Awaiting further developments

I have asked for my teaching be compressed into 4 days so that I can use a Wednesday if necessary to travel on business to Livingstone. On returning from there yesterday I noticed at Makanga, a settlement about 15km away from Mwandi, a long gang of piece-workers shovelling sand and digging out a long trench. This is to contain the Chinese-sponsored fibre-optic cable that will eventually be laid from Livingstone to Sesheke once the Lusaka-Livingstone stage is complete.

I was struck by the stark contrast there: the inhabitants of a daub and wattle village digging the trench for 21st century technology to be made available to a fortunate minority in Mwandi and Sesheke, who will be part of the much vaunted global village, but which like the electricity pylons on the other side of the road, will pass the inhabitants of rural Makanga by.

On the other hand, we have made good progress with the Sikuzu Community School. The Bill of Quantities has been calculated and to build the three classrooms; materials and labour included, comes to K233m, $51,850 or GBP32,500. On Tuesday the Committee signed the contract and we hope to start work very soon.

We have at the moment a group of medical students and tutors staying with us at Simba. They come from Eastern North Carolina which too, like this part of Zambia, has a number health issues directly related to poverty. There is an important community aspect to their training and it is good for them to get to see matters from the perspective of a developing country. Most of them are paediatricians, so they have been happy to visit the Orphan and Vulnerable Children Project.

With the moving of the Labour Ward to the Maternity Unit that has freed up the second theatre, so Ida is working on organising the operating theatres and Central Stores. She is looking in particular at infection control and the possible establishment and future workings of the two theatres. They are also preparing for Quarterly District Assessment. Another task in hand is the repair of the leaks in the hospital roof.

We are expecting the return of Ruairidh from Australia in early March and Fiona and Lucy a month or so later when Fiona is given the all clear from with her thyroid from the Doctors there. We have missed them, Lucy has taken her first steps and now has her front teeth.

On Friday fuel was raised by over 11 per cent, the rise in global crude prices and the depreciation of the Kwacha against the dollar being given as the reasons. This will have an adverse affect on prices, food prices in particular and on the annual inflation rate. It takes 40 litres of diesel for a return trip to Livingstone. This will now cost K320,000 instead of K280,000. (GBP45 or $70)

The Council of Churches in Zambia (CCZ) has urged President Banda in a meeting with him to deal urgently and constructively with the contentious matters raised by Barotseland Agreement of 1964 and the issues arising from the recent sad turn of events in Mongu. The difficulty is that although Zambia is a unitary state, the Agreement brought about a quasi-federation between Northern Rhodesia and Barotseland which has in effect brought into being a state within a state, Western Province within Zambia. This is evidenced by the President of Zambia having to pay a courtesy-call on the Litunga (King) any time, he visits Western Province for any reason.

The underdevelopment being complained about is also being blamed by the Central Government on the traditional Lozi custom which forbids the purchase, selling or freehold ownership of land. It is being argued that no investor will invest in an area where they will not own the land. This argument, I imagine, is not unconnected to the fact that a number of multi-national companies have been recently allocated by the Central Government, blocks to prospect for oil, gas and other minerals.

This is election year for President, National Assembly and Local Government and so the CCZ also urged the Government to restore confidence in the Electoral Commission whose Director was suspended and did not have his contract renewed. The Chairwoman, widely viewed as a woman of integrity, resigned because of outside interference.

The Church expects a free, fair and violence-free election to be held on a level playing field and that people found abusing, stealing, diverting or misapplying hard-earned taxpayers money or other donor or government money be prosecuted without fear or favour. The Church also requested that the Government help to gather in and store the bumper maize crop too much of which is now rotting and going to waste in rural areas.

Finally, the Human Rights Commission in Mongu has been criticized by a Catholic body CARITAS for being ineffective in defending local people’s rights. In fact, the Commission is on record as supporting the police in its ‘noble’ efforts to maintain law and order, thereby defending the use of live ammunition to kill people. Arrested suspects were imprisoned and kept in containers along with injured people for 4 days without food or access to medical care. There are still 106 detainees incarcerated at Mumbwa and 22 people charged with treason in cramped conditions in Lusaka.