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In thIs Issue
Te Catholic Church has nally sotened its blan-ket ban on contraceptives – in the ace o the HIV/AIDS epidemic.In a new book, Pope Benedict XVI says the use o condoms may be justied in certain cases. He citesthe example o the use o condoms by male pros-titutes as “a rst step in the direction o moralisa-tion” even though condoms are “not really the way to deal with the evil o HIV inection” (Reuters inPost 22). Up until now the Vatican has preachedsexual abstinence and delity. Te pope’s remarks were hailed by liberal Catholics, AIDS campaigners and health agen-cies alike as a victory or common sense. “Tis is a signicant and positive step orward,” saidUNAIDS Executive Director Michel Sidibe. It “recognises that responsible sexual behaviourand the use o condoms have important roles in HIV prevention” (Reuters in Post 23).Last year, the pope was heavily criticised when during a visit to Arica he said that handingout condoms might worsen the spread o HIV as it could lead to promiscuity. Te new book – Light o the World: Te Pope, the Church and the Signs o the imes – isbased on a series o interviews with German Catholic journalist, Peter Seewald. When askedto clariy whether the Catholic Church is not opposed to the use o condoms in principle, thepope replied that “in this or that case” it can be “a rst step in a movement toward a dierent way, a more humane way, o living sexuality.” Te Pope, however, made it clear that condomscan be used to prevent HIV/AIDS – not babies.Although the Vatican a ew days later said the pope’s remarks also apply to women (Associat-ed Press 23), some Zambians did not think it went ar enough. Te HIV/AIDS organisation reatment Advocacy and Literacy Campaign (ALC) said condoms are not just a protectivemeasure against HIV and other sexually transmitted inections but a contraceptive.“It is not cynical to use the condom. Tey should tell their ock that the condom is not a badtool. Te priests and bishops must be realistic,” ALC country representative Felix Mwanzasaid, and added: “Condoms should be used at all times; not to bury our heads in the sand andsay that people should not have sex until ater marriage when we know what happens outthere” (Post 23). Tis week, the UNAIDS announced a nearly 20 percent drop in new HIV inections aroundthe world over the past decade – largely due to increased condom use. However, 22.5 millionpeople across Arica are inected with HIV – two-thirds o the world’s total (Reuters 23).
Wk 47, Volm 1, I 30, 26 novmbr 2010
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The catholic u-turn on condoms
Te catholic u-turn on condomsA - piecemeal - constitutionUK compensates Zambian terror suspectQuotesDon’t sell your Zain shares!Climate change adaptationNo more pine in 10 yearsDid he or did he not write those articles?Advert: Uudu specialised space solutionsRoad tax to increase with 50 percentRunning battles in brie 12223445678
Te Drug Enorcement Commission (DEC)is always vigilant. It is regularly publishingreports on the arrest o a housewie, a priest, a juvenile or some other – at rst glance – un-likely drug-trafckers. However, ater havingollowed these reports or some time anotherpattern emerges. Further down in most o thearticles about the merits o the DEC, one o-ten nds a general statement along the lineso “the DEC has said that this many people were arrested countrywide in the past thismany days or trafcking in this much canna-bis”. Tis week, the numbers were 60 peoplein the past 6 days caught out with a total o 1.8 tonnes o cannabis. On IndependenceDay, it was 26 people with 17.2 kilograms.In January, it was 52 people in 6 days with39 kilograms. A little bit o – debatable –arithmetic gives an annual average o around3,500 people being arrested, equivalent toabout 0.03 percent o the population. In theUSA, police arrested 872,720 people orcannabis violations in 2007, the highest an-nual number ever recorded. Tis correspondsto about 0.3 percent o the population. Onthe other hand, the USA is probably betterat catching violators than Zambia. In theUK, about 80,000 adults (0.1 percent o thepopulation) are arrested or cannabis pos-session every year, but 120,000 people dieannually rom smoking – cigarettes. Faced with growing pressure in developed nations,tobacco producers are shiting their attentionto the budding markets in the developing world. It would probably make more sensesocio-economically i Zambia would prohibittobacco rather than cannabis.
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Pope Benedict: []he sheer xation on the condom implies a banalisation o sexuality (...) o no longer seeing sexuality as the expression o love, but only a sort o drug thatpeople administer to themselves. Tere may be a basis in the case o some individuals, as perhaps when a male prostituteuses a condom, where this can be a rst step in the direction o a moralisation, a rstassumption o responsibility, on the way toward recovering an awareness that not every-thing is allowed and that one cannot do whatever one wants.Peter Seewald: Are you saying, then, that the Catholic Church is actually not opposedin principle to the use o condoms?Pope Benedict: She o course does not regard it as a real or moral solution, but, in thisor that case, there can be nonetheless, in the intention o reducing the risk o inection,a rst step in a movement toward a dierent way, a more human way, o living sexuality (bbc.co.uk 20).
What Pope Benedict XVI said about condoms:
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It is unfair for the opposion policalpares to say the ruling MMD has donenothing because it has performed well
i om ara, wil i or ara, id o work xra ard. so w old
give credit where it is due, instead of behaving like we are at war when we
ar all Zambia.
Opposition National Restoration Party (NAREP) spokesperson Francis Muso-nda (imes 20).
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A – piecemeal – constuon
Te new constitution will be ready beore the 2011 elections – but the connected reerendum, which touches on several electoral issues, is likely to be postponed.Vice-president George Kunda said the constitution-making process was on course and thatcabinet had approved the publication o the Constitution o Zambia Bill 2010 and the Con-stitution o Zambia (amendment) Bill 2010 in the government gazette. Te two drat bills willsubsequently be presented to parliament in February 2011 (Daily Mail/imes 19).However, said Kunda, who is also minister o justice, the drat bills have preserved part III(Bill o Rights) and article 79 o the current constitution including a total o ve clauses which were reerred to a reerendum by the National Constitutional Conerence. He saidcabinet has not yet decided on whether a reerendum would be held owing to its cost implica-tions considering this year’s census and next year’s elections. Te reerendum would be held “atan opportune time”, Kunda said (Post 19).One o the ve clauses is the 50% + 1 rule or selecting a president. Supporters o 50% + 1say it will ensure a popular president contrary to the current rst past the post system, wherea candidate can win with a lot less than the majority o votes – as long as the rest o the votesare spread amongst the other candidates. Te 50% + 1 clause works against the MMD, claimsthe opposition. In 2008, president Banda won with 40 percent o the votes and the opposi-tion believes his support will have dwindled by next year (Post 20/22) – which o course wasrejected by the MMD (imes 22). Te opposition predicted that the constitution and the 50% + 1 clause would become cam-paign issues in next year’s elections. Ater all, said Anti-Voter Apathy Project (AVAP) execu-tive director Bonnie embo, the clauses that were reerred to a reerendum, which the govern-ment has excluded, were more important than those that Cabinet resolved to amend.Another electoral issue that is being reerred is to have the election date enshrined in theconstitution to help the opposition prepare or the elections.
My instrucons are to advise you that if this programme is aired this weekend,the licensing authority would have is
- wi Radio Lyambai.
Inormation Permanent Secretary SamPhiri to Mongu Radio Lyambai’s stationmanager, Mukeya Liwena, on a plannedprogramme eaturing PF presidentMicahel Sata in a discussion about thesensitive Barotse Agreement o 1964(some westerners are calling or greaterautonomy) - Sunday Post.
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More than 2,200 subscribers:Business leaders, decision-makers, diplomats and the Zambian Diaspora.Zambia Weekly reaches your target market!Contact the editor or urther details.
Adverse in Zambia Weekly
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What happened specically in the caseof HIV/AIDS funding and the Global
Fd wa a rio problm a do b addrd, ad i’ imporao rmmbr a i problm wa
uncovered not by the donors, but by theZambian government.
US ambassador to Zambia, Mark Storella, advising the government tointensiy its eorts to stop misuse o donor aid (Post 20).
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Zambian-born Martin Mubanga is among seven ormer terror suspects who will receivecompensation rom the British government ollowing their detention at Guantánamo Bay.Mubanga, 34, has joint Zambian and British nationality ater his amily moved to the UK inthe 1970s. He is a ormer motorcycle courier and was raised as a Catholic beore converting toIslam in his 20s. He was arrested in Zambia in 2001 ater having spent time in Aghanistanand Pakistan. Te deal comes ater the UK government agreed to settle a series o High Courtactions brought by the group. It is understood Prime Minister David Cameron authorised thepayout negotiations in July ater a court ruling ordering the disclosure o 50,000 condentialdocuments. It is thought the government decided to make the payouts to avoid the expenseand embarrassment o the secret intelligence documents being made public (IVNEWS/SKYNEWS in Sunday Mail).
UK to compensate Zambian terror suspect
Never in the history of this country hasthe Auditor General’s oce raised sucheuphoria as they did in the RDA [RoadDevelopment Agency] audit. As a result
of a poria, w av o-
colonialism emerging. That is becausethe RDA started speaking in tonguesthat even the government failed tounderstand its own agency.
Namwala MP Major Robby Chizyuka(UPND) on donors who demanded ac-countability in the road sector(Sunday Post).
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Te Securities and ExchangeCommission (SEC) has allowedBharti Airtel to oer the minor-ity stakeholders in Zain Zambiaa price per share o 710 kwacha(Post 20 and Sunday Mail). InSeptember, it was otherwiserumoured that the SEC hadrejected a price o 710 kwacha –having previously recommended a price o 1,126 kwacha per share.Zain suspended trading on Lusaka Stock Exchange (LuSE) on 18August 2010 awaiting the nalisation o the mandatory oer to theshareholders o 21.11 percent shares listed on LuSE.Investment analyst Paul Kalumba advised minority shareholders notto sell: “[]heir shares are worth (...) more,” he said (Post 22). Teshares was bought initially at 640 kwacha per share, which translatesinto a premium o 70 Kwacha per share, equivalent to a prot o roughly 11 percent, Kalumba explained, but many Zambians bor-rowed at high interest rates to buy their shares. “I personally see smallinvestors and oreign investors pulling out o investing on LuSE asthey will not eel protected,” he warned (Post 22)Even Bharti Airtel advised the shareholders to hold on to their shares– albeit or dierent reasons. “We are not seeking delisting, we wouldreally want that our shareholders have condence in our uture planson how we will develop this company and hopeully this company stays listed,” said company chairman Sunil Bharti Mittal (Post 23). Te oer period is rom 22 November to 13 December 2010.
Don’t sell your Zain shares!
Copperbelt Saw-millers’ and imber Growers’ Association(COSIGA) predicts that Zambia will run out o pine tim-ber in the next 10 years. Every year, the industry is plantingless than 1,000 hectares o timber, but the parastatal ZambiaForestry and Forest Industries Corporation (ZAFFICO) isutilising 1,800 hectares – and then there is an added problemo thet. “[W]e can conclusively say that in the next 10 yearsZambia will run out o pine timber and will have to importto build houses,” said COSIGA chairman Nick O’Connor.He asked the Zambian government to release the 24 millionUS dollars donated by the Danish and Finnish governmentsor support to the private sector to empower and improve thetimber and orestry industry. In the meantime, COSIGAplans to assist ZAFFICO with planting and cultivation tomeet the 3,000 hectare per year o timber that Zambia needs(Post 19).
no mor pi i 10 yar
Newly privatised ZAMEL will invest 600 billion kwacha innew technology to enhance the country’s internet access andcapacity. ZAMEL is working with ZESCO to integratethe two organisations’ optic bres, and it is partnering withBotswana, Namibia and anzania to lay optic bre cables.Furthermore, ZAMEL wants to ensure that all landlineshave xed broadband internet, and it is planning to rollout 3G technology by January 2011. 200 o the 600 billionkwacha will come rom debt payments rom various – mostly government – institutions. “[A] number o ministries arestarting to pay their bills,” said ZAMEL chie commercialofcer Amon Jere, and some o them have gone onto pre-paidservices – a acility meant to assist in improving ZAMEL’scash-ow (Post 19).
Beer internet to come
Te Lusaka Stock Exchange has about 25,000 Zambianinvestors (Daily Mail 22).
This week’s gure
Airtel Zambia has with immediate eect replaced the Zain Zam-bia brand. Airtel is now the brand or Bharti Airtel’s 19 operationsin Asia and Arica covering 200 million customers. Bharti Airtelchairperson Sunil Bharti Mutal said the new brand comes with thepromise to deliver high quality customer benets. He said that lack o proper telecommunication inrastructure in Zambia has hindered thegrowth o the sector, however, Airtel intends to increase its sites romthe current 600 to 900 to widen the network coverage to the wholecountry by 2012 (imes 23).
Zain is now Airtel
Te Zambian milk market is being threatened by a largeinow o cheap milk products rom the eastern and southernArican regions. Kenya is said to be desperate or export mar-kets or its huge surplus o 1.6 billion litres o milk annually, whereas the Zambian dairy industry produces around 70 mil-lion litres per annum. Te Dairy Association o Zambia saidgovernment should protect the local milk industry as it is stillin its inancy. Last week, the Ministry o Livestock instructedthe Ministry o Commerce to lit the ban on importation o UH (ultra-heat treatment) milk rom Zimbabwe, and Zam-bia National Farmers Union now ears Kenyan UH milk.Apparently, raw milk costs 0.33-0.44 US dollars per litre inKenya compared to 0.50-0.53 US dollars in Zambia, mainly due to lower production costs and a more avourable climate(Daily Mail/Post 22).
Dairy industry under siege
Government is working on strategies to introduce number portability that will enable mobile phone users to change their service provider without changing their number – including the network identity number. Minister o ransport and Communications Georey Lungwanga said number portability is aimed at empowering users andenhancing competition among the operators (Daily Mail 19).
Change network - but not number
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