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Showing posts from August, 2021

AGA trains prosecutors to handle election petitions

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  Voters during the August 12 general elections. JACK ZIMBA Lusaka THE elections are over, but the election process is not. After every vote has been counted and announced, then come the petitions, as aggrieved candidates who did not deem the process free and fair, take their cases to the courts of law. Post-election disputes have become a common feature in Zambian politics, with the first parliamentary election petition dating as far back as 1968. The first presidential election petition, however, was filed in the Supreme Court in 1996 by Akashambatwa Mbikusita Lewanika, Hicuunga Kambaila, Dean Mung’omba, Sebastian Zulu and Jennifer Mwaba against Frederick Chiluba. The petitioners’ contention was that President Chiluba, who had just been elected to serve another five years as President, was not eligible to stand for president because neither he nor his parents were citizens of Zambia by birth or by descent as required by the Republican Constitution. Since then, the country

What if the future is crypto? AGA-Africa prepares countries for cryptocurrency

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  Dr Freda Mwamba-Brazle is  AGA-Africa country coordinator. It is estimated that 98 percent of darknet transactions are carried out in bitcoins. JACK ZIMBA AS MORE and more of the global population moves into the virtual world, cashless or digital transactions are becoming the norm. This phenomenon has now given rise to cryptocurrency – virtual money or virtual assets (VAs), whose use is now spreading across the globe. Bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies are hotter than ever and taking hold even in unlikely places. In Kenya, for instance, a rural farming community is already using a form of cryptocurrency called Sarafu to sell their produce. But the virtual world is not devoid of criminals. And so while bitcoin users tout it as the future of money, regulators are urging caution. Many African countries, for instance, have already issued warning on the use cryptocurrency, while a number of other countries have not made any policy statement on cryptocurrency. In 2018, the Bank o

No one could do it like Eddie

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  JACK ZIMBA NO, he was not called “Commander” for nothing. When it came to photography, no one could do it like Eddie Mwanaleza. One afternoon, about 14 years ago, a stout man with a thick moustache walked into the production room at The Post. He was wearing a pair of khaki shorts, boots and a photo journalist's vest. He had a big camera hanging from his shoulder. That was my first introduction to Eddie, and we would become companions over the years, ganging up on many assignments that satisfied our appetite for adventure and quest to bring out unusual stories. Our first assignment was an adventure trip to Livingstone by train, just to capture life on the tardy train. Eddie was cunning when it came to searching for unusual stories and he was never one to sit behind a desk. Eddie was born for the outdoors, the more unfamiliar the territory the better. One morning we rode into the notorious Chibolya township on a motorbike disguised as music promoters. We came out with o