Will code of ethics enhance teachers’ professionalism?

15 year old Rufunsa girl allegedly defiled by her teacher.

DOREEN NAWA, Lusaka.
NOT Long ago, each time parents sent their children to school, they entrusted the teachers with the responsibility of looking after the pupils.
But that is no longer the case.
It is not an overstatement to say that some male teachers have become a danger to female pupils.

Cases of male teachers defiling schoolgirls have become common in schools both in rural and urban areas.
Two weeks ago, it was reported that a 15-year-old girl of Rufunsa district who is now six months pregnant was continuously defiled allegedly by her teacher who promised to help her to dubiously pass grade nine examinations.
The girl has alleged that Ibram Munyumbwe, 27, of Chibengelele Primary School lured her into a sexual relationship in August 2017.
Mr Munyumbwe has since been transferred to Munyeta Primary School in Rufunsa District.
Such cases are not new and parents now feel insecure to entrust their children into the hands of teachers.
“Whenever I take my daughter to school, I feel like I can sit there and wait for her until she knocks off. This is so because some male teachers are such a danger,” Charity Kafwabula of Lusaka’s Makeni area says.
Mrs Kafwabula says the issue of teachers defiling girls has gone out of hand.
Teachers, whether in government or private schools, hold a special position of trust and must be accountable for their actions towards children all times.
Furthermore, teachers are guardians and role models for the children entrusted in their care.
Conversely, children look up to the teachers, who spend more time with them, compared to the time they spend with their parents.
That is why one cannot dispute the fact that teachers play an important role in moulding the children.
“Defilement puts girls at risk of dropping out of school, being married off, contracting various diseases like sexually transmitted diseases and fistula,” Joseph Silwamba of Nswana village in Rufunsa says.
Mr Silwamba says teachers at the centre of sexual exploitation scandals in schools should be dismissed for misconduct.
Mr Silwamba suggested that head teachers who conceal information on defilement cases should resign.
“One thing we forget here is that headteachers get to know of any defilement cases first. And after engaging in discussions, sometimes headteachers advise parents to settle it outside the school authority with the victim’s parents,” Mr Silwamba says.
Mr Silwamba cited the Rufunsa case as one where the perpetrator is alleged to be a perpetual offender who has gone unpunished.
“I cannot believe he was still active in the teaching world, especially after this case. He was even transferred to another school. It must be habitual for this teacher and he is being defended by the school authority,” Mr Silwamba told the author.
On two previous occasions, the defiled girl thought she had done enough to stop his predatory behaviour.
But the teacher continued to ask her to go to his house to clean up and he would and sleep with her. She was allegedly defiled five times.
“He used to teach us Mathematics, Agriculture Science, Business Studies and Social Studies. In the first week of August, shortly before schools closed, Mr Munyumbwe asked me to go to his house with my cousin to clean up and we obliged, a few minutes later, he followed us. When he came, he called me to his bedroom and my cousin remained in his living room,” the girl said.
The girl said after being defiled, Mr Munyumbwe gave her a K25.
Various organisations that regulate the teaching profession face serious challenges in tackling sexual exploitation and abuse of the children.
This is so because there has been a legal gap in addressing such cases. Now a Code of Ethics for the teaching profession has been put in place to ensure that perpetrators face the wrath of the law.
The Code of Ethics which was gazetted on January 12, 2018 and launched on February 13, 2018 has safeguarding procedures and specifies punishment for a perpetrator.
Dennis Wanchinga, who was then Minister of General Education, says the code of ethics for the teaching profession is an effort to curb teacher misconduct such as defilement.
“The code of ethics for the teaching profession will ensure that a teacher upholds and fosters the integrity and dignity of the profession,” Dr Wanchinga says.
And Teaching Service Commission (TSC) chairperson Stanley Mhango says reports of defilement in Zambia are regrettable.
“As TSC we have given instructions that whoever sits on an issue of sexual misconduct of teachers, be it the teacher, the head or the District Education Board Secretary (DEBS) shall be disciplined in accordance with the rules and regulations for failure to report a case to the relevant authorities,’ Mr Mhango says.
Mr Mhango says a solution to this trend should involve everyone in order to win the fight.
Mr Mhango says learners should not be assigned chores at teachers’ houses because it is illegal and it is an offence punishable by law.
And Teaching Council of Zambia registrar Eddy Mubanga says by putting in place a Code of Ethics, professionalism in the teaching profession will be promoted.
Looking back, cases of defilement have been on the rise in Zambia.
According to the Zambia Police Service, in 2016, Zambia recorded 2,363 defilement cases which were reported countrywide. The figures translate to 12.8 percent of the reported cases. Out of the total number, 2,344 were girl victims and 19 were boys.
It is against this background that society eagerly awaits an end to such vices.ALSO PUBLISHED IN THE ZAMBIA DAILY MAIL ON FEBRUARY 18, 2018. LINK: https://www.daily-mail.co.zm/will-code-of-ethics-enhance-teachers-professionalism/

Can Zambia escape maize dependency syndrome?

Women shelling maize, Chipata, Zambia

DOREEN NAWA, Lusaka
THE debate on Zambians rethinking dependency on maize has once again taken centre stage.
For almost every Zambian, maize means food. It is the main ingredient used to make nshima, Zambia’s main meal.
Many homes, whether in the rural or urban areas, depend on nshima for their main meals.
It is not an understatement that in some homes, it is the only food available for all the three meals in a day, breakfast, lunch and supper.
But maize production is facing a bleak future as Zambia’s staple food because of the erratic rainfall that the country is experiencing.
Let us take this year, for instance, when the country has just witnessed a long dry spell, which has left some maize fields scorched.
Farmers in Zambia depend on rain to grow their crop and times like these leave them desperate and hopeless.
It is in view of this that republican President Edgar Lungu, while in Chisamba, on February 1, said it is time farmers reconsidered their dependency on maize as a staple food and sought other alternatives.
“Going by what we have experienced [drought], it is time we took stock, whether maize should be the ultimate crop for survival as a people,” President Lungu said.
Zambia has other alternative crops like cassava, sorghum, millet and rice, which can be developed to constitute main meals.
But this has not gone well with William Chisunka, a resident of Lusaka’s Kamwala township who says he grew up eating nshima and stopping now would not work.
“Nshima is my culture and it’s in my blood. As far as I can remember, nshima was number one in my neighbourhood. So, if people cannot depend on maize, then they should be encouraged to grow more cassava, sorghum, and millet. At least, these can produce nshima at the end of the day, otherwise, rethinking nshima will not work here,” Mr Chisunka says.
Another resident of Kamwala, Katie Malunga, says nshima for lunch and supper is cheaper than other food stuff.
“Nshima is the cheapest food one can ever get. Now if our people cannot even manage to buy two plates of nshima a day, can they manage other food stuff?” said Ms Malunga.
She compares the prices of maize, which fetches as low as K40 per 25kg bag, while rice goes for K425 of the same mass.
“If we go for an alternative like, how many people can afford, and then eaten with what? With vegetables or sugar? If so, what kind of a meal can it be? The option here is not rethinking nshima but rethinking the agricultural policies,” she says.
She suggests that Government comes up with policies that will ensure that maize production is not rain fed.
The sentiments from the general public are not different from those of the Consumer Unity and Trust Society (CUTS) International.
CUTS International says it is difficult for Zambians to shift from maize dependency to other crops because they cannot afford alternative foods.
CUTS Centre co-ordinator Chenai Mukumba says Zambia, for decades, has had a mono-diet culture that has been heavily dependent on maize.
She argues that agricultural policies that have been maize focused with over half of the agriculture budget going towards providing maize subsidies and maize marketing.
Ms Mukumba says compared to the frequency of eating other foods, nshima is eaten more times than all other starches as well as other foods such as vegetables.
CUTS, with support of HIVOS and in partnership with World Food Programme, conducted a study on ‘Sustainable diets for all’ on 1,000 households, which showed that most Zambians eat nshima every day.
“In the poorest quintile, 83 percent said they eat nshima at least once every day compared to 62 percent in the richest quintile. This clearly shows that nshima has dominated all foods when it comes to household consumption in Lusaka,” says Ms Mukumba.
While the focus on reducing nshima dependency should be focused on all households, Ms Mukumba suggests that the most concerted efforts should be focused on low-income households.
“From our findings, it is clear that affordability is an important barrier to the food choices that households may make,” Ms Mukumba says.
For Ms Mukumba, at present, Zambia’s dependency on maize had crowded out investments for strengthening markets for other agricultural products, and making them more affordable for consumers.
The debate has also questioned the nutritional value of maize, which they feel is somewhat inadequate.
Zambia Civil Society Scaling up Nutrition Alliance (Zambia CSO-SUN Alliance) country co-ordinator Scott Kaluba says the move by Government to advice Zambians to look for other alternative foods is welcome.
Mr Kaluba says apart from maize as a stable food, people can also benefit from eating other foods like cassava.
He observes that human diets in Zambia and around the world, have grown more homogeneous and are showing no signs of slowing.
“There are a lot of alternatives that we as Zambians can benefit from nutritionally such as cassava, millet, sorghum and rice,” he says.
Given the accumulating evidence of climate change in Zambia, there is an urgent need to develop more climate resilient maize systems and alternative crops.
The change may not come immediately, but with more sensitisation and measures put in place, maize can be replaced.

Lost in the Ethiopian treat

DOREEN NAWA, Lusaka
ONE striking thing on Ethiopian Airlines is the abundance of beverages, both alcoholic and non-alcoholic. Passengers simply love the inflight treat.
I transited through Harare, Zimbabwe, using Ethiopian Airlines on my way from Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, where I had gone to attend the 30th African Union (AU) heads of State summit.
It is a six-hour flight from Addis Ababa to Lusaka, certainly a relatively long flight. I did what good neighbours do, greet my neighbour and get to know where he was going.
His destination was Harare, where we were to make a stop-over before connecting to Lusaka. About half an hour of being air-borne, my neighbour decided to move seat to somewhere else he thought he would comfortable as the plane was not full.
When we reached Harare, where we stopped for about an hour, I did not see my neighbour. The only time I saw him was when we arrived at Kenneth Kaunda International Airport (KKIA) in Lusaka.
He had also disembarked from the plane and was heading to the arrival terminal. I kept wondering whether it is the same man who had indicated that he was going to Harare.
As I walked to the immigration counter, I saw him coming and looking confused. He then asked whether we had stopped in Harare and I answered in the affirmative.
It dawned on him that he was in Lusaka. He then quickly rushed to the security personnel, who later took him to the Ethiopian Airlines office at KKIA.
He was lost.
I hope the alcoholic beverages had nothing to do with it.
At the AU summit, there were a lot of happenings and personalities such that if you tried to trail all of them, you would easily get lost.
Newly elected Liberian President George Weah, known for his exploits on the football pitch, was attending the AU summit for the first time, so were Angolan President Joao Lourenco and Zimbabwean leader Emmerson Mnagangwa, who has taken over as Zimbabwe President from long-serving Robert Mugabe, always a towering figure at such gatherings.
President Mnangagwa assured the summit that Mr Mugabe was well and safe.
“May I inform this august chamber that your brother, President Mugabe, is safe, secure and well,” he said amid applause. “The transition was very peaceful and we are happy that we faced challenges as a nation and managed to resolve the challenges as a nation. We wish to thank SADC and the whole continent.”
In the past, the AU’s forerunner, the Organisation for African Unity (OAU), referred to by some as “Old and Ugly”, was considered an old people’s club with long-serving African leaders who did not put people’s development at the centre of their engagements.
The AU has been trying to stay relevant to the challenges that the continent continually faces.
At the latest meeting, there was some enthusiasm with the new AU chairman Paul Kagame, driving the reform agenda for the organisation, which is often seen as inefficient and dysfunctional.
The most significant reform proposal is that member states contribute to the funding of the AU by levying 0.2 per cent on imports so that the continent would finance its budget.
There were many sideline issues, but the main theme centred round corruption.
It was a theme new comers like Weah welcomed.
“The declaration of 2018 as the anti-corruption year by this summit was set to increase national, regional and continental awareness of the menace and improve our chances to totally eradicate it,” President Weah noted.
I was at the summit at the invitation of the African Union Commission (AUC), Department of Infrastructure and Energy.
I was mainly invited to cover the launch of the Single African Air Transport Markets (SAATM), which will see the liberalisation of the African airspace.
Unlike the other assignments that I have covered outside the country, including the ones in Addis Ababa, where accommodation and all other logistics have been arranged prior to my travel, this one was not.
I had to do everything on my own, including airport transfers, accommodation and transport within Addis Ababa.
Luckily, Inutu Mwanza, the first secretary of press and tourism at the Zambian embassy in Addis Ababa, had arranged for the airport transfers and the local transport from the summit venue to the hotel.
The driver hired was amazing although, as expected, there was a bit of some language barrier.
His name is Biniyam Ayalew.
Biniyam is an Ethiopian name for Benjamin.
The only challenge I had was communication as the official language in Ethiopia is Amharic, a language spoken by over nine million people in that country.
Oh, there was another challenge, the food.
Everytime I go to Addis Ababa, I carry snacks to nibble like biscuits, nuts, raisins, sweets and crackers. I also carry my own tea and sugar.
But because of the last- minute arrangements for this trip, I did not have time to get around and ensure that my snack bag was stocked.
I was lost.
I had to eat whatever I could find edible.
It was a mini circus, in a manner of speaking.
I was bailed out when a friend from The Guardian in Tanzania, Angel Navuri introduced me to an African Cuisine restaurant within the AU premises.
Together, and at long last, we were able to indulge in roasted goat meat and vegetables served with nshima (Ugali in Swahili) and chapatti.
The walk to that African Cuisine restaurant was heavenly. It was stocked with a variety of foods although mainly from East Africa.
The traditional food is injera and rice.
Injera is made from brown or white teff flour. Injera is a sourdough-risen flatbread with a unique, slightly spongy texture. Traditionally made out of fermented teff flour, injera is about 50 centimetres in diameter and originates from the national dish in Ethiopia and Eritrea.
It is served with spicy chicken or beef mince or vegetables.
Ethiopia, a political capital of Africa, is always a treat for the first timer visitor as well as those coming back. PUBLISHED IN THE ZAMBIA DAILY MAIL ON FEBRUARY 3, 2018. LINK: https://www.daily-mail.co.zm/lost-in-the-ethiopian-treat/

Africa goes for single sky

DOREEN NAWA, Addis Ababa, Ethiopia
THE concept of having a single unified airspace is not one that is new. But this is when Africa is getting into it.
The concept has been and is in the process of being implemented in numerous parts of the globe.
Currently, the most famous of these is the Single European Sky (SES), where the national airspace of multiple states is designed, managed and regulated through a central body and decisions are made collaboratively to enhance the overall safety, efficiency and equity of the total aviation system without affecting the sovereignty of states.
This, too, is an objective of the African continent, where high levels of disparity exist in the deployment of communication, navigation and surveillance equipment, and the provision of air traffic management (ATM), which has an undesirable effect on safety, efficiency and equitable service delivery to a growing aviation community.
To live this dream, the year 2018 will go down in history as a landmark for opening up of airline routes within the African continent.
The specific date is January 28, 2018. This is so because on this day, aspirations to create a single African sky became a reality.
At the 30th heads of State summit in Addis Ababa, the Single African Air Transport Market (SAATM) was launched.
SAATM is the first Agenda 2063 flagship project.
The agenda is a continental strategic framework for the socio-economic transformation of the continent over the next 50 years.
It builds on, and seeks to accelerate the implementation of past and existing continental initiatives for growth and sustainable development.
At the launch, Boeing International managing director for Sub-Sahara Africa and director of international sales - Africa, Boeing commercial airplanes João Miguel Santos said air transport is a catalyst for Africa’s economic growth.
Mr Santos says now that African governments have agreed to implement liberalisation of African skies, the decision to liberalise air transport will deliver improved safety, lower fares, and increase traffic in Africa.
“An open sky policy in Africa will lead to the weeding out of uncompetitive carriers, greater competition between airlines, the opening up of new routes and revitalising the aviation industry across the board and a much lower fare cost structure available to customers that will also contribute to stimulate travel growth,” Mr Santos said in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia.
“It will bring new opportunities for aircraft manufacturers such as Boeing to introduce its newest and most fuel-efficient, economical and technologically advanced aircraft.”
The World Bank statistics show that Africa is home to 12 percent of the world’s people, but it accounts for less than one percent of the global air service market.
Part of the reason for Africa’s under-served status, according to the World Bank study, is that many African countries restrict their air services markets to protect the share held by state-owned air carriers.
This practice originated in the early 1960s when many newly-independent African states created national airlines, in part, to assert their status as nations.
Now, however, most of them have recognised that the strict regulatory protection that sustains such carriers, has detrimental effects of air safety records, while also inflating air fares and dampening air traffic growth.
Indeed, African ministers responsible for civil aviation themselves acknowledged this in 1999, when they adopted the Yamoussoukro Decision, named after the Ivorian city in which it was agreed.
The Yamoussoukro Decision commits its 44 signatory countries to deregulate air services, and promote regional air markets open to transnational competition.
The ministers of aviation council followed up on the Yamoussoukro Declaration of 1988, in which many of the same countries agreed to principles of air services liberalisation.
In 2000, the decision was endorsed by head of States and governments at the Organisation for African Unity (OAU), the forerunner to the African Union (AU) and became fully binding in 2002.
Now, the implementation is a reality.
Now, a historic opportunity has been actualised. So far, more than the 23 countries have signed on to the ratification of this decision.
Speaking in an interview in Addis Ababa, Dr Amani Abou-Zeid, who is the Commissioner for Infrastructure and Energy at the AU Commission, said SAATM will spur more opportunities to promote trade, crossborder investments in the production and service industries, including tourism.
This will result in the creation of an additional 300,000 direct and two million indirect jobs contributing immensely to the integration and socio-economic growth of the continent.
She said the aviation industry currently supports eight million jobs in Africa and hence SAATM was created with the aim of enhancing connectivity, facilitating trade and tourism, creating employment, and ensuring that the industry plays a more prominent role in the global economy and significantly contributing to the AU’s Agenda 2063.
“The AU Summit will also see the adoption of the regulatory text of the Yamoussoukro Decision, that is, the competition and consumer protection regulations that safeguards the efficient operation of the market,” she said.
So far, 23 African countries out of 55 have subscribed to the Single African Air Transport Market whereas 44 African countries signed the Yamoussoukro Decision.
“The African Union Commission, under the leadership and personal commitment of Moussa Faki Mahamat, has been playing a key coordinating role in the establishment of the Single African Air Transport Market and advocacy to AU Member States, who have not yet committed to the solemn commitment, to do so,” Dr Amani says.
Transport in general, and aviation in particular are key economic drivers.
One of the keys to maintaining the vitality of civil aviation is to ensure that a safe, secure, efficient, and environmentally sustainable air navigation system is available, at the global, regional and national levels.
But this can only be achieved through the liberalisation of the various African skies, merging different sectors into one seamless unit.
African governments and various stakeholders have welcomed the move single sky initiative with Ethiopian Minister of Transport Ahmed Shide saying the initiative will pave the way for other flagship projects such as the free trade area and the free movement of people.
“Ethiopia has always been one of the pioneers in promoting the free skies in Africa and it is also one of the 11 champion countries that declared their commitment to establishing a single African air transport market,” Mr Shide said.
“The realisation of SAATM is vital to the achievement of the long term vision of an integrated prosperous and peaceful Africa, which is AU’s Agenda 2063.”
Ethiopian Airlines Group Chief executive officer Tewolde Gebremariam says the initiative is a “huge milestone for the continent”. PUBLISHED IN THE ZAMBIA DAILY MAIL ON JANUARY 30, 2018. LINK: https://www.daily-mail.co.zm/africa-goes-for-single-sky/

Cholera: A tale from the township

DOREEN NAWA, Lusaka
IT HAS been a difficult two weeks for Martha Phiri, 42, who is a resident of Msanida area in Lusaka’s George township, the newest cholera epicentre in town.
Mrs Phiri, a widow, lost her youngest son, 14, this month.
“He was like a replacement for my late husband,” she says. “Everywhere I went, I was with him. He was very handy regarding helping out on the daily activities here at home and wherever he is sent.”
Mrs Phiri became widowed five years ago. But the death of her son has left her with so many questions.
“My son never got sick,” she says. “He was fine the whole day and was around the makeshift shop with his friends. To date, I do not know what killed my son.”
Mrs Phiri believes her son was bewitched.
“My son never had diarrhoea, he did not vomit too,” she says. “It was on a Sunday and he was with his friends the whole day until around 17:00 hours when he complained of something like heartburn.”
On that material day, two hours later, her son went into the livingroom and asked for water to drink from the mother.
“I offered him the water as requested,” she says. “He then sat on the chair and kept turning and tossing. I asked what was wrong, and he suggested he should be taken to the hospital. As we were preparing, he asked me to sit down and hug him.
“I was ready to take him to the clinic had the condition worsened, but he died whilst talking to me and never showed signs of deteriorating health.”
A certain substance started coming out of her son’s nose and mouth.
“Immediately I sat and put him on my laps, [some] white stuff started coming out of his nose, and he became restless, and closed his eyes,” she says.
“He was dead. I called for help and at that point, a crowd had gathered around my home.”
A few minutes later, the family hired a taxi and took the body to George Clinic.
For Mrs Phiri, what hurts the most is that she was not allowed to see her son’s body being lowered into a grave. She was represented by two male family members.
“I needed to see my son being lowered in the grave, I was not there. I was only taken to Chingwere Cemetery the following day to be shown where my son was buried,” she says. “It hurts. I can’t believe he is gone just like that. He did not vomit nor did he have diarrhoea.”
A community health worker at George Clinic, whose name cannot be revealed because she is not authorised to speak to the media, confirmed that Mrs Phiri’s child died of cholera.
“We received a case of a Brought In Dead (BID) in the early hours of January 7, 2018,” the health worker said. “After getting the history of what transpired, we treated the case with the urgency it deserves. The corpse was tested for cholera and it was found positive.”
A team of health personnel from George clinic and Ministry of Health accompanied by two male family members of the dead boy and witnessed his burial.
While Mrs Phiri’s story is about the loss of her son, it is different with other residents.
The brush with cholera on some of the residents has left them suffer at the hands of their neighbours, making them seek alternative places to relocate to.
For residents in Kanyama, Chibolya and George compounds whose relatives have died of cholera, the stigma they have had to suffer has been too much for them.
Kanyama Ward 10 councillor Brighton Bilumba confirmed the relocation of a number of residents who have lost their relatives due to cholera.
“Right now, it’s difficult to trace the people that have lost their loved ones because most of them have been stigmatised and have relocated,” Mr Bilumba says.
And Jane Chirwa of Lusaka’s Kanyama township says because of cholera, people don’t touch each other anymore.
“Even with my family, my own brother, I don’t touch them, because I don’t know who he interacted with. After church, we usually shake hands, but we stopped that. The pastor has to put on gloves to serve communion.”
“Everything is shut down, no business, no work. Many people have lost their jobs and they are sitting at home with nothing to do. People who worked as waiters, bar attendants, shop keepers are back in their homes because various business places have been closed,” Ms Chirwa says.
A shop owner in Kamwala trading area only identified as Suresh fears that the economy could crumble.
“People will have to start all over again. A number of them have lost jobs. The supplies have overstayed and chances are high that they will expire and we will lose out,” Mr Suresh says. PUBLISHED IN THE ZAMBIA DAILY MAIL ON JANUARY 21, 2018. LINK: https://www.daily-mail.co.zm/cholera-a-tale-from-the-township/