Jack Zimba

    Panning for gold. LUCY LUMBE and JACK ZIMBA   THE gold fields of Kasenseli now lie quiet, off-limits to any intruder, but the perimeter fence still lies broken at various points, evidence of how determined those lured by the prospect of instant wealth were to lay their hands on the treasure. At the gate, we are turned away by an uncompromising military captain in charge of the Zambia National Service contingent deployed to protect the area and safeguard the national asset. The Zambia Gold Company, a subsidiary of the Government mining investment wing, ZCCM-IH, was stopped from further operations by the new government, pending investigations into the whole gold saga, and so the excavators lie idle. But wind the clock two years backwards, Kasenseli was like a bright light to the moth, drawing thousands of gold prospectors. Chief Chibwika, in whose chiefdom the gold fields lie, said the population of Kasenseli was about 700, but after the discovery ...

  November 24, 2021 Pig spoils the broth JACK ZIMBA PRESIDENT Hakainde Hichilema must utterly have avoided the pig. Ah! Of course I’m not referring to the dainty bacon and spare ribs, our Adventist brother would never touch those, lest he commit religious sacrilege. I’m referring here to the political P.I.G – the Party and its Government; the old political syndrome of the one party state era under UNIP and Kenneth Kaunda back in the 1990s and beyond. Of course that is too far for millennials to relate. I’m talking about the governance system that drew no clear distinction between the ruling party and Government, something that became prominent under the PF in the past 10 years. In many instances, district commissioners’ offices became an extension of the party secretariat where one had to prove allegiance to the ruling party in order to get help. Even foreign missions became an extension of the ruling party, run by members who could freely run party errands using d...