Tuesday, April 23, 2024

Luanshya as featured on ‘The Chinese are coming’

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41 COMMENTS

  1. Well calculated propaganda from the West against the East,they will do anything to discredit each other…one thing for sure,one of them is going to win and Zambia will continue loosing,all in the name of politics

  2. I love the romance of this old couple ‘To us Forever’ so sweet. On the main story the native Luanshya resident has summarized it for me.

  3. This is criminal. We have phony leaders who are not responsive to peoples’ needs.

    We are a country that is thinks and believes that anything foreign is always good for us. We are so comfortable with the culture of failures.

    The monkey’s toilet calls this “booming foreign investment”

    Muleya ba mambala!!!

  4. The British erected these facilities exclusively for themselves, using our resources but when they left, we ourselves failed to maintain them. So what do you expect the Chinese to do, except carry on with the tradition in place? They owe us s.h.i.t! We need to wake up and clean our act. Its times such as these that I am convinced that Sata maybe just the right guy to turn things around.

  5. Parts of the documentary are utter rubbish. That white couple even go to the extent of saying the facilities were used by Zambians as well—–only after we wrestled our freedom from you!!! It is not the Chinese who destroyed the facilities. It is us Zambians. The road to dilapidation started with ZCCM and Chiluba only helped to nail the coffin. Here are the facts 1. The British only developed the facilities for themselves 2. ZCCM was only able to maintain the facilities unsustainably-with very little business sense-where profit was consumed and not re-invested. 3. So what do you want the Chinese to do? It is not their duty to entertain you. Learn to finance your own entertainment. If anything, it is the council that should take up the responsibility of ensuring that the masses have…

  6. Zambians! Please do not always be armchair complainers. The copper in the ground is no good to anybody. Nobody has ever said the Zambians cannot exploit this resource themselves. Some Zambians have enough money to buy these mines. We are only good at complaining. Why cant you F&%$£ng get up your arses and run these mines for the benefit of the country. At least someone had the nounce to get up and do something about it. Ten years ago there were virtually no Chinese on the copperbelt. The copper was still in the ground. The mining towns were slowly dying. Nobody did anything about it. Forty years ago China’s per capita income was a lot less than Zambias. Now China is on the verge of becoming the next super power. What are Zambians doing? We are still complaining and always will.

  7. The chines are teaching lazy zambians the art of Entrepreneurship. Stop complining about the chinse and others who are showing you how ot should be done. The blogger above ir right, opportuniyies are there for all Zambians. Go and exploite them.

  8. The Chinese are running these mines as a business. Not as a social experiment. They have resurrected the dying mining towns. Other businesses in the area are flourishing on the back of the mines. Although I am based in the UK now I have made a small investment on the Copperbelt. We now employ four full-time and two part-time workers. We expect to employ another three full-time by the end of the year. No, Iam not running a shop. We are manufacturing. It took me 5 years to save the £15,000 I needed for the investment. I could have had a lot of girlfriends and booze just like my fellow Zambians in the UK. But I didn’t. The only dark cloud on the horizon in Zambia is who comes in after the election. Politics of envy and xenophobia will do incredible damage to Zambia’s international standing.

  9. We Zambians are bloody fools. Search for all fools in the world, lay your facts bare, believe me among all fools that you will find, Zambians rank without a rival.

    We all Know that Rupiah Banda and his Key Ministers are on a Pay role from Mine owners, hence the refusal to introduce the Windfall tax. He and Finance Minister Musokotwane including other Senior Government officials are on monthly payrole. What is our reaction, nothing!!1!

    Such can never happen to an enlightened Citizens. What we are losing as a nation is depressing, to say the least. What kind of people are we?Suffering in the land of plenty!!!

    Im a very very sad Zambian. By the way who supplies fuel to Zambia, is it not Rupiahs Children; Rupiah want to Nationalise Finance Bank to externalise his loot!!

  10. #9 – do not be short sighted my friend. Zambians, on their own accord have got no access to such funds that can be used to acquire mines of this calibre. This is beacuse the Govt has not put institutions to support this. Just try and get a £100,000 with a well written business plan from CEEZ, you will be very sorry if you have no affiliation with MMD. What the chinese are doing is finding labour for their citizens outside china and pretend they are investing. The money never even get deposited in the Zambian banks. With RB and his clonies taking kickbacks, zambians cannot compete.

  11. # 9 & 11The Voice Of Reason. I do not agree with you. The Zambian government DO NOT support Zambians who want to do business in the big league. Do you know how much is required to run a mine? Those Chinese come with loans guaranteed by their government to do business in Zambia. So do not insult us. I know Zambians(with other foreign partners) who actually wanted to bid for KCM but our late President/government couldn’t support them. Most Zambians have those investments of 15,000 pounds back home. We need Zambians to participate in the big league and that can not be done from personal saving.

  12. Blogger #3 is right. This documentary was aired on the BBC. China has unsettled the West. Everywhere they look in the world they see China taking them on and winning economically. China is now single handedly keeping the world economy afloat. The unfortunate fact is that nobody in the world will be able to compete with the far superior work ethics that the Chinese people have. China will manufacture everything that the world needs. Zambia can chase the Chinese out if it so wishes. After all Idi Amin chased the Asians out of Uganda. They have never fully recovered. All we can do as Zambians is to work with these guys as closely as possible and maybe their ideas will rub off on us. Remember it is individuals who make a difference to economies. Not governments. It could be you.

  13. “Until the lights are out. I love that”. Chinese are not settlers, unlike the British. The British were here to stay but Nationalisation kicked them out. Chinese are more clever for african politics. Get more while you can because tomorrow might bring Kaponya government. Its a catch 22 situation for Zambians.

  14. Blogger #14. We cant all start by owning mines. Be real. In the UK 60% of people are employed by small family run businesses. If you have £15,000 you can make an adequate investment back home in Zambia. It might not be enough in countries like SA or Europe but it is certainly enough in Zambia. Do not always expect someone else to to give you a job. You have as much right as the next person to be an employer. My experience is, if I had a lot more money , I would have bought a much larger business in Zambia and employed more people. If your friends have all this money why dont they invest it? Nobody is going to lend you the money until you have proven yourself in business. It is just common sense. Please do not always wait for some multinational to come and employ. You will wait forever.

  15. I am no fan of the Chinese, but to depict that the Chinese caused the dilapidation shown in the movie around Luanshya Recreation Club (Luanshya Sports Complex) is as misleading as saying ZCCM caused the dilapidation. A little research is all it would have needed to come up with a sequence of events like:- When did Luanshya Recreation Club and its surrounding sports facilities get up-graded to become Luanshya Sports Complex? What were inter- Divisional Sports festivals in ZCCM and the intention behind? When did RAMCOZ come in? When did different units of the sports complex go into private hands? And when did the Chineses come in? BBC as usual set out with a premeditated plan to depict Chinese as bad. Did you notice the movie does not show any good road or well painted house or street…

  16. #18…It does not matter the sequence of events. The Chinese are in charge now and its their social responsibility to plough back into Lya community.

    Incompetent admins do not have the élan to accept responsibility but pass that back, just like the govt that accepted them to rape the country

  17. Zambians can settle this take over by only buying Zambian products. The fat chemically induced chickens are slowly killing zambians. Chinese themselves will not eat those chickens that they are selling you at Soweto. Poison! Shibukeni

  18. 1. Yes the Zambian govt does not support Zambians who would be interested in buying and managing the mine or any other efforts to raise the standard of Zambia or back them up ( I know this from so many people with researched, workable ideas in the disapora who want to come back and use what they learnt. Unfortunately, they only accommodate only foreigners…I’m assuming because the foreigners have their govt back up their loans like someone said and they would have to back up the Zambian and actually be held accountable for something.
    2. Luanshya has suffered a lot from unrealistic ZCCM lifestyle to the complete opposite that by the time people realized what hit them, the situation seemed hopeless. What to do????????
    Having said that…

  19. There is nothing wrong with Chinese investment, but everything wrong with us. We have no rules and we are dormant. The british did the same to us – slave trade and colonialism. Infact the are more dangerous than the chinese because they make you feel loved when actually they are killing you. But what we need is our own laws and strong and quick/efficient justice system. We also need to be confident as Zambians, so we can stand up to anyone with dignity.
    Finally let’s take charge of our country. We always want to work for others and not invest in anything ourselves. Many Zambians have money indeed, like HH, but where is it invested? In fat bank accounts locally and abroad. In securities and equity. But very little in farms and companies that manufacture and employ people.
    WAKE UP AND…

  20. People value what you value (Mission Statement at My Luanshya Organisation) when soemone walks into your house with dirty shoes and you say “ahh its OK, we don’t mind” they’ll treat your house like a trash bin because thats what you say it is whether you are just trying to be polite or not. Same thing with hiring a new employee. They want the job, they need to know whats up, if you act like its no biggie then they treat it as such. If you value something, people will value it.

    When chinese came in, all people seemed to care about was to get jobs…if no one talked about the wage, responsibilities like maintaining roads in the mine area, recreation etc then its not their fault if they dont care about pa REC. So we begin to value our town, others will too! + Zed shud hire beta…

  21. I can’t blame the Chinese because if I was in their shoes I would do the same. The blame lies squarely on Zambians. How can you allow someone to come all the way from Chinese only to start selling chickens. Ukushishita mwe baku zed. In Tanzania the Chinese were told to stick to the business they went into the country for or leave.

  22. Of course there are Zambians with enough money to run these mines but the buggers, for example FTJ and his group of plunderers, steal from the government coffers and then invest outside, while the rest of us cry foul on the terraces and remain impotent. There’s enough Zambian money outside to run our mines.

  23. “I can’t blame the Chinese because if I was in their shoes I would do the same. The blame lies squarely on Zambians. How can you allow someone to come all the way from Chinese only to start selling chickens.”

    Zambians can easily learn how these Chinese raise chickens then do a better job at it and make more porfits. Isn’t this how business, corporations and countries grow? Learn and Do Better? When a more efficient system comes out, a lot of people benefits. In this case, the Chinese owner, fellow Zambian chicken farmers, and, more importantly, Zambian chicken buyers. These Zambian chicken buyers and get good source of meant for cheaper price.

    You need to learn and adapt in this globalized world, else you will fail.

  24. No wonder, Zambia is what it is, the comments speak for themselves stupid and selfish people. From one colonialism to another and you are clever, God burn it

  25. Let me be the first from Zambia to comment (so far). Apart from a few bloggers like Voice of Reason and a few others, the rest of you make me cringe. You know why? Because you guys have exhibited xenophobic sentiments regarding the Chinese, and I’m sure that sentiments extend to other nationalities as well. But the irony here is that you all are foreigners in some one else’s land, perhaps even proud passport holders of your new home. Whether you’re there for studies or for cleaning toilets or advising presidents, what you say will carry much more weight if you come back home & said it.

  26. Oh, and stop blaming anyone for the situation Zambia is in. Foreigners are always good sitting ducks. Very easy targets. Yes, it’s the government’s fault admittedly. But ponder for a while, have ALL the respective governments been responsible since 1964? What about the overall Zambian population? Why has it taken us so long to ‘take ownership’ so to speak. I’ve mentioned this a million times over pub talk, that if & when Zambians do come up with viable plans to take up ownership, why would any government not help them? Why? We’re Zambian after all. It’s because we’ve f****k all, and then we whine when the rest of the world rapes us.

  27. I worked for ZCCM. In 1986, the Chairman and Chief Executive of ZCCM announced that the life span of the mines in Zambia was 15 years and 20 years at the most. The report is there for all to see. ZCCM used to employ 54,000 Zambians. Because of that report, there was a massive program of redundancies, hence the new word ‘prune.’ Please Zambians, you may cry over these mines, but you failed to run them efficiently and economically. The British were no better. They created the recreation facilities for ‘WHITES ONLY.’ Youth and Sports Minister Ben Kakoma was kicked out of Congo Border Lodge in Mufulira! Zambians who stepped into ‘white’ shoes were just the same. This program ‘The Chinese are coming’ is out of envy!

  28. I know a Sri Lankan doctor who responded to an advert to come and work in Zambia for ZCCM all the way from Sri Lanka in 1975! The advert promised to ‘match the salary of a UK doctor equivalent, free accomodation and car, two annual holiday trips to country of recruitment, free education for the children, free health care and insurance.’ There was a promise to remit the salary to a country of their choice. At the same time, Zambians were paid ONLY 10% of expats salaries for the same work! ZCCM…Zambia chipuba chaifya chalo Manje.

  29. yeah,how do u expect the foreigner to have ur interests at heart? these chinese are here for one reason,just like the whites were….exploit and go,,,,,a win-win situation is only possible with unselfish leaders,which is very unlikely in this country,we will die poor and our children will be poor

  30. #27

    The duty of any responsible government is to look after the interests of its citizens. I am not against the Chinese who invest in the mines and those who invest in other industries but the investment should have a way of filtering back to the community. Africans should take hold of their own destiny and be a force economically. People that have progressive ideas are generally not welcome in African circles. Where are all the managers that Z.C.C.M trained …

  31. its really shocking to see the town where i was born and grew up a sorry site.At the time(from 1975) the facilities were exelllent.you wouldnt even compare those facilities to any in lusaka today! you cant blame the chinise for the dilapidation or the british either.we zambians ourselves have highly contributed to the downfall.poor management and lack of foresight has been the many factor.had those facilicities been mentanined people could have been comming from all over the country and overseas for holidays and hence revenue could have been generated and mines resucitated by ourseslves too.shocking! makes my cry! i leave in Ireland now.

  32. You Chaps can mourn all you can but the fact is you are bloody lazy!! Not just lazy but stupid as well. Take time to reflect to see why you have these “qualities”. Have you ever used “enough is enough” in your language? I witnessed one political campaign gimic in Fisenge, some years back when I was in Zambia, one hopeful cooked nshima with some meat for his constituency, believe me people danced through the night praising the bastard and they gave him the vote the very next day! You missed an opportunity when you failed to get the likes of king “Cobra” into government. My heart bleeds…..

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