ZDA Spotlight : January 2011

A belated edition of the ZDA Spotlight :
ZDA Spotlight : January 2011

African Hippo Rankings

As North Africa revolts, an interesting table of the longest serving African Presidents south of the Sahara :

Zambia Weekly - Volume 2, Issue 8

Zambia Weekly - Week 8 , Volume 2, 25 February 2011

Politics Corner

To be aware that we have now created a "politics corner" section on the website. The purpose of this new page is to act as a one stop shop for up to date key documents, links and contacts of key political parties. The aim is to ensure that all legitimate parties are equally covered. All political parties are encouraged to send their documents for publication. 

The new page has uploaded some interesting policy papers from National Restoration Party (NAREP) and Agenda for Change (AfC). 

You can access the page here. 

Fundanga’s Ignorance

From the latest Bank of Zambia Quarterly Report:

The total volume of cheques returned unpaid on account of insufficiently funded accounts increased by 5.4% to 4,428 (third quarter 2010: 4,202) cheques while the value decreased by 8% to K36.2 billion (third quarter 2010: K35.3 billion). The Bank would like to urge members of the public to always ensure that they fund their accounts sufficiently whenever they issue cheques. This will ensure that they do not face criminal charges under the National Payment Systems Act for bouncing cheques dishonestly or with intent to defraud.

Since we are given  two quarters amounting to 8,600 bounced cheques, I would estimate that at least 17,000 cheques bounced in 2010. If we had to investigate and prosecute everyone we would be bankrupt as a country. Every quarter Fundanga (who apparently has been fired from his job) issues the same report (e.g see the 2009 report) about the law he introduced in 2007. I would have thought by now he would recognise that this was a poor law to begin with. A good law is one which is rarely used because the deterrent effect is sufficient enough. This law is like legislating against someone urinating in public. The law has had a zero deterrent effect. When are we going to stop making bad laws?

What is particularly interesting is that the prosecution of Mpombo has made no difference whatsoever. In fact according to Fundanga the number of cheques bouncing actually increased over that period.  This lends further weight to what I have previously suggested – many people who bounce cheques usually do so involuntarily. This is largely because before one accepts a cheque there’s a bond of trust established, which acts as vetting process (Zambia does not use cheque guarantee cards). See a previous post for additional thoughts on this – Decriminalising would-be Mpombos. 

A Broken Maize Marketing Policy

Important insights on the 2010 maize marketing polices from a recent FSRP Working Paper - Who Gained and Who Lost from Zambia's 2010 Maize Marketing Policies? :

The two major GRZ maize marketing policies used to date in the 2010/11 marketing year are: (1) setting an FRA maize buy price of K65,000 per 50-kg bag, which is well above maize market prices and roughly comparable to the price of South African maize landed in Lusaka (the import parity price); and (2) progressively increasing the FRA‟s maize purchase targets throughout the course of the Agency‟s buying campaign and ultimately purchasing 878,570 MT or 83% of expected maize sales by smallholder farmers. These policies have resulted in the following outcomes.

First, the FRA has accumulated massive maize stocks that can only be sold domestically or in regional export markets at a major financial loss. Much of the FRA‟s maize is at risk of spoilage due to inadequate storage facilities and poor prospects for exports. At the end of the day, the FRA‟s 2010 operations are estimated to cost the Zambian Treasury nearly K1.5 trillion.

Second, the FRA‟s activities have put upward pressure on market prices for maize but only a relatively small group of well-capitalized farmers have benefited directly from the high FRA buy price and large volumes purchased and/or indirectly from higher maize market prices. Despite the bumper crop, only 36% of smallholder farmers expected to sell maize during the 2010/11 marketing year and just 4-5% of maize-growing households (approximately 49,000 households) are likely to account for 50% of all maize sold to the FRA and private buyers.

Third, higher maize market prices as a result of the FRA's activities have made maize grain and maize meal more expensive for urban and rural consumers than would have been the case in a bumper crop year without such heavy FRA involvement.

Fourth, because the FRA buy price is comparable to or greater than the import parity price once transportation and other marketing costs are added to the FRA price, millers could obtain maize more cheaply from South Africa than from the FRA unless the FRA's sale price is subsidized by the Zambian Treasury.

Fifth, the FRA's progressive ratcheting up of maize purchase targets caused private traders to delay their entry into the market, which in turn limited access to maize markets for farmers that were unable to sell their maize to the FRA.

And sixth, maize bought at the FRA price is not competitive in regional export markets and US$91-177 is being lost on each ton exported. FRA's willingness to export maize at a financial loss and uncertainty over the timing and magnitude of FRA maize purchases and over GRZ export policies have also discouraged private sector participation in formal maize exportation, which could have relieved the national surplus without imposing huge costs on the Zambian Treasury.

What is more worrying is that we expect even a better harvest in 2011. What is the point of even larger bumper harvests when it all comes at great cost to the tax payer? What is the FRA going to do with all the maize it is holding that it can't sell? Is this for election give-aways?  As the paper demonstrates we are effectively subsidising our regional neighbours since FRA is forced to sell at below market prices. I would propose that our agricultural policy needs a substantial review. Government intervention only makes sense when it is revenue neutral over a given horizon, otherwise it becomes unsustainable.  

The authors have a  good set of alternative policies, which are built around developing a "rules-based" system. It would be good to see what the Opposition may propose around this, but I am not holding my breath.  What baffles me is that all of this is basic economics and yet it seems like rocket science to the folks at the Ministry of Agriculture. The paper is well worth the read. Also do check out the powerpoint  summary of key conclusions from the paper (for those in a hurry!).

Corruption Watch (CDF), 5th Edition

Residents in Chipili Constituency have petitioned Ministry for Local Government to suspend the Constituency Development Fund (CDF) for the area until the alleged misuse of money is investigated. The students believe the local Member of Parliament is using the fund on party campaigns. More detail via Times of Zambia.

Related Posts:
Corruption Watch (CDF), 4th Edition
Corruption Watch (CDF), 3rd Edition
Corruption Watch (CDF), 2nd Edition
Corruption Watch (CDF)

BoZ Quarterly Brief (Q4 2010)

The Bank of Zambia Quarterly Brief as released yesterday.
BoZ Quarterly Brief - Media Brief (Q4 2010)

Book Reading Goal : Week 7

This week has been quite progressive on the reading front. A number of books which I have been reading in the last month in parallel were completed.

I read Zambian Democracy Betrayed : Patrimonial Corruption in Zambia by Tresphor C Mutale, released in 2008. At 69 pages it read more as a monograph than a serious weighty book. However, from the reaction to some of the quotes from it on  Facebook or Twitter, it appeared interesting.  In general the book is useful in explaining the linkages between culture and corruption - though I hoped for more. Unfortunately the book is not available online. Its published only with Mission Press (Ndola).

Another book which sparked some interesting discussion was God is Great, God is Good : Why Believing in God Is Reasonable and Responsible, edited by Craig & Meister. The book is essentially a positive apologetic for belief in God. It is particularly aimed at those who have been taken in by the "new atheism" led by Dawkins and others. It tackles a range of topics from psychology to history and explains how these point to God. This is the first time I have read so many important thinkers in one book. Plantinga, Behe, McGrath and many others are represented. I particularly liked Pockinghorne's discussion on physics, especially the multi-verse theory and its flaw. I think what was missing were contributions on mathematics. Would have loved to see Poythress do that. A good read nevertheless. Strongly recommended!

Last year, I began making my way through the four book volumes penned by John M Frame on the Theology of Lordship. These are large books over 800+ pages plus each. The first book dealt with The Doctrine of the Knowledge of God. This week I completed, after 6 months, the second in the series - The Doctrine of God.  I enjoyed this tremendously and given its depth and richness it meant I had to read the 860 or so pages much slower. With the second book done, I am now moving onto the third, which I suspect wont be completed until December! It is 1000+  and I will read only 100 pages a month from it.

To keep up with quotes from the many books and large reports (e.g. a recent large report on Zambian prisons), I am reading please follow us on Facebook or Twitter.

Book Reading Goal Review
Books Read So Far : 8 books
Remaining Books to Achieve Target : 42 books
Weeks Remaining to Achieve Annual Target : 45 weeks

Intellectual Poverty (Maxwell Mwale)

"When we introduced the windfall tax in 2008, we experienced a flight in mining exploration and I am sure that if we introduced the tax, we will kill the future of the industry. We are against introducing the windfall tax because we are trying to sustain the future of the mines"

Mines Minister Maxwell Mwale showcasing the intellectual poverty that has come to characterise this government in many areas. The argument he advances is infinitely foolish, but six reasons will do.

First, it is not consistent with the President's version. Mr Mwale would have us believe the reason the government abandoned the Windfall Tax in 2008 was because Zambia "experienced a flight in mining exploration". His boss gave us a different reason : "we must ensure that we do not kill the goose that lays the golden egg. There is little point in taking in a few million dollars in tax if thousands of jobs are lost as a result". Mr Banda's argument was  that the Windfall Tax was killing existing jobs. Which is it - jobs were being lost or we stood lose from the possibility of creating new ones through exploration? One of these two gentlemen is not telling the truth.

Secondly, Mr Mwale's "hurting exploration" reason for abandoning the windfall tax does not make any sense on its own ground. In 2008 copper prices were falling due to the global economic recession. The Windfall Tax was not triggered at low price levels. That is why it is called a windfall tax. The argument then and now is that it does not make economic sense to eliminate a tax that is not a binding constraint. The reason mining companies wanted it removed is because they knew the long trend of mining prices and that sooner or later they would be enjoying abnormal untaxed revenues. Everyone saw that the long term trend of copper was upwards.

Thirdly, his argument treats mining taxation in very general fashion. We must distinguish the principle from the application. It is not true that any mining taxation reform would lead to lower exploration activity. Different incentive or taxation structures can be developed that would allow the people to benefit from current mining activities while incentivising future exploration. If Maxwell Mwale does not how to do this, he simply needs to ask. I have always said that we can assembled a group of leading Zambian economists at home and abroad who can advice government on a responsible policy. Ignorance is not an excuse. 

Fourthly, it is predicated on a highly uncertain future. The investments that would be disincentivised, if Mr Mwale's argument is to believed, are those taking place from 2020 and beyond. The explorations will they feed the children dying today because of poor health? Will they feed those dying in five years time? Given the current configuration of the taxation system, as we have seen in Lumwana’s case, no significant revenue would begin to accrue from any such unknown investment until 2025 and beyond. In short this is an argument about an unknown and distant future. 

Fifthly, it is an argument based on irresponsibility and moral bankruptcy. What Mr Mwale seems to be saying is that we should mine all we have at whatever cost. All he seems to care about is digging out the copper and shipping it abroad. Is that Mwale's idea of a viable "export led model" for growth? He does not care that the copper being shipped has no added value. He does not care for the possibility that perhaps its better Zambians defer mining exploration until they are able to do it themselves and achieve a better return. He speaks of "instant" gratification, but the only man practising instant gratification is him and is grand standing of reporting new explorations. He hopes announcing those will earn party additional votes.  This man would sell everything he has in his house just to brag about meaningless acquisitions. Who really is deluded with the pleasures of today?

Finally, his argument presupposes that only foreign firms can do “exploration activities”.  Mr Mwale lives in a world where exploration activities should only be undertaken by foreign firms. His argument is that allowing foreign mining firms to continue operating under existing conditions would guarantee the opening up of more copper mines, which would in turn create more employment for Zambians. I will write in the future on the poverty of FDI argument, but for now I would simply say the exploration argument is tunnel vision at best. There’s a strong case for government to assume a greater role in exploration activities to narrow the information loss between investors and government. This would also help reduce the sort of problems we have seen where Lumwana has huge uranium deposits off the back of a copper investment. More exploratory and geological exploration would put the Zambian people in the driving seat of their resources.

Mining Reflections: Proposition Two (Update), 3rd Edition

Another update to "proposition two" highlights the lack of benefits to local people in North Western from additional mining investment :

[Bishop Kasonde] said the people that experienced the pollution and failed to sleep due to the mining activities should be the first ones to benefit from the investment. Bishop Kasonde said poverty was the order of the day in North Western Province. He asked the government to help people by seriously investing in the area. “We appreciate what the government is doing but they can do much more. These are very critical issues,” he said.

Bishop Kasonde said a lot more needed to be done to develop North Western Province, especially in the area of empowering locals. He said although some locals had been employed in the mines, people were looking forward to a future where a bigger number would be availed an opportunity to work in the mines. “The literacy levels are quite low and the mines are looking for skilled labour. Most of our people have basic education or no education at all,” Bishop Kasonde said. He said it was, therefore, incumbent on the government to ensure that investment in education was heightened. “It should be real investment. It is not just a question of building infrastructure,” Bishop Kasonde said. “They have built a number of schools in here but I have never heard them building a college for teachers.”

Two important points made here. First, is the recognition of the "human approach" model. The Bishop says "the people that experienced the pollution and failed to sleep due to the mining activities should be the first ones to benefit from the investment". This is the model we have championed since day one - see A Human Approach To The Mining Debate. Secondly, he notes the potential for mining investment to be appropriately linked to broader investment. We have previously discussed potential models for doing e.g. "nil-detriment" approach that is used worldwide.  

Related Posts :

Mining Reflections: Proposition Two (Update), 2nd Edition
Mining Reflections: Proposition Two (Update)
Mining Reflections: Proposition Two

Mopani : A Zambian Scandal Made in Europe

A new hard-hitting joint report by Counter Balance argues that the current mining context that the European Union funded Mopani project is not contributing positively to Zambia's development. It is not benefiting the Zambian state nor the local communities and is actually a burden on Zambia through its disastrous environmental impacts.

Mopani Copper Mine - A Scandal In Zambia

Losing Out

"It is sad to see Sesheke under-developed when it is endowed with natural resources that can be used to accelerate development. We have the Zambezi River, the Livingstone-Sesheke Road which connects Sesheke to Central and sub-Saharan Africa. Sesheke has the timber and other resources that can help develop this district....Unless we have established markets or stable investors in this industry, the country risks losing a lot of money from illegal timber export. The timber which is being smuggled today is costing a lot of money in some of the neighbouring countries and Europe...This sector is rich but at the moment, the few Zambians engaged in this timber industry are small-scale traders who are even exploited because of lack of an established market and certain policies to support their dealings in this industry..."

An extract from a report by excellent Doreen Nawa on how the people of  Mulobezi area in Sesheke district are losing out from foreign exploitation of the timber industry. Illegal export of timber is costing many countries millions of dollars largely through western companies.

Mining Reflections: Proposition Two (Update), 2nd Edition

An update to "proposition two" that demonstrates that even government is aware of the environmental carnage being wrecked by mining companies. Unfortunately Minister Namugala seems to be at sea with what to do:

“We need resources and more needs to be done in advocacy; one of the challenges in this sector is that we do not have vocal civil society organisations to speak on issues of the environment. We are not doing enough and I call on civil society to help us do so...."

Why should it be up to Civil Society Society?  This is pathetic to say the least. A government minister begging civil society to give it hand to enforce its own regulations?  People pay taxes so that the Minister does her job. Who exactly runs our country? If Namugala is unable to do her job perhaps its time to resign?

Related Posts :

Mining Reflections: Proposition Two (Update)

Mining Reflections: Proposition Two

Chinese chicken farmers in Zambia

A BBC news video report on Chinese chicken farmers in Zambia. Predictably not everyone is happy.

Update (15 February) :  The video is now available :

Mining Reflections: Proposition Three (Update), 3rd Edition

An update to proposition three that demonstrates the poor conditions of mining workers. Excerpt below :

Miners at Chambishi NFCA mine rioted on Wednesday night burning three vehicles to ashes, looting their canteen and smashing windows on some buildings. The miners’ action is said to have been spurred by their on-going discontent over terminal benefits following their transfer from NFCA mining department to JCHX, a new company that has been formed within NFCA....About three weeks ago, workers at the same mine protested over alleged under-payment of their terminal benefits since their transfer from NFCA mining department to another company JCHX. The angry workers then said it was a mockery for management to pay some of them as little as K500,000 for their terminal benefits when copper prices were so high and production at the firm was good.....

We hope to return soon the "mining reflections" series to complete the other propositions. The beauty of blogging is the series never end.  

Related Posts :

Mining Reflections : Proposition Three (Update), 2nd Edition
Mining Reflections : Proposition Three (Update)
Mining Reflections : Proposition Three

Corruption Watch (Mpongwe Council)

Media reports that Deputy Minister for Mines Gabriel Namulambe has been allocated more than seven plots by the Mpongwe District Council. The Parliamentary Committee on Land and Development visited the council to find out how the K500 million land development fund meant for opening up land was used in the area. The reports come after similar revelations at various councils, especially Lusaka City Council.  More details via The Post.

The Case for Windfall Taxation

An interesting article from the PF Vice President appears to defend the logic of the windfall tax along the lines articulated on this website. Of course he has written this in his personal capacity, but it is encouraging that he has recognised the key problems with the status quo and how the windfall tax remedies that. 

Getting our pound of flesh, Guy Scott, The Post, Commentary :

The constant hubbub over the copper mining windfall tax, coming from opposition leaders and NGOs, must be disturbing to investors in the sector. Yes, they have guarantees from the current government that the dreaded WT will not come back for many years, but what is such a guarantee worth in a country where the government can change overnight (even if the Electoral Commission has zero credibility at present)?

Agents of Poverty (The Church)

"The Church has been compromised and some of these new bishops just want to drink coffee with the Republican President. The Church has made things worse by failing to stand for the majority of people suffering in society....The Catholic Church is being called names for speaking out against injustices in society. This should be the spirit of the Church because that is what Christ would do… help the poor in society...The rich are getting filthy rich while the poor have become much poorer. This is not the way the country should be run"

Bishop Mambo on how the Church has become compromised and are now effectively agents of poverty.

Broke Institutions (ECZ), 5th Edition

Earlier this month it was revealed that the government owes the Electoral Commission of Zambia (ECZ) a staggering K92 billion through unpaid allowances that have accumulated through the continuous mobile voter registration exercise. The debt is owed to electoral officers and transporters. According to the ECZ, "the commission is operating under very difficult conditions, and in the first phase of the voter registration, Government remained with a balance of K22 billion, which was supposed to be paid to the field workers. From the time we commenced the second phase of the exercise, Government owes us K92 billion. We are supposed to pay our field workers their outstanding arrears and some transporters whom we engaged to help us with the transportation of our field officers".  The debt remains and one need not be a genius to understand why these officers help with rigging elections. They are ripe for rigging! 

It has long been our central assertion that at the heart of our poor institutional performance is deliberate and calculated failure not to fund institutions. The problem is not that key institutions and laws don't exist, they do, the problem is lack of adequate support to ensiure they function properly. There's a lack of political will in many areas. How else does one explain why the National Constitutional Conference (NCC), making new laws got more money (and smoothly), than an already legal office like the ECZ, obliged under law to fulfil its duties? 

Related Posts:

Broke Institutions (ECZ), 4th Edition

Broke Institutions (ECZ), 3rd Edition

Broke Institutions (ECZ), 2nd Edition

Broke Institutions (ECZ)

Barriers to Justice (Crowded Prisons), 2nd Edition

Some interesting reports focusing on Zambia's overcrowded prisons.

Early last month we had the annoucement that Zambia's prison overcrowding now stands at 250%. According to the Zambia Prisons Service commissioner, Percy Chato, the government's strategy is to ease congestion through greater releases via the parole system. The only problem is that with such staggering overcrowding  and poor resources, you either let all criminals out or you keep up with the inhumane conditions.

The Human Rights Commission recently noted that overcrowding is leading to the problem of sodomy because prisoners sleep close to each other. According to the the HRC part of the problem is the “53 prisons that we have in this country were built with some punitive aspect in mind…to humiliate you...” That overcrowding leads to rape and general poor health conditions is well established. Deputy commissioner of the Prison Service Dr. Chisela Musonda recently suggested that 63 percent of inmates in Zambian prisons are infected with HIV/AIDS. That clearly is much higher than the general prevalence rate of the population and can only be attributed to rampant rape and other activities.

It does not appear that the government has no credible prisons policy apart from limited TB programmes. It recently launched a US$1 million programme  to improve screening, diagnosis and treatment of tuberculosis infection in Zambia’s prisons. The problem of course remains that there are very few dedicated health facilities in our prisons. Out of 86 prisons only 15 have clinics.

The big problem with congestion is definitely infrastructural. We need to build more prisons and actually get the private sector more involved. But the other problem is the courts. 35% of our prisoners may actually not be criminals at all! They are there on remand. The slow pace of the justice system is therefore largely to blame for the congestion as thousands remain in custody waiting for their cases to be disposed of.  According to the Prisons Care and Counseling Association (PRISCCA)  there are over 6,000 inmates waiting for their cases to be disposed of. The only way this can be resolved is through speeding up trial and improving bail enforcement to allow for fewer remandees.

PRISCCA for its part would like to see more use of  non-custodial sentences for certain offences to reduce the numbers of people sent to prison. At present there's no legal instrument that compels judges, magistrates and presiding justices to impose non-custodial sentences such as community service. But community service is only useful if trials can actually be processed.

Related Posts :

Barriers to Justice (Crowded Prisons)

Lusaka Basic Needs Basket - January 2011

The latest Lusaka Basic Needs Basket and the associated press release for January 2011 - focusing on the minimum wage. In October the basic needs basket for a urban family of six stood at K3,019,100 (or US$629).
Lusaka Basic Needs Basket - January 2011

How the copper mines won, 6th Edition

We have now crossed the 10k per tonne threshold. In November 2010 we predicted the march towards the magic 10. This is no time to celebrate that "we told you so", it is an occasion of sadness because our people are wallowing in poverty when rich executives at First Quantum and elsewhere are lining up their pockets. There's now clear evidence following the Mopani audit that government is in collusion with the mines and has refused to make available to the Zambian public all available information. 

Food, Copper and Kwacha

Standard Chartered assessment of the economic outlook through to 2012. Nothing out of the ordinary but always useful to have numbers in a single place :

Food, Copper and Kwacha, Amina Adewusi, Standard Chartered Global Focus, Market Intelligence (Subscription required) :

We remain constructive on the Zambian kwacha (ZMK) due to continuing strong fundamentals in Africa’s largest copper producer. Elevated copper prices and a sustained trade surplus backed by record agricultural output should support the ZMK throughout 2011. Notwithstanding elections, due by September 2011, we expect the ZMK to strengthen to 4,500 against the US dollar (USD) by the year-end.

Our forecast is based on a number of factors. First, we expect ongoing support for copper prices this year, underpinned by tight supply and accelerating Chinese demand. The latest data from the Bank of Zambia (BoZ) shows that FX reserves stood at USD 2.16bn in October 2010, up 17% y/y. With copper earnings accounting for around 70% of Zambia’s FX reserves, a further rise is likely, underscoring positive sentiment towards the currency.

Book Reading Goal : Week 6

I have now finished book two of the four part series on church history by Nicholas R Needham. This week I read 2000 Years of Christ's Power, Part Two : The Middle Ages released in 2000. I found this volume very interesting largely because I have always been fascinated by middle ages history. Naturally the volume covers all the church thinkers during that period, most prominently Aquinas, Bernard of Clairvaux and Ockham, but also its discussion of Charlemagne and other rulers was fascinating. A wonderful read.

Book Reading Goal Review
Books Read So Far : 5 book

Remaining Books to Achieve Target : 45 books

Weeks Remaining to Achieve Annual Target : 46 weeks

Zambia Weekly - Volume 2, Issue 6

Zambia Weekly - Week 6 , Volume 2, 11 February 2011

Ouch!

“There is something wrong in the whole management of this important resource copper...For as long as the mining companies continue to provide pecuniary partisan benefits to the MMD at the expense of the nation, those benefits will continue to sway the minds of the current fiscal managers"

Bob Sichinga highlighting a form of  "lobbying" that is necessarily corrupt.

Mining Sector : An Industry Perspective

An industry perspective on recent mining developments. Naturally, a lot of praise for Zambia's low fiscal regime, but also an "insider" hint (?) about a potential new Mining Act. Not sure whether that is intended to a pre-election give away or a post-election reward (as was case in 2008 with the abolition of the windfall tax) :

Zambia’s mining sector looking good, Mining Review, Commentary :

All jurisdictions have their issues and difficulties that mining companies need to take into account when making their investments. In general, it has become a bit harder to do business as a mining company in many parts of the world. That means those jurisdictions which do provide a reasonably friendly mining policy and regulatory environment give themselves a great advantage over other places where narrower interests hold sway.

It seems Zambia is heading in the right direction, and is giving itself a very good chance to sustain itself as one of the world’s major producers of copper. Zambia’s chamber of mines general manager Frederick Bantubonse recently told my colleague Lionel Williams, who has done the series of articles in this edition featuring that country and mining companies operating there, the signs are good that the Zambian government is about to implement an investor friendly Mining Act. This will open the door to further foreign investment that has been sitting on the fence watching potential outcomes.

Threats Against Zambian Economist

As many of you know we make great effort to put out information and hold government to account. In taking forward this website we of course continue to receive threats from largely supporters of the current government - the usual "we will get you" or "we will shut you down" looms large. As recent as December 2010 even one relative was contacted on my account. These things of course don't bother me because every noble cause carries some sacrifices. I have always published and written with a clean conscience before God. In this vein I pay zero attention to such threats and until now I have never mentioned to readers. A time will come when this website is no more, but I am convinced such threats will never be the reason to stop updating it.

The reason I mention this now is because we have just uploaded a report passed onto us by concerned people and we now had yet again someone issuing threats that we should not have done so. I apologise to the readers that we have to remove the report. We hope the Zambian government, and the MMD in particular would stop this activity of threatening me constantly. I also hope that they will show some leadership and begin to publish reports that should be in the public domain. If they give people the information they deserve we would all get along nicely. 

Pilot Audit Report – Mopani Copper Mine

The secret audit of Mopani's tax avoidance practices are now laid bare in this report by Amis de la Terre et al:
Pilot Audit Report - Mopani Copper Mine (Summary)

Parastatal Madness, 12th Edition

More madness reveal in the last few weeks, particularly on the employment obligation front.

Teachers on the Copperbelt are owed more than K50 billion in unpaid allowances that have accumulated over a period of 10 years. According to the Zambia National Union of Teachers (ZNUT) Copperbelt government has not shown any serious commitment towards settling the outstanding arrears : “We heard that after The Post reported on the billions government owed health workers, officials at the Ministry of Finance acted swiftly and released K50 billion as part payment. We want government also to do the same with the teachers who have never seen their allowances for a decade now".

That of course is nothing compared to the parallel revelation from the Education Ministry that Government owes University of Zambia and the Copperbelt University K500bn in terms of benefits for retirees and other personal matters. How one can expect these institutions to be motivated to perform is beyond me. 

I think its fair to say the madness will never end...and this thread will continue. 

Related Posts :

Parastatal Madness, 11th Edition

Parastatal Madness, 10th Edition

Parastatal Madness, 9th Edition

Parastatal Madness, 8th Edition

Parastatal Madness, 7th Edition

Parastatal Madness, 6th Edition

Parastatal Madness, 5th Edition

Parastatal Madness, 4th Edition

Parastatal Madness, 3rd Edition

Parastatal Madness, 2nd Edition

Parastatal Madness

Investment Watch (Cement)

Sub-Sahara Africa’s largest cement manufacturers, Obajana Cement Plant is set to commence operations in the country after the rain season. According to ZDA  the cement plant will see about US$ 400 million being injected with an employment base of 1,600 jobs. More detail via Muvi. 

Sixth National Development Plan (2011-15)

The government launched its Sixth National Development Plan last week. We have embedded the Launch Speech and Executive Summary below. Being a details man,  I have yet to read both because I am waiting for the full SNDP when they get round to making it available. I was told by the Ministry of Finance that the document was too large to email.

Does inequality matter?

A nice little response from Daron Acemoglu which reinforce what we have previously discussed. Yes, it matters because economic and political power are interlinked :

Here are three main reasons why society may care about inequality. First, people's well-being may directly depend on inequality, for example, because they view a highly unequal society as unfair or because the utility loss due to low status of the have-nots may be greater than the utility gain due to the higher status of the haves. Second and more importantly, equality of opportunity may be harder to achieve in an unequal society. Many economists have, by and large rightly, focused more on poverty than inequality. Poverty not only causes low standards of living and poor health but damages both individuals and society by preventing those at the bottom from realising their potential, perhaps because they are unable to obtain a decent quality of education to prepare them for competition in the labour market. While poverty is clearly the more important factor in creating a non-level playing field, inequality may also be a nontrivial factor: those with greater wealth provide to their children resources and thus opportunities that the less wealthy cannot, and this may make it more difficult for society to achieve equality of opportunity.

Third and most importantly, inequality impacts politics. Economic power tends to beget political power even in democratic and pluralistic societies. In the United States, this tends to work through campaign contributions and access to politicians that wealth and money tend to buy. This political channel implies another, potentially more powerful and distortionary link between inequality and a non-level playing field. It may also create pathways from inequality to instability, because both the economic and political implications of inequality can create various backlashes.

Mine Watch (Nyimba)

Canada's Mukuba Resources recently confirmed positive results for a combination of zinc-copper-silver mineralisation in the Nyimba area. According to the CEO Trevor Richardson the results from Nyimba gave Mukuba Resources Limited confidence to move ahead on this “exciting” base metal prospect. More detail via The Post.

Book Reading Goal : Week 5

This week I completed The Musakanya Papers : The Autobiographic Writings of Valentine Musakanya, by Valentine Musakanya edited by Miles Larmer. As the title suggests it brings together autobiographical notes by Valentine Musakanya. To many people Mr Musakanya is best known for the 1980 coup attempt and his subsequent acquittal, but this book opens your mind to a true intellectual who was raised from humble beginnings to the heights of power. One key feature that stands out from Musakanya's writings is the independent streak and desire to place truth at the heart of Zambia's development pursuit.  Nothing exemplifies this approach than the quote below :

I have fount out that although I love Zambia so much, I perhaps love a truthful approach more, because only the latter will make her truly free.

The only downside is that the book is perhaps too short and pricey for many people. I suspect that is due to insufficient economies of scale. One hopes as many Zambians begin to appreciate their works high quality products will come down in prices.   

Book Reading Goal Review

Books Read So Far : 4 book

Remaining Books to Achieve Target : 46 books

Weeks Remaining to Achieve Annual Target : 47 weeks

Zambia Weekly - Volume 2, Issue 5

Zambia Weekly - Week 5, Volume 2, 04 February 2011

Investment Watch (Steel Plant)

Tanzania's MM Steel Integrated Steel Mills Ltd is venturing into the Zambian market with an intended $40 million plant. The investment is in two phases with US $20 million going into the first phase of the plant for production of corrugated roofing sheets with installed capacity of 4,000 tonnes a month and employing 200 people. The other US $20 million will go into the second phase in which the firm will be manufacturing colour roofing sheets. More detail via The East African.

Humble Pie

Today, we need to start from scratch, and develop a new economic paradigm. We need a little more humility about the power of policies and markets. We need to better understand the complex linkages between the financial system and the broader economy—and also the linkages between countries themselves. Most important of all, countries need to work together to build a more successful and more stable global economy. This cooperation will be the major legacy of the crisis, and it must not be squandered.

IMF's Dominique Strauss-Kahn on new policies for a new world. 

Bigger than Lumwana? 3rd Edition

Canada's First Quantum Minerals plans to invest $1 billion in a new copper mine dubbed "Trident" - development to start in 2011 and finish by 2014. The investment will include a copper smelter to handle concentrate from a mine expected to produce 300,000 tonnes of copper annually at peak production. According to FQM President, Clive Newall, "the initial capital investment for the project will be approximately $600 million, rising to $1 billion with construction of a new 1.0 Mtpa copper smelter..an additional $400 million would be spent on future upgrades". The investment will allegedlly come with a new town and a multi-facility economic zone which will directly em ploy 2,000 people. Coverage in various sources including Mineweb and Reuters.  No word on their fiscal assumptions.

Its election year of course and a lot riding at stake. Investments become real when they actually materialise. This is not the first time we have heard of a proposed investment bigger than Lumwana. We have yet to see the great Zhongui Mining Group project which promised to deliver 34,000 jobs. Caution should therefore be advised. 

The Folly of Food Export Bans

"It is quite clear to me that if exports of staple agriculture products are not liberalised, the commercial farmers will only grow crops which they will export because they sell these in forward markets even before they plant...In terms of exports, the paradox is that small-scale farmers are the ones who grow the staple crop and if there is a surplus, then there is an export ban, by the time a decision is taken to allow for exports, the prices will have come down...It is my objective assessment that this situation keeps the small scale farmers in perpetual poverty."

COMESA secretary general Sindiso Ngweny essentially repeating what many others have e.g Food Security and Trade Restrictions, Problem of Expediency and A Better Vision for Agriculture.

Investment Watch (Agriculture)

Saudi firm Menafea Holding allegedly plans to invest $125 million in a 5,000 hectare farm in north-western Zambia during 2011, where it will grow pineapples and build a factory to produce juice. According to firm, "We have been granted 5,000 hectares of land to grow pineapples using the latest technology and are going to put up a factory to produce juice for local consumption as well as export". Not sure how this land is being procured and from which chief. More detail via Reuters.

Elected Monarchism

It is incredible that in a country called a democracy, the President with a few advisors could conclude an arrangement to spend K240 million of public funds without even a courtsey of laying the terms before Parliament. Not even the Ministry of Finance was legally authorised to supervise the public funds involved. This [elected monarchism] cost Zambia its national sovereignty and plenty of money.

Valentine Musakanya, excerpt from The Musakanya Papers : The Autobiographic Writings of Valentine Musakanya. We have been tweeting / face booking some quotes from this exciting book edited by Miles Larmer. Musakanya speaks of a different era but the problems are here with us. 

Help Re-Brand Zambia

Zambia Tourism Promotion

Zambian Media As Agents of Poverty

By Chola Mukanga

One of the key developments in economics in the last decade has been the emergence of the “institutional school” led by Acemoglu[i] and others. At the heart of their analysis is that development is an outworking of the struggle for power because it is the distribution of power that determines the evolution of institutions, which in turn determines policy. Properly understood, at the heart of Zambia's poverty is that our political system does not work for the poor, it works in the interest of the elites that combine to pursue policies that enrich themselves. This view therefore sees the distribution of power in Zambia as the fundamental cause of poverty, and goes beyond basic ("proximate") explanations i.e. aid dependence, culture or corruption. The power resides in what could be called “agents of poverty". These are key constituent groups that are aligned against the interests of the poor (due to the underlying incentive structure) and unless their power is broken there can be no sustained pro-poor changes in Zambia.

In future “leading voices” short papers, we shall examine some of these key agents and what reforms are necessary to rebalance our society in favour of the poor. In this note we reflect on the media, with a special emphasis on the print media given its more visible thrust on everyday life. It is not possible to give a full account of their role in perpetuating poverty, but it is hoped a high level narrative is sufficient to foster public debate.

Always a player, never a bystander

The media is a cardinal part of society and has the ability to leverage its power to dictate and direct governance outcomes through “soft power”, and by extension affects the scale of poverty. It does this through a number of ways. 

The media can affect the level of transparency and accountability in our society. If the press was free we would for example expect a high degree of information compared to a government controlled press. As Kauffman[ii] has demonstrated, the best way to encourage corruption is to ensure government owns the television, heavily regulates local radio stations and has a strangle hold over the printed press.  The best available evidence shows that corruption is lower when the press is free. Indeed one of the weaknesses of the Public Interest Disclosure Bill[iii] is that it is predicated on a media willing to blow the whistle on corrupt public practice, but the incentives to do that are limited when such a media is publicly owned or falls under powerful private actors. 

The media is also able to influence public opinion directly, especially during election periods when it becomes a principle channel of information. Specifically, the media has the ability to affect people's preferences about government policies; and, actively defines the legitimacy of a sitting government (and the opposition). The media helps to “define” what is socially acceptable and is usually an urgent of cultural change. Often things that are not considered important by the majority can be transformed and made more acceptable by the media. It is for this reason that during times of military insurrection, great effort was made by protagonists to control the media. For example at the heart of the coup attempts by Luchembe and others, there was great effort to control what was then seen as the prime and immediate lever of communication – Zambian National Broadcasting Corporation (ZNBC). The culprits thought that if someone could be seen on television they may get their message out and win over popular support. As Joseph Goebbels the Propaganda Minister for Adolf Hilter's Nazi Germany is reported to have said "If you tell a lie big enough and keep repeating it, people will eventually come to believe it". People literally begin to change their views and policy preferences.

The failed coup attempts also helpfully points to the media’s ability to "legitimise" public policy direction. As the media takes central place in our society, it increasingly acts as a key driver of the “social narrative”. The place of truth in Zambia is increasingly been eroded and what has begun to emerge is a “contest of narratives”. In an era of public relations and “official spokespersons”, it is now about who controls the media story rather than the veracity of what is being propagated. More information means people have less time to sit and digest all the data, they now look to the media to interpret the very meaning of issues reported by the media! In Zambia, this often means that the person who literally shouts loudest on an issue drives the policy agenda. Reason and evidence rarely play any part. The media is therefore not a neutral agent. To put it more starkly, if tomorrow the large majority of the Zambian media (both public and private) decided that Zambia is indeed a poor country and there needs to be urgent policy change, and they spread this message to our rural areas and kept repeating it day in and day out, the chances are that the public will come to believe the new narrative. If the media was convinced that there's no justice for the poor, the public will follow suit. Information is a key ingredient in demanding change, that's why governments around the world spend huge amounts of money and other resources trying to control mediums that supply it (e.g. Wikileaks scandal, Egyptian and Tunisian government control of internet access).

Of course media influence is not unidirectional - it also potentially acts as a mirror of society. The media does to some extent reflect society. For many people who want to check the "pulse" of Zambia, they only need to look at what the media is reporting. Few individuals have the incentive to travel from Shang'ombo to Mpulungu to gather raw information. The media potentially eliminates these information costs and summarises for us what is happening. Indeed, this tends to be the main defence employed by media houses when they are put under the microscope. They often respond that their news coverage simply reflects what is happening or what people want to hear.

There’s some truth in that, but we have to remember that the degree to which the media reflects society depends on the extent to which the underlying incentives forces media houses to reflect society's preferences. Those incentives depend on who media sources ultimately regard as their "sovereign". One of the most basic tenets of economic thinking is that in a perfectly competitive environment there's "consumer sovereignty". That is to say the consumer is king! Ordinary consumers dictate the direction of production through their purchasing power.  Unfortunately, in Zambia media production is heavy influenced by the arm of government (incidentally government also has significant purchasing power - not quite a monopsony across the piece but in some segments it has huge buying influence e.g. it consumes a lot of state owned newspapers. Nearly half of all Daily Mail and Times of Zambia newspapers are bought by GRZ, making that particular segment a huge internal market - papers produced by government for government’s benefit and bought by government). Much of the print media product is heavily controlled and we have many mediums directly owned or controlled by political entities.

A captured medium

It is well known among many Zambians that all the government owned press is controlled by the party in government. This fact indeed is not disputed even by the ruling party. Jeff Kaande openly acknowledged[iv] that, “we are not against the press, we are just saying 'write the truth about MMD, write the truth about Rupiah Banda, write the truth about Kunda, write the truth about Jeff Kaande', respect the leadership.....The most unfortunate part is that Daily Mail and Times of Zambia if they are here, you are not helping us also even though you are ours.......for the past six months we are just reading 'Rupiah Banda', 'George Kunda must resign', 'Jeff Kaande is giving money to cadres.' Hmmm there's no other news?".  Mr Kaande’s claim, clearly intended to put pressure on the Daily Mail and Times of Zambia, served only to highlight the current plunder of national resources. To take national property and call it "ours", is clearly a form of theft. Is there any other way to describe it? Yes, formal transfer into the party in government has not taken place, but it may as well be because de-facto theft is clearly at play here. To all intents and purposes Mr Kaande and his colleagues clearly believe and forcefully demand that national assets like the Times of Zambia and Daily Mail are property of the MMD.   The late Hon Tetamashimba (RIP) was a champion of this destructive behaviour, but at least he was honest. He once remarked: "As for me, I would be happy if the government controlled media also publish about me that I have stolen and not to hide..."[v]. It appears that in the language of the ruling party, the notion of a controlled media is well accepted.

It is difficult to understand why a party elected by a well meaning populace would use state machinery to enrich its aims, but part of the problem is largely due to the media itself failing to distinguish the nature of the Zambian state. Nothing illustrates this more than the perverse tendency in media reports to confuse “the party in government”, “the Executive branch” and “the nation state”. Often things done by “by the party in government”, through the Executive, are incorrectly attributed to the “the state”. We shall not even comment on the failure of the public media to recognise the legislature and judiciary as legitimate arms of government. At the heart of all this is the absence of “consumer sovereignty", which can only be genuinely present in a truly competitive atmosphere. What is revealed above is that the government not the ordinary Zambian consumer dictates significant elements of the media product.

But how can this be?  How is it that much of the public media is complicit in perpetuating poverty? One of the reasons is what a friend has called “rogue journalism”. One of the reasons why corruption is so insidious and difficult to fight in Zambia is that journalists are actually some of the most corrupt people. In fact the media knows this only too well which is why some in the private domain continue to argue for some form of regulation.  Stories abound of journalists being bribed and failing to report matters properly. In this it becomes clear that corruption does not exist in a vacuum. Although many Zambians politicians are devilishly corrupt, they feed on a clique of corrupt journalists who they reward with cash, or promotions or political appointments for protecting them from scrutiny. This is especially so with those in the public media. It is on this very point that a 2008 Post Editorial[vi] noted that “Zambian journalists seem to be torn between the pursuit of the truth and their desire of being in good terms with the powerful. The main form of corruption in our journalism today are the many guises of social climbing on the pyramids of power”.

Here again we meet the corrupt arm of those that control the levers of executive power because even for journalists who may try not to succumb to such bribes their options are limited in a government controlled environment. This form of corrupt behaviour is rampant in the public media. The only way the war on poverty can be won in Zambia is by cutting off the arm of government! Only then will 'rogue journalism' be dealt a strong blow. It’s only then will the glimmer of hope emerge that journalists will seek to represent the public and not their pockets. The public media is now full of state agents spying on independent thinkers within their circles who refuse to compromise professional ethics. 

In our appraisal of these challenges we must not be blind that this is only problem for the public media. As Rodrik[vii] has helpfully reminded us, institutional forms do not neatly map onto functions, and we know that for development it is “functions” that are important. Similarly, a private press does not uniquely map to a free press. It is the “free press” we want not the type of ownership. Yes, all media should be free of government hands and operate with a free rein but the aim should be a “free media” not solely a “private one”.  In Zambia we have a few media houses in television and print which are private but they have come to dominate their markets and appear captured by powerful individuals. There’s much to say for example for local radio stations which are de facto monopolies in remote areas, but for brevity let’s stick to the theme of the “printed press”.  While much of the media induced poverty stems from the public printed media, we must not forget that democratic ideals are just as vulnerable to the whims of individuals as to those who wield state mandated power. This point is unfortunately ignored in many debates and where it is highlighted poor solutions are proposed

A recent international comment on the Zambian media reflects the limited understanding of many observers. The Economist magazine recently noted[viii], "Zambia’s only independent paper, the Post, is entertainingly merciless.....most of its stories are worthy, challenging conventional wisdom and powerful interests, and often exposing failings in all three of Zambia’s main political parties". Ignoring that the obvious point that the Post is not the “only” licensed independent paper, the statement is still not without difficulties. The Post is privately owned, and therefore de-jure independent from government but not de-facto independent from external forces. Indeed, in recent past there have times when the Post has appeared de-facto dependent on government players. Its not long ago when the then very pro-Mwanawasa Post, swiftly announced the winner of the 2006 election even before the Electoral Commission of Zambia (ECZ) was half way through the count. Who can also forget the Post’s remarkable silence during the Mwanawasa incapacity saga? As much as we admire the Post, we should concede that it is as politically independent as the Murdoch press. The Post is just as captured by powerful political interests as the public media on the opposite end.  The point here is not to criticise a private enterprise which faces an impossible battle for freedom, in face of a corrupt elite, but rather to simply note that "free media" can be equally elusive for the private press.  Therefore any solutions must account for this reality.

The question is what should be done about these challenges? 

Competition is the key

The problems highlighted above in both the private or public press provides a strong a priori for considering some form of goverment intervention. Government has a responsibility to support the emergence of a genuinely free media that contributes positively to socio economic progress. A possible way of doing this is through encouraging genuine competition in the media through privatisation and deregulation. This situation is particularly urgent for the printed media.

It is worth emphasizing the privatisation point because there are some misguided voices that are misleading many. Some continue to pursue state mandated regulation as the answer to the private sector problems. Others equally believe that implementing “independent charters” and “boards” will solve inherent political bias. Both of these approaches exhibit limited understanding of fundamental problems.  We arrive at this conclusion because the market must always be the first recourse. Government and industry led regulation models become necessary if, and only if, competition fails to provide sufficient incentives to drive up standards. We must therefore begin by asking whether the media market is healthy. Is there dynamism and competition within it? Is the Zambia media market as competitive as it ought to be? The answer for the print media is certainly “no”. As we have noted the government controlled press continue to hold significant market power in certain segments of the market, which has tended to reinforce weaknesses of the privately owned media. Taking the printed press as a working example, with the Daily Mail and the Times of Zambia having lost all credibility, it has allowed the Post to become inefficient and dangerous player in the "independent” print media market. How often does one pick up the Post only to be saturated with adverts and poor analysis?  So not only is competition poor across the printed press, but actually the "independent" printed press niche itself is dominated by a single player. The key therefore is to increase this competition across the board.

There were hopes this might happen in 2009 when President Banda[ix] promised us new privatisation drive: “I wish to inform this House that my Government is considering a policy shift with regard to media ownership. My Government is assessing the possibility of considering privatising some of the state owned media organisations. This decision will help in enhance competition in the media industry”.  A stance which at the time was regarded by many as progressive. Nothing has happened. Indeed a recent report[x] from the Zambia Development Agency (ZDA) provides a list of entities that currently under consideration for privatisation with no mention of public media houses. One suspects that part of the problem is that the government controlled media probably oppose this move because they fear job losses. The losses are certainly inevitable when one considers the sales statistics recently revealed by the Ministry of Information[xi].

Indeed based on the latest revelations, it appears Daily Mail on life support financially. Evans Milimo (Managing Director) recently asked for a government bail out : “to get the company out of the financial quagmire, we request the shareholders, through your office sir to help us through a recapitalisation by an injection of K10 billion in the paid up share capital to enable the company buy more delivery vans, buy the computer to plate machine, replace old computers and refurbish the head office buildings….We request...write off the statutory debt, which at December 31, 2010 amounted to K40.2 billion. Most of this is historical debt and it is a combined figure owed to ZRA, NAPSA and Workers Compensation Fund Control Board. However, current obligations are being serviced monthly while a debt swap is being pursued with Workers Compensation Fund Control Board.” The plea is currently being considered by Finance Minister, after the request in January 2010 Zambia Daily Mail board chairman Chris Chirwa. It is not clear why the tax payer should continue footing the bill for a newspaper they hardly read. The only way to get Daily Mail back on a healthy financial footing is to privatise it. It remains to be seen how the Minister who refused to recapitalise ZAMTEL will deal with this request. Consistency demands that no further money is wasted on the paper especially where other can perform that function.  There’s no doubt that privatisation of the Daily Mail would be painful to the employees. But doesn't that just illustrate another way in which the private media keeps ordinary Zambians under poverty? We have a poor grandmother in Samfya paying tax to government which is used to keep a propaganda newspaper afloat that she will never read. The public printed media is literally holding Zambians like her hostage!

Dietrich Bonhoeffer once spoke of German literature at the height of Nazism in the following terms[xii] : "Do you know a work of literature written in the last, say, fifteen years that you think has any lasting value? I don't. It is partly idle chatter, partly propaganda, party self-pitying sentimentalism, but there is no insight, no ideas, no clarity, no substance and almost always the language is bad and constrained". That description fits the Zambian media very well, especially the public ones. We are hard pressed to remember reading or hearing anything from them that has sustainably added value to our country. Even the well intentioned are shoddy and lacking in meaningful quality. The public media especially is now an unnecessary luxury that has outlived its usefulness. What is worse is that the men and women who work there are complicit in this charade. They are to all intents and purposes agents of poverty. We must have no sympathy for those that trade moral rectitude for earning a paltry wage, even against impossible odds. It is morally repulsive to seek financial improvement at the expense of the poorest members of our society. Our people do not need a Department for Propaganda (like under the Nazis), which is what much of the public media is in practice. They need clear and unadulterated coverage of what is happening across the length and breadth of our land.  That calls for objective, fair and balanced reporting, especially in this election year.

It is beyond doubt that that the public media through its injustice in reporting falsehood is subjecting our most vulnerable people to more poverty. Poverty is man’s injustice on another. There's nothing patriotic about injustice. Zambia's public media does not serve the interests of our nation and to all intents and purpose stand as retrogressive forces against our poor. Unfortunately neither is some of the private media due to poor quality and lack of incentive to regenerate. The answer to these problems lies in greater competition which necessarily demands more privatisation, deregulation and supporting emerging media (e.g. local radio stations).

Chola Mukanga is the founder of the Zambian Economist which provides independent and non-partisan perspectives on Zambia's progress towards meaningful development for her people.

Copyright: Zambian Economist, 2011

www.zambian-economist.com

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[i] Acemoglu, Daron and Robinson, James – Economic Origins of Dictatorship and Democracy [2009], Cambridge University Press

[ii] Zambian Economist, Corruption Wars – Corruption and The Press [October 2007] http://www.zambian-economist.com/2007/10/zambias-corruptionwhose-to-blame.html

[iii] Zambian Economist, Public Interest Disclosure Bill 2010, [March 2010] http://www.zambian-economist.com/2010/03/public-interest-disclosure-bill-2010.html

[iv] Zambian Economist, Quiet Plunder? [May 2009] http://www.zambian-economist.com/2009/05/quiet-plunder.html

[v] Zambian Economist, In Government’s Palm [July 2009] http://www.zambian-economist.com/2009/07/in-governments-palm.html

[vi] The Post (Editorial) A Shameful Undertaking, https://docs.google.com/Doc?id=dn6qkw7_220hd6bm6fv

[vii] Dani Rodrik, One Economics, Many Recipes [2008], Princeton University Press

[viii] The Economist, U-turn on the long walk to freedom (Dec 2010] http://www.economist.com/node/17733679

[ix]Banda, Rupiah, Speech for The Official Opening Opening of the Fourth Session of the Tenth National Assembly http://www.scribd.com/doc/19998533/President-Rupiah-Banda-Parliament-Opening-Speech

[x] Zambian Economist, Status of Zambian Privatisation [Jan 2011]  http://www.zambian-economist.com/2011/01/status-of-zambian-privatisation.html

[xi] Zambian Economist, Government Media In Numbers [Nov 2010] http://www.zambian-economist.com/2010/11/government-media-in-numbers.html

[xii] Erick Metaxas, Bonhoeffer: Pastor, Martyr, Prophet, Spy [2010], Thomas Nelson Publishers