Ethno-Net Database: Zambia

Reports on Ethnic Relations / Rapports sur les relations éthniques

The following section is mainly consisted of part, full or summaries of articles taken from newspapers.
La section suivante est essentiellement constituée d'exraits, de la totalité ou de résumés d'articles issues de journaux .

Global anti-corruption NGO Transparency International (TI) has described the Zambian system of governance as "rotten" in its latest report.

The "National Integrity Systems TI Country Study Report - Zambia 2003", delves into the conduct of the executive, legislative and judicial arms of government. The report provides a "devastating analysis of how a government can loot its treasury, corrupt key agencies, distort privatisation and banking processes, and use the resources of the state to fund its dominance of the election process and pay for its retention of power", TI said in a statement.

The report itself alleges that "during the past 10 years corruption has become part of Zambian culture. Corrupt politicians and public officials can only thrive if the public does not see anything wrong with corruption".

There was a need to raise public awareness of "the evils of corruption so that there is zero-tolerance for corruption", the TI report said.

Coupled with this was an absence of political will to fight graft over the past decade, noted Dr Alfred Chanda, the author of the report and chairman of TI Zambia. "A culture of impunity has developed and corruption has permeated government structures from the Presidency down to the lowest-ranking public service workers," he was quoted as saying.

The report pointed to the recent resignation of the Chief Justice after allegations emerged that he had been receiving irregular payments from former president Frederick Chiluba through the Zambia Intelligence Service from 1998 to 2001.

The government's anti-corruption commission was under-resourced and under-skilled, Members of Parliament lacked the capacity to discharge their functions effectively, and the offices of Auditor-General and Ombudsman "are effectively moribund", TI said.

This was attributed to deliberate under-funding and failure to punish those exposed as being corrupt during Chiluba's 10-year rule.

"In particular, the report calls for improvements to the legal infrastructure, including protection of whistleblowers, monitoring mechanisms for gifts to ministers and public officials, strengthening of conflict of interest rules, and an enforceable code of conduct for public officials," TI noted.

Jeremy Pope, Executive Director of the TI Centre for Innovation and Research, said in a TI statement that: "The development agencies delighted in Zambia's transition from one-party rule to multi-partyism in 1991. Unfortunately, the attention span of the development agencies is all too short. Most simply declared Zambia to be a 'democracy' and went their own ways, leaving Zambia to flounder and its systems of governance [to] effectively collapse.

"The lesson is plain: democratic institutions are not built overnight, nor are they secured by a single free and fair election. If we are to be serious in our endeavours, we must stay in for the long haul."

President Levy Mwanawasa's "New Deal" government and its crackdown on graft had "breathed new life into the anti-corruption fight. Its emphasis on good governance, the rule of law and zero tolerance of corruption has provided the necessary will to galvanise the anti-corruption institutions," observed Dr Chanda.

Given the magnitude of corruption in Zambia, the report recommended that priority be given to prevention of corruption. Measures such as the strengthening of the rules for public procurement and blacklisting of individuals found to be involved in corruption were advocated.

A plan by Zambia's President Levy Mwanawasa to include a number of opposition members in his cabinet for the sake of "unity and reconciliation" has instead resulted in deep political divisions within his own party and the opposition.

On 8 February Mwanawasa appointed a number of key opposition members to his cabinet in spite of a successful court order against the move filed by one of the opposition parties. This week, United Party for National Development (UPND) and Forum for a Democratic Process (FDD), Zambia's main opposition parties, expelled four of the legislators from their parties for accepting positions in the Mwanawasa government, charging that they had breached their party's policies.

Kennedy Shepande, newly appointed works and supply deputy minister was expelled from the UPND, while the FDD expelled new commerce minister Dipak Patel, new commerce deputy minister Geoffrey Samukonga and new deputy minister of agriculture Chance Kabaghe.

Their expulsions effectively pave the way for the speaker of the national assembly to declare their seats vacant, allowing the Electoral Commission of Zambia to call fresh by-elections within 90 days.

"Instead of uniting the nation, these appointments [of opposition members to cabinet] have created deep divisions that have led to political instability in the country," Roger Chongwe, prominent lawyer and leader of the opposition Liberal Progressive Front (LPF) told IRIN.

"Because the appointments were not done in a proper manner and probably the intentions were not sincere, Zambia is now experiencing a political crisis. Mr Mwanawasa must revisit this decision," said Chongwe who once served as Zambia's legal affairs minister.

Nedson Nzowa, an opposition legislator who accepted the position of deputy minister in the ministry of tourism told IRIN: "As far as I am concerned I went to parliament to represent the people of my constituency who voted for me and not my party president or party constitution. If I accept a government position I do so on behalf of my electorate and do not deserve to be punished. The laws that make it impossible for me to accept a government position to me are the ones that need to be checked," he said.

At the return of multi-party politics in Zambia, the law did not address floor crossing and this led to dozens of ruling Movement for Multiparty Democracy (MMD) members, disenchanted with former president Frederick Chiluba, crossing to either become independents or to form new political parties.

Faced with the possibility of losing the entire party to the opposition, Chiluba urged his MMD-dominated parliament to pass a law that made it illegal to join another party after entering parliament on a rival party ticket.

Although Mwanawasa said he appointed the opposition members to ease political tensions, some believe it was connected to the opposition's Supreme Court challenge to his presidency on the grounds that he allegedly contravened electoral rules.

The US-based Carter Centre, European Union election monitors and two local independent election monitors declared the elections not free and fair, while the former finance minister and the former intelligence chief alleged in the Supreme Court that taxpayers' money was used to finance Mwanawasa's election.

"I don't think he bargained for expulsions when he appointed the opposition MPs," Ngande Mwanajiti, chairman of Coalition 2001 told IRIN. "He thought the opposition would not expel their members for fear of reducing their numbers in parliament, so this must be a shock to him, but the confusion is not good for the country."

Members of Mwanawasa's party are also reportedly displeased at the lifting of Chiluba's immunity, to allow an investigation into corruption charges, and have stated that they will resign and form another party.

At the weekend, a visibly angry Mwanawasa said during a public rally in the northern Copperbelt province that he was aware of a plot by 60 senior MMD members from the northern and Luapula province to leave the party.

"Don't think you are clever [those who want to resign]...just leave the party because you are stinking and dirty," Mwanawasa said, "You won't succeed by forming a tribal party...get out now."

It was his first public statement on the "rebel" faction led by national chairman of the MMD, Chitalu Sampa who have stated that they are not happy that Chiluba's immunity has been lifted and an arrest has been made.

Chiluba was arrested and released on bail earlier this year on 66 counts of corruption.

IRIN

The Article: "Government allocates funds for new military equipment"

The Zambian government has allocated Kwacha 20 billion (US $4 million) to enable the Ministry of Defence to buy new equipment, parliament heard this week.

"We haven't decided what to buy yet because the budgetary provision is quite small," said Joel Chitafu, the ministry's permanent secretary, confirming the announcement to IRIN on Wednesday.

"We won't be able to buy a lot but we have to replace aircraft and weaponry and since we are involved in the [UN] Sierra Leone peacekeeping effort, we need to provide the battalion there with new equipment," he said.

Commenting on the allocation, the Catholic Centre for Development Justice and Peace (CCDJP) said that Zambia did not appear to be under the threat of war, and money was needed for more pressing priorities like irrigation equipment to help small commercial farmers.

"I don't think the [military spending] enhances the drive to alleviate poverty," Mulima Akpelwa, coordinator of economic justice for the CCDJP said.

Meanwhile, the Times of Zambia reported on Wednesday that the Zambia Defence Force would in future only select HIV-negative recruits.

Defence Forces Medical Services Director-General James Simpungwe said the military would go ahead with the HIV screening of fresh entrants even without the approval of the human rights commission.

Existing HIV-positive members would be placed in less demanding roles and offered available medical attention, the newspaper reported.

MOST ETHNO-NET AFRICA DATABASE

ZAMBIA / ZAMBIE