Ms Buumba Mwela Kaunga is a chartered accountant with more than 25 years of experience in financial matters. She is a fellow of the Zambia Institute of Chartered Accountants (ZICA) and is currently engaged as Finance and Resources Manager at the British Council head office in Lusaka. Among her many responsibilities and duties at the British Council are managing financial systems and controls, procurement, management of fixed assets, financial planning and reporting and grants management – both large and small of up to £26 million. She has a wealth of experience in the NGO world, and has coordinated various projects with relevant partners such as the European Union.
Dr. O’Brien Kaaba, LLB (University of London), LLM (University of Zambia), LLD (University of South Africa) is a lecturer in the School of Law at the University of Zambia and a senior research fellow at SAIPAR. He has formerly served as Elections Manager for the National Democratic Institute for International Affairs (NDI) in Zambia, Political Specialist for the US Department of State at the American Embassy in Lusaka (Zambia) and as a Human Rights and Rule of Law Advisor for the Germany Development Cooperation (GIZ) in Zambia. O’Brien is a co-editor of the book Electoral Politics in Zambia published by Brill in 2020.
Mr. Reuben Lifuka studied architecture at Copperbelt University. He also has a Masters Degree in Integrated Environmental Management. He is current president of Transparency International Zambia (TIZ). Previously he worked for the National Heritage as a Conservation Architect. He now runs his own consultancy firm dealing in environmental management. Mr. Lifuka has a long history of service in the NGO world, including serving on the boards of the Non-Governmental Organisation Coordinating Council (NGOCC), Jesuit Centre for Theological Reflection (JCTR), Civil Society for Poverty Reduction (CSPR), Transparent International, Zambian Governance Foundation, Media Council of Zambia and Media Institute of Southern Africa (MISA) Zambia.
Professor Kanduza is a lecturer of history at the Zambian Open University. After completing his PhD he returned to work at the University of Zambia from 1983 to 1988, and then relocated to Swaziland and spent 18 years lecturing at the University of Swaziland and later, the University of Botswana. He is the author of various research studies in social-economic history.
MakanDay is registered as a non-profit company – MakanDay Media Centre Limited. The editorial team is headquartered in Lusaka.
John Mukela has significant experience as a reporter, editor and media trainer. He was Chief Editor of Lesotho’s first daily newspaper, The Nation, and later, Editor of The Botswana Guardian, before joining the BBC as a reporter, producer and presenter on Focus on Africa. One of four founders to establish the Weekly Post (subsequently The Post), which he briefly edited, he later served for 12 years as Executive Director of the regional Nordic-SADC Journalism Centre.
Charles Mafa is a Zambian investigative journalist with over 20 years’ experience in the media industry. His journalism works have won him several individual recognition and awards, including the 2016 overall MISA best Zambian journalist and was second best student in the World Bank-funded investigative journalism training in 2011 which won him an internship placing at South Africa’s Mail and Guardian. He is also the 2016 (USA) Edward R. Murrow Fellow. His journalism has appeared on the BBC radio, in South Africa’s Mail and Guardian Newspaper, the New York Times, and in several international publications. He was Associate Editor and Environmental Columnist for the Bulletin and Record Magazine until its closure in 2016. In his other previous work, he was Production Manager, cameraman and script writer for Catholic Media Services TV Production Studios. Radio provided him entry into journalism, having volunteered for several years as radio announcer and sports presenter at Yatsani and in the local Lozi language section of ZNBC.
Vernon Wright is arguably the longest-serving media practitioner in Zambia. He founded and was editor-in-chief of Original Publishers Limited, which until its closure in 2016, published Zambia’s foremost quality periodical, the Bulletin & Record. He has worked as a journalist for more than 40 years and is a multiple award-winning writer, named Journalist of the Year (New Zealand, 1986) for his writings on South Africa and New Caledonia. He has worked in radio, newspapers and magazines as a reporter, editor, chief sub-editor, production editor and designer, and has been a foreign correspondent in South-east Asia. He has served as Research Editor for Africa Books in London, and as Associate Editor of Gemini News Service, also in London. He is a former Chief Sub-Editor and senior writer for the weekly NZ Listener, one of the most successful weekly magazines in the world on a per capita basis. He is a former Assistant Editor of the daily Times of Zambia in the days before it was nationalised, and he initiated the first in-house training scheme for journalists in Zambia. He founded and was first editor of The Zambian Farmer magazine, as well as the Bulletin & Record. He is the author of four non-fiction books; two of them best sellers in his native New Zealand.
