Zambia is drinking itself into a coma

By Charles Mafa

It is estimated that one in every five people in Zambia is living with some form of mental illness.

This astonishing figure was first revealed back in 2005 when the World Health Organisation (WHO) estimated the prevalence of mental disorders to be at 20% of the population.

They went further and said that 6% to 10% of Zambians have severe mental disorders that need hospital care.

There has been no statistical analysis of the prevalenc...

By Charles Mafa

Last year, 66,000 secondhand vehicles were imported into Zambia, mostly from Japan. That averages out at 180 used vehicles coming into the country each and every day. These cars and trucks then add to the estimated total of more than 427,000 vehicles already here – and that figure does not include the thousands of vehicles registered as belonging to government.

In Japan, thousands of used vehicles constantly become available for re-sale because of a strict and very hi...

We all know that some day we are destined to die. Yet when the cold hand of death visits us, the shock in us all is palpable. I can’t help but provide some reflections on the death of Zambia’s first indigenous Cardinal, Medardo Joseph Mazombwe. The country has been robbed of a much loved son of the land, the man who preached the word of God to all of us and stood for justice.

I want to take you back to 2010 when in the company of other Zambians, I travelled to Vatican in Rome, Italy to ...

Speaking to the B & R at his Mukuni Palace, 7 kilometres east of the Victoria Falls, the chief said: “In terms of preparations, we are on course...

Along the highway that winds to Livingstone, sex workers are cruising. They are converging on the town from all points within Zambia and from across the borders, heading for the hoped-for rich pickings to come from the delegates, staff and others in town for the UN indaba on tourism later in the month.

Already, as night falls in Livingstone, the girls teetering on high heels totter down the street in their mini-skirts with their jackets slipping provocatively off their shoulders. Perhaps ...

There is an argument that under-utilisation of human capital – which could be described as a lack of job skills -- is perhaps the biggest single factor contributing to Zambia’s lack of development. Without it, all other resources such as capital, land and nature are of little use. People have to be trained in the techniques and skills to do their jobs, but in the area of technical and vocational training it all comes unstuck. Charles Mafa reports.

The importance of technical and vocati...

By Charles Mafa

Daniel Munkombwe defies categorization.  He has been called a radical, lion or even someone “from the archives”. Whatever name you may choose to call him, he is a man of all seasons. He has worked with both the UNIP and MMD governments, and now at 81, people may have thought there might be no role for him in modern politics.  They were wrong. His nomination as Member of Parliament and subsequent appointed as Southern Province Minister by President Michael Sata, proved h...

By Charles Mafa

Livingstone is scrambling to have all promised facilities in place in time for the much – heralded general assembly of the United Nations World Tourism Organisation (UNWTO), scheduled for August.

The conference which is being co-hosted by Zambia and Zimbabwe in both Livingstone and the town of Victoria Falls across the border is the principle gathering of the UNWTO, which meets every two years to consider its budget and programme.

Zambia and Zimbabwe won the right to ...

Mired in debt estimated to be at least K1 trillion, Zambia’s bastion of higher education, UNZA, appears to be crumbling under the burden of poor funding, low staff numbers, inadequate facilities and an out-of-date curriculum. Charles Mafa investigates

Picture the scene. A poor boy from the rural area works hard at his local school, passes his exams with flying colours, then comes to Lusaka for the first time to get a degree, only to find a crumbling university education system and nowher...

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...

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...

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...

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...

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...

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...

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 ...

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...