{"id":10039,"date":"2012-04-18T16:23:35","date_gmt":"2012-04-18T14:23:35","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/04\/factbox-key-political-risks-to-watch-in-zambia\/"},"modified":"2012-04-18T16:23:35","modified_gmt":"2012-04-18T14:23:35","slug":"factbox-key-political-risks-to-watch-in-zambia","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/factbox-key-political-risks-to-watch-in-zambia\/","title":{"rendered":"FACTBOX-Key political risks to watch in Zambia"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>\t\t<span><\/span><\/p>\n<p>By Chris Mfula<span><\/span><\/p>\n<p><span><\/span><\/p>\n<p><span class=\"articleLocation\">LUSAKA, April 18<\/span> (Reuters) &#8211; Zambia faces strikes that could<br \/>\nslow is vital copper sector while investors are worried that<br \/>\nprivatisation deals struck by the former president could be<br \/>\nreversed due to suspected corruption.<\/p>\n<p><span><\/span><\/p>\n<p>The government in Africa&#8217;s top copper producer, in place<br \/>\nsince September, has angered its political foes with probes into<br \/>\ncorruption and may find it difficult to push laws through<br \/>\nparliament in the face of an increasingly united opposition.<\/p>\n<p><span><\/span><\/p>\n<p>Investors were rattled by its move to double the royalties<br \/>\nit charges mining companies on base metals, while frequent power<br \/>\nshortages look set to worsen the problems facing the industry.<\/p>\n<p><span><\/span><\/p>\n<p>Erratic rains have delayed the planting of this year&#8217;s maize<br \/>\ncrop, the country&#8217;s staple, raising the possibility of a poor<br \/>\nharvest and rising food prices.<\/p>\n<p><span><\/span><\/p>\n<p>Commercial maize production is expected to fall by about 80<br \/>\npercent in the 2011\/2012 season compared with the previous<br \/>\nseason as farmers turn to more lucrative crops.<\/p>\n<p><span><\/span><\/p>\n<p>Ratings agency Fitch in March downgraded Zambia&#8217;s outlook to<br \/>\nnegative from stable, saying it was on the wrong path.<\/p>\n<p><span><\/span><\/p>\n<p><span><\/span><\/p>\n<p>MMD SUSPENSION<br \/>\n\u00a0 <span class=\"label\"><strong>Continued&#8230;<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n<p><span><\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>By Chris Mfula LUSAKA, April 18 (Reuters) &#8211; Zambia faces strikes that could slow is vital copper sector while investors are worried that privatisation deals struck by the former president could be reversed due to suspected corruption. The government in Africa&#8217;s top copper producer, in place since September, has angered its political foes with probes [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_genesis_hide_title":false,"_genesis_hide_breadcrumbs":false,"_genesis_hide_singular_image":false,"_genesis_hide_footer_widgets":false,"_genesis_custom_body_class":"","_genesis_custom_post_class":"","_genesis_layout":"","ngg_post_thumbnail":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[1],"tags":[830,2370,183],"class_list":{"0":"post-10039","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","6":"category-south-africa","7":"tag-news","8":"tag-reuters","9":"tag-south-africa-2","10":"entry"},"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10039","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=10039"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10039\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=10039"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=10039"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=10039"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}