Reports last week that two Lusaka lawyers were arrested for trying to swindle govt K2.4bn. The "legal brains" apparently attempted to obtain the money from the Ministry of Tourism Environment and Natural Resources using an inflated bill of claims. More detail via Watchdog Zambia. [view entry]

Yes. According to MMD aspiring presidential candidate Clive Chirwa in a detailed attack on the 2010 national budget. A couple of good (obvious) points on prioritising infrastructure, but questionable obsession with having a national airline. The attack on agriculture is also bizarre when one considers that the real budget in... [view entry]

Kenneth Mwenda wrote an interesting piece in the Post on undertaking judicial reforms to combat corruption. The post version was incomplete, but you can access the full article here . I touched on the deficiencies of his approach in the discussion here. [view entry]

A remarkable BBC presentation on Victoria Falls as seen through the eyes of a local fisherman. [view entry]

A new piece in the Africa Confidential makes fascinating reading on the Mozambique political landscape, discussed here :A dominant party – not a one-party state, Africa Confidential, Commentary:The decisive re-election of President Armando Guebuza on 27 October delivered all that the governing Frente de Libertação de Moçambique wanted: victory with... [view entry]

The online version of the Bakwetu Magazine. [view entry]

I appeared earlier today on Diaspora Voice to discuss the state of corruption in Zambia and what interviews are necessary to successfully defeat the leviathan. You can listen to the show here. This is part of a series of monthly discussions on Diaspora Voice where I plan to discuss some... [view entry]

It is a very long time since an opposition party in Southern Africa managed to remove a seating political party from power. Infact for some countries like Botswana it remains a pipe dream. That story continued last week when Frelimo crushed Renamo in Mozambique elections. A result the legendary Alfonso... [view entry]

“The nation did not get a good deal from the Taskforce. A lot of money was spent on private lawyers. The facts on the expenditure and recoveries speak for themselves,” Home Affairs Minister Lameck Mangani correctly identifying the fundamental problem with the Task Force. This essentially borrows the argument, I... [view entry]

A key challenge of tackling public theft in Zambia is simply understanding its scale. The general public certainly has a sense of where public money has been stolen, but it appears they are missing key information on the extent of corruption. In practice there remains significant vacuum of information on... [view entry]