International law firm Dentons has entered the Zambian market after finalising its combination with local firm Eric Silwamba, Jalasi and Linyama Legal Practitioners.

The operation in Lusaka will trade as Dentons Eric Silwamba Jalasi & Linyama and practices in a range of areas including commercial, corporate, banking and finance law, dispute resolution, real estate, tax, mining, employment and intellectual property.

Dentons is the world’s largest law firm by headcount.

The firm last year announced five similar combinations in Morocco, Uganda, Angola and Mozambique.

In a statement, Dentons’ global chief executive, Elliott Portnoy, said the firm intended to be a leader on the continent, adding: “Clients want access to leading talent in the markets where they do business and we can now connect clients to opportunities in Zambia and around the globe.”

Global chairman Joe Andrew expanded on that demand, saying “our clients are confronted with constant, accelerated change”, praising the new team as “talented and enterprising”.

Africa chief executive, Noor Kapdi, explained that the acquisition was part of the firm’s strategy to spread throughout the region through “combination firms who have the proven ability to offer sophisticated, high-quality legal services and business solutions in their home markets”.

Eric Silwamba himself said: “As part of Dentons, we can now offer our clients access to leading global talent and innovative business solutions to deliver high-quality service in Zambia and around the world.”

A private surveillance firm that exploits mobile network vulnerabilities to spy on calls, texts and location data is doing business with at least 25 governments around the globe, including Zambia’s a report released this week has concluded.

The findings from the University of Toronto’s Citizen Lab scrutinize the work of the company Circles, which is a sister firm of the Israeli software surveillance broker NSO Group.

Human rights activists frequently criticize NSO Group for selling its equipment to repressive regimes, a charge it rejects, even as it is the subject of a lawsuit from Facebook, which alleges that attackers used NSO Group tech to spy on thousands of WhatsApp users.

The countries Citizen Lab identified as “likely” customers of Circles: Australia, Belgium, Botswana, Chile, Denmark, Ecuador, El Salvador, Estonia, Equatorial Guinea, Guatemala, Honduras, Indonesia, Israel, Kenya, Malaysia, Mexico, Morocco, Nigeria, Peru, Serbia, Thailand, the United Arab Emirates, Vietnam, Zambia and Zimbabwe.

In Zambia, the researchers said they had identified what appears to be a single Circles system in Zambia, operated by an unknown agency.

In 2019, Zambia reportedly arrested a group of bloggers who ran an opposition news site with the aid of “a cyber-surveillance unit in the offices of Zambia’s telecommunications regulator,” which “pinpointed the bloggers’ locations” and was “in constant contact with police units deployed to arrest them.”

While Circles’ solution allows governments to track phones, it is not clear if Zambia’s Circles system was used in this case.

“The authoritarian profile of some of Circles’ apparent government clients is troubling, but not surprising,” the Citizen Lab team wrote.

“Over the past decade, the explosion of the global surveillance industry has fueled a massive transfer of spy technology to problematic regimes and security services.”

Circles, which according to Citizen Lab says it only sells to nation-states, exploits weaknesses in Signalling System No. 7, a set of protocols used by telecommunications carriers to route calls.

Attackers connected to an SS7 network can send commands to a phone, which allows them to track its location, as well as to intercept voice calls and two-factor authentication texts, Citizen Lab said, although it noted SS7 is mainly used in 2G and 3G networks today.

NSO Group did not return messages seeking comment on the Citizen Lab report.

PF Eastern province chairman Andrew Lubusa says youths across the country should not be hoodwinked by the UPND leader Hakainde Hichilema’s signing of the social contract ahead of next year’s general elections.

In a telephone interview with Smart Eagles, Mr.Lubusha said it is very difficult to trust Mr.Hichilema because despite accumulating so much wealth he has failed to come up with any tangible youth empowerment program using his own money.

He said President Edgar Lungu has shown an unwavering commitment to ensure that youths across the country are empowered through various schemes.

He said the PF and President Lungu have done enough to uplift the living standards of the people.

“Mr.Hichilema has not done any charitable work which he can point at despite accumulating so much wealth. He is even failing to take care of his own workers so it is very difficult to trust that such a person can even honor a simple youth social contract,” Mr. Lubusha said.

Mr.Lubusha adds that “Youths should rally behind President Edgar Lungu and the PF because they have seen the good things he is doing for the country despite the harsh global economic conditions.”

And Mr. Lubusha said it is wishful thinking for the opposition to claim that they have made inroads in Eastern province because all their structures are non-existent.

” People have confidence in the leadership of PF and President Lungu and we are increasing the membership. We are stronger than we were and the opposition is getting weaker and we hope to increase the margins come next year,” Mr.Lubusha said.

Meanwhile, Mr.Lubusha said the ruling party in the Eastern province is happy with the turnout of people registering as voters.

“I am happy that people here are responding well as regards to the voter registration and the fact that people are able to endure long hours on the queue gives us hope that about 95 percent of the people will register as voters here in Eastern province and those are sure votes for President Edgar Chagwa Lungu, ” He adds.

General Education Permanent Secretary for Technical Services, Jobbicks Kalumba says the country has not recorded any incidences of malpractice since examinations started for grades Seven and Nine.

Dr. Kalumba is confident that the trend will continue even for grade Twelve examinations starting next week so that there is no compromise in education standards in the country.

He told ZNBC News in an interview that the government and its key stakeholders have put in place measures to ensure all pupils write examinations in a conducive environment.

AND Dr. Kalumba noted that the year 2020 has been difficult for examination classes and teachers because of the interruptions of classes due to Covid-19.

He however stated that even if there have been cases of Covid-19 among pupils in schools, there is no record of death.

Meanwhile, National Action for Quality Education in Zambia Executive Director Aaron Chansa said his organisation is impressed that there has not been any case of malpractice.

Mr. Chansa said the sector needs to continue building on the clean record scored in the last two years.

Zambia’s Minister of Health and U.S. Embassy Chargé d’Affaires, a.i David Young launched four new Gender-Based Violence (GBV) One-Stop Centers in four districts – Kitwe, Mufulira, Sesheke and Solwezi — yesterday in a virtual event hosted at the Ministry of Health.

These One-Stop Centers provide survivors of GBV with care such as psychosocial support, referrals to shelters, legal services, HIV testing, HIV post-exposure prophylaxis, and linkage to HIV treatment.

Speaking during yesterday’s event, Chargé d’Affaires Young said, “Together with the Zambian government, we have established 28 fully operational One-Stop Centers for comprehensive GBV response and care. We have trained magistrates, police officers, and doctors to improve access to justice for child survivors. We have challenged GBV norms through the widespread implementation of evidence-based programs, and together, we have trained close to 100 chiefs and 340 headmen, induna, and traditional leaders to identify and respond to GBV in their own communities.”

During the event, the Ministry of Health launched new standard operating procedures and Health Management Information System indicators that will help better track and manage GBV cases.

Honorable Minister of Health Dr. Chitalu Chilufya, speaking during the event said, “The documents launched today are a great milestone in this country as GBV services will be tracked at each health facility with data that will inform the nation in terms of policy direction and quality post- gender-based violence service provision due to this standardization process and product we have today.”

Dr. Chilufya said he welcomed the support offered by the American people through the USAID Stop GBV project, which is funded by the U.S. President’s Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief (PEPFAR) through USAID.

“Your support in developing these standard operating procedures are targeted at complementing Government’s work in creating an enabling environment for gender-based violence prevention, better service delivery through quality post-gender-based violence care for survivors, and better accessibility to justice by the citizens particularly survivors of gender-based violence,” he said.

The USAID Stop GBV program is a five-year, $17 million program implemented by the Zambia Center for Communication Programmes. The program uses community mobilization programs to promote changes in gender norms, strengthen the capacity of local systems to respond to GBV, and support one-stop GBV response care. The goal of the project is to strengthen and expand opportunities for all Zambians, regardless of age or gender, to live lives free of GBV and enjoy healthy, gender-equitable relationships.