Levy urges Zambians to be Patient with ZESCO

1. LPM has access to Electric Energy 24/7. This is lowering production in the mines as well as the service and tourism industry. Efficiency and quality control are indeed lacking in Zed. Monoply of Zesco is now hindering economic activities to thrive. ZESCO must look for alternative ways to maintain the supply.

2. In as much as we appreciate that ZESCO may be facing one or two problems,it is only important that the little energy left should be shared equally. That is to, we all face the equal long hours of load shedding. It is purely illogical and unreasonable for me as a common man from a compound to understand ZESCOs’ failures when am sacrificed as a guinea pig for the so called apamwambas. LPM and ZESCO managers all have power 24/7 at the expense of a poor man. THere is no single day when the apamwambas face load shedding and the comman is in light. It is a ever the opposite. Not long ago, his Minister Mike Mulongoti was encouraging a comman to watch the AFCON 2008 from bars and tarvens. Then today

3. Why is Dr chuchu always refer Zambia’s problems to neighbouring countries. Our problems are internal and are suppose to be dealt within. Is ZESCO going to compensate pipo who have their electric equipment damaged due to shedding. The problem is Zesco never had any contigent plans for this sort of problems. Managers continued paying themselves hefty salaries without investing into the infrustructure. It is typical African mentality of running businesses. Hefty salaries before looking after the source of income. sorry guys to use african but it is true.

4. I think we have avery big problem at ZESCO.We are able to export to neighbouring countries when us are always in black outs.Its the monopoly issue . Can we other cos to challeng zesco and LPM should fire those chaps on top there .

5. It is disgusting to hear LPM always refer to problems at ZESCO as regional. These shortages could only be attributed to poor planning on the part of Govt through ministry of Energy and in particular ZESCO as a utility company. Under these circumstance of power outages, the ZESCO bills have continued to rise monthly despite timely settlement. In short I have continued to subsidies the ruling leadership that do not pay for these services.

6. Levy has no intellect to deal with national problems such as those faced by ZESCO. He has focused on the well-being of foreigners who own mines at the expense of the vast majority of Zambians. He has played no positive role in the life of Zambians.

7. # 1 and #2 point of correction,zesco is not a monopoly in 2005,an act of parliament was passed liberialising the energy sector,and lusemfwa hydro power in kabwe was born..we are waiting for more people to join zesco,and for those who read the tabloid will agree that there is now a loadsheding schedule that is affecting even the high class areas were zesco managers live.

8. # 7 Ba Andrew try to be real you know very well that Lunsefwa hydro cannot bring power to Kanyama or Town centre at the moment unless it goes through zesco installations.And that is the monopoly being talked about here which unfortunetly zesco seem to being abusing. Furthermore, you also know that zesco is failing to expand interms of production due to many factors. Meaning that if zesco which is already in the industry can fail to grow then it is more difficult for a new provider to come in.(of cause unless the so called investors-‘infesors’ from outside who will in turn come in with their own conditions)For this reason zesco(a grz entity) need to be sincier and distribute energy equally

9. The theory of African Poverty (by Crazy_Zambian)

   I am here to try to understand as to why Africa is so poor yet very rich in terms of land and mineral resources. They have been many arguments as to why Africa is poor and im here to unveil some of them so as to bring some argument and attempt to come up with the truth as to why Africa is so poor.

   The first one will have to do with Western Imperialists.
   Many people more especially in the Southern Part of Africa have claimed that “Western Imperialists” are trying to keep them poor.They have claimed that western countries have kept them poor so as to capitalise on there resources. This argument can make sense if you look at it this way.

10. Imagine an industrialized and technologically advanced Africa.
    Imagine if the 52 countries in Africa basically traded with each other in terms of both capital items and raw materials. Africa would not need to trade with Europe and basically Europe would suffer from high mineral prices and shortages in Minerals.
    I however do not buy this claim because we are now in a global community and if European nations wanted to make profits due to a technologically advanced Africa, they would always relocate as they have done in Asia and South Africa. So western imperialists, sorry it does not fly.

11. The other argument could be Genetics.
    They have been many arguments that state that the reason Africa is so poor is due to genetic factors. Basically a study was done and this study was based on IQ tests. It says that race determines intelligence. It found that Africans have a mean IQ of 65, African Americans have a mean IQ of 85, Whites have a mean IQ of 105, Asians with a mean IQ of 110 and Jews with a mean IQ of 115. What was also found was that environment also played a factor as African Americans had a higher IQ than Africans. What this study also found was that IQ puts you into your place.

12. The other argument could be Genetics.
    They have been many arguments that state that the reason Africa is so poor is due to genetic factors. Basically a study was done and this study was based on IQ tests. It says that race determines intelligence. It found that Africans have a mean IQ of 65, African Americans have a mean IQ of 85, Whites have a mean IQ of 105, Asians with a mean IQ of 110 and Jews with a mean IQ of 115. What was also found was that environment also played a factor as African Americans had a higher IQ than Africans. What this study also found was that IQ puts you into your place.

13. As can be seen from this, places which have a population with a low IQ will have lower incomes whereas places with higher IQ’s will have higher incomes.This can be seen from the 60’s where African countries pretty much had the same income as Asian countries but Asian countries today are more wealthy than African countries. This can also be seen in southern Africa where countries with a high white population tend to be more developed than countries with a low white population.

14. And whites mostly control a higher percentage of the economy in countries with a high population of white people. There is also a theory that IQ is also attributed to violent behaviour.
    This Basically states that black people are more prone to be violent than other races. This can be seen from the number of Wars Africa has fought and well, Zimbabwe and Kenya. There is also a theory that high testosterone leads to less intelligence and it was found that blacks produce more testosterone than any other races.

15. I guess this IQ theory can also be applied to Developed Asian countries that achieved in 30 years what it took European and North Americans a 100 years to achieve. I however do not buy this simply because of Botswana. Botswana has a higher GDP than some Eastern European countries so this theory also does not fly.

16. So the question still stands, why Africa is so poor. Well I have 3 reasons for this. Corruption, culture and pessimists. Basically corruption is like a bad drug to Africa. It is like an addiction and comes like a curse from God. Like we must have done something very evil in the Biblical times to deserve such punishment. Corruption has stunted the growth of Africa but corruption is not enough to explain why Africa is so poor. Culture is also a reason.

17. Basically if one looks at Asian developed countries, you would find that there culture concentrates on Hard work, respect, good education, high marks, etc. This has been the basis of Asian development. Even when you go to a university abroad, you’ll hear the stereotype of “but ma chinese niba nzelu (but Chinese people are really smart)”.That stereotype never flies far away from a person’s mouth once you are in the same class as Asians. However Africans have been painted with this picture of “they are not smart, this is too hard for them”. This has to do with corrupted African culture.

18. Basically what im getting at is that the introduction of MTV Base and Channel O was the worst thing to happen to Africa more especially to Southern Africa. Also the introduction hip hop music in Africa was also the worst thing to happen to the continent. We can compare two countries, lets compare Nigeria to Zambia. Most people however argue that Nigeria is so developed because of Oil.This is half the truth however. Nigerian culture teaches hard work and entrepreneurship. Basically Nigerians are hard on there culture that hip hop just plays a small row in Nigeria.

19. Whereas in Zambia, people want to be the so called “gangsta” that they see on TV or hear on the radio. Everyone knows that Hip Hop music pretty much says, have disrespect, don’t work hard and materialize.Which is why the Zambian English is also changing as it is more going to the way of “x-say, floss” tune” kind of words. This can be proven when one goes to good govt schools. You go to govt schools like DK, MATHERO BOYS, HILCREST. These usually have students from all backgrounds.

20. Now at these schools, you’ll notice that students who basically come from poorer backgrounds and don’t want anything to do with hip hop tend to work harder than students who are for the all “hip hop gangsta” kind of thing. And also students with the whole “hip hop” thing are more likely to cheat than students who want nothing to do with hip hop.Students who are big on hip hop don’t want to spend time in school, tend to start the whole racism role of “blame whitey” and would rather spend there time in the club than in the library.

21. These students who are big on Hip hop culture however are the same students who have got access to good schools, capital, have been exposed to advanced technology, are more likely to go abroad and have access to resources.Basically these are students who have the capacity to build the countries they are in but because of a corrupted culture, they would rather slack behind and act like the “gangsta” leaving the countries with a brain-drain and shortage of human capital.

22. Also while comparing countries, we might as well compare two cities, Lagos and Johannesburg. In Africa, Lagos is second to Johannesburg. I however think its because of difference in cultures. Johannesburg’s economy is basically controlled by a white minority who’s culture stems on entrepreneurship whilst Lagos economy is controlled by blacks who’s culture stems on entrepreneurship, hard work and corruption which is what has stunted Lagos growth.

23. If you had to compare Zambians 30 years ago with Zambians today, there’s a huge difference. If you look at Zambians 30 years ago, these people have got degrees and degrees and are mostly very skilled professionals who have worked for big companies where as Zambians today, because of this “hip hop” culture, would rather have one degree and work for the first job that comes to them.

24. The third reason is pessimists. Basically Africa has got a surplus of Pessimists. Here is an example, if I today had to tell a Zambian that by 2010, Zambia would be able to engineer a car. I would be laughed at and also told “Zambia will never develop a car”. Basically you’ve got Africans looking down on there own abilities. Japan did not start by making cars, they started with assembling bicycles but because of there thrive to be better and capitalise, they started to develop ideas about how to make cars better.

25. If they had the same attitude as Africans, they would be still assembling bicycles. I see this problem more especially in Zambia.I think Zambians has got the highest number of pessimists in the world where if the govt announces that is has got its first $1 billion dollar reserves, this is an achievement as it is a stepping stone to development, you start small and end up high.

26. One would expect Zambians to be encouraging and thrive for $5 billion next year but what I see is Zambians saying stuff like “that is low why are they proud of that, that’s what a company in America makes in one month, etc”. One thing they should realize is this is better than where Zambia was some 5 years ago and it’s a sign that things would get better.They should be happy with It and thrive for better next time. You have to crawl before you can walk right. Also if someone wanted to set up a software company in Zambia, he/she would be so discouraged that they would not even attempt.

27. All I can say on that matter is “how are you gonna know if you don’t try”. These are the problems I have come up with in terms of Africa and these are Corruption, Infected culture and Pessimists.

28. Feel free to reply to me and tell me what you think. Thank you 😀

29. Crazy_Zambian , By comparing botswana to eastern europe what you do not say is botswana has a population of about 2.5 million if you include allthe immigrants but is the worlds largest producer of dimonds.
    Also could you explain why Haiti, the longest ever population of former slaves to be freed, indipendence 1880’s is one of the poorest country in the world ?

30. Lefi naonaula Zambia

31. Crazy_Zambian that’s a good argument. However, the hip hop staff starts with you I guess. Look at your ID, it’s all hip hop. Anyhow, it’s good one.

32. #11 Do you then agree with Dr. James Watson, who in October 2007 said that scientific tests had shown that people of African descent did not possess the same intellect as other races? There was quite a furore (mainly from blacks)when that news appeared in the press, I for one would like to see some of our scientits take a closer look at this subject, maybe just maybe someone may come up with a cure for the entire race(?)!!!!!! It would be a solution to our poverty.

33. I will get back to everyone once the comments reach at least 45. I would like to hear everybody’s view on this. Please be patient.

34. Instead of always complaining, let us look for supporting energy systems like solar energy to work hand-in-hand with the ZESCO systems in our homes.

    This harnessing will help us use solar energy when ZESCO is performing its load shedding in our homes.

    I feel this will boost the solar energy industry too in Zambia if Market is readily available. After all, we are all – in this world – trying to move onto clean energy generation systems in the name of wind, solar, etc pwer generation.

35. #29, can you please re-read #9’s unbiased argument/contribution and understand it fully b4 you comment further in case u will. U ve picked on Botswana and its population. Be educated that population can never be an excuse for under development in fact it favours development. This is because all the goods/service a country would produce would be readly be bought by its population. What dis-favours development is exactly what #29 has outlined and you should be thanking for taking his precious time to bother to share with others-Corruption, Infected culture and Pessimists. Why didn’t also make an observation that Botswana is almost entirely a desert? I contribute on this topic again.

36. talk about energy crisis you fools not Botswana rubbish stick to the topic *****s.

37. Crazy_Zambian, you have earned my respect. I see pessimism especially with my relatives. A few years ago I told my uncle that I was going to vacation in the Caribbean by the end of the year. His guttural laugh and the question “how are you going to get there?” would have been enough to discourage me. But the desire to see Bob Marley’s ‘hood’ [hip-hop!l.o.l] made me raise money for a return plane ticket and one-week upkeep in 8 months. When I showed him my ticket, he stopped laughing, and looked at me differently and with respect. He even gave me $300 to help with my expenses. My point is I fulfilled a rather selfish ambition by being optimistic!

38. We currently have an energy crisis, and we blame ZESCO, rightly so. But do we see the business opportunity here? Of course not because we are blinded by the cost. Hydro-power is expensive, but there are alternatives. Go to the internet and put out word about the business opportunities in the energy sector in Zambia. There are a lotta people out there with money that they do not know where to spend it (Nigerians, Chinese), partner with them and have a rival firm to ZESCO. That’s what Crazy_Zambian is talking about

39. For those Zambians with enterprenurial minds, set up a firm to sell gas-operated cookers, rather than electric ones. {You can’t use malasha forever!HHeehhheeehheee talked about clean energy sources} Bring back ZAMOX, because BOC gases wont be able to cope with the demand. That way you reduce on the load during cooking times. And for heating water, our geysers need to be solar-powered. So set up a solar-geyser plant, call it ZamGeyz!!! Put in a long distance call to a Chinese businessman, they will loan you your starting capital, since you do not look white enough for our local banks to finance your project!

40. this ‘crazy-zambian’ is not so crazy after all. let me u are black ethinic background because ur analysis looks to be from a wealthy upper class American whos been to Harvard. ok ok dont flatter yourself too much. i respect ur views entirly!!!

41. correction ‘tell me’ NOT ‘let me’

42. Those of you who have lived in Botswana will agree with me that there is more use of GAS STOVES there than in Zambia and this has been going on for a long time. While energy serving bulbs can help, we can save more electiricity by using GAS STOVES. Just command GAME stores and all those indians to stop bringing in electricity stoves and start brining in GAS stoves. Thanks

43. # 9 Crazy Zambian, you cannot dismiss completely your first point. The West played and still play the game very well and while you may not blame them entirely for everything, logic has it that they have strategic control of Africa and in my yet to be published book I address that widely looking at researched facts. Africa has not figured well how to untangle themselves from this yoke as other countries e.g. in Asia have. For instance, World Bank and IMF are strategic monopolies that help control Africa and many other nations. To ignore their role is not to be realistic. While I may tend to agree with you on a number of views I will differ on some, especially this one. Please read the

44. ctd. from #43. book, “Confessions of an Economic Hit Man” by John Perkins.

45. Crazy Zambian pardon my limitation here, my attention span on a blog is at most two entries so when i scrolled down and saw the lenght of your entry i bailed out, can you do me a favour and summarize your arguemnt in a few sentences perhaps on just two screens at the most?I hope you understand my ‘blog attention span disorder’

46. We need a spell check on this blog, can some programmer help out LT with such a feature? I sometimes only see my typos after hitting submit

47. We need to plan ahead. Start thinking about the next criss to hit the region, including Zambia. The problem is that we are always firefighting and that is what makes the difference between us and the rest of the world. Now this will take all our time. Allow our powerful Engineers at ZESCO do their work. Meanwhile the rest start solving problems in other areas before they surface. Do we know that some industries have tabled up know? Ask me and I will tell you some of these……

48. Thanks guys for keeping the subject discussion its nice that we control ourselves since its like there is no moderator here, i do agree with some blogger here, its seems like us zambians know only electric power as a source of energy, i have been to UGANNDA, KENYA, SUDAN(KHARTOUM)ETC here in AFRICA and GAS is the big thing most people just use our so called ZESCO for lighting. Us when there is no ZESCO its like life comes to a stand still, shall we change and bring back ZAMOX etc, stop importing electric stoves, coal is abundant at the mismanaged MAMBA COAL MINE, all those are alternative to serving our depleted HYDRO ENERGY SYS.

49. # 35. Peter
    Understand the flow of topic before you engage you hands and you might get a bit more educated.
    The authour points that gentics has nothing to do with africa lagging and uses Botswana as an example.
    I pointed that botswanas fourtune could be that they have the largest dimond reserves per head of population, a lot of money hence they are rich. if they did not have so much dimods with so little population, they probably would be the same as the rest of africa. Whats the use of a large population if you do not have the the acumen to develop industries ?

50. #31
    I do agree that i have been exposed to hip hop culture and to some extent i was a big fan which is why i am against it. Mostly because i know its effects. But thank you.

51. #37
    Thank you but i do not think im very deserving of the respect.

52. #40
    I do not think im that crazy (lol). Thank you

53. #43
    I do not know much of the issue but i do think it falls in the category of corruption because i think no one forces the govt’s to accept the money. They simply do it out of choice. So i think it falls under the category of corruption. I could be wrong.

54. #45
    Basically what im saying is that there are many theories as to why Africa is poor. I brought up Western Imperialists, Genetics and i discarded these simply because they do not have enough evidence to support them.
    I then turned to three reasons, corruption, infected culture and pessimists. These claims are debatable though but it is what i think.

55. #32
    I cannot agree with that term simply because we have to go back to history. History shows that at around the 1600-1800, Africans where better surgeons than Europeans. Some statues have been found in South America which shows basically a human head but what has been found is that the face on the human head is an African. Simply saying that Africans went to the America’s before columbus.So i cannot believe that claim.

56. #29
    If you look at Seirra Leon, it has got the best Diamonds in the world yet it is the poorest country in Africa. What im driving at is that any country would be poor (even Botswana) due to mismanagement. If you are saying Botswana is rich because of resources that does not explain why the Bahamas (run by blacks) are rich when they clearly do not have any mineral wealth. The Bahamas are rich due to proper management. Also you can also look at Mauritius which is not doing bad financially. In the case of Haiti, i think you should revisit your history books. Haiti was not granted independence, rather it was a slave revolt. After the slaves had liberated themselves from the slave owners,

57. cont…
    what happened is the british did not want to trade with slaves so they sanctioned them. Basically Haiti could not export any of its produce for a long time. And also Haiti has been through coups and civil wars which can be why its so poor. Now the reason i discard IQ is simply because Caribbean blacks have a mean IQ lower than African Americans yet Caribbean blacks score at the same level as whites in America and african americans score lower than whites in america. So the IQ thing does not fly

58. TO EVERYONE ELSE

    Im sorry for drifting away from the topic, i just felt that i had to share with you something that has been bothering me and i wanted to know your input. Thank you 😀

59. Cazy_Zambian
    Your points are well substantiated…..CORRUPTION is one of the problems hindering Africa from any sustainable progress.
    DEC officers nabbed for soliciting a bribe

    Two Drug Enforcement Officers on the Copperbelt have been arrested for corrupt activities.

    The duo has been nabbed by the Anti-Corruption Commission (ACC) for corrupt activities involving K10 million.

60. # 11. I also tend to differ on the IQ and genetics conclusion. I will accept that blacks have a lower IQ than others and genetically prone to the same only if you also absolutely affirm that there has been a mutation in the blacks or Africans’ genes over the years. If I hold that ancient Egypt (Africa) was pivotal to modern civilization, the argument that genetics and IQ are the factors at play in our current difficulties then I will strongly disagree. There are other factors that I think are at play for Africa’s circumstances.

61. 56 Crazy_Zambian
    A history lesson, Haitit was run by the french not the british, hence they speak french. Also weather you are given indipendence or fought for it or were bribed into it it is independence. You are free. It dosent matter how it was obtained.
    I think the main probelm in africa, along with a culture of corruption and missmanegment is the association of hard work to exploitation. You only have to see the working conditions of the indians and chinese. africans would never accept such working conditions. We would say we are being enslaved and exploited. But enjoyment , we are kings.

62. #60. and everybody else on this blog, pls explain to me why Africans where-ever they have settled, tend to lag behind in progress.

63. #61 shushushu has a point. just now in the news we saw an indian company bring indians to work as salves in the mines. The chinese bring in their own workers because they don’t complain and work for half what a zambian worker gets but 3 time sas hard.
    I think by the time Tembo and his workmates eat a hard nishima at 12.00 midday, that 2 hr lunch break is not enough in the blazing sun. If you want him you find him under a mango tree sleeping.

64. #62, I can answer your question in part and would have been pleased to do so on a one on one basis. Africans who are professionals or have attained that status thr’ hard work and everything else being equal vis-a-vis visa status, equal pay for equal job and lack of discrimination have done well. That is not to say that some, despite these obstacles have not made it. I know some who have made it despite these obstacles, nevertheless, many have been hindered by these (that is not to say that there are others who have harmed themselves) thr’ lack of determination and involvement in vices that do not favour progress.

65. #61
    you where basing your comment on IQ so i responded accordingly. Now you bring up other problems. At what point didn’t i mention those problems. You should have CLEARLY read my whole post before replying the way you did. I think you where just looking for an argument where it was not needed.

66. #62
    In the case of Africa, though the problems are current, they is some evidence that points to the history of Africa that has deterred its development. FACT, they is a lot of TRIBALISM in Africa most especially in the politics. If Africans back then drew there own borders, i do not think it would be this poor nor violent. However, we cannot dwell in the past and have to look at the present. FACT, if you look at Zambian politics, its just simply the same people changing posts. This term he’s an MP, next term he’s aspiring to be president, next term his nephew, the other term his friend. Basically what im driving at is almost the same faces you saw in 1980 are the same faces you’re seeing..

67. cont…
    today. Now you have to think, if an aspirant was in the two previous govt’s and they where corrupt, what are the chances that when he/she goes into power, he/she wont be corrupt. I base my probability on 0.0000000000001 that he/she wont be corrupt. What im saying is the people aspiring are experienced at corruption. Perhaps we need new younger fresh brains. Im pretty sure since the person has experienced how life is like in a corrupt Zambia, he/she will seek change. But then again, power corrupts and absolute power, well you just have to look at our southern neighbor. Honestly, i have no hope for Africa. Leadership is always the same and the people are basically all the same.

68. cont…
    I guess i fall into the category of pessimists. Africa as a continent is full of “all talk and no action”. They have these big annual meetings to talk about economics and development when more exploitation and underdevelopment keeps on happening. One wonders how a country like Zambia, surrounded by 9 NEIGHBORS with access to a regional economic power is still the poorest country. Clearly i need to have a talk with the presidents Economists. On also wonders how a continent of 52 countries remains poor. If you really want development in Africa, you dont have to look far, just peep at Europe and the answer is right there. Even the SADC can be a super power if it wanted.

69. word correction: 8 neighbors

70. # 65. Crazy_Zambian,
    No Vundu. I did not say you did not mention those pts. I was adding what i think is Africas biggest problem. Associating hard work to enslavement.
    Also i responded the way i did inaccordence with your response for me to revisit history. lets blog with sensitivity, and retalitory attacks are avoided.

71. What Levy is asking is for Zambians to be patient with his relative Sisala, ZESCO MD. Levy should just bring back Mwansa and have ZESCO functional as before, Period. This guy will always protect and defend his family members until Zambia is totally ravaged by his tribesmen.

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