Zambia's watered down election promise

United Nations Children’s Fund estimates that about 4.8 million of Zambia's 13 million people do not have access to safe drinking water. 6.6 million people are without access to proper sanitation. Drinking river water is not a safe practice and is fraught with danger and disease and is infested with black flies, which harbour a parasite known as nematode or roundworm. When these parasites are transmitted to a human they cause River Blindness and then there is bilharzia, a tropical disease that causes one’s skin to itch. Other symptoms include diarrhoea, fever, vomiting and blood in the urine.

The Patriotic Front was elected to government in September 2011 and in the election campaign, President Michael Sata’s PF promised to provide hand pumps and community latrines to those who lacked them. The party also promised that within 90 days of the new government’s taking office, people in rural areas would have access to safe drinking water. But now, almost nine months later but many wonder if the commitment to change the lives of those living in rural Zambia will ever materialise.

Zambia: President Sata in power

The Patriotic Front, under its president Michael Sata, won the Zambia general election that took place on 20 September last year. There was heightened jubilation in all areas that had voted for the PF. The MMD only managed to salvage votes in Central and Eastern provinces. The PF performed badly in only three provinces. It was a massive victory for PF leader Sata, who said he was going to transform the economy in 90 days.

At exactly 2100hrs the Chief Justice Ernest Sakala announced that PF leader Sata had won the presidential elections. There were mass celebrations in Lusaka and the Copperbelt mining townships. During his swearing-in ceremony President-elect Michael Sata went on to thank the people of Zambia for electing him president and assured foreign investors that he was not going to chase them from Zambia. Outgoing MMD president Rupiah Banda conceded defeat.

What was significant in the election was the voting patterns that emerged afterwards. It is a fact that ethnic and tribal allegiances still remain unchanged – people voted in political leader to whom they had direct ethnic and tribal patronage. The Bembaland voted for the PF, whilst the Nyanya, Ngoni and Tumbuka voted for the MMD. The Tonga voted for UPND. Ethnic and tribal allegiances still remain as the major factor that determines the strength and popularity of political parties in Zambia today. The PF won last year’s elections by increasing votes in Western and Eastern Provinces. It is frightening to note that the PF did not win any parliamentary seats in Southern Province (political base of UPND).

The death knell of the MMD is ringing. The has virtually been swept out of Lusaka, the Copperbelt, Luapula and Northern Provinces.

Large numbers of votes were received in Lusaka and the Copperbelt Province. It seems that more young people had registered to vote. Policemen, teachers, students, nurses and the unemployed youth voted for the Patriotic Front. The elections were pronounced free and fair. Sporadic bouts of violence only began when the Electoral Commission of Zambia stopped announcing election results on 21 September, when it appeared the PF leader Sata was still in the lead. Mobs went and started to attack private property – mostly shops and cars. Things only returned to normal when the Chief Justice announced that PF leader Sata had won the presidential election with 52 percent of the vote.

During the swearing-in ceremony, President Sata summoned the Chinese ambassador and cautioned him about the low salaries and poor conditions of service existing in Chinese-owned mines and companies. The President went on and announced the following economic reforms: The sale of Zamtel was to be investigated and salaries and wages to be revised upwards

But is will that the PF government enact a people-driven constitution the people of Zambia have been demanding? Will the PF government increase salaries of civil servants by 100 percent and revise the labour laws to favour indigenous Zambian investors and workers? Shall we see free elections and building of new hospitals, roads and bridges – the opening of rural areas into tourist resorts, and the re-investigation of the fertiliser support programmes? Shall we see more jobs – to fill people’s pockets? All as was promised in the PF political manifesto. Because the previous MMD government was characterised by corruption, it may be that in the short term some of the PF economic reforms will succeed.

But what many workers and unemployed youth don’t appreciate is the fact that capitalism as it exists in Zambia today cannot be reformed to accommodate the aspirations of the workers, peasants and unemployed youth. The late MMD president toyed with these ideas but failed. The mainstay of Zambian economy is copper, whose price is determined on the London Metal Exchange. The success of the economic growth policies pursued by the PF depends on the tax revenues received from copper and related mining activities. Introducing a minimum wage will have dire effects on the informal job sector – labour retrenchments will become the thing of the day.

The World Socialist Movement understands that the PF cannot make capitalism work in the interests of Zambian workers – it is only socialism based upon a classless, moneyless and stateless society that can resolve the problems facing the workers in every part of the world.
KEPHAS MULENGA, 
KITWE, ZAMBIA

ZAMBIA: DON’T KUBEBA VISTA

What started as a new political revolution in Zambia has proved to be a mere political hullabaloo. There can be nothing new under capitalism – except half meal political and economic reforms that in all respects only help to undermine working-class political and class solidarity. In every part of the world the workers have the class franchise to elect a political party into power. It is the inability by the workers to use their class franchise to utilise their political consciousness as a weapon for socialism.

The election of Michael Sata of the Peoples Front (PF) as President is what is dubbed a new dawn in Zambian politics. Reading through the newspaper headlines one may easily notice the absence of political criticism today. The PF has been a pro-poor people’s budget – in the sense that the government has reduced pay as you earn income tax below those earning K2 million.

The reduction of income tax comes at a time when the government is contemplating enacting a minimum wage for those earning below K2 million.

The political strength of the PF government will be judged by the workers and unemployed youth, who massively voted for it during the 2011 general election.

President Michael Sata, like his predecessors Chiluba and Dr. Banda, is a charismatic politician. Because Sata won the election on a massive landslide he may remain blind to the limits of political power and, given his flamboyant political nature, this is going to prove difficult to those close to him to work with him he has the audacity to reverse set policies of ministerial agenda – removing and appointing members of parliament to cabinet portfolios without proper explanations. But what is worrisome is the complete absence of UNPD political members of parliament in the new PF government.

The directive to let alone street vendors issued by Sata and the sending of Dr. Banda as special presidential ambassador to China caught many people unprepared. Sata couldn’t allow his opponents to champion the plight of the urban unemployed youth by allowing them to trade freely on the streets of Lusaka and the Copperbelt mining towns. The fight against corruption is aimed at hoodwinking overseas aid donors. Indeed, it remains to be seen whether the arrest of form MMD ministers will help to correct the dented political image the Zambian political profile abroad.

President Sata recently revoked the labour ministry from Chishimba Kambwili – because of his anti-Chinese political sentiments. Indeed, Kambwili was seen as a new political guru by many urban workers through his relentless attacks on Chinese investors who misread indigenous Zambian workers. What many workers expected was that the PF was going to increase jobs and salaries overnight – within the stipulated 90 days.

Apart from enacting commissions of enquiry into the privatisation of Zamtech and Zamco, the PF government has not achieved any noticeable economic reform. Indeed, the practice of appointing and reshuffling ministers is negatively perceived by many Zambians. It remains to be seen whether President Sata will forge his political popularity through increasing jobs and salaries across the board.

But the question remains, will the political immunity of former MMD president Banda be removed?

Our appeal to the Zambian workers and unemployed youth remains the same – socialism is the only political alternative to capitalism. We advocate a classless, moneyless and stateless society.

KEPHAS MULENGA,
KITWE,
ZAMBIA

Donchi Kubeba song authored by Dandy Krazy is a household name across Zambia and contributed in boosting the morale of the Chipolopolo boys at the Africa Cup of Nations. Dandy says it is the song that propelled the PF to victory against MMD when the opposition party adopted it. “I wrote this song three years ago, it’s a song about change. Politicians have been making promises which they do not fulfil,” Dandy said.