Columns

FINALLY the Auditor General’s Office has issued a final audit report on the Road Development Agency (RDA). The report does not in any way differ with the draft report analysed earlier. The focus remains on the K1.4 trillion alleged to...

The ‘cadre Politician’ has natured a brutish instinct, which enables him to benefit from anything and everything that will give him the desired advantage – even to the extent of telling open lies to snare a following, promising to build Power Stations in every Province within 90 days of being elected into Office. The cadre to feign support has whispered to undo the couple’s misery.

GEORGE Mpombo’s time as Zambia’s defence minister must have been an exciting and transformational curve for him as it must have taught him the ability to use military terminology to comment even on subjects he was grossly ignorant about.Mpombo now carries himself as a master commentator on nearly all issues fashioned against President Rupiah Banda’s personal integrity.

Mothers day may not be a recognized Zambian holiday but before you castigate the West for inventing useless holidays take time to just appreciate your mother. Your mother loved you even before you were born. She gently caressed her tummy...

THE Mufumbwe by-election brought out one of the worst forms of violence comparable only to previous by-elections in Mapatizya and Chawama constituencies. What caused the violence? What about the allegation that the UPND have institutionalised violence as an answer to perceived electoral malpractices? And what about damning allegations that the elections were rigged?

Recent reports of insults and counter-insults between President Rupiah Banda and Hakainde Hichilema and between President Banda and Mr. Michael Sata make for some distressing reading. However, these events have been exacerbated and grossly exaggerated, partly, by the media. In actual fact, Zambia’s history with presidential foul language is not new. We in fact started having presidential foul language as soon as our nation was born—with the famous “stupid idiot” rants of Super Ken. However, with the emergence of new print media in the Third Republic has meant that anything spoken by any leader now will be subject to diverse reports and interpretation from various media organizations both public and private. Sometimes you would wonder whether it is not the media themselves acting as the factory of these invectives. In this article however, I wish to draw upon the history of presidential insults from Kaunda to Banda.

PUTTING 90 per cent of people’s money into Patriotic Front (PF) councillors’ pockets is a damning indictment on a political party that premises its election message on putting more money into people’s pockets. This is a party whose leader, Michael Sata, has, since his first Republican presidential election race in 2001, been promising that if elected into power, he would put more money into people’s pockets. Today, Zambians know that the pockets Mr Sata has been harping about are PF councillors’ pockets!

WHEN the two–day media conference held at Pamodzi Hotel ended with the adoption of a Code of Ethics and Constitution, architects of the few months’ process congratulated themselves for a milestone achievement. But the celebrations were misplaced because the Zambia...

Many people shy away from VCT for various reasons, one of which is fear of stigma - real or imagined. They would rather treat diseases such as malaria and coughs. Some patients only decide to find out their HIV status when it is too late and their immune system is completely damaged.The most unfortunate part of all this is that even people who are literate, those who work in middle class jobs and some high profile personalities, are also part of the group shunning VCT

IF he is not calling someone foolish, he is describing an elderly political opponent as one with a small brain, lacking logic, common sense or being downright dull. Not only that. He shows absolute disregard for other political players’ intellectual capacity, describing their stand-points on many issues as nonsensical, rubbish and many such demeaning words. In defiance of African or Zambian cultural norms, he scornfully addresses elderly people by their first names without due regard to their