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Poverty-related problems facing Africa are not only overwhelming but also monumental and worrisome. Some of Africa’s poverty problems are self-inflicted, largely speaking, and have increasingly become systemically chronic, while others are externally instigated. This book focuses on an aspect of those problems that are principally internal to Africa—that is, the issue of corruption! The book picks out Zambia as a case study. The efficacy of the legal and institutional framework for fighting corruption in Zambia is examined. An authoritative text on Zambian jurisprudence, this book brings out critically and analytically incisive legal perspectives. The book also makes reference to closely related developments in other jurisdictions. Weaknesses in the legal and institutional framework in Zambia are identified, and the book spells out proposals to strengthen the framework.
Recognising that much of the literature on good governance draws on precepts of the law that have been in existence even before the term good governance was conceived, the book argues that an appropriate legal definition of good governance is still missing. And while the term corruption has benefited generally from elaborate and satisfactory legal definitions, as evidenced, for example, in many pieces of legislation on corruption in different countries, including anti-corruption treaties, anti-corruption policy documents and legal scholarship on corruption, the term good governance remains a loose term that is used carelessly even by those who do not understand it fully.
Chapter 1 sets out the objectives and context of the book, articulating the underlying thesis on which arguments in the book are built. The chapter observes that if the political will to fight corruption is absent amongst the political class and institutions at the top levels of society then the reform to fight corruption may not come by easily. Chapter 2 examines a number of conceptual issues surrounding definitions of corruption and good governance, highlighting, in the process, the statutory offences of corrupt practices in Zambia. Also, the single-criminality test relating to offences of corruption is examined, including the issue of extraterritorial criminal jurisdiction. Chapter 3 deals with the competent authority for combating corruption in Zambia.