Universal Health Coverage (UHC), is top of the global health policy agenda and has been adopted as part of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). Public medical care in Zambia is free or heavily subsidized, which has led to a drop in quality of care given. Lack of medicines, indifferent and uncaring  behaviour by frustrated care givers and health professional the order of the day. Overtime, as the population has grown, it hasn't been possible to fully subsidize the sector. 

In 2018, Zambia passed a national health insurance (NHI) law, creating the National Health Insurance Management Authority (NHIMA). This move towards mandatory health insurance was a significant step towards universal health coverage in Zambia. In this article, we will compare the introduction of mandatory health insurance in Zambia with other public health insurance systems such as ACA, NHS, and NHI, and discuss the pros and cons of NHIMA.

The National Health Insurance (NHI) in South Africa is a health financing system designed to provide access to quality, affordable personal health services to all South Africans, regardless of their socio-economic status. Similarly, the NHS in the UK is a publicly funded healthcare system that provides free access to medical services to all UK citizens. The Affordable Care Act (ACA), also known as Obamacare, is a US law designed to improve the affordability and quality of health insurance in the United States. All three systems aim to provide affordable healthcare for all citizens.

One of the main advantages of mandatory health insurance is that it allows access to healthcare for everyone, regardless of their financial situation. This is particularly important in countries where poverty is widespread, and people cannot afford to pay for medical care out of pocket. In Zambia, the introduction of mandatory health insurance means that everyone will have access to basic health services, regardless of their ability to pay.

Another advantage of mandatory health insurance is that it helps to ensure that the costs of healthcare are shared among the population. This means that those who are healthier and use fewer medical services contribute to the cost of healthcare for those who are sicker and require more medical care. This principle of solidarity is at the heart of all public health insurance systems.

However, there are also some drawbacks to mandatory health insurance. One of the most significant concerns is that it can be challenging to set up and administer. In Zambia, the introduction of NHIMA has required a significant investment in resources and infrastructure to set up the new organization and ensure that it operates effectively. There is also the risk that mandatory health insurance could be used to fund low-quality healthcare services, which would be a significant disadvantage for citizens who are required to pay for the insurance.

Despite these potential drawbacks, the introduction of mandatory health insurance in Zambia is a positive step towards providing universal healthcare coverage for its citizens. The NHIMA has already sent technocrats to learn from other public health insurance systems, such as the ACA, NHS, and NHI. This shows that Zambia is committed to learning from the experiences of other countries to ensure that its health insurance system is effective and efficient.

In conclusion, the introduction of mandatory health insurance in Zambia is a significant step towards universal health coverage. While there are potential drawbacks to the system, the advantages of ensuring that everyone has access to affordable healthcare are clear. It is essential that the NHIMA learns from the experiences of other public health insurance systems to ensure that the system is effective, efficient, and provides high-quality healthcare to all Zambians.

Hakainde Hichilema - Zambia's 7th president

 Congratulations

Disgruntled Youth

A little belatedly, but this was not going to pass without my comments. This has been a very topical issue in Zambia of late. Of course, I did weigh in a bit on this using one of my social media accounts, but I had to post this here too. I am as passionate as they come when it comes to human rights and freedoms that citizens should enjoy.

In my ‘books’ there are citizen rights that should not even come up for discussion, they are birth rights. The Americans would sum these up as freedom to pursue 'life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness'. The fundamental rights and freedoms of the individual as enshrined in part III of the constitution of Zambia include the following, namely: 

Life, liberty, security of the person and the protection of the law; 

Freedom of conscience, expression, assembly, movement and association; 

Protection of young persons from exploitation; 

Protection for the privacy of his home and other property and from deprivation of property without compensation

The second bullet above from the bill of rights is as important as the other bullets. More times than not, these are the rights that are denied and most of the times systematically. This is what the youth have recently sworn that they will not tolerate to see the abuse perpetuated. 

There has been notable concern in Zambia of late about a culture of human rights abuses crippling in. The accusing finger has been pointed mainly at the government and their wings – especially the Police. Police brutality and use of live ammunition on unarmed citizens has been brought to the discussion table more often now, than ever before. Political rights and rights such as movement and assembly for opposition have literally been curtailed, while the ruling party operatives (members of the chipani), have been a force above even the police. Police officers have been ‘retired in national interest’ for standing up to these operatives from the ‘chipani’. Chipani is Nyanja translation for Party.

 

A number of radio stations have been attacked by ruling party operatives for interviewing and hosting opposition political party leaders. The radio stations have had to change tactic, when they wanted to interview an opposition leader, they opted to do it through the phone. However, this change of tactic hasn’t been enough to keep away the operatives from the ‘chipani’. The ‘Chipani’ operatives, have continued to attack any radio station interviewing the main opposition leaders, damaging equipment worth millions and putting the lives of the station management, presenters and other station workers in jeopardy.

 

There is one video that went viral where the operatives from the ‘chipani’ stormed a radio station in the north as a presenter interviewed Hakainde Hichilema, the main opposition party leader and this interview was also live on Facebook. The ‘Chipani’ operatives who were clad in muscle T-shirts seemingly looking like WWE rejects still intent on proving their relevance to the wrestling fraternity could be heard ordering the presenter to stop the program. The presenter could be heard talking back to these ‘thuggish’ looking members of the ‘chipani’ holding his own and this was all live on radio and Facebook.

 

The other attacks on opposition leaders include but not limited to the following;

·        December 2017 – National Democratic Congress (NDC) officials were attacked at 5fm radio and the interview interrupted.

·        April 2019 – NDC president Chishimba Kambwili attacked during a live interview on Power FM.

·        March 2020 – Democratic Party (DP) President attacked and blocked from featuring on a program on Radio Ichengelo.

·        July 2020 – Mafken radio station in Mufulira was attacked as they interviewed United Party for National Development (UPND) on phone.

·        May 2020 – Muchinga Radio is attacked as they interview UPND leader.

·        January 2020 – Feel Free Radio staff attacked for hosting NDC officials.

 

There were many more. The breaking point for many a citizen was when it was reported by various news sources that the ‘Chipani’ operatives had attacked Zambia’s biggest and most iconic police station -Lusaka central police. Police officers were beaten and allegedly ‘robbed’ of money. Before this event, there had already been discontent to this ‘chipani’ operatives and police love-hate affair, where it is generally perceived that the ‘chipani’ operatives are treated with kids’ gloves. They go about breaking the law(s) with impunity while the rest of the citizenry would be outrightly beaten, arrested, maimed and in some cases killed.

 

Mayhem ensued at University of Zambia great east road campus, and in responding to it, riot police were sent to the great east road campus and some students were beaten up, while tear gas canisters were thrown into student hostels. In the ruckus, one hostel caught fire allegedly from the teargas cannisters thrown into the hostel and the occupants of the hostel were trapped inside their hostel rooms. One student, 23year old Evelyn Choongo elected to jump from the October 2 hostel room 25 balcony which is on the third level of the building. She suffered multiple fractures, including a broken lower spine. Some of the female students escaped by climbing down through the window. Another student, Trudie Kalimbwe, who was the last to leave room 25 alive, suffered burns on her hands and hair before escaping through the door. Verspers Simuzhila on the other hand was not so lucky. She was found dead in the room due to suffocation. To date no Police officer has been charged for their part in the death of young Verspers.

 

In February 2020, eighth grader Frank Mugala was shot dead at the gate of Chazanga primary school as he stepped out for lunch. The 14-year-old was mistakenly shot as police reacted to an alleged terror threat where unknown people had been spraying some unknown chemical gas in public places including schools. The police on the other hand never seem to take responsibility of anything including another death where UPND sympathiser, Mapenzi was shot dead as she joined a group of UPND members on their way to attend a UPND political rally which Police cancelled at the last minute. There are a lot more cases not mentioned.

 

Suffice to mention, by the time of the death of young Frank Mugala, a lot of discontent and feelings of indifference towards Police had started to brew and musicians began to speak up. Others began to release songs in condemnation of all that was going on and had happened in the past. These voices grew louder, and they started to use their social media influence to record more messages to voice out everything they disapproved off, from economic and governance matters to even diplomatic matters. In May 2020, Kabwe born musician and a Mandela Washington fellow, Brian Bwembya (aka B-flow) recorded a video where he spoke out against most of the alleged wrongs that were causing discontent in many. In his video, he addressed an issue where the mayor of Lusaka had been made to apologise, following his revocation of trading licences of some Chinese owned businesses.

The Chinese owned businesses had attracted the wrath of the Lusaka mayor after one barbershop and another restaurant were alleged to have been denying black people entry in the pre-text that ‘black people had Corona virus (COVID-19). Another Chinese owned business was closed after repeatedly disregarding the mayor’s directive to release Zambian workers to go home to their families after allegedly being held hostage at the factory in fear that if they went back home to their families, they would get infected with the Corona virus and come back to spread the. Mayor Miles Sampa had also visited Chinese owned and managed Sinoma cement plant where a whistle blower had earlier reported that over 100 black workers had been held hostage inside the factory for about 8 weeks.

 

In the aftermath of the mayors apology, many Zambians among them Brian Bwembya, who famously got the fondness of former American president Barrack Obama for the messages in his songs which are social commentary and social campaigns for women’s rights and equality, started to question whose interests the Zambian government serves if they would censure and force an officer who acted in the interests of Zambians to apologise. Brian also took aim at the growing trend where anyone who spoke out as he had done, would be quickly branded a disgruntled opposition sympathiser. Brian’s video immediately got a response from Lusaka province minister who insinuated that Brian was being used by the opposition to issue such videos in order to sow seeds of discontent in citizens over an elected government.

 

The minister’s response immediately got a backlash response from citizens, mostly the youth. A protest was called for all willing to be a part of, but as the day drew closer, police started to release statements that indicated that the protesters would not be protected instead they would be arrested. Politician from the ruling party started to release statements that threatened the safety of all would be protesters with a specific threat directing the police to break the bones of the protesters. This threat had to be taken seriously. Although the economy was not doing well and everyone was expecting a frugal approach and not excessive spending, there was massive investments in riot equipment for the police instead. The big question was, what was the Police preparing for?

 

Anyway, when the day eventually arrived, true to their word the police were all over the Central Business District (CBD) carrying out patrols on the major highways seemingly looking for protesters. In a surprise turn of events, everyone was taken aback when no protesters showed up, but not long afterwards social media was awash with videos of live protests from unknown locations. The online live streaming of the protest at a location which was unknown somewhere in the bush was a very significant one. It was a message that, even though you don’t allow citizens to exercise our freedoms, the youth have a resolve to remain strong. Police cars were seen driving around in search of protesters, with heavily armed police looking like they were auditioning for a role in the Rambo movie or let alone a scene picked from the movie. No protester was found, but the act itself seemingly spelt out what we had already known. Our human rights are but now limited.

My View… my thoughts…

The fact that these ‘youths’ were forced to air their views in unknown locations is a sign of the shrinking democratic space in Zambia. In the first place this protest was born out of fear that the freedoms and rights of Zambians are slowly being taken away and everything is now at the mercy of politicians and the police which they control with no regard to what is enshrined in the constitution. In fact, to say politicians is an understatement, it is supposed to be edited to read – Chipani operatives. The freedoms of conscience, free speech/expression, assembly, movement and association are no longer fully enjoyed. 

 

The right to life is a basic civil right. Without this right, there can be no safety either for the individual or for the society. Every country and Zambia included must recognize the sanctity of life hence respect the right to life for all human beings. Right to freedom of thought and expression is also very important for personality development. Every person needs freedom to express and exchange with others their views and ideas. Every citizen has the right to move freely throughout the country and even the right to go abroad. Freedom of association and right to equality should all be protected, especially by the state.

 

All other human rights need to be protected as we co-exist, and we should not only recognize the ‘Chipani’ operatives while others go to meet their creator prematurely. In October 2019, an opposition party member was in Kaoma killed in broad day light after a fight started between members of two political camps and an operative of the ‘Chipani’ drew out a gun and shot dead Lawrence Banda a man they called Ghadafi. No one has been arrested for that gruesome killing to date. These occurrences continue to foment the discontent that is quickly growing, and the ruling party may live to regret their actions or their lack of action against their erring members, when election day dawns on 12^th August 2021.

 

All living humans should have certain rights protected. One does not have to be a particular kind of person or a member of some specific group like the ‘Chipani’ in order to enjoy human rights. These are inalienable rights we are all born with. It is no wonder human rights are repeatedly referred to as universal rights. Included in the idea of universality is some conception of independent existence. Granted, the idea of universality needs several qualifications, like the right to vote being held only by adult citizens or the right to freedom of movement not applicable to convicted persons, what we see however is a situation where these rights are being denied to those that should have them.

 

Human rights are matters of “paramount importance” and their violation “a grave affront to justice”. It is for this reason that human rights are both moral and legal rights, so much God given, hence inherent in all humans. Other countries like the USA, acknowledge this by the statement in the U.S. Declaration of Independence claiming that people are ‘endowed by their creator’ with natural rights to life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness. On this view, God, the supreme lawmaker, enacted some basic human rights.

 

We must all protect our human rights. The defining role, of human rights is protecting everyone’s ability to form and pursue conceptions of a worthwhile life and ‘personhood’. These are inherent to all human beings, regardless of race, sex, nationality, ethnicity, language, religion, or any other status. The right to life and liberty, freedom from slavery and torture, freedom of opinion and expression, the right to work and education, and many more. Everyone is entitled to these rights, without discrimination.

 

We do not need to be operatives of the ‘Chipani’ to enjoy these rights. We need not be called disgruntled youth or opposition; all we want is our dignity as human beings. All we want is our human rights, without discrimination. These are big enough issues to make anyone disgruntled.

We therefore demand respect for human rights, respect for the constitution, decent job opportunities, accountable leadership, improved education, and intensified fight against corruption.

That commando energy drink Ad!

Almost every serious organisation is now grounded into digital marketing. Many organisations are now on the lookout for what is trending and leverage such issues with messages about their organisations. It’s an easy way to get people talking about an organisation or a product. As people are engaged in conversations and social media posts about a trending topic, they most likely engage with a brand that has also jumped on the bandwagon of what is trending. This is good for the visibility of the brand.

 

However, because of the fact that trending topics online have a short lifespan to trend, it becomes more difficulty for brands to choose which topics to go with. A trending story can change overnight and having invested time and resources, it can become frustrating when a trending topic suddenly changes, and all the time and effort yields no visibility and becomes a waste of time. As a result of this, most organisations tend to relax rules on digital marketing to try and get enough and creative messages quick enough.

 

This relaxation of rules and approval processes for online messages in most organisations, has led to another problem.  It’s very hard to regulate the messages for online and digital marketing. This is precisely where the Commando advert that made rounds recently, squarely falls in. There is more social media content going up every time, most of which has poor or no approval process. Focus is now more on just getting content out. The 80/20 Rule for social media, once the golden rule of effective social media marketing, which states that 80% of social media posts should inform, educate, and entertain the audience, while only 20% should directly promote the business does not apply anymore for most cases. 

 

Make no mistake on the importance of digital and social media marketing and its importance. The growth of the use of social media has made it such an important medium and a brand needs to maximise its visibility through this medium thus promoting the business tends to take precedent over informing, educating and entertaining.  It’s very hard to regulate the messages for online and social media digital marketing. Granted, there is an exponential growth in social media and related online marketing needing for more messages to be churned out quick enough, basics still need to be followed. The owners of the Commando Energy drink product and brand, for instance, should have done some due diligence and followed basic ethics.

 

The Commando energy drink advert was wrong on many fronts. First of all, they used the concept of a recent video that went viral, of a man called George who was filmed disciplining his children for failing exams. George is seen in the video slapping his elder son while his wife films the incident while begging for the man to stop ‘slapping’ the boy. I have recently done a piece on this in which I argued that George Bester was within his right to discipline his children. It didn’t look anything like child abuse but just a parent using the rod to avoid spoiling the child. However, the vast majority and social media comments proclaimed this as child abuse.

This was the concept the Commando energy drink advert decided to use. It is very important that brands respect the ‘court of public opinion’ and never go against that in their social media and digital marketing efforts.

 

Well, the Commando energy drink advert starts with a lady who announces herself as a single mother as she is scolding her sons for the ‘crime’ of failing an examination. She later warns them that failure to pass would mean Uncle George would be called in to make things right. At this point one of the boys, the older one, is seen visualising what would be, uncle George slapping him hard. With this warning, the boy is seen taking Commando energy drink and then engage in serious study. That is a poor way of motivating young ones. Not by instilling fear in them.

 

Of great concern though is the fact that ethically this is not correct for a brand to advertise an energy drink specifically to children. Legally and to some extent scientifically there is nothing wrong with it. This advert, however, is clearly targeted at children, school going children. The advert can easily be misconstrued to mean if you drink Commando energy drink one gets good grades in school. Energy drinks do contain high levels of caffeine and sugar as ingredients. It is common knowledge that there are long term health effects of perpetual consumption of high levels of caffeine and sugar. The combination of high levels of caffeine and sugar help fuel obesity, and sleep problems especially in young people.

 

In fact, energy drink adverts should be regulated in much the same way alcohol sales and advertising are regulated. Public health experts need to guide us on this soon enough and we could have regulations in place in no time. Of course, the argument against regulation on advertising, sale and consumption of energy drinks has always been that many fizzy drinks including colas have just as much sugar as the energy drinks. But the fact remains, two wrongs don’t make a right. If the regulation will have to touch the fizzy drinks, even better. We should value health more than we value profit. Other countries are discussing the possibility of regulation of energy drinks. That Commando energy drink advert maybe a stark reminder that Zambia too should look at possibilities of regulation. With regulation we will see less adverts targeted at children like the commando energy drink advert.

 

While some people may have found the Commando energy drink advert highly creative, I found it injurious on the personality of Mr George Bester. It is very distasteful for a brand to ignore all this and in an effort to capitalise on social media buzz run the risk of personal attacks on George. Highly trending topics are not the magic portion to boost social media presence for a brand overnight. Social media takes time. For most it takes a lot of brainstorming, testing, and consistent posting to create successful platforms. As a result of this, it becomes risky to always just jump on the bandwagon. As a general rule, it’s not worth it investing time and resources into all newest trends until it is clear its more than just a passing whim. Instead it’s better to develop long term strategies to define goals and build a brand in order to guarantee stronger social media results.

 

The International Code of Advertising states; “advertising should be legal, decent, honest, and truthful, prepared with a sense of social responsibility to the consumer and society and with proper respect for the rules of fair competition.” Commando energy drink manufacturers and suppliers should heed this – prepare their adverts with a sense of social responsibility to the consumer and society. Since I haven’t seen the Commando energy drink advert on the mainstream media, I will take it that it was just the works of a trigger-happy social media buzz excited employee.

Otherwise I hope they have learned never to spew such ‘fufu veve, in the weldi mbobo’, to the public again. Whatever that means, its just trending.

The high cost of energy

A parody ZESCO Twitter account called, ZESCO explains it, on 2^nd June 2020 posted a message stating; “Accusing our meters of finishing your power quicker is like accusing the [petroleum] filling station of increasing your car’s fuel consumption.”

It’s rare for me to agree with a parody account but when I saw that tweet, I agreed with it. Those would have easily been my words. That would be my exact position, save my view is not satirical. I know I try satire every now and then, but I really suck at it. Then again, I am not a big fan of parody accounts because many people do not distinguish spoof from real posts by people or organisations being bluffed. However, the moment I saw that post I agreed with it. I believe that statement from the parody account, even though I am one of the many complainants who this past week signed petitions over the cost of ZESCO electricity prepaid units. 

My view… my thoughts…

I will have to put a disclaimer right from the onset, I am not an energy expert even though I now discuss what has been the most topical discussion of the week in Zambia - high cost of energy. Of course, this discussion was dwarfed by another important discussion regarding freedoms of expression and speech in Zambia, a discussion ignited by Lusaka province minister, Hon Bowman Lusambo’s reaction to musicians Kings Malembe and Bflow recorded and posted online, videos where they discussed aspects of governance that they thought had not been handled well. To avoid running the risk of digressing, I won’t dwell on that discussion because it is very clear to anyone who has seen the duo’s videos that all they did was responsibly use their fundamental rights to speech and right to expression to air their views on governance. 

That aside, this is not an expert analysis on the energy sector, but a consumer’s rant. A consumer’s diatribe discourse on what has clearly become an unbearable high cost of energy in Zambia. This discourse leaves me feeling short of being dejected and in deep Melancholy. I say this because clearly, we have no solution to the high energy costs because even when consumers complain, they don’t know what they should complain about. It’s so bad that even troll accounts are having to correct them.

Evolution of ZESCO tariffs, 2014-2020
(Energy Regulation Board of Zambia 2015, p. 50, 2017, p. 60, 2019b, p. 81, 2019a)
Adopted from: Haris, S & Ahmed, I (2020)

So, what should the complaints be about?

Well, toward the end of 2019, ZESCO announced an increase in electricity tariffs by an average of 113%. However, most domestic customers got over 200% increase. This is also coming off the backdrop of ZESCO increasing the tariffs twice in 2017. As a matter of fact, ZESCO has been increasing tariffs since 2014 in the quest to get to what they term “cost reflective tariffs”. A May 2019 report by the Policy Monitoring and Research Center (PMRC), highlighted that by 2015 ZESCO was paying between USc 7/KW/h and USc 13.23/KWh to Independent Power Producers who have invested in power generation with associated higher generation costs.

 

To cut the long story short, ZESCO costs are in US dollar (USD) including the power which they themselves generate, but they charge their [domestic] consumers in Zambian Kwacha (ZMW). On 31^st December 2014, USD/ZMW was 6.40, on 31^st December 2017, USD/ZMW was 9.97, on 31^st December 2019, USD/ZMW was 14.03 and on 5^th June 2020, USD/ZMW is 18.20. The experts can correct me, but I am certain therein lies the problem. As a result of what keeps happening to our currency all the gains achieved to get to cost reflective tariff, have all been eroded. We are back to where we started. ZESCO will need further increases. This is a corporation which ideally should make profit but has been facing serious financial problems regarding profitability, liquidity, solvency and efficiency for a long time now.

 

Why don’t we as a people petition our government to manage the economy better so that our currency should not depreciate as it has done? They will say; it is global! Even the South African Rand (ZAR) has been losing value against the US dollar. As a matter of fact, all major currencies have been losing value against the US dollar! It’s climate change! Hogwash. As an example, in 2013 when Zambia rebased its currency, the value of the Rand was 0.4 to 1 Kwacha, but as at 5^th June 2020, 1ZAR is equal to 0.929 ZMW. Clearly ZMW is headed the other direction.

 

At the time of the most recent ZESCO tariffs increment (over 200%), we were subjected to between 16-20hrs of load shedding, so no one noticed just how expensive electricity had become. We didn’t have power for more than two thirds of a day and when power was restored, we were all sleeping. The last two months power supply has been stable with load shedding only between 2-4 hours on three days of the week. Now we can all feel the high cost of energy. It’s not that ZESCO have miraculously adjusted our pre-paid meters to consume more power. We have missed the plot here fellow countrymen and women.

 

I will give a practical example of my electricity use for the month of May 2020, where I purchased 576.5kW. The most I have used in a month is 600kW, and that was costing me 300 Kwacha at most before the 2017 increases. For 576.5kW in May, I paid 900 Kwacha. In April, I parted away with before 1,100 Kwacha. So, over the two months my average is 1,000 Kwacha. On 4^th May, 2020 I purchased 403.90kW worth of units at 500ZMW.  By 23^rd May I got a warning from the pre-paid meter that I was running low, so I bought units for 400 ZMW which came to 172.60kW. This meant I had already spent a 900 kwacha on electricity, just over a period of 19 days.

 

On 1^st June 2020 I had to purchase another 403.90kW units for 500 Kwacha. That means over a period of 27 days I have spent 1,400 Kwacha. Of course, my average consumption has gone up because of the use of a heater now since there is a new-born in the house. However, that is not the bone of contention. The cost of 600kW has moved from 300 Kwacha to 1,000 Kwacha. That is the sad reality which we should speak against. To think that all the increases done have already been eroded by the Kwacha depreciation just bring more grief to my soul.

 

By the way, I must hasten to mention that for my geyser I use a solar and for cooking I use a gas stove. This makes spending an amount of 1,000 Kwacha on 600kW units of power more ridiculous. To even think we have a body aptly named the Energy Regulation Board (ERB), with executives who are well remunerated makes us all the more laughable. I say so because my submission is that ERB should be a very strategic energy body advising government. Alas, the board exists mainly to just announce energy price increases be it fuel or electricity. This is all against the backdrop of huge expectation in planning the nation’s future energy requirements. For so many years now, we have been told that the process of Petroleum refinery used at Indeni is one of the most inefficient processes. I still dot know if the ERB has a road map to dump that process and move the country to more efficient and cost effective one. I wouldn’t be surprised if they are just there ‘dololo’. These are the professionals. But they dance to the whims of politicians so the same ‘excellence’ will continue.

 

With their current way of doing business, the ERB is not a necessary. Those announcements they do can easily be done by the minister of energy or even the Energy ministry permanent secretary, with the guidance of technocrats from the ministry. ERB is just a very unwelcome duplication in an otherwise sector already in a state of confusion. The state of confusion under the energy sector is so bad it wouldn’t even be enough for a PhD thesis to catalogue all the problems. This is the sector with ZESCO which alone has so many operational problems regarding profitability, poor service quality, load shedding etc.

 

ZESCO is the only Corporation I know that pays huge money for several adverts discouraging consumers from using its service. Added to that are the issues at Indeni and generally the high cost of fuel. Recently the cost of petroleum the world over has fallen with some states in the US getting to a point where they paid customers who got petroleum from them. The price of petroleum went to negative. In Zambia, the cost of petroleum is at an all-time high.

 

There are a lot of problems in the energy sector, a lot of problems at ZESCO. An even bigger issue now is that the consumers seem lost over the reasons why they are spending a lot on ZESCO units. They are attributing it to ZESCO pre-paid meter consuming more than before. Consumers need to check if they are now using more kW of power than they were using say a year ago. I have always used 600kW and I am still averaging the same, save for the extenuating circumstance now, mentioned above. However, I have moved from paying 100 Kwacha for 600kW to 300 Kwacha and now under the new normal, 1,000 Kwacha.  This is not normal; it is not sustainable. We need not lose perspective.

The fine line between discipline and abuse

The truth is that there is no blueprint to parenting. There is no manual. Each child is unique and will require unique ways to deal with each one of them. Whenever there is undesirable behavior in children, parent reaction must always be well measured in seeking to correct the undesirable behavior. A lot of parents will prefer spanking, others would rather just talk to their children, while other will scream at the top of their voices and talk all day about the it.

A Zambian parent however recently found out that there is really a thin line between discipline and abuse. A video went viral on the internet of a man slapping his son while complaining of how much he spent to put his boys into school and all they could do is fail without shame. Disturbingly, there is a female in the house recording the whole incidence on video and saying, “George stop beating them, come on.” 
The man responds, “This is stupidity, you can’t be saying stop beating them.”
“Do you know what this means?” he asks.
“I know, but why are you beating them?” the woman’s voice is heard again.
At that point the man turns to his child and says, “This is a scar on your entire life. Even if you come and pass your next sitting you will have 2. You know the reputation this stupid thing gives you.”
The woman’s voice is heard again but the man continues, “you are a big boy. You can’t read? Why the hell do you come home with results like you can’t read, 9?”

The video lasts a few seconds short of 2 minutes as the man continues his complaints punctuated by slaps to the eldest boy and the woman’s voice seeking a truce. The video soon went viral and memes became aplenty with the man in the video given the name George Mambama. Just a few hours later unverified document images started to fill social media with claims the boy is at a popular American school in Lusaka and fees which George was complaining of in the video was $26,500. Another picture shows a boy in a class embracing a girl seemingly of Indian origin. Yet other images showed school results that showed fails in all subjects with Grade 9 and just one pass, a distinction in music. Of course, all those images were unverified.


By the next day, reactions to the video continued with most people calling George out as a child abuser. There was also a police call-out from the Victim support unit asking George to report at the police for questioning and investigations of child abuse. MTN Zambia Twitter account on 23rd April 2020 gave out a statement stating that they had noted the incident being linked to their brand, but the man in question ceased being an employee of the corporation in 2019. The statement precisely read;
"This serves to inform the public that George Bester is not an @MTN_Zambia employee since 2019 and @MTN_Zambia disapproves any violence or abuse towards children." 

South Africa recently outlawed Corporal punishment

MTN Zambia statement on the George Bester story that went viral

My view... my thoughts...

The adage ‘spare the rod and spoil the child’ is predominantly derived from the bible. The good book in proverbs 13:24 states that “whoever spares the rod hates their children, but the one who loves their children is careful to discipline them.” The proverb is widely used by both Christian and non-Christian believers. In some instances, it is used in reference to corporal punishment.

Corporal punishment on the other hand is without a doubt a destructive form of discipline. In some cases, it is predominantly just a demonstration of hate. The behavior of slave owners in all those slave movies depicts this unequivocally. This in my view is the undesirable use of the adage, spare the rod. The consequence is nothing but just inflicting deliberate physical and emotional pain and discomfort on another human being. This is undesirable and should not be condoned in any part of the world. It should be condemned forthrightly.

However, discipline is necessary for good upbringing. If done properly without crossing the line to abuse, it delivers great results. More compliant behavior from children will be achieved. Some nations such as South Africa may have outlawed corporal punishment in protecting especially children’s rights, however, the nations that retain corporal punishment do so not out of malevolence but to hold the nations together on the discipline and even moral front. As upheld by the good book, the use of the rod in good measure in certain circumstances is necessary.

Parents can and should be able to spank their children to control behavior. Of course, there will be a few parents who cross the line and those should be dealt with by the laws on assault and violence. Physical violence against anyone, let alone children can be so traumatic and may emotionally scar them for many years. Yet, children can still be emotionally scarred not by physical abuse but emotional abuse. What we say to children should be very measured especially during their cognitive learning phase of 8-15 years.

There is no parent who delights in inflicting pain on a child, let alone their own child, relative or dependents. This shouldn’t be done. The objective is not to obligate and wreck pain. Conversely, goal is to teach that every action has consequences. Bad actions have bad consequences and sometimes painful consequences. This can go a long way in raising children that avoid jail in their juvenile and adult years. 

Similarly, bad grades at school will also have long term consequences. In my Silozi tongue there is an adage that says 'ukacha masipa ya litaka za hao', loosely translated to mean ‘you will serve your peers as kings and you a slave’. Therefore, a bit of pain now is necessary to turn the tide towards a good future. For this reason, it is my held view that George is as good a parent as they come. I may not support those slaps because usually whipping is more controlled, but the execution was not any abuse of sorts.

I made reference to the fact that there are a lot of children who are exposed to emotional scars by words told to them, than would those few slaps George unleashed on his son would. A lot of parents hurl verbal abuse at children every day. Children grow up in environments of verbal abuse and rarely is this flagged as child abuse by the communities. It is not uncommon to hear parents calling children “imbwa, kolwe, wamungulu” etc. Children grow up without any form of encouragement regarding what they can do well but just what they can’t do.

The Television character Tombi in the TV series Mpali plays this role so well where she perpetually calls her son Mabvuto by such names. That role represents many mothers out there, many parents out there. This is emotional abuse. Of course, there is physical child abuse out there. Yes there is violence against children caused by parents and guardians. Of course, a lot of parents do not know when they have crossed the line of abuse in the quest to discipline children. It is a fine line between discipline and child abuse.

Parents do have an obligation to keep their children safe from physical abuse and violence. It is also the duty of Parents to keep their children on good behavior, control and mould them into good citizens. Parents who get involved in the lives of their children. Not parents whose role is to record a video of the husband disciplining his own child. What was the whole essence of recording the whole episode? The recording just brought ridicule on the family, emotional abuse on the boy who went viral for the wrong things. This George Bester story has been blown out of proportion and all to the detriment of the same child(ren) the community is claiming to want to protect from abuse. 

Legislating laws that stop the use of the rod by parents will not stop abuses. It will not stop emotional abuse caused by constant verbal slurs. Parents just need to be made aware that they need to be more present in the lives of their children. Then they will have no reason to want to spank their child as they would have seen the dangers coming well ahead of time and had it controlled without resorting to spanking or slapping like George.


It's a fine line between discipline and abuse.

The Game Changer - COVID-19!

In the over three decades of my lifetime, there are a few notable moments I would say carry the memory of a lifetime. There are events I will live to tell my children and possibly their children. Sadly, perhaps the most notable memory of my lifetime so far must be the current COVID-19, the novel corona virus. First diagnosed in China in December 2019, the disease epidemic quickly spread eventually declared a global pandemic on 11th March 2020, in the short time creating a wave of fear, terror, destruction of human social life and causing so much death in a short space.

Pandemic may be defined as occurring over a wide geographic area and affecting an exceptionally high proportion of the population and the World Health Organisation (WHO) more specifically defines a pandemic as “a worldwide spread of a new disease". The fact that it is a new virus health experts and virology researchers are still learning about the virus in the meantime people have continued to be infected and dying in numbers.

The information given by health experts and the WHO so far is that COVID-19 is a pneumonia of unknown cause first detected in Wuhan china and first reported to the WHO country office in China on 31st December 2019. While research is still ongoing, data being analysed, advice being provided, countries being helped to prepare, and supplies increased the WHO has also provided basic guidelines to assist curtail the rampant spread of the disease. Below are some of the guidelines given in order to prevent the spread of COVID-19.

• Stay home: COVID-19 does not move from one place to another, its infected people moving it from one place to the next. If all stay home for at least 14 days spread is lessened.
• Clean hands often: Use soap and water to wash hands, or an alcohol-based hand rub.
• Physical distancing: Maintain a safe distance from other people, minimum 1-meter distance.
• Don't touch face: Do not touch your eyes, nose or mouth.
• Cover when sneezing: Cover your nose, mouth, with bent elbow or tissue when coughing or sneezing.
• Sick? Call ahead: If you have a fever, a cough, and difficulty breathing, seek medical attention. Call in advance.
• Follow official health guidelines: Follow the directions of your local health authority.

As at 30th April, there were more than 3.25 million confirmed COVID-19 cases worldwide, more than 231,000 deaths with a total of 1.01 million recovered.  In Zambia, 106 confirmed cases, 55 recovered and 3 deaths. Its worth noting that COVID-19 deaths have almost all been linked to other underlying factors which compromised immunity before contracting the virus. Most people who fall sick with COVID-19 will experience mild to moderate symptoms and recover without special treatment.

The high number of deaths especially experienced in Europe and America, most of who have been the aged with underlying medical conditions poignantly reminding me of one of the basics of evolution - natural selection aka survival of the fittest. Natural selection along with mutation, migration and genetic drift forms the grand theory of evolution as espoused by Charles Darwin. Natural selection idea also asserts that the environment cannot support unlimited population growth, therefore nature will take its course one way or the other through any of the basic mechanism.

Although I don’t want to take my discussion down that road, it makes no harm to get to this speed hump and give that thought trend some contemplation. It may just make logical sense. The last known serious pandemic was the Spanish flu, caused by the H1N1 virus strain which affected an estimated 500million people and 50 million deaths between 1918 and 1920. A century later we are here. Its not my intention to digress, my focus is on how life will change post COVID-19.

Post Covid-19

The world as we have known it has changed and been changed forever. COVID-19 is primarily transmitted communally when others come into close contact with infected people either symptomatic or asymptomatic through respiratory droplets, by direct contact, or by contact with contaminated objects and surfaces. As a result of this, the world has learned to live by physical distancing.

We can no longer shake hands, hug or maybe cuddle at will. Humanity will now have to live with the fear that the next person we meet or socialize with, maybe the workmate we share a common desk with, could be infected with a deadly virus. It may not be a deadly virus but could be the common flu. At least the spread of the common flu will now reduce. People will be more careful with physical contacts. It may no longer be the case that when one person in the house gets flu then a merry-go-round will infect the entire household.

The fact that physical distancing has become a way of life also means that the way we do work has greatly been changed. People can now work from home and be as productive meaning now employers may need to think again. Some roles may no longer be required from the office full time. Other roles may be done away with completely. Some businesses will inevitably have to scale down as a result of reduced business and consequently revenue. Scaling down operations may also mean cutting down on staff costs. It’s not all businesses but a lot will go down this route in order to steer ship to safety called survival.

The lessons are very big. A natural phenomenon may hit the world and render everyone unemployed in the blink of an eye. We can no longer depend on one income stream. The need for ‘side hustles’ and passive income is now more significant. Employers can no longer make their staff sign contracts that prohibit an employee to have other gainful economic activities be it a second job or anything if there isn’t any conflict of interest. This is what the world will have to be.

The aviation industry has already been badly affected throughout the globe. Tourism sector worldwide is almost on its knees. No one is travelling so hotels are empty, tour operators have no business and bars and nightclubs are closed. The economic recession that is projected to follow is said to be three to four times more than what was experienced post 2008 credit crunch.

In all this melancholy, like most crises, opportunities will also arise. There will be different ways of doing things. Naturally humans are gregarious beings, but something here will have to give. The growth of the use of the internet will increase massively in order to fill the gap of the reduced physical social gatherings. The internet will finally become what it has been threatening to be the last few years – the biggest marketplace.

Church services online will become more common than ever before. Virtual parties in multiple places will become a big thing. Sports audiences in stadiums will be altered massively. Large group gatherings will be filled by paranoid audiences each person afraid that the next person may be contagious, a carrier of an unknown virus.

The truth is that COVID-19 has changed how we live, so the sooner we adapt the better we will be prepared for life after COVID-19. COVID-19 is a game changer no doubt. The world as we know it may never be the same. COVID-19 is here to change the game.

The game changer!