Exploring the rich history of the Luangwa Valley in Zambia and the role of chieftaincy in the political and social fabric of the country.



Driving past a sign that said ‘Chief Kakumbi’s Own Palace’ every day for over a week inside the game management area of one of the premier wildlife conservation areas in Zambia, the South Luangwa National Park, made me curious about its presence.



A bit of investigation opened me up to a deeper understanding of Zambian chieftaincy and its role in the political and social fabric of the country. At the lodge where I was staying, everyone hailed from the Kunda tribe for whom Chief Kakumbi was the paramount chief. Yet the locals spoke a dialect of Bantu found among the Bisi ethnic group of the Congo.



I immediately set about questioning senior members of the local Mfuwe village about their migration from the Congo into the Luangwa Valley (part of Northern Rhodesia prior to the 1960s) only to receive anecdotal stories of a migration in the 18th century. While the Kunda were a large majority of the people living in the districts surrounding the park, two other tribes, the Chikunda and Ngoni, were also present as minorities. When they spoke, I could hear a significant di-ference in their dialects, so I set about researching the history of these three tribes who were not endemic to the area.



I soon determined that it was enslavement and internecine warfare that caused large migrations into the Luangwa Valley. The valley had been unpopulated due to its inability to support livestock with a high density of carnivores and because of the sleeping sickness disease. The Luangwa River flows into the Zambezi River where a plethora of land, gold, ivory, and enslaved people, among other things, incentivized the Portuguese crown to colonize the surrounding areas at that time, including what is now Mozambique and parts of Malawi. In the absence of a colonial army, Portuguese landlords hired individuals who voluntary sold themselves for economic survival and collectively they became the Chikunda.



These armies could be over 20,000-strong which helped the Portuguese subjugate local villages.



Utilizing the Chikunda warriors, the Portuguese raided nearby villages for the enslaved individuals and ivory to sell to Swahili and Arab traders from Zanzibar.



The Kunda moved to the Luangwa Valley in the early 18th century after local tribal warfare among the Bisi people of the Luba 



Kingdom of the Congo. The Kunda settled in a harsh area without the ability to raise livestock in the Luangwa Valley. Their peace was short-lived as they too were enslaved. This led the Kunda to disperse all over the Luangwa Valley for safety. As the Portuguese colonies crumbled in the 20th century, the Chikunda formed alliances with the Kunda and settled in the valley.



The militarization of the region of today’s KwaZulu-Natal in South Africa by Shaka Zulu, whose quest to consolidate his empire in the late 19th century, forced Ngoni residents of



Swaziland to flee north into the Luangwa Valley, thereby putting pressure on the already-settled Kunda and Chikunda. The Ngoni were fierce warriors and soon started raiding both Chikunda and Kunda villages for enslaved people, which was the main economic driver at the time. The Kunda, who were primarily pastoralists, appointed the Chikunda as mercenaries to protect them.



With the arrival of the British and the formation of Northern Rhodesia and the Nyasaland colony, the war with Ngoni people was won by the British, and tribal peace declared in Northern Rhodesia.



With independence obtained from the British in 1964, the new country of Zambia was born, made from parcels of Northern Rhodesia and Nyasaland, the former name for colonial Malawi.



Today, the constitution of Zambia provides substantial powers to the tribal chiefs, numbering over 241, in the matters of land utilization and local law. Thus, Chief Kakumbi of the Kunda and Chief Jumbe of the Ngoni people who own vast tracts of land along the South Luangwa National Park these days assist in game management, sustainable development and in the mediation of disputes and conflicts among the residents.



My attempt to meet Chief Kakumbi one Saturday – the day he meets with his people in the palace – narrowly failed since he had to attend a parliamentary meeting in Lusaka, Zambia’s capital. My purchase of a chicken, a traditional gift taken by new visitors, did not make it to his kitchen. A casual sign by the roadside revealed so much of the rich history of the Zambezi valley, where the great explorer David Livingstone began missions and later exposed and campaigned against enslavement, and the darkest chapter of humanity.

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Chief Specialties: The Rich History Of Zambia’s Luangwa Valley

The 2023 Women’s World Cup in Australia and New Zealand next year will see Zambia and South Africa participate with big hopes hinged on their performance.



BY NICK SAID



If there is one thing the coaches of South Africa and Zambia are in agreement on, it is that the hard work starts now as they prepare for the 2023 Women’s World Cup in Australia and New Zealand next year.



The draw for the 32-team finals competition was held a few weeks ago, and has not been particularly kind to the two southern African nations.



Debutants Zambia have been paired with Spain, Japan and Costa Rica in Group C, no easy task, but coach Bruce Mwape knows that however they do, the symbolism of seeing the Copper Queens on the global stage is perhaps the important thing.



“There are no easy teams in women’s football at the moment,” Mwape says. “For us, it’s just important to be there, especially as this is our first time.



“The whole country is behind us, supporting the team, and our achievements recently show that there has been a lot of improvement in Zambian football.”



He is correct. The Zambian national side won their first COSAFA senior title in 2022, while the country’s top club Green Buffaloes won the COSAFA Women’s Champions League as well.



These are all big steps forward for the game in Zambia and a major reason why they find themselves at the World Cup too.



Mwape has certainly improved their performance drastically, as has forward Barbra Banda, who was a star of the Olympic Games in Tokyo last year and could have a huge impact at the World Cup.



For South Africa, this competition will be second time round after they had their maiden World Cup qualification in France in 2019.



The core of that group remains in place and as recently-crowned African champions, there will be much expectation that they get out of their pool.



But the draw has not been kind, they face top sides Sweden, Italy and Argentina, with certainly the first two formidable foes. Coach Des Ellis is putting on a brave face.



“I think it’s a reasonable draw,” she said. “We’ve played Sweden before but we haven’t met Italy and Argentina. My feeling is that it could have been tougher.



“Now the planning and preparation starts, making sure the players have as much information as they can.”



The World Cup will be staged from July 20 to August 20, with South Africa canvassing hard to be the hosts of the 2027 tournament. The women’s competition has never been held on the African continent before.

FIFA U-17 Women’s World Cup Qualifier: South Africa v Ethiopia

Big Steps Forward For Women’s Football In These Southern African Nations

American credit rating agency, Fitch, announced on September 24 that it has downgraded Zambia’s Long-Term Foreign-Currency Issuer Default Rating (IDR) from &#8216;CC&#8217; to ‘C’. The country’s senior unsecured foreign currency bonds were also downgraded this week.



This follows the Zambian government issuing a &#8220;consent solicitation&#8221; to holders of three global bonds (Eurobonds) on September 22, requesting a suspension of debt service payments for six months. This would effectively be covering the upcoming three coupon payments due on October 14, and January and March 2021.



Zambia’s Ministry of Finance stated that the country has been confronted with challenging macroeconomic and fiscal situations aggravated by the Covid-19 crisis. This has severely impacted the country’s public finances.



“A combination of declining revenues and increased unbudgeted costs caused by the Covid-19 pandemic has resulted in a material impact on the Government’s available resources to make timely payments on its indebtedness leading to increasing debt-servicing difficulties,” Fredson Yamba, Secretary to Treasury, said in a statement on Tuesday.



In its report, Fitch stated that should bondholders agree to the suspension in payment, this would constitute a distressed debt exchange (DDE).



“The authorities have indicated that they will continue to make debt service payments on outstanding Eurobonds if an agreement is not reached. However, Fitch judges that there is a high risk of a missed debt payment over the forecast horizon,” Fitch said in its press release.



The Zambian government further said in a statement that they are still engaging with the International Monetary Fund (IMF) to secure financial assistance. The government hopes to create a program of reforms that would help in stabilizing the macroeconomic outlook of the country and restore its fiscal balance.



“In this context, the government is committed to finding a consensual and collaborative resolution to the debt sustainability issues it is currently facing,” Yamba said.



The ‘CC’ rating, which occurred on April 16, due to the sovereign’s constrained external liquidity exacerbated by the pandemic, meant that the country was left in a highly vulnerable position, financially. How will this newly downgraded rating bode for Zambia now?



“The downgrade of Zambia&#8217;s rating reflects Fitch&#8217;s view that a default event is imminent.”

Graph Falling Down in Front Of Zambia Flag. Crisis Concept

Zambia’s Credit Rating Downgraded to Near Junk Status

Climate change is going to have huge consequences all over the world,&nbsp;especially in Africa. Harvests will be affected, threatening agricultural outputs. This could hurt farmers and lead to greater food insecurity.



But there hasn’t been much discussion about what effects climate change will have in other areas – like in the continent’s small and medium business sector. This is a worrying oversight.



Our&nbsp;research, conducted in Zambia and Botswana, revealed that businesses activities faced major disruptions during the 2015/2016 El Niño event. This was a result of drought-related water supply disruption in Botswana’s capital Gaborone, and disruption to hydroelectricity supplies in Zambia’s capital Lusaka.



El Niño&nbsp;is one of the key drivers of variations in global climate conditions between different years. It recurs every two to seven years and it’s typically associated with reduced rainfall and drought conditions in southern Africa.



Reflecting this trend, the 2015/2016 El Niño was one of the&nbsp;strongest on record. It brought widespread drought conditions and heat waves to the region.



By impacting urban water and hydroelectricity supplies, this had major consequences for business activities in Gaborone and Lusaka, as our research shows. These cities’ experiences should serve as a warning for others across the continent, and systems should be put in place to protect particularly small businesses from the worst realities of a changing climate.



<h4 class="wp-block-heading">Under pressure</h4>



In Botswana, as lake levels in the Gaborone Dam dropped to&nbsp;historical lows, businesses in Gaborone experienced decreased water pressure. In some cases businesses were completely cut off from piped water supply.



Lack of water for food preparation, butchery, irrigation, laundry, cleaning and sanitation had dire consequences for businesses such as hotels and guesthouses, restaurants, food businesses and other service industries. Hairdressers and car washing enterprises, for instance, came to a standstill as they struggled to provide services to customers or to maintain hygiene standards.



In Zambia’s capital Lusaka, where hydropower accounts for&nbsp;94%&nbsp;of the country’s electricity generation capacity, low lake levels in Lake Kariba contributed to unprecedented electricity blackouts, often lasting for eight hours at a time.



In Lusaka, activities reliant on electricity such as manufacturing, processing and communications were interrupted as equipment was immobilised. Assets were lost because they couldn’t be reliably heated or refrigerated. In both cities, supply chains were disrupted.



<figure><iframe loading="lazy" width="440" height="260" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/Nu5pjijFFa4?wmode=transparent&amp;start=0" allowfullscreen=""></iframe><figcaption>A video explaining the authors’ findings.</figcaption></figure>



<h4 class="wp-block-heading">Infrastructure issues</h4>



Towards the end of 2016, as El Niño drew to a close, more than half of the 135 micro, small and medium enterprises we surveyed in Gaborone and Lusaka told us their profits would be lower than previous years. Almost a third believed that their business was at risk of closing down. Business owners said disruptions to water supply and power outages, in Gaborone and Lusaka respectively, were the greatest obstacles to them doing business.



The two cities’ experiences, alongside the widely reported “Day Zero” water situation in Cape Town, South Africa, should sound a warning for businesses elsewhere on the continent. Water shortages in Cape Town began during the El Niño, but extended into 2018 as drought conditions persisted.



Climate change events like droughts are only going to get worse – and urban centres where many small, medium and micro enterprises thrive will be in the eye of the storm. The 2015/2016 El Niño highlighted that even fairly moderate changes in rainfall can have major consequences for businesses in African cities.



More people are moving to cities, setting up businesses and connecting, often for the first time, to water and electricity grids. This increases demand and places pressure on existing water and energy infrastructure.



At the same time, a complex set of factors has limited the development of new infrastructure and the effective management of existing resources. This means cities are struggling to keep up with the increased demand.



These factors, which include under-investment in infrastructure, policy uncertainty, governance challenges and poor municipal service provision, exacerbated the effect of drought in Botswana, Zambia and South Africa.



<h4 class="wp-block-heading">Preparing for a new reality</h4>



So what can be done to address these realities?



First, action is needed across sub-Saharan Africa to increase understanding of the vulnerabilities in existing water, energy and urban infrastructure – alongside the effects of increasing urbanisation and a changing climate.



And, second, small and medium sized businesses, which are&nbsp;key drivers of economic growth across sub-Saharan Africa&nbsp;and provide many people with a livelihood, need more support from governments and policy makers to help them cope with disruption.



This should include better access to information about the timing and severity of anticipated disruption to water and electricity supplies, as well as support to invest in coping strategies such as alternative sources of energy.



<ul><li><a href="https://theconversation.com/profiles/kate-elizabeth-gannon-601360">Kate Elizabeth Gannon:</a>&nbsp;Postdoctoral researcher, London School of Economics and Political Science</li></ul>



<ul><li><a href="https://theconversation.com/profiles/declan-conway-434384">Declan Conway:</a>&nbsp;Professorial Research Fellow, London School of Economics and Political Science</li></ul>



<ul><li>Patrick Curran, a policy analyst at the Grantham Research Institute on Climate Change and the Environment, also contributed to this article.</li></ul>

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Small Businesses In Africa Will Be On The Frontline Of Climate Change

It is almost 20 years to the day since I flew high above Africa, with a TV crew jammed into a bumpy light plane. It was a white-knuckle ride through clouds into the jaws of a military coup.
We woke on that October morning, in 1997, in Harare, to news of a military coup in neighboring Zambia. Given that Zambians are not exactly warlike people, this breakfast declaration by a group calling itself the National Redemption Council was startling. It was going to put in place a military junta to carry out live executions of traitors on TV.
The frontman was a Captain Solo – in real life Captain Steven Lungu of the Zambian army – who gave President Frederick Chiluba three hours to surrender, threatening bloody revenge to anyone who stood in his way.
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All commercial flights to Zambia were cancelled in the chaos. For me, it meant the first trauma of the day; we had to charter a flight from the aptly named Bush Pilots in Harare – the only people crazy enough to fly into a coup. The pilot was a young guy who looked like he should have been at school rather than flying a plane.
As we bumped through the clouds he wriggled in his seat and to my surprise brought out a box of cigarettes and lit one. On his first puff, the message came through the radio that the authorities had shut down the airport at Lusaka.
“I’ll have to drop you off in the bush near the border,” says the young man in the matter-of-fact voice of a taxi driver. I thought he was joking until we touched down in the middle of nowhere with game grazing nearby. The crew offloaded its ton of cameras, lights and microphones – there was no lightweight digital technology in those days.
I set off across the baked earth to a farmhouse a couple of kilometers away. I shouted until the farmer came out and asked if he could lend us his truck. I jumped on the back and minutes later I was riding to the rescue and waving through the heat’s haze, with a big smile on my face, to the crew standing like specks on the horizon.
Half an hour later we were cursing, sweating, and humping the kit through the crowded immigration hall at Chirundu. Then, the remaining 120km on foot? We had no choice but to stand on that towering steel semi-circle that is the Birchenough Bridge and hitchhike. Luckily three heavy lorries, in convoy, from South Africa stopped and took us on board one in each of the three cabs. By the time we got to Lusaka, the coup was over. It turned out to be more comic opera than dogs of war.
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It all started over a drink in the small hours in a Lusaka barracks. Captain Lungu and fellow officer Captain Jack Chiti sat complaining about the government and their grievances with the army. Just before dawn, in that way drunken people can do, they agreed to overthrow the government. The two captains went into the barracks, woke their men and told them to fire up the armoured vehicles. Most of them thought it was an exercise; but as they smashed through the gates of the Zambia National Broadcasting Corporation (ZNBC) most of the soldiers saw the coup attempt for what it was and pressed on. No doubt, a number saw themselves as ministers and generals under the new regime. Within the hour they had taken over the ZNBC and Captain Solo began broadcasting threats.
The crackdown was swift. Loyal government soldiers, armed to the teeth, invaded ZNBC and sent the coup plotters scattering. The biggest problem, one of the soldiers told me afterwards, was winkling out the once brave, now terrified, soldiers of the coup. Apparently, many of them hid in cupboards at the ZNBC and it took a long time to find them.
As for Captain Lungu, soldiers slapped him out of the broadcasting station with his hands up. He ended up in that position so familiar to coup plotters; pinned to the ground with an army boot on his throat. The Zambian Information Service gleefully gave us the pictures of this.
The trial took years. The court sentenced Captain Lungu to death in 2003; he appealed and was handed 20 years in prison. Former President Rupiah Banda granted him pardon in 2010 and he eked out an impoverished life until he died two years later, aged 50, of TB. Captain Chiti was also freed and died of cancer, in August 2004, in a Lusaka hospital.
Both men suffered sad, lonely ends in return for their few hours of power; a short-lived, bungled and, thankfully bloodless, coup that is a mere footnote in Zambia’s history.

The Hell Ride To A Comical Coup

The Speaker of the Zambian National Assembly, Patrick Matibini, has <a href="http://www.enca.com/africa/zambias-parliament-suspendes-48-opposition-lawmakers" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">suspended 48 opposition legislators</a> for 30 days as a punishment for unauthorized absence from the parliament. Their offence? To have been missing for President Edgar Lungu’s state of the nation address in March.
The suspension of the MPs does not come as <a href="https://theconversation.com/we-need-to-talk-about-zambia-as-it-falls-from-grace-under-president-lungu-77520" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">a great surprise</a>. Hardliners from the ruling Patriotic Front have been pushing for something along these lines for some time. The ruling party was quick to try and disassociate itself from the Speaker’s actions. But, as Zambian commentators have pointed out, the action fits into a broader web of measures designed to intimidate those who question the president’s authority.
The most significant was the arrest of opposition leader Hakainde Hichilema, who remains in jail on trumped up <a href="http://www.africanews.com/2017/05/20/zambia-s-political-climate-and-treason-trial-of-hichilema-worrying-eu-mps//" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">treason charges</a>.
While the latest development in Zambia’s growing political crisis doesn’t come as a shock, it will disappoint those who were hoping that Lungu would be persuaded to moderate his position. Instead, it appears that the decision by the International Monetary Fund (IMF) to <a href="http://www.imf.org/en/News/Articles/2017/06/11/pr17214-zambia-imf-staff-concludes-visit" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">go ahead with a bailout</a> package despite the government’s democratic failings has emboldened the president to pursue an authoritarian strategy.
As a result, a swift resolution to the current political standoff seems unlikely.
<h2>Roots of the crisis</h2>
For some time Zambia was considered to be one of the more competitive democracies in Africa. But a period of backsliding under Lungu has raised concerns that the country’s inclusive political culture is <a href="https://theconversation.com/we-need-to-talk-about-zambia-as-it-falls-from-grace-under-president-lungu-77520" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">under threat</a>. The current impasse stems from the controversial elections in 2016 when Lungu won a narrow victory that <a href="http://af.reuters.com/article/topNews/idAFKCN10Q163" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">remains contested</a> by the opposition United Party for National Development.
Hichilema, the leader of the United Party for National Development (UPND), has stated that his party will not recognize the legitimacy of Lungu’s victory until its electoral petition against the results is heard in court. The initial petition was <a href="http://allafrica.com/view/group/main/main/id/00045643.html" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">rejected by the Constitutional Court</a>. But its decision was made in a way that had all the hallmarks of a whitewash. The UPND subsequently appealed to the High Court. Hichilema’s decision to make his party’s recognition of the president conditional on the petition being heard was designed both as an act of defiance, and as a means to prevent the government from simply sweeping electoral complaints under the carpet.
Until the court case is resolved, the opposition is committed to publicly challenging the president’s mandate by doing things like <a href="https://diggers.news/guest-diggers/2017/06/14/the-wholesale-suspension-of-upnd-mps-legal-but-undemocratic/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">boycotting his addresses to parliament</a>. In response, members of the ruling party have accused the United Party for National Development of disrespect and failing to recognize the government’s authority. It is this that appears to lie behind Hichilema’s arrest on treason charges.
<h2>Punishing parliamentarians</h2>
The suspension of UPND legislators needs to be understood against this increasingly authoritarian backdrop. It is one of a number of steps taken by those aligned to the government that are clearly designed to intimidate people who <a href="http://democracyinafrica.org/called-professor-nic-cheeseman-causes-zambia-controversy/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">don’t fall into line</a>. Other strategies include public condemnation of the government’s critics and proposals to break up the influential Law Association of Zambia.
Efforts by the <a href="http://en.rfi.fr/africa/20170614-zambian-government-played-no-part-suspension-opposition-mps-says-spokesman" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">president’s spokesman</a> to disassociate the regime from the suspensions have been unpersuasive. The official line of the ruling party is that the speaker of parliament is an independent figure and that he made the decision on the basis of the official rules. It’s true that the speaker and the parliamentary committee on privileges, absences and support services have the right to reprimand legislators for being absent without permission.
Nonetheless the argument is disingenuous for two reasons. The speaker is known to be close to the ruling party, a fact that prompted Hichilema to <a href="https://diggers.news/guest-diggers/2017/06/14/the-wholesale-suspension-of-upnd-mps-legal-but-undemocratic/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">call for his resignation</a> earlier this year. And the committee’s decisions are clearly driven by the Patriotic Front because it has more members from it than any other party.
The claim that the suspension was not government-led lacks credibility. This is clear from the fact that Patriotic Front MPs have been the most vocal in calling for action to be taken against boycotting UPND MPs.
<h2>IMF lifeline for Lungu</h2>
There are different perspectives on the crisis in Zambia. Some people invoke the country’ history of more open government to argue that Lungu will moderate his position once the government feels that the opposition has been placed on the back foot. Others identify a worrying authoritarian trajectory that began under the presidency of the late <a href="http://www.forbesafrica.com/politics/2013/10/01/power-comes-fall/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">Michael Sata</a>. They conclude that things are likely to get worse before they get better.
One of the factors that opposition leaders hoped might persuade President Lungu to release Hichilema and move discussions back from the police cell to the negotiating chamber was the government’s desperate need for an economic bail out. Following a period of bad luck and bad governance, Zambia faces a <a href="https://www.lusakatimes.com/2017/04/03/zambia-facing-debt-crisis-fundanga/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">debt crisis</a>. Without the assistance of international partners, the government is likely to go bankrupt. This would increase public dissatisfaction with the Patriotic Front and undermine Lungu’s hopes of securing a <a href="http://democracyinafrica.org/zambia-president-lungu-third-term/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">third term</a>.
But the willingness of the IMF to move towards the completion of a <a href="https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2016-08-10/zambian-leader-sees-swift-subsidy-cuts-in-1-2-billion-imf-deal" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">$1.2 billion rescue package</a> suggests that authoritarian backsliding is no barrier to international economic assistance. In turn, IMF support appears to have emboldened the government to continue its efforts to intimidate its opponents.
IMF officials, of course, will point out that they are not supposed to take political conditions into account and that their aim is to create a stronger economy that will benefit all Zambians. This may be true, but the reality is that by saving the Lungu government financially the IMF is also aiding it politically. Whatever its motivation, the agreement will be interpreted by many on the ground as tacit support for the Patriotic Front regime, strengthening Lungu’s increasingly authoritarian position. &#8211; Written by <a href="https://theconversation.com/profiles/nic-cheeseman-180800" target="_blank" rel="author noopener noreferrer">Nic Cheeseman</a>, Professor of Democracy, University of Birmingham
Originally published in <a href="https://theconversation.com/africa" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">The Conversation</a>
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Zambia slides towards authoritarianism as IMF props up government

It’s obvious Nachilala Nkombo has an abiding passion for Africa. Born and raised in Livingstone, Zambia, Nkombo’s interest in development work was influenced by the 1980s when there was a lot of rhetoric in the media about the importance of a free Africa.
“South Africa was the last on the fight for freedom back then, so from time to time, our town would get bombed and the reason why South Africa was bombing us was because we were supporting the freedom fighters. So it got me to develop a sort of consciousness early on in terms of commitment to social justice and understanding our history and how as African people we had equal rights and capabilities contrary to what the system at the time was telling us,” says Nkombo.
Her fight for social justice has seen Nkombo travel all over the world with a commitment to improve the lives of the underprivileged and the poor.
“I took the belief that we as Africans can change the world. When I was growing up, my role models at the time were politicians because they were doing great things and they were leading on big projects that were changing the communities.”
After university, Nkombo’s first role was an internship position in the United States with the Women’s International League for Peace and Freedom.
“It was like an organization focusing on human rights and it looked at areas where human rights were violated a lot, like the Middle East. Internally, we were challenging corporate personhood laws. In America, corporates had the same rights as individuals. And we were challenging this because there was no way a human being that was finite can compete with a corporate whose resources are never-ending.”
Then came her role with an American non-governmental organization back in Africa.
The role was to be part of the team going to set up the program in Africa and she was responsible for the pan-African women and youth program, which also had an element connecting with the United Nations.
“We developed curricula for young people in Africa that were leaders and we trained about 300 young activists from different parts of Africa who were already making a difference,” she says.
Nkombo’s continued passion for development work has led her to Denmark and Germany and today as the Executive Director of ONE Africa, her fight to combat social injustice wages on.
“As the ONE campaign, we have a plan that outlines the policy priorities that we are going to focus on in the next four years to deliver our mission that is to contribute to the end of extreme poverty and disease. My responsibility is two-fold, to lead the team in Africa to come up with strategies to deliver campaigns and advocacy that actually work in Africa but also my responsibility feeds into the global strategy so that what we are thinking about globally actually works and is relevant in Africa,” says Nkombo.
The organization has expanded their work in recent months and has teamed up with the Dangote Foundation (spearheaded by Africa’s richest man, Aliko Dangote) to spread their work on advocacy in Nigeria. Nkombo believes making a stance to end social injustice is a mandate for all Africans and it is only by pulling together as one, that we can truly impact the future generation.

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The Chosen One

Elections in Africa are not child’s play; if you run out of luck, you can pay with your life. This was true of Zambia’s Mapenzi Chibulu, an 18-year-old female opposition activist shot dead on the streets of Lusaka by police in political turmoil.
On July 9, in broad daylight, and a month before she was expected to join millions in voting for the next president, Chibulu lost her life. It forced the electoral body, the Electoral Commission of Zambia, to suspend campaigns for 10 days in Zambia’s capital.
As if the political turmoil was not enough, the copper producing country has done little to allay fears of investors, bearing hard currency, over a country that has struggled to diversify from mining.
The country, celebrating 52 years this year, is in turmoil as incumbent President Edgar Lungu, who has been in power for a year, is battling to stop opposition leader, Hichilema Hakainde, from wresting power. Lungu came in after President Michael Sata died in office. Hakainde is a businessman and a British-educated economist.
The two will face each other in a watershed election of August 11. Whatever the outcome, this election will be contested; whoever loses will claim electoral fraud after polls.
“For 50 years our nation has lived with peace, stability and freedom. There is no place for this type of violence in our society. I take a firm stance against any sort of violence in our democracy,” Lungu said in a statement.
To his opponents, his words ring hollow in the light of Chibulu’s death.
Political analysts say the electoral landscape, in the run up to the polls, has been punctuated by skirmishes between the ruling Patriotic Front and the opposition United Party for National Development.
“This comes as no surprise and we have been warning for months now that the political climate in Zambia was not conducive to free and fair elections and that the country risked losing its democratic reputation if authorities allowed this to continue,” says Gary van Staden, Senior Political Analyst at NKC African Economists.
“While the decision to suspend campaigning is a negative development, it at least provides some breathing space for authorities and political parties to put in place concrete measures to help take off the pressure that has been building over months now and threatens the credibility of the poll. The suspension of campaigning is the lesser of two evils but it remains an evil and any attempt to extend the suspensions will be unacceptable.”
While the election will pass, the challenges facing Zambia will not. Economists warn that politicians should not make it worse.
Herryman Moono, an economist from Economics Association of Zambia, says the unfolding political developments, marred by violence and government pressure on private media, has created political tension.
“The excessive use of force by the Zambia police, who are on record of cancelling opposition party rallies and recently the use of live ammunition leading to the killing of an opposition party supporter, while injuring others, is raising concerns about the security of the nation as we approach elections,” says Moono.
“These developments are creating anxiety among the local and international community. Should these continue, Zambia will slowly be perceived as a risky investment destination which has a strong and negative bearing on foreign direct investment in the short to medium term. An elevated risk profile arising from electoral violence can easily lead to subdued economic growth as investments – both local and international – dwindle.”
Moono adds that, beyond a damaged reputation and being a low grade investment destination, the Zambian currency would, in the midst of an electoral crisis, negatively affect the Zambian Kwacha which has been extremely volatile and poor-performing the past few years.
Thato Motaung, Associate Executive Director at the African Democratic Institute, says, to date, Zambia has experienced fairly peaceful and successful transitions of power; showing a promising trait of embracing the democratic will of the people.
“The key issues facing the build-up to Zambia’s election are mostly rooted in this insecurity. There is a large vocal citizenry, vigorous independent media, paired with a well-organized opposition; a combination that leaders often perceive as threatening. Hence we see the iron fist emerge in raids, police brutality and censorship in an attempt to pacify the perceived threat.”
On August 11, we will know who will take the reins.

The Price We Pay for democracy

Hanson Sindowe is the last person you would expect to be one of Zambia’s richest; he grew up the son of a policeman in a family of farmers in the village of Kalomo, 120 kilometers north of Livingstone. It’s a place thousands of kilometers from where he made his fortune on power distribution along Zambia’s copper belt, the lifeblood of the country.
Sindowe is the engineer, who wanted to be a pilot, but ended up buying Zambia’s copper belt power distribution company, Copperbelt Energy Corporation (CEC,) in 2006 for $120 million.
“I just visualized flying around. In those days people were going to the moon. When I came into electrical engineering, I said I can’t just be an employee, a worker. I looked at opportunities to see what I can do to really improve the quality of life of myself and my fellow Zambians,” says the 66-year-old man in his office in Lusaka.
Most Zambians couldn’t point out Sindowe in the streets, yet his story is known from Livingstone to Solwezi. This journey began at a rural school when he was given a bursary to study engineering at the University of Zambia. At the time, Sindowe was working as an engineer in the copper belt, where the industry of Zambia had been on a rollercoaster ride thanks to nationalization, cheap Russian copper and poor economic development. On top of this the copper belt needed energy to dig up the largest known reserves of copper in Africa, 6% of the world’s supply, according to the World Bank.
“Energy is a huge requirement for any county in the world. They can’t do without it. You can’t build factories and manufacture goods without power,” says Sindowe.
Sindowe knew the Zambian energy business. He’s worked as the General Manager of the Zambia Consolidated Copper Mines (ZCCM) Power Division and for Zambia Railways Limited. In 1997, CEC was formed out of the privatization of ZCCM. At the time, Sindowe signed up as a Director of Business Development.
“In 2004, there was talk that the company [ZCCM] would sell. I thought I’d been with the company for very long. I knew it very well. I wrote a letter to the board asking if I could be considered to buy the company. They said ‘why not, so long as you can pay,’” says Sindowe.
The letter changed his life. It took two years for Sindowe to raise the $120 million. He found a number of Zambian investors and then headed overseas. In London, sitting in a conference room with 32 banks, Sindowe made a final presentation for funds. Two banks were interested: the Dutch development bank FMO, who brought 20%, and the African Development Bank, which brought another 20%, says Sindowe.
The deal was the foundation that interested entrepreneurs. Remarkably in Sindowe’s case, he spent an hour with FORBES’ 32nd richest man in Africa without even realizing who the entrepreneur was.
It happened when Sindowe installed fiber cables to improve his company’s capacity to monitor its power distribution on the copper belt. It meant there was spare space on the wires to sell off to a telecommunications company.
“I thought these cables can also be used for communication on the copper belt. Believe it or not, at the time, I approached Zamtel [one of Zambia’s largest communications company] to see if they wanted to use them. There was so much capacity. But Zamtel were a little bit too slow in thinking,” says Sindowe.
Someone faster than Zamtel was Nick Rudnick, the CEO of Liquid Telecom, a communications company in Zimbabwe. Rudnick had heard about the spare cables, and wanted to rent. Rudnick flew to Zambia, with his chairman, Strive Masiyiwa, the $600-million founder of Econet Wireless, and subsidiary owner to Liquid Telecom.
“With him was his chairman, I forget his name now. But I think he was one of the richest guys in Africa. We had a long chat in a hotel and said ‘hey we’re in the telecoms business, want to go into business?’&#8230; We talked for about an hour then shook hands. Since then, I haven’t spoken to him [Masiyiwa], but I talk to Nick every other week. It was another chance for us to expand.”
Sindowe came out with a handshake worth $30 million. These days, CEC Liquid, the amalgamation of Masiyiwa and Sindowe, is the largest fiber network in Zambia. This year, it plans to expand with a further $16-million investment in fiber technology.
According to Sindowe, CEC’s investments ring well over $350 million. Its next move is to go into renewables. Among its footprint across Sierra Leone, the Democratic Republic of Congo, Namibia, Nigeria and South Africa is a $210-million, 40 megawatt (MW) hydro power plant in the Kabompo Gorge, in Zambia’s North-Western province.
For a man who has spent most of his life developing Zambia’s energy, the thinking never ends. Built into the cost of the deal, CEC has to help move the village that will be left underwater by the proposed hydro plant, says Sindowe. He also believes he can add a further 10MW of energy by installing solar panels on the dam created by the hydro plant.
“I am talking about floating solar panels, where there is no need to displace communities anymore,” says Sindowe.
The panels would be more efficient than on land, says Sindowe. There is less dust blocking the panels. The water also helps regulate the panel’s temperature, which loses efficiency when overheated.
“If you compare us to Europe, they have made a lot of investments into wind generation. I’ve seen those wind plants come up in the last 30 years. There is so much wind. So here in Africa, there is so much sunlight, so why not use it?”
Inside Sindowe’s offices in the heart of Lusaka, the air conditioner in his boardroom hums gently. He’ll soon be moving into new headquarters run on solar power. Parking lots, roof buildings and open spaces will be littered with solar panels to power the facility.
In the meantime, Sindowe sits in his boardroom wearing a beige farmer’s shirt. He’s a world away from the farms of his childhood but never far in his mind.

The $30-Million  Handshake

Zambian-born Tariq Yusuf knew it was a gamble when his company approached Zimbabwe’s president Robert Mugabe. Yusuf wanted to build a 260-hectare, 100-megawatt (MW) solar power plant. His last venture, the Tara KLamp, a controversial medical tool used for circumcisions in South Africa’s Kwa-Zulu Natal province, hadn’t paid off. Worse still he’d been under fire from the media for years.
Fortune favors the brave and Yusuf bounced back. His family-run business, Intratrek, supplied everything from helicopter parts to medical equipment. Zimbabwe and solar panels were the new frontier.
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“When you are going for such a deal you have your ups and downs. Then one day you get that letter. I was here in Johannesburg and I got a phone call from Wicknell [Chivayo], our partner in Zimbabwe, he screamed ‘we got it, we’ve won the project’,” says Yusuf.
This small slice of business turned with Zimbabwe’s lack of energy. Zimbabwe is energy starved. Since 1999, it has been hampered with rolling black outs and load shedding. The country generates 1,500MW while the demand sits at 2,000MW. Zimbabwe also leans on expensive imports from the Southern Africa Power Pool, a cooperation of national electricity companies, says Chivayo, Managing Director of Intratrek Zimbabwe.
The country also opened up its power to private business in June last year. Zimbabwe Electricity Supply Authority (Zesa) wants private business to build power plants for the state to run. The government has Zim Asset set up as a private IPP company. Zesa intends to increase national power supply by 900MW and build 300MW of renewables by the end of 2018, says Munacho Mutezo, the deputy energy minister. Even more business is set for the long term when Zim Asset wants to upgrade power plants and build new ones.
The sticking point is the money. Zim Asset needs to borrow almost $10 billion to finance the program, and few countries are willing to loan. The delays could make the five-year fix a 30-year nightmare says Zimbabwe Vice President Joice Mujuru.
For Yusuf, its good business for now. Solar farms are quick to build; they have a turnaround period of 10 months, according to Chivayo. By May, Yusuf expects to see the $216-million solar plant ready to go live on the grid.  They have strong backing, China-based CHINT, a behemoth in solar energy worth $30 billion, are the main contractors; their funders are Afreximbank. Intratrek Zimbabwe threw $3 million into the investment.
“For me &#8211; a 27-year-old &#8211; this was a game changer; it’s something that can help a lot of people in Africa and it has put us on the map,” says Yusuf.
Yusuf’s plant will harness the rays of the sun for the next 50 years. Not a bad reward for taking a chance where few had risked before.

Finding Light in the dark

The KK 11, Zambia’s team of yesteryear, was so aptly named after our great leader, the father of our nation, Kenneth Kaunda. The name came with great power and strength. It was almost like a weapon we could use when we ran into battle on the pitch.
The first time I heard of the KK 11 was on the radio. I remember it like it was yesterday. In 1974, on an evening when Zambia was playing in its first Africa Cup of Nations final, the high pitched voice of commentator Dennis Liwewe streamed through the wireless safely secured in the corner of the house. I followed the match between the KK 11 and the Leopards of Zaire intensely. Liwewe shouted the names that still ring in my mind today as two great sides battled for the honor to be African kings in the finals in Egypt. I still remember the stadium name being belted out in loud voice, ‘El Nasser in Cairo!’
My memory of this day is still clear as Mulamba Ndaye scored for Zaire, followed by Brighton Sinyangwe and Simon Kaodi Kaushi equalizing for Zambia to take the match to a replay.
There were other great names. Names that have remained etched in our history, such as Dick Chama, Dickson Makwaza, Edwin Mbaso, Boniface Simutowe, Jani Simlambo, Bernard Chanda, Brighton Sinyangwe and Emmanuel Mwape.
That team covered every blade of grass as they battled from box to box, ran from man to man and dug deep into their energy reserves in search of victory. Their determination forced the match into a 2-2 draw against a highly rated and favored Zaire side. This forced a replay which saw Zaire winning and qualifying for the 1974 World Cup in Germany. Nevertheless, that Zambian team epitomized pride and commitment. They were a collective force, a powerful team full of big names that made them a powerhouse.
A few years later, I was privileged to watch them at Dag Hammarskjöld stadium in Ndola. They were playing Zaire again, this time in a qualifier. It was the first match I watched live in a stadium and the epic battle remains one of the most unforgettable events in my life. I was with my late dad and my late elder brother, Benjamin, when Zambia savoured a 2-1 victory, courtesy of goals by Richard Stephenson and Peter Mhango.
We were able to see many matches because my dad was a member of the executive committee of the Football Association of Zambia. He used to take us to a lot of stadiums while we were growing up and we could play football all day in local grounds.
From merely following the team in the newspapers and watching them in training, I came to admire and respect this mighty group of men. Imagine then how I felt as a 19-year-old when I was first called up to join the KK 11 in 1982. I was immensely proud to wear the Zambian shirt and have the chance to feature in tense battles before capacity crowds, playing alongside the greats of my time.
President Kaunda came to almost all the games. I was in awe the first time I met him. I remember his trademark white handkerchief, his presence, his height and his strong handshake. He would come to the stadium in his impressive motorcade just as the game was about to start. We would line up and shake his hand, which motivated us to go out and do our best. Then he would ask the referees for the match ball and he would charismatically and stylishly kick the ball around with his right leg, much to the delight of the crowd.
When I first heard that we were going to State House for a luncheon I was totally mesmerized. Me, a 20-year-old from Mufulira, going to State House? It was 1984 and we had just returned from Uganda after winning the East and Central Africa Challenge Cup. The KK 11 was invited to dine with the president. I remember using the cutlery and crockery with state insignia emblazoned on them. We all looked forward to that and it inspired us to keep winning.
It was the first of many dinners and luncheons hosted by Kaunda. But, what was most memorable of Kaunda was not the state banquets, it was that he attended the matches, he ate with us and in those interactions, he shared a lot with us. In his humility he inspired us and his call to the team was to play with dignity and honor and for the people.
Kaunda always told us that we had to go out on the pitch to die a little for mother Zambia. He galvanized us and garnered a lot of support for the team.
That culture of hard work, sacrifice and dedication to duty has carried on with the Chipolopolo; we never forget what is now our tradition.
This new generation also had an encounter with Kaunda when in 2012, during the greatest moment of Zambian football, President Michael Sata sent him to join the team in Gabon for the final of the Africa Cup of Nations which we won.
It was meaningful for Kaunda to have been there on that great night in Libreville. He was emotional and he used his traditional white handkerchief to wipe away his tears of joy. The culmination of his dedication to football came full circle on this historical day.
The new generation of players coming through the ranks will find the same values, messages and encouragement as they go on to play for Chipolopolo. Kaunda left an indelible mark in our footballing history. He taught us about pride and nationalism, he taught us to be humble yet proud, he taught us One Nation, One Zambia. We will be eternally grateful for his part in our footballing history.

The President That  Taught Us To Die A Little

When you walk in a maize field in Solwezi, Zambia, it’s difficult to tell where the wilderness ends and the crops begin; you could get lost in the canopy of weeds choking the corn. Lifetimes are spent bending and sweating to coax the crops from this dusty land. There is not much maize to show for it. The farmers of Solwezi often struggle.
A man who walks through these fields every day wants to change all this. Guy Hammond is an unusual face to find in Solwezi. What’s more unusual is Hammond is here to tell farmers to forget plough and fertilizer; a bit like telling a bird to forget the sky.
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Hammond fits the part of a farmer from Africa. His khaki shirt is a shade lighter than his pants. White socks peek from his worn black leather boots. His skin is as tanned as the leather.
It’s even stranger to hear how he landed up in Zambia. Hammond is part of Africa’s wandering tribe of Zimbabwean farmers. He grew tobacco in Zimbabwe until he lost his farm to the government in 2002. Forced out, he moved to the mines of the Democratic Republic of Congo for First Quantum Minerals as a shift supervisor. His path led him to Solwezi, one of the fastest growing towns in Africa, once a tiny village on the northern borders of Zambia and 16 kilometers from the Democratic Republic of Congo.
Now Hammond works for Kansanshi mine, run by First Quantum Minerals, teaching farmers to abandon the way of farming he was taught as a child. It’s called conservation farming and Hammond wants to change the ways Zambians farm.
“We are now going into our fifth season. The program has taken local average yields from just over one ton per hectare to four tons per hectare. But some of the best farmers on our scheme have consistent yields of about eight tons per hectare,” says Hammond.
It’s an eye-opening experience to walk through crops surrounded by knee-high grass, an acacia tree and an anthill the size of a house. The two fields side by side tell a story.  On the one side Hammond has a conservation crop; the other he’s planted with fertilizer.  The conservation side is as big as the anthill whereas the fertilizer isn’t.
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“In the nineties, Brian Oldreive, a farmer in Zimbabwe, came to believe that modern farming was the root of the problem. He was working on a farm that was failing. Crop yields were poor. No one could work out why the soil was losing its qualities. But the family was buying more and more fertilizer and spending millions on expensive machinery,” he says.
Oldreive, being a religious man, turned failing land into bountiful fields like something out of the bible. What’s more he did it without fertilizer or a plough. Instead, he covered the seeds with mulch made from dried grass and waited for the rains; the way God intended, says Hammond.
“I knew of Oldreive when I was farming as he was writing a lot of [then] controversial articles in the various agriculture magazines about this new method of farming. Everybody thought he was mad. I never learned conservation farming as a child in Zimbabwe. I only learned it in 2009 when I attended Brian’s conservation farming course in Harare after having farmed conventionally for 14 years. I was converted in three days,” says Hammond.
“Oldreive looked back in history and found that modern farming as we know it is a man-made disaster. He found that the plough was the chief culprit. The plough basically inverts the soil, all the organisms that work in the soil on the top, which are anabolic and does all your compost decay and eating of the leaves, and then you are burying them and killing them. And those organisms that are under the soil are being exposed to sunlight and oxygen,” he says.
Oldreive doubled his yield and cut his production costs by 66%. Now this has been brought to Solwezi, says Hammond.
“Conservation farming has taken off like a rocket. People are taking a look at their friend’s crops on the program and asking ‘how the hell did your get your crops so beautiful?’ We now have 1,800 farmers on the program,” says Bruce Lewis, the head of CSR at Kansanshi.
Hammond also wants Zambian farmers to abandon slash and burn farming, which is burning fields to clear crops for the next year’s growth. It damages the soil and worsens global warming.
“Every year, one billion hectares of Africa goes up in smoke. We are also contributing in our own way in Africa to global warming. It’s not just China and industrialized nations that smog our atmosphere, it’s actually the peasant who has been doing what he has been doing for thousands of years,” says Hammond.
Traditionally, across Africa, inputs are notoriously late. The Zambian government delivered its fertilizer to farmers in February, 90 days late. For a farmer this spells disaster.
“Maize is a 110-day crop so you’ve missed a whole season by delivering fertilizer in February; it’s a waste of money. The whole idea is to teach farmers to farm without using farming inputs. That’s the most expensive thing and the thing that cuts the most profit out… With conservation farming, the only input cost is the seed itself… This is why these schemes fail. With all the best intentions, it’s just poor delivery that costs the government millions,” says Hammond.
It’s not only fertilizer and farming machinery companies that will take a knock if conservation farming picks up, companies involved in supplying insecticides will also suffer. Conservation farming naturally kills bugs by rotating the yearly crop.
“You are breaking the life cycle of any insect. By rotating the crop that insect doesn’t have time to breed. You are also increasing your soil content because different plants have different soil contents. Maize needs a lot of zinc; soy beans don’t require any. You are regenerating your soil. You’ll need less and less fertilizer and insecticides by creating natural compost.”
When the world’s population hits nine billion in 2050, there will more people eating food than can be grown, according to the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations. The agriculture industry has many mouths to feed and a mountain of problems to climb. These are the issues that have made the rest of the world turn to Africa, a continent rich with untouched arable land but producing merely 2% of the world’s food.
“Africa is basically the last natural resource that hasn’t been fully developed for agriculture and urbanization in the world. China has already destroyed 27% of their arable land with industrial waste. Their population is expanding and they have no land. So they are climbing into Africa, lapping up every piece of arable land for their population. It’s not just China, it’s also the Islamic belt and yet Africans, sitting on all these resources, are the poorest people in the world with the most land. We can’t even feed ourselves,” says Hammond.
Hammond may be far from home but it hasn’t left him. Among the maize, he admits to testing a yield of tobacco. He even built a smoke house next to the anthill. The problem is Zambia isn’t a tobacco country but could soon be a nation of better maize growers.

Waiting For The Rains And God

When entrepreneur Maureen Dlamini took over as CEO of the Chamber of Mines of Zambia (CMZ), she had no idea what she was getting into. It’s arguably the toughest job in Zambia; running the lifeblood of the country – copper mining. Dlamini keeps the flow of private investors and government in line. What’s more, until two weeks into the job, she’d never been down a mine.
“It was 14 January, two weeks after I began as CEO, that I had my first taste of the mines. I was in awe. I looked at the size of the machinery and the size of the pit. It gave me a different perspective of the mines. Actually seeing it, I had a greater respect for investors. You really don’t know that you will get the return you anticipated. You are dealing with nature, you could have disasters, you could have flooding. To have enough faith to invest $2 billion when your return is not immediate, is something I learned to respect,” she says in her office in Lusaka.
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Copper. It is the industry that died and came back to life. Zambia has been exporting since the 1920s, but it’s been a rollercoaster ride complicated with colonial privatization, nationalization, and then privatization again.
According to the World Bank, Zambia has the largest known reserves of copper in Africa, 6% of the world resource. It means businesses are flocking to Zambia as if it were the days of the 1849 California Gold Rush.
For Dlamini, the job in mining is a far cry from what most people expected of her, she says. She worked in finance with the likes of Barclays, First Line of Africa and was the former Executive Head of the Johannesburg Stock Exchange’s (JSE) Africa Board before moving to home, Zambia.
In Lusaka, she went into business with her brother to run Zambezi Airlines, a private airline, but the business failed to take off. Controversially, its operations were shut down by the government citing safety concerns. It went bankrupt in 2012 and Dlamini was thrown out.
“My agent just called me and said there was a job…I said yes I’ll try it.”
This was how Dlamini took the position of CEO of the CMZ; the rest was history. Dlamini even had to put her dreams of becoming an interior decorator on hold to take up the position.
“My real passion is interior decorating. I love event management. From here I could do it and work until 4AM. I would love to be able to do it at some time at my own pace. My friends say to me I love to challenge myself, and maybe that’s why I am in the mining sector,” she says.
Her first step was to Kansanshi mine, in Solwezi in the North Western Province. She traded arranging furniture to begin her new job in a hard hat and overalls. Now back in Lusaka, she wears a suit and is making a mark in the male-dominated industry.
“After a while, you get used to it. I think my background, especially in the JSE, is that I don’t feel the pressure. I had good mentors. If you are not going to do something don’t string me along. Don’t sit quietly and give me excuses later on. It’s just a waste of time and money.”
Kansanshi’s is a story of good news and the bad. Thanks to copper, Solwezi has become one of Africa’s fastest growing towns in a few short years. It was once a tiny village on the northern borders of Zambia 16 kilometers from the border of the Democratic Republic of Congo, 581 kilometers from Lusaka, and a million miles from the rest of the world.
According to research by the International Council on Mining and Metals (ICMM), mining is on the rise in 2012, 32% of tax revenue collected was from mining; in 2008, the percentage was half that. The bad news is that the mines have to deal with lack of infrastructure and skills development, says Dlamini.
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“It needs a combined effort, not just the mines. The local authority needs to play a significant role in terms of town planning, in terms of creating social services. If you look at the mines there, Solwezi is one of the richest authorities in terms of revenue from mining authorities. But the challenge is we don’t know if that money is remaining in Solwezi or is dispersed to other towns in the country. The infrastructure in Solwezi is non-existent. Everything is clustered around one street, because there is a lot of emigration, there are a lot of social evils coming into the town,”
says Dlamini.
According to Dlamini, the reliability of data collection from both government and private sectors is also hampering investors. The Zambian government records mining GDP contribution to be at 8% when it should be 12% when researched by the ICMM, she says.
“Our biggest challenge is changing the perception of the mines. We need to get the facts straight. This is the backbone of the economy. At the end of the day, it’s finding that balance where we don’t irritate investors and irritate the government,” she says.
Despite its challenges, Zambia has won back its claim to be the copper power house of Africa. At the helm is Dlamini. She might be new to the industry but she knows all about making money, taking risks and losing it all. There is no doubt that the mining companies and government will find her one tough nut to crack.

The Woman With  the toughest job

Solwezi was once a tiny village in northern Zambia, 16 kilometers from the border of the Democratic Republic of Congo, 581 kilometers from Lusaka, and a million miles from the rest of the world. A few hundred people lived off maize for more than 2,000 years. A walk to the nearest village was days away through thick bush. Now, thanks to copper, Solwezi has become one of Africa’s fastest growing towns in a few short years.
“What started as little more than a village, now has a population of half a million,” says Andrew Hickman, the Local Development Officer for the Kansanshi mine, the largest copper mine in Solwezi.
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The two mines near Solwezi, Kansanshi and the Equinox Minerals-owned Lumwana mine, now produce almost 40% of Zambia’s copper; between them they are giving a free market makeover to what was once a tiny village.
Solwezi and copper date back further than the New Testament. Archaeological digs around Solwezi found people traded copper crosses 2,000 years ago. Arabs used the crosses as currency.
Solwezi got back into the business of copper mining in 2005. After years of trial and error Kansanshi, originally a nationalized underground mine, was abandoned when a fissure flooded the shafts. Run by Canada’s First Quantum Minerals, it has expanded since its reopening. It began producing 110,000 tons of copper in 2011 and in 2013 produced 270,724 tons. A new expansion project aims to increase copper capacity to around 400,000 tons by 2015.
Solwezi is not the only mining town to bloom in Zambia. According to the World Bank, Zambia has the largest known reserves of copper in Africa, 6% of the world resource. The country has been exporting copper since the 1920s, but it’s been a rollercoaster ride made more difficult with nationalization, cheap Russian copper and poor economic development.
“Copper production in the country peaked in the 1970s at 700,000 tons and gradually declined to 255,000 tons by 1998, as a result of depressed prices and under-investment in the then state-owned industry. However, as copper production soars on the back of the completion of major projects and also because of the development of the new Trident mine, operated by Canada-based mining company First Quantum Minerals (FQM), Zambia is set to be at the peak of copper production once again,” says Jason Kazilimani Jr, a senior partner at KPMG in Zambia.
Demand for copper is high and expected to grow. The power stations of China alone buy 45% of the world’s copper, says Kazilimani.
It means people and businesses have flocked to Solwezi as if it were the days of the 1849 California Gold Rush. Trucks, buses and taxis veer around potholes in gridlocked traffic. Along the town’s only tar road rises smoke from hundreds of wood fires. The shouts from informal traders, selling anything from cooking pots to roasted nuts, ring the dusty streets. The city is growing; one shack is thrown up after another.
“There is this expectation that we can create full employment for all of them, but it’s impossible. We can only employ 13,000 and these jobs are for semi-skilled and skilled laborers. Our biggest problem is convincing the growing community that we can’t provide jobs for them,” says Hickman.
“On the one hand you have local resentment towards the mine and the idea that foreigners are making millions. On the other you have this huge impact on the community with the social evils like crime, alcohol abuse and gender based violence,” says Bruce Lewis, the head of Kansanshi Corporate Social Responsibility.
Of the 90% of the mining company’s expenditure, 5% is spent in Solwezi. But the town has not been left to fend for itself, claims Mathias Mutupa, the president of the North Western Province Chamber of Commerce and Industry, who is also an entrepreneur.  Kansanshi runs a number of programs with the local chamber of commerce, some include lessons in how to apply for tenders, says Mutupa. He believes the speed at which Solwezi is growing is vital and local business needs to take advantage of it.
“When we started we were giving tenders to locals to kill weeds in our pipeline at KWA 50,000 ($8,000) &#8211; small jobs. Now those companies are winning larger tenders to build houses.”
Solwezi should have cheap costs compared to importing them from the copper belt or internationally. In the last four years, the local tenders awarded have quadrupled. In 2011, we were able to give $22 million worth in tenders to local businesses. We are now seeing $105 million going back towards the local community,” says Hickman.
Production of copper may be strong, but the infrastructure isn’t. It’s the story of good and bad news. The good is that by the end of the year Kansanshi will have completed a smelter which will refine 300,000 tons of treated copper concentrate per year &#8211; a very lucrative and welcome development at a time when African leaders want more self-manufacturing capabilities. The bad news; the highway needed to transport the copper has not been built due to land rights disputes with local authorities. It means, for now, hundreds of trucks will clog the streets of Solwezi on their way to the smelter.
This lack of infrastructure does not hamper Solwezi alone, explains Kazilimani.
“The problem is so serious that, according to an Africa Infrastructure Country Diagnostic 2011 report on Zambia, investment of at least $16 billion over the next decade is required just to catch up with the rest of the developing world,” says Kazilimani.
Despite this, Zambia has won back its claim to be the copper powerhouse of Africa. There is even talk in Solwezi that another copper belt could be hidden under the soil of Zambia. There is no doubt that the mining companies will find it, eventually.

The Copper Rush

No one and nothing can prepare you for what you will face in the world of professional football. Nobody warns you of the ugly side; the side that none of my team mates in Africa cautioned me about.
I started my professional football career in Belgium in late 1985. It was a giant leap from the tiny township of Mufulira, in northern Zambia, to the sophisticated streets of Brugge, the so-called ‘Venice of the north’.
I had achieved a lot in the Zambian league with my team Mufulira Wanderers. I won Zambian Footballer of the Year in 1984 and my career in the national team career was blossoming. The offer to go to Europe to ply my trade was like a dream come true. I felt privileged to have been given a chance to prove myself on the European stage.
I was strong, self-confident and determined to succeed.
In those days, black people were rare in Brugge. In fact, there were only three black players in the two premier league teams, Cercle Brugge and Club Brugge.
There were times at training when one of my team mates would swear they had seen me in town that day. When I told them that I had not left my home the whole day, they would shrug it off by saying: “You all look alike”. At first, it used to get me upset, but later I learnt to laugh about it.
To get to training I needed to take two buses and then walk about 150 meters to the ground, even in the harshest of weather conditions. Initially, all the players driving to training would drive past without as much as a hoot or a glance. As I started to make more impact in training and challenged for a place in the team, they would stop and offer me a lift. I never accepted a lift and continued walking until I bought my own car.
I conquered these examples of belittlement by strengthening my determination to prove to all that I could rise above them and prove my worth as an equal.
When I finally made it to the first team, I got the shock of my life. I was booed by the opposition fans during the warm-up. This was something I had never experienced before. The opposition fans hostility sometimes went on for the entire match.
Through concentration and sheer determination I started ignoring it.
The chants and slurs were part of the game in the late 1980s and, as I began to make a name for myself in the league, I paid less and less attention. This, coupled with resolve and fortitude, helped my mind to shut all of it out. All I wanted was to be respected for my skill, not insulted for the color of my skin. It made me more resolute to succeed.
It needs to be known that making it as a professional footballer does not happen by luck and talent alone. It takes strenuous practice, extreme discipline, unflinching determination, untold sacrifice, laser-sharp focus and dedicated commitment. Players deserve to be respected for this.
It has always been a sad state of affairs when a malevolent minority try to influence the majority. The racist chants in stands have always come from a small portion of the crowd—a small portion so intent on their team winning they would do anything to see the opposition losing, even stooping low to try to degrade them. They find a difference they can pick at and take it to the extreme. I am not sure if walking off the pitch as a reaction to this, as was the case with Kevin-Prince Boateng of A.C. Milan recently, achieves anything but victory for the offending party.
Many football players have been victims at one time or another of crude gestures, monkey noises and booing among other attacks. Players need to soldier on. We are all trying to make it in life.
Most fans around the world attend football games to enjoy the match and encourage their teams. The love outweighs the hate.
FIFA have made their position very clear in article 3 of their statutes: “Discrimination of any kind against a country, private person or group of people on account of ethnic origin, gender, language, religion, politics or any other reason is strictly prohibited and punishable by suspension or expulsion.”
My opinion is that, to try to eradicate this scourge, the authorities need to manage it better. The onus should be on the clubs and national football associations to empower their safety personnel to identify the offenders and act swiftly to remove them from the stadium. They need to be named and shamed and banned from ever attending another game. Doing so would make them think twice before shouting obscenities. If this cannot be done then we need to resort to hitting where it hurts most, by deducting points. I would support such a cause.
Unfortunately, discrimination is alive in our society, practised by a minority convinced that they are superior by one virtue or another. It does not mean we have to tolerate it. We, as the majority, need to kick it out. It is a rare disease that needs to be wiped out. As players, we need to stand tall and be strong, be immune to such pettiness. As fans we need to expose the perpetrators and stop them from infecting others with this disease.
Football is meant to conquer discrimination and adhere to the notion of fair play. Here we are in 2013, 28 years after my European debut, still talking about this scourge. How can we still call it the beautiful game?

Tag: Zambia

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