WITH the presidential election coming on January 20, 2015, I personaly feel that not every presidential hopeful inspires much passion and enthusiasm to the people of the Copperbelt.
Well, I would not like to comment on virtually every campaign promise but only one which is talking about unlocking Zambia’s secret with the multi-national mining companies in the development agreements and how mining companies have been able to move from struggling to wealthy conglomerates.
However, this scarcely counts as a revelation. One significant difference between Zambia and the developed world is that every developed country was a custodian of their own resources.
Being a custodian meant they were eventually able to overcome underdevelopment and economic stagnation.
Conversely, in the case of Zambia, the fundamental condition, ownership of resources, is not in the hands of the Zambian people.
To this day, Zambia is still bound by development agreements signed with trans-national mining companies crafted 20 years ago.
These agreements are no more than the legitimisation of a psychological form of foreign dominion over our sovereign country.
These parasitic agreements do not give the country ownership of its resources.
They are one-sided, insidious agreements whose terms and conditions would not be accepted or tolerated in any developed country.
Today Zambia is plagued with political leaders who are, either through ignorance or selfishness, confused by the thought that foreign investors are going to show them the way to economic independence and development. History has shown otherwise.
Tellingly, there are no secrets in unlocking Zambia’s secret to wealth, Kenneth Kaunda, Frederick Chiluba, Levy Mwanawasa, Rupiah Banda, Michael Sata and an endless list of well-educated economists of Zambia had known this glaring secret.
There are no secrets for unlocking Zambia’s secret to wealth. There is only the lack of political will and courage to do so.
Mubanga Luchembe,
Lusaka