Lately we have seen the deterioration of the comments on the site. As stated in our comments policy, Lusaka Times welcomes and encourages your commentary and debate. However, we request that you restrict your comments to pertinent matters. We will not tolerate any comments that are abusive, threatening, defamatory or libelous, or attacks, ad hominem and otherwise, on fellow bloggers.

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Happy 2009

LT Team

By Dr. Chiyaba Njovu

Last weekend, I received a call from a colleague who sounded bitterly disappointed about the news of change of passports and the manner in which the Zambian government was going on about it. He informed me that Zambians in the diaspora would not be allowed to renew their passports using their agents in Zambia but only through their respective missions abroad.

I could not believe this and asked him whether that was the true position government had taken. His answer was in the affirmative. He further stated that this was the reason why embassy staff in London were traveling throughout the country asking people to renew their passports. Well, I thought if this is the way our government is going to conduct its business, then I am sorry we may sing as many songs as we like but no serious tourists, investors, or any other business partners would ever take us seriously. I thought for a while and wondered whether the advent of ICTs and the development of ICT based systems meant anything to our policy makers.

It is for this reason that I thought it might be an idea to advise and reiterate my earlier suggestion to government in 2004 about the importance of an e-government Framework for our government institutions. e-Government ( or electronic government, also known as e-gov, digital government, online government) refers to the use of internet technology as a platform for exchanging information, providing services and transacting with citizens, businesses, and other arms of government. e-Government may be applied by the legislature, judiciary, or administration, in order to improve internal efficiency, the delivery of public services, or processes of democratic governance.

Simply put, an e-government Framework would allow government to publish essential information about its services, allow businesses to access information about investment opportunities available with Zambian based businesses and other useful information essential for easy of conducting business.

It would also allow citizens to access essential government information without having to queue up at some mission or some government office. For example, you do not need to visit a mission to access passport forms or visa application forms. These should be available on line via some portal. Furthermore, it would also make it easier for government to disseminate information about government successes on issues of interest to the nation without any distortions from some other interested parties such as opposition political party leaders.

With e-government systems in place, tourists or any visitors to Zambia do not need to visit a mission to apply for a visa, a hunting license, an employment permit or any such documents. These could be done on-line as they do not require any prior physical verification before they are issued in principle. Citizens do not require to visit the citizenship registry to apply for a National Registration Card or queue up at some office to register as a voter. A single portal would handle all these services on behalf of government without any additional resources.

With proper e-government systems, government officials do not need to visit project sites to assess progress made on projects under their supervision as this information could be accessed online as work in progress information. There are many benefits government could realize from a well thought out e-governance framework.

For example, year in year out, the Auditor General uncovers irregularities in government expenditure and blatant misuse of government resources. Do we really need to wait for 5- 10 years to know that money was misappropriated? They say prevention is better than cure and I know with proper e-government systems, accounting for resources allocated for projects could be an on-going thing.

Controlling officers would monitor how resources are being used and could intervene if it became clear that resources were being misapplied. You can talk about corruption until cocks come to roost but without proper e-government systems, some people will still get away with it. Talk of policemen on patrols, how would you know how many fault vehicles he/she impounded if there is no way for him to log this information in some systems? Would you blame a policeman for failing to issue a receipt for a fine of K10,000.00 if that is going to save him time to save a human life in an emergency?

Let us think and work like people living in the 21st century and make our country a better place to live in and conduct business. An e-government framework will benefit us all equally. Businessmen would find it easy to conduct their businesses, ZRA would find it easy to broaden the tax base and ease revenue collection, investors would find it easy to monitor investment opportunities, NGOs would find it difficult to tell lies to donors about government policies while donors would find it easy to verify proposals submitted to them for funding; government would find it easy to disseminate important information about its achievements and opposition political parties would find easy to engage government on issues of poor delivery while law enforcement agents would find it easy to monitor patterns of crime and enforce laws, etc. The most important anticipated benefits of e-government include more efficiency, improved services, better accessibility of public services, and more transparency and accountability.

In conclusion, I wish to reiterate my earlier proposal for government to seriously consider an e-governance framework and how this could positively impact on development. The technology is there to support such a framework, resources are in abundance, we have enough technical skills to accomplish it and further develop more such skills among our people who need jobs. What we need and urgently appeal for is goodwill from government decision makers. The job could be done and if the government needs further help, our doors are open for advice, technical guidance and skills provision. The ball is in your court.

The author is currently a Senior Lecturer – Information Systems (Databases) and is the African Regional Link Tutor for Computing Collaborations at the University of Greenwich, London. He is also the first Publicity Secretary of the University of Zambia Lecturers and Researchers Union (UNZALARU).

The Communications Authority has called on internet service providers to make security an important feature of their service.

Communication Authority Acting Controller, Richard Mwanza, said this is to protect customers from the risk of viruses and other attacks that might lead to loss of important personal and confidential data.

Mr. Mwanza said this in Lusaka yesterday at the opening of the internet provider’s security meeting in the wake of the recent hacking of ZAMNET web server on 27th December last year.

He said Service Providers need to protect the customers from fraud and thefts that may arise as a result of sharing personal information online.

He said the recent hacking of ZAMNET web server shows how vulnerable Zambia is to be targeted by cyber criminals adding that this should not be taken lightly.

Mr. Mwanza said ZAMNET customers lost business whose cost cannot be quantified adding that this has also eroded the confidence in people who trusted in ICT’s.

He has also called on the Internet Service Providers to put in place mitigation procedures that should ensure business continuity in the case of any eventuality.

Mr. Mwanza further called for a disaster recovery plan and procedures which should be a requirement for licensing and renewal.

He disclosed that the communication authority will soon review the license condition of all Internet Providers to ensure that customer’s security needs are addressed.

The communication authority has since formed a task force that will mitigate and prevent customers from being exploited.

Director in the Ministry of Transport and Communication, Victor Mbumwae, has called on all stakeholders to promote and fight cyber crime due to its negative effects.

Mr. Mbumwae said there is need to fight cyber crime adding that doing so would shame critics the ICTs.

He said this will also help safe guard the country from unwarranted attacks and exposure of information.

Meanwhile, ZAMNET Technical Director, Raphael Maseko, said the recent hacking of its web server did not expose private information.

Mr. Maseko has however assured its consumers and the general public that their information is secure.

He said ZAMNET is currently conducting investigations into the cause and the extent of the problem.

ZANIS

By Mingeli Palata

It’s only natural that the issue of food is on top of the mind for most people and certainly for me. I fail to perform to expected levels when my stomach is not tightly gripped. I choose to believe that most of you share this view. You many not really understand the food crisis in this country until like me you meet the likes of Justin Mwemba, a taxi driver in Lusaka whom I met the previous week. Aside from struggling to make  his cashing markup, I got to learn that Justin is also a father to two and a husband of one wife who lives with his family in Bauleni compound. The man vividly put the deteriorating hunger situation in the country, describing the cost of living and the price of mealie meal in particular as unattainable for most average Zambians.

True to the word, in the past year, the issue of mealie meal prices has been one of great interest to most Zambians and it was only a few weeks ago when we were told that Zambia will experience a poor harvest this year, alarming isn’t it? Yet this is the order of the day- year after year. The price of mealie meal is negatively affected by mismanagement of food administration and low agriculture output, as much as it is affected by weather patterns.

I need not overstate the fact that Zambia has a special God-given capacity to feed itself and its neighbors.Despite countless efforts made to urge government to put agriculture in the center stage of their undertakings for both internal food security and foreign exchange purposes, there has been little done in this area. Today agricultural news is still rocked by unattainable fertilizer prices and maize grain price scandals. It is obvious that the system being used to make these much needed agricultural inputs available is not working.  This is not only embarrassing but detrimental to aspirations of ensuring sustainable food security and making Zambia the ultimate food basket in Africa.
Firstly there is a lot of mismanagement, low innovation and lack of priority that characterizes operations at the FRA. In frantic efforts to know what the problem is, I was shocked to learn that both commercial and subsistence farmers find it more profitable to sell the maize to opaque beer brewers or foreign nations rather than the government simply because alcohol brewers for instance offer to buy the grain at double the price. Why can’t government rectify this anomaly? I suggest that deliberate regulation be effected to woo farmers to vend the grain to the FRA by offering attractive prices and terms.Smart economic measures such as high taxation and regulation should be effected to discourage farmers from selling their maize to ‘opaque beer brewers’.

Secondly, Government needs to take a more deliberate action other than relying on selfish private commercial farmers, who would rather sell their maize grain to the Congo than the FRA. I suggest that the state identify key farmers so as to equip and position them in strategic locations for the sole purpose of achieving food security in our beloved country. These strategic state aided farms should be equipped with state of the art farming equipments, inputs, an all season irrigation system that enables winter farming (tapped from the numerous mighty rivers we are endowed with) and objective government supervision to ensure that food shortages and crazy mealie meal prices are a the thing of the past.

Lastly, Zambia also suffers from a self inflicted addiction to maize- somehow we believe that the only thing worth being called food is maize meal- nshima. This should notbe the case.There are other foodstuffs like rice, cassava, Irish potatoes, sweet potatoes, that can supplement maize as the staple food. Government needs to take deliberate action to fight this stereotype and promote other foodstuff to combat hunger in this country. I will give you an example of Cassava, a crop I am most familiar with because my grand mother in Kapompo grows the crop. Cassava is cheap and convenient to grow; it is rich in carbohydrates and will not let you down should your basal metabolic rate be higher than the average Zambian. Yet it is very drought resistant, doesn’t need fertilizer and can grow in various soils with minimum supervision. The advantages that Cassava has over maize are immense and I see no reason why it should not be promoted as a staple food of choice.

We need to see more inspiring deliberate action and more government innovative regulation to ensure that the country has maximum food security so that Justin Mweemba and his family are well fed. This in my view is the government’s primary responsibility and there is no room for excuses.