By Martin Mushumba, PhD

The New Dawn Government has now spent 1 year 6 months in office. Despite the high food prices caused by unstable fuel prices on the international marked spurred by the Russian invasion of Ukraine, Zambians today are so proud of the change of government witnessed in August, 2021.

Below are some of the achievements of the of the New Dawn Government that are making Zambians proud citizens ;

1. Student meal allowances have been restored across all public universities in the face of various economic hardships for the country
2. Student loans extended across all public universities.
3. Free education for primary and secondary schools- a deeper statement on investment in education.
4. Primary and secondary schools are filled to capacity- it brings joy to note that families are no longer inhibited by high school fees as they send their children to government schools.
5. Bursary for boarding schools being provided across the country.
6. Bursary being offered across all trades training institutes in the country
7. Constituency Development Fund (CDF)-sponsored skills training – free training for skills under CDF sponsorship.
8. All councils across the country receive equilization fund in record time.
9. Marketeers booster loans are being distributed to markets across the country.
10. There is enhanced financial access through CDF, Citizen Economic Empowerment Fund (CEEC), Youth Empowerment Fund, and Marketeers fooster funds.
11. Zambia National Service milling plants have been launched – this has brought cheaper mealie meal on the market.
12. 30,496 teachers employed in 2022. A further 5,000 more are to be employed in 2023
13. 10,000 youth being employed under the voluntary, internship, and graduate programs
14. About 2,000 local government workers are employed across the country.
15. 5,000 youths recruited in the defense forces
16. About 200 youths employed at ZRA
17. About 100 youths employed at CEEC
18. About 100 youths employed at Anti-Corruption Commission
19. About 6,000 jobs were created through Mwinilunga Fruit Factory
20. About 6,000 jobs were created through Chipata Fruit Factory
21. Over 11,200 health workers are employed. 4,000 more to be employed in 2023.
22. Road construction corruption curbed – Road works are now transparent and as a result cheaper.
23. Corruption in the procurement of drugs curbed
24. Corruption in farming input procurement and distribution curbed
25. Fruit processing plants in Chipata and Ikelenge opened to enhance value addition in agricultural produce.
26. Load shedding effectively ended – unprecedented response to the power crisis.
27. Media access is free for all – opposition leaders even have more access to the media than the ruling party leaders.
28. A professional Independent Broadcasting Authority- not one set up to shut divergent voices.
29. Enhanced freedoms of association and assembly – Opposition leaders can today freely patronize supermarkets and shopping malls as well as churches without any restriction.
30. In this space of time, CDF has been increased from K1.6 million to K28.3 million – this has given the people a voice in determining what is good in their pursuit of development.
31. Cheaper roads being constructed through PPPs
32. Electric motor vehicle battery plant being opened on the Copperbelt Province – this is a manufacturing sector game changer for Zambia and Africa.
33. Desk distribution in schools is on-going
34. Classroom construction across all constituencies is ongoing through CDF
35. Construction of more Secondary Schools under the World Bank going on.
36. 60% of inherited retirees’ benefits dismantled – the plight of retirees has been honored.
37. Energy diversification program is in full swing with investments in solar from the United Kingdome, United Arab Emirates, and Saudi Arabia.
38. The government has established through the Citizen Economic Empowerment Fund a special funding for energy investment projects.
39. Public Service workers’ salaries have been increased by 22.5% in 1 year 6 months.
40. Opposition free to insult the President- Penal Code Act repealed to allow for such lawlessness.
41. Death penalty abolished- Penal Code Act repealed.
42. Corruption fight enhanced- past and present corruption being fought without fear or favour- e.g. Ministry of Finance and Ministry of Health corruption exposed and fought with the passion exhibited in fight corruption in the former administration.
43. Balanced cabinet and civil service appointments – A government that is representing national character balanced on tribe, skills, and experience. This is inclusive governance.
44. A free and professional civil service restored – tribal and political persecutions abolished which was characteristic in the former administration.
45. Macroeconomic stability- inflation has been controlled to single digits. Whilst food prices are on the rise, they are doing so at a much slower rate than they were around August 2021.
46. Debt contraction is under control- debt servicing is in progress despite economic challenges.
47. Influx of investment flow into the country- there is an enhanced business environment attracting investments not only from China but now also from many Western countries.
48. Cheaper fuel markets explored through MoUs with Angola and Namibia.
49. Enhanced international and diplomatic relations with both the West and East- China relations have also been upheld.
50. Enhanced diplomatic relations with SADC countries and Africa as a whole.
51. Caderism and politics in trading places and bus stations curbed- there are no more station and market commanders terrorizing innocent citizens.
52. Enhanced respect for the rule of law- professionalized security wings.
53. Fairly distributed development across the country – depoliticized development, that is detached from regional politics.
54. Depoliticized response to national disasters – A professional Disaster Management and Mitigation Unit doing its work.
55. Fair access to employment – tribe and/or political affiliation do not matter anymore as employment is now accessible to all Zambians.
56. Restored order in the courts of law- courts are gaining public confidence. Corruption skews justice and compromises the rule of law.
57. There is order in the mining sector- whilst a stable tax regime is being negotiated the order has remained and this is supportive for growth. The negotiations on Konkola Copper Mines and Mopani are also progressing in a much more stable environment which is generally good for the mining sector given its importance to the Zambian economy.
58. A clear distinction between the Party (UPND) and its Government. The Party is purely being run by the Secretary-General Hon Batuke Imenda and other party officials whilst the President and his vice have been focused on government affairs. This has been key in curbing abuse of resources by the party.
59. The focus on national development rather than retaining power- President Hakainde Hichilema has his eyes set on pursuing a united and prosperous Zambia. He has shown disinterest in playing politics even when this threatens his hold on power ahead of 2026.
60. Respect for the traditional leadership – all traditional authorities have been embraced and receive respect, support, and attention from the government as opposed to a system that marginalized others based on their tribe and region they hailed from.
61. Restored peace and security- no more killings and gassing incidences that threatened national security. Citizens can drink and party with a free mind without fearing being attacked by some panga-wielding cadres or being gassed in the night.
In a nutshell, the New Dawn Government has scored across so many spheres of people’s livelihood. It has not only re-established a peaceful and united Zambia, but also created a less stressful society as people’s major burdens such as high unemployment, high schools fees, unpaid terminal benefits, restricted access to business financing and marginalised access to development have all remained in the past.

The Author is a Public and Economic Policy Analyst.

By Mwizenge S. Tembo, Ph. D. Emeritus Professor of Sociology

For 19 million Zambians in Southern Africa, nshima and what it stands for is the very basis of life. Nshima is the staple food eaten by not only Zambians but Malawians and many other African neighbors. Almost all 72 tribes and indigenous African languages in Zambia probably call nshima by a different name according to the specific area language and dialect variation. The Chewa, Tumbuka, and Ngoni of Eastern Zambia and Malawi call it sima or nsima, the Bemba of Northern Zambia call it ubwali, the Tonga of Southern Zambia call it insima and Lozi of Western Zambia call it buhobe.

There is a saying that Eskimos who live in the frozen north pole may have many different definitions of snow. This reality of having so many definitions may be true for people who live in the desert and how they define sand or people who live on sea islands and how they may define types of fish, for example. This reality is true for nshima in Zambian culture.

In traditional villages in rural Zambia, nshima has many types and states. There is nshima that is cooked from cassava meal (sima ya chikhau or chinangwa), sorghum meal (sima ya mapila or chidomba), finger millet meal (sima ya kambala), and sima of rice or mpunga. Potentially nshima can be cooked from any grain and tubers that can be ground into meal or flour. There is nshima that has lumps in it (sima ya mambontho). This nshima is often the result of hasty cooking and only young inexperienced girls, men, and novices are expected to make this mistake.

There is nshima yopola. This is nshima that has gotten lukewarm or cold because either it was cooked too early or eaters, guests, or diners delayed getting to the table. This nshima is rather hard and might even crumble as the eater tries to get a lump. There is nshima ya cimbala. This is nshima left over from the previous night. It is usually stone cold and wet from steam condensation overnight. Children are the only ones expected to eat this type of nshima sometimes for breakfast. Adult men are not advised to eat nshima ya cimbala as it is believed to cause weakness in the elbow joints and also likely to usurp a man’s sexual energy.

Nshima yibisi means raw nshima. This is the nshima that was badly and hastily cooked perhaps with a very weak flame due to inadequate firewood or impatience on the part of the woman or the cook. One extreme way of testing if the nshima is yibisi or not well cooked is to push one’s forefinger deep into the just cooked nshima on a plate like one would push a dipstick when determining oil level in an automobile engine. If the nshima is well cooked, the finger will hardly penetrate, as it will be too hot for the tester. But if the nshima is undercooked, the finger will penetrate all the way and the individual tester will hardly feel any discomfort.

There is nshima ya mugayiwa. This is nshima that is cooked from corn or maize that is not hand processed. It is corn meal ground directly from corn using a hammer mill. This type of nshima is darker and very coarse or rough. Many Zambians will only eat this as a sign of hardship, in an emergency, or if they are living in institutions like the boarding school, armed forces, or prison. In extreme cases it might cause diarrhea because of too much roughage for those not accustomed to eating it.

There is nshima ya kambandila which is cooked from maize or corn meal that is made from corn that has hardly dried in the fields just before harvest. This is also often done in desperation as the family might have run out of corn or maize from the previous season’s harvest or vingoms va chomba.

Nshima yosoza refers to eating the nshima without the second dish; the relish. This again is an extremely tremendous sign of suffering if individuals have to resort to eating nshima without relish. This extreme case is rare as in most cases individuals who eat nshima yo soza are said to be careless. There is a learned skill in eating a large plate of nshima matched with often a smaller portion or serving of relish. One has to learn to match the rate of eating the nshima with the specific served portion of the relish. Going to the relish pot for some more is usually unacceptable or impractical. So, in the unfortunate situation of mismatching the rate of eating nshima and the relish, the individual might end up eating nshima yo soza.

Nshima features very prominently in many other cultural aspects of the community. For example, a traditional healer or nga’nga will often prescribe that a patient gets the herb soaked from roots of a certain tree and use it for cooking nshima. The patient has to eat this type of nshima for two to three weeks to a month. This is true for a child who is being treated for childhood epilepsy or seizures for example. This type of nshima is known among the Tumbuka people as kasima ka mnkhwala or a tinny nshima cooked for medicinal purposes.

By Isaac Mwanza

“I treasure the fact there’s media freedom, but with that goes responsibility. I think that there should be a self-regulatory organisation and that they should start to think about standards…” ~ Ray Dalio

[Continued]

There are times when the media itself noticed or notices that it could have strayed in the manner of reporting information, sometimes to the extent of unjustly destroying people’s lives. No one took responsibility. Those are times that call for the media to be held answerable to the public that it serves and to itself.

The flimsy argument that when one is aggrieved by any misinformation or action of by the media, the aggrieved party must approach the courts of law for redress, fails to take into account the fact that some damage cannot be atoned in form of court awards.

What is more in Zambia is that it is a very costly and painfully slow process to get justice from our courts of law. Certain transgressions committed by journalists and the media do not need to reach our courts of law if they can be resolved through a competent authority within and among the media itself, away from the courts.

However, the question of media accountability has, for decades now, remained conceptually unresolved and an implementation nightmare.

A difficulty in resolving the issue of media regulation arises from the fact that there has been a lack of adequate understanding of media accountability and government draftspersons responsible for crafting a regulatory framework have not acted with honesty but have instead opted to make provisions that puts government in control of the media, in the same way they have managed to do so with NGOs, or may criminally penalise journalists.

Insights from scholars suggest that media accountability is a process, one that compels the media to conform to certain uniform standards which society expects from them and can therefore hold them answerable to those standards. Conformity can either be voluntary or involuntary.

Such accountability implies that the media and media practitioners, like lawyers and legal practitioners, become answerable to the profession for the truthfulness, quality or consequences of what they publish.

Media accountability thus requires some form of regulation which binds all media houses and practitioners to the same ethical standards and possible civil sanctions such as compensation, retraction and binding apologies, for violation of those professional standards without exclusion. And therein lies what has been a challenge on the model of regulation that achieves such accountability.

WAY FORWARD ON MEDIA REGULATION

Essentially, the media landscape in Zambia can be regulated in three ways.

1. Self-Regulation

First, there is self-regulation, which media owners in Zambia seem to prefer; this method is where the media draw up their own regulations and take full responsibility for monitoring compliance with those regulations through a media council.

This type of media regulation can only be effective if it binds all media owners and media practitioners to these regulations. Where it becomes voluntary to belong to the media council and there are no consequences for disregarding the findings of a media council, as it has been done in South Africa, this type of regulation is as good as no regulation at all.

2. Statutory Regulation

The second means of regulation is statutory regulation in which the State sets the relevant legislative or regulatory rules and monitors and enforces compliance in a transparent way. This author does not support this form of regulation.

In an environment like Zambia, where the media, in its duty to hold politicians and government and private officials to account and to expose evils in both government and the private sector, thereby clashing with political interests, statutory-regulation of the media is a very dangerous trap for media houses.

Politicians use and abuse the power conferred on them by statute, to make rules and monitor compliance which can silence the media.

3. Co-Regulation

The last model of media regulation is referred to as co-regulation or self-regulation backed by statute. This is a hybrid form where self-regulation ultimately is back-stopped by statutory regulation.

Writing in the Canadian Journal of Communication on the role of press councils in a system of media accountability, Pritchard asserts that the essence of accountability lies in naming, shaming and claiming, which essentially means identifying a problem, naming the offending media, and claiming apology or compensation.

Media regulation is enforced by law, rules or procedures and varies across the world. These regulations exist to protect freedom of expression and media freedom and to regulate media markets, ownership, infrastructure, standards and, most importantly, to protect public interest such as media pluralism and diversity.

Since 1973, the co-regulation model for the legal profession in Zambia has worked very well as it has allowed the profession itself rather than government to set and enforce the rules, demand compliance and punish those who fail to abide by the standards.

The fact that it is involuntary means that everyone in this profession ought to abide by those standards. No one can practice law without being regulated by the professional association for lawyers.

This author strongly recommends that the media in Zambia, should consider going that route and that government must support the self-regulation of the media which is backed by statute, not by the Bill which has been adulterated by government drafters but the first draft by the media itself must become the basis of discussion.

Media co-regulation has also been effective in Kenya. It has given the media itself full control of the rule making function, enforcement and sanctioning. Government ability to interfere in the independent functioning or operations of the media, is stopped by the law itself.

In neighbouring Zimbabwe, the media had also agreed to co-regulation of the media at the Kadoma Writeshop under the leadership of the Media Institute for Southern Africa – Zimbabwe Chapter (MISA Zimbabwe). This led to the generation of the Media Practitioners Bill which was to establish the Zimbabwe Media Practitioners Council as the first entry point for lodging complaints against the media.

The Zimbabwean media had envisaged a framework whose key principles included inclusivity, recognition for diversity, a unified code of ethics and standards, professionalism and media accountability.

Both the regulation of NGOs and the media must follow the model that empowers these sectors to truly self regulate although protected by statute. NGO and media co-regulation should not include provisions that have an effect of entrenching subtle statutory regulation or just be a form of piecemeal reforms that fail to address long-standing contestations against statutory regulation.

CONCLUSION

Access to information and media regulation (including regulation of other key institutions) are inter-linked. Access to Information will allow the media and citizens generally to access information held by government. Just like any other human right, access to information comes with responsibilities.

Media regulation is meant to achieve accountability of the media in performance of its function to receive, disseminate and impart information to the public. When considering the model of regulation, the author believes that statutory regulation should have no place in Zambia, as it may be used to silence or even to kill the media.

On the other hand, self-regulation which is not compulsory for the media and media practitioners, and whose rules and sanctions are non-binding or can be ignored, does not achieve anything at all. It is the firm belief of this author that the media in Zambia can replicate the self-regulation which has been used by the legal profession in this very country and is in use in Kenya, to get the desired result.

Self-regulation of the media which is supported by a law binds every practitioner and the media itself, prevents or stops government interference in the media, and does not criminally penalise journalists and media houses for human lapses while promoting compulsory accountability for the media and media practitioners to itself and society, is the way to go.

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