ZAMBIA NEEDS TO BORROW THE BAFOKENG MODEL OF INVESTMENT AND DEVELOPMENT

By Gershom Ndhlovu 

After problems at the Chinese-owned Collum Coal Mine in Sinazongwe in Zambia’s Southern Province in which one of the Chinese supervisors died at the hands of the striking workers who were demanding a minimum wage which had recently been announced by government, internet-based Crossfire BlogTalk Radio invited the area chief, Sinazongwe, to discuss the issue. In the course of the show, the chief was asked if he sat on the board of directors of the mine, the question to which he, unfortunately, said no. I realised then the reason why there were problems at the mine and by extension, why there were, if not problems, at least lack of development in most of the rural areas with huge investment infrastructure. I also realised the reason why the rural parts of the Copperbelt such as Mwelushi, Mukutuma and such places from which some of the world’s best emeralds are extracted are poor and are only left with gaping holes of the pits from which the precious stones are dug out like ugly scars of violent injuries. There are other areas where only a few people have benefitted while the majority have remained impoverished. After Chief Sinazongwe’s interview on the show, my mind raced to the model that Royal Bafokeng Kingdom of north-western South Africa has employed to harness the platinum resources that are abundant in the area. The king holds the resources in trust on behalf of the Bafokeng people and the developments that come out of the profits are there for all to see. In fact, Rustenburg, one of the towns is home to one of the stadia that hosted the word cup 2010. According to the Royal Bafokeng Holdings (Pty) Limited website, RBH is responsible for the management and development of the commercial assets of the Royal Bafokeng Nation (RBN), with the overall business objective of maximising returns to enable the RBN to deliver sustainable benefits to the community. Chief Sinazongwe himself lamented that chiefs, or at least he himself, was not paid any royalties by Collum Coal Mine and other companies operating in his area. Talking about empowerment, this is where the Zambian government needs to work out good policies that will not only benefit citizens through partnering with foreign investors, but enabling chiefs and there representatives to sit on boards of these companies and contributing money to trusts that would spearhead development in those areas. In 2010, Lumwana Mining Company (LMC) in the North-Western Province projected to spend up to K1.2 billion on community projects that included building classrooms and adding maternity wards to health centres that had not had adequate facilities for decades. “This year we are looking at a total of 19 projects in local communities aimed at uplifting the lives of the people here,” Sustainability Manager Brenda Liswaniso was quoted as saying in the company’s publication, Lumwana News. Not to put LMC’s corporate social responsibility into question, the issue as stated from the outset, is the inclusion of traditional leaders on boards of directors if only they can play the role of conveyor belt in terms of sharing profits from the companies operating in their chiefdoms to development projects for the benefit of all subjects and even job and entrepreneurial creation. Similarly, all investors should not only incorporate CSR like LMC but they sould go a step further and incorporate the Royal Bafokeng model which the Zambian government should take time to study and implement it especially in areas where new investment is taking place. It is a well-known fact that Zambia has a lot of natural resources in most parts of the country from which all citizens ought to benefit not just through minimum-wage paying jobs but through infrastructure and entrepreneurial development.

WHY WE NEED "BAREFOOT JOURNALISTS"

FOR years, Africa’s dire situations especially hunger, has been defined by what has been reported by western media. Where the media has not gone, those situations have remained unreported. Africans who have found themselves in situations that needed reporting have always asked, and I know this from my career as a journalist, “when are you sending a reporter here to write a story about our need for relief food—or about the lack of water?” Sometimes I picked it up from there—or as was usually the case due to circumstances beyond my control—never pursued the story. Most poignant of the stories I picked up in this way was during my visit to a village near Chirundu in south eastern Zambia in the early 2000s when a headmen told of how hunger had ravaged his village and one person resorted to eating mud if only to kill her hunger pangs. People have hungered for journalists to report stories of child marriages in their areas and people have hungered to tell stories of how relief food, yes the much needed relief food, has been abused by officials in charge and even how a group of villagers were experimenting with food storage. In the absence of reporters or even the absence of interest by the reporters, these stories have not been told. After attending the fifth Global Voices Online 2012 summit in Nairobi both as a blogger and contributing author and hearing great stories of how citizens out of sheer determination, are harnessing new media technologies in other parts of the world, I realised that people in most African villages, and certainly Zambian ones, can tell their own stories sans reporters, but through blogging. The notion obviously is that you can only blog in English or even French or Portuguese, but, nay. You can blog in your own language, be it Tumbuka, Lunda, Lozi, Bemba, Lamba and, indeed, any language for Zambia. Be assured that there are a lot other people online who understand your language with some of them even willing to translate them.

Africans, Zambians especially, in areas where they do not see journalists with their pens and cameras, need to start blogging as a way of telling their own stories. The impact of these stories will go beyond the MP or minister for whom a hunger story will become news because he has visited an area, or an NGO that has paid for a reporter to accompany it to cover a child marriage story.

Africans, Zambians especially, in areas where they do not see journalists with their pens and cameras, need to start blogging as a way of telling their own stories. The impact of these stories will go beyond the MP or minister for whom a hunger story will become news because he has visited an area, or an NGO that has paid for a reporter to accompany it to cover a child marriage story. Obviously, accessibility to not only computers but the internet as well, is challenging but these days things are better than they used to be particularly with the phenomenal growth in the usage of mobile technology such as smart phones and internet dongles. Enlightened community leaders in these villages can take the lead by being the “barefoot reporters” telling the stories which have the soul of the people rather than stories that are only written for the number of people who have died or have suffered catastrophe as a result of their circumstances. If anything, the stories told by the victims themselves would even prevent such catastrophes if the authors recognise a problem that may exacerbate in the future—a bridge with missing bolts and nuts, lack of fertiliser in an area and so on and so forth. Who knows, these stories would even start questioning some decisions imposed on them by outsiders.

SATA AT CLOSE QUARTERS

By GERSHOM NDHLOVU
You got to love Michael Sata, Zambia’s fifth president, or hate him—for his abrasiveness bordering on rudeness tinged with crude language—and now as head of state, disregard for protocol. The case that immediately comes to mind in this “department” is his conduct on his first international trip as head of state when he allegedly defied Uganda’s protocol officials at the Intergovernmental Conference on the Great Lakes Region meeting in Kampala recently.
Another—call it strange—case is when Mr Sata caused a security and protocol nightmare in Livingstone where he went to meet Zimbabwean president Robert Mugabe in Livingstone, on the border with Zimbabwe. He refused to use regular vehicles in the presidential motorcade which usually comprise Mercedes Benz cars, BMWs, high end Toyota models, an ambulance or two and numerous luxury cars. He demanded a blue and white UTTA type minibus to ferry him from the Harry Mwaanga Airport to the venue of the meeting.
But the story that has prompted me to do this write up is what started off on Facebook but later reported on some Zambian news websites, that the current President of the Republic of Zambia (POTROZ), arrived at the Kenneth Kaunda International Airport from an international trip during a downpour but declined to be covered with an umbrella by an aide.
Am I surprised? No! In my younger days as a reporter on the Zambia Daily Mail’s Sunday Mail, I had an opportunity to travel with Mr Sata on some trips outside Lusaka on more than a couple of times where I got at close quarters with the man. I am also one who experienced his abrasiveness first hand particularly when he was MMD national secretary and I as Deputy News Editor and Mr Sata’s mbuya.
The first time was when we travelled to Eastern Province when he was Minister of Health c1995 on a tour of health facilities. Using a Zambia Flying Doctor Service plane, we flew to Lundazi after failing to land in Petauke which was to be the first scheduled stop but the airstrip was overgrown. The welcome in Lundazi was sort of muted because he was not expected to get there when he did. But by the time we arrived at the next stop, Chipata, the organisers had sorted themselves out.
Forget about the visit to Chipata General Hospital which was a very officious affair with Mr Sata taking to task the executive director to task for a few things he thought they were going wrong. Come the political leg of the trip, we were driven to Navutika, a shanty compound to the west of Kapata township. There, party cadres had organised themselves singing and dancing to welcome Mr Sata. The way the man jumped into the action, hugging the dirty looking villagers, shaking hands with them, laughing and singing left me speechless.
For the night stop, we went to Katete where we found cadres gathered at Mphangwe Motel. To cut the long story short, there was a lot of merry making with enough food, drink and jokes with everybody who was there. What was in short supply was the nonsense about “balekeni baMinister bapumule.” In the end it was Mr Sata who ensured we were all safely tucked in our beds for those of us who were to spend the night at the motel.
The Eastern Province trip over, a few weeks later I was to accompany Mr Sata to Chanyanya, to the south west of Kafue. I can’t remember exactly what the assignment was but I think it was to open a clinic or something to that effect. What moved and convinced me that Mr Sata was a man of the people is what he did during the meals that were prepared by the villagers.
Mr Sata washed his hands in the same bowls that everybody had washed and ate from the same plate as everybody. There was nothing like “iyi ni mbale yaba minister”—and this at the time when there were stories of how one aspiring MP used to go to campaign to his constituency carrying Hungry Lion take away and shunning food prepared by villagers he wanted to represent. That aspiring MP lost the elections, no doubt.
From all what is going on in the first few months of Mr Sata’s presidency, Zambians should be happy that the man is redefining the presidency. The office is not occupied by gods but by ordinary men (and women hopefully). I hope we will no longer have to kneel before the president or whisper his name when talking about his shortcomings.
The last four presidents have brought their own attributes to the presidency—Kaunda brought independence; Chiluba brought plural politics; Mwanawasa fought corruption; RB came to finish Mwanawasa’s projects; Sata is opening up the presidency!