Browsing Archive: October, 2012

School in the community

Posted by Charles Mafa on Thursday, October 4, 2012, In : Education 

From the centre of Lusaka, it takes 20 minutes by car to reach Linda Compound on the southern side of Zambia’s capital city. Heavy traffic and giant potholes make it hard-going and the closer to the compound the worse the road becomes, eventually deteriorating into little more than a bumpy pass.

A township-cum-settlement is home to more than 18,000 people, most of whom are unemployed.

It is here where you will find Linda Open Community School, which provides education to more than 1,600...


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The Good, the Bad and the Chinese

Posted by Charles Mafa on Thursday, October 4, 2012, In : Commerce 

China’s voracious appetite for natural resources has driven a boom of investments and aid to African countries. In the Southern African country of Zambia, Chinese companies are building roads, hospitals, sports stadia as well as reviving copper mines abandoned in the country’s Copperbelt region.

The Chinese have also chosen Zambia as the place to set up its first out of five free trade zones in Africa. The Chambishi multi-facility economic zone on the Copperbelt is anchored by a 200 m...


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Liberation City for Africa

Posted by Charles Mafa on Thursday, October 4, 2012, In : History 

The South African envoy has observed that Zambia’s contribution to the emancipation of southern Africa makes the country ideal for the creation of a city to be a “symbol of the liberation” in Africa.

Moses Chikane said that he has been assigned by President Jacob Zuma to come up with a “token of appreciation” for Zambia’s role in liberating southern Africa and South Africa in particular. Chikane said Zambia was “the nerve centre of the liberation movements” in Southern Afr...


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19-year wait for closure

Posted by Charles Mafa on Thursday, October 4, 2012, In : Sport 

Nineteen years after the plane crash in which the entire Zambian football squad was killed, the Zambian government has yet to release the full official report of the inquiry into the disaster.

And as next week’s anniversary of the 1993 crash looms, a relative of one the dead players has called on the government to come clean.

Michael Chanda, the elder brother of former Zambian forward Kelvin Mutale, said that although the report will not bring back his brother, it might prompt the autho...


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Fugitive Banda son in SA

Posted by Charles Mafa on Thursday, October 4, 2012, In : Corruption 

The fugitive son of Rupiah Banda, Zambia’s fourth president, has permanent residence in South Africa where he enjoys business connections despite being on the police wanted list in his home country.

The Zambian former president revealed to the Mail and Guardian that his son Henry has permanent residence in South Africa and that he is a “successful businessman who has a highly regarded business career.”

“It is well known that my son Henry has permanent residence in South Afri...


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Former first son can't go home

Posted by Charles Mafa on Thursday, October 4, 2012, In : Corruption 

The son of former Zambian president, Rupiah Banda this week told the Mail & Guardian that he could not return to Zambia because there was “reliable inside information that he is a marked man”.

Henry Banda is wanted by the Zambian authorities in connection with his alleged involvement in corrupt government deals when his father was president. The Zambian police told the Mail and Guardian that they have not made public the charges against Banda because he has not appeared before them.

B...


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French Engeneering giant fined for bribery

Posted by Charles Mafa on Thursday, October 4, 2012, In : Corruption 

By Charles Mafa and Lionel Faull

The World Bank has slapped a hefty $9.5 million fine on the Alstom Corporation; a major French engineering company involved in the South African nuclear industry, and blacklisted two of its subsidiaries, after it admitted to bribing a senior Zambian government official.

The corporation was also fined by Swiss authorities last year after being implicated in bribery scandals in three other countries.

The Zambian fine was imposed after Alstom admitted ...


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Zambian VIPs choose SA doctors

Posted by Charles Mafa on Thursday, October 4, 2012, In : Health 

Zambian leaders, including current president Michael Sata, have flocked to South Africa for medical treatment at government expense, prompting a complaint by a leading NGO that “they have no confidence in their own healthcare system”.

This week, a Zambian medical doctor who has immigrated to New Zealand this week blamed the lack of government investment in the state health sector for the skills drain and the worsening crisis in the country’s health services.

Contacted in Christchurc...


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