To qualify for the Africa Cup of Nations 2013, was no mean feat. Zambia had to work extremely hard for the right to defend its title. Football today is tougher than people know. It is interesting that Egypt—AFCON winners in 2006, 2008 and 2010—was absent in 2012 and will again miss out on next year’s tournament after being defeated by minnows Central African Republic.
There are no longer weak teams in Africa. African football has become unpredictable. On no other continent, do rankings mean so little. FIFA rankings can be misleading because friendly matches also count, which means that football associations with larger budgets can afford more significant high-profile friendlies, earning them false gradings. My opinion is that rankings should only be calculated through official qualifying international matches. If one were to use rankings as a true measure for the grading of teams, how do you explain the likes of Ethiopia, which is ranked 33rd and Niger ranked 42nd in Africa qualifying for the Africa Cup of Nations, over Egypt, Senegal and Cameroon? Each of these teams is brimming with international stars.
In order for Zambia to qualify for the AFCON 2013 we were drawn against Uganda—a team ranked 22nd in Africa and 90th in the world. As African champions, we went into this battle confidently, yet cautiously. Uganda had a track record of being unbeaten in Kampala. They are also reigning CECAFA, Eastern and Central African champions.
The AFCON qualifying format is home and away. Chipolopolo went into their home game to a capacity crowd at Levy Mwanawasa Stadium in Ndola, with only one thing on their minds: to score enough goals to win the game outright. Zambia won the game 1-0, yet were left with a dangerously narrow comfort margin.
In Kampala, we were confronted by a formidable Ugandan team. A team that never let up; a team that kept their shape and that fought until the bitter end, which ended in a 1-0 win to Uganda. Notwithstanding, with an aggregate score of 1-1, we went into penalties. Zambia’s composure and big match temperament paid off in the end, Zambia winning 9-8.
The Africa Cup of Nations was always a very exciting period throughout my career. I relished the opportunity to represent my country and did so with enthusiasm and ambition. All the effort, preparation and sacrifice is rewarded with incomparable satisfaction. National pride and honor are the greatest  incentives.
Becoming continental champions is the ultimate goal for any football association. As the Zambian Football Association president, Zambia winning this coveted title in 2012 filled me with immense pride and satisfaction.
The 2013 edition of this prestigious tournament will be held on South African soil. A host most worthy of this tournament after staging one of the most successful World Cups, in 2010. The world-class infrastructure that exists in South Africa is hard to beat.
The final 16 teams have qualified, the groups have been formed and the battle lines drawn. Next year’s tournament will see the return of powerhouses such as Algeria and the Super Eagles of Nigeria. Rookies Cape Verde, which qualified by overcoming the Indomitable Lions of Cameroon, proved that no country is to be underestimated.
In fact, there are probably eight or nine countries which could conceivably become the champions. Zambia proved, in 2012, that a happy camp and a good result first up, builds momentum that can see a less fancied side go all the way.
Certainly, Zambia believed it had a squad capable of winning the tournament, but not many outsiders gave us a chance before the event. Now we go into this tournament with a weight of expectation both at home and across the continent. Many have become new fans of Chipolopolo, after what was achieved in Equatorial Guinea and Gabon.
Group A hosts South Africa and Morocco, are probably the two favorites to advance, but Cape Verde has made great strides, in recent years, and even Angola has a squad, which can surprise.
Bafana Bafana has proved to be very difficult to beat at home. Over the last 20 years, they have lost just a handful of times to African opposition in South Africa. Morocco underachieved in 2012, of that there is no doubt, and their squad is better than recent results suggest.
Group B features perennial favorites Ghana and Mali, who finished third in 2012. They are two very good sides and it is hard to see past them when looking for candidates for a quarter final spot. But the Democratic Republic of Congo has been buoyed by the recent success of TP Mazembe in the CAF Champions League with coach Claude Le Roy, a seasoned tactician, who served as mentor to Zambia’s Hervé Renard. Niger is not the same force outside of Niamey as they are at home.
Zambia were the top seeds in Group C, as defending champions, and they have been drawn in a difficult pool. Nigeria is an obvious threat, though they are rebuilding under Stephen Keshi, while Burkina Faso can be a match for anyone on the day. Ethiopia has held South Africa and Nigeria in recent times and did very well to get past Sudan in the qualifiers. They will be no pushovers.
Group D could be the Group of Death. This could be the final chance for CÔte d’Ivoire’s golden generation to win the Africa Cup of Nations and it is something Didier Drogba is desperate for. He has had so much success at club level in his career, it seems incredible that he may end his glittering career without a Nations Cup win.
Algeria has proved to be one of the top teams on the continent since the last Nations Cup, while Tunisia may not have the strength of old, it still has some top individuals. Togo make a welcome return after the horror of the events preceding the tournament in Angola in 2010 when their bus was attacked by guerrillas. I think the whole of Africa is glad to see them back on this biggest of continental stages.
The open nature of the field, the wonderful stadia and surroundings, and the passion of the African people for football will, I believe, make this one of the best Africa Cup of Nations tournaments in history. African football is on the rise and this is our chance to prove this to the rest of the world.
May the best team win!

This Could Be The Best Ever

I have had the privilege of being trained by world-class coaches throughout my career in Zambia, Belgium, Holland and Mexico. The coach is often seen as the key man at every club.
Management goes out to get the best man for the job. Planning is usually thorough, as teams want to win at all costs.
When the coach lands the job, each and every weekend is a battle for survival. No pity, or margin for error. In today’s game, the stakes are high and so are the coaching casualties at the club. Every now and then you pick up a newspaper to see that another coach has bit the dust because of poor results. The coach always carries the can, no matter who is to blame for
the defeat.
<div id="attachment_1417" style="width: 310px" class="wp-caption alignleft"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" aria-describedby="caption-attachment-1417" class="size-medium wp-image-1417" src="/wp-content/uploads/2017/04/000_DV337003-300x216.jpg" alt="" width="300" height="216" />Ducth coach of the Polish national football team Leo Beenhakker attends a training session on June 13, 2008 in Bad Waltersdorf. Poland&#8217;s veteran Dutch coach Leo Beenhakker said on Thursday that the injury-time penalty awarded against his side which gave Austria a 1-1 draw in their Euro 2008 Group B clash was totally unjustified. AFP PHOTO / JANEK SKARZYNSKI</div>
How do coaches come by their jobs in Africa?
Well, it was the norm in the 1970s and 80s, when I was growing up, that the most revered player and popular in the club went into coaching as their playing days were coming to an end. In fact, it was acceptable by fans and players alike. Gradually, the veteran player would take over the running of the team on the strength of playing experience, with no preparation whatsoever.
In most clubs you would find that the senior players would assist the head coach in decision making and the like. Many of the generation of outstanding players of yesteryear went on to carve a career for themselves in coaching. Did they have what it takes to make it in football? Was it that the clubs and management merely felt pity for our ageing local heroes? Without any formal education, or coaching badges, where would they start? They would look for coaching material and start talking like coaches. They just assumed the difficult task of controlling the affairs of the team.
Times have changed. Today the Confederation of African Football wants you to have the necessary papers and certificates in order to sit on the bench. FIFA introduced and insists on all member associations having a qualified technical director. Now you hear everywhere, such and such has a C license, you need an A license; so on and so forth.
The job of coach has always been a controversial one in Africa. From time immemorial, Africa has been an importer of foreign coaches and an exporter of talented soccer players; be it to Europe and elsewhere. To Zambia came British coaches Bill McGarry and Ian Porterfield; German Reinhard Fabisch to Zimbabwe; Englishman Stuart Baxter to South Africa.
In 1996, whilst in the later part of my career, I decided to follow the path to coaching in Mexico. The Club America training ground was not so far away from the FMF (Federation of Mexican Football) Technical Center. Most of us older players decided to take the courses in the hope of one day being in charge of a team. It was not easy, we had to study four modules and each one took 20 weeks! We had to go to classes on Mondays and Tuesdays from 3pm to 9pm and the language of instruction was Spanish, which did not make matters any easier. But, I was determined and earned my Technical Director diploma in 1998 after two years of hard work. Needless to say, from at least 19 footballers with whom we had started, only around six were able to cross the finish line. It took dedication, sacrifice and lots of concentration. There were long days in class and of course long hours on the pitch doing practical work, which we enjoyed. With that qualification one could train at the highest level in Mexico.
<div id="attachment_1418" style="width: 211px" class="wp-caption alignleft"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" aria-describedby="caption-attachment-1418" class="size-medium wp-image-1418" src="/wp-content/uploads/2017/04/51237789-201x300.jpg" alt="" width="201" height="300" />EINDHOVEN, NETHERLANDS &#8211; APRIL 7: (FILE PHOTO) Sir Bobby Robson makes a point during the Newcastle United training session at The Philips Stadium on April 7, 2004 in Eindhoven, Netherlands. Newcastle are preparing for their UEFA Cup match against PSV Eindhoven. Robson has been sacked by Newcastle August 30, 2004 following a poor start to the new season. (Photo by Stu Forster/Getty Images)</div>
I retired as a player in 2000, with a wealth of experience, after having being on the pitch for nearly 21 years from Mufulira Blackpool, Mighty Mufulira Wanderers, as a school boy, through Europe and Mexico.
I was offered a job as assistant coach by my good friend, Eduardo Regis, around March 2001, with Potros Marte, a team that was in the second division. So really, I had not so much time to sit at home and get bored. In the same year I worked with Pablo Centrone, at Veracruz, where we won the Championship in my first full year as coach, and we were promoted to the top tier of Mexican football. So, yes, my early days on the bench went so quickly and I was up and running. When I was accepted to do the UEFA ‘A’ license by the KNVB, I took the chance and came back to do the course for a year, September 2002 to May 2003, whilst being attached at PSV Eindhoven—my former club.
In September 2003 I started my job as coach of the Zambian national team in my home country. The mandate was to qualify for the 2006 FIFA World Cup. The aspirations of the Zambian people have been to see Chipolopolo win an African Cup and be present at a FIFA World Cup. Nothing motivates the Zambian people more than their love for football.
In order to get where I was, I had some fantastic men as coaches and mentors in the game. In fact it has been a privilege for me to have worked with international coaches of the highest caliber. Among them: Sir Samuel ‘Zoom’ Ndlovu at Mufulira Wanderers and Seoul Olympics 1988; George Leekens at Cercle Brugge, who introduced me to Europe; Guus Hiddink, who was my first coach at PSV Eindhoven in 1989; then former England and Fulham coach at PSV Sir Bobby Robson; Leo Beenhakker in 1994-1995 at Club America, the people still talk about that team he ran with Francois Oman Biyik; Marcelo Bielsa, of the Argentinian national team; Manolo la Puente and La Volpe of the Mexican national team. All of these great professionals shaped my thinking as an analyzer of football and a philosopher of the game.
In 2006, I decided to concentrate on my administration career. I was also vice president of FAZ since 2004. I was elected FA president in 2008.
Many a time, I have a different view of coaches. I want to protect the image of coaches, especially in Africa. Do teams in Africa respect coaches? During the 2010 World Cup in South Africa, of six of the qualified teams from Africa four changed coaches just before the Tournament was about to start! No wonder we had only Ghana close to getting to the elusive semi-final place at the World Cup. We as Africans, fans and supporters and administrators, have no confidence in the ability of our own people to take charge of the team. So many times at club level, coaches are under pressure. They lose one game and the red light flashes; two and there is a crisis; three and the coach will be shown the door!
African or foreign coach? This is the never ending debate in Africa. My thinking has always been that as long as the coach can do the job, color or passport need not be an issue. All the people want is good football and good results. I would want to see more of our people spend more time studying for football. In South America it takes you three years at college or University to become a ‘professor’ of football. In order for our game to develop in Africa, we need more investment for the would-be coaches of our young men and women. The problem is we in Africa have so much talent that it camouflages our shortcomings. Just look in the recent past—no African team at 2012 London Olympics went far. We are making up the numbers at all international tournaments, male or female. There must be something wrong we are doing and it’s important to arrest this now. The reality is that we do have a few capable good coaches and if
given the tools and support, Africa, the sleeping giant, will awake. In Brazil 2014, I have a feeling that one African team will reach the semi finals! Africa will have turned a new page in world football. It is a bold statement we have to make, together and with patience.

Next Time For Africa!

&nbsp;
If you haven’t been to Lusaka for a while, prepare for a shock. The last time I was there in 1999, the Cairo Road was grubby and rundown; there were cars on the road that should have been pensioned off in the 1970s and everywhere there were the signs and scent of pungent decay.
The Lusaka of 2012 couldn’t be more different. Shining new shopping malls are springing up on once barren land; gleaming new office parks are everywhere. Investment and trade are brisk and the roads packed with brand new cars. Indian and Chinese investors have helped breathe life back into the once moribund copper industry and it is tipped to achieve record production this year. Resurgent agriculture means Zambia is enjoying surpluses and exporting everything from maize to yoghurt.
Zambia, free from exchange controls, is reaping the rewards of more than 20 years of working towards becoming one of the most liberal economies on the continent. The country has set up the Zambia Development Agency to find ways to ease business. This year, it looked at 517 of the plethora of licences business needs to operate in Zambia and abolished 170 of them. Many of these licences can take months to acquire and have seen off many a frustrated investor.
All appears lovely in the garden, but there are clouds overhead. Uncertainty is a word used often these days by bankers and business types in Lusaka these days. The new government, formed by the ruling Patriotic Front (PF), led by President Michael Sata, is under pressure to ease the suffering of the poor. More than half the country lives below the poverty line. One of the bitter lessons of the Arab Spring was that governments cannot risk allowing the young to be restless and unemployed for too long. Zambia, with a population of 13.6 million, has 10.2 million people under the age of 35, with a mere five million jobs to go round.
Economists, government officials and bankers alike accept that Zambia’s growing economy, which has sustained a healthy 6 to 7% GDP growth for 10 years, has hardly made a dent in the country’s poverty. This cold fact is forcing the government to budget and regulate in the cause of the poor, which is creating disquiet among those in business.
One of the most recent and talked about regulations is the increase of the minimum wage, from around $75-a-month to around $110. This has caused consternation among cost conscious employers, who warn there could be job losses and a reluctance to hire.
This was one of the many issues at the “Growing Zambia” debate, held in a Lusaka hotel, as part of business channel CNBC Africa’s launch of its live TV crossings from the country.
“Let me ask you how many of you in this room can live on a $100-a-month?&#8230; You have to give an individual a reasonable wage to live on,” says Zambia’s pugnacious minister of commerce, trade and industry, Robert Sichinga, to the well-heeled audience at the televised debate.
The panel also debated the other new regulation causing waves, the so called SI 33. This statutory instrument bans the quotation of prices of goods and services in foreign currency.
Sichinga says the measure was to revive the kwacha, follow a plunge in its value. At the time of the world financial crisis in 2008, the kwacha was 3,300 to the US dollar, according to Sichinga, and has not recovered, standing at around 5,500 to the dollar.
“If you deal in foreign currency you are increasing demand for the dollar, which is decreasing the value of your currency,” he says.
David Kombe, the CEO of D&amp;C Saatchi &amp; Saatchi, said otherwise it was like building a house with kwacha and being allowed to rent it out in dollars.
“Today sales are made and tomorrow the revenue is sent out of the country,” he says.
Economist Trevor Simumba disagreed with the policy to defend the currency saying that it was akin to some of the protectionist policies of the 1970s and could hurt investment.
“My prayer is for the government not to regulate the private sector too much. If you squeeze it, you squeeze the life out of it,” says Simumba.
Despite these concerns, Sichinga believes Zambia can beat last year’s foreign investment of $5.4 billion. He says he travelled to Australia, Dubai, Doha, Turkey, India and the United States this year in search of more, but warned these trips could take a year to five years to bear fruit.
“We will use policy to entice business,” says Sichinga. Simumba countered that government policy should concentrate on growth as well as redistribution of wealth.
Growth is the name of the game on the streets of the new Lusaka. Where once was wasteland, now loom giant shopping malls, doing brisk business, with packed car parks. The familiar South African franchise names are all there, but inside there are Zambian produced goods from jewelry to food. Even the state has jumped on to the bandwagon. A spanking new shopping mall, in the heart of the city, opened in November. It cost $200 million and was named the Levy Shopping Centre, after the late Zambian President Levy Mwanawasa. The government’s pension scheme partnered with Liberty Properties in putting up the money.
In many ways, Mark O’Donnell is the father of the shopping mall in Zambia. He is a born-and-bred Zambian, the son of an entrepreneur, who emigrated from Britain in 1948, in search of a new life. More than half a century later, O’Donnell is chairman of Union Gold, a family company that owns three brands in Zambia: Protea Hotels; Spar and MICA Tools.
O’Donnell has also had a hand in marshaling millions of dollars in investment in the building of three shopping malls. The new SI 33 regulation, calling for all domestic transactions to be carried out in kwacha, concerns him.
“The resources are not available in the country. If I want to build a new hotel it is going to cost $10 to $20 million and that kind of investment is not available in kwacha… I think there is a lot of emotion around wanting to support the currency,” he says.
“I think there is a bit of inconsistency and different views from different ministers. What we in business are saying is: could there be no capital controls and no exchange controls in an economy where foreign investors can repatriate their profits?… I think the economy faces, many, many challenges.”
The next morning it was the wide blue sky of a winter’s morning in the capital as warm as a welcoming kitchen. Why can’t all winters be like this? I breezed into the Finance Ministry past friendly waves. One of Zambia’s most valuable national assets is its relaxed informality—I swear, I have felt less welcome in the reception of a tin pot South African company, than in making my way to the office of the top decision maker in Zambian economic policy, Alexander Chikwanda, the finance minister of Zambia.
Chikwanda was born in Kasama, in northern Zambia, the son of an ex-soldier, turned district magistrate. He was a young turk in the United National Independence Party around independence in 1964 and left the country for Sweden, where he qualified as an economist in 1968. To say he is a veteran politician is almost an understatement. Chikwanda has climbed the political ladder from the job of district governor to junior minister and into high office in the cabinet. In the 27-year rule of Kenneth Kaunda, Chikwanda was minister for everything from agriculture and health to local government, finance and planning.
Nine months ago, Chikwanda took over the job of finance minister, when Michael Sata’s PF party won the elections, steering economic policy and batting away criticism from uneasy business types.
Chikwanda’s first budget was hailed by the masses for being pro-poor, putting a bit of money back into the lean pockets of struggling Zambians. At the same time economists, like Simumba, worried that the budget didn’t address growth. The next budget will be in October.
“The PF policy of pro-poor budgets will continue,” he says.
Chikwanda believes business and government should join hands to grow the Zambian economy. He dismisses concern over the new SI 33 regulations, which he drew up.
“Every country has its legal tender. How can you spend anything but rand in South Africa? How can you pay other than in dollars in the United States? This is not a new policy, it is something that is carried on all over the world… Funds are available in kwacha for investment, in fact a lot of money is on offer… Those guys who talk about this are not right at all, they are protecting narrow interests,” he says.
Chikwanda accepted one of the criticisms by business of Zambia’s plodding bureaucracy.
“The bureaucracy has a history and leaves much to be desired. It moves at a snail’s pace and not as fast as we would like,” he says.
Another criticism is that Zambians are not seeing enough value for their tax dollar.
Chikwanda hopes to address this, in his fiscal legacy, by restructuring the country’s budget in favor of spending more on education, Zambia’s pounded roads and parlous rails. He says that 70% of the country’s 27.5 trillion kwacha budget (around $5.6 billion) is allocated to recurrent expenditure, while a mere 30% is earmarked for capital expenditure; Chikwanda hopes to change this to a 50-50 split by the end of his time at the helm of the country’s economy.
“It will not be done overnight,” he says.
Few could argue with the need
for change and the time it is likely to take.

A Fight For The  Business Soul Of Zambia

Every four years, when the Olympics Games are held, it brings back great memories of the 1988 Seoul Games where Zambia made worldwide headlines.
We beat the Italian professionals 4-0. Believe it or not, this is still a defeat they have not forgotten. This is the same score as their recent Euro final defeat against Spain. Yet, I think the shock effect during the 1988 Games was more drastic and maybe more spectacular.
The Italians were totally stunned, they had never even heard of Zambia—from the ‘dark’ continent—let alone a certain 25-year-old who weaved magic with the mastery of his left boot; one who found a chink in the armor of the back line, or the catenaccio of the Azzurri, to score a hat-trick—Kalusha Bwalya.
Our journey started with a tough African zone qualification. First, we had to prevail over Uganda, 6-2 on aggregate, before going on to the final round of qualification against the dreaded Black Stars of Ghana. We lost the first leg of the final qualifier 0-1 and had to better that result at Independence Stadium in Lusaka. We did just that. We beat Ghana 2-0 to book our place at the Seoul Games. It was a fantastic feeling and moment for all of us and the whole country.
The whole country was buzzing with the qualification. There were mixed feelings about the draw and the teams we were drawn to play. I remember how the sports back pages were filled with our black-and-white photos; the opinions of who we would be playing and what we could achieve against great opposition.
When we got to Seoul, I remember we stayed at the same hotel as the Italians. All the players were in awe of the style and fashion that exuded from the fancied Azzurri. They were stylish; they were confident and&#8230; all that hair! I remember my teammates and I couldn’t believe it. In our plain green tracksuits, we were scared to enter the same elevator as them, so much was the respect. That respect however did not extend to the 90 minutes of the game. Besides Charles Musonda, Stone Nyirenda and I, who played in Belgium, and Johnson Bwalya who plied his trade in Switzerland, all the other players were based in Zambia—an enigma to most Europeans.
What a talent generation of footballers we had!
I still recall the goalkeeping and the cat-like agility of Efford Chabala. He was a great goal custodian. I can still recall the entire first 11 as if it were yesterday. Sir Samuel Zoom Ndlovu, our coach and mentor, named his squad: from Chabala in the goals to Manfred Chabinga, Pearson Mwanza and Edmond Mumba, solid at the back; together with Ashious Melu standing tall and ready for any challenge. We had Derby Mankinka and Bwalya—we called him ‘one man commando’ for his solo and determined moves—Charles Musonda in the center together with Samuel Chomba from the deep, and upfront with me were Wisdom Chansa and Stone Nyirenda.
Unfortunately, we lost six members of this team in the 1993 Gabon plane crash which killed 18 of Zambia’s national team players. We lost Eston Mulenga, Wisdom Chansa, Derby Mankinka, Efford Chabala, Samuel Chomba and Richard Mwanza, Chabala’s understudy.
Against the Azzurri, a constellation of stars, we were closely knit and determined that any off-field fears and admiration we had were never carried onto the pitch. I still remember how confident Italian goalkeeper, Stefano Tacconi, had been. At the back, I recall the tussles with Roberto Cravero and Mauro Tassotti.
Against all the odds, we fought on to a famous victory—a pivotal moment in the realization that African football could actually compete at the highest level. The confidence gained by this victory gave African footballers the self-belief that they could compete at the highest level with the best the game could throw at them. We heralded a new era of African football.
Our victory was one that was celebrated across the continent, even though the Olympic Games are not seen as the ultimate footballing prize.
The lessons and experiences of that championship are still valuable to the young players of this era who dream of making a trip to the Games; for Zambians it is still a warming football fairy tale. It may be decades since that victory against Italy, but it remains the single most important of any Chipolopolo triumph. Many use the victory in Seoul as a yardstick.
Since 1988, young players have dreamt of Zambia’s return to the Games. Such is the interest in the Olympic Games, that even though the football team is not going to compete in London, millions will watch the football and comparisons with our exploits in Seoul will be passionately debated.
Ultimately, it is the determination; the sacrifice of the personal athlete; the discipline and belief to do even what our inner heart may fear and the spirit of the champion, that matters most. The most important thing in the Olympics is not to win, but to take part, just as the most important thing in life is not the triumph but the struggle. The essential thing is not to have conquered but to have fought well. I wish all the Olympians well for the 2012 London Olympics. May they ‘fight’ well and get as much satisfaction out of them as I did in 1988.

Zambia 4 Italy 0: We Believed It, The Italians Couldn’t!

As I’m sure you can imagine, right now I am a very proud man. To see the Zambian players lift the Africa Cup of Nations trophy in Gabon was a truly incredible moment for me, as I’m sure it was for every Zambian.
There are no short cuts when it comes to winning a major tournament like this. If you’re an underdog, sooner or later you will come up against the big teams and if you want to succeed, you have to be able to beat anyone. And that is exactly what we did.
This success has been the result of many years of planning, going back to Zambia’s failure to qualify for the 2006 World Cup. It was then that we went back to the drawing board and set out four points for the next five years:
<ul>
<li>To take Zambian football into a new dawn, both on and off the field; nationally, continentally and globally.</li>
<li>To galvanise the nation by re-igniting the passion of each and every Zambian for their national teams and clubs.</li>
<li>To strive to attain the highest standard of football through sustained development, key partnerships and international exposure.</li>
<li>For Zambian football to become a continental powerhouse and reclaim its rightful place in African football once again.</li>
</ul>
<div id="attachment_697" style="width: 520px" class="wp-caption alignleft"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" aria-describedby="caption-attachment-697" class="size-full wp-image-697" src="/wp-content/uploads/2017/04/RTR2XK1S.jpg" alt="" width="510" height="322" />Zambia&#8217;s soccer team players pay homage to victims of the Zambian Air Force Buffalo DHC-5D plane crash, along the Atlantic Ocean in Gabon&#8217;s capital Libreville, February 9, 2012. The specially arranged Air Force Buffalo carrying Zambia&#8217;s national football team ditched into the Atlantic Ocean about 500 metres offshore from Libreville on April 27, 1993, killing all 25 passengers and five crew members. Zambia will play Ivory Coast in the final match of the African Cup of Nations football tournament at the Stade De L&#8217;Amitie Stadium on February 12. REUTERS/Thomas Mukoya (GABON &#8211; Tags: SPORT SOCCER DISASTER)</div>
This dream was well documented and one that we followed for six years. We put various structures in place, we stuck to our beliefs and I am so happy to look back now and see all that hard work has paid off. Our vision has been achieved; now we have to work even harder to maintain and to improve.
Our biggest asset is our team spirit. The Cup of Nations winning squad isn’t full of superstars playing for top European clubs; it is a predominantly African-based group of players. Five of the squad are based at home in Zambia; eight in South Africa; and five with the DR Congo giants, TP Mazembe, while midfielder Jonas Sakuwaha is with Al-Merreikh in Sudan. Captain Chris Katongo and James Chamanga play in China and the young midfielder, Chisamba Lungu, is in the Russian second flight with Ural Sverdlovsk. Only the centre-forward, Emmanuel Mayuka, plays for a top-flight European club, Swiss side Young Boys.
But they are a very tight-knit team. The players all know one another’s strengths and weaknesses, and that comes from having been developed as a unit over the past few years. We have generated a new crop of players, who are young and determined. As I said, we may not have big names, but we have a team unit, and teamwork is vital for success. You can list all the superstar players you like but if they can’t play together as a team, they won’t win anything. Our togetherness has been our defining strength at the Cup of Nations.
We are also blessed with a fantastic coach in Hervé Renard. He is very popular and respected among the players, but he is also not afraid to impose discipline. And perhaps most importantly, the players believed in and embraced his philosophy and tactics.
Hervé ensured the players were prepared for everything and anything. We rode our luck at times, but slowly the boys started to believe in themselves. We believed in the system we played, we believed in the tactical approach, we believed in the substitutions that were made at key points in games.
Before the competition, we told the players that we had one opportunity and that all we could do was give it our best shot. And as the competition progressed, the more they believed in themselves, the better they played.
Of course, it is particularly poignant that we were crowned champions just a few kilometres away from the exact location where my team-mates perished after their plane went down some 19 years ago. I thought it was important, before the tournament started, to tell the players that if we got to Libreville, it would be emotional because not a day goes past without us thinking about what happened in 1993. When we went to the Sabelir Beach in Libreville to lay wreaths in remembrance of the team that perished there, something truly magical happened. The loud single clap of thunder when we arrived, the curiously warm Atlantic Ocean water and the way in which the waves came up and took the wreaths straight back into the sea were all small, unexplained and enchanting signs that something special was happening.
Since that fateful day in 1993, there have been many highs and lows. But to finally be crowned champions of Africa is the ultimate tribute to those we lost that day. If they were still with us, they would be very proud of this team. Their dreams are our dreams, and the dream to become African champions has come true. For me personally, after reaching the AFCON final in 1994 as captain, with a brand new squad, and narrowly losing to Nigeria, to finally raise the trophy in Libreville at this year’s final is nothing short of the stuff dreams are made of.
We went to the Cup of Nations with humility and soulful inspiration; our boys were incredibly motivated and had great aspirations. Before the competition started, no one would have given us a chance. Now Chipolopolo have made history. Never underestimate the heart of a champion.

Enchanting Signs That  Something Special Is Happening

It is tempting to see the KAZA Transfrontier Conservation Area (TFCA) as a country in the making. But reality falls short of this—at least for now.
The project is so breathtaking in both its scope and ambition that it does inspire dreams of a different tomorrow for a region that is still suffering the miseries inflicted by one of the most brutal wars in recent history. After nearly four decades, the anti-colonial conflict that turned into civil war and at stages involved South Africans, Namibians, Angolans, Cubans and, in surreptitious ways, even the Russians and Americans, came to an end 10 years ago when Angola’s Unita strongman Jonas Savimbi died in a hail of bullets.
<div id="attachment_621" style="width: 210px" class="wp-caption alignleft"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" aria-describedby="caption-attachment-621" class="wp-image-621 size-medium" src="/wp-content/uploads/2017/04/IMG_2009-200x300.jpg" alt="" width="200" height="300" />Dr Victor Siamudaala program manager</div>
Part of the wonder of the project is that the vision for turning the area into a “peace park” started taking shape immediately after the Angolan civil war ended.
“KAZA” stands for the Kavango and Zambezi rivers, with the territory including adjoining sections of Botswana, Namibia, Angola, Zambia and Zimbabwe. Its map is practically a state in its own right.
The binding factor is the region’s exceptional natural beauty, including the Victoria Falls, the Okavango Delta and the vast elephant herds traversing its plains and swamps. The area’s relatively sparse communities are so distant from the heartland of their respective states that most of them probably associate more closely with each other than with their countrymen.
Of course, Zimbabwe and Zambia would not dream of ceding those spectacular falls thundering between them. Neither would Botswana consider letting go of the Okavango and the Chobe National Park. These are their countries’ signature natural wonders, and they are the geese laying those golden tourist eggs.
But it is to the credit of the five governments that they have agreed to join these adjacent portions of land in a transboundary scheme that comes to a mammoth 444,000 square kilometer chunk of Africa, with conservation at its heart and tourism as the economic objective for the 2.5 million people living there.
At last year’s Southern African Development Community (SADC) meeting in Luanda, the countries’ leaders issued a declaration when they signed the KAZA TFCA treaty, which came close to conferring a kind of satellite, if not colonial, status on their shared holding.
It said: “The KAZA TFCA shall become an international organization with a legal persona, capable of entering into contracts, and acquiring and disposing of property. Institutions established through the treaty to govern the TFCA, particularly its secretariat, will be empowered to ensure that the objectives of the treaty are realized and corresponding strategic plans and protocols implemented.”
The project includes a range of national parks, game and forest reserves and conservancies. Although these are in varying states of repair, many can be linked across boundaries and through corridors to become mutually supportive within a broader framework that will have nature-based tourism as its main industry. There is even talk of a “KAZA visa” to ease cross-border traffic within the territory.
The scheme has the backing of the German and Netherlands governments, the Swiss Agency of Development and Cooperation, the Peace Parks Foundation and the Worldwide Fund for Nature. Victor Siamudaala, the program manager, is a veterinarian from Zambia. His secretariat is based in Kasane, the charming north-eastern Botswana town where it is not unusual to see elephants wander through, or pedestrians casually step around warthogs scuffling on the sidewalk.
The secretariat is at the center of an intricate bureaucratic web that gives practical effect to the scheme.
As explained by Werner Myburgh, chief executive of the Peace Parks Foundation, each country made a development plan for its particular part of the greater territory with the help of various government departments, the private sector and affected communities. The five plans were then aligned under the umbrella plan for the scheme as a whole. The result is a detailed plan showing how the boundaries run, which areas are earmarked for conservation and which for development, and what the infrastructural requirements are.
Each country has a coordinator who, together with the central secretariat, reports to a committee of senior officials, which is in turn overseen by a steering committee of five ministers from the respective governments.
The wide range of factors that need to be taken into account, including security, customs, veterinary, agricultural and conservation matters, require the involvement of several government departments in each country. Generally, decisions are taken by consensus, which makes the process even more complex.
It explains why the central secretariat, which drives the program’s implementation, prefers to abide by the governments’ jointly approved statements.
But the transfrontier project has caught on since its initiation in 2006. The official launch function was held on March 15, 2012 in the Caprivi town of Katima Mulilo where, under the magnificent trees along the bank of the Zambezi, the South African Defense Force had its forward base more than two decades ago.
The occasion was attended by more than 700 people, including the environmental and tourism ministers of the five governments, SADC’s executive secretary, Dr Tomaz Salamão, and traditional leaders from the five countries.
Myburgh says the sense of ownership of the joint project was tangible. He quotes Botswana’s minister of the environment, wildlife and tourism, Kitso Mokaila: “… (We) have emphasized in the KAZA Treaty… that we will own and lead the planning and development process of the TFCA. We take cognisance of the fact that our land and other natural resources are a valuable heritage of the five partner countries.”
Dr Salamão spoke of the project as a commendable achievement and “a true symbol of regional integration”, which is one of SADC’s goals. He saw it as “a door to further milestones that have the potential to change the lives of communities who live in the KAZA TFCA area for the better”.
The project is not without challenges. Land mines left by the war are scattered around Angola’s Cuando Cubango province that adjoins the Caprivi in the south and southern Zambia to the east. The mines were planted despite the Geneva Convention’s requirement that such areas be mapped, which makes them hard to locate. But, according to Myburgh, clearing has been going on for some time and remains a high priority.
The area includes the Luiana Partial Reserve, which, like rest of the area, was left stripped of game by the fighting armies. But already the vast elephant herds of Botswana have started migrating across Namibia’s Caprivi strip through Zambia, back to the vast woodlands where their ancestors once roamed without fear of soldiers and their explosives.

At The (Trans)frontier Of Conservation And Tourism

In September 2011 the Patriotic Front’s Michael Sata defeated the Movement for Multiparty Democracy’s (MMD) incumbent Rupiah Banda. Banda gracefully conceded defeat and handed over power to Sata, a three-time presidential aspirant. The peaceful handover of power set an example to the rest of the continent and a sign of Zambia’s maturing democracy.
The Patriotic Front (PF) government pledged to fight poverty through wealth redistribution and job creation. Government’s pro-labor stance has seen a flurry of strikes as workers demand higher pay and improved working conditions.
The government has also embarked on an anti-corruption drive spearheaded by prominent anti-corruption lawyer, Mutembo Nchito. This campaign has seen scores of public servants, including the governor of the central bank, dismissed, with investigations of a number of MMD ministers. In addition, Sata has reversed a number of deals, including the $5.4 million sale of Finance Bank Zambia to South Africa’s First National Bank.
This anti-corruption drive has already begun bearing fruit with some donors resuming aid and others set to follow. Donors will take further comfort through the government’s engagement with the International Monetary Fund (IMF) under the Extended Credit Facility (ECF) program.
Economic fundamentals in the country remain robust. The IMF expects the economy to expand 6.7% this year and next. Inflation is expected to remain in single digits, with some upside risks.
Zambia’s economic growth will be driven by government’s expansionary fiscal policy, focused on the agricultural and construction. Copper revenues will finance much of this expenditure. Government increased mineral royalty rates from 3% to 5% for base metals and and 6% for precious metals. While the fundamentals in the copper market point to a robust price, uncertainty emanating from the Eurozone crisis will place a ceiling on copper prices as well increase price volatility.
Zambia’s robust economic fundamentals coupled with the countries priorities have strengthened the government’s resolve of tapping into the international bond market through the issue of a Eurobond. The government announced that it plans to raise $700 million this year, up from an initial $500 million. This resolve has been vindicated by rating agencies Fitch and Standard &amp; Poor’s, both of which assigned a B+ long term credit rating to Zambia. This is on par with Ghana and Kenya.
The World Bank and IMF both indicated that Zambia can afford up $1.7 billion in non-concessional loans over the next six years without compromising debt sustainability. However the issue of a euro bond depends on the fortunes of the Eurozone debt debacle. The launch is likely to be delayed until concerns around the Eurozone debt crisis subside.
Once a Eurobond is issued government has to ensure that the proceeds are managed prudently. Effective spending of Eurobond proceeds should in turn boost growth and allow the government to tackle social and economic problems.
There is a likelihood of social unrest if government fails to meet its election pledges as there is high unemployment and many Zambians struggling below the poverty line. Such protests could be avoided if the government delivers.

Tag: Zambia

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