Evil Youth Empowerment
By Mthoniswa Banda[i]
Dear Mr President,
JESUS of Nazareth once asked his cadres, “which of you, if his son asks for bread, will give him a stone? Or if he asks for a fish will give him a snake?” And he concluded, “So even you who are evil know how to give good gifts to your children”
Yet Mr. President, in Zambia when the sons of the house, also known as cadres, ask for bread, their father the Government is fond of doing exactly the opposite of what Jesus expected normal Christian fathers to do.
The Zambian Government has since the beginning of this nation, been looking for the most poisonous snake to give to Zambia’s sons each time they ask for empowerment, with the seemingly hope of having these sons beaten to death by these snakes.
Mr. President, you might want to ask, like what the followers of Jesus liked to do, ‘when Lord did we give our sons a poisonous snake when they asked for bread and when did we show our evil nature in our dealings as a government?
The answer is in your deeds Mr. President.
Just a few months after taking over the reins of power from the Patriotic Front Mr. President, your Government, the New Dawn, felt the Zambian sons, the youths, were worth empowering with a mine of their own. Options available before you of what mines to bequeath your youths included the virgin Kasenseli gold mine fields of North western province, the contested Konkola Copper Mines of the Chingola, the Mopani Copper Mines of Mufulira or the various gold deposits recently exposed in the area from North-western Province, Central Province and parts of Eastern Province.
To the shock of the sons and the nation, your Government Mr. President sent soldiers to chase the youths from the lucractive mines in the Kasenseli Gold fields and cordoned off the area. Your agent the ZCCM IH also gave majority shareholding in some gold processing and buying scheme to a Sudanese non-descript company never heard in Zambia before.
Instead Mr. President, the Zambian youths were empowered with black and khaki dusty catacombs formed from the dumping of copper smelting residues. The open dumping sites, famously known as Black Mountains of Nkana Kitwe and the Brown Mountains of Chingola are open graves waiting to fill up with hundreds of our unfortunate cadres and youthful Zambians!
These dump sites have no any pretence of mine safety features and have no any mining engineering plan to ensure that the operations of these unfortunate youths do not result in their early departure to the grave yards now or any time in their old age.
In the event that these youths are injured from the expected caving of these mountains or suffocated to death by the bad fine dust of the black Mountains, these mining operations are not insured with workers’ compensation fund or any insurance group like any mine exploration or mining operation ought to be.
The end result as expected would be many deaths in both the near or far future resulting from these bad mining activities of these youths.
Mr. President, as if this one is not enough, Zambian youths instead of being offered the lucrative entry into the much coveted oil industry of oil fields, oil drilling and oil selling, were instead empowered with fuel tankers for them to haul this highly inflammable and toxic materials on our potholed and ridged hell run of bad roads.
These youths, Mr. President, if they survive one trip of hauling this deadly liquid cargo from point A to point B on behalf of the many foreign and well-resourced oil magnets of Zambia, are eventually expected to burn to death the day their oil tanker flips and catches fire on our roads, like just as you are aware, our road sides do not have emergency services designed to treat oil burns and our fire services do not have latest equipment to quench a fire resulting from highly inflammable petroleum materials.
Mr. President, our youths are being offered Constituent Development Funds (CDF) and Citizen Empowerment Funds (CEEC) to instead of forming companies that can vie for the lucrative government construction or supply contracts, but to train as drivers of pirating taxies or serve as vendors of second hand salaula clothes and vehicles.
In-terms of trading areas, each time the youths of Zambia open a market to sell Salaula or trade in second hard cars or sell cheap Comesa liquor, their trading areas or markets are always deemed to be illegal.
And no sooner do these youths appear to be making business head ways than these markets are deemed illegal, razed down and then the land given to foreign operatives to build modern markets or shops to rent out to Zambians. Look at the case of Kamwala market which is currently owned by the Chinese and rented out to Zambians. Or the case of Kanyelele Market opposite Kamwala which now houses busy lodges and sex dens operated by the Chinese, Lebanese and Indian business persons. Another case is the Comesa market whose area now boasts of shops and market stalls owned by foreigner businesses while Zambians continue to struggle to raise rent money every month.
Mr. President, is it hard for a Zambian youth to be an owner of a copper or gold mining company, or be an owner of a road construction firm or owner of a bank?
Is it hard for your Government Mr. President to have a Zambian own a railway line that could transport copper, gold, cobalt and industrial products from the lucrative mines of Solwezi, Kalumbila, Kasenseli and the copperbelt to the shipping docks of Dar es Salaam, Durban or Walvis Bay?
Is it un Zambian mwata President to have banks and airlines and even airports owned and operated by the Zambian blacks and youths?
These youths need empowerment, mutompe President, they need the right empowerment that allows them to be owners of the very key sectors that bring in the much needed employment and future prosperity of Zambia. These Zambians need bread Mr. President. These youths that live in a land of milk and honey need ownership of the very operations that enable one to have a glass of milk every day and a taste of the sweet honey whenever they want.
Mr. President, the youths are tired. The cadres are tired. These youths and cadres of Zambia are tired of being given snakes and scorpions each time they ask for bread, milk and honey! They are tired of being the ones that toil for bread and milk when the late comers to be party are always the ones being given the lucrative means of producing milk and honey.
Your sincerely,
Mthoniswa Banda
[i] The Author is a Social Commentator and critic, Lobbyist and Human Rights Defender, Media and Communications Consultant at Mthoniswa Banda Consultancy www.mbzambia.com
