Mukupa Writes

 By Linda Mupemo  Cecilia Kaira (left) and Jane Nakamba at school  Chipo Siandindi confidently walks to the examination room clad in a school uniform and school shoes with her natural hair tucked into neat cornrows.  She beams with excitement as she nears the end of her secondary school education journey while at the same time smells the beginning of her tertiary one. “I am happy I am finally completing my grade 12. I want to be a teacher in the near future,” she tells this Reporter.   Chipo Siandindi Chipo,  a Chisamba Secondary School Grade 12 Pupil, reveals that her parents divorced when she was six years old resulting in her growing up with her mother and maternal grandmother. “My mother does not have a source of income; we survive on my grandmother’s Social Cash Transfer funds (SCT),” she says.  Chipo says she has been benefiting from the Keeping Girls in School programme since she was in grade 9 in 2021, a programme that has been enabling her mee...

By Linda Mupemo  Bifacial solar panels have been delivered on site  The rising population in Zambia has subsequently led to an increase in the demand for resources such as energy.  According to the 2022 National Census of Population and Housing, Zambia's population stands at 19, 693, 423 and only a proportion of 34 percent of the population has access to electricity as indicated by the Ministry of Energy.  A report by the Ministry of Energy further indicates that the country's installed power generation capacity comprises 83 percent of hydro, 9 percent of coal, 5 percent of heavy fuel and 3 percent of solar.  Suffice to say the overdependence on hydroelectricity for power generation has plunged Zambia into an energy crisis owing to reduced water levels occasioned by an El Niño induced drought the country experienced in the 2023/2024 rainy season.  In a statement recently released to the media, Zambia Electricity Supply Corporation (ZESCO) Limited Spokespers...