There’s power in the union

Copper mining remains the dominant economic activity in Zambia, a situation that has not changed since 1928 when large-scale mining was introduced in the country. According to a World Bank report released in June 2015, the sector today accounts for more than sixty-five percent of Zambia’s export earnings and eleven percent of its gross domestic product. The mining sector has also seen the largest number of industrial accidents and fatalities in post-colonial Zambia.

The widespread privatisation of the Zambian copper mining sector in the 1990s led to the (re)emergence of foreign mining companies in the country, including several state-owned companies from China. China’s increasing presence in Zambia has also given rise to a number of concerns. Some Chinese mining companies have been accused of maintaining lax safety standards, paying low wages to local employees—especially if compared to other foreign mining companies—and of physically abusing their workers. For these reasons, critics have accused the Zambian government of weakening its safety standards to attract foreign investors, of failing to monitor compliance with safety and labour laws, and of underfunding local regulators.

These critics allege that this has triggered a ‘race to the bottom’ in labour standards. By ‘race to the bottom’, they refer to a tendency where the government reduces the monitoring and enforcement capacity of public regulatory institutions, or enacts lax safety laws, in order to attract foreign investors. They not only argue that the Zambian government weakens safety standards through funding cuts, but they also claim that current regulatory standards are obsolete and that the government intervenes in the decision-making process of regulators to protect Chinese companies from paying penalties when they fail to comply with local regulations.

In April 2005, fifty-two Zambians were killed in an accident in an explosives factory jointly owned by the Beijing General Institute for Research and Metallurgy (BGRIMM) and the Non-Ferrous China-Africa (NFCA) Mining Company—both state-owned companies—in Chambishi in Zambia’s Copperbelt Province. One year after the accident at the BGRIMM plant, five Zambians were shot and injured by gunshots fired by their Chinese manager while they were protesting against low wages and lax safety standards at the NFCA Chambishi mine. In August 2008, more than five hundred Zambian workers attacked a newly built Chinese-owned Chambishi Copper Smelter and burnt down the kitchen of a Chinese-resident. One Chinese and three Zambians working in the kitchen were seriously injured. The protesters claimed that they had been told that the management was going on vacation and abandoning collective negotiations in which workers had demanded changes in safety standards and a reduction in work hours. In another accident that attracted a lot of media attention in 2010, a Chinese supervisor at the Collum Coal mine in Southern Province shot thirteen Zambians. The workers at the mine were complaining against the state of safety standards in the mines and their low wages. These accidents and protests have raised serious debate about labour and safety standards in Chinese mines in Zambia.

The formulation of safety and labour regulations in Zambia is based on a state/business-centred approach that ignores the role of non-state actors, such as trade unions, mine workers, local NGOs, and international organisations.

A 2011 study by Human Rights Watch (HRW) has highlighted, Chinese mining companies in Zambia still have further reforms to make in order to strengthen their efforts to mitigate accidents. These include improving the safety conditions of workers hired by subcontractors, reducing the number of casual employees, and cutting the number of working hours.

Trade unions have organised protests, and pushed the issue into the public agenda. In response to these protests, some Chinese mining companies have altered their safety policies and normalised their relations with unions. Furthermore, under mounting public pressure, the Zambian government has introduced labour laws and established structures to strengthen its safety regulatory standards in the last decade.

http://www.chinoiresie.info/regulating-chinese-investment-in-zambian-mines/

LUNGU THUMPS ICHILEMA AGAIN

President Edgar Lungu has once again defeated UPND leader Hakainde Ichilema during the 11 August presidential and general elections by a slim margin of 100,530 votes. Lungu polled a total of 1,860,877 votes against Ichilema who polled 1,760,347. the overall voting pattern is the repeat of the 2015 presidential by-election in the sense that both leaders managed to retain their traditional political strongholds, viz. Ichilema received 75% of the votes in Southern, Western and North-Western Provinces, whereas Lungu was massively in Wapula, Northern, Eastern, Lusaka and Copperfield Provinces.

The victory condemns Mr. Ichilema to his fifth successive loss while extending the PF’s rule to 10 years.

The elections were held under a new constitution which required the victor secures 50% plus one vote to avoid a re-run. Lungu polled 50.4% against Ichilema’s 47.63%. The other remaining opposition politicians polled less than 1% of the votes cast.

Lungu’s triumph under the glare of international election observers and monitors is the confirmation that the PF’s pro-poor policies have not worked to the satisfaction of all Zambians – especially those who dwell in rural areas.

Indeed, after an intense campaign period and four days of anxious waiting for the final election results, Zambians poured into the streets in a wild orgy of celebrations when it was announced that Lungu had won the elections – reminiscent of 2011 when the late president Saba had defeated the former MMD leader Rupiah Banda.

Overzealous crowds sing the chorus for the now popular vernacular song “Dununa Reverse”, which had become the PF campaign slogan. With the skyrocketing prices of essential commodities, such as cooking oil and meali meal – life remains still bleak along the line of rail and the capital city Lusaka for the workers, peasants and students.

Looking the seemingly small margin of the votes that separates the two presidential contenders the victory does not paint a rosy picture for the political future of the pf. It is now more certain than eve before the PF under the leadership of President Lungu is no longer a popular political party it claims to be.

Because the political campaigns preceding the elections, characterised by political hooliganism and intimidation between PF and the UPND. Celebrations heights ethnic sentiments directed against tribes who hail from regions that had unanimously voted for UPND leader Ichilema, viz. Tonga, Lozi, Kaouda, Laniba, and Luvale.

Zambia remains a divided country in terms of the voting patterns which emerged after the elections, with the traditional UPND and PF political strongholds remaining separate despite the massive economic and social programmes taking place in Southern, Western and North-Western Provinces.

The now seemingly entrenched ethnic and regional voting patterns speaks large about what motivates the way people vote in rural village communities. It is now apparent that residents in rural areas do mostly vote for a political leader to whom they have close ethnic and tribal affinities – regardless of his political credentials.

Despite having won a resounding victory above 50% Lungu came out in the open and expressed his reservations about the divisive regional voting patterns. Even before the Electoral Commission of Zambia had announced the final election results, UPND leader Ichilema stormed the facility to express his consternation in the manner the votes were tabulated. He had raised a court injunction disputing the election results.

The ruling PF suffered some political causalities in the sense that at least eight former PF ministers have lost the parliamentary seats while for the first time some ten independent candidates won the elections.

Among those who lost their parliamentary seats was the PF defence minister Richwell Siyamunene, who failed to retain his Sinazougwe seat in Southern Province. He had resigned from the UPND when he was appointed as defence minister in 2015 by Lungu. He was mobbed irate Tonga-speaking UPND political cadres and badly assaulted after having lost the election.

Indeed, the celebrations for Lungu’s victory taking place in the Copperbelt and Lusaka was reciprocated by indecent attacks against PF supporters in South Province by UPND political cadres.

Alarm bells are ringing more loudly for the future political destiny of the PF in the sense that once again the PF has failed to penetrate the UPND political strongholds of Western, Southern and North-Western Provinces. In fact it is supposed to be the indefatigable  UPND leader Ichilema who should be celebrating for having given Lungu a close and gruelling fight.

CEPHAS MULENGA, 

Zambia

Zambia's twenty years of one-party political dictatorship

From the year Zambia became independent on 24 October 1964 to 1972 Zambia was under a multi-party political system.What is called a one-party state only came into being in 1972 when UNIP president Dr. Kenneth Kaunda declared Zambia a one-party state at a state conference held at Mulungushi rock of authority. The veteran politician and president of the African National Congress Harry Mwanga Nkurnbula duly agreed and endorsed the creation of a single-party state in 1972.

The promulgation of a one-party state foreshadowed the introduction of the philosophy of humanism and the enhancement of the Emergence Power Act which banned political and public demonstrations of any kind. The reason why Dr. Kaunda introduced a one-party state was alleged to be the anxieties about tribalism and regionalism that had emerged during the 1967 UNIP general conference.

Dr. Kenneth Kaunda felt that a multi-party political system was a recipe for political instability and thus economic underdevelopment. The creation of a one-party state gave rise to the intensification of the liberation struggle in Zimbabwe, Mozambique, Angola, and Namibia – Zambia became a hub of political exiles from these countries.

The political ideology of Leninism-Marxism was very attractive to some countries in

Africa that had recently emerged from European colonialism. Single-party political dictatorships appear in various styles – but are everywhere distinguished by the stubborn suppression of human rights and political freedom, every single party political dictatorship fashions a political ideology that defines its political and economic revolution. The political ideology becomes through time a cultural and nationalistic acronym – and inspires deep-rooted veneration and patriotism.

It is a fact that single party political dictatorship of the day have shown the audacity to carry out bold social and economic programmes that maybe impossible to implement under parliamentary democracy – the Soviet Union, Cuba and China are examples.

The one-party political dictatorship introduced by President Kaunda in 1972 was not an outright rejection of Western political, religious, intellectual and cultural models. Zambia Army senior officers were sent at Sandhurst military academy in Britain and Zambia had diplomatic consulates in Western countries including Israel. But it was from the Soviet Union that Zambia was dependant for its much needed military hardware and logistics. The Soviet Union sold Mig 19 and 21 jet fighters in 1976 to help boost Zambia's airforce. Dr. Kaunda was a pacifist at heart and tried by all means to open political dialogue with the racist regimes in Zimbabwe and South Africa. Dr. Kaunda' s determination and support to the freedom fighters from Angola. Mozambique, Namibia. Zimbabwe and South Africa was motivated by selfish reasons and did not reflect the feelings and aspirations of ordinary Zambians – it resulted in political insecurity and economic hardships. The UDI government of Prime Minister Ian Smith in Zimbabwe imposed an oil embargo on Zambia. Zambia is a landlocked country and most of its trade routes passed through Zimbabwe, Namibia, Mozambique and Angola. This meant that Dr. Kaunda had to find alternative means to ferry imports and exports now that the trade routes from South Africa were no longer available. The solution was proffered by the Chinese government which built the Tazara railway line from Tunduma in Tanzania to Kapiri Mposhi in Zambia. This was followed by the construction of the Tazama pipeline from the port of Dar-es-slam in Tanzania to Ndola in Zambia.

In 1973 at Matero conference in Lusaka Dr. Kaunda implemented the notorious Matero economic reforms that ushered in what has been known as a state command economy. The mammoth task of creating a state-oriented economy was resolved through the cunning acumen of Andrew Sardanis – a Cypriot businessman resident in Zambia. The industrial development corporation (INDECO), financial development corporation mines (FINDECO) were created. This outright nationalization of the private economic sector was dubbed Zambianisation to fit in with the ideology of “socialism”. But Zambia was a mixed economy to some extent in the sense that small-scale foreign owned private business existed side by side with parastatal companies. The parastatal companies had their own problems. Most of them proved to be inefficient in the long run.

Recruitment into the parastatal companies was riddled with corruption, nepotism, and tribalism. Workers in parastatal companies received low salaries and subjected to political brainwashing compared to those in the private sector.

In 1980, there occurred a first coup attempt to remove President Kaunda from power. A contingent of Congolese mercenaries was discovered at a farm in Chilanga owned by Aron Milner, a former foreign affairs minister in Dr. Kaunda's government. Among those arrested was a Congolese politician resident in Angola, Democritus Simba, and some senior military officers. Matters came to the head in 1986 when the towns on the copper belt erupted in public rebellion against the UNIP government of Dr. Kaunda.

Mobs descended upon the state-owned shops and looted them. In Kitwe and Lusaka, they were later joined by university students who went on a wild orgy, stoning private vehicles. Dr. Kaunda reacted swiftly and many people were rounded up and detained, including Zambia Congress of Trade Union president Fredrick Chiluba and a veteran politician Elias Chipimo (senior). Dr. Kaunda dispatched a battalion of commandos (red berets) to stop the disturbances on the mining towns. The riots were instigated by the shortage of mealie meal, cooking oil and soap detergents that could only be accessed in the state-owned shops. The shortage of mealie meal was mainly due to smuggling – mealie meal was being smuggled to the nearby Congo Democratic Republic (Zaire) where it was sold at exorbitant prices. Dr. Kaunda went on to confiscate private milling companies on the Copperbelt and placed them under the care of Mulungushi investment, a public corporation. The UNIP government introduced mealie meal coupons in order to make everyone afford to buy mealie meal.

The critics of the one-party state had their martyrs. In 1972 UNIP vice-president and freedom fighter Simon Mwansa Kapwepwe resigned and formed a political party called the United Progressive party (UPP). The UPP was banned. Simon Mwansa Kapwepwe met his political fate in Kitwe where he was cornered by some UNIP political militants and physically beaten up. In 1987, there was staged a second military coup to dislodge to Kaunda from power. Six army officers and three civilians were arrested in connection with planning to overthrow President Kaunda. General Christian Tembo, formerly head of the Zambian army and ambassador to West Germany, was arrested.

But the man of the moment was Lieutenant Mwamba Luchembe. He drove a battalion of armoured vehicles at the Zambia broadcasting corporation and took over the radio and television station. It was Mwamba Luchembe who announced on radio waves that the Zambia army had taken over power from Dr. Kaunda, The short-lived coup was peacefully foiled by the Zambia army and Mwamba Luchembe was detained.

In its 1988 report, Amnesty International reported that Musonda Chambeshi, Mario Malyo and Alfred Sakalauda were arrested for planning to revive the UPP on the Copperbelt.

Under the Preservation of Public Security Regulation, the police were not obliged to reveal reasons for detaining people awaiting trial. Medical neglect and harsh prisons conditions were the cause of deaths. It was true that by 1990 Dr. Kaunda was fully abreast with the altered political circumstances taking place in Africa and beyond. The decade of Leninism-Marxism was everywhere crumbling down.

In Tanzania and Malawi, both presidents Nyerere and Kamuzu Banda had bowed down to people's demand for political freedom and parliamentary democracy. In 1990, President Kaunda suspended the Emergency Powers Act that had been in place since 1972.

On 2 November 1991 the first ever multi-party general election took place and UNIP and its leader Dr. Kaunda received a vote of no confidence from the people of Zambia. Dr. Kaunda was defeated by the former trade unionist Fredrick Chiluba of the Movement for Multi-party Democracy.

After losing the presidential elections Dr. Kaunda hastily surrendered political power to Fredrick Chiluba in what has been dubbed a historical and peaceful transition of power.

Dressed in an immaculate safari suit and brandishing a white handkerchief, Dr. Kaunda was an impressive international statesman possessed with a rare gifts of oratory which at some occasions moved the audience to tears.

Indeed after having ruled Zambia for 27 years, Dr. Kaunda has been unreservedly accorded and bestowed with gallant medals of honour and respect despite having denied the people of Zambia the basic political freedom and human rights which they are now enjoying today.

Cephas Mulenga 

Chimwemwe Kitwe, 

Zambia.

Fact of the Day (Zambia)

40.8% of Zambians living in extreme poverty.

The 2015 living conditions monitoring survey has revealed that 40.8% of the country’s population is living in extreme poverty. The survey has also revealed that 54.4% of the country’s population is poor, while 13.6 percent of the population is moderately poor. The survey indicates that 76.6 percent of the population in rural areas is poor, with 23.4% of the urban population being poor. Western province has the highest population of the poor at 82.2% with Lusaka province having the lowest 20.2%.

https://www.lusakatimes.com/2016/04/28/40-8-zambians-living-extreme-poverty/

Xenophobia in Zambia

Violence erupted earlier this month in slum areas of the capital after foreigners, especially Rwandans, were blamed for the recent murders of at least seven people, whose body parts such as ears, hearts and penises had been removed. Locals argued that these were ritual murders committed by foreigners to secure body parts used for good luck charms.

As a result, hundreds of Lusaka residents stoned houses and shops owned by foreign nationals, with hundreds of foreigners seeking refuge at police stations and churches as looters took food, drinks, refrigerators and other electrical appliances. Two people were burned to death in those anti-immigration riots in the country's capital, Lusaka. The two dead had been identified as Zambians who died "in the confusion" as riots tore through the shantytowns.  According to the police, more than 60 foreign-owned shops have been looted or destroyed in Lusaka in the past week and there were calls to "rid the country of all immigrants"

Zambia's government is trying to send hundreds of refugees back to camps. Refugees who built lives in residential neighbourhoods were not willing to return to camps even though they were facing imminent threats.

"People here say they don't want to return to refugee camps because there is no way to make a living and conditions are poor," Al Jazeera's reporter, Fahmida Miller, said

Zambian Sexual Violence Condoned

Zambia pardoned a singer who was convicted of the rape of a 14-year-old girl - then appointed him as an ambassador in the fight against gender violence.

Clifford Dimba, known as General Kanene, was convicted in 2014 and sentenced to 18 years in prison, but was pardoned by President Edgar Lungu after serving one year. Since his release, the singer has been involved in two further incidents of violence against women, according to the United Nations Council of Human Rights.

“Such an outrageous release and appointment as an ambassador for the fight against gender-based violence not only traumatises the victim all over again but discourages other victims from reporting similar offences,” said Dubravka Šimonović, UN Special Rapporteur on violence against women, its causes and consequences. “The pardon and appointment undermine the strong message against sexual abuse of women and girls that was sent with the original sentence and trivialise the serious nature of these offences. Rather, Clifford Dimba has been placed in a prominent position and even portrayed as a role model to fight violence against women” Ms Šimonović added. 

The Rainbow Party and its vision of “Socialism”

The Rainbow Party was formed by Wynter Kabimba way back in 2003, however, Kabimba ditched the Rainbow when he joined the Patriotic Front in 2009 and became its general secretary.

A lawyer by profession, Wynter had strong objections to corruption and worked tirelessly to root out corrupt elements from the ruling party when it came to power in 2011. More or less, Wynter became the second most powerful man in the PF, second only to President Sata.

It was typical of Wynter to differ with fellow cabinet ministers within the PF. This was especially the case when he published corruption allegations against Finance Minister Alexander Chikwanda and Geoffrey Mwamba, the Minister of Defence.

In 2013 Wynter became embroiled in a tit-for-tat with the Defence Minister Geoffrey Mwamba that went unresolved until the latter resigned from the Cabinet in 2014. There were widespread calls for the removal of Wynter Kabimba from within the PF to which President Sata turned a blind eye.

Thus Wynter Kabimba became the political spokesman of the PF, explaining and defending the social and economic policies of the party.

It was Wynter Kabimba who advised President Sata to appoint Mutembo Nchito as Public Prosecutor in 2012 in order to remove the presidential immunity of former MMD President Rupiah Banda. It was alleged that Rupiah Banda and his son Andrew had swindled the Zambian government through a bogs oil deal signed between the Zambian government and Nigeria in 2009 to import crude oil from Nigeria. It was discovered by the Taskforce on Corruption that the crude oil was not delivered to Zambia after the government had paid huge sums of money for this.

The political career of Wynter Kabimba took a nosedive in August 2014 when he was relieved of his duties as party secretary general and justice minister by the late President Sata.

The departure of Wynter Kabimba was a foregone conclusion and caused relief within the ruling party.

Dissatisfaction

The Rainbow Party is one among the myriad political opposition parties that were formed after the death of President Sata in 2014 to express dissatisfaction with the current political and social policies as the PF government under President Edgar Lungu.

The terminology of “socialism” is not unique to the Rainbow Party, but is embedded in the political constitution of the PF.

Dr Cosmas Musumali, the deputy general secretary of the Rainbow, recently said that the Rainbow Party would not hide that his focus was on workers, students, peasants and all progressive Zambians who have borne the brunt of capitalism since its “adoption” (actually, moving away from state capitalism) in 1991 by President Chiluba. “If you look at the key documents of the PF constitution, you will find that under article 4, they are talking about socialism.” According to article 4 of the PF constitution the party shall wage a relentless fight against domestic and international forces of reaction. It shall fight for the eradication of capitalism, with its offshoots of hunger, ignorance, disease, corruption and the exploitation of man by man.”

Musumali went on to say that governance mistakes that have come as a result of capitalism should be exposed because remaining silent on the matter would be like giving ammunition to those who exploit others.

He said that Rainbow was not ashamed to expose the past failures of “socialist” initiatives of the past.

“For our part we believe in the future of socialism and we are not ashamed to expose the past failures because this is what gives us legitimacy. We went the capitalist route in 1991 and to date. In the past 24 years what have achieved in Zambia?” He further urged intellectuals in Zambia to familiarise themselves with the Rainbow Party’s manifesto and its social and economic programme.

It is a palpable fact that the Rainbow Part does not have a mass following among the workers, students and peasants in Zambia compared with the PF and the UPND. The “socialist” ideas which are being parroted by the Rainbow Party do not echo well among many ordinary Zambians in the sense that the words “socialism” (“communism”) bring memories of police brutality, suppression of political opposition and indiscriminate political detentions that characterised the one-party “socialist” (state capitalist) state under Kenneth Kaunda.

We in the WSM look askance at the “Leninist-Marxist” version of “socialism” being propagated by the Rainbow Party.

KEPHAS MULENGA

Mining Corporation Greed

Villagers near Africa’s biggest copper mine have taken a legal battle against Vedanta/KCM to London and tell of blighted lives and a looming catastrophe. If you pump a glass of water from the borehole outside the little church in Shimulala, you will see it is bright yellow, smells of sulphur and tastes vile. Mining giant Vedanta’s subsidiary company KCM drilled the borehole in 2010 for the village after the Mushishima stream was turned into a river of acid when mining chemicals spilled into it. A leaked company letter says that chemists who tested borehole water there in 2011 found it tainted with copper residues, acid and minerals, and said it was unfit for consumption.

The villagers say acid spills and contaminated water in their streams, rivers and boreholes are getting worse. “The frequency and severity of spills is higher and more consistent. Before we could not smell [the pollution] but now we can. The ground is contaminated, our crop yield has dropped, the maize crop is about half what it was,” said Leo Moulenga of Shimulala. “When there is a spill, the air is very acidic. Last week they spilled a lot. It was awful. In the future we don’t think people will be able to live here. It is becoming uninhabitable. The pollution has been incremental. Now it’s getting worse.”

Floribert Kappa, of Hippo Pool, said: “I used to go to the Kafue river to draw water and started drinking it as normal. I saw that fish had died and were floating on the river. We ate the fish and soon everyone started crying with stomach pains. I was given some medicine, but the pains got worse. I collapsed and was taken to a hospital. The diagnosis was that I had drunk or eaten something acidic which had caused damage to my chest and intestines. I was told the damage was permanent. Now I live on painkillers. Everyone here has been affected in some way. We all use the same water. We have tried chlorinating and boiling the water but it still smells acidic.”

Last year Vedanta/KCM made up to £320m profit from the mine but engineers who have worked there say that its pollution treatment works have been pushed beyond their limits by the company to maximise output.

“The feed in … has been increased to over 50,000 tonnes per day. They were designed to handle 30,000 tonnes,” said one engineer. “Degraded equipment like leaking pumps, pipes, and settling ponds have given to excessive spillages and water overflowing into the Mushishima stream and subsequently the Kafue river. It poses a possible environmental catastrophe. Power failures and deficient pumps frequently result in slurry spills and effluent containing sulphuric acid, lead, zinc, iron and mercury being dumped into rivers.”

The mine has a long history of pollution from its tailing dams, processing plants and old pipes. In 2011, the high court in Lusaka ordered Vedanta/ KCM to pay about £1.3m to 2,000 residents of Chingola after sulphuric acid and other chemicals were discharged into a tributary of the Kafue in 2006.

The judge said Zambians “should not be dehumanised by greed and crude capitalism which put profit above human life. KCM was reckless and had no regard for human, animal and plant life. Chingola residents were guinea pigs.”

Vedanta later appealed to the supreme court, claiming that it was not responsible for the pollution. The verdict was upheld, but the supreme court reduced compensation to people affected by the spillage to virtually nothing.

Much of the infrastructure of the present mine is more than 40 years old. The copper is now worked largely underground but the deep, opencast pit is one of the biggest in Africa – more than four miles long, a mile wide and 1,600ft deep. Mine waste, which is being reworked to extract copper residues, now rises in miles of 300ft hills stretching around the town of Chingola. Large-scale mining led by global companies listed on the London stock exchange has expanded dramatically in the past decade. Chinese and Indian growth and the rising price of metals has led to the exploitation of new areas of the resource-rich Amazon, India, Indonesia southern Africa and the Philippines. But the boom has been accompanied by evictions, land grabs, human rights violations and damage to water supplies, say development and human rights groups.

http://www.theguardian.com/global-development/2015/aug/01/zambia-vedanta-pollution-village-copper-mine

Nigeria’s Anti-Corruption Pledge

Nigeria’s president-elect is already making waves with his pledge to attack corruption, starting with the missing 20 billion dollars allegedly swiped from the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation during the previous administration.Muhammadu Buhari pledged to pursue the claim of former Central Bank governor, Lamido Sanusi, who was suspended last year by former president Goodluck Jonathan after he warned of massive mismanagement by the oil corporation. His claim was never investigated by the ex-president.
“This issue is not over yet,” declared Buhari, who will be sworn in on May 29. “Once we assume office we will order a fresh probe into the matter… We will not allow people to steal money meant for Nigerians to buy shares and stash (them) away in foreign lands.”

Buhari’s warning to those who pocketed national funds thrilled Africans as far away as Zambia and prompted an editorial in The Post newspaper.
“Nigerian President-elect General Muhammadu Buhari’s message on corruption brings some hope for that country and our continent,” wrote The Post’s editor in a piece viewed 1,294 times.
The editorial continued: “We wish this was the message we were getting from our own President, Edgar Lungu. But it is not. If there is anything Edgar hardly talks about, it is corruption.
“What we have in Zambia today is a corrupt government… This is a government where those in leadership are the ones getting government contracts. They are the suppliers of government. Leaders and cadres of the ruling party are the ones doing business with government.
“If one scrutinises all government contracts, it will not be difficult to discover that almost all of them have been given to people connected to the ruling party and its leadership…. When one criticises such practices, he is seen to be hurtful, frustrated.
“Look at how quickly those in the leadership of government, from president to the lowest cadre, become rich! What is the magic? Where is the money coming from? It is from corruption, from bribes, from selling government policy. There is no other source of that money other than corruption.”

Africans surveyed by the group Afrobarometer in 2013 expressed similar views and many believe the situation has deteriorated in the last decade.
In the survey of 34 countries, 56 percent of the 51,000 people surveyed thought their governments were doing “fairly badly” or “very badly” in the fight against corruption. Only 35 percent said their governments were doing “fairly well” or “very well”.

Among those most dissatisfied by official efforts to end corruption were Nigerians and Egyptians at the top, followed by Zimbabweans, Ugandans and Sudanese, Kenyans, Malians, Tunisians, Togolese, Tanzanians and South Africans.

from here

Pension Age Raised: Die before You Retire

The life expectancy of Zambians is between 48 and 56 years. So it doesn't make sense to raise retirement age to 65. Importantly, a law should be passed to enable retirees to get their pensions fast and easily.

In November 2014, Acting President Guy L. Scott signed Statutory Instrument No. 63 of 2014 that raised the retirement age from 55 to 65 years, or 35 years of service.
In December 2014, the Minister of Labor and Social Security is quoted by Doreen Nawa of the Zambia Daily Mail as having defended the change in the country’s retirement age as follows:

“We adjusted the retirement age as a way of increasing people’s life span. Information has shown that most people that have retired at 55 have died earlier because of many factors.”

The Minister is also quoted as having said that retirement age in the southern African region and beyond is 60 years.

In March 2015, President Edgar C. Lungu directed that changes be effected through an amendment to Statutory Instrument No.63 of 2014 signed by Acting President Scott to introduce a graduated arrangement designed to provide for the following three retirement options:

(a) Early retirement – 55 years;
(b) Normal retirement – 60 years; and
(c) Late retirement – 65 years.

These changes to the retirement age are unacceptable for a number of reasons. Firstly, the changes needed to be made in sincere consultations with relevant non-governmental stakeholders—including the Zambia Federation of Employers and the Zambia Congress of Trade Unions and its affiliate labor unions—rather than by presidential decree.
Secondly, it is unrealistic to have retirement options that are above our people’s life expectancy that is currently between 48 and 56 years, depending on one’s source of information, which places the country in the 160th position out of 182 countries surveyed by CountryEconomy.Com.

According to the findings of an international health study published online in the Lancet (a medical journal) in May 2010, Zambia had the worst female death rate and the second-worst male death rate in the world.
So, there is no wisdom in mimicking countries whose citizens have higher life spans in setting the retirement age for employees in our country!
Therefore, realistic retirement options for Zambian employees should have been the following:

(a) 45 years old, or 25 years of service – early retirement;
(b) 50 years old, or 30 years of service – normal retirement; and
(c) 55 years old, or 35 years of service – late retirement.

There is also a need for Parliament to enact legislation designed to make retirement benefits payable within 60 or so days (Saturdays, Sundays, and public holidays inclusive) from a retiree’s last date of work. Benefits (or any portion thereof) not paid within this period should fetch 5% interest per month.
Delayed payment of retirement benefits has made some retired citizens to re-enter the job market as part-time workers to earn a living while they await the disbursement of their benefits, while others have died before they are paid their benefits.
The high levels of unemployment in the country militate against the increase in the retirement age. There is no doubt that the higher retirement age is going to lead to unprecedented numbers of young job seekers roaming the streets due to inadequate job openings mainly resulting from older citizens’ delayed retirement.

read more here

Ripping off the Patient

The president of the Zambia Medical Association Dr Munjajati recently revealed that the current health delivery system in the country cannot protect patients seeking private medical attention from flagrant overcharging. His remarks tend to highlight the fact that Zambia has a two-tier health system within public hospitals. Fee-paying hospital wards were introduced in 1980 by the UNIP government of Dr Kaunda. Those with enough money could be hospitalized in fee-paying wards in order to receive proper medical treatment .

The reluctance of the current Patriotic Front government to boldly check and regulate the operations of privately-owned hospitals and clinics is because to do so would be against the government’s policy of economic liberalization. Private health care is encouraged in the belief that an increased role for entrepreneurs and competition in the delivery of healthcare will result in a more efficient and effective healthcare system. Thus the search for financial gain determines the quality of healthcare systems. But the values of free enterprises and the economic benefits that may flow from a more efficient healthcare system can only be achieved at the cost of other and more important values – including a concern for fairness, the dignity of people and community-centred ethics that places people before profits.

Caring or looking after the sick is a calling of special dignity and importance. The striking nurses were dismissed by the Labour Minister in 2013 on the allegation that they had failed to uphold the oath of allegiance they swore when they graduated from Health College – to serve others out of compassion. To go on strike for reasons of salary increments was anathema to the values that guide governments and their civil servants. This is the oath to serve the people out of love and compassion, without regard to the standard of prevailing salaries and poor conditions of service. In that case, by the same standard, it would be the task of every government to make access to healthcare as free as possible. But they don’t.

There are relatively small amounts of legislation regulating the operations of health facilities compared to laws governing health personnel. The existing legislation regulating the operations of both private and public health hospitals was introduced by President Michael Sata when he was minister of health. In 2002 the MMD government went on to introduce consultation and medical fees in both public hospitals and clinics. Economic liberalisation entailed the acceptance of the lurid fact that free health care and education was a cost to the government. Hospitals, schools and colleges were de-centralised under health and education boards.

Under the system of private healthcare, the opportunities for ripping off patients seems endless. There is nothing in place to regulate the prices that are charged by service providers and hence the price differences in goods and services from one private health provider to another. Grading of private health facilities does not exist on the ground due to the salient professional ethic surrounding medicine. Due to the prevalence of HIV/AIDS and the mystery surrounding the disease and its causes, Zambia has seen a proliferation of traditional herbal therapies and traditional healers. It is not illegal in Zambia today to sell and advertise traditional herbal medicines that have not even undergone a laboratory scrutiny.

The introduction of free male circumcision in public hospitals emphasises that lack of a regulatory framework. The public health system exists in a state of corruption. Private surgeries are stocked with medicines siphoned from public hospitals. There is no treatment protocol and this results in over-servicing; a private doctor will prescribe ten supplementary drugs for the sake of advertising his business. Most private hospitals are under the control of lay managers whose primary interest is to make a profit. Thus under the system of private health care doctors promote profit-producing drugs, surgeries and tests. Medical treatments and counselling that lack profit potential are discouraged. The commercialization of private healthcare has led to the abandonment of human virtues that are essential for a community - caring for old people, compassion and charity, especially for the less privileged members of the community.

The zeal and altruism that is displayed by doctors and nurses in their primary concern for the alleviation of pain and sickness has been hijacked by the profit motive. Indeed the prevailing ideology says that political states or governments have a duty to protect the interests of the citizenry, through providing them with law, security and healthcare. But the provision of healthcare under capitalism is hamstrung by the principle of free enterprise with its competition and profit. The income and wealth disparities between the working and capitalist classes translate themselves into standardized economic, political and social programmes. The vision of free healthcare, and other services cannot obtain under a capitalist state. It is only in socialist society that health care will be characterized by its capacity to serve the good of every member of society. The sense of responsibility by those engaging in providing free medical care will demonstrate the individual and social virtues necessary for the wellbeing of a classless, moneyless and stateless society – socialism.

K. MULENGA

The Paternalistic West

 Paternalistic thinking from Western firms will not solve Africa's agricultural problems, which need to be addressed from African viewpoints, Zambia's Agriculture Minister told a global forum.

"One of the challenges that Africa has is that the world thinks it can think for us," Minister Robert Sichinga said. "Please, for goodness sake, move away from this paternalistic attitude of thinking that you can think for us."

Sichinga said that, while  Johan Steyn, Managing Director of Cargill Inc. was from South Africa, he was representing Cargill, and "with all due respect, there is no way Cargill can be part of a solution." The minister took issue with the unlisted U.S. firm, one of the world's biggest agricultural commodities companies, paying farmers in Zambia low prices for their cotton crop.

Sichinga also criticized the forum's focus on high-tech solutions for agriculture that were irrelevant to Africa. "Who will pay for this technology and equipment and salaries that are needed for researchers not to migrate to other countries," he said.

The forum included presentations by Mark Post, a professor of physiology at Maastricht University who is the scientist behind laboratory-grown beef, meat grown from stem cells that cost 250,000 euros and five years of research to produce.

"Are you sure that we can be able to use now the new burger made out of stem cell technology? Is that what you expect of someone in a village with less than primary education to undertake?" Sichinga asked.

A Green Zambia?

According to a December 2012 International Food Policy Research Institute report on climate change in Zambia, agriculture accounts for about 20 percent of this southern African nation’s GDP, with jobs in the sector accounting for 71.6 percent of employment here. Maize is the country’s staple crop.

Joseph K. Kanyanga, chief meteorologist at the Zambia Meteorological Department, tells IPS that weather patterns in Zambia have changed.
“Temperatures nowadays are higher than the 1950s; both maximum and minimum temperatures are showing a warming trend. As for rainfall, though there is uncertainty. There is an evident shift in the onset and end of the rainy season. The start of the rainy season shows the pronounced shift; at times starting as late as mid-December for most parts of Zambia,” Kanyanga says.

The Zambia National Farmers’ Union (ZNFU), which has over 15,000 members, is worried about the changing climate.
"Yes, we have received reports about the erratic rainfall from both commercial and small-scale farmers. Right now, farmers in Kabwe [the capital of Central Province and Zambia’s second-largest city] are still holding on to their seeds. They are scared of planting because of the [erratic] rains. This is alarming: it will cause food insecurity due to crop failure because we are talking about predominantly rain-fed agriculture practiced mostly by small-scale farmers who make up more than 80 percent of farmers in Zambia,” Sishekana Makweti, the ZNFU manager for gender, environment and forestry, tells IPS.

. Zambia, however, has no national climate change policy but there are currently parliamentary consultations for the formulation of one.

Robert Chimambo, an environmental advocate and a board member of the Zambia Climate Change Network (ZCCN), an umbrella body of environmental civil society organisations, feels that the government needs to do more to manage the country’s water resources.

“Forests play a critical role in mitigating and adapting to the effects of climate change. Deforestation is contributing a lot to variability in rainfall patterns. You know trees help in seeping surface runoff water and recharging our underground water. Forests also help in rain formation through transpiration. Therefore, you can’t effectively manage your water resources without conserving your forests,” he tells IPS.

He was referring to the fact the site for the Lusaka South Multi Facility Economic Zone (MFEZ), a government-driven project to promote foreign and domestic investment, lies within a former forest reserve known as Forest 26, which is located southwest of Lusaka.

Chimambo says that in the past, the forests reserves around Lusaka were protected by law and industries had previously not been allowed to operate within them.

“Sadly, the proposed location of the Multi Facility Economic Zone in Forest Reserve 26 will mean the destruction and degradation of the forest, which is right on top of the Lusaka aquifer. This would also mean poisoning the rivers and the ground water. How do you adapt to climate change and manage your water resources when such things are taking place?” Chimambo says.

According to a joint Food and Agriculture Organisation of the United Nations and Zambian government report, the country’s forests cover 66 percent of the total landmass, though only 9.6 percent of these forests are protected.

“Currently, 65 percent of Zambia’s population is in rural areas, their livelihoods essentially tied to the land and forests. Increased demand for food, wood energy, and other environmental services [to cater for the growing population] has contributed to decrease in forest areas. Between 1990 and 2010, the Forestry Department lost 126,912 hectares through degazettions [legal reclassification], but not a single hectare was added to the protected forests as new reservations over the same period,” the report states.

Why does climate change occur? A small amount is due to ignorance or miscalculation. A small amount is unavoidable given present technology and population. But the greatest cause is due to the economic system. Global warming takes place  because it is in business economic interests to do so.

We live in a world which has the potential to adequately feed, house and provide clean water and decent medical care for every single man, woman and child on Earth. The resources exist to banish material want as a problem for members of the human race. Yet millions throughout the world are malnourished, live in squalor or are actually dying of starvation or starvation-related diseases. The big question that faces the human race is what can be done about it?

The things that are desperately needed –food, clean water, housing, sanitation, transport, medical services and so on, can only be provided by useful labour, of which there is an abundance throughout the world. Finance is part of a system which operates as a barrier to useful labour producing what people need. Useful production must be freed from the constraints of profit and class interest. Only useful labour applied through world cooperation once the Earth’s resources have become the common heritage of all can solve the problems of world poverty.

World socialism could stop the dying from hunger immediately, and provide the conditions for good health and material security for all people across the Earth within a short time. It would do this by producing goods and services directly for need.

Zambia: political differences

Political differences within the ruling PF have taken a new turn – the Bemba want Wynter Kabimba out of the PF. Tribalism still remains to be a deciding factor in Zambian politics.

Because the PF is wholly staffed with Bemba political cadres – it may seem disparaging to see political factions develop within the ruling hierarchy. More or less it has to do with political loyalties (fanaticism) measured against the political objectives.

It may seem that many recruits drafted into the PF by President Sala do not feel at ease with the political gravity of Wynter Kabimba (secretary-general and justice minister). Indeed, Mr. Kabimba as general-secretary of the PF seems to have overriding jurisdiction above everyone else. He is seen as the most powerful man in the government, second to Sala. Thus calls for the removal of Kabimba are spiced with careerism and opportunism. The political differences between Kabimba and Geoffrey Mwamba (Defence Minister) is jaundiced with political careerism – Mwamba is considered a political upstart. Mwamba is a wealthy businessman who only joined the MMD in 2011 and scooped the Kasama Central Parliamentary elections. Thus Mwamba is strongly supported by Bemba-speaking political cadres.

Wynter Kabimba is not a Bemba by tribe. He joined the PF in 2003 and became the first secretary-general. It is the case that Kabimba has moral grounds to tackle corruption from the PF. Why is it the case that when the former minister of foreign affairs Gwen Lubumba was slapped with a six-months suspension – people did not cry ‘foul!’. Lubumba is a Lozi by tribe, together with Kabimba and Guy Scott they are the well-known political trio of the PF whilst in opposition. But it is a tit-for-tat between Kabimba and from Mwamba supporters that have raised calls about tribalism.

Those who are calling for the dismissal of Kabimba do not know that political power has its own limits – and among these is tribalism, nepotism and corruption.

The strength of every political party is judged by a parliamentary majority. The PF has a large number of members in parliament when contrasted with the MMD and UPND.

Thus President Sala may find himself abusing political power even without knowing it.

By and large democracy is a heavy-handed word that is selectively used by Western capitalist nations to measure the degree of political freedoms and human rights that may obtain in any given country in Africa.

KEPHAS MULENGA
Zambia

WHAT HAPPENS NEXT?

Of Zambia’s president Sata left office today who is the likely man to succeed him? The succession gossip that lingers within the MMD coincides with mass demonstrations in Lusaka on 14 September by PF cadres calling for the resignation of Wynter Kabimba.

It is a sign that after having been in power for barely three years, the PF has started to break at the seams. Manoeuvres for a political succession arise from the knowledge that political statesmen in Zambia have become prone to a short life span. Age and health are the limiting factors. President Sata has surrounded himself with hero worshippers and close relatives. It is barely a week when vice-president told the press that Wynter Kamimba was his real boss.

What he meant was that as vice-president he had no political authority to overrule those ministers below him.

The top brass of the PF is made up of Wynter Kabimba, the justice minister and general secretary of the PF. Alexander Chikwanda, the Minister of Finance. Miles Sampa, the deputy minister of finance. Geoffrey Mwamba, the defence minister, and Mutembo Nchito, the public prosecutor. I have deliberately left out Vice-President Guy Scott because his parents’ nationality bars him from acting as a president. Miles Sampa and Alexander Chikwanda are close relatives of President Sata. There are political skirmishes between Mwamba and Kabimba.

The appointment of Nchito as public prosecutor in February this year gave rise to the suspension of the three High Court judges in April. Indeed, after wallowing in the political wilderness for twenty years – Post Newspapers managing director Nchito was at last awarded for his labours. A political critic and prudent lawyer, Nchito is a controversial personality who had been subjected to selective justice under the MMD.

Thus the suspension of the three judges was a premeditated political affair in the sense that during the previous MMD government under Rupiah Banda –  the three High Court judges had overplayed their hands by nullifying a court order that had awarded damages to Nchito. This was in a court case in which Nchito had applied for a loan from the Bank of Zambia in order to bail out Zambia Airways that was currently in liquidation.

Both Rajan Matan, chairman of Finance Bank and Nchito were only rescued from pending court cases in matters to do with money laundering when the PF came to power in 2011.

During the leadership of the MMD the Zambia Police Service was cited as the most corrupt public institution. The period witnessed an increase in copper and copper-related thefts on the Copper Belt. A copper crime syndicate known as Jalabos stole copper cathodes and concentrates in broad daylight and sold to well-established businessmen. The Jalabos were composed of unemployed youth on the Copperbelt who had taken advantage of the lax security situation prevailing in the copper mines police unit. When the PF came to power, President Sata appointed Stella Libongani as inspector-general of police – to succeed Ephraim Mateyo, who had heavy-handedly stamped out the Jalabos.

Putting more money in people’s pockets seems to be working now, just because of the booming copper prices in south-east Asia. More overseas mining investors are flocking to Zambia and setting up new mines in various parts of the country.

When Dr. Kenneth Kaunda was president of Zambia many people had written books about him, extolling his political and humanitarian attributes. Indeed, many sophisticated intellectuals and statesmen marvelled at his profound philosophical and intellectual capabilities. Kaunda was mere a primary school teacher and had never entered university as a student. He had an imposing personality, charm or charismatic status. He initiated the political ideology of humanism as a guiding political philosophy in national development, in which man was placed at the centre. Kaunda wavered between “state socialism” and capitalism – under his leadership Zambia was described as mixed economy.

When the MMD defeated UNIP in 1991 Fredrick Chiluba became the second Republican president. Kaunda was given a state pension complete with police guards. In 1994 Kaunda started to campaign for president and was nearly killed by a police stray bullet. UNIP declared a zero tolerance attitude and Kaunda was arrested and imprisoned in Lusaka Remand Prison. It only took the now-deceased former Tanzanian president Julius Nyerere to persuade the old man to give up politics. This made the MMD amend the Constitution in 1993 – which barred people whose parents are not indigenous Zambians to stand as presidential candidates. In actual fact Dr. Kaunda’s father originated from nearby Malawi. The MMD went on to remove the statues from city squares and public buildings. Even the political syllabus that laid so much stress on socialism and humanism was removed from learning institutions. Deep political animosities existed between MMD and Dr. Kaunda – both Mwanawasa and Rupiah Banda helped to restore Dr. Kaunda the political prestige he had lost. When Mwanawasa was president of the MMD, the MMD had become discredited in Luapula and Northern provinces.

Thus when Mwanawasa died and was succeeded by Banda in 2010 the MMD had lost its former political stronghold among the Bemba-speaking people. Mwanawasa saw an economic potential in Chinese investors. Arguably Chinese economic relations are less tied to political packages. When in opposition Sata had forged political relations with Hong Kong – most Chinese investors left the country when the pF won the general election in 2011. Sensing the ruptured political relations with mainland China, President Sata sent Dr. Kaunda as ambassador extraordinary to China in 2012 to ameliorate political relations between Zambia and China.

The Chinese investors came to Zambia with the came to Zambia with their own labour force – mostly manual workers. The Chinese workforce exhibits an addiction to long and arduous hours of work. The Chinese investors pay less regard to labour regulations and western norms, and are apt to employ less white collar workers.

It is a fact that when President Sata completes his second term in office there shall develop a power vacuum with the PF that in due course will wreck the PF.

The fugitive priest Father Frank Bwalya may have foreseen this political development and he resigned from the PF this year. Indeed Bwalya may win a political following on the Copperbelt should the PF fall apart.

The recent demise of former MMD defence minister Ben Mwila has robbed Zambia of an illustrious politician. Benjamin Mwila it must remembered was the one who funded Fredrick Chiluba’s political rallies across the country. Chiluba was then a mere employee of  Copco and president of ZCTV. During the privatisation of parasitical companies, Benjamin Mwila bought a large chunk of Indeco formed by Andrew Sardinis during the UNIP era. The late Mwila was a brusque political gentleman who still retained his motorcade, complete with bodyguards wherever he went. Let it be remembered that Mwila resigned from the MMD during the political fracas surrounding Chiluba’s third bid for the presidency and went on to form the Republican Party that did well in the 2001 general elections.

There is complete breakdown of discipline in the PF and things are completely out of control. Well known and high-ranking politicians are going around masquerading as supporters and defenders of President Sata and harassing innocent people. Political cliques and factions have emerged within the party structure – personal loyalties motivated by tribalism and hero worship are destroying the PF. It is clear that Sata has not shown any readiness to stem the tide.

The issue dividing the PF revolves around access to financial and material resources – corruption.

Capitalism is said to be a dynamic and democratic society in which the voters have the privilege to decide who shall govern them. That underplays the fact that capitalism is a society in which the majority – the workers, students and peasants believe that there are certain people who are born to be leaders no matter what. We lack the freedom to question the way we have lived and how we might live.

The very word ‘socialism’ is a political scare. It calls to mind the brutal and inhuman excesses of the single party political regimes in the Soviet Union, China, North Korea, Cuba and elsewhere.

It is our duty to explain the differences between state capitalism and socialism or dialectical Marxism.

Socialism in the true sense of the word has not existed in any part of the world. We advocate a classless, stateless, moneyless society as the only political alternative to capitalism.
KEPHAS MULENGA, 
Kitwe, Zambia

More on the Zambian Political Scene

On the local political scene the former MMD president Rupiah Banda has gain appeared in court (15 April 2013), where he was found with a case to answer: it is alleged that President Banda had abused his authority by concealing 12 light trucks donated to him by the Chinese contractors in 2011. He was arrested and released on bail,. It is a foregone conclusion that Banda will never be locked up in prison – the whole thing is designed to polish the image of the PF government in the eyes of the Western Donor Community.

The political habit of removing political immunity of every defeated political statesman is in itself a total disgrace in as far as human dignity is concerned,. It remains to be seen whether corruption, which is a crime against private property can be stopped for good here in Zambia. Zambia is a capitalist country – it does not matter whether the president visits China to open up doors for economic co-operation. Zambia is not deviating to the left under the PF government. What is sickening is the sudden disintegration of the MMD ever since it was defeated by the PF. The MMD under the leadership of Nevers Mumba has lost its political credibility – it is no longer a regional or ethnic party – it is fragmented and without a distinguished political power base. Dr Mumba – a disgraced evangelist does not possess a political charisma to win a majority following in Zambia today.

The UPND under Hakainde Hichilema has lost its long-cherished tribal support in Southern Province, given the failure to win a parliamentary seat in Livingstone. UPND members of parliament are deserting it and joining the ruling PF government. The PF is no longer restricted to the Copperbelt and Lusaka. It is now represented in every province of Zambia. Fears of an impending slide towards a one-party political state are validated by the evidence lack of political discipline within the fragile political opposition. In capitalism political unity can only be rallied under a political ideology that explains the reality of nationalism and patriotism. Thus there are no solid facts in the rumours emanating from the UPND that President Sata has gone flat out to liquidate the MMD and UPND. There is a degree to which Zambia may slowly be sliding into a one-party political state unless the opposition political parties develop into popularity to act as counter checks to the political and economic policies of the PF. What remains is for the political opposition to utilise the existing media freedoms to help re-organise itself. In politics the printed word is an effective tool of political propaganda. This is what the WSM is doing in order to disseminate the working-class political consciousness.

KEPHAS MULENGA,
Kitwe, Zambia

More from Zambia

On 25 March 2013 the former republican president Rupiah Banda was charged and arrested for being in a fraudulent involvement in an oil scam deal. This is a case in which it is alleged that Banda signed an oil contract with Nigeria, whose financial benefits were siphoned off in his private account. He was released on a police bond of K500 million, and will keep on to appear in court soon. But what many people in Zambia fail to appreciate is the fact that there was a global economic crisis immediately Banda took over as president of the MMD in 2008 – whose economic significance led to his fall of Banda in 2011. The adverse economic conditions prevailing in the years 2008-2011 made the PF political slogan of Don't Kubeba [don't tell them] more appealing to the Zambian workers and students. It is also a fact that the PF came to power when the adverse economic conditions had started to improve in western Europe and the USA.


Thus President Sata’s first year in office was characterised by favourable copper prices on the world market. Thus any further economic success enjoyed by the PF government remains to be argued on the rejuvenated global economic prospects. When we take into perspective the politically motivated frays of tribal and ethnic comments emanating from the UPND – together with the adverse economic conditions suffered by the Zambian workers under the MMD, there is a concern for a compelling comparison between economic liberalism and a one-party dictatorship.

It is a fact that twenty years after the collapse of "Communism" in both Europe and Africa – African countries have been rocked by election motivated street riots and student demonstrations. In Zambia the dawn of political pluralism has given rise to tribalism and nepotism. Third world countries, Zambia in particular must be fair to themselves by distracting themselves from the falsehood circle shared by defenders of capitalism hat public sector investment, price regulations and subsidies on fertilisers are a representation of the failure of socialist-oriented economic dogma.

It is still believed by Dr. Kenneth Kaunda that UNIP lost the 1991 general election to Fredrick Chiluba due to an exorbitant increase in the price of meali meal. The street riots that broke out in 1986 when people in urban areas took to the streets and looted shops was a consequence of spiralling oil prices and falling copper prices on the London Stock Exchange – and was therefore not a consequence of increased meali meal prices. It was also plain that "Communism" is conceived under a one-party state had come to an end in both eastern Europe and Africa.

Dr. Kaunda went to nationalise private-owned mealing companies and introduced food rationing. But this only heped the emergence of a black market and more shortages of essential commodities. When the MMD came to power it introduced privatisation, and parasitical firms were hastily sold at knock-down prices. This led to short-term unemployment. Fredrick Chiluba, though and avid political demagogue, failed to implement any sound economic policies when he was in power. The coming Levy Mwanasa signalled a new beginning in the political misfortunes of the MMD lawyer by profession Mwanawasa completely dismantled the MMD from its patriotic sentiments, founded upon the charismatic status of Fredrick Chiluba. Ethnicity and tribalism resurfaced within the MMD and the movement lost its Bemba-speaking political membership – the MMD had a strong political membership in Northern Province. In today’s modern world political statesmen are everywhere; the last and only individuals singled out to bear the brunt of political and economic misfortunes of the nation state. This is because political statesmen are everywhere entrusted with constitutional political power and privileges above everyone else.
This political privilege and power is fanned by the flames of patriotism and nationalism.

The global economic crisis that begun in 2008 witnessed the sudden collapse of copper prices at the London Stock Exchange. In Zambia this translated itself into the abrupt closure of some mining firms––unemployment shot up overnight in urban areas. And, without any seemingly vibrant and pragmatic response from President Banda, the MMD became very unpopular within Copperbelt mining.

Though and Security Mining Minister Fackson Shamenda may have displeased a number of organisations when he announced the banning of employing non-Zambian expatriates as Human Resource Managers, he was only responding to the hue and cry that has reverberated among urban workers. Discredited among workers in companies controlled by non-Zambians or ex-patriots Human Resource Managers intensified under the MMD government.

The ban is aimed at appeasing the expatriate Human Resource Manager against the vile seductions of victimisation, ill-treatment and racial abuse. Foreign Human Resource Managers are known for imposing harsh and draconian conditions of service on the local labour force.

In order to deliver on the election promises the PF has introduced a minimum wage (pay rise) to general workers from K415 to K1230. It has also created 9700 jobs in the Civil Service through employing teachers, nurses, policemen and agricultural extension officials. President Sata is bent on increasing a huge Public Service that is absorbing 70 percent of government expenditure. Being a seasoned and pragmatic politician, Sata has seen the economic advantages in the diplomatic relations with China.

The PF government is relying on Chinese investors to develop the country in terms of building hospitals, schools and constructing roads. But this is a surprising about-tune from Sata’s well-known anti-Chinese political statements when he was in opposition. All said, it becomes a matter of grave concern to note that both the MMD and the UPND have lost their regional and ethnic support ever since the PF came to power. Opposition members of Parliament are deserting the MMD and UPND to join the ruling PF. Fears about Zambia becoming a one-party state are consequences of these resignations.

We in the WSM are the only effective political opposition that shall always remain intact to analyse the social and political vices perpetrated under capitalism – how innocent and sometimes well-meaning politicians try and fail to make capitalism work in the interest of the workers, both in the Western developed countries and Africa. Capitalism as a system lives on and survives through boom and bust, and will forever remain to be so unless the workers who comprise the majority try to replace it with socialism – the last and only remaining political and economic alternative to capitalism.

K. MULENGA, Kitwe, Zambia

Zambia: Politics of Poverty

When President Michael Sata came into power in September 2011 he promised the people of Zambia that the Patriotic Front government was going to create new jobs and put money in people’s pockets in just 90 days. The ‘Don’t Kubeba’ political taboo still lives in people’s minds—the political and economic injustices committed upon the Zambian people by the MMD. President Sata has no ideology of any kind. I have never heard him define his political and economic programmes as socialism.


It is a foregone conclusion that in Africa politics is haunted by ethnic and tribal loyalties. Every political party that is elected to power starts to defend its position through suppressing and intimidating the political opposition. The so-called fight against corruption is doctored by revenge and tribalism. This was very evident during the reign of Levy Mwanawasa—we saw how Mwanawasa hunted and victimised members of the Chiluba administration. It was only when Rupiali Banda came in power that Fredrick Chiluba was rescued from corruption allegations. The fight against corruption brought into question the relevance of the judiciary in Zambian domestic politics. The Director of Public Prosecutions is the only person who can override the decisions of the High and Supreme Court judges. The schism between parliament and the judiciary exists. The President does interfere in the workings of the judiciary (he has constitutional power to do so). The suspension of two High Court judges and one Supreme Court judge by the President in May 2012 did not raise eyebrows in political circles because Sata was merely invoking chapter 58 of the Zambian Constitution that provides for the Head of State to remove or suspend a judge.

President Sata suspended the three judges because on the grounds that they interfered or behaved inappropriately in a court case between the Bank of Zambia vs Post News paper and Mutembo Nchito. This is a matter in which the Bank of Zambia was restrained from formalising the purchase of Zambia Airways by Post News Paper. But the suspension of the judges was foreshadowed by the appointment of Mutembo Nchito as Director of Public Prosecutions by President Sata in 2012. What is called corruption in Zambia is mostly stage-managed by politicians. Calls for the lifting of former president Rupiali Banda’s political immunity is a case in point,. Banda was recently approached by the Anti-corruption Commission to answer corruption allegations—Banda refused, citing his political immunity. The former MMD president seemingly enjoys political sympathy from overseas ??? community. In 2012 Banda was ceremoniously invited by the Boston University Senate to give a series of political lectures in the USA. Again (20 February), he was invited by the Carter Election Monitoring Team to preside in the monitoring of presidential elections in Kenya. We can easily see how the fight against corruption is being used to decimate the MMD.

The most controversial and outspoken political figure in the PF today is the party secretary General MV Wynter Kabimba. This is the man who, together with Michael Sata helped to fund the Patriotic Front in 2003. When Mr Kabimba was recently summoned by the Anti-corruption Commission to answer for certain corrupt allegations, he openly refused to do so. He was quickly rescued by Sata, who went on toe restrain the Task Force on Corruption from investigating Kabimba. But his compatriotcolleague, the former Foreign Minister Given Lubinda did not survive. He has been suspended from the PF for six months. It was alleged that Lubinda had revealed some Cabinet secure information to the UPND MPs. It is more than a coincidence that Lubinda is a Tonga from Southern Province, whereas Kabimba is a Bemba (like Sata). The PF government is wholly staffed by Bemba-speaking politicians. It is a fact that were Given Lubinda dismissed from the PF—he would have joined the UPND.

The UPND, led by Hakainde Hichilema is a complete political disappointment in the sense that it remains an ethnic party—it is mostly composed of Tonga-speaking political cadres. It has a mass following in Southern Province. The much-lampooned about Mapatizya Formula is a cold-blooded recipe for political violence carried out by the UPND to murder and terrorise members of the Patriotic Front.

It is appalling to see how a well-educated person like UPND president Hichilema succumbed to ethnic and tribal politics. Indeed, the UPND are being quickly decimated from parliament and beyond—the PF keeps on to win every parliamentary constituency that is contested.

The PF does not want to be seen making the same mistakes made by the MMD for twenty years, viz. by creating a huge public service that was not answerable to the needs of ordinary Zambians. The PF government has started to regulate the private sector, and henceforth introduced a minimum wage pegged at K1250 for general workers—both the church and the labour movement has praised the PF for the gesture. The Ministry of Lands [?], together with the Ministry of Works and Supply have been re-organised to curb corruption. Though President Sata may seem too be sincere at heart, yet capitalism as a system will disappoint his political and economic ambitions.

K MULENGA,
Kitwe,
Zambia

Sweet Profits

Associated British Foods, one of Britain's biggest multinationals, whose brands include Silver Spoon sugar, Twinings Tea and Kingsmill bread, Primark clothes and Ryvita, is avoiding paying millions of pounds of tax in an African state blighted by malnutrition. It contributed little corporation tax to the state's exchequer between 2007 and 2012, and none at all for two of those years (between 2008 and 2010).  Zambia Sugar,  recently posted record pre-tax profits and its huge plantation is increasing its capacity to produce more sugar for markets in Europe and Africa. Yet it paid less than 0.5% of its $123m pre-tax profits in corporation tax between 2007 and 2012.

The company benefits from generous capital allowance and tax-relief schemes in Zambia including one obtained by taking the Zambian government to court, but the investigation also found that it funnels around a third of its pre-tax profits to sister companies in tax havens, including Ireland, Mauritius and the Netherlands. Tax treaties between Zambia and some of those countries mean the state's revenue authorities are unable to charge their normal tax on money leaving their shores. The tax haven transactions of this one British headquartered multinational deprived Zambia of a sum 14 times larger than the UK aid provided to the country to combat hunger and food insecurity. There is an annual $2.6m payments to an Irish sister company whose accounts have stated that it has no employees. The firm also pays $3m a year to a sister company in Mauritius for access to "trade contacts with customers in the European sugar market, transportation of sugar to Europe, foreign currency management and the availability of cost effective credit terms". Yet when an ActionAid investigator, called the director of the Mauritius holding company and asked how many employees they had, he was told: "One … it's me." ABF says that the fees to Mauritius and Ireland are rolled up into their tax liability in South Africa, where they are taxed at 28%. Yet accounts show that in 2011/12 the entire tax liability in South Africa was $308,000 – the equivalent of just 4% of the $7m fees paid by Zambia Sugar to Ireland and Mauritius.

Its Nakambala Sugar plantation in the Mazabuka district are vital to local livelihoods. The plantation and factory made record profits in 2012 and is expected to exceed 400,000 tonnes of sugar production this year for its Europe and Africa markets. To fund its expansion last year, Zambia Sugar borrowed $70m from two commercial banks. The loan is in the Zambian currency kwacha and secured on Zambia Sugar's estate and assets in Mazabuka, and it is repaid via a Lusaka branch of Citibank Zambia. Yet, on paper, the loan is actually to the Irish subsidiary. Why? ABF told ActionAid: "Interest on loans to Zambia Sugar from such banks would have been subject to [Zambian] withholding tax. The banks would therefore have increased their interest charge to compensate for this."

Zambia Sugar's immediate owner is a Dutch co-operative. The owners of Dutch "cooperatiefs", in this case companies in Mauritius and Jersey, are classed as members rather than shareholders so the income they receive is not classified as taxable dividends. And under this structure Zambia can only apply a 5% tax on the cash leaving its shores, a smaller rate than normal because of a tax treaty between the Netherlands and Zambia.

 Mazabuka's Nakambala Urban health centre say two malnourished children die every month with it. At the school, 1,200 children fit into 12 classrooms in shifts taught by 20 teachers. In Zambia 45% of children are malnourished and two-thirds of the population live on less than $2 a day.

The total loss to tax avoidance by multinationals in the developing world is estimated to be around £70bn a year, enough to save the lives of 85,000 children under the age of five in the world's poorest countries every 12 months, campaigners say.

Source

Maize and the market

In a warehouse in the centre of one of Zambia’s farming districts, several kilometres away from Lusaka, thousands of bags of maize are stacked. All maize is rotten and will be destroyed. This destruction of food is a calamity for a country where the UN estimates 64 percent of its people are still incapable of placing two meals on the table. In Zambia, the average rural farmer is estimated to survive on less than US$2 (K10,000) per day.

Across the country, hundreds of thousands of tonnes of maize are rotting away or being destroyed. Zambia simply does not have enough storage facilities nor is there an adequate road network to transport maize.

Vice-President Guy Scott recently said: “We have two million tonnes of maize against storage facilities that are meant for 300,000 tonnes of maize, so with poor storage, it gets rotten.” Even schools have reportedly been converted into makeshift warehouses to deal with the overflow.

A problem are the Government subsidies, a programme which provides cheap fertiliser to maize farmers and a government policy to then buy the crop at above-market rates. Zambia moved to increase its food production back in 2004 following a hugely problematic food crisis in 2002. Further hit by the spike in world food prices in 2008 when the cost of maize increased by more than 100 percent compared to 2006, the government again sought to increase production. The new government has continued to subsidise maize production Government subsidies, introduced by the late President Levy Mwanawasa around 2004 to ensure the country grew enough of its own food, have encouraged farmers to boost their maize production. The policy has been so successful that the country has turned itself from an importer of food to an exporter.

But the subsidies are also aimed at reducing poverty, and by this measurement, many argue they have failed.  The World Bank urged the Zambian government to stop subsidising the maize crop, saying it was unsustainable long-term and not addressing the core problem – feeding the poor.
“Current maize prices encourage mono cropping at the expense of crop diversification. Job creation through economic diversification, which is the goal of this government, is unlikely to be achieved if government pursues the same policy in the agricultural sector as that of the previous government. This old policy has not resulted in significant reduction in rural poverty and job creation...Lower prices will not only reduce the cost of living for the poorer Zambians but will also benefit the livestock industry. Low prices will also contribute to the development of a sustainable maize export business, which will allow Zambia to become the bread basket in the region.” Zambian maize bought above market value at about US$12 for a 50kg bag (US$300 per tonne) meant it off loads onto the local and export market at a loss.

Zambia has nearly 1.5m smallholder farmers. It is this rural population that makes up the majority of the country’s poor. But the study shows that the smallest farmers, those farming less than one hectare, increased their maize the least, by an average of just three 50kg bags. The farmers that benefited the most from subsidised fertilizer were those that farmed over five hectares. It is the same with the government’s policy of buying maize at a premium – as two thirds of smallholder farmers do not sell their maize crop there are few that benefit from this government handout. Money spent subsidising farming would be much better spent on other things targeted at the rural poor. With the same amount of money more than 50 new high schools could be constructed and 10,000 more teachers employed. The number of health workers could be doubled for instance.

Source