Zarina Geloo

The festive season is traditionally a time of giving in Zambia, where the streets of the capital, Lusaka, are awash with people caught up in the buying frenzy that characterises the end of the year. Accordingly, the city’s street children are tracking the mood of consumers as carefully as any economist.

Voluntary testing or mandatory testing? That is the question Aids activists and government officials are grappling with in Zambia, where about one million people have already died in the pandemic since the late 1980s. As a draft national Aids policy is still under discussion, lawmakers have yet to finalise their position on the matter of testing.

This month marks the second anniversary of a corruption task force set up by Zambian President Levy Mwanawasa to investigate the alleged improprieties of his predecessor, Frederick Chiluba. However, chances of the former leader being convicted on any of the charges seem increasingly remote.

Zambia’s labour movement has declared February 18 a day of national protest against the government’s decision to increase taxes and freeze salaries of the more than 120 000 public service workers. Just a week earlier, in a pre-Budget interview on television, the finance minister had assured he would not increase taxes.

Low wages and unemployment, coupled with high taxes, have forced thousands of qualified Zambians to flee the country in search of greener pastures — but President Levy Mwanawasa is calling them "coward failures". "They failed to make the grade here and have gone to exhibit their inefficiencies outside," he said.

Six people have died from cholera and another 165 are reported to be in a serious condition as the disease sweeps through Zambia’s capital, Lusaka. It appears that local authorities have been caught flat-footed by the outbreak. They are now engaged in a frantic bid to contain the disease.

The demand for anti-Aids drugs far outstrips supply in many African countries. But, Zambia appears to be an exception to this rule — at first glance. People are not visiting clinics to get access to anti-retrovirals. However, the Zambian government and Aids groups disagree on the reasons behind this.