Issued by: Vusumuzi Sifile Executive Director, Panos Institute Southern Africa (PSAf) Email: vusa@panos.org.zm Lusaka, 09 April 2020: Panos Institute Southern Africa is saddened by the cancellation of Prime Television’s broadcasting license, and calls on the Independent Broadcasting Authority (IBA) to rescind its decision and reinstate one of Zambia’s leading privately owned media houses. In a letter to Prime TV proprietor Gerald Shawa on 09 April 2020, the IBA Board Secretary/Director General Josephine Mapoma said the TV station’s broadcasting license had been cancelled “with immediate effect”. The IBA said the cancellation of Prime TV’s broadcasting license was in line with provisions of Section...

Press Release 8th April, 2020 Upholding Social Justice at the Workplace in the Wake of COVID-19 On 31st December 2019, Chinese authorities alerted the World Health Organisation (WHO) of an outbreak of a novel strain of coronavirus causing severe illness and even death in some cases. The WHO subsequently named this as COVID-19. As of April 5th, 2020, over 1.2 million COVID-19 cases with over 60,000 deaths were recorded globally. Zambia has so far recorded 39 cases, 7 recoveries and 1 death as of 8th April 2020. Various measures have been promoted at both local and global level in order...

BNNB Statement Tuesday 7thApril, 2020 POOR ECONOMIC PERFORMANCE: MORE DAMAGING ON POOR HOUSEHOLDS. The country has in the past month been faced with both economic and social difficulties. We have seen the country’s currency losing value against major currencies. From the 2nd to the 26th of March 2020 the Kwacha depreciated against the US dollar by 18.6 percent. On 2nd March 2020, the Kwacha traded at K15.22 to US$1. By 26th March, the Kwacha had moved to K18.05 to US$1. About the same time, we were faced with a shortage of the country’s staple food; mealie meal, which in turn...