

Services;

(i) Justice, Prisons and Immigration; and

(j) Foreign Affairs.

Government functions which cannot be accommodated by these ministries can be delegated to executive government agencies. The savings to be made per year in this regard are enormous, as calculated below using data mainly from the Ministerial and Parliamentary Offices (Emoluments) (Amendment) Act No. 18 of 2008.

1) Permanent Secretary:

K102,866,638 Salary

2) Cabinet Minister:

K75,117,124 Salary

K26,382,673 Special allowance

K26,680,000 Utility allowance

K128,179,797 Total

3) Deputy Minister:

K70,953,196 Salary

K24,107,904 Special allowance

K26,680,000 Utility allowance

K121,741,090 Total

By reducing the number of Cabinet Ministers, Deputy Ministers and Permanent Secretaries for the current 23 government Ministries to 10 Ministries, Zambia would make the following savings:

13 Ministers x K128,179,797 = K1,666,337,361

43 Deputy Ministers x K121,741,090 = K5,194,866,870

13 Permanent Secretaries x K102,866,638 = K1,337,266,294

Total Savings: K8,198,470,525

These savings plus savings from the abolition of the positions of 72 District Commissioners and savings from allocations of automobiles and other assets for affected government officials are enormous.

A radical and fundamental reduction in the size of the national government is the only viable means by which Zambia can ultimately pay off the national debt, reduce taxes and interest rates to stimulate the economy and job creation, and provide adequately for the needs of education, public health, agriculture, public infrastructure, civil servants, civil service retirees, and so forth.

By Henry Kyambalesa

Dean's Hill View Lodge

Administrator — Tue, 17 Nov 2009 09:14:00 GMT

Looking for camping and chalet accommodation in Chipata? Look no further than Dean's Hill View Lodge. Relax in the Chipata Hills, on the outskirts of town, in secluded surroundings with lovely views. The Malawi Border is 25km to the East. Buses to Lusaka leave daily. Transport from the town to the spectacular Luangwa Game Park is available. The accommodation has been open for approximately 3 years but Dean's Hill View Lodge has chalets with rooms for your individual needs, shower units, flush toilets, a dining room and a well equiped kitchen.

Features:

Hot Showers & Food
Cold Beer and Drinks
Twin Rooms & Camping

Prices:

Prices are Chalets $10 per person per night .
Camping 5$ per person per night.
Breakfast is $3 to $4
Supper is $6

Contact:

Contact Us for Prices and Booking
Email bookings@deanshillviewlodge.co.uk
Phone: +260 (0) 6 221 673
Cellphone/Mobile Phone: +260 (0) 977 767 221
Dean's Hill View Lodge Website

George Kunda in Southern Province

Administrator — Tue, 17 Nov 2009 08:36:00 GMT

Vice President George Kunda’s visit to Southern Province (reported in the *Zambia Daily Mail* article of November 16, 2009 by Wallen Simwaka entitled “UPND ‘Sold’ to PF) is worrisome, especially that it is designed to sensitize people in the province “about the evils of the pact between Mr. Sata and Mr. Hichilema.”

In the article, Kunda is quoted as having “urged [UPND MPs] … to join the ruling party.” In the same article, he is quoted as having accused some private media institutions as “promoting anarchy by their failure to observe professional ethics.” In other words, he seems to be suggesting that the private media should only cover stories which shower praises on the unseen accomplishments of the MMD like the Zambia daily Mail, Times of Zambia, ZNBC, and ZANIS. That, to him, is professionalism; any news media which engages in anything else is deemed to engage in “quack” journalism!

It is now becoming clear that the MMD wants to take us back to 1972 when Zambia became a single-party system. This can be interpreted from the contemplated legislation of the independent media and NGOs to an overt attempt to swallow up major political parties!

If the MMD government cannot re-think the idea of limiting the operations of NGOs and the media, and the apparent swallowing up of major political parties, Zambia is clearly headed toward dictatorship! And there seems to be no way in which the government’s intentions can be thwarted, since the vibrant civil society and independent press which helped us secure a multi-party system are seemingly under the threat of rules and regulations designed to limit their operations.

There are a lot of important projects and programs which Kunda would have have gone to Southern Province to tell the residents how and when such projects would be started and/or completed—projects and programs which would improve the socio-economic well-being of residents. These projects and programs include the following:

(a) Hiring of more healthcare personnel, and ensuring that healthcare facilities throughout the province have adequate stocks of medicines and medical supplies and equipment. Healthcare facilities in the province are in dire need of personnel and supplies—including the Gwembe, Kalomo, Zimba Mission, Kafue Gorge, Mazabuka, Chikombola, Research Station Clinic, Riverside Farm Clinic, Chikuni Mission, Stage II, Namwala, Itezhi Tezhi, Mtendere, Siavonga, Maamba, Choma General, Macha Mission, Livingstone, Chikankata, and Monze Mission medical centers.

(b) Construction of more primary and secondary schools in the province (and rehabilitation of old ones) in order to make it possible for each and every child in the province to have access to education near their homes in all the districts—that is, in Choma, Gwembe, Itezhi-Tezhi, Kalomo, Kazungula, Livingstone, Mazabuka, Monze, Namwala, Siavonga, and Sinazongwe districts. Further, there is a need to address the problems facing educational and training institutions in the province, including the lack of teachers, instructors, housing, educational supplies and equipment, inadequate salaries and allowances, and sports and recreation. It is also important to ensure that salaries and allowances are timely disbursed to all parts of the province so that teachers and other civil servants will not have to trek to designated locations to pick up their money only to be told that their dues are not yet available.

(c) Planning adequately for both the prevention and the containment of diseases like the Contagious Bovine Pleuro-Pneumonia (CBPP) disease (which hit the border area between Kazungula district in Southern Province and Sesheke district in Western Province in recent years) and effective control of the tse-tse fly in order to reduce the incidence of sleeping sickness.

(d) Improvement of the availability of safe and clean water throughout the province through boreholes, dams, water pipes, and protected shallow wells, and also provide for modern sewage facilities and both public and private conveniences.

(e) Completion of the construction of irrigation schemes at Simupande, Nzenga and Sinazongwe, including the electrification of the three irrigation schemes. Moreover, there is a need to ensure that the dam at Buleya Malima irrigation scheme in Sinazongwe district is rehabilitated and maintained on a regular basis.

(f) Provision of incentives for the exploration of gas and oil deposits at Kanesiya stream near Sianeja in Senior Chief Mweemba’s kingdom in Sinazongwe district.

(g) Upgrading of resettlement schemes in the province by providing financial and material resources for constructing and/or rehabilitating boreholes, water wells, irrigation dams and canals, feeder roads, culverts, low-cost houses, clinics, basic schools, police posts, and other essential public services and facilities. Such schemes include the Masasabi scheme in Itezhi Tezhi district, the Kasiya scheme in Livingstone district, the Harmony scheme, and the Siamambo scheme in Choma district.

Funding for these kinds of projects and programs in Southern Province, and in other provinces as a matter of fact, can come from savings which can be realized from reducing the number of Cabinet portfolios by merging and/or abolishing some government ministries and agencies, abolishing the positions of Deputy Minister and District Commissioner, reducing the number of foreign missions by having single embassies to cover clusters of countries, and initiating many other cost-cutting measures.

It is high time the MMD and its leaders started considering criticism of this kind with an open mind. Otherwise our beloved country will continue to move backwards in huge steps.

By Henry Kyambalesa

Chiefs and Partisan Politics

Administrator — Mon, 02 Nov 2009 21:36:00 GMT

Of late, the behavior of some of our chiefs has become inimical to the functioning of a vibrant and peaceful multi-party political system that we are attempting to create. I have two examples of such behavior.

The first example relates to Paramount Chief Chitimukulu, who has been quoted by Chibaula Silwamba of *The Post Newspaper* as having said the following in an article entitled “Chitimukulu Vents His Frustration on The Post” of October 23, 2009:

“We have to be on the side of the governing party and the government. There is no chief who could be on the side of opposition political parties. I can never be on the side of an opposition political party.”

The second example pertains to comments made by Chief Puta, which appeared in an article by Patson Chilemba of *The Post Newspaper* entitled “Rupiah Won’t Go Anywhere with ‘Terrorists’—Puta” of May 5, 2009. In this article, Chief Puta is quoted as having said that President Rupiah Banda should rid himself of people like Mulongoti and [the late] Tetamashimba because of their comments concerning Katele Kalumba, who had been found with a case to answer for alleged corruption.

He is also quoted in the same article as having said that he would instruct his subjects to start throwing stones against the government if government leaders pushed him too hard, and that he would tell his people to de-campaign President Rupiah Banda, who he supported during the 2008 presidential by-election!

In an article by Ernest Chanda of *The Post Newspaper* dated November 1, 2009 entitled “Chief Puta Bans PF Activities,” Chief Puta is quoted as having banned Patriotic Front (PF) activities in his chiefdom on grounds that the party’s leadership is opposed to former Republican president Frederick Chiluba’s acquittal. In the same article, he is also accused of having tried to block the nomination of a PF candidate for the November 19, 2009 local government elections.

Since independence in October 1964, there have been complaints and sentiments from some segments of Zambian society about the use of traditional leaders by ruling political parties to gain political advantage, particularly during political campaigns. The revelation that chieftains in the Eastern province were consulted in the process of picking an MMD candidate for the Milanzi parliamentary by-election last year, and that the Republican president urged chiefs to support the MMD candidate in the Chitambo parliamentary by-election this year, are cases in point.

If we are not careful, we could be paving the way for anarchy in our 286 chiefdoms by pushing chieftains into the political arena. We could be planting the seeds of destruction for the Zambian nation, and for our nascent democracy; we could be starting a vicious fire for our children and grandchildren to extinguish—and they will not judge us kindly if we leave them a country that will be in flames!

I believe very strongly that the partisan stance by some of our chiefs is partly promoted by the subsidies, electrification of palaces and the car loans extended to them through the office of the Republican president.

*I, therefore, wish to call upon President Banda to initiate, by Executive Order, the removal of public assistance to chiefs from the office of the Republican president and placed under the aegis of the Parliamentary Committee on Local Governance, Housing and Chiefs’ Affairs in order to forestall any suspicions that assistance to chiefs is designed to woo their support for the ruling political party during elections*.

There is also a need to uphold Articles 65 (clauses 3 and 4) and 129 of the 1996 Republican constitution (as recommended by the National Constitutional Conference), which bar chieftains from participating in or joining partisan politics unless they formally abdicate their traditional leadership roles. If they are allowed to participate in partisan politics, they can
consciously or otherwise abuse the absolute traditional authority they wield by imposing their political views and choices on their subjects — a situation which can lead to tribal politics in our country.

Moreover, traditional leaders’ participation in politics can lead to the disintegration of their chiefdoms. Let us consider a number of scenarios which can culminate in such a situation.

Firstly, a chieftain is, ideally, an impartial leader of all the people in his or her chiefdom regardless of their political affiliations. However, his or her participation in partisan politics can inevitably place him or her in an adversarial position against subjects who may have different political alignments.

Secondly, the political arena naturally requires participants to advocate certain causes and articulate their ideological convictions which, for a traditional leader, are likely to be at variance with the causes and convictions of some of his or her subjects. Thirdly, partisan politics is fraught with slander, snobbery and discourtesies to which traditional leaders can choose to subject themselves only at the immense cost of losing the abounding and unconditional respect accorded to them by their subjects.

Further, chieftains’ participation in active politics can frustrate efforts aimed at creating a level playing field for all political contestants, since they (the chieftains) already have a faithful following in their areas of jurisdiction.

We would do well to address allegations of election-rigging, vote-buying, intimidation, and access to public resources by the ruling political party without opening up other avenues for unfair political advantage.

By Henry Kyambalesa

Zambia: The Cost of a Larger Parliament

Administrator — Tue, 27 Oct 2009 23:28:00 GMT

I have noticed that the news article by Patrick Jabani entitled “NCC Adopts New Electoral System in Zambia” recently appeared in both the *Times of Zambia* and *The Post* newspapers. In the article, Comrade Jabani has made a good summary of arguments for and against the adoption of Article 159(1) of the Republican constitution that is currently being crafted, which is intended to increase the number of Members of Parliament (MPs) from 150 to 280. [It is perhaps important to note here that the current membership of Parliament is actually 150 elected MPs + 8 MPs nominated by the Republican president.]

Unfortunately, the article does not address the cost associated with the proposed increase in the number of MPs.

In this regard, I wish to reiterate my initial position that Zambia cannot afford to implement the proposal that has been recommended by the National Constitutional Conference (NCC). There is really no wisdom in seeking to increase the number of constituencies when some of the existing constituencies cannot even generate enough tax revenue to meet the cost of maintaining their MPs.

It is unfortunate that such a recommendation is made at a time when tens of thousands of Grade 7 and Grade 9 students have continued to be spilled onto the streets every year, the healthcare system cannot meet the basic needs of the majority of citizens, the majority of Zambians have no access to clean water and electricity, the country still faces problems with garbage collection and disposal, a critical shortage of decent public housing has compelled so many of our fellow citizens to live in shanty townships nationwide, public infrastructure and services are still deficient, civil servants are still not adequately compensated for their services, and, among many other socio-economic ills, crime and unemployment are still widespread.

I have, therefore, found it necessary to provide some information about the cost of increasing the number of MPs from 150 (as suggested by Jabani) to 280. In this endeavor, I have assumed that the Speaker, Deputy Speaker, Chief Whip, and Leader of the Opposition in Parliament are remunerated the same as a Private Member in terms of salary, special allowance and utility; I have also assumed that the constituency allowance available to each MP is equivalent to that paid to a Nominated member in Zambian Kwacha (K) per year, and that there are no costs associated with personal-to-holder cars and other fringe benefits:

61,009,773 Salary

16,665,752 Special allowance

23,200,000 Utility

11,600,000 Constituency allowance

-------------------

K112, 475,525 per MP x 150 MPs = K16,871,328,750.

-------------------

And

K112, 475,525 per MP x 280 MPs = K31,492,147,000.

The cost of additional MPs per year:

K31,492,147,000 – K16,871,328,750 = K14,620,818,250 (US$3,187,377).

It seems the huge allowances which members of the National Constitutional Conference are receiving have intoxicated them so much that they have become incapable of thinking about the catalogue of socio-economic woes which the government cannot address mainly due to the lack of financial and material resources.

Rather than increasing the number of MPs, we should actually have been considering the prospect of reducing the number and restricting their functions to legislative matters. Parliament would still be representative and able to function effectively as the legislative organ of our national government, with only 72 elected MPs, for example, so that 1 MP could be elected from each of the existing 72 districts.

If we cannot reduce the number of MPs, we need to continue to have a parliament with 158 members (or 150 as suggested by Jabani). Representation in the governance of the country by women and the youth, among others, can be achieved through appointments to Permanent-Secretary positions, and to positions in Cabinet and government agencies.

It is irresponsible and ill-advised for NCC members to think about representation without seriously considering the cost associated with it.

Our country’s meager tax revenues will not be sufficient to maintain such a large parliament and a highly bloated cabinet. And we cannot continue to borrow until we push the country back into the debt trap. Besides, donor countries too are not likely to continue extending a helping hand while we continue to misuse our meager resources.

There is a need for NCC members and the government to realize that donor countries do not have unlimited resources. They have to make do with scarce resources by going through public expenditures line by line, program by program, agency by agency, department by department, and ministry by ministry in order to eliminate unnecessary application of public funds.

We need to start doing the same in order to wean our country from its current addiction to loans and its over-dependence on donor funding, as well as to attain economic independence and sustained socio-economic development, predominantly with our own local resources.

By the way, MPs should not be involved in the implementation of development projects; this should be the function of government ministries and local authorities. Besides, the provinces are already saturated with such portfolios as district commissioners, provincial ministers and provincial permanent secretaries, all of whom are supposed to complement the executive branch of the government in the implementation of development projects. To reiterate, we need to restrict the role of parliament to legislative functions — that is, law-making.

By Henry Kyambalesa

No Need for Further Media Regulation

Administrator — Thu, 22 Oct 2009 10:50:00 GMT

I write in response to a recent *Times of Zambia* article in which Information and Broadcasting Services Minister Ronnie Shikapwasha is quoted as having said that the government will go ahead and regulate the media ifpractitioners decide not to come up with self-regulation after the six-month ultimatum it has imposed on them.

I have found it hard to understand why Ronnie Shikapwasha, George Kunda and other Movement for Multi-party Democracy (MMD) leaders have continued to advocate for additional legislation designed to regulate the media. There is really no need for the kind of legislation which the government is contemplating. What the government needs to do is to operationalize the Independent Broadcasting Authority (IBA) in order for the broadcasting media to be regulated by an independent body, and to enact the Freedom of Information (FoI) Bill and make it possible for journalists to access information that is vital to both the media and members of the public.

Passage of legislation relating to freedom of information and the operationalization of the IBA would, accordingly, be accompanied by rules and regulations by which media institutions would be expected to operate.Among the functions of the IBA, for example, would be to promote broadcasting standards and codes of ethics and practice.

Besides, existing laws and regulations provide the necessary checks and limitations on the operations of media institutions in the country. The *Penal Code* (introduced in 1931 and amended in 1990), for example, defines the following as criminal offences: sedition and defamation (Chapter 191),defamation of the President (Chapter 69), and defamation of foreign princes and the publication of false news that incites fear or violence or damages the national security of the country (Chapter 67).

Other pieces of legislation which provide additional regulation of media operations in Zambia include the following: the Zambia National Broadcasting Corporation Act (1987), National Broadcasting Corporation (Amendment) Act(2002), Theatres and Cinematography Exhibition Act (1929), Criminal Procedure Code Act (1933), Radio Communications Act (1994), Printed Publications Act(1994), Information and Communications Technologies Act (2009), and Electronic Communications and Transactions Act (2009 ).

Moreover, the existence of the seemingly politically correct Media Council Of Zambia (MECOZ) established in 2004 provides another reason why legislation sought by the government is irrelevant. As affirmed in its constitution, MECOZ’s role is to function as a voluntary self-regulatory body for journalists, and through which members of the public can submit their complaints and grievances against the media. MECOZ has also formulated a code of ethics to assist journalists to defend the principles of freedom of the press and information.

So, the mere fact that countries like Zimbabwe, Kenya and Botswana have pieces of legislation specifically designed to regulate the operations of the media is not a good enough reason to introduce such legislation in Zambia.

If comrade Shikapwasha and his fellow MMD leaders are really serious about introducing legislation designed to regulate the media in spite of what I have discussed above, then they should spearhead the drafting of a regulatory framework for media self-regulation. This should be an obvious expectation considering the fact that the ruling party and its government“own” and control the largest segment of the news media in Zambia which are operated nationwide.

Although ZANIS, ZNBC, *Times of Zambia *and the *Zambia Daily Mail* are on the mailing list for this comment, there is no doubt in my mind that Shikapwasha, Kunda and other MMD leaders will not have the opportunity toread it due to the fact that these public media institutions on which they depend for their news are not permitted to cover stories that are not in defence or praise of the MMD, President Banda and/or his administration.

Henry Kyambalesa

2010 Zambian Budget Speech

Administrator — Tue, 13 Oct 2009 11:10:05 GMT

2010 Budget Address By Dr. Situmbeko Musokotwane, MP, Honourable Minister Of Finance And National Planning.

Delivered To The National Assembly On Friday 9th October, 2009

President Rupiah Banda’s Legacy

Administrator — Tue, 13 Oct 2009 11:12:00 GMT

There has been so much talking about “continuing with the Mwanawasa legacy” by Movement for Multi-party Democracy (MMD) leaders recently—a legacy whose content they have not been able to explain to the Zambian people.

If the so-called “legacy” includes the introduction of free education up to Grade 7, it does not match the legacy of the United National Independence Party (UNIP), which provided free education from Grade 1 through university from independence until the mid-1980s.

If the “legacy” includes the provision of “free” healthcare to rural dwellers, it does not match UNIP’s free healthcare for all Zambians from independence until the mid-1980s. If it is about the fight against corruption, the scourge had never been pervasive until the MMD assumed power.

There is, however, still a great opportunity for President Rupiah Banda to leave his own legacy rather than continue to sing about someone else’s questionable legacy. Let me suggest some of the potential initiatives which President Banda can pursue if he is interested in leaving a legacy after his term of office:

1) Creation of a smaller Cabinet with fewer Ministers, and abolition of the positions of Deputy Minister and District Commissioner, among other sinecures.

2) Operationalization of the Independent Broadcasting Authority (IBA) in order for the broadcasting industry to be regulated by an independent body.

3) Enactment of the Freedom of Information (FoI) Bill and make it possible for journalists to access information that is vital to both the media and members of the public.

4) Creation of an autonomous “Bureau of Statistics and Archives” and place the *Zambia Daily Mail* under its auspices. The Bureau should replace the Central Statistics Office (CSO) so that it can freely and independently collect, process, maintain, and publish essential data and information about our beloved country, and should incorporate the National Archives of Zambia.

5) Establishment of an Electoral Complaints Authority of Zambia (ECAZ), which should assume the functions of the Electoral Commission of Zambia (ECZ) stipulated in Clauses 6 through 8 of Article 112 of the Draft Constitution prepared by the Mung’omba Constitutional Review Commission (CRC). These functions could be designated as a separate Article and amended accordingly.

There is a need for a separate governmental watchdog designed to monitor the activities of officers of the ECZ, and the conduct of elections in the country. This will hopefully lessen the vulnerability of the ECZ and the electoral process to the influences, manipulation and/or machinations of unscrupulous politicians and political parties.

6) Conversion of the Disaster Management and Mitigation Unit (DMMU), which is currently vested in the Office of the Vice-President, into an autonomous “National Emergency Management Agency” (NEMA). The agency needs to be made autonomous in order for it to perform its duties without any political meddling or manipulation by government officials to achieve partisan objectives, and should incorporate the functions of the Public Welfare Assistance Scheme currently administered through the Ministry of Community Development and Social Services, which includes the Social Cash Transfer Scheme. NEMA should be accountable to the Parliamentary Committee on Health, Community Development and Social Welfare.

I make these suggestions knowing very well that some of the MMD leaders are likely to interpret the gesture as an insult to the President and his administration.

Henry Kyambalesa

2010 National Budget Not Inspiring

Administrator — Sun, 11 Oct 2009 04:57:00 GMT

We received the following from Henry Kyambalesa.

The 2010 national budget unveiled in a speech delivered to the Zambian National Assembly on October 9, 2009 by the Honorable Minister of Finance and National Planning is not inspiring at all, given the depth of socio-economic woes the country has been facing since the 1970s. It is not possible for our beloved country to make any headway in socio-economic development with such a mild budget, not even by the year 2030 when the MMD government is dreaming of turning Zambia into a middle-income country.

For reasons of brevity, let me comment on a few highlights of the budget.

*Inflation and Taxes*:

The attainment of single-digit annual inflation (of 8%) is a target that would be appropriate for countries that have already achieved a high level of job creation and socio-economic development. Zambia is clearly not one of such countries.

There is a need to reduce PAYE, VAT and interest rates in order to stimulate both the supply of goods and services and the demand for goods and services and, in the process, bolster job creation and eco nomic growth. We need to reverse the recurrent emphasis on sta bili zing inflation at the expense of job creation and econom ic growth.

Value-added tax, for example, could have been reduced to 12.5% from 16%. The increase in the PAYE exempt threshold from K700,000 to K800,000 is not adequate; this should have been increased to at least K1,000,000. And the income bands should have been expanded to make them fairer to tax payers as

follows:

*2010 Income Bands and Tax Rates*:

K0 – K800,000 per month 0%

K800,001 -- K1,335,000 per month 25% K1,335,001 -- K4,100,000 per month 30% K4,100,001 and above per month 35% *Proposed **Income Bands and Tax Rates*: K0 – K1,000,000 per month 0% K1,000,001 -- K1,435,000 per month 10% K1,435,001 -- K1,970,000 per month 15% K1,970,001 -- K2,370,000 per month 20% K2,770,001 -- K3,170,000 per month 25% K3,570,001 -- K3,970,000 per month 30% K3,970,001 and above per month 35% Lower taxes and interest rates could have functioned as an effective economic stimulus that could have spurred economic activity and job creation, as well as create a new class of tax payers. There is really no other obvious way in which a country can jump-start an economically beleaguered economy like ours. *Dependency on Foreign Investors*: There is too much emphasis in the budget on creating opportunities for foreign investment with little or no emphasis on promoting small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) by Zambians. As the United Nations Economic Commission for Europe has maintained, a growing body of empirical evidence supports the widely held view that SMEs are instrumental to socio-economic development. They can, as such, play an important role in improving the socio-economic welfare of a lot of people in a country. There are many ways in which SMEs can positively contribute to the improvement of the socio-economic well-being of a country’s people, such as the following:

(a) They can create employment opportunities for talented citizens and family members who cannot find jobs in large business establishments;

(b) They can function as a vehicle through which a country’s government can economically empower its people by enabling them to participate actively and directly in their country’s commercial and industrial activities;

(c) They can facilitate the generation of wealth for all sectors of the national economy and thereby reduce existing income disparities;

(d) They can contribute to the improvement of the social and economic welfare of people in their host communities through the provision of various kinds of needed goods and services; and

(e) They can function as the backbone of a country’s economy if they are mainly operated by citizens, as they would be both indigenous and permanent, as Andrew Sardanis has maintained.

*Negative Thoughts*:

If Zambians “spend lots of their time on negative thoughts,” as the Minister has claimed in his budget speech, it is because over 65% of them cannot find jobs and are eking out a mere living. I cannot imagine people who are wallowing in abject poverty singing empty praises glorifying a government that is incapable of addressing their basic needs.

Zambia: A Leadership Vacuum

Administrator — Fri, 09 Oct 2009 09:47:00 GMT

We received the following from Henry Kyambalesa.

Zambians have harbored very high expectations about the socio-economic prospects of their country since October 1964 when the country gained political independence from European colonial powers. Equating political independence with not only self-rule, but also with genuine democracy and prosperity, they have continued to believe that the transfer of political power to African hands will eventually create greater opportunities for them to enhance their socio-economic well-being.

Unfortunately, the country has continued to wallow in waves of misfortunes from the time of what has come to be characterized as “nominal” or “flag” independence. It has become equated with a catalogue of unprecedented socio-economic ills – including poverty, malnutrition, disease, ignorance, illiteracy, corruption, widespread unemployment, rampant crime and lawlessness, and homelessness.

But how could a country that was once described by the World Bank as having been one of the richest countries in sub-Saharan Africa at independence in 1964 become one of the poorest 44 years later – with nearly 70% of its people wallowing in abject poverty? How could this happen to a country that was born with a copper spoon in its mouth?

The Achilles’ heel of post-independence Zambia seems to be the lack of competent leaders needed to initiate and successfully implement viable policies designed to tackle the Herculean tasks of the post-colonial era.

In this Press Release, I wish to provide a bird’s-eye view of the contribution poor leadership has made to the country’s socio-economic malaise. It is not intended to be an indictment on MMD or UNIP leadership. Rather, it is an attempt to share my views concerning some of the salient and unbearable effects of incompetent leadership on the well-being of Zambians.

First, our initial failure to diversify economic activities away from the mining industry subject ed the national economy to the vagaries of steep decreases in copper prices and production levels. To date, we have continued to give lip-service to the issue of economic diversification from copper mining to manufacturing, tourism, agriculture, and other sectors of the country’s economy.

Second, the creation of the Central Committee (a somewhat parallel structure to the National Assembly) and the position of Prime Minister that followed the introduction of a one-party State in 1972 contributed to the mismanagement of our beloved country’s meager public resources.

Third, socialist policies during the UNIP era barred both local and foreign private investors from certain commercial and industrial sectors of the country’s economy and recommended the creation of state companies to operate in such sectors of the economy from the late 1960s to 1991. The policies (which former president, Dr. Kenneth Kaunda, promulgated through his April 1968, August 1969, and November 1970 addresses to the UNIP National Council) ushered in an era of state enterprises.

Naturally, the monopolistic position enjoyed by state companies in the country’s economy culminated ed in complacence and gross inefficiency be cause, in the absence of competition, they apparently found it unnecessary to seek innovative ways and means of improving the quality and quantity of their product offerings. The rampant commodity shortages which the country experienced during the UNIP era were largely a direct result of the socialist policies of the government of the day.

Fourth, our country’s postponement of macro-economic adjustment on May 1, 1987 exacerbated the socio-economic problems facing the country. The adjustment would have enabled us to create a competitive and more productive socio-economic system early enough to forestall any further deterioration of the economy.

Fifth, there have been just too many political appointments by Republican presidents that have not seemed to add any value to the resolution of the catalogue of socio-economic woes facing the majority of Zambians. Such appointments to sinecures have apparently become a routine feature of governance! As a result, we have created a nation-state where the common people are generally left to their own devices while the Republican President, the Republican Vice President, Cabinet Ministers, Deputy Ministers, District Commissioners, and other government officials have continued to revel in conspicuous, state-financed luxury.

Recently, Finance Minister Situmbeko Musokotwane was quoted as having said that Zambia will not stop seeking loans because it does not have adequate resources. How then are we going to pay back the loans?

Clearly, the MMD government wants to continue to mortgage our country and the future of our children and grandchildren through such loans. There is no attempt whatsoever to trim the highly bloated government in order to make it live within its means!

There is a need for government leaders to realize that donor countries, like Zambia, do not have unlimited financial and material resources. They have to make do with scarce resources by going through public expenditures line by line, program by program, agency by agency, department by department, and ministry by ministry in order to eliminate unnecessary application of public

resources. We need to start doing the same in order to wean our country from its current addiction to loans, its over-dependence on donor funding, as well as attain economic independence and sustained socio-economic development mostly with our own local resources. If we had leaders with vision and compass, the strikes and go-slows by teachers, nurses and resident doctors which have currently engulfed the country would have been prevented by planning ahead to improve the conditions of service of employees on government payroll. Unfortunately, we have leaders who would rather buy hearses and plan to secure a US$53 million loan to purchase mobile clinics!

And what kind of leaders do we have in the MMD who keep trekking to foreign countries for medical treatment without making any meaningful effort to improve healthcare delivery in their own country for every citizen, including them?

Sixth, there is a seemingly unwritten requirement that the Republican president needs to reshuffle his Cabinet occasionally, which has resulted in government ministers being shunted from one ministry to another as though they are jacks of all trades. There seems to be no meaningful purpose for such reshuffles, other than to use them as a means of reminding the Cabinet ministers about who their boss is – the President! Seventh, the apparent obsession for speedy privatization of state companies by MMD leaders during the 1990s without considering the fact that they were merely shifting the monopolistic positions enjoyed by such companies from government to private hands caused dislocations in the national economy. As could be expected, new private investments were not quickly made in the lines of business involved to provide the necessary competition to the buyers of the companies.

There was a need for a cautious and well-calculated pace of privatization designed to enable the government put in place a sound competition policy, a strong market for securities, and the necessary legislation to enforce contracts, among other things. Also, it was essential for the government to determine whether or not there were some economic sectors in which it would make sense for continued involvement by the government.

The privatization of state companies could not, therefore, yield expected benefits, which would have included the following: stimulation of private investment, economic empowerment of citizens through stock ownership, promotion of competition and efficiency in commerce and industry, beefing up government coffers through the sale of government holdings in state companies, reduced public-sector borrowing and government spending, and easing the financial burden of state companies on the public treasury.

Eighth, the prevalence of both petty corruption and grand corruption in the country has been a clear reflection of poor governance. The situation is likely to get worse with the single-source procurement which President Rupiah Banda’s administration seems to have adopted. Meanwhile, corruption will continue to subvert the political process in our beloved country; it will continue to thwart economic growth and stability; it will continue to undermine honest enterprise; it will continue to discourage foreign direct investment; it will continue to tarnish Zambia’s image; and it will continue to erode the country’s moral fiber.

Ninth, Zambia has lacked leaders who understand the need to make a quick transition from campaigning to governing upon being appointed or elected to positions of authority, and has also lacked leaders who recognize citizens’ right to vote for candidates of their choice without being threatened that their communities will be excluded from the development process if they do not vote for candidates fielded by the ruling political party.

Tenth, the monopoly which the party and its government have continued to maintain over the public news media is a clear reflection of dictatorial tendencies among government leaders. One wonders how public officials gauge the needs and expectations of the citizenry when the *Times of Zambia*, the *Zambia Daily Mail*, the Zambia National Broadcasting Corporation, and the Zambia News and Information Services are maintained mainly for the purpose of showering empty praises on government leaders!

We, therefore, need government leaders who are willing to develop new attitudes, skills and strategies in order to wrestle successfully with the complex and volatile socio-economic conditions of our time. As such, we need leaders who consider themselves as being on job-on-training regardless of the extent of their previous experience in politics and governance. And such leaders should be technocrats, rather than clueless figureheads!

As we get closer to the 2011 general elections, we are going to be continually warned by MMD cadres and supporters that we should not experiment with leadership – somewhat suggesting that the deadwood among our current crop of government leaders hold the key to Zambia’s future!

We are also likely to be bombarded by rehearsed calls from the same folks that the President should be given more time to complete his projects and programs beyond 2011. Such calls are, of course, meaningless because any new Republican president would be obliged to adopt and implement existing projects and programs that are designed to benefit communities nationwide – projects and programs initiated by previous administrations!

One would perhaps do well to conclude the Press Release with the following depiction of the depressing state of affairs obtaining in our country excerpted from a 2004 Social Watch report (cited by Bivan Saluseki in *The Post* newspaper of July 2, 2004):

“Even though the country has not formally been at war since independence in 1964, prevailing conditions affecting human existence are equivalent to those in a country at war.”

Reduce PAYE, VAT and Interest Rates

Administrator — Thu, 08 Oct 2009 08:05:00 GMT

We received the following from Henry Kyambalesa.

I wish to join the Zambia Union of Journalists (ZUJ), National Energy and Allied Workers Union (NESAWU) and the Zambia National Union of Teachers (ZNUT) in calling for a reduction in Pay-As-You-Earn (PAYE) when the Minister of Finance and National Planning, Situmbeko Musokotwane, presents the national Budget on Friday.

In this regard, I also wish to implore the government to expand the tight PAYE income tax bands in order to make them fairer to tax payers by adding K635,000 (calculated by subtracting K700,000 from K1,335,000 in the current band) to each subsequent band, and by narrowing the gap between 0% and 25% as follows:

-----------------------------------------------------------

Income Bands: Tax Rate:

-----------------------------------------------------------

K0 -- K700,000 per month 0%

K700,001 -- K1,335,000 per month 10%

K1,335,001 -- K1,970,000 per month 15%

K1,970,001 -- K2,605,000 per month 20%

K2,605,001 -- K3,340,000 per month 25%

K3,340,001 -- K3,975,000 per month 30%

K3,975,001 and above per month 35%

-----------------------------------------------------------

Eventually, the government should consider the prospect of adjusting the non-taxable income from K700,000 to K1,000,000. And value-added tax (VAT) needs to be reduced from 16% to 12.5%, while the maximum corporate tax should be pegged at 30%.

Zambians have never had any meaningful tax reduction since the country’s independence in 1964. It is high time the government made it possible for them to keep more of their hard-earned incomes for saving, investment and consumption.

There is also a need for the Bank of Zambia to reduce interest rates. The lower taxes and interest rates can function as an effective economic stimulus that can spur economic activity and job creation, as well as create a new class of tax payers.

There is really no other obvious way to stimulate the national economy. We need to reverse the current emphasis on stabilizing inflation at the expense of job creation and economic growth. By the way, the attainment of single-digit inflation is a target that is appropriate for countries that have already achieved a high level of job creation and socio-economic development. Zambia is clearly not one of such countries!

Zambian Names

Administrator — Mon, 05 Oct 2009 21:58:31 GMT

The Most Popular Zambians

Administrator — Sun, 04 Oct 2009 13:00:07 GMT

Over the years we have grown to recognize the need for effective leaders in and around Zambia. The Popular Zambians list is a collection of celebrities, leaders and other Zambians that have demonstrated a commitment to the progress of Zambia.

Robert Earnshaw
One of the brightest young talents helping restore Wales's reputation in the soccer world. He was eight years old when his family left Africa to settle in Caerphilly, although his father died shortly before they emigrated. His mother, Rita was also a boxer in Zambia.
Killion Banda
A Zambian point guard basketball player going by the name of Killion Banda, aged 24, who has been playing in Australia for 4 years. He has been appealing for consideration to be included in the Zambian national team. He recently turned down an offer from the University of Arkansas Razorbacks (NCAA) for a scholarship.
Field Ruwe
In the seventies Field Ruwe started the first locally produced comedy series on TVZ. He took his series to the Voice of Kenya in Nairobi, the first African to produce series on the VOK. In the early eighties he became the first Zambian to produce an outdoor musical featuring Muriel Mwaba and the late Ackim Simukonda. He produced the first joke book in Zambia entitled "Have A Good Laugh" which sold over a thousand copies in Zambia, Botswana and South Africa. He won 'Best National Disc Jockey' and the first ZNBC Awards in 1989. He also devised and launched "Secretary of the Year" contest, which became the longest running (13 years with no break). He just released a novel entitled: "Dyeing of Colors" which Amazon.com has highly rated.
Kavwumbu Hakachima
Fought hard against child abuse in Zambia. Coordinator at YWCA and now runs another project that takes up abused children's cases. Awarded the prestigious Reebok Human Rights Award in the US. She was the first and only African woman to receive this award.
MC Wabwino
Best male performer at the 2003 Ngoma awards. His current album Dizelo is enjoying massive play on Zambian airwaves and is considered to be a great performer on stage.
Akashambatwa Lewanika
Founding member of the Movement for Multi-Party Democracy. Former cabinet minister; currently serving as chairman of the Economic Advisory Council.
Akabondo Kabechani
Influential UNZASU Social and Cultural Secretary for the period from 2002 - 2003. An HIV/AIDS activist who is involved in various research projects such as the Zambia National Health Accounts N.H.A under the Ministry of Health.
Yuyo Nachali Kambikambi
Media personality working toward contributing in ICTs. Currently associated with Inter-African Network for Human Rights and Development.
Muna Ndulo
Reknowed academician and first African to serve as Director of the Institute of African Studies at Cornell University. Professor Ndulo has served the United Nations in various capacities such as monitoring the peace process in the Balkan region, East Timor and helping with drafting the constitution of the new South Africa.
Gerry Nkombo Muuka
Dean of the Business School at Murray State University in Kentucky. A man of true integrity and high achiever.
Himmonga
Professor at the University of Cape. Author and Advocate of Gender equality. Has written extensively on the law of succession and its evils in Africa.
Madalitso Muthiya
No. 1 ranked junior player in Zambia. Currently playing golf for the University of New Mexico.
Frank Mutubila
Zambian broadcaster.
Ben Kangwa
ZNBC - Radio and Television personality who is the first ever journalist in Zambia to interview all the eleven (11) aspiring Presidential candidates during the 1996 elections.
Cherise Makubale
Winner of the Big Brother Africa. Second Zambian citizen to receive a diplomatic passport.
Mundia Sikatana
Honorable Minister For Agriculture who demonstrated that Zambia doesn't need genetically modified maize.
Lubinda Sinyani
Continues to help Zambian students in Russia and represents the country at various economic events.
Frank Musonda
First television weatherman Zambia ever had and the first Zambian to UN-WMO Panel of experts on Air pollution Monitoring and Global Warming.
Auther Winner
Politician involved with the founding of the Movement for Multi-party Democracy.
Fairchild Chibomba
Longest serving Deputy Clerk of the National Assembly.
Harry Mwaanga Nkumbula
Freedom fighter.
Mann Sichalwe
TV presenter, journalist and director of Zamcom.
Euphrasia Mutanuka
Business lady continuing to spread Zambian products to the rest of the globe.
Brian Yuyi
UNZASU President from 1996 to 1998.
Dr. Kenneth Mwenda
First Zambian to teach at Warwick University at a tender age of 26. More information >>>
Wesley P Nyirenda
Political activist and freedom fighter. First speaker of Zambian National Assembly, He was also a teacher, lawyer and diplomat.
Levy Patrick Mwanawasa
President of Zambia
Godfery Chitalu
Zambian striker with 107 goals in one season
YUQWA
Zambian music group. Winner of American Gospel Music Award
Rozalla
Zambian born artist commonly referred to as the 'Queen of Rave'
Brenda Muntemba
Police Spokesman
Prince Siame
Gospel Musician, singer, song writer and producer
Crispin Sibeta
Member of Parliament
Michael Sata
Presidential Candidate
Fortune Nyondo
Song Writer/ Producer/ Singer
Dr Robinson Nabulyato
Speaker of the National Assembly
Anderson Mazoka
Presidential Candidate
Katele Kalumba
Co-ordinator of intricate schemes
Ken Simuyemba
A singer, composer and dancer. For more information about Ken visit ComeTogetherPeople
Arnold 'Ringman' Sibalwa
Sound engineer for the Muvi Posse Band
Kabanda Lilanda
Mr. World, Zambia representative.
Edith Nawakwi (Top 100 Africans of 2000)
Opposition activist.
Deepak Patel
A true patriot and freedom fighter, for justice and equality.
Kalusha Bwalya
The most popular Zambian sportsman ever. Former Captain of the Zambia national soccer team and African Footballer of the Year. First Zambian citizen to receive a diplomatic passport. Currently coaching in Zambia.
Samuel Matete
Former world champion (1991) in 400m hurdles. Winner of the first olympic gold medal for Zambia.
Della Phiri (Late)
First female editor for the Zambia National Broadcasting Corporation.
Patrick Kayukwa
Top Zambian visual journalist based in Kent UK
Chisala Chibesa
Miss Zambia 1998
Pontiano Kaiche
Leading Zambian Folk musician.
Caristo Chitamfya
Zambian Television Host. Arguably the most creative television presenter in Zambia.
Maureen Nkandu
Best ever Zambian TV Presenter, currently working in South Africa.
Anna Mwale
World Class musician based in Europe. Has produced chart-topping hits in Europe.
The Sakala Brothers
Musical duo
Ben Phiri
Comedian.
Sauzande (Danny Kanengoki)
Comedian.
Victor Kachaka
Musical comedian who sang 'It is True'
Chanda Mwale ("Maximo")
Comedian.
Augustine Lungu
Versatile artist: actor, comedian, director.
Jane Osborne
Singer and Entrepreneur. Cabaret artist.
Luo Punabantu
Former Miss Zambia (Universe), Former Miss Environment. Received one of the top prizes at Miss Universe.
Maureen Lilanda
Singer, cabaret artist. Won First Prize at Ngoma Awards (Best Female Singer).
Satwant Singh
Invincible Motor Racing ace. Eternal African Racing Champion.
Lottie Mwale
Former Commonwealth Light Heavyweight champion. Most loved Zambian boxer ever.
Mukutulu Sinyani
DEC Commissioner
Charles Musonda
One of Zambia's best ever mid-field soccer genius. Career distracted through injury.
Nevers Mumba
Zambia's first televangelist and fiery politician. Currently serving as the Vice-President of Zambia.
Alice Banda
Former Miss Zambia.
Reality
Gospel Music group that produced high-quality music video in a Zambian studio.
Pauline
Gospel songbird. Made famous through TBN. Nominated for Ngoma Awards (Best Female Singer).
Mark Tabo
Radio Presenter, DJ (Radio 4).
Chella Katwishi
(DJCJ), Radio DJ.
Chilu Lemba
DJ, Radio Phoenix.
Black Mama Jama
DJ, Radio Phoenix.
Frank Tembo Junior
TV Presenter, Sounds Musical Program.
Lieutenant General Christon Tembo (Top 100 Africans of 2000)
Opposed attempts by Frederick Chiluba to change the constitution.
The Love Bug
Radio DJ.
The Rap Prophets
Gospel rap musical group based on C/Belt popularised through "Sounds Good" TV program.
The Tribe Called Christian
Single largest musical group of young people in Zambia.
Riki Ililonga
Zambian reggae musician.
PK Chishala (Late)
Nicknamed "professor PK" for his divine creativity in Zambian Kalindula music.
Paul Ngozi (Late)
Musician. Famous for guitar skills and great messages in songs.
Emmanuel Mulemena (Late)
Musician. Leader of the legendary Mulemena Boys.
Kwaleyela Ikafa (Late)
Playwright.
Charles Mando (Late)
Zambia's charismatic TV interviewer.
Edwin Manda (Late)
Zambian actor.
Honorable Subulwa
First Zambian to be nominated for Man of the Millennium by Cambridge.
Samantha Mumba (Top 100 Africans of 2000)
Musician of Zambian descent
Amon Simutowone
Zambian Chess Ace and International Master
Dr. Kenneth Kaunda
Former President of the Republic of Zambia
Thandie Newton
Thandie Newton has gained accolades from her critics for her acting ability.
Euphrasia Mutanuka
Prominent business woman who runs a chain of successful clothing stores in Zambia, including Lexort at Manda Hill.
D. L. Amin
Prominent business man in Ndola.
Davies Ngoma alias Nasty D
Singer
Esther Phiri
Female Boxer

Help

Administrator — Wed, 30 Sep 2009 20:32:38 GMT

Registration & Login

User Profile & Settings

Privacy & Security

Navigation

Posting

User Groups & Permissions

Private Messages

What is a Private Message?

About Community Server

Registration & Login

Why do I need to Register?

You are required to create an account before posting to the site. The Zambian supports anonymous contributions, but this option is only available for specific sections such as the Zambian News group. To take advantage of all the features offered by The Zambian, such as setting your own avatar, tracking post counts, emailing users, private messages, access private forums, and many other you will need to have an account. It only takes a few seconds to register, and it is recommended you do so.

How do I Register?

To create an account you will need to visit the Registration page and complete the form for creating a new account. Here you will specify details such as your login name, email address and password.

I have a Username and Password, How do I Login?

After successfully registering you should have a username and password. You can then visit the login page and enter your username and password to login.

I already logged in, why do I get logged off automatically?

When logging in if you do not check the ‘Remember Me’ option you will be automatically logged off after an administrator-defined length of inactivity, usually 20 minutes. If you would like the site to always log you in automatically, please check the ‘Remember Me’ checkbox.

I forgot my username and/or password.

If you forgot your username and/or password you can visit the Forget Your Password page and have both your username and a new password emailed to you by entering the email account you're registered with. You will be sent a new password since we store your password encrypted and have no way of retrieving the original value. Once you receive your username and new password you can login and change your password.

What if I’ve registered but still cannot login?

If you’ve registered and can’t login, check to ensure you have a valid username and password. If you are sure the username and password are valid, but still can’t login you may either require account activation or your account may be on hold. In this case it is best to contact the board administrator(s) or moderator(s).

I’ve logged in before, but now can’t login?

First check to ensure your username and password are correct. If you still can’t login your account has either been put on hold or deleted due to inactivity. Please contact the board administrator(s) or moderator(s).

User Profile & Settings

What is a Profile?

A profile is information about your account that controls how you view information within Community Server. This includes details about posts you’ve contributed to, personal information you wish to share such as your web address or weblog address, as well as setting that control how you interact with this Community Server site such as: themes, time zone, and many other settings.

Why do I want to set my time zone?

Setting your timezone will enable Community Server to display all dates and time relative to your time zone.

How do I add Signature to my Post?

A signature is a message that is appended to the end of any posts you make in the forums. You can edit your signature from the profile page. This signature will then appear at the bottom of any messages posted by you.

What is an avatar?

An avatar is a feature of the forums which allows for an image to be displayed along with your posts. Avatars may be enabled or disabled by your administrator.

How do I set my avatar?

If avatars are enabled by the administrator you will see and avatar section when viewing your profile. From here you can complete the forum to name the avatar you wish to use, either uploading an avatar or specifying a URL to your avatar. You will also need to enable your avatar for it to be displayed with your posts.

How do I change the language?

Community Server is designed to be multi-language friendly. Currently the only available language is English, but additional language packs can be installed to add support for other languages. Check http://www.communityserver.org for language packs. Within your profile you will see a listing of the available languages.

How do I set the date format?

The date format used to display any date information can be configured from your profile.

How do I turn off email-tracking?

Email tracking is a feature which will send emails to you when messages that you are subscribed to change. You can turn off all email tracking globally from your profile.

What are the other icons/avatars that show up next to users?

There are many different icons that can show up next to usernames in the forums. Common examples are administrators, moderators, or top posters. Other images may be displayed based on groups the user belongs to.

Why am I required to login to post, view members, or email other users?

Depending upon how the administrator has configured the site you may be required to be logged in before viewing/using these areas. This is primarily to protect the privacy of users who have shared their information or to prevent unwanted/unsolicited emails.

Privacy & Security

How do I change my Password?

Once logged in you can change your password from your Profile page.

How do I change my Username?

Unless the administrator has configured the site to allow username changes you cannot change you username. Otherwise you can change your username from the Profile page.

How do I change my email address?

Once logged in, you can change your private email address from your Profile page.

What Profile settings are required?

The only profile setting that is required is your private email address. This is the email address that is used when you subscribe to the forums, when a forgotten username/password is emailed. The private email address is never shared or displayed publicly. If you wish to share an email address publicly, use the public email address field. The remainder of the profile settings is optional.

What if I don’t want my name displayed in the member lists?

You can set the option in your profile and your name will not appear in any member listings, including the listing of who is online.

Navigation

What is a Forum Group?

A Forum Group is a top level grouping of related forums. A forum group contains 1 or more forums.

What is a Forum?

A Forum is a grouping of related threads of discussion. A Forum contains 0 or more threads and 0 or more sub-forums.

What is a Thread?

A Thread is a grouping of related posts. A Thread contains 1 or more Posts. The first post becomes the Thread and replies to the original post increment details on the Thread, such as the reply count or last post.

What do the Thread icons mean?

Thread Icon Legend
	Topic with posts you have not read.
	Topic with posts you have read.
	Popular topic with posts you have not read. A topic becomes popular after a certain number of views and posts (administrator defined).
	Popular topic with posts you have read. A topic becomes popular after a certain number of views and posts (administrator defined).
	Announcement you have not read
	Announcement you have read
	A pinned topic with posts you have not read. Pinned topics are displayed before other topics until they become unpinned.
	A pinned topic with posts you have read. Pinned topics are displayed before other topics until they become unpinned.
	A pinned popular topic with posts you have not read. A pinned topic with enough views or replies to become popular.
	A pinned popular topic with posts you have read. A pinned topic with enough views or replies to become popular.
	A locked topic with posts you have not read. Locked topics do not allow replies.
	A locked topic with posts you have read. Locked topics do not allow replies.

When I view a Forum I don’t see any Threads/Posts?

A forum may not display any threads if there are no threads in the forum or if filters on the forms have been applied and no threads match the filter. An example of a filter is filtering to display threads newer than a certain date, such as threads new in the past 2 weeks.

I just posted a message, how come I don’t see it?

A forum may or may not be moderated depending upon how the forum has been configured. After posting a message in a moderated forum you may receive a message stating that the post is awaiting moderation. Once the moderator(s) approve your post you post will become visible. The moderators may choose to move, edit, or delete your post to ensure that the post is topical to the current forum.

What are the different icons next to threads?

The icons next to threads when viewing a forum indicate different status. You can move your mouse cursor over these icons to see what the different status / types of threads are.

What is an Announcement Thread?

An announcement is a special post type that is always displayed at the top of a forum for a configured amount of time. The purpose of an announcement is to increase the visibility of certain topics.

What is a sticky Thread?

A sticky topic is a special post that causes a post to sort to the top of a forum for a specified amount of time. A sticky topic is similar to an announcement, whereas an announcement is displayed separate from other threads and usually does not allow replies.

What is a Locked Thread?

A locked thread is a special post that does not allow replies. Once a user locks a post or an administrator/moderator locks a thread no more posts are allowed.

Can I sort Threads when viewing a forum?

Yes, you can sort threads when viewing a forum by Author, Replies, Views, and Last Post. The default sort for a forum is to display the newest threads first (Last Post descending). To sort simply click on the options button at the bottom of the screen and select your desired sort order and click 'Apply'.

What is the ‘XML’ icon at the bottom of a forum?

The XML icon is linked to the RSS feed for the forum. RSS is used to allow other applications to subscribe to a forum's posts.

What is the red/green icon next to a user’s name when viewing a Post?

This icon indicates the user’s online status. A green icon means the user has been active recently (usually within the last 15 minutes). A red icon means the user has not recently been active. You can hover your mouse over this icon to see details about the user’s past activity.

I can’t access a forum I know exists.

If you are attempting to access a forum that you have visited before, but now receive an ‘unknown forum’ error there are two likely causes. The first cause is that the forum you are attempting to access is private and you are not signed in. The second cause is that the forum has been removed.

Posting

Can I use HTML?

Yes and no. You cannot type HTML directly into the editor. If you are using Internet Explorer the default editor for creating new posts will be a Rich Text Editor that will automatically format posts using HTML. If you post with a browser other than Internet Explorer a standard HTML textbox is used and BBCode can be used to mark-up posts.

What is BBCode?

BBCode is a special syntax for formatting plaintext posts.

Can I add attachments to my posts?

Yes, however, this requires the moderator(s) or administrator(s) to enable this permission for user’s on a forum-by-forum basis.

What are Emoticons?

Emoticons are graphical elements that can be added within the body of a post to add emotions to the post. Common examples are the use of smilies within the contents of a post. Community Server comes with a pre-defined set of emoticons, however the administrator can add additional ones.

How do I post a new message to a forum?

You can post a new message to a forum in several ways depending upon how the administrator has configured the site. When viewing a forum you should see an image button reading New Topic. Clicking on this image button will take you to a form for posting a message or ask you to login first. Depending upon how the administrator has configured the site you may be able to post anonymously, i.e. no login required. If you do not see the New Topic image button you may not have enough permissions – even after logging in – to post a message to the forum even though you are allowed to view the forum.

How do I reply to an existing post?

You can reply to an existing post using either the Reply or Quote image buttons displayed with the post. If you do not see the Reply or Quote image buttons when viewing a post you either do not have permissions to reply or the post may not allow replies.

How do I edit my posts?

If the administrator or moderator has configured the forum or your role to allow editing of posts you will see an Edit image button next to posts you have made. Clicking on this image button will allow you to edit your post.

How do I delete my posts?

If the administrator or moderator has configured the forum or your role to allow deleting posts you will see a Delete image button next to new posts you have made. If a post you have made has one or more replies you will no longer be able to delete the post.

My Post has words replaced with ***?

The administrator may have specified a word filter for posts. When word filters are enabled certain words that are deemed to be offensive are filtered and replaced with the ‘*’ character.

How do I add a signature to my posts?

See How do I add Signature to my Post? in the User Profile and Settings section.

How do I add an avatar to my posts?

See What is an avatar? And How do I Set my Avatar in the User Profile and Settings section.

User Groups & Permissions

What are Permissions?

Permissions control what you are or are not allowed to do while browsing the site. The permissions you are granted control all aspects of your view within Community Server.

What is an Administrator?

An administrator is the highest permission level within Community Server. By default, an administrator has full permissions to perform any action, e.g. moderating posts, approving users, and so on.

What is a Moderator?

A moderator is the second highest permission level within Community Server. By default a moderator can perform any number of tasks within a particular forum or set of forums. This includes approving posts, moving posts, deleting posts, editing posts, or banning users. If you have a problem with a particular forum the best place to start is with a moderator. Moderators belong to varying groups configured by the Administrator.

What is a Role or User Group?

A user group, also known as a role, is grouping of common users for the purpose of assigning permissions. In addition to common permission assignment a role can also be used to display an image for a user in that role. Roles make the job of administering and moderating the site easier since users can be assigned to roles and then permission applied based on those roles.

How do I join a Role or User Group?

Users are assigned to user groups by the administrator. If there is a particular group you wish to join, please send a private message or email to one of its members for more information.

Private Messages

What is a Private Message?

A private message is like email within Community Server. You can send a private message to other users within this Community Server site that is visible only to them. No private information, such as the user's email address, is ever disclosed.

The History of Zambia

Administrator — Thu, 27 Sep 2007 02:34:00 GMT

The Great Rift Valley, which cleaves the earth from the Lower Zambezi River in Southern Zambia to the headwaters of the River Jordan in Egypt, is now known to be one of the cradles of the human race, and Zambia’s present population lives on lands that have been inhabited by our forebears for almost uncountable eons.

"Very deep is the well of the past" Thomas Mann Archaeologists have established that in the northern African Rift Valley, the civilizing process got underway at least 3 million years ago, and crude stone implements, similar to some of that age found in Kenya, have also been found beside the Zambezi river.

Early stone age sites have been unearthed in many parts of Zambia, the most significant being at the Kalambo Falls in the North and at Victoria Falls in the south. At the former there is evidence that primitive humans began using fire systematically some 60 000 years ago. At the latter, a complex has been fully exposed showing the development of skills from the most distant past (this ‘dig’ is enclosed at the Field Museum at the Victoria Falls).

The skull of Broken Hill Man, dated to 70 000 years ago, gives an indication of what humans of that period looked like.

It was during the next phase - the middle Stone Age - with its refinement in the manufacture of tools, differentiation between populations, and burial of the dead, that modern man probably emerged in Zambia, at least 25 000 years ago.

We may imagine family groups of small-statured people living near water and sustaining themselves by hunting the abundant game as well as gathering fruits, tubers and honey from their surroundings (some skulls show serious tooth decay caused by honey?) They would often be on the move, following the antelope as they migrated with the seasons. By 15 000 years ago, the Late Stone Age commenced.

People began to live in caves and rock shelters, the walls of which they decorated with paintings. Very few of these have survived Zambia’s seasonally humid climate, and those which have, do not display the sophistication found in the Rock Art found in Zimbabwe or South Africa. But a surviving drawing of an eland at Katolola in the Eastern Province suggests that this art was more than decorative, that it had a ritual or religious meaning: it has been shown in South Africa that this animal was sacred to the Late Stone Age people there.

This spiritual and artistic development occurred alongside another, the invention of the bow and arrow, which revolutionised hunting and also gave humans a mechanical weapon of war and a musical instrument! Although the people of the Late Stone Age neither tilled the soil nor kept livestock, we could not fail to recognise ourselves in them.

New Arrivals

The Zambian Stone Age people probably resembled the present-day San, but towards the end of the period here, there is evidence, from skeletal remains, of Negroid physical features, the first indication that the hegemony of the aboriginal population is coming to an end. During the centuries between 300BC and 400AD Zambia was gradually taken over by Negroid people, who by the later date had occupied the whole country, even if so sparsely in some areas that the earlier way of life persisted into the present era.

The newcomers’ material culture was radically different from that of the Stone Age. They were cultivators who kept domestic animals, they mined and worked metals, made pottery and lived in lath and plaster houses. We cannot know what language these Early Iron Age people used, but they were possibly the first of the ‘Bantu’ speakers - Black Africans whose millennia-long migration from, it is believed the Nigeria/Cameroon highlands, has made them dominant over most of the continent south of roughly 7 degrees N - a process completed in South Africa in 1994.

A glance at the National Heritage Map of Zambia shows that Early Iron Age sites occur throughout the country and in the south this population was probably dense enough to displace (or absorb) the aboriginals completely. Iron Age technology triumphed, not merely because metal made good strong weapons, but because the how, axe and the knife allowed agriculture to establish itself and to expand through the forests. Slash and burn, known as chitemene is the prominent system of agriculture in parts of Zambia to this day.

As iron ore does not outcrop everywhere, there was no doubt trade between places producing the metal and others which could sell, for example, dried fish from lakes or rivers, pottery or salt.

Besides Iron, copper began to be mined and refined about 350 AD. It was used to make jewellery and, cast in the for of a cross, as currency: as copper is today Zambia’s largest industry that this has been a mining country for at least 1600 years.

The archaeological record shows that by 800 AD the Early Iron Age population was becoming less homogenous, with for instance, distinct pottery styles in different areas and indications that political entities were developing. Some of these were related to the control on mineral resources and trade routes, and by 1300 AD the Early Iron Age had been superseded by a more complex culture.

In the Zambezi Valley, a few dozen kilometres downstream from the present Kariba Dam is a site called Ing-ombe Ilede (where the cow lies down) which was uncovered accidentally during civil engineering works in 1960. Here, one below the other, are villages dating from about 700 - 1000 AD and another from about 400 years later. The first settlement is typically Early Iron Age, but the second testifies to a far more sophisticated economy. The pottery is of a much higher quality than that found elsewhere in the country: the dead, presumably only the rulers, were buried with beads of gold (probably from the mines of Zimbabwe) and with copper currency crosses. There were also large numbers of glass beads which could only have been imported from the Indian Ocean seaboard, 1000 kilometres to the east of the site where the Muslim Swahili were trading with Asia. (The Ing-ombe Ilede Treasure, as it is called, is on display at the Livingstone Museum)

Ing-ombe Ilede was obviously a small commercial state or principality, ruled by nobles, perhaps a plutocracy - and markedly different in structure from the village societies of the preceding period. It was a prototype of the kingdoms which characterised the Later Iron Age. They like Ing-ombe Ilede had firm trade patterns with the distant outside world.

The centuries between 1500 and 1800 AD saw many of the peoples of Zambia organised into chieftaincies or monarchies. The Chewa in the East, the Lozi in the West, the Bemba and Lunda in the North, were the largest of these, all established under the influence, some as direct extensions of the large and powerful Lunda Empire of the Mwata Yamvo in what is now southern Zaire. By the 18th Century, probably much earlier, the empire was trading with the Atlantic Coast, and other states on the eastern seaboard, where the world economy was represented by the Swahili city-states from Somalia to south of the Zambezi delta. Copper, ivory, rhino horn had a ready market as well as slaves.

The European Factor

The wealth of the Indian Ocean trade was one of the elements ( another was to spread the Gospel) that n the 15th Century inspired the Portuguese, who had recently reconquered their country from Muslim Moors, to embark on their bold ‘Voyages of Discovery’.

Africa has been circumnavigated from east to west by a Phoenician fleet in Pharaonic times, and the Portuguese were determined to do the same from west to east and break the Muslim grip on the supply of spices from Asia to Europe, which was being drained of bullion to pay for them. In 1498, Admiral Vasco da Gama, having sailed his ships around the Cape of Good Hope, arrived at Calcutta in southern India, and having bombarded and plundered the city, returned to Lisbon with a cargo of immense value.

By 1515 the Portuguese had through the force of arms seized the Indian Ocean trade and, what is relevant to the course of events in Zambia, established themselves on the coasts of Mozambique and Angola.

Although the Portuguese happily bought the ivory and copper that central Africa produced, the slave rapidly became and for centuries remained a major item of commerce. This monstrous crime against humanity was as easily condoned by believers on God as was the holocaust by the ***.

The tentacles of the slave trade penetrated remorselessly into the deep interior of central Africa, where, during the same period, the Later Iron Age monarchies we have mentioned were being instituted.

Domestic slavery was part of the social order of these central African states, with, for example, miscreants, criminals and prisoners of war held in bondage. Very rarely did the Portuguese have to go raiding to capture slaves: by selling the rulers goods such as cloth, rum, jewellery and firearms they drew the rulers into their colonial economy as suppliers of slave labour for the mines and plantations across the Atlantic.

Inevitably some of the African rulers became raiders, preying on weaker peoples around them to maintain their supplies of imported luxuries.

Beside the influence brought to bear on Zambia by the Swahili and the Portuguese, the effects of the Dutch (and subsequent British) colonisation of the Cape and its hinterland from 1652 onwards would also be felt.

Invasions from the South

Perhaps as a response to foreign intrusions in southern Africa, Shaka of the Zulu, and Nguni clan, set about creating a centralised militaristic state in the early 19th century. Surrounding peoples who did not voluntarily agree to absorbtions in the growing Zulu empire had no option but to flee for survival. Three of these groups were to make a forceful impact on Zambia, 1500 km to the north of the Zulu heartland in eastern South Africa.

One of these was a Sotho clan from today’s Orange Free State: its leader was Sebitwane and he named his people Kololo after his favourite wife. Another was Mzilikazi, one of Shaka’s generals who quarreled with him and moved away. After being defeated by the Dutch settlers in the Transvaal, he and his Ndebele invaded and conquered Western Zimbabwe.

The third, like Mzilikazi an Nguni, was Zongendaba. He led his followers out of Shaka’s domains in the 1820’s. These Ngoni (as they are known today) crossed the Zambezi in 1835 and went northwards as far as Lake Tanganyika where they settled for a while among the Bemba. In 1865, under Zongendaba’s successor Mpenzeni I, they established themselves permanently in what is now Zambia’s Eastern Province.

Mzilikazi conquered Zimbabwe in 1837, while Sebitwane has crossed the Zambezi a few years previously and taken over territory just north of the Victoria Falls. From there he marched west to conquer the Lozi kingdom of the Upper Zambezi and founded his Kololo state.

It would be a mistake to talk of Zambia at this time as a ‘country’. The area defined by the present boundaries was occupied by various kingdoms, for example the Bemba, the Lunda, the Kololo, the Chewa, the last much weakened by Ngoni pillaging. It has been argued that these entities, if left alone, could have developed into 20th Century nation states - central African Bhutans or Swazilands. But there are no ifs in history.

Missionaries and Colonisers

In 1840, David Livingstone, a 27 year old Scottish doctor and ordained minister, sailed from Britain to the Cape, to work as a medical evangelist with the London Missionary Society. He was to open central Africa to the gaze of British imperialists. Meanwhile, Portugal was planning to consolidate its African territories by uniting Angola and Mozambique across the central plateau. Unlike the Portuguese, the British knew next to nothing about the interior of this part of Africa. "Armchair Geographers" as Livingstone called them, thought the areas was a desert of blistering sand and were in the 19th Century as ignorant as their predecessors in the 18th, who had been nicely satirised by Jonathan Swift: ‘So geographers in Afric-maps, With Savage-Pictures fill their Gaps, And o-er uninhabitable Downs, Place Elephants for want of Towns.’

Livingstone was to give the true picture. He started his activities at the L.M.S. station at Kuruman (in today’s Northern Cape), but soon moved north to found his own mission at Kolobeng, near Gaberone, Botswana, where he stayed for a decade. He made only one convert, Chief Sechele, who soon lapsed. Livingstone grew bored with conventional missionising and started going on longer and longer journeys of exploration, receiving help from a wealthy Englishman named William Cotton Oswell: the two of them were the first Europeans to visit Lake Ngami in the middle of the Kalahari, led there by Tswana guides who knew the way. Asked once to describe Livingstone, Oswell remarked: ‘Well to look at the man you would think nothing of him, but he is a plucky little devil.’

In 1851 Livingstone and Oswell crossed the Kalahari to visit Sebitwane, whom we have already met, on the Upper Zambezi. Oswell in his memoirs describes the King thus: ‘This really great Chief....just though stern, with a wonderful power of attaching men to himself.’

Livingstone was equally impressed and thought it a sign of God’s blessing that the Kololo language was similar to the Tswana he had become fluent in. But at Sebetwane’s he had his first sight of the slave trade - the Kololo nobles were wearing Manchester cloth obtained from the Portuguese in Angola in return for ivory and slaves.

He and Oswell, who was also a staunch abolitionist, concluded that the only way to stop the trade would be through a new type of mission where a combination of Christianity and Commerce would lead to Civilisation: in fact a sort of Christian development programme under which slaving would be replaced by ‘legitimate’ trade in for instance cotton, which grew in the area and for which there was a large market in Britain. The scheme would be managed by carefully selected Scottish settlers.

Sebitwane, though scarcely interested in Christianity itself agreed that Livingstone could establish a mission in his country, if only because it might afford him protection against his enemy Mzilikazi of the Ndebele, whose warrior kingdom bordered his own.

Although Sebitwane died shortly after coming to this agreement, his successor, Sekeletu undertook to honour it, and Livingstone promised to establish the mission himself. All that remained was to find a suitable outlet to the sea.

The most economical passage for anticipated cotton (and ivory) exports might be through the Portuguese port of Luanda on the Atlantic and Livingstone decided to see if there was a feasible route from Barotseland (as the Kololo Kingdom is called) to there.

The journey was financed by Oswell and Sekeletu, and after an interlude at the Cape to get supplies, Livingstone set off from the Upper Zambezi in 1853. The return journey of over a year was a nightmare, the route totally unsuitable for the export trade.

Livingstone then convinced himself that the Zambezi could be ‘God’s Highway’ to the Indian Ocean. Again with the support from Sekeletu, Livingstone marched off eastwards down the river. He ‘discovered, and named after Queen Victoria, the great Waterfall, which the Kololo has already called Mosi oa Tunya (The Smoke that Thunders). To the Leya, who lived right beside it and held it sacred, it was called Shongwe (Rainbow).

After reaching the port of Quelemaine, Mozambique, towards the end of 1856, Livingstone sailed to Britain by way of the Red Sea and the Mediterranean. He was welcomed in triumph as the greatest explorer of the age.

Livingstone put his 15 months in Britain to good use. He wrote and published Missionary Travels and Researches in South Africa (1857), a detailed and ideologically loaded account of his experiences, which became an inspirational best-seller. He made speeches up and down the land promoting his idea of a cotton exporting Christian venture in central Africa, with the Zambezi as its ‘highway’.

He resigned from the London Missionary Society, but arranged for them to send a mission to the Kololo (thus by not going himself, breaking his promise to Sekeletu). Meanwhile, the church of England backed a Universities Mission to Central Africa, which Livingstone would have under his aegis.

To crown his glory he was appointed leader of a government sponsored expedition to the Zambezi, the secret objective of which was to found a British colony on the ‘healthy highlands’ (Livingstone’s phrase) near the present town of Mazabuka in southern Zambia. There would be a port for steamers nearby at the confluence of the Zambezi and Kafue Rivers.

But the whole grand scheme collapsed in ruin and recrimination when it was found that the Cabora Basa gorge in Mozambique, which Livingstone had not inspected, made God’s Highway totally unnavigable. The LMS mission to the Kololo was likewise a complete failure as most of its members died.

After the Cabora Basa fiasco, Livingstone turned his attention to the area around Lake Malawi (which he claimed falsely to have discovered) and placed the Anglican mission at the foot of the highlands to its south. Its personnel suffered deaths and disasters and the remnants were soon withdrawn.

At the end of 1863 the mandate of the Zambezi Expedition expired. Livingstone returned to Britain under a cloud of failure and disappointment with nothing seemingly accomplished.

By the end of 1865 he was off to Africa again, seeking another place for his colony and searching in vain for the source of the Nile. He was apparently lost in the heart of Africa when his much-dimmed reputation was suddenly restored by the newspaper man H.M. Stanley in his reports and in his book How I found Livingstone (1872).

Livingstone died, his ambitions unfulfilled, at Chief Chitambo’s village near the southern shore of the Bangweulu Swamps in Zambia in 1873. Stanley had convinced the world that Livingstone was a hero-saint, and his embalmed body, was carried to the coast by his servants and shipped to Britain, to be entombed with royal honours in Westminster Abbey, London. A memorial has been erected on the spot in his honour.

Livingstone’s new reputation however, did not crumble to dust with his remains. Within a year it had inspired Scottish missionaries to begin work in Malawi in his name. Also in his name the French Huguenot Francois Coillard was established in Barotseland a decade later and other Protestant missionaries were moving into Zambia. Not to be outdone, the Roman Catholics sent Henri Dupont of the White Fathers to convert the Bemba

Empire

With considerable help from both Coillard and Dupont, the British imperialist Cecil John Rhodes’ British South African Company (BSAC) had been able to take over the whole of Zambia by the end of the 19th century: that Frenchmen should have served the British Empire so well is one of the quirks of history! In 1911 the territory was named Northern Rhodesia, its capital the Town of Livingstone, overlooking the Victoria Falls. (In 1935 the seat of government was moved to Lusaka).

Rhodes ambition was to make Africa British from Cape to Cairo (hence the name of Lusaka’s main street, Cairo Rd). Even in Zambia did not contain much mineral wealth - an important consideration for BSAC shareholders - the territory had to be occupied of only to prevent the Portuguese from winning their age-old claim to the area. It was now that the country’s borders came to be drawn, by agreement with other colonial powers.

The BSAC’s treaties of submission with Zambia rulers were often obtained by fraud and deceit and rulers who refused to capitulate willingly, like Mpezeni of the Ngoni or Mwata Kazembe were dealt with by force. The BSAC was not a benevolent Society. It was a business that had to make a profit and its rule was stamped with that motive, though it may be said that by putting an end to the tyrannical rule of cruel kings, to the slave trade, and to Ngoni raiding wars, it initially improved the lot of many people.

Any BSAC hopes for substantial revenue from mining were soon dashed and to obtain income it imposed the Hut Tax (payable in cash) on all African males who had reached puberty. Tax revolts were surpressed with bullets, defaulters has their houses burned down and were imprisoned if caught. Forced labour at a pittance by men trying to forestall these penalties became the order of the day - tens of thousands were sent to work in the South African or Southern Rhodesian mines: the railway between the Victoria Falls and Katanga (Zaire) was financed from the Hut Tax - which consistently turned a profit.

Some 20 000 Zambia forcibly recruited as porters for the British forces in East Africa during the First World War perished of disease or debilitation.

Parts of Zambia were virtually depopulated of able-bodies men, large tracts of land (including the fine area where Livingstone would have established his colony) were handed over to White settlers. Africans enjoyed little or no say in their destiny, but the basic education provided for them by missionaries was not long in producing a cadre of politically conscious individuals.

By 1923, Company rule had become an objectionable anachronism for the British government, and in that year, the Colonial Office took over the territory, proclaiming it a Protectorate where African interests would be paramount.

As far as Africans were concerned, Colonial Office rule may have been more benign, in a paternalistic way, than the Company’s, but it was a form of apartheid under which they were subject to racial discrimination including pass laws and restrictions on the occupation of land, their political aspirations expected to be fulfilled through a revamped tribal system. Whites meanwhile were a privileged elite with a protected economic position and the beginnings of representative government. Persons of mixed blood, and immigrants, mainly traders, from what are today India and Pakistan held an ambivalent place under this regime.

King Copper

The discovery and opening up during the late 1920’s and 1930’s of the rich underground orebodies along the Zambian Copperbelt were soon to make that small region - 120 km long by forty km wide - one of the worlds’ most concentrated and renowned mining areas.

A number of small gold and copper mines had operated during BSAC times, but they were hardly viable, though the lead and Zinc development at Kabwe (first called Broken Hill - where the prehistoric skull was found in 1921), was.

The deep orebodies of the Copperbelt, most of which were located beneath ancient workings, were promising enough to attract large-scale investment from abroad. Over the years, the industry came to be controlled by two large groups, the South African Anglo American Corporation and Roan Selection Trust with a predominantly US shareholding. The BSAC, which owned the mineral rights, was to earn handsome royalty payments - 83 million pounds by 1963.

Exploitation of the reserves required a large labour force and Zambians from all over the territory were drawn to the Copperbelt. While the migratory system of the past tended to disperse people, the Copperbelt concentrated them so that a permanent population of African miners, working in a modern, technically advanced industry soon took root. They were essential to the production of up to 800 000 tons of refined metal a year. Even when ‘tribal’ affiliations remained in force, they became increasingly irrelevant in this new situation: a miner was primarily a miner, not a Tonga or a Bemba, and the same applied to workers in the enterprises that sprang up around the mines.

As much as colonial authorities promoted ‘tribalism’ in their system of direct rule through the chiefs, the Copperbelt broke it down, creating a unity of interest that was eventually to be expressed in the state motto ‘One Zambia One Nation’.

The management of the mines and all skilled jobs were in the hands of Whites, many of them from South Africa and imbued with racialism. An occupational colour bar prevented Blacks rising above manual or menial labour, but strengthened their unity of purpose.

In 1935, they staged a strike against unfair taxes; in 1940 there was a pay strike with 13 miners killed. In 1948, the first African Mineworkers Union was formed; in 1955 there was 100 % stoppage over pay conditions that lasted 58 days - ending with victory for the miners. The mining companies now started seriously, if slowly, to move Africans into management.

On the broadly political front, African nationalist feeling had been growing since the 1939-45 world war, in which many Zambians fought for the Allies in Burma. By the end of the 1940’s, the Northern Rhodesia African Nationalist Congress, led by Harry Nkumbula, had been formed out of various Welfare Associations initiated by the ‘mission graduates’ of the pre-war decades.

Federation

The nationalist movement was given impetus in the early 1950’s when the Colonial Office agreed to have Northern Rhodesia joined in a federation with Nyasaland (Malawi), a British ‘protectorate’, and Southern Rhodesia (Zimbabwe). Southern Rhodesia, under White settler rule, was bankrupt, and saw Northern Rhodesia, with its copper wealth as, to quote one of its political figures, a ‘milch cow’.

Zambian opposition to Federation, in which few Whites and Asians were prominent, was not strong enough to prevent its imposition in 1953. During its ten years of existence, as Zambians had anticipated, hundreds of millions of pounds were siphoned off to Southern Rhodesia. The White settlers there built up and impressive economic structure while the ‘milch cow’ remained without a single decent tarred highway, let alone a university or even an adequate school system or health service.

In the mid- fifties, the failed campaign against Federation became a struggle for full independence. When battle-weary Nkumbula seemed inadequate to the task, his ANC split. Younger and more dynamic nationalists formed first the Zambia African National Congress (which was banned and its leaders imprisoned) and then in 1958, the United National Independence Party. When he came out of detention, Kenneth David Kaunda, a charismatic activist who had been a school teacher was given the leadership of the new party. UNIP engaged in a continuous and largely peaceful campaign for independence (though there was a violent uprising in the north if the country, put down by the Federal Army).

By 1960 the British Government, in the famous ‘There is a wind of change blowing through Africa’ speech by the Prime Minister Harold Macmillan, had acknowledged that the days of colonial (or minority) rule on the continent were coming to an end. The premier of the White dominated Federation Roy Welensky, threatened to declare unilateral independence from Britain, but was baulked. When Zambia trade unions, including now powerful miners, threw their weight behind UNIP, the nationalist momentum became unstoppable. Intense and often violent rivalry between Kaunda’s UNIP and Nkumbula’s ANC was eventually neutralised in a transitional coalition government.

Independence

The Federation was dissolved in 1963, its only enduring monument the Kariba Dam across the Zambezi, intended by the federalists to bind Northern and southern Rhodesia forever. In January the following year Zambia’s first universal adult suffrage elections were held and though the ANC performed well in a few substantial areas, UNIP won convincingly, Kaunda becoming Prime Minister. Then at midnight on 24th October 1964, Zambia became an independent republic with him as president.

Kaunda remained in office for 27 years. Although during his early years great strides were made in the areas of education, health and infrastructure, his attempts to ‘decolonise the economy by nationalising it completely, produced only inefficiency, corruption and a disastrous decline.

His one party participatory democracy; which gave UNIP sole power, soon fossilised into an autocracy maintained by police-state methods.

In 1990 an obviously collapsing economy together with political frustration, led to serious food riots and an attempted military coup d’etat that had people dancing in the streets. When the disorders could be halted with only firearms, opposition to the regime became so deep and widespread and the demand for change so urgent that Kaunda had to concede.

Democracy

The one-party state was abolished and free elections were held in October, 1991. Kaunda and UNIP were defeated eighty per cent to twenty per cent by the newly formed Movement for Multi-party Democracy, a broad coalition of different interest groups.

The MMD’s Frederick Chiluba, a trade unionist who had been locked up by Kaunda, became Zambia’s second president. He promised democratic, transparent and accountable governance, but inherited and empty treasury, a foreign debt of seven billion US dollars and a country in a worse state than it had been when it won its independence in 1964.

Whether the liberal free-market policies Zambia is now experiencing will put the country back on track to prosperity is a subject of constant debate.

Upon assuming the presidency, Chiluba made Christianity the official state religion. And on the economic front the government embarked on an economic reform programme. It abolished foreign exchange controls, passed new investment laws, set up a stock exchange, and embarked on a privatisation programme which at one point was dubbed by the World Bank as the best on the continent.

All this led to Zambia being courted enthusiastically by aid donors, and saw a surge, in investor confidence in the country reflected in a growing number of investors.

But of late there has been a cooling in relations with the donors amid negative perceptions of constitutional tinkering ahead of the November 1996 elections, which prevented former president Kenneth Kaunda from standing as a presidential candidate.

This deterioration in relations with donors has been compounded by government's failure to complete the privatisation of the largest of the state companies, Zambia Consolidated Copper Mines (ZCCM). The overall result has been donors withholding pledged balance of payment support until issues of governance and the privatisation of ZCCM are tackled.

For a heavily aid dependent country like Zambia this has had a devastating impact. With the country's economic prospects looking grim government is trying to reduce dependence on aid. And for the first time called together a national convention aimed at coming up with ways to revive the country's flagging economy.

In the mid-1970s, the price of copper, Zambia's principal export, suffered a severe decline worldwide. Zambia turned to foreign and international lenders for relief; but as copper prices remained depressed, it became increasingly difficult to service its growing debt. By the mid-1990s, despite limited debt relief, Zambia's per capita foreign debt remained among the highest in the world.

The History of Zambia was written by Timothy Holmes. He is the author of Zambia Cultures of the World Series.

Uncovered by Roby Mathew

Administrator — Wed, 16 Apr 2008 14:12:00 GMT

We've just received word that after three years in the making, Roby Mathew's new album titled 'Uncovered' is officially out and available. You may remember Roby from our earlier interview when he first came out with his debut album titled Wanderer's Raag. The Uncovered album contains eight brand new tracks including a couple of old favourites from his previous album.

We're looking forward to our interview with Roby but until then sample tracks from his new album at the official Roby Mathew site.

Female Zambian Spouse immigration equality

Zambian Author — Fri, 17 Oct 2008 07:09:59 GMT

Why is it that in Zambia only males are allowed to acquire entry permit for their spouse ? Isn't this plain gender bias.

The Immigration and deportation should be revised, yes it does provide options for male foreigners to marry Zambian women just to stay in the country but this should be looked at atleast a blessing.

Ive researched and found that this only happens here in Zambia. I'd love to get your input regarding this.

Concerned Zambian Woman...

Timeline of Major Historical Events in Zambia

Administrator — Thu, 27 Sep 2007 02:40:00 GMT

1873 May 1, David Livingstone (60), British physician, explorer (Africa), died in Chitambo, Zambia. His body passed through Zanzibar for a funeral in London in Apr 18, 1874.

1891 Jun 11, Portugal assigned Barotseland, now in Zambia, to Britain and Nyasaland becomes a British protectorate.

1938 J. Desmond Clark (d.2002) became curator of the David Livingstone memorial Museum and stayed on for 24 years. He moved to UC Berkeley in 1961. His life’s work included over 18 books including “The Pre-history of Africa” (1970).

1961 Sep 18, Dag Hammarskjold, Secretary-General of the UN, was killed in a plane crash in Northern Rhodesia (now Zambia). He was flying to negotiate a cease-fire in the Congo.

1964 Oct 24, Zambia (N. Rhodesia) gained independence from Britain (National Day). Pres. Kenneth Kaunda was in charge.

1969 Emmanuel Milingo (39) was named archbishop of Lusaka.

1982 Lusaka Archbishop Emmanuel Milingo resigned under pressure for his faith healings and exorcisms. He was brought to Rome as a functionary and retired in 2000. In 2001 he (71) married Marie Sung (43) of South Korea in a NYC wedding conducted by the Rev. Sun Myung Moon.

1991 Pres. Kaunda was voted out of office. Pres. Frederick Chiluba and his Movement for Multi-Party Democracy won in the first multi-party elections.
(SFC, 5/22/96, p.A9)(SFC, 6/5/96, p.C16)(WSJ, 8/25/97, p.B5A)

1996 May 21, The government adopted new constitutional amendments to prevent Kenneth Kaunda from running for president. The amendments require that candidates be at least second-generation Zambians. Kaunda is the son of immigrants from Malawi.

1996 Jun 4, Nine opposition politicians were charged with treason and masterminding the Black Mamba group.

1996 Jun 16, In Zambia 15 soccer fans were crushed to death and 52 injured during a stampede after Zambia beat Sudan.

1996 Nov 20, Frederick Chiluba and his Movement for Multiparty Democracy won re-election. Former pres. Kaunda and his United National Independent Party boycotted because he was declared ineligible to run.

1997 Aug 24, Former pres. Kaunda accused Pres. Frederick Chiluba of trying to kill him after he was wounded by riot police during a protest rally.

1997 Oct 27, There was a coup attempt by against Pres. Frederick Chiluba. Scores of people, mostly soldiers, were later arrested and a state of emergency imposed.

1997 Dec 25, Former president Kenneth Kaunda was confined to prison for 28 days on suspicion of being linked to the Oct 27 coup attempt.

1997 Dec 31, Former Pres. Kaunda (73) was released from prison and placed under house arrest.

1997 By UN definition 9% of the children were orphans due to AIDS.

1998 Jan 10, A court filing accused Kenneth Kaunda of paying army officers $270 to stage an October coup, promising another $13,300 if the insurrection was successful.

1998 Jan 14, Two officers told a court in Lukasa that they were tortured into accusing Kenneth Kaunda of plotting a failed coup.

1998 Mar 17, The state of emergency imposed last Oct. was lifted.

1998 Jun 1, Zambia dropped charges against former Pres. Kaunda and released him after Kaunda pledged to retire.

1999 Feb 28, In Zambia a bomb exploded at the Angolan Embassy and 4 other locations in Lusaka.

1999 Mar 31, In Zambia the high court declared former leader Kenneth Kaunda, born to Malawian missionaries, a non-citizen.

1999 Nov 3, Wazi Kaunda (47), the son of Kenneth Kaunda, was shot and killed by 4 gunmen at his front gate in Lusaka. Kaunda was a senior official in the opposition National Independence Party.

2000 Mar 10, In Zambia over 12,000 people lost their homes when the spillways of Kariba Dam in southern Siavonga were opened to relieve pressure.

2000 Dec 4, In southern Congo over 10,000 refugees were driven into northern Zambia due to renewed fighting over the last 12 days.

2001 Apr 30, The ruling party nominated Pres. Chiluba for re-election following a vote to amend the constitution.

2001 May 2, In Zambia the ruling party ousted Vice Pres. Christon Tembo, 8 Cabinet members and 11 0ther senior officials who opposed Pres. Chiluba’s bid for a 3rd term.

2001 May 4, Pres. Chiluba said he would not run for a 3rd term.

2001 May 27, Archbishop Emmanuel Milingo married Maria Sung in a mass ceremony conducted by Rev. Sun Myung Moon in NYC. In Aug Milingo was reported to have recommitted his life to the Catholic Church. Marie Sung went on a hunger strike. Sung later resigned herself to Milingo’s return to the Church.

2001 Dec 27, Zambia held national elections. Early returns showed a virtual tie between Levy Mwanawasa of the ruling Movement for Multiparty Democracy and Anderson Mazoka of the United Party for National Development.

2002 Jan 2, In Zambia Levy Mwanawasa of the ruling Multiparty Democracy (MMD) was sworn in as president despite protests of ballot stuffing and voter intimidation. An appeal for a recount was rejected. Nearly 85% of the country’s 10 million people lived on less than $1 a day. Unrest closed much of Lusaka.

2002 May 29, In Zambia Pres. Levy Mwanawasa declared a national food crises with 4 million people facing starvation due to drought.

2002 Aug 16, The Zambian government has rejected donations of genetically modified corn from the United States, even though a massive food shortage threatens nearly 2.3 million of its people with starvation.

2002 Nov 2, Rex Mwanawasa (43), the brother of Zambian President Levy Mwanawasa, was found dead in a hotel room in Pretoria.

2003 Feb 24, In Zambia former President Frederick Chiluba (59) was arrested and charged with stealing from the government while in office.

2003 May 6, It was reported that AIDS in Zambia had cut the average life expectancy to 33 years from 44 a decade ago. One in 5 adults was reported to have HIV.

Chat Room

admin — Tue, 04 Sep 2007 14:10:23 GMT

The chat room is currently being tested and integrated with the site. If you'd like to test the new chat room please visit Zambian Chat Room - your feedback/ suggestions would be appreciated.

The Zambian Sossa

Toffee — Sat, 22 Sep 2007 07:29:39 GMT

I miss my sossa chat mates. I hope no one changes their username coz communication will be a bit tricky! Marc G, Crazek, Jahguide,Macmilan,unzamonk??Where at thou?