Labour legislation and policy in a post-colonial state : attempts to incorporate trade unions in Zambia, 1971-86

This is a study of some of the major aspects of the development of post-colonial labour policy in Zambia. It examines the Zambian Government's attempts to 'incorporate' trade unions into its strategy of national development. Except for such later references as it was possible to include, it covers the period from 1971 to 1986. The purpose of the study is to examine the role played by law in the Zambian Government's attempts to incorporate trade unions and the rank and file sufficiently in the plans for national development. Zambian trade unions at independence were quite autonomous. Given the power and autonomy of trade unions, their attitude and approach have been viewed by the Government as crucial elements of national development. The Government has, therefore, progressively adopted measures aimed at the closer control and regulation of the trade union movement and its membership. In spite of such attempts, however, the approach in Zambia has been less coercive than in some other African countries. The Government has tended to rely on "pressure rather than force". In this context government reforms are examined in four key areas: the regulation of trade union activity, the restructuring of collective bargaining (including incomes policy), industrial conflict and dispute settlement procedures, and workers' participation. It is concluded that the Government has not achieved its stated major objectives. Although trade unions and their members have generally accepted the Government's overall authority to set the agenda of national development, they have resisted attempts to curtail their autonomy. It is on account of this failure that the Government now intends to integrate trade unions into the State completely

Knowledge of, attitudes toward and practices of ethics of war of the officers and soldiers of the Zambia Army

Since the end of the world wars, the demise of the Cold War and the end of liberation wars in Africa, the changing character of warfare has given birth to uncertainties about how states will respond to acts of aggression in the face of ethics of war, or the moral rules of war. It has become difficult for states to conduct permissible self-defence and other-defence against non-state actors or sub-state groups, which do not have a sovereign (political and territorial integrity) to protect. In the face of this reality, it is not known how much knowledge military personnel world over have on ethics of war, what their attitude towards ethics of war is, and how they practice these ethics of war during war and operations other than war. Research was therefore conducted to assess knowledge of, attitudes toward and practices of the ethics of war of officers and soldiers of the Zambia Army. A mixed method research was undertaken using explanatory sequential approach. A sample of 420 participants was drawn from officers and soldiers serving in the Zambia Army. Questionnaires were used to collect quantitative data, while focus group discussions and interviews were undertaken to collect qualitative data. The findings from the focus group discussions and interviews provided depth and understanding about how the officers and soldiers felt about ethics of war. The findings of focus group discussions and interviews also helped to explain the findings from the quantitative data. Quantitative data were analysed at two levels. The first level of analysis comprised descriptive statistics in the form of frequency distribution tables, means and percentages. The second level involved inferential statistics by applying the chi-square test in order to determine the relationship, if any, between the independent variables and the dependent variables using the Statistical Packaging for Social Sciences. Further, the research used Spearman’s rank correlation coefficient to measure the strength and direction of association between two ranked variables. Analysis of qualitative data begun during the data collection exercise by arranging the field notes according to salient themes in relation to the objectives. This was followed by pinpointing, examining and recording patterns within the data collected The conclusion of the study showed that, at the time, the majority of the Zambia Army officers and soldiers were reasonably acquainted with the knowledge of ethics of war. The study further concluded that Zambia Army officers and soldiers held very strong and positive attitudes towards the ethics of war at the time. In addition, the officers and soldiers also widely accepted and supported the ethics of war, as they considered them beneficial. It was evident from the research that the Zambia Army soldiers and officers practiced the ethics of war extensively and regularly during both local and international operations. However, more needs to be done to increase knowledge levels