By Wesley Ngwenya
There are many things that Zambia could live without. I have been thinking about the following things for some time now. I think that these things would make Zambia a better country. Their existence is not doing this country a favor. As a result, they should be outlawed.
Salaula and all imported clothing
I think it is about time we pulled the plug on this one. In as much as Salaula brings branded clothing and Chinese poor quality clothes are cheaper it is all detrimental to our own industry. Imported clothing has created an inferiority complex to Zambians. We have all become accustomed to what is foreign. We think foreign is better than local.
I propose that we ban Salaula and other clothing imports altogether or increase the tariffs on them (We may need to go naked for a few years). In their place, we revive the local industries in Livingstone and Kabwe. We can begin making our own shoes, jeans, shirts, hats, and so on. In addition, there are many Zambian designers who are struggling to make a mark on the market. CEEC could empower these with loans and encourage all of us to support them. It will not be long before we export our clothes to all our eight neighbors.
Second hand vehicles
The problem of used Japanese vehicles is that they are not only creating a traffic nightmare on our cities but causing senseless deaths and unemployment. Zambia should ban second hand vehicles. Yes, this will mean that if you want a ride you go to the showroom and pick a brand new vehicle. This will mean that only people who seriously need a ride will be on the road. Unroadworthy vehicles will cease being on roads. There will be less traffic. Instead we shall create employment by using public transportation. We shall encourage investment in commuter trains. We shall encourage motor companies to set up plants in Zambia—thus creating long-lasting jobs. And maybe, we shall become more innovative and come up with our own effective mode of transportation.
English Soccer on TV or TV Completely
DSTV is one of the worst things that ever happened to Zambia in the last decade. This has made Zambians to be lazy and stop thinking altogether. Every week, we crowd in bars glued to screens and watch white people chasing a ball. People we don’t know. People we will never meet. And people who don’t care about us. Meanwhile, down the street our local league suffers from lack of spectators at their stadiums. They lack sponsorship. What is wrong with us?
I suggest that we ban television in Zambia for at least 10 years. Instead of watching soccer on television we go and watch live soccer at Nkoloma Stadium. Imagine what that would do to our league and players. It will not be long before we start importing players from other countries. How about other programs on TV, you may ask? Seriously, when was the last time you watched something sensible on Zambian television? How about we save ourselves money by closing all the useless television stations and go back to the good old radio?
Even better every school going child should be forced to read at least one book of his or her choice every week. The child will then give a report to the community librarian. Those who don’t read will face some kind of a penalty. Imagine what will become of Zambia—a nation of smart people.
Alcohol
Now, this is a sensitive one. I could get killed for this one. Zambians love their alcohol. Zambian Breweries is one of the most profitable companies in our country. Alcohol does not do this country any good. I suggest that alcohol be banned for 10 years so that each one of us focuses on developing our lives, communities and country.
We waste so much money on alcohol at the expense marriages, school fees, food, and other essentials. Every weekend marriages are broken and lives lost because of alcohol. Even the new laws of closing bars and clubs at certain times are not being adhered to. Let’s ban it for a certain period and see if it does our nation good.
Lobola
I still don’t get this primitive custom of paying for (buying) a wife. As long as a man “buys” his wife there will never be equality, in this country, between men and women. Abuse for women will never stop. Therefore, women can be protected if this custom is outlawed altogether. If I had one, I would never sell my daughter to anyone. This is also a way of making women get more independent instead of always looking up to men for everything. Many Zambian young women aspire to be nothing. They don’t work hard at school and instead bank on marriage as a form of security for their lives.
Parents are also quick to accept Lobola money because times are hard. Daughters have been auctioned to the highest bidder. Lobola continues to be a modern form of slavery. I know a cousin who was not allowed to divorce her husband simply because my uncle did not want to pay back the Lobola money. Meanwhile, this lady was beaten up with scars all over her face. I even suggest we constitutionalize this issue.
National Exams
When was the last time national exams served their purpose? Is it 20, 30, or 50 years ago? National Exams are useless and not objective at all. Every year, we subject our students to exams in grade seven, nine and twelve. Our exams are intended to punish not assess progress. The same is done in college. Twenty years ago, we talked about changing our system to continuous assessment and yet nothing has changed. Continuous assessment ensures that students are tested in various kinds of work at school—projects, reports, reading, group work, tests, writing and so on. Teachers are able to adjust their assessments according to the progress and ability of the children.
Times have changed and it is about time our country changed to stay competitive in today’s changing world. I am always shocked how a UNZA graduate is unable to operate a computer or write a business proposal. Let us teach our students things that are relevant to our nation. By the way, those outdated syllabi need to be thrown away.
Hate Speech and Tribalism
Many will agree with me on this one. This could not come at a better time than now when our country is at crossroads on this issue. It should be against the law to utter any hate against a member of any other tribal grouping. No parent, friend, teacher, politician, or president is allowed to demeanor another tribe. There is no small tribe. Therefore, all tribes should be treated equal. This means that government jobs should be given to all tribes of Zambia because there are many who qualify. Cabinet should reflect the diversity of tribal groupings in Zambia.
Feel free to add your own…
Of all things you have mentioned i have only agreed with you on two things.Lobola and Tribalism ,the rest are not practical in our non-homogeneous society.Zambia will never be an utopia.Keep your dreams alive though…you never know ifi fintu.
Sense!!!!
Mr.Ngwenya you must be a very foolish person to come up with this crap,honestly how do you condem DSTV,something that is entertaining people some are even beneficiaries.How many Zambians are employed by the same company?Even ba LT how do they allow someone to expose his stupidity in public.Who can ban alcohol and who is going to look after alll those people who will be left jobless.Ba LT read some of these things when you see its not making sense dont even publish it.
You could have expressed your opposing view without calling Ngwenya “foolish” and “exposing stupidity in public.” And if Lusaka Times took your advice of not publishing things which don’t make sense, your unnecessary insults could not have been published.
Tone down, buddy.
You fogot pull him down (PHD) ……………just because i have n/work 24/7 and a lucrative job with no stress
blessed w/end all. keeping fit +kindle reader & couch/remote in hand for this weekend.
I hope Ukwa reads this, I agree with all your points man!
Wesley Ngwenya i just saw your wife in soweto market buying salaula.
Lol
When you write with high emotions, you mess up on many issues!
Stupid unreserched article….how to do you propose ban of imported vehicles when we have no local automobile manufacturing industrie?SA imposed the ban to protect local industry..
The way to go is establish local industries first and then impose ban on imports which have unfair advantage over the locally produced good.
As regards to soccer again you have shown luck of knowledge of the sport..ask yourself,why is local league not popular as your you claim?our league first has to be transformed to a proffessional one..football is business now.local team need to improve infrastructure to attract fans.maybe you will ask sources of finance…?Clubs could be listed PE
Rubbish.
I could not agree more!
I just want to comment on English soccer being televised on ZNBC. Truth be told that if we do not watch foreign soccer our own league will be doomed. We have got to keep afloat with the current level of game for us to participate internationally. It is up to our players to up the game so that we can go and watch our local league. Football is a competition and competition is compared so we have to keep a check on how our friends are doing, unless you want Zambians to be competing only among themselves.
This is not journalism! It is called CRAP! Do your research before you think of boring your readers with your “sweet nothings”
LOL!!!
There is no doubt; The author is a product of a one year course either at Mindolo ecumenical College or some ficticious college in Lusaka. The Thinking exhibited is quite low.
This article sucks and it does big time.
Ya, this article is crap. I got interested going by the heading, read two paragraphs and realised Mr Ngwenya was wasting my time. Mr Ngwenya if you having nothing worthwhile to write about, leave the space to others.
Myself personally I have found this amusing. Most of the suggestions are not practical, but it is interesting to see that one sees these areas of weakness and expresses them in such a passionate manner, despite the proposed solutions not being sound. We can not ban alcohol, but we can agree that it is a problem and find ways around those related problems. We can not ban second hand cars, but we can consider the congestion problem on our streets, or even consider a car plant for example… etc… We can not band television, but we can consider ways of our children having time also for other developmental acitivites, as well as try t regulate content, which also comes down, as somene has said regarding sport, to local content needing to be cmpetitive enough.
YOU ARE RIGHT, BUT IF WE BAN SALAULA KAFUE AND MULUNGUSHI TEXTILES WILL REVAMP BECOZ OF DEMAND. BUT ZAMBIANS ARE ALREADY SPOILED WITH FOREIGN STUFF. IT WILL BE HARD TO CHANGE THE MIND-SETS
About exams, I do not think that grade nine examos should drp anybody out of school. I think the only exams that matter are those for qualification for entry to university or ther higher learning institutions. I agree with assessment and evaluation tests.
You want to suppress our freedoms. people should have a choice, they infact know what is good and bad for them. Ngwenya, you get a life and instead of writing such crap!
I think ili litole. What planet made this as.ho?
Icho chintu
Hey man I think you are going nuts on some of the things you want abolished.DSTV keeps families and friends together.Entertainment is part of living.If we remove it then we stop living and just start existing!!We are not animals who just eat,drink water,rest,make love and repeat the cycle.Go and exist in the bush among animals if you want!!.Lobola is an old tradition that cannot be abolished.The problem with it now is that people have commercialised marriages unlike in the past when men would give beads and other small things for a hand in marriage.Lobola is a token of appreciation and not a price for a woman!!That is where we got it wrong.You are only supposed to pay a prositute for sex and not a wife.!!I THINK THROWING THINGS FROM WINDOWS OF MOVING VEHICLES SHOULD BE A SERIOUS CRIME!!
Wamona Wesly ukutemwa ukubaila weka ofyokwabipila ? Nomba wayamba ukusabaila.
For sure the above pic speaks for it self that Zambia has become a dumping ground for used clothing and used cars etc.When will zedians wake up from there slumber?Clothing why not revamp mulungushi textile?how about Kafue textile will not our own people get imployment from these companies?Our residential areas there are no play parks for children even in areas which were reserved for play parks you will find that some councilor has given out land corruptly to selfish indivinduals to build houses.Look at west african countries they even use motorbikes for taxi but Zambians are busy importing used cars from Japan only to conjest our roads.When going to work every morning you’ll be caught up in traffic one riding a bicycle can even go faster than the one using an automobile.Have we stopped…
LOL!
Well,…..
He does have some points though,….
Wesley Ngwenya, you are racist. Is it only white people that play football? You have a serious inferiority complex. If Zambian football was high quality, people would go to watch. May be we should first start by cleaning up on football houses. However, I do support banning things like salaula, in order to boost domestic growth of textile and clothing industry.
I think you are missing the point. This is done with tongue firmly in the cheek. Just have laugh for a change. For me, hate speech and tribalism/racism are my pet hates.
i saw the headline, got interested and ran through the subtitle, then realised that it was total rubbish to i did what i always do best, crolled to the comments and got my laughs.
LOl – I did the same and commented as well on the lobola issue (which is where I stopped reading this nonsensical article!!
People condemning this article as foolish are the ones exposing their foolishness and backwardness on this blog.What he has put forward is his opinion of these things.Now what any intelligent person would do is put forward their own points to show why he is wrong.That’s what I would do. I don’t agree with some of his points but I would not go the way of #17. Kci is a prime example of a mentally lazy person. He cannot come up with a single point to counter this article so the only thing he can do is insult the writer.Grow up. Advancement results from intelligent debate.Even on matters that might not seem important.
As passionate as the author of this article is, he clearly did not think things through.
Salaula & All Imported Clothing – Yes a Salaula ban on imported clothing might work. But can the local industries compete in terms of quality and volume?
Second Hand Vehicles – Where’s the local car industry? Mass transit system? You don’t expect Zambians with second hand vehicles to go back to Zamfooting do you?
English Soccer on TV or TV Completely – Exposure, exposure, exposure. You know Zambia is landlocked right? We have poor internet penetration and a weak transportation network, how else are we supposed to learn about the outside world?
National Exams & Tribalism do need to go.
Alcohol – At this point you’re clearly not being pragmatic. I don’t even need to comment on the rest…
LMAO
Ba Wesley – I pity you indeed!!! On lobola especially – Lobola is meant to be a sign of ‘gratefulness for raising a daughter who is now leaving the parent’s house. That is, she will now use the skills she learnt from her family for the benefit of her husband, her new in-laws and her children.’ Therefore, it is actuallly a sign of respect to pay lobola – an insult not to pay lobola to a family. As you know, it is the woman who makes or breaks a home – such is a woman’s superiority compared to a man.
And yes, there can never be equality between man and woman because woman is the more superior being. Men are like children – they are literally controlled by women all their lives. This notion of merely adopting western principles is very backward and shallow thinking
Wesley, you may have done this with a certain tongue in cheek but some of the stuff needs to be examined seriously. DSTV and Education (National Exams): Zambians’ neo-colonial love for English soccer brings to mind Malcolm X’s House nigger story in which he despises the slave who thinks whatever his master owns is his-when in fact it isn’t.
This comes from a lack of good education. Good Education teaches you to love and have pride in yourself. When you are educated salaula, tribalism and hate speech wont appeal and you might want to think twice about charging lobola for your daughter.
However, despite my praise for your article here, dont touch my beer, just dont touch my Mosi.
while education does many of the things you say it does, salaula, hate speech or tribalism are not simply discarded by the educated individual. Second hand clothing provides an affordable source of clothing for majority of Zambians; don’t fault them for shopping there. We have educated people in government office, private sector as well within some households and they use hate speech (is outside the law, communication that vilifies a person or a group on the basis of one or more characteristics such as color, disability, ethnicity, gender, nationality, race, religion, and sexual orientation). It tends to be socially acceptable in Zambia to hate on gay people even by bible toting christians who are so holier than thou in demeanor. DSTV is there because ZNBC provides lackluster programming.
Nice but on second hand vehicles you missed the most important point.It is that of pollution as many of these vehicles have carbon emissions beyond acceptable levels.It is a matter of health,life and death .
I see you feel very strongly about these issues; the two I can agree need to be seriously looked at are tribalism (which is a cultural perspective or tradition) and education. Both have areas that are not befitting of the age and counter-productive. To prepare individuals for productive contribution, we need to emphasize areas that need improvement in all sectors of our economy- science tech and math (STEM). Throw in a little ethics to help reduce corruption and general malaise in service delivery. Regarding tradition or tribalism, this needs to be taught from infancy at school and at home. Dowry (lobola) is a stupid concept that encourages abuse in some cases because men think they have ‘purchased’ their spouses. Education solves a lot problems, but so does common sense- which many…
With these extreme non progressive ideas.
1. Salaula/imported clothes: are not killing the local Industries. Competition should encourage locals to make better quality clothes to compete which will in the long run develop products that can be exported.
2. 2nd Hand cars: make sense, tere is no assembly in Zambia. Medium income is too low
3. EPL on TV: How is the quality of programming of local sports let alone quality of local teams. Improve stadiums, encourage people to go to watch local sports, create a fans for local teams that you can lure them to watch their teams on TV
4. Alcohol – DON’T TOUCH. WE NEED THE ESCAPE
5. Lobola – just stop trying to get rich off lobola
6. Hate Speech & Tribalism: mostly done by politicians in power and those aspiring power. Most Zambians get…
Makes very good sence and would definitely create more jobs in Zambia. For example, Salaula should have been banned many, many years ago. Even in China or South Africa, salaula is banned. Salaula is a good example of dumping useless things from Asia or Europe to Africa – Zambia. It kills local industries. Same applies to DSTV and imported second hand cars. It kills talent in Zambia.
Thanks, I’ve recently been hunting for details about this subject matter for ages and yours is the best I’ve discovered so far.
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