By Kalima Nkonde.
Story Highlights
- I am concerned about how our economy will survive long term or how individual households will survive. I would rather we continue partial or selective lockdown while seriously monitoring what is happening elsewhere ( Chibamba Kanyama, former IMF Communications Advisor and CEO of ZNBC, a journalist/Broadcaster turned economic commentator, April 1, 2020 in News diggers)
- Africa could see anywhere between 300,000 and 3.3 million deaths due to coronavirus. Total infections could spiral out of control and reach 1.2 billion (UN Economic Commission for Africa (UNECA) April 17, 2020 report)
- If it is true that the novel coronavirus would kill millions without quarantines, then the extraordinary measures are surely justified, but there’s little evidence to confirm that premise. Our Stanford Study calculated the mortality rate of COVID-19 as between 0.12% and 0.2% when one considers the true number of infections (Assistant Professor Eran Bendavid, The head of Covid-19 study at Stanford University in the US )
- A lack of adequate testing means many of those who have been infected with the coronavirus will not appear in official statistics. This suggests that many estimates for its mortality rate are much too high. When it comes to COVID-19, counting has been a challenge. Projections are based on models, and this uncertainty breeds fear. ( World Economic Forum Article)
- Coronavirus cases in Africa could surge from just thousands now to 10 million within three to six months, according to provisional modeling, But it was a tentative projection that could change. (Michel Yao, head of emergency operations for WHO Africa)
- No-one is modeling the “collateral damage” of the lockdown and the impact of the economic meltdown on disease and death. Poverty can make things worse. It increases the risk of contracting TB in high-density settings like informal settings and fuels HIV infections (Prof Shabhir Madhi, the former head of South Africa National Institute for Communicable Diseases (NICD)
- As a country, we have bought into the international rhetoric which is a poor fit for our local circumstances.Covid-19 is here to stay, people will die but many more will live (SA Doctors, University of Cape Town class of 1993, appealing to President Ramaphosa to stop the “ hard” lockdown)
We are now in the month of May, 2020 and most African countries are under total lockdown for the past few weeks. There are many African countries like South Africa who implemented and adopted copycat lockdowns measures that are even harsher than those in the developed countries. Lockdowns have effectively stopped people from moving and interacting. Zambia is one of the few countries that has not followed the cut and paste formula of total lockdown but rather implements a partial lockdown, which I personally support and my article lays down the rationale behind my thinking and position.
The Lungu administration in Zambia has taken a very cautious and measured approach to Covid- 19 in terms of lockdowns. They have resisted a total lockdown of the country which decision has been widely criticized by all and sundry including the Opposition. It is only Chibamba Kanyama, one of Zambia’s rational and objective thinkers cautioned about the danger of total lockdown a month ago. I have keenly followed the Covid-19 health and economic debate locally and internationally. As a rational and non-group thinker, there are things that are not making sense and not adding up in our African context with regard to how we should react to Covid-19. This article may be controversial given the standard and accepted view by the majority on how we should fight Covid-19. The intention is to give an alternative viewpoint. The one size fits all of the lockdowns needs to be challenged and I am doing just that.
I have analysed the facts that are publicly available. They do not seem to be making sense in terms of supporting the total lockdowns by African countries. The currently accepted panacea to containing Covid-19 is the imposition of total lockdown of the economy. This has neither been justified nor supported by facts on the ground.
It seems to me that most African countries went into lockdowns in a copycat fashion and based their decisions on the projections from Western countries and the WHO. They cannot be blamed, in a way, because there has been limited data. However, it was important that they should have adjusted those projections with local context. There was need for additional quantitative and qualitative local analysis before lockdowns were implemented. In order to argue my case that total local down may not have been the best course of action by Africans, I will take Zambia’s specific situation and focus on the facts and not fears.
The following are the facts that Zambia faces. The first one is that according to the South China Morning Post newspaper, Zambia has one of the highest if not the highest population of Chinese. The paper estimates that there are between 80,000 to 100,000 Chinese living Zambia. In addition, there are a lot of Zambians that go to and from China. In March 2020, the WHO listed Zambia among the 13 African countries at the highest risk for Covid-19 due to Chinese connections. The rational conclusion is that given the human traffic between Zambia and China, Covid-19 was brought to Zambia as early as January 2020 by traders, students, investors, even by Chinese criminals, etc. It means Covid-19 has been and is among the Zambia population. The tests being carried out ex-post will just prove, what anyone with common sense should have known in our circumstances. This is not rocket science.
The second established fact is that Covid-19 is a highly contagious disease and it spreads fast. It follows from the above that, having been imported into Zambia from China and other places, it can rationally be assumed that it must have spread to a large part of the Zambian population. The question is: why are there such few cases? The simple answer is that there is limited testing. The wife of Microsoft Founder, Belinda Gates alluded to this fact while speaking to CNN.
“Part of the reasons you are seeing the case numbers still do not look very bad is because they don’t have access to many tests”, She said.
The third fact is that Covid-19 is a fast killer. It kills within two weeks after one being infected. The rational question to ask is: has spread to a significant part of the Zambian population, as alluded to above, why is it that it has not resulted in high death rates. The answer lies in the universally accepted fact that the majority of Covid-19 patients – data from China showed that 80% of Covid-19 cases are either asymptomatic or have the mild disease – are asymptomatic which means that patients do not even know that they are sick and they recover from it, unknowingly. There is also some recent scientific evidence to support the low mortality rates. It has been found by the recent study by Stanford University in the USA that, although Covid-19 can spread extensively to a large population, it is far much less fatal and therefore results in fewer deaths. The disease has a less mortality rate than the original projections showed. This is why Zambia has low mortality rates despite that disease has been here for some time.
Zambia and Africa would have been already experiencing a conspicuous rise in deaths from Covid-19 by now if the disease’s mortality was as per projections that were made by the West. The common-sense conclusion is that the models for calculating death rates were not very accurate especially that most modeling was extrapolating death rates using the number of deaths over the number of those who tested positive instead of the total number of those infected, which is currently unknown. The numerator was fine but not the denominator.
The fifth factor is the demographic factor – composition of the dead from Covid-19, and those admitted in ICU- in developed countries. It has been established and very accurately that the disease has been killing those mostly in the range of 50-90 years and those with pre-existing medical conditions. There was a recent report in the UK that shows that about 80% of COvid-19 patients in ICU are above 50 years old. The demographic composition of Africa and Zambia is such that it has the youngest population in the World. Whereas in Europe those above 50 years are about 40%, for sub-Saharan Africa it is only 10% which means 90% of the population is below 50years old. It follows from sheer demographic composition that the health impact of COVID-19 in Africa is likely to be lower than in China, USA, or European countries. This is a rational explanation of the lower infection and death rates in Zambia and Africa.
On the basis of the above points and some of the latest studies confirming that Covid-19 is not as fatal as originally made out to be in some projections, it is clearly rational that total lockdowns are not appropriate in Zambia and Africa’s case. The facts on the ground and our particular circumstances do not support such measures as the consequences are dire.
As at present, in the Zambian and African context, the only factor that we do not know is the impact of the temperature on the virus. It is not yet proven whether the virus is affected by temperature. The impact of the winter weather which is due this month and next month is what we should watch for. We are lucky our winters are not severe and are not long.
Why lockdowns more harmful and impractical
The lockdown solution, given our social and economic situation in African, is likely to cause more harm than good. It is also ineffective and difficult to implement. In Africa, this solution can be more harmful than good because, first and foremost, the majority of our people – about 90% – are in the informal sector and they live from hand to mouth. These people’s economic existence is depended on their daily interaction with the customer flow face-to-face; a lockdown to enforce social distancing effectively stops all revenue-generating activities for them. Lockdowns consign them to starvation. It can also pose a serious security risk as the government cannot afford to feed them. The slowdown in economic activity means that tax revenue for the government will decline, and with no reserves and borrowing capacity, total lockdown is like committing economic suicide in the case of many African countries like Zambia.
Zambia has no capacity to provide safety measures to those that will be affected by total lockdown ranging from street vendors, micro-businesses and self-employed and big employers. Wholesale economic stimulus packages are just totally inappropriate in our economic circumstances. Zambia’s economy is currently struggling with the burden of excessive debt and low economic activity and total lockdown will be the final nail in the Zambian economic coffin and can lead to its total collapse of economy.
From the social point of view, lockdowns are generally impractical and can be ineffective to implement. The majority of the population in the urban population lives in slums. As Belinda Gates pointed out, the majority of Africans in urban areas live in crowded places.
“I have been in townships all over Africa and slums. When we talk about physical distancing and hand-washing, if you live in slums you can’t physically distance, you have to go out and get your meals. You don’t have clean water to wash your hands.” Melinda Gates said on Africa.
What is the alternative to lockdowns?
One may ask, having condemned the appropriateness of lockdowns, what is the alternative? Zambia should take common-sense measures and wait out the virus. The developed world is badly affected by the virus and so the vaccine and treatment are likely to come sooner than for any other virus – at least within the next 18 months.
In the meantime, there are common-sense measures that should be focused on based on what we know about Covid-19. The known facts are as follows: it affects the elderly, those with pre-existing health conditions, it is contagious, health workers are at higher risk and the majority of those infected are asymptomatic. On the basis of this, the focus should, therefore, be on helping those at the highest risk.
The public health experts will have to figure out what measures to take but from the layman’s point of view, I would recommend the following measures: find a way of safeguarding elderly by social distancing measures, stock up ARVs in health centers to cover HIV/AIDs, TB patients and encourage them to take their drugs, purchase physical protection equipment for public health workers in bulk, improve public health hygiene standards and ensure water is always available in hospitals, move funds from the Defence budget to Health and Water and Sanitation sectors, implement measures regarding public transport including avoiding overloading and encouraging wearing masks, prohibit public spitting.
The government should also ensure that measures that they have announced such as the washing of hands, wearing masks in public places, avoiding overcrowding, etc are encouraged. The funds that are being donated should be directed to sanitation measures such as the purchase of bins, installation of more standpipes in high-density areas for running water, purchase of physical protective equipment (PPEs) for healthcare workers, purchase of ventilators, permanent investment in increasing ICU units in our hospitals.
We should avoid instilling phobia which is what the current Ministerial announcements at the daily briefing are doing. The updates are creating the impression that the disease is spreading fast and growing, which is a fallacy. You hear people debating in streets by saying: “ Korona elyo yashupa nomba, naifika ku Chelstone , naku copperbelt” (Covid-19 is now on the increase, it has reached Chelston and Copperbelt). I find the Ministry of Health press conferences by Dr.Chitalu and Ms.Dorah Siliya to be useless apart from being a PR stunt and apart from building the brand of the presenters, as the disease is already here.
The Press conferences should be stopped or alternatively their frequency should be reduced. The focus should be on public education about the disease and how members of the public can avoid contracting it. In addition, this is an opportunity to change the Zambians mindset by embarking on aggressive enforcement of sanitation and hygiene bye laws of councils in the name of Covid-19. Our people’s propensity to litter and their tolerance of dirt is mind-boggling
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Conclusion
The current narrative, especially in the Western press, seems to suggest that Covid-19 is somewhere in some oceans or in the air and circulating first to the other parts of the World, and then it will hit Africa last. This implies that the virus is a rational creature when it was in fact spread by international travel and most countries including African countries closed the stable when the horse had already bolted. I have debunked this implied theory of COVID- 19 coming to Africa last in this article. The reality is that COVID-19 is already here and will be here for years to come. As Africans, we are a resilient race. We coped with so many challenges and diseases like Cholera, Ebola, TB, Malaria, HIV/AIDs, etc and so we can easily cope with COVID-19. The disclosures of the so-called “new” cases from the testing are just inspiring phobia in the population.COVID-19 is with us already and has possibly infected hundreds of thousands of us but we are not aware of it.
The policymakers in Africa should from today know that COVID-19 is here and they need to make difficult decisions about easing or stopping lockdowns as the economic consequences of continued lockdowns far outweigh the health impact of Covid-19.
As for President Edgar Lungu, his decision for measured the lockdown may turn out to be one of the best decisions he has ever made during his Presidency and one wishes he had exercised the same precaution during the foreign debt contraction as Zambia would have avoided the economic mess we are in at the moment. I personally warned him about the consequences of excessive debt which we are now facing but he never listened.
Kudos, Mr. President for having been rational, listened to some sound advice and taken a decision that has been in the general interest of the majority of Zambians. The motivation for your decision is neither here nor there because the bottom line is, Zambia and Zambians are the winners. I would now want to advise you by appealing to you to be innovative in your thinking and engage some of the smart minds you administration and from outside, who are able to see the many opportunities, that Covid -19 presents to Zambia. There are many economic, social, political and health opportunities that the pandemic provides to Zambia. All we need are thinkers.
The writer is a Chartered Accountant by profession. He is an independent, non- partisan finance and economic commentator/analyst and a genuine Patriot.
Hogwash analysis wrong on many fronts. Wait till this Covid 19 hits crowded Kanyama ,Chilbolya , Misisi slums and you’ll see your model of no total lockdowns wither away.
President J0n@thAn is well & truly out of his depth managing a Nation.
All his Excellency J0na Mukula dreams of is campaigning & holding on to power by any means necessary, hence J0na won’t sack Corrupt officials like Kilufya & Kit0tela & despite the scandal of using public transport to ferry biohazardous specimens, when P.F Cadres, dancers & Pr02t!tutes are flown all over at Government Taxpayers expense. Sums it all up!
THEN THESE SAME 1D!0TS DREAM OF NUCLEAR POWER, believing it’s the same as operating a Kachasu distillery?
Only in J0n@s Zed!
Aaaahhhh….refreshing like a hot cup of coffee in the morning. Thank you, Kalima. I love the last part and will re-emphasise it: “…All we need are thinkers….”
@Mzambia,I normally do not comment on my articles but when someone trashes my well researched article on an issue that is a matter of life and death, without giving his argument,I have to answer back.The problem with you Zambians is that you do not give your own analysis and are just full of verbal diarrhea. My argument is that we should choose strategies that are informed by our own circumstances. It is clear that you are not widely read to know what is happening and to know the latest development but your rather rely on TV. I challenge you to write your own analysis and discount all my arguments otherwise SHUT UP
The 2015/6 political power struggle is over. ECL must get rid of the stone throwers and deploy competent people in critical positions. Forget about changing GRZ in 2021, upnd is not an alternative. Let’s develop this country.
Mr Kalima, very great article, great read and worth my morning read. I had to come out of blogging retirement to just appreciate your rational contribution to online media. We seem to be subjected to so much junk, lately
I think I agree, there is just so much copying from the West where the demographics and even the underlining disease profiles are totally different. Flu has never been a problem to African and it has always been a problems to countries in the West. Why should we be using their methods to deal with our problems. There are diseases killing many Zambians today poverty malaria , you name them, that is were effort needs to be directed to ..not this covid that has only killed three. African always recover from flus without going to doctors ..and this covid is just one such…
..and this covid is just one such. Lets not wreck our economy using copy and paste methods. the UK , EU , and US can print more and inject into their economy without consequences. We can copy and paste that.
The US will print more dollars and pump it into their economy and recover, EU has already done the same , UK will do the same and if Africans do it it will be called hyper inflation and our economies will go the Zimbabwe way and they will start pointing figures at us for mismanaging our economies, yet the system is just setup in their favour
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All these stimulus packages you hear in the West is just printing more paper money and injecting it in their economies. We don’t have that luxury in Africa. Lets be sensible
Africans we just copy and imitate the west…remember we had deadly Ebola and all African countries were open and it was contained….now just watching bazungu and kukopela especially South Africa…how do you lock down shanties like Alexandra,Thembisa,Voslolous,Katlehong etc…just because the west is doing it…it doesn’t mean its practical for African countries…in Places like Alexandra in Joberg they dont even have toilets and people live in metal and cardboard shacks….even without lockdown these people have nothing to eat now imagine confining them in a shack for 30 days with no water or food
When Anonymous said copying bazungu was not the Solution most of LT bloggers down voted my comments but now you see the damage being caused….lockdowns in poor countries are more harmful than covid itself……Livingstone is dead….Victoria falls town Zimbabwe is a ghost town……stop copying the west…..when chorela which is more deadly than COVID you dont even hear press conference or lockdown…now even copying bazungu with costly press conferences every day….Ministers glued to CNN following what USA is doing but unfortunately no stimulus checks for African countries…they’ve eaten all the donor funds…chilufya and Bandit President Lungu
Of course the president was right as I have been saying and advising all along. The only ones who don’t agree are the ignorant angry diasporans and the childish party upnd. However we don’t take them seriously as they lack understanding of governance. After all their demigod leader has never held public office,not even ward councillor. Which means that tasila is more experienced than him and will probably be president and he will never be. We are doing well in fighting covid and we hope the west learn from us. Kz
Africans lets fight battles the African way stop copying the west…starving your own people and harassing them…even in the USA people are very skeptical about this so called COVID….too much lies surrounding this Corona….people are dying of other illnesses and they are linking it to corona and Africans being so gullible they just follow blindly
A very good and well thought article indeed. Only people who are full of political mischargement and biaseness will deliberately not see sense out of this article.
This is what Africa needs. People who can think and challenge things. Well done kalima.
Well done Kalima! Great analysis in this article. I have been sharing similar thoughts and been debating with people over this matter for the past 1 month or so. Its easier for people that support UPND to rush ati lockdown cause when things go bad they will be the first to say this country is ungovernable etc cause i dont think they barely understand how governance operates. We do not need to copy & paste what the west are doing.NO!
Great article. I totally agree with you Kalima.
Think Zambians! Three questionable deaths and you destroy your economy! This is what fear of the unknown does.
Ichinfine!
Well argued ba kalima. I am actually writing a journal article whose argument very much sounds like yours.
Exellent article….. @Mzambia wa Zamani YOU ARE PATHETIC!! Give us your detailed analysis….KZ IMPOSTOR, learn to comment in a balanced way..This article is not talking about DISPORANS and HH ….YOU ARE ALSO PATHETIC… Otherwise Mr Kalima , you are a GENIUS!!!
Hi Kalima!
Firstly your article is kind too long to deal with in just a single reply.
Yes a total lockdown can be harmful to Zambia, but a collapsed health system is far worse than a lockdown.
The alternatives solutions to a lockdown you’ve written are just impractical. I don’t know how you expect GRZ to get all those things done when it’s donations we’ve been totally dependent on in the fight against COVID-19.
its quiet interesting to note that in certain quarters of our society people have misinterpreted the all concept of what a lockdown is, yes indeed it is derived from the prison system, but in situations when you are faced with an impending risk to your way of life an emergency lockdown is an avoidable.
Emergency lockdowns are implemented when there is imminent threat to the lives or risk of injury to humans, quiet frankly in such situations you can t choose death or the economy, either way both will be affected, question you should ask is can kalima point out the economic gains we have achieved as result of not locking down the borders to unnecessary movements compared to countries that lockdown? and from my little understanding and knowledge europeans and americans very reluctant and…
This article makes a lot of sense and confirms some of my long harboured doubts about the whole issue of Covid-19. I have much to add to the author’s analysis but for now, I prefer to listen.. and continue observing.
knowledge europeans and americans very reluctant and decided to lockdown their countries when the virus had already reached in thousands, for the african continent some countries lockdowned even before they had any case and had tested any individuals in their countries, maybe this was just one little act that has led to low numbers, the best we could do is to leave such theories to qualified medical scientists to prove or discount this hypothesis or your hypothesis.
Lockdowns in Africa have been implemented blindly without careful analysis and scientific evidence of the impact of the disease in Africa. Only three deaths in Zambia, and even then , not really sure if the cause of these deaths was really Covid-19, or other causes. Malaria kills 4 people everyday in Zambia. Even more worse 47 people die daily in Zambia due to TB, which is itself a an infectious disease, and we never seriously sacrificed the economy to fight these diseases.
Look at how South Korea and Hong Kong managed to control the covid-19 outbreak with a strict lockdown. They learnt very well from the SARS outbreak years ago.
The key to controlling a virus outbreak is simple:” LOCKDOWN EARLY AND STRICTLY”. Those who act late will end up like Italy, Iran, Russia , Brazil etc.
Zambia had a two months warning before the first “avoidable” imported case of covid-19 came to Zambia.But ECL and the PF were busy with there state sponsored gassing and trying to pin the violence on the opposition.
Secondly you need to have adequate import cover and emergency funding for any national catastrophe; Hunger,drought, war etc.But most of the money goes to repaying the debt to China.These resources are needed to support businesses and people during the lockdown…
Lastly, declare an emergency as soon as possible so that international aid can flow in . Pretending that you can handle the situation when you are virtually bankrupt wont help the people in need.
I hope the numbers which are being given about covid 19 in Zambia are correct and accurate because this disease is a disaster when it hits if USA,UK,Spain and Italy can cry foul who is Zambia.
This is just hunger pangs hitting Kalima Nkonder that is why the article has to include the “key words” Edgar, Lungu, is, right”. This is to gain the attention of someone so that he could eat from the PF Dining Table.
Has theere been any Flu that has hosptitalised many people in Hospital beforee COVID-19? The US and Europe had a window of opportunity whenthe epidemic was still in China.
Zambia, surely has a youthful Population. But ask why the population is younger. Over 50% is under 20 years old. That means peeople are dying younger. That points to a large % of the population having underlying condions. So much diabetes in people in their late 30% and early 40s as well as Hypertention. In the many overcrowded Shanties, many people aare mulnourished, have little to no access to…
Medical care.
Here is the thing, COVID-19 in general is mild and even ASYMPTOMATIC in most people who may still spread the virus. A small percetange will require hospitalisation. So as long as thee numbers are kept low, Health Systems will copee and keep even those who fall seriously ill, alive. Get it to spread to many thousands, the proportion of those who fall seriously ill INCREASES as well such that even countries with stellar Health Care Systems are stretched beyond their limits. Now that is not a situiation you want in Zambia. This virus can spread faster if he it get many victims from the Shanties or any overcrowded areas.
Of course restrictions are harmful to our Economy. Restrictions can be eased so people can work WHILE SAFELY minimising person to person contact. But…
taking it as nothing buit copmmon Flu and acting as if it is not dangerous may get us into deep trouble.
They are not saying the Virus is a rational being choosing to first hit Europe and then Africa. Europe and America are much more connected so they were likely to get the virus much early. Europe and North American countries and cities are serously connected making it for the virus to spread quickly. Africa is far and countries and cities have relatively poor connecting among them, So we would not expect the virus to hit Zambia first before it hits Belgium.
If COVID-19 is left to take root and infexct a large perceantage of the population, the resulting medical emmergency may be too big for us to handle. So it is better to still take it seriously but look at a safer way to open up the economy so peiople can work WHERE safely while observing the numbers of infection.
I would say:
1. No lockdown
2. Protect only those who would normally be at risk from the flu – the very old, newborns, people with serious pre-existing conditions.
3. It’s a flu. Catch it. Get over it. (80% of people *do so without symptoms* and form the basis of ‘herd immunity’). There’s your immunity.
4. Say no to vaccines. There is a sterilizing agent in them. Also, by the time anyone has a vaccine for this corona virus, it will have disappeared. They do not have an effective vaccine for the flu anyway, for that reason.
Get exposed to the virus. It’s nature’s vaccine. And no additives like monkey viruses (SV40, HIV, Ebola, Zika), irritants like aluminum, or preservatives like mercury and formaldehyde. And whatever else Bill Gates put in there that makes women sterile.
Also, there is no such thing as ‘re-infection’ – Dr. Maria van Kerkhove, WHO Tech Lead:
*****
Once you’ve had it, you’re immune. And you’re likely to not even get sick. Check out these interviews of prominant professors and researchers at Rockefeller University and Stanford.
From April 7th 2020
Professor dr. Knut Wittkowski, formerly lead biostatistician at Rockefeller University.
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Prof. dr. Knut Wittkowski, on what stops every flu epidemic – people going outdoors and getting in the sun.
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According to the CDC, flu season in the USA is over – and ended at exactly the same time when it does every single year. And there were no lockdowns to…
According to the CDC, flu season in the USA is over – and ended at exactly the same time when it does every single year. And there were no lockdowns to credit for the end of flu season, in previous years.
See the ILINet graph.
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North Carolina nurse, on the effect of the lockdown hospitals in Raleigh, NC. *****
The lockdown is the real danger, because it does economic damage to SMEs and government budgets.
Don’t treat SARS as your cousin.
This invisible microbio is not funny at all. It does not care or choose whether you’re balck, yellow, white, red or magenta; Haitian, Croatian, American or Zambian; rich, poor, middle incomer or a hand to mouther; hungry, full or moderate.
Read and Listen to international news. The world is on Lock down already.
But why closing the schools for the young ones ?
#32 William Lungu it’s really unnecessary if you ask me. Meanwhile, Denmark reopened weeks ago, Sweden never even closed schools and the rest of Europe is gradually reopenning while scientists are coming to the conclusion that children are not exceptionally transmitters or at higher risk of getting infected.
@Independent I can only say “Stockholm Syndrome” do some research and think outside the box if you can.
Australia and New Zealand didn’t have a full on lock down and they are 2nd and 3 rd best in the world for low deaths and cases. NZ has 10 deaths and Australia under 100. they just closed thier borders, closed food outlets restraunts and churchs,enforsed social distancing and work from home. told the aboridgees to go into the bush for safety and they even have over 500,000 chinaman in the country. so if they can do it so can Zambia.
It Is Increasingly Becoming Risk For Us To Sell Edgar Lungu As Our Candidate, Reveals Kampyongo
Defense minister Davies Chama with his Home Affairs counterpart Stephen Kampyongo during a joint press briefing in Lusaka .Home Affairs Minister Stephen Kampyongo on Friday evening was heard telling a few of his cabinet colleagues that it was increasingly becoming difficult for the PF to sell President Edgar Lungu as the candidate for 2021.
Kampyongo was on Friday evening having some beers with Justice Minister Given Lubinda, Livestock Minister Kampamba Mulenga, Higher Education Minister Nkandu Luo, Health Minister Chitalu Chilufya and three other unidentified officials at Roan and Sable in Kabulonga area.
Unknown to the group, there was someone among them who was sent by Lungu’s Special…