Zambia for the Zambians...

Sherry Thole, Chairman of the Implementation Committee of the USAID funded, Private Sector Reform Programme (PSRP) currently being hosted by the Zambia Business Forum, addressed its convention earlier this year, stating," Zambia for the Zambians!"

Zambia: Mwanawasa Assures Investors ?

The Times of Zambia (Ndola)
19 September 2007

Ndola
President Mwanawasa has assured investors wishing to come to Zambia of conducive policies and protection for their investment while upholding the interests of local people.

Comment by IM:
Amnesty International report that since the last election there is “widespread harassment and intimidation of people perceived to be critical of the government.”

Zambia whistleblower fall-out on the rural poor…

On the 20th August of 2007, senior representatives of the villagers living within the Luembe Chiefdom of Zambia, went to have their application endorsed for the formation of the Luembe Development and Caretaker Community Association. In order to do this, as required by the Registrar of Societies in Lusaka, they were compelled to obtain the signatures of the Nyimba District Council and the Nyimba Police. They duly obtained these, but, unusually – as it is not normally required, they were told by the Council to obtain the signature of the District Intelligence Officer in the Office of the President (OP), Nyimba branch. Then came the surprise, the officer, by the name of G.K. Mumba, stated that he knew that the group were connected with me, and that I had posted on my blogs the news that his office had recently gone in to Luembe to investigate our complaints of an elephant ivory and bushmeat poaching ring being operated by Zambia Wildlife Authority personnel. The village leaders were upbraided for having given secret information to someone who had then used it for ‘economic sabotage against Zambia’ by telling the world that the OP, as they are called, were investigating corruption. When asked how this was economic sabotage, Mumba replied that I had sought to dissuade hunting clients from coming to Zambia on safari by telling them of the poaching and other corruption.

The irony here is that as a result of being a whistleblower of the massive poaching ring operating in the district, I had also sought to publicize illegal land alienations of customary land and National Forest involving corrupt local forestry and wildlife officers, a corrupt Chief, corrupt elements within the Nyimba District Council, corrupt businessmen, and corruption in the Ministry of Lands. As a result, I had been accused by State House of plotting to overthrow the ruling MMD Government, of planning the destruction of the maize stocks of Zambia; accused by one of the Chiefs in the district of having committed game offences – though I had not ever hunted in his area; had my phones and emails tapped and my house placed under surveillance and, in my absence, my wife had suffered an invasion of the property by thugs; and then, in an act of sabotage which impacts both on our business, on the local community – as they share income from safaris, and on the good name of Zambia, had our client agents told that we were no good – immediate cancellations being the instant result. Whom is sabotaging whom, I ask.

Of course the Luembe community are awakening from their slumbers, now being aware of their rights under the law and the Constitution. Having got rid their chief for selling off their land, they found him reinstated without due customary process, and are oncemore fighting to have him ousted. Daily their wildlife resources and elephant are being plundered by the very people mandated to protect them. Not only has development aid passed them by, but they have to bear the yoke of malign interests seeking to further disenfranchise them. They now realize all this; hence their wish to form an Association, a perfectly normal democratic urge. But now the OP has put the spell on them.

Political scientist says Zambia Government is using foreign investors as scapegoats...

The Zambian academic and leading commentator on current affairs, Dr Neo Simutanyi, in his article 'Education and the Criminal Economy' says that the Department of Immigration, acting on instructions from above, are throwing some foreigners out of the country who are legally here; being used as scapegoats for government policy failures.

High Court Judge extends date of stay of execution...

Yesterday a High Court judge heard, inter partes, the question of the stay of execution granted to me against the decision of the Minister of Home Affairs not to renew my self-employed permit. It was agreed by the respondents' attorney that the stay be extended until 30 October, 2007, at which time the judicial review will be heard, the Minister and the Chief Immigration Officer being required to give good legal reasons for their action in refusing me that which Zambia is required to honour.

That a bona fide investor, holding an Investment Certificate, and supposedly protected by the Investment Act , should be so treated is an act of bad faith and does not send out a message to would-be investors to come to Zambia and trust the actions of politicians and a heavily politicised Immigration Department. As a corporate member of Business Action for Africa, I will be making a complaint. So far the Zambia Development Agency, required to protect an investor's rights, has failed to act.

Zambia Development Agency speak...

Cartoon from The Oldie magazine.

Zambia High Court Action by I.P.A. Manning against the Minister of Home Affairs etc...