Zambia’s Ambassador to Russia Shadreck Luwita has revealed that President Edgar Lungu is expected to make an official state visit to Russia in 2019.

The state visit is at the invitation of Russian President Vladimir Putin and will happen as soon as all the details of his trip are harmonized.

Ambassador Luwita said this in an interview with Russian news agency Sputnik following the Southern African Development Community (SADC) Investment Forum in Moscow.

“[The visit’s organization] is now incumbent upon the technocrats in the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Russian Federation as well as the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Zambia, [they] started working on the modalities to concretize when President Lungu can undertake the state visit to Russia.”

“We are working flat out to ensure that this is realized as quickly as possible. The year is already almost ending so definitely we anticipate that in the course of next year, as early as possible, this state visit should be realized,” he stated.

The diplomat added that Russia was a great friend of Africa, adding that the countries of the continent were interested in developing relations for the benefit of their economies.

“There is enormous potential in this country in terms of technology, there are enormous resources, which, once partnered with the African continent in various economic sectors, will transform into the development of the African continent so that Africa is no longer dependent on aid,” Ambassador Luwita indicated.

The Zambian envoy to Russia has since welcomed the signing of the memorandum of understanding between the SADC and Russia that took place within the forum’s framework on Tuesday.

“This has come at an optimal time… It is a panacea to opening up investment opportunities in the SADC countries. As you are aware, it has been the considered view of the heads of state of the African continent on the need of the Russian government, on one hand, and indeed of Russian investors… to transform these excellent political relations into economic benefits, which are going to benefit both the African people as well as the Russian people,” Ambassador Luwita said.

In July, Mr. Putin invited President Lungu to visit Russia during a bilateral meeting that was held on the sidelines of the BRICS Summit in South Africa.

Speaker of the National Assembly Dr Patrick Matibini has directed Information and Broadcasting Minister Dora Siliya to render a ministerial statement on Tuesday November 6, 2018 outlining the editorial policy Times of Zambia Newspaper on the use of languages other than English.

Dr Matibini said this during his ruling which he delivered in Parliament following a point of order which was raised by Leader of the opposition and Member of Parliament for Monze Central on the Chinese article which was published by the Times of Zambia on October 9, this year.

Mr Jack Mwiimbu in his point of Order wanted to know why the publication has been sidelining Zambians by publishing the Chinese language and not any other Zambian language.

And pursuant to Article 23 of the Zambian Constitution the leader of the opposition indicated that it was, trite law that by virtue of this constitution government should not be discriminating anyone who is Zambian or a Resident in Zambia.

He was making reference to a copy of a Times of Zambia Newspaper, alleging that the publication has been discriminating Zambians and against the majority tribes in Zambia by publishing an article under the headline “SADC moods DRC peace whose article is in Chinese language when there has been no such article in the Zambian local languages.

Mr Mwiimbu wondered why government was finding it proper and prudent in its own wisdom to start interpreting articles that are appearing in the newspapers in Chinese.

Mr Mwiimbu asked the Speaker Dr Matibini to make a ruling on whether Information and Broadcasting Minister Dora Siliya was in order to remain quiet and not inform the house and the nation that Chinese is now an official language in Zambia.

In his ruling, the speaker also directed her to issue a statement on the alleged discrimination against the people of Zambia by the Newspaper publication of an article in Chinese other than any local languages contrary to Article 23 of the Constitution.

The Speaker has ruled that under this Article any person shall not be treated in any discriminatory manner by any person acting by virtue of any written words or in the performance of any public office or authority.

“Article 28 of the constitution provides that any person who alleges that he has or he is or likely to be contravened in any other action with respect to the same matter which is lawfully available, that person may seek redress of the High Court”, he ruled.

The Speaker stated that pursuant to the doctrine of the separation of power, the National Assembly cannot intervene in matters falling under the jurisdiction of the judiciary branch of government.

In relation to the issue of whether Chinese has become one of the official language in Zambia, the Speaker in his ruling indicated that under Article 258 of the Zambian Constitution English is the official language in Zambia.

The Governance, Elections, Advocacy, Research Services Initiative is disturbed with reports of Electoral Blackmail in Mangango and other areas where by-elections are taking place.

GEARS Initiative Executive Director McDonald Chipenzi said says his Organisation is in receipt of reports of electoral blackmail through accelerated implementation of government projects in areas holding district, constituency and ward bye elections cross the country.

Mr. Chipenzi said GEARS Initiative is in receipt of reports that government has engaged in a very high gear installing satellite village TVs project in Mangango constituency ahead of the parliamentary bye-election there.

He said the move is a clear violation of the law and code and this practice is pure electoral irregularities and electoral blackmail which is outlawed by the electoral process Act and code of Conduct.

Mr. Chipenzi said the satellite village TVs installation project, though good as it may be for information sharing, education and entertainment for the rural populace like the people of Mangango, Lupososhi and others, rolling it out during an election is against the rules of the electoral game.

He has since demanded that the installation of satellite village TVs in Mangango Constituency and other areas holding bye-elections must be halted until the bye- elections are over which is just in less than a month.

Mr. Chipenzi emphasised that being a rural constituencies, districts and wards where these elections are held, installing a satellite TV in each village/ward will be construed to be a way of buying off the electorate ahead of the bye-election to vote for the party in government, thereby creating uneven electoral playfield.

Meanwhile, Mr. Chipenzi said GEARS Initiative is also in receipt of reports that District Commissioners in Mangango and other areas where bye elections are due are involved in partisan political and electoral campaigns when they are civil servants who are not allowed by law to engage in such activities.

He said this practice of tolerating DCs to engage in partisan electoral campaigns by permanent secretaries of respective provinces is not only uncalled for but must be stopped forthwith as it is outlawed by the Constitution and Electoral Process Act.

Mr. Chipenzi said the involvement of the DCs and the installation of satellite Village TV in Mangango and other areas currently in electoral campaigns, if not arrested, are likely to undermine the peace currently prevailing in these districts, constituencies and wards as the day of the bye-election approaches.

He has appealed to the Electoral Commission of Zambia to investigate these allegations or reports and if found true, invoke its powers provided for under the Act and Code by censuring those involved in undermining the credibility of the electoral process in Mangango and other areas holding elections and ECZ’s work.

And Mr. Chipenzi said the Organisation is also in receipt of a report regarding the “roughing” up of former Manyinga PF MP Mr. Danny Chingimbu by residents ahead of a ward bye-election in that district.

He said Mr. Chingimbu is said to have visited the ward during his campaigns for the PF adopted candidate promising them improved life, which they felt insulted because he allegedly failed to improve and provide the services when he served as MP.

54 years after gaining Political Independence from the colonial powers, the Zambian education sector is moving from bad to worse. This situation unfortunately, is consistent with most arms of the public sector in Zambia. A good number of people genuinely concerned with Zambia’s social, health and economic landscape would agree with me that a lot of important sectors that should be part and parcel of the mechanism to Zambia’s development are malfunctioning and need a serious overhaul.

The recent degrading of all Zambian University qualifications to that of College level by the Universities of Oxford and Cambridge should give us a clear signal about the deteriorating education standards in the country. Thus, I want to comment on the happenings in the Zambian education sector. A sector of which I have been part of, both as a pupil /student and as a teacher, in both the primary and the secondary school sectors.

I do not know how, but maybe I might I have an idea about why we have reached these pathetic levels in the education sector in Zambia. This situation has affected the entire education machinery in the country starting from the lowest level which is primary schools, all the way to the highest level that is university. Needless to mention here that the Zambian education system is based on emphasising the passing of an examination rather than on pupils and students internalising the values of education so that in turn, those values could be used to improve the standards in the different sectors of our own society. The system is built on a rather inane and archaic tradition of brainwashing pupils and students to be very examination oriented. Where it is a foregone conclusion that only those that come out with the best results in the examinations are the only ones who will end up with having a good and productive life. Thus pupils and students are always making strategies of not focussing on the educational contents and value for developmental use, but for passing the examination that is before them, which in other words could be called a cramming system of education.

Teachers too, on the other hand are equally to blame because mostly, they teach with an objective of making their pupils and students pass examinations rather than internalising the contents. The so called extra lessons outside formal school hours have made things even worse, as pupils and students are being oriented to focus on how to pass an examination rather than inculcating those educational values that build conscience in the general citizenry.

The dominant value in the Zambian educational sector has highly shifted from that which should produce graduates with a conscience, requisite knowledge, skills and positive attitudes, to that which has so much more focus on getting over the examination hurdle, and having a good life thereafter, thus forsaking the inculcation of societal values. The focus of most graduates in our society is to get good results in an examination and find a job, in a prestigious organisation like the Bank of Zambia, the Zambia Revenue Authority or in some influential government ministry, without any motive or motivation for contributing to the uplifting of the standards of these institutions but to amass personal wealth and live a good life. Because of this kind of thinking, all pupils and students will stop at nothing but passing an examination at all costs, thus the dependency on examination leakages and favours from teachers and lectures has become a new normal. What is missing from the education system today, is a shared vocabulary (principles that guide behaviour), based on shared positive human values, which can provide a sense of direction and vision about how to create a stable moral society free of corruption, free of examination leakages.

To manage this, I suggest what Mr Simata Simata would call an effective “Crazy Idea”. Zambia, through the Ministry of Education should consider scrapping the grade 7 and grade 9 compulsory examinations as they just put unnecessary pressure on pupils, teachers and the Examination Council in preparing and implementing them. These two categories of examinations in Zambia have completely lost meaning and have just remained but a nursery to learn how to organise an examination leakage at a tender age.

Zambia as a country, has no capacity to give any alternatives to those that fail to make it to grade 8 and 10 respectively, so why having the examinations? After all, every citizen needs basic education before being thrown into society. These 2 categories of examinations were originally designed to sieve pupils so as to be in conformity with the few available spaces in the few secondary schools that were available at the time. But with the current scenario in Zambia today, the Ministry of education should allow everyone to proceed to grade 12 without sitting for a “must pass” compulsory examination. That will make everyone go further in school even if one does not manage to reach the famous (or infamous) cut off point. Therefore, the first examination that should render one not to go further with basic education should be at grade 12 level, and 12 years of formal schooling should officially be declared as Zambia’s Basic Education for every citizen. Those who reach a certain cut off point during the Ordinary(O) Level examinations or the local Zambian General Certificate of Education (GCE) in Grade 12 should then proceed to Grade 13 (or form 6) to do Advanced (A) Levels before getting into colleges and universities.

This way, Zambia will again start getting quality students in colleges and universities locally and abroad who apart from being academically sound, will highly appreciate value and self-reflection, which are the building blocks for every great nation. We do not need to wait for donors to come and dictate what is best for Zambia when we can do it ourselves. There are very few countries in the world, if any, that are sending their 12 and 14 year old citizens into society, because there are no school places for them and that they failed to pass their compulsory examinations. In the current Zambian scenario, these examinations does nothing constructive, apart from creating opportunities and excuses for young children to stop school. Moreover, no employer will demand for a grade 7 or grade 9 certificate in todays Zambia, but a grade 12 and higher.

If the Ministry of Education scraps the Grade 7 and 9 examinations and they stop making them mandatory for one to proceed to grade 8 and 10, then these examinations can be organised at provincial or district levels since they will just remain a part of monitoring the progress of pupils. If this becomes a reality, then it will give the Examinations Council of Zambia ample time to focus on O level and A level examinations only, giving them efficiency and credibility, as the grade 7 and 9 examinations are decentralised.

This move will equally save resources that could be used to build more schools because the preparation, implementation and marking of these examinations gobbles a colossal amount of money every year. We need to start thinking outside the box and make use of the available school space in our government schools. For example, having different sessions like it is in some primary schools, where some teachers and pupils could even be taking evening classes, that is starting work\school from as late as 15:00 to 19:00 is one option. It is just a question of coming up with a workable plan by utilising what we already have in our hands.

However, for these government schools to improve in standards, influential people in society like political leaders should consider taking their children to these schools. Like it was in the era of UNIP where even the President’s children went to government schools. The current situation is so bad that even the teachers themselves that are teaching in the government schools avoid taking their children there because the standards are pathetic. But, how can the standards improve when all the decision and policy makers have no children in these schools? They absolutely have no interest there. Thus, there should be a deliberate policy decision, that will make all top officials in the government and quasi government wings take their children to government schools. All political office bearers should equally take their children and dependants to government schools, colleges and universities.

One of the reasons the authorities have failed to control the mushrooming of uncontrolled schools, colleges and universities is because some top government officials and political office bearers have direct or indirect interest in some of these counterfeit institutions. There is no effective system whatsoever to monitor and control these new “learning” spaces. I know that there are institutions that have been tasked with the responsibility of standardising these spaces, but unfortunately some of the individuals in these institutions have been compromised, by either being offered executive board positions that naturally come with allowances, or have accepted to be on the payroll of the institution they are supposed to control. Again, there must be a deliberate policy decision on the part of the government to deter any top government official or political office bearer from being a stakeholder in any private learning institution. This move will make learning institutions to be minimal but more efficient, credible and value based. Such institutions will in turn act as platforms on which pupil/students and members of staff alike develop and deepen their understanding of issues concerned with ethics, morality and genuine development, which Zambia earnestly needs.

By Kabanda Mwansa
The author is a Zambian social commentator and PhD research fellow at the Center for Child and Youth Competence Development at Inland Norway University of Applied Sciences.

Opposition leader Hakainde Hichilema has reassured Zambians not to lose hope as help is on the way.

Speaking when he visited founding President Dr Kenneth Kaunda at his New Kasama residence, said Zambians should not despair.

Mr Hichilema said the UPND was ready to work with other stakeholders for the betterment of the people.

“We visited our country’s First President, Dr. Kenneth David Kaunda at his residence in Lusaka this morning. We thanked him for the wise counsel and his selfless leadership to the country,” Mr Hichilema wrote on his Facebook page.

“We wished him good health and like he stated; We are ready to work together as a people for the betterment of our country. Fellow Zambians, do not lose hope because help is on the way,” Mr Hichilema said.