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The Drug Enforcement Commission through the Anti-Money Laundering Investigations Unit in the first quarter of 2020 arrested 40 people from 17 concluded cases involving over K17.4 million.
The Unit received a total of 63 reports during the first quarter of 2020, involving K30, 313,058.18 and $7, 292.00.
Commission Public Relations Officer Theresa Katongo said 60 percent of the cases involved fraud, 21 percent theft, and 19 percent other types of predicate offenses.
Meanwhile, Mrs. Katongo said two convictions were recorded in cases under the Anti-Money Laundering Investigations Unit during the quarter under review.
Below is a full statement….
Lusaka, Wednesday, 20th May 2020
Drug Interdiction
The Drug Enforcement Commission in the first quarter of 2020 recorded 1 013 arrests for various drug-related offenses countrywide, representing a twenty (20) per cent reduction from 1, 279 arrests recorded in the same period in 2019.
Of the total arrests recorded for drug-related offenses 959 comprised males and fifty-four (54) females. The total arrests also included 75 juveniles.
Further, of the total arrests, 167 convictions were recorded with 31 cases disposed of through other legal provisions while 514 cases were still pending at various stages of the court process at the end of the quarter under review. The Commission seized cannabis plants, herb and seeds totaling 18.77 tons, compared to 13.47 tons recorded in the same period in 2019, thereby representing an increase of 39.3 percent while other seizures included 110.6 Kg of miraa and 1.07 Kg of heroin.
Money laundering and Counterfeit Notes
The Commission through the Anti-Money Laundering Investigations Unit (AMLIU) arrested forty (40) people from seventeen (17) concluded cases involving a total of ZMW17, 408, 598.00. The Unit received a total of sixty-three (63) reports during the first quarter of 2020, involving ZMW30, 313,058.18 and $7, 292.00 United States Dollars. Sixty (60) per cent of the cases involved fraud, 21 per cent theft, and 19 per cent other types of predicate offences.
Meanwhile, two (2) convictions were recorded in cases under the Anti-Money Laundering Investigations Unit during the quarter under review.
Drug Demand Reduction
The Commission through the National Education Campaign Division (NECD) conducted a total of 533 awareness activities from which 85, 931 people were sensitised through institutions of learning, community and workplace programmes as part of the drug demand reduction strategy.
Further, the Commission attended to 210 clients aged between 13 and 46 years under the counselling and reintegration programme, with the primary drugs of abuse being cannabis, alcohol, heroin and codeine.
Overview
The Commission has continued to monitor the trends of drug trafficking and money laundering with a view to curtailing the illicit vices as mandated in the Narcotic Drugs and Psychotropic substances Act Chapter 96 of the Laws of Zambia and Prohibition and Prevention of Money Laundering Act No. 14 of 2001 as amended by Act 44 of 2010.
We wish to warn perpetrators behind the vices of illicit drug abuse, trafficking and money laundering to desist from the acts as the Commission will be on hand to ensure all offenders are brought to book. We urge members of the public to continue supporting the Commission in the fight against illicit drugs and money laundering.
Opposition National Democratic Congress-NDC leader Chishimba Kambwili has supported government’s decision not to allow Glencore to place Mopani Copper Mines-MCM on care and maintenance.
Mr. Kambwili said this when he made submissions to a committee of three cabinet ministers who are on a fact-finding mission of the mining sector.
He said Mopani Management has been applying wrong mining methods, which have resulted in high cost production.
The NDC leader said government and political leaders must put their foot down and not allow the mines in Kitwe and Mufulira to be placed under care and maintenance.
He said Zambians are not in any way benefiting from Mopani as the company has employed many expatriates and engaged foreign contractors and suppliers at the expense of locals.
Mr. Kambwili noted that the mining firm has a cartel of foreign contractors and suppliers whom they contract at exorbitant costs.
According to ZNBC, Mr Kambwili submitted that the country has a lot of local experts who can run and manage the firm profitably.
The NDC leader cited that Mopani mine was run and managed efficiently and at low cost when it had Mr. Emmanuel Mutati as its Chief Executive Officer.
He further charged that it is not possible for him to go to the Media and criticize government decisions if he is consulted, like the case has been on Mopani mine.
Earlier, Finance Minister Bwalya Ng’andu said the three ministers are on a mission to have a clear picture of what is on the ground.
Dr. Ng’andu said government wants reliable information about operations of mining firms.
He thanked Mr. Kambwili for availing himself before the ministers especially that he had to drive from Lusaka just to make his submissions.
And Mines Minister Richard Musukwa said the intention of government is to sustain mine operations at Mopani beyond the Ninety days notification that Mopani has given government.
Copperbelt Minister Japhen Mwakalombe, Members of Parliament for Mufulira Central, Kamfinsa, Wusakile, Chimwemwe and Kitwe District Commissioner Chileshe Bweupe also joined the meeting in Kitwe this morning.
Zesco United captain Jacob Banda says they are 100 percent focused in lock-down individual training and hoping to successfully defend their league title.
All FAZ Super Division Stadiums have been silent since March 8 when it was decided a week later to pause the 2019/2020 season due to the Coronavirus pandemic.
The decision left Zesco in fifth position on 42 points, four points behind leaders and Ndola archrivals Forest Rangers with nine matches left to play.
“I think we have had time to rest and recover from injuries. What is important is that we keep ourselves in shape during this lockdown,” Banda said.
“We can’t afford to relax because when the league resumes, all the teams will be fighting to get good results.”
Zesco are also one point outside the top four bracket whose prize is continental qualification with first and second playing in the CAF Champions League while third and fourth will play in the CAF Confederation Cup.
Napsa Stars, Green Eagles and Nkana are second, third and fourth on 45, 44 and 43 points respectively.
60 new COVID-19 cases have been recorded out of 495 tests conducted in the last 24 hours, Zambia national public health institute director Professor Victor Munkonka has disclosed.
Speaking during the latest update, professor Munkonka said 5 more patients have been discharged adding that cumulatively cases now stand at 832, recoveries at 197, active cases are now 628 with 7 deaths.
Professor Munkonka explained that 48 cases are from 307 tests conducted from Muchinga province, out of which 4 are health workers, 24 from community screening in Nakonde, 17 from contacts of known cases while 1 was presented to Isoka hospital.
“The other 12 confirmed cases are from 188 samples tested from Ndola at the Tropical Disease And Research Control.8 are truck drivers who traveled from Nakonde to deliver fuel while the rest are isolated cases from Ndola and Kitwe” professor Munkonka explained.
He said all cases are somehow linked to Nakonde and said intensified activities have been heightened such as training of community workers and deployment of more health workers and said mass screening has also been extended to other ports of entry such as Chirundu and Kasumbalesa.
Professor Munkonka emphasized the need for people to adjust to the new normal by adhering to the measures that have been announced such as social distancing, personal and environmental hygiene, and intensify masking in public places to avoid new infections.
Youth coach and ex-Nkana defender Noel Phiri has saluted Chipolopolo striker Evans Kangwa for establishing Shamuel Soccer Academy in Lusaka.
The academy has junior teams ranging from under-8 to 17 with the main team competing in the FAZ Division 1 Lusaka Province.
In an interview with LT Sport, Phiri, who is Samuel Soccer Academy coach, said the promotion of grassroots football is key to advancing the sport in the country.
“At the academy we have under 8, 10, 12, 14 and 17 up to the main team that is in Division 1. Shamuel Academy is not an ordinary academy but an academy with a vision beyond talent. The vision of this team is to see young talented players reach the levels beyond expectations,” Phiri said.
“My brother and our President Evans Kangwa is making a route where we will be taking players to other teams in Zambia and outside. This is a route that should take players to places they desire in their careers,” he said.
Phiri emphasised the need to promote football at the lower level.
“Grassroots football is the one sustaining our game in Zambia. Like they say in Bemba ‘imiti ikula e mpanga’. Imagine a team with players on loan from other clubs, what happens when those players go back to their parent clubs? That is why we have this academy so that players can be graduating from one level to another,” he said.
Meanwhile, Phiri is relishing his new coaching career after hanging his boots recently.
The retired defender played for Nkana, Nkwazi and Napsa Stars.
“I never thought I will be in this journey of coaching this soon. I think God just changed by destine for me to lead these talented young people. Most people think that one can stop playing active football at a tender age because he is tired or because of age. Sometimes one can stop playing football at a tender age because of the vision one has and what God has for that person in future,” Phiri said.
Phiri won the FAZ Super Division title with Nkana in 2013 and played in the CAF Confederation Cup group stage a year later.
The Patriots for Economic Progress is saddened with the continued attack on radio stations by Patriotic Front Party members in Muchinga Province, despite several public condemnations of this criminality by President Lungu’s Government.
Patriots for Economic Progress Leader Sean Tembo says this is evidence enough that President Lungu is not taken seriously and is considered a joker by his own party members, hence their continued disregard of his Government’s directives to stop the attacks on radio stations.
Mr Tembo said any President who is unable to instill discipline in his own political party members, to the extent that his members run amok destroying private property and assaulting innocent citizens at radio stations, is a lame-duck president and unsuitable to be the commander in chief of our armed forces.
He has challenged President Lungu to grow a backbone and deal with his unruly Patriotic Front Party members saying if the President is unable to grow the necessary backbone, then he should resign the presidency forthwith.
Mr Tembo has reminded President Lungu that Zambia has continuously existed as a peaceful nation for more than 53 years because of adherence of the citizens to the rule of law.
“Not even UNIP members during the One-Party-State, would have the audacity to attack a radio station, destroy private property and seriously assaulting journalists. Mr. Lungu is hereby advised that the citizens of this Republic will not allow to be held hostage by the unbridled and insatiable political ambitions of a single individual, who is willing to sacrifice our national security in order to preserve his fast dwindling political fortunes in the northern-circuit of Zambia”, said Mr Tembo.
He has called on President Lungu to not only enjoy the privileges that come with being Republican President, but also properly discharge the duties that come with the job, which duties include protecting citizens and their property.
Mr Tembo has demanded that not only should the PF members that attacked radio stations in Muchinga Province be arrested and prosecuted, but also Mr Lungu’s Lusaka Province PF Chairman, Paul Moonga and his accomplices that attacked the PeP peaceful protest along Cairo Road on 28th November 2019 should also be arrested and prosecuted.
He said President Lungu’s most outstanding failures, since the commencement of his Presidency in January of 2015, has been his lack of self-restraint to use any and all means necessary to achieve his political goals, regardless of the damage of his methods on the fabric of this nation, and its posterity.
Youth activist Chikabala Kaleta has staged a lone protest over the continued placing of Chambishi Metals under care and maintenance by owners Eurasian Resources Group (ERG).
ERB sent 229 workers on forced leave when shutting down operations in February 2020 leaving the firm with a skeleton staff of 29 during the indefinite care and maintenance period.
Mr. Kaleta, who is also a business executive in Chambishi on the Copperbelt, was seen with a placard outside the mine.
In an interview with Lusaka Times after the protest, Mr. Kaleta said the Government should intervene in the Chambishi Metals issue with the same zeal it showed when Mopani Mine sent workers on forced leave recently.
“Government should advise ERG to resume operation or surrender the mine to people who can run Chambishi Metals. I think Government can even do what it did with KCM and later sale the mine to another investor,” he said.
According to records from mine unions, the workforce at Chambishi Metals has reduced over the years from over 1000 to 29.
“It seems our leaders in Chambishi are sleeping. Where is the Member of Parliament (Kampamba Chewe), where is the District Commissioner? We want to see the same zeal the Government showed when Mopani sent miners on forced leave,” Mr Kaleta added.
ERG say lack of feed is one of the factors leading to the placing of the mine under care and maintenance.
The United Nations World Food Programme has begun delivering relief food assistance to more than a quarter of a million vulnerable people heavily impacted by recent flash flooding.
On top of last year’s drought that plunged 2.3 million people into food insecurity, recent flash floods have left an estimated 1.1 million in need of food assistance.
WFP Representative in Zambia Jennifer Bitonde says unpredictable weather patterns are having a profound impact on the lives of the most vulnerable in Zambia.
She said the COVID-19 pandemic hit Zambia as people affected by drought and flash floods were just starting to recover and rebuild their livelihoods and this risk undermining resilience gains and further aggravating food insecurity of the most vulnerable.
Ms Bitonde said WFP is working with the Government and the national disaster management agency to deliver immediate relief food to 260,000 food-insecure people in 32 flood-affected districts in central, northern and eastern parts of Zambia.
She said with COVID-19 preventative measures in place, people affected by the floods are receiving up to 30-day rations of government-supplied maize meal, together with WFP pulses that ensure an adequate protein intake.
Ms Bitonde has thanked the Government of the United States and the United Nations Central Emergency Response Fund, whose support has enabled this significant intervention.
ZCCM Investments Holdings has entered into a joint venture partnership through its subsidiary Consolidated Gold Company Zambia, with Array Metals, a global mining firm to process gold ore in Mumbwa, west of Lusaka.
An initial investment of approximately $2.5 million will be invested in this first stage of the project and will go towards the setting up of a gold wash plant and other mining machinery to mine and process placer gold raw material.
In the JV agreement, CGCZ will hold a 65% stake and Array Metals Zambia will have 35% in the project, with an initial phase targeted gold production of about 3 tonnes, worth approximately $150 million at current prevailing market prices.
Array Metals Group Vice President Chris Rugari said after the signing of the agreement that the company has a two-year study conducted by Array Metals that has an estimated inferred resource by JORC standards of 3 million tonnes of gold ore material containing between 2.5 and 3.5 grams of the precious metal per tonne.
Mr Rugari stated that overall the total targeted gold production is 7, 500 kilograms from this resource, estimated to be worth $400 million at the current prevailing market price.
He however said that the agreement with CGCZ will first process part of the resource and later ramp up production and processing.
Witnessing the signing of the agreement, ZCCM-IH Chief Executive Officer Mr Mabvuto Chipata said that ZCCM-IH’s strategic drive to harness the gold potential as mandated by Government from areas with recorded gold occurrences in the country is aimed at contributing to the 40 tonne target, which can only be achieved through such partnerships.
And CGCZ Chief Executive Officer Faisal Keer further stated that the CGCZ is partnering with various small-scale gold miners in the country by providing mining technical expertise, and providing access to earth moving machinery and gold processing lines to kick-start and boost their gold production.
Mr Keer added that the mining and processing operations in the Mumbwa project is earmarked to start by Mid June 2020, once all statutory and regulatory approvals are obtained.
“As a medium-sized company, we are very excited about this partnership because it gives us an opportunity to work directly with the Government in contributing meaningfully to the development of Mumbwa traditionally known for agriculture, through economic diversification, local participation and job creation”, Mr Rugari added.
CGCZ is a gold processing and trading Joint Venture partnership between Karma Mining Services and Rural Development (55%) and ZCCM-IH (45%).
This is according to a statement issued to the media by ZCCM-IH Public Relations Manager Loisa Kakoma.
UPND Economics and Finance Committee Chairperson Situmbeko Musokotwane has challenged the PF to explain why spending money on by election is a higher priority for the Government than paying the salaries of district councilors and council Staff.
Dr Musokotwane has said that an interaction between UPND MPs and their Councilors on the causes of resignations, it has been established that the resignations are happening at the request of the Patriotic Front.
The Former Finance Minister said the District Commissioners and PF officials have been going round UPND strong holds to entice councilors to resign from their positions.
Dr Musokotwane said very recently, PF teams have been busy in the Western, Southern and North Western Provinces enticing councilors to resign with some having resigned meaning that more bye elections are on way.
Explain why spending Money on Deliberately Caused Bye Election is a Higher Priority for the Government than Paying the Salaries of District Councilors and Council Staff
Since the Patriotic Front (PF) come into office in 2011, Zambia has had an unprecedented number of bye elections, especially for local government councilors. Statistics indicate that on average, there has been a bye election in the country after every two months. The Western Province has been hit hardest with bye elections, followed by the North Western, Southern and Lusaka Provinces. There has never been any time in the history of the country when so many bye elections have been held.
According to the Zambian Constitution, if a vacancy arises in the office of a councilor a bye election must be held within three months to fill it. A few vacancies have arisen because of death of the incumbent. The vast majority of vacancies have however been caused by councilors who have resigned. Most of the councilors that have resigned are from the opposition United Party for National Development (UPND).
With most of the councilors resigning being UPND, the party has had to take interest in the matter. UPND Members of Parliament (MPs) have spoken to their councilors to know the reasons for the resignations. According to the information received, the resignations are happening at the behest of the party in government, the PF. District Commissioners and PF party officials have been going around UPND strong holds to entice councilors to resign from their positions. Very recently, PF teams have been busy in the Western, Southern and North Western Provinces enticing councilors to resign. Some have indeed resigned, meaning that more bye elections are on way. Some resigned but soon reversed their decisions while others have angrily rejected appeals to make them resign.
Councilors resign because of promises of rewards extended to them in exchange for resigning. Typically, there is a lump some cash offer to compensate the councilor for the loss of salary from that point up to the time when councils are dissolved ahead of the next general election. In addition, there is the promise to be employed in some of the public services like the Police or in the teaching service. The councilor targeted to resign will be told that there is no guaranteed future in politics because there is no assurance of being adopted to be a candidate or to be successful at all in the election. Instead, a job in the public service secures one’s future career wise.
In this era of high unemployment, the promise of a permanent job for a councilor can be very tempting. This is more so that the majority of councilors are young people many of whom would have completed their secondary schools within the last five years and thereafter had no opportunity for further training or being employed. Even with these tempting promises from the PF however, the majority of councilors have stood their ground and have rejected the offers. These are the unsung heroes of our democracy.
For the PF, the bye elections are an opportunity to try and make a point that they are gaining political popularity in the provinces where they miserably failed in the 2016 general elections. In 2016 PF failed to win any parliamentary seats in Western, Southern and North-Western provinces. In addition, they lost all or most of the rural constituencies in Lusaka, Copperbelt and the southern parts of Central Province. These are the areas the PF are now working hard to entice councilors to resign.
The PF are aware that their fortunes in the provinces where they did well in 2016 have declined sharply since then because of the harsh economic environment that has occurred all around the country. The urban areas, which were the PF strongholds, have not been spared from the economic meltdown. And, of course, PF knows very well that urban voters shift political alignments swiftly. PF can no longer with certainty depend on urban voters to be their strong supporters. This is why they are now trying hard to gain political mileage in the rural provinces that rejected them in 2016. The frequent bye elections in rural areas is a tool to further this goal.
For the local PF officials in the provinces prone to bye-elections, the electoral campaigns are a time for making money, eating good food every day and, of course, lots of drink. Such facilities are usually well funded by the PF. Therefore, local party officials have all the incentives to create bye elections because they benefit from them.
Once a bye election has been declared, PF moves in with lots of resources to entice the voters. With total disregard of the electoral laws and rules PF distributes money, food and drinks to voters in large quantities. During bye elections, there has also been unprecedented levels of political violence in which the opposition parties are often the victims. The Police rarely offer any protection and in certain instances, such as the Sesheke bye election, they actually attack innocent voters themselves. The Electoral Commission of Zambia has long given up on any attempt to reign in the PF. The combination of material gifts to poor rural voters and the deployment of intimidating state Police usually works to the great advantage of the ruling PF. The more bye elections they win through whatever means, the more the PF get convinced that their popularity is extending to the areas they lost in 2016.
Bye elections are costly. On average, the Electoral Commission of Zambia will spend about K2 million per ward bye election. This does not include the funds that the political parties spend for the purposes of campaigning. Yet the PF and their government find it fit to go around the country inciting poor councilors to resign from their positions to create bye-election that are costly.
Here is what is disturbing and puzzling about these bye elections. The dire financial state that Zambia finds herself in is now clear to everyone. Even before the corona virus (covid19) came on the scene, the country was already struggling. Many public projects like schools and roads have been abandoned in the middle of works due to lack of funds. Emoluments for some public sector employees can’t be paid. The Constituency Development Fund, a very useful resource for financing development projects in remote local areas has been released no more than three times since the PF came to power in 2011 even though the provisions for it have appeared each year in the national budget. But money for deliberately created bye elections is always available!
Lets now relate this to the district councils themselves where the councilors belong. The national budget has provisions for the central Treasury to provide “Equalisation Funds” to councils to finance local development projects like infrastructure. This funding is in months of arrears. Further, salaries of both local council staff and the councilors themselves have not been paid in the last five months because there has been no usual support from the central Treasury. But the government finds it desirable to create unnecessary bye elections, make sure there is money for them (bye elections) and also therefore make sure that there is NO money to pay salaries for councilors and council staff! Why are deliberately caused by elections considered a higher priority to paying the salaries of councilors and council staff?
The issue of the bye elections is one example out of many where lack of priorities in spending public funds is working to the disadvantage of the country. These unnecessary bye elections can be ended at the stroke of the pen by the government itself if it wished. This would go a long way in saving resources for the country which are needed for more serious priorities especially now when covid19 has added to the economic problems of the country.
It is no secret that most of Zambia’s activities to respond to the covid19 pandemic are funded by donors, most of whom are hit more than us by the same covid19. Despite their own woes, they have sacrificed their resources to assist us while our own money is being employed for trivial priorities like deliberately created and endless bye elections. Bye elections that encourage people to gather together contrary to the instructions from the same government as it fights covid19. Surely it is better to do the correct things before we are lectured by donors on how to use our money prudently.
Kalumbila UPND Members of Parliament, Teddy Kasonso says the Patriotic Front does not have numbers to pass Constitution Bill number 10 even if two UPND members do not vote.
Speaking during Provincial Executive Committee meeting at which he cleared the allegations suggesting that he had been bought by President Edgar Lungu, Mr Kasonso said president Lungu did not have money to buy him.
In his passionate submission, Mr Kasonso charged that he would only work with Mr Lungu on principles and not that he would be bought by him.
He boldly pledged his continued support to the UPND and demanded that members needed to verify information before making wild allegations.
“The rules of the Select Committee in Parliament are such that, one cannot vote against the resolution of the Committee. The walk out by my fellow UPND MPs was not done at the point of voting for people to accuse me of working with PF.
Bill number 10 could have been history by now had we debated the bill because PF was five (5) MPs short to pass Bill number 10 when we (UPND) walked out of Parliament.
I am not a senseless distractor to go against the common good of the party and the desire of majority people,” said Mr Kasonso.
And Local Government Deputy Chairperson, Brian Ndumba thanked the Kalumbila lawmaker for showing leadership at a critical stage of Zambian politics.
Mr Kasonso was further encouraged to support the intra-party elections that shall soon run in his constituency as per scheduled time table.
By Mwizenge S. Tembo, Ph. D. Professor of Sociology
Introduction
I was doing my Ph. D. in Sociology in the United States under the sponsored scholarship of the famous University of Zambia Staff Development Fellowship. The year was 1983. The news was buzzing and spreading like wildfire. A new killer disease that was sexually transmitted, attacked the immune system. It was killing mostly gay or homosexual men in the United States. I bought Newsweek Magazine and read the whole story. When I read the New African magazine, the report said this new Acquired Immunity Deficiency Syndrome (AIDS) was affecting mainly heterosexual men and women in Africa. In sensational reports, the Western media identified Uganda as the AIDS ground zero in Africa. I was alarmed. I knew that if this new disease reached Zambia, it was going to be a disaster. Many Zambians would die including my relatives.
I went to work. I bought a few copies of the Newsweek magazine with the article and mailed it to as many relatives as possible. As a patriotic Zambian, I sent a copy to my fellow Zambian lecturers at the University of Zambia and even the Ministry of Health. Given the havoc that the Corona Virus pandemic is playing in the world today, this is a story of how this author alone in his own way tried to help to fight HIV/AIDS in Zambia over a period 15 years from 1983 to 1998.
First, I will explain why I am writing this article. Second, I will describe what I did on my personal level to help fight HIV/AIDS and what I witnessed about HIV/AIDS in Zambia from 1987 to 1989. Third, I will describe how I used my scientific knowledge and skills to investigate HIV/AIDS. Lastly, what I think today about the Corona Virus in Zambia and the global world.
Why Write this Article?
When the news about the Corona Virus spread in January 2020, the first questions I asked myself are: “How many Zambians lived through and experienced the terrible HIV/AIDS pandemic in the 1980s?” “How many of the 18.3 million Zambians beside myself, are alive today who may have lived through the HIV/AIDS pandemic?”
According to the Zambia Population Census of 2010, the country ten years ago had a population of 13 million. The proportion of the country that was under 15 years old was 45.4%, those between 15 and 24 years old was 20.8%, those between 25 to 54 years old was 27.04% and those from 55 to 64 years were only 2.8% and those above 65 years old are even smaller at 2.6%. Zambians who were born before 1965 or are 55 years or older today in 2020, constitute an estimate of 5.4% which is about 972,000 Zambians. Those who were born before 1955 or are 65 years and older are only 2.6% or 468,000 Zambians.
These are the few of the 18.3 million Zambians who experienced the crisis of the wide spread illnesses and deaths of too many close relatives, friends, schoolmates, and workmates from HIV/AIDS crisis. If these people are alive, they may provide advice to younger Zambians and even government on how to respond to the Corona virus. A large population of Zambians, who were born after 1990 or are 30 years old, constitute 66.2% or 11.9 million Zambians who never lived through the HIV/AIDS crisis. I hope this article can provide a perspective about the past of HIV/AIDS and the present Corona Virus crisis although the 2 pandemics are not the same.
HIV/AIDS Fight 1987-1989
AIDS Black and White – A sign about HIV/AIDS prevention on the Great North near the North-End of Cairo Road in Lusaka in 1993.
As I was pursuing my Ph. D., I began to read as much information as I could about the epidemic. I mailed a lot of the information to relatives, friends, in Lusaka as well as in the rural area to my home villages in Lundazi and the Ministry of Health. I arrived back in Zambia after my Ph. D in 1987 to resume my work as Research Fellow at the then Institute of African Studies of the University of Zambia. People were dying. I lost count how many times I went to the Leopards Hill cemetery in Lusaka to bury relatives, friends, and workmates. Those were very sad years in Zambia.
Of the numerous deaths I witnessed, one shocked me for its sudden swiftness. This death was to be one amongst the numerous that was to anger and infuriate me about some of the tragic and unfortunate panic, hysteria and myths that surrounded HIV/AIDS pandemic at the time.
Virtually anybody in Zambia at the time who died after two days, six months, three months, or one week of illness was assumed to have died of HIV-AIDS disease. There were no reliable widespread HIV tests yet. The disgracing and shameful assumption was that the person or their spouse was sexually promiscuous. Some of the deaths of friends and relatives stood out.
This friend was at his prime. I will call him George. He was married and had four children. He drank. George looked healthy and was not the sickly type. He fell ill on Monday. We, his close friends and fellow employees, visited him on Wednesday morning at his house. George was sitting up in his living room and in a surprisingly lively cheerful way, described his symptoms as fever. He had opted to go to a traditional healer in one of the nearby compounds. He explained that he was given an herb that made him purge to cleanse his stomach. He said he thought he was going to be all right. By Friday that week though, George was so sick that he was admitted at the University Teaching Hospital (UTH). I visited him in the hospital ward on that April sunny Saturday afternoon in 1988.
The hospital ward was relatively quiet, bright, and immaculately clean. I was shocked that this man who had looked very healthy only Wednesday that week was suddenly fighting for his life. George’s throat was almost swollen shut. He was making loud, hissing, desperate breathing noises. Something was swollen on his neck the size of a golf ball. Later I was to find out from his official death certificate that this was a swollen lymph node. I stood there by his hospital bed, stunned at the sudden turn of events. After a while, he opened his eyes and saw me. He hissed when he tried to mouth something but nothing came out. I gestured a finger to my lips that he shouldn’t say anything. George continued to breathe struggling at every breath making a loud crooking sound. I will remember that awful sound for the rest of my life. After a while, I took two steps back to leave. George desperately stretched and reached his hand out to me. I held his hand instinctively.
“D-o-n’t ….go……” he hoarsely hissed after breathing in very deeply making a big effort. I felt guilty for wanting to leave. He looked scared of being left alone. I stood there until his wife came back from an errand. She and I exchanged some brief words and I left.
The next day on Sunday at noon, as my family and I were eating lunch, word came that my friend had died the previous night. If there was anything for me that was later to epitomize the painful tragedy of some of the hysteria that might have been the botched HIV-AIDS “diagnosis” or some of the erroneous beliefs, it was this death.
Later, a clinic attendant who knew George the deceased friend said the friend may have had a normal bacteria infection. But George may have panicked fearing he had HIV-AIDS and delayed getting immediate and standard antibiotic treatment. He may have sought herbal treatment from a traditional healer (there is nothing wrong with this) out of desperation fearing and believing he had HIV-AIDS which had no cure in the modern hospital at the time.
My HIV/AIDS Scientific Paper
AIDS – A sign about HIV/AIDS prevention near the present day Manda Mall on the Great East Road in Lusaka in 1993.
In December 1989, I sadly left Zambia to work in the United States. I began to read more deeply and widely about the scientific controversy about HIV/AIDS. The more I read the history of pandemics, human anthropological biological evolutionary aspects of viruses and bacteria, about some of the myths and hysteria around HIV/AIDS, the more I got infuriated. What made me angry is not so much that many Zambians were dying of this new disease, but that too many might have been dying because of anxiety, possible misdiagnosis, and misinformation. I knew that if some of the information I knew was spread widely among Zambians, many lives would have been saved.
Since there was no modern drug yet that could cure the HIV virus that caused AIDS, I spent some time investigating and researching for some herbal possible treatment. It was very difficult at the time because the internet did not exist. I wrote a 30-page scientific paper that I thought could be published in African journals. The paper is titled: The Deadly Fallacy of the HIV-AIDS-Death Hypothesis: Exposing the Epidemic that Is Not. The journals rejected the well-written scientific paper that would have helped us educated elite Africans to understand the HIV/AIDS controversy better at the time. I sent this paper to so many friends. Twenty-four years later, I now understand very clearly why the paper was rejected for publication. Academic journals are very conservative. No editor or reviewers will endorse or publish something that is new and controversial that even they themselves do not understand. It is a huge risk that even probably I, if I had been as a reviewer and editor, would not have taken.
The Corona Virus in Zambia and the Global World.
After having lived through the HIV/AIDS pandemic that still exists in Zambia today and Global World, my advice to my fellow Zambians is to take the Corona Virus seriously. The 1908s did not have the internet, but myths, misinformation, and racist views about HIV/AIDS toward Africans from the Western world were still spread through the Western media at that time. This infuriated me but I was powerless to do anything. Today the internet is spreading myths and conspiracy theories about the Corona Virus. Some African leaders are already saying it is a hoax and a joke since there are very few cases so far in Zambia and elsewhere in Africa. This misinformation is dangerous. HIV/AIDS was and is spread primarily through sex. The Corona Virus is spread primarily from droplets from breathing. So all it takes is for one infected person to infect dozens of people in a crowded bus, restaurant, bar, Office, train, night club, family dwelling, especially singing in a packed church, wedding, shopping Mall, and packed market. Hundreds of people can be infected this way. Wear a mask, wash your hands, use sanitizer, wipe surfaces with bleach, wear gloves, and avoid crowded places. This is not a hoax. The Corona Virus is real.
Economics Association of Zambia President Dr. Lubinda Habazoka has proposed that if the International community really wants to help Africa, aid should come in form of support towards the construction of factories and also protection of mineral resources.
Dr. Habazooka says the international community should help end Illicit financial flows and exploitation of mineral resources and Africa won’t need aid.
He said giving handouts as opposed to job creation makes aid not sustainable for Africa.
Dr. Habazoka has noted that the African population needs jobs for sustainable livelihoods and not food stamps.
He said the World Bank, therefore, should shift its support from funding vague projects to funding construction of actual factories for value addition and import substitution in African countries.
“Jobs and not free money is what Africa wants”, said Dr. Habazoka who said Africa never had a marshal plan after independence.
Mines Minister RICHARD MUSUKWA has assured mine suppliers and contractors on the Copperbelt that they will not plead for business contracts from the mines anymore.
Mr. MUSUKWA says the government wants to see a big chunk of the business contracts being given to Zambian contractors.
He says the government wants to bring back the dignity of the Zambian contractors to the Copperbelt.
Mr. MUSUKWA was speaking in Kitwe when he met mine contractors and suppliers together with his counterparts from the Ministries of Finance BWALYA NG’ANDU and JOYCE SIMUKOKO.
And Association of Mine Suppliers and Contractors President AUGUSTINE MUBANGA complained that Zambian contractors have been sidelined by Mopani Copper Mines in preference to foreigners.
Mr. MUBANGA said the rates given to foreign contractors are way too high compared to those given to local contractors doing the same kind of work.
He appealed to the government to come up with measures that compel mining companies to give equal business opportunities to local contractors.
And Finance Minister BWALYA NG’ANDU said the government will soon come up with measures that will protect local contractors from participating in businesses in the mining companies.
Meanwhile, Copperbelt Minister JAPHEN MWAKALOMBE assured the contractors that no contract jobs will be lost.
And Labour Minister JOYCE SIMUKOKO is disappointed with the actions by Mopani to place the mine under care and maintenance without following the law.
The Christian Churches Monitoring Group is concerned with the continued intimidation and harassment of the media.
CCMG Steering Committee Chairperson Father Leophas Lungu says world over, a free press plays an important role in a democratic society, allowing the dissemination of information and a space for the exchange of opinions and ideas.
Fr Lungu says particularly in these challenging times of the COVID-19 pandemic, governments have a duty to uphold and protect the freedom of the press so that free information sharing is guaranteed.
He said CCMG thus notes with concern the recent happenings aimed at limiting press freedom, censoring and intimidating the media.
Fr Lungu has called on government to take concrete actions to investigate and hold individuals accountable for any violations.
“CCMG condemns in the strongest terms the actions of Mpika District Commissioner in instructing Mpika FM not to host a paid for programme featuring the United Party for National Development (UPND) President, on 13 May 2020, the unauthorized entry of suspected PF cadres into Muchinga Radio studios in Chinsali on 15 May 2020 to disrupt yet another paid for
programme featuring UPND President via telephone, and the attack on Isoka FM on May 18 during an interview with the UPND President”, he said.
“We are concerned that these acts of intimidation represent a restriction of press freedom,
which is a fundamental component of our democracy,” said Fr Lungu.
He said as the country is preparing for 2021 elections, the media must remain free as part of a democratic, transparent and credible electoral process.
Fr Lungu said as noted by the United Nations Secretary General in commemorating World Press Freedom Day earlier this month, meeting the challenges of the COVID-19 pandemic “depends on media freedom and independent reporting.
He said the challenges of COVID-19 should not be used to limit the freedom
of press, or the exchange of ideas and opinions.
Fr Lungu has since welcomed the statement by the Minister of Information and Broadcasting Services
noting that “it is a violation of the IBA Acg for any person to procure other people to storm a radio station and disrupt a broadcast programme or
order a broadcast station to broadcast in a certain manner.
He has urged the government to hold the individuals responsible accountable for their actions adding that Law
enforcement agencies should investigate the incidents in Chinsali and Isoka and ensure that the individuals involved are brought to book.
He has further called on government officials to refrain
from using their office to intimidate the media, and those who do be disciplined according to the appropriate procedures.
“Further, we call upon the Independent Broadcasting Authority to play its role in providing protection to the media through existing statutes to ensure that media
houses operate independently”, he added.
