Journalist’s Death Sparks Anger Over Maternal Death In Zambia

Sitembile Siwawa Zulu

By Paul Shalala

In life, Sitembile Siwawa Zulu was just an ordinary journalist.

But in death, she has united the nation to fight for a just cause: reduce maternal death.

According to UNICEF, Zambia has one of the highest mortality rates.

“In Zambia, 591 maternal deaths occur per 100,000 live births while the infant, neonatal and under-five mortality rates are at 70, 34, and 119 per 1,000 live births, respectively. These mortality rates are unacceptably high. The major causes of child mortality are malaria, respiratory infections, diarrhoea, malnutrition, and anaemia,” reads a statement on the UN agency's Zambia page..

Three days ago, Zambia Daily Mail Sub-Editor Sitembile delivered what people call a ‘bouncing baby girl’ at the Levy Mwanawasa General Hospital in Lusaka.

A day later when everyone was sending her congratulatory messages, Sitembile breathed her last and that’s how Zambia lost one of its hard working journalists.

She became the latest victim of women who die while giving birth.

Sadly, her death came a few days before the first anniversary of her marriage to Mr Victor Zulu.

Her death has sparked outrage on social media.

Zambians from all walks of life are shocked at the untimely death of the 29 year old scribe who was recently promoted to the position of Sub-Editor after working as a reporter for a long time.

At the moment, the most trending hashtag in Zambia is #NoWomanShouldDieWhileGivingLife which is a spontaneous social media campaign to highlight the plight of women in labour.

On Twitter, Facebook and Instagram, Zambians have been discussing the challenges women face while deivering.

Zambians on Facebook writing about Sitembile's death

For Sitembile, I remember her for having dedicated a good part of her career covering issues of gender, children and agriculture.

She ran a blog called Gender@Heart where she wrote many stories over the years.

The profile on her blog reads: “Apart from being a writer, blogger and everything else, Sitembile has strong passion for fashion and beauty particularly black beauty! Having endured so much ridicule for being dark, she is a strong advocator of black big beauty! Everything about fashion and beauty to her centres around dark African women. She believes in the world of women although she is not a feminist.”

On the blog, as well as in the Zambia Daily Mail newspaper, Sitembile wrote many award winning pieces on children and gave a human face to the challenges children face and the strides they make in life.

“I hear that my former ZAMCOM student Sitembile Siwawa has passed on. She had finally become a colleague at Daily Mail and a Save the Children reliable reporter. My last lesson to her was 'Stembile, you seem to have an interest in children issues. Make it your niche'. She never relented and became a goodwill ambassador for children through her work. Dying in child birth after delivering a bouncy baby. RIP,” wrote Chishaba Masengu, a former lecturer and now a  Media and Communications Coordinator at Save The Children Zambia.

Sitembile (middle) and her close friend Doreen Nawa (far left)
 during the 2014 CAADP Media Awards

Even for women, Sitembile did the same but unfortunately, she ended up facing one of the challenges they grapple with: maternal mortaity.

In her career, Sitembile was a member of the African Union's Comprehensive Africa Agriculture Development Programme (CAADP) Journalist Network which promotes the reporting of agricultural issues on the continent.

In 2014, she was awarded the CAADP Journalist of the Year Award in Durban, South Africa.

The story which made her win this prestigious pan-African media award was titled “Female Farmers Empowerment Vital.”

Just the title of the story tells you how passionate the lady was to gender issues and agriculture.

At a personal level, I had a few encounters with Sitembile when I used to work in Lusaka.

Most times we would meet on assignments and she was this shy lady who rarely spoke in public.

I remember one time asking her if she knew the Siwawa family of Mumbwa who reside in a village called Natani which is close to my own village Lubanze in Nangoma area.

She told me she was related to them and that their clan originally hails from Zimbabwe.

Mr and Mrs Zulu on their wedding in September 2016

Apart from journalists just praising her in death or sharing the hashtag #NoWomanShouldDieWhileGivingLife, others have gone a step further to question why issues of women and maternal mortality rarely make it to the front page of tabloids or evening bulletins of major TV stations.

“But I want every Zambian journalist reading this to pause for a minute and reflect on how it came to pass that we failed Sitembile and thousands of women like her by not making health a story worth telling, even though health is a matter of life and death for 14 million people who live in this country. And she passed on in a big city, the capital where there is even some modicum of care and infrastructure. Think about women tucked in the nooks and crannies of Zambia who risk death every time they have to give life to a child,” wrote Edem Djokotoe, a Ghanaian-born journalist and media trainer who has vast experience in media issues in Zambia.

Edem further says: “I am angry at all of us because we have chosen to subvert the values of news which form the bedrock of our professional and throw Public Interest out of the window. We have gone to bed with politicians and made them the only story in town. We don’t cover health unless the Health Minister is making a speech about health.”

Meanwhile, the Zambian government has launched an inquiry into the circumstances leading to Sitembile’s death.

A statement issued by the Minister of Health Dr. Chitalu Chilufya says authorities will soon get to the bottom of the matter.

And a senior Ministry of Health official has explained what is known so far.

Sitembile with Brenda Zulu in Johannesburg,
South Africa during a CAADP meeting 

“Sitembile Zulu, 29 years old, in her 2nd pregnancy underwent a caesarian section due to fetal distress on the 8th September 2017. Fetal distress is when the fetus does not receive adequate amounts of oxygen during pregnancy or labour. It is oftentimes detected through an abnormal fetal heart rate. The deceased became breathless after taking a bath yesterday in the morning, after which the condition rapidly deteriorated before she passed on despite efforts to resuscitate her,” said Dr Maximilian Bweupe, the spokesperson of the Ministry of Health.

Tributes have also come from Zambia’s official Government Spokesperson Kampamba Mulenga (Minister of Information) who has described Sitembile’s demise as a loss to the nation.

For some of her close friends, her death is a shocker.

Doreen Nawa, a reporter at the Zambia Daily Mail has shared her thoughts over the death of a colleague who I used to fondly call her ‘twin sister.’

She tweeted: “Am lost without you Sitembile…… Your death was preventable.”

Doreen and Sitembile travelled across the globe together and shared many platforms abroad where they jointly received media awards.

Another close friend Brenda Zulu, a blogger, said: “Remembering you through our travels around Africa as we covered Agriculture. We took these pictures for Doreen Chilumbu Nawa as she did not come along with us in Jo'burg for the conference. Will miss you! #RIP Sitembile Zulu.”

Sitembile’s death is not just a local story.

The impact of her death after delivering a child has made it on international media with the London-based BBC publishing an account of her death while some Nigerian sites have carried it too.

For Sitembile, her life has come to a tragic end but for her husband of 11 months, this is the time when Zambians need to show him love and care.

For us in the media, we will continue emulating Sitembile for the causes she stood for: Gender, Children and Agriculture.

Hamba Kahle Sisiwethu!!!!!

African Youths Call For Non-Discrimination Of Homosexuals

The youths who attended the African Union Consultation

By Paul Shalala in Windhoek, Namibia

Youths from across Southern Africa have called for the respect of minorities in society such as homosexuals, saying they deserve respect because they are also human beings.

According to recommendations made at the just ended two day African Union Regional Youth Consultation on Human Rights with focus on Youths and Women, the youths called for the respect of all people’s rights irrespective of their economic status, sexual orientation or religious affiliation.

“As a group, we feel that society must recognise the existence of minorities such as homosexuals. We also need a common goal on how these people can be fully integrated into society,” said Roopanand Mahadew from Mauritius, who read the resolutions from the group on Inclusion, Diversity and Popular Participation which discussed various issues and made recommendations to the African Union.

Roopanand Mahadew speaking at the meeting

The group also recommended that there was need for massive advocacy on the issue of sexual minorities to avoid the continued stigma and hate against the Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual and Transsexual (LGBT) community.

“We need advocacy and education for the judiciary. Imagine if we have an LGBT person taken to court and the magistrate has no idea of homosexuals. He or she can discriminate against the suspect and not give fair justice, he added”

The youths called on the civil society to champion a campaign to raise awareness of sexual minorities so that they can also enjoy their rights.

20 youths from all southern African countries met in Windhoek on Thursday and Friday to come up with recommendations for the African Union 10 Year Human Rights Strategy which would feed into the Agenda 2063, an ambitious road map to Africa’s development which the continental body is pushing.

In other groups, youths recommended that there was need for improved environmental governance in Africa to protect people from environmental disasters and effects of climate change.

The youths also recommended that AU member countries must promote the establishment of Youth Think Tanks to champion the interests of young people.

Some of the youths who attended the meeting 

They further said there was need for the African Union to establish a Youth Division at its Addis Ababa headquarters so that issues pertaining to young people are ably handled by a specialised office.

“There is need for affirmative action on gender equality. Member states should also harmonise the disparities between customary and statutory laws so that women can be protected,” said Nsovo Mayimele, a youth from South Africa who read the resolutions from the group which discussed Women’s Rights.

Under Project 2016, the African Union is holding four regional consultations for youths in Southern, Eastern, Western and Northern Africa before it can consolidate its 10 Year Human Rights Strategy.

According to the objectives set by the continental body, the consultations are expected to help in the establishing of learning platforms and networks as an ongoing knowledge sharing and peer mentoring platform for promoting human rights in Africa. 

Kampamba Mulenga: Copperbelt's Only Female Member of Parliament

By Paul Shalala in Kalulushi

She is the only female Member of Parliament among the 22 lawmakers on the Copperbelt.

Newly elected Patriotic Front Kalulushi Member of Parliament Kampamba Mulenga has fought her way to Manda Hill.

She was among several female parliamentary candidates on the Copperbelt who were adopted by various political parties to contest the August 11 parliamentary elections.

However, all her friends lost and she pulled through alone.

Her victory is good news for gender activists but the fact that she is the only female MP in the second largest province in terms of registered voters, is a source of worry to people who follow women politics closely.

Between 2011 and 2016, the Copperbelt had four elected female Members of Parliament in Kabushi (Ndola), Chifubu (Ndola) Chililabombwe and Lufwanyama.

Back to Kampamba, her election has proved that being consistent in politics can also take one to the national stage.

At a personal level, she is a mother of three who still does household chores like any other mother.

When this blogger met her for an interview, the Kalulushi MP was busy in the kitchen preparing food for her family.

Her rise to national prominence is out of hardwork.

"I was first elected party District Treasurer. Later i was elected the first District Chairperson for the Patriotic Front in 2011. At that time, it was difficult to win such a position as a woman and we were still in opposition," said Kampamba.

She says her hard work in the party led to late President Michael Sata recognising her and making her part of his government.

"President Sata later appointed me District Commissioner for Kalulushi."

It is this civil service position which helped position Kampamba well with the people of Kalulushi, a town which has one constituency.

In that role, Kampamba was one of the few female District Commissioners on the Copperbelt.

And even after leaving the office a few years ago, she went back to politics and stealthily prepared for the adoptions ahead of the 2016 parliamentary elections.

As usual, she was pitted against men within the ruling party but she prevailed.

During the actual elections, she beat all the five men who stood against her.

Now that she has been elected, she has a few words for women on the Copperbelt.

Rashida (left) and Kampamba celebrating their victory

"I will work hard and inspire more women to stand as MPs in 2021. We need more women to take up leadership positions. And for the people of Kalulushi, i want to assure them that i will not disapoint them, i will work towards my campaign promises and develop our constituency," she said.

As she embarks on her five year tour of duty at Manda Hill, the hopes of people in Kalulushi is that she will carry on the mantle and deliver where men could have failed to deliver.

Kampamba is not the only woman elected in Kalulushi.

A number of coucillors are female and the new Mayor of Kalulushi Rashida Mulenga is also female.

Despite sharing the same surname, Rashida and Kampamba are not related.

Their own relation is the quest to develop Kalulushi.

Construction of Govt Houses In Lunga Employs Over 400 Women

By Paul Shalala in Lunga

Women carrying sand

The construction of 20 medium cost houses for the local authority in Lunga District of Luapula Province has created over 400 jobs for women in the area.

With no roads or vehicles to help BGC Construction Company on Kasoma Lunga Island, the company has employed four hundred and nineteen women to transport sand and other building materials.  

This is probably the first time so many of them are being employed on such a large scale.

Emmerine Kabanshi is the area Member of Parliament, she is happy that her female electorates are  now being employed.

Emmerine Kabanshi

"The women of Lunga were the most abused. The women of Lunga were the most poor. Now they are able to earn a living and buy food and soap. This is good for them," said Ms Kabanshi who is also Community Development Minister.

The project, which is being done at the cost of K9.6 million, is part of a wider government effort to construct a Post Office, District Administration and a Civic Center.

New Mainland Corporation has also been constructed to build the first ever Police Station and several Police houses at the cost of K20 million.

Swenga Limited has also been contracted to construct a 20 high cost and 10 medium cost houses.

Other works being done, include the construction of a civic Center by Crestmark Investments and a Post Office by Fresino Enterprices.

All these projects have a time frame in which to be completed because Lunga must have a fully fledged Administrative Office by December.

Women: The Untapped Powerhouse For Climate Action

Lozi Ndondi in the flood plain in western Zambia. 

By Lubasi Wachata

Climate change is one of the key challenges of our times. Globally, climate change has been recognized as a serious phenomenon with harsh repercussions for human development. Expert assessments by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) predict that global warming will have its worst impacts in developing countries particularly in Africa, South and West Asia. As a developing country, Zambia is experiencing the impacts of climate change with an increase in extreme weather events such as droughts, floods and increases in temperature. The country has also witnessed delayed onset of the rainfall and earlier cessation, resulting in shorter rainy seasons with more intense rainfall. The effects of climate change are already widespread and consequential to the country’s key sectors namely agriculture and food security, energy and water, human health, natural resources and wildlife. Due to Zambia’s over reliance on rain-fed agriculture and natural resource exploitation, such climate problems are expected to continue to manifest in future thereby calling for climate action to abate the situation.

While a vast literature exists about the vulnerability of women to climate change impacts, little has been written about how women can play an active role in climate action. Women have generally been perceived merely as victims of climate change and natural disasters.  However, women’s vulnerability has also made them keenly aware of their environments and the devastating impacts of climate change. As a result, women are well positioned to be agents of change in all actions intended to respond to the climate challenge both through adaptation and mitigation.

In the context of adaptation, a number of areas exist for climate action in which women are already actively involved namely the agriculture sector. Statistics show that at least about 80 percent of Zambia’s rural population depends on agricultural related activities. Further, studies show that rural women make up the larger share of the agricultural workforce of about 70 percent. Women therefore bear the primary responsibility for household food security, nutrition and health for families. Despite this fact, it is sad to note that women in agriculture are disadvantaged by their lack of equal access with their male counterparts to essential resources such as land and decision making power. While current laws in Zambia do not discriminate against women to own land, women still lack access to land. The 1995 Lands Act guarantees women the possibility of being land owners with security tenure of 99 years. However the Land Act also allows Customary Laws which mainly confer land ownership on men to apply to the administration of customary land. As a result, women do not have security to tenure as this is reliant on their husband or male relatives.

With respect to mitigation, Zambia’s contribution to the regional greenhouse gas emission level is relatively small. However, emissions from land use change are on an increase due to deforestation and land conversion. Halting deforestation is therefore the country’s primary mitigation action. There is potential for Zambia to reduce or store greenhouse gases particularly in the energy sector where women are already active.  While the energy sector consists of electricity, fossil fuel and renewable energy, wood is the most significant energy source accounting for about 80 percent of domestic energy in the country. Provision of energy for domestic use is typically a woman’s job in Zambia. Women often resort to the energy-inefficient open burning of biomass such as charcoal or firewood. They continue to spend enormous time procuring the biomass and they need larger amounts as they burn it inefficiently. Not only does this give them less time to pursue other income generating activities, the practice also exacerbates deforestation. Studies show that between 1990 and 2000, Zambia had the highest deforestation rate of about 851 000 ha in Southern Africa. This made Zambia account for almost half the deforestation in the Southern Africa Development Community region. Thus, mitigation actions such as the use of efficient energy systems at the household level can not only reduce both deforestation and unhealthy emissions, but also harness the potential of women as actors for mitigation measures. 

Climate change policy that does not address gender fails to utilize women’s potential in climate action. While the need for gender mainstreaming into climate change policy has generally been accepted at the international level, the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) and the Kyoto Protocol lack specific language related to gender. However, numerous other international legal instruments mandate the incorporation of the gender perspective which also applies to the existing climate change framework. Agenda 21, the Millennium Declaration, the Convention on Biological Diversity and the UN Convention to Combat Desertification among others are gender-aware initiatives that may affect climate change policy. As political will for a new and meaningful universal agreement at the climate negotiations in Paris in 2015 is being mobilized, it is important that differentiated responsibilities of women and men be taken into account. Integrating gender into mitigative and adaptive policies will better deal with the repercussions of climate change. Empowering women and realizing gender equality are essential goals in themselves, but are in addition vital components of managing climate change and creating a more sustainable future.

Zambia National Women's Lobby Reacts To Sata's Speech In Parliament

Beauty Katebe

The speech presented to Parliament by President Michael Sata yesterday is encouraging as it has touched on the most critical national issues affecting women and children. The Zambia National Women’s Lobby (ZNWL) is particularly encouraged that the President has yet again shown political will by expressing interest in increasing women’s participation in decision making processes and challenging women to rise to the challenge as there is still room for them to participate in the leadership of the country. We urge the President to go a step further and expedite the constitutional making process so that women’s participation in decision making process is not only backed by political will, but also by the law.

As ZNWL, we are also encouraged that the President has reiterated his commitment to putting in place stringent measures to protect women and children from all forms of abuse. This is important because the prevalence of gender-based violence is currently unacceptable, and posing a challenge to the country’s development.

The President also gave policy direction on how issues of poverty will be tackled. It is a well known fact that poverty is Zambia‘s biggest challenge to national development at the moment and that women are the most affected. We therefore applaud the Government for aligning their policies towards the reduction of poverty through among other strategies, the creation of employment for the youths by adopting an industrialisation and job creation strategy that will focus on specific growth sectors such as agro-processing, manufacturing and creative industries. We feel this will not only reduce poverty levels, but also facilitate the decline in other negative vices that are as the result of joblessness. We implore the Government to provide the necessary financing and training in these programmes if the industries are to compete with the already established multinational –conglomerates and further provide stringent monitoring mechanisms.

We further feel that this policy ties in well with Governments’ plans to enact the customary land administration bill which will ensure that the interests of the local people in rural areas are protected.

Zambia has been quoted amongst the most undernourished nations in the region. While the President’s pronouncement on guaranteeing the food security as it relates to the staple food is welcome, we feel there is need for deliberate policies that will encourage crop diversification as a means of improving the nutritional status of the nation.  People also need to be sensitised on the importance of consuming the right kind of food as the lack of proper nutrition leads to cognitive deficiencies among other problems.

Health care is of paramount importance in any development endeavour hence, Government’s announcement that construction of 650 health posts has commenced and that the major health institutions are being equipped with ultra modern equipment, is good news. This will assist in bringing basic health care closer to Zambians, especially women. However government must ensure that access to such specialised medical equipment is affordable for all with enough medical personnel to guarantee the acceptable standards of health care.

We however would have appreciated if the President had provided a time frame on when some important national issues like the constitutional making process and its road map would take place.

Issued by National Chairperson, Ms Beauty Katebe

Zambia National Women’s Lobby