Zambia

Economic watchers have long blamed Zambia’s inability to feed itself on an agricultural marketing system that shuns highly productive but often remote and inaccessible rural areas as risky and unprofitable.

Opposition party leaders facing defamation charges after calling Zambian President Frederick Chiluba a thief have presented their case in the Lusaka High Court. IRIN attended the proceedings.

We don't think President Frederick Chiluba was serious when he declared at a parliamentary by-election campaign rally in Kabwata on Wednesday that he was ready to invite auditors "at any time" to prove his innocence - to prove that he is not a thief.

Making a submission at a Transparency International -Zambia seminar on political parties' role in the fight against electoral corruption, Gen. Chinkuli said prior to 1991 the electorate never used to demand bribes for them to vote. Gen. Chinkuli said the practice to entice voters and giving them money and chitenge materials to canvas their votes only surfaced when the MMD came into power. "Chiluba brought corruption in 1991."

Corrupt people have no foot prints so it's up to the media to trace them, observed Human Rights Trust of Southern Africa (SAHRIT) executive director Philliat Matsheza.

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