By Ngobola C. Mayembe
Commonwealth Development Corporation (CDC) are back in Zambia in another form but they say, a leopard does not change its spots. What worries me is how some of our officials seem to think that they are here to help our people forgetting what they did to us during privatisation.
This week on Tuesday 5 April 2022, Zambia hosted the UK Minister for Africa Vicky Ford who was here to launch the British Investment International (BII). It was front-page news in most of the papers in Zambia and up until Thursday today 7 April 7, 2022, still in the Mast and Daily Mail because most of our people think that these are benevolent white people that have come to help us.
Could you be loved and be loved?
I was waiting to hear how our very own private sector will stand to benefit from this launch instead of crumbs being proposed but all I heard was how the commerce minister Chipoka Mulenga appealed for direct flights between Zambia and the UK. He gave examples of flights between Brussels and Kinshasa, Luanda, and Lisbon. I thought the reason we set up Zambia Airways is to one day make our own direct flight to London instead of handing over this route back to the British that abandoned it.
I do not think he knew exactly what was happening which is typical of most Africans when they are invited to officiate something organized by white people. They think they are loved forgetting that they are just being pampered for something bigger to be taken from them.
Even though he mentioned free education, our commerce minister seems to think that we are educating our people for free so that they can be employed by the British private sector instead of our own. This is music to those British businesses especially that it was coming from a government official.
People must never forget that what the commerce minister was launching at Latitude 15 on Tuesday is what was previously known as the CDC which changed to CDC Group and now to being called the British International Investment which is also funded by the World Bank and are not made to jump through hoops to get their money. They came to Zambia during privatization pretending to be advisors to the government but ended up buying our profitable parastatals.
What was alarming for me was to hear Chipoka Mulenga saying that the government of Zambia is very committed to the private sector and the BII is the private sector we need. Why not talk about our very own people involved in the sector that the British are after?
I say this is alarming because the British International Investment is owned 100% by the British government and is the equivalent of our very own IDC which people like Yusuf Dodia have been criticizing. People must also never forget that the British never privatized everything the way these proponents of privatization have made us to believe.
It was the CDC that took Zambia Sugar and Chilanga Cement and gave to their own people and to this day, millions of dollars made from those companies do not benefit black Zambian owned companies. White South African, British, Australian, and American companies are the ones making money from those companies.
The UK Minister was here to look out for her people that are targeting investment in Solar and Geothermal that will generate power right here in Zambia. One of the companies to receive this so called investment is a UK company called InfraCo Africa which is part of the Private Infrastructure Development Group (PIDG): it is managed as a private company although funded by governments in the UK (FCDO), the Netherlands (DGIS) and Switzerland (SECO).
Private Infrastructure Development Group is funded by what was called the Department for International Development (DFID) which has now been replaced by The Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office (FCDO) is a department of the Government of the United Kingdom.
We have people in Zambia parroting the phrase that government has no business in business, yet this is happening to an extent where our own commerce minister thinks he is dealing with the private sector.
What you see on the roadside in most of our local peasant farmer’s fields written Syngenta is actually a Switzerland based company and is one of the world’s largest pesticide and seed company that is also funded by the British government. We all know what happened with Switzerland and our resources.
SABMiller that owns Zambia Breweries a company that was once owned by our own government was also funded from the Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office (FCDO). When the UK Minister was talking about supporting Zambian businesses, SABMiller was one of those companies and I don’t see any normal person that can say these are our companies.
I was expecting to see Lunsemfwa Hydro which is owned by a Zambian with no help from the government and I thought our minister would have invited this company and those Zambians that are into power generation onboard as well. To ask for a direct flight to Lusaka by British Airways when other people are thinking about energy dominance in the region is a very strange request to come from a commerce minister.
The other company mentioned is Africa GreenCo which is funded by Agence Française de Développement (AFD) and they are supposed to be the renewable energy creditworthy buyer of power. All these ministers are paving the way for a 44 billion Euro Green Economy that will be dominated by foreign players.
Felix Mutati already gave out a huge portion to a French company and they too came with their own minister while we went with just an entourage without a single Zambian company.
To me this is the meaning of capitalism, but the only problem is that those representing us in the name of the same ideology are sleeping at the wheel while our green jobs are being taken by the CDC and their relatives.
After making money pretending to be a non-profit-making institution that focused on development and poverty reduction they have now reappeared as an alternative foreign lender to Africa to counter Chinese loans
They are back and about to embark on another one of their trickery in Zambia after they tricked us out of a lot of companies including Lafarge which has coincidentally been renamed back to its original name of Chilanga Cement.
The CDC has successfully repurposed itself as British Investment International (BII), an institution that focuses solely on private-sector investment and profit-making and is 100% owned by the British government. That private sector will be no doubt their own relatives.
Western countries were against the Chinese government lending to African governments and people thought they really cared about us. It is better we borrow from them, and they make a profit on us than directly from the Chinese because they will not make any profit then.
Since the CDC is funded by the World Bank, they have already gotten their money and are ready to start funding their relatives operating here in Zambia.
That is shrewd capitalism, and you don’t sit on the table where they are sharing the loot and cheer for the other side. We have the sun, the land, water and the wind! Why give these away for close to nothing?
You must look out for your own people just like the British are looking out for their own people instead of begging for British Airways.
#i_wish_i_had_more_time_to_write
#zambia_chalo_chesu_fwebene
If u want to be taken seriously, it’s advisable to gather your facts and present them persuasively. Ngobola Muyembe doesn’t know the ownership ratio of Chilanga Cement and Zambia Sugar before privatisation. Neither company was wholly-owned by the Zambian state. There were minority interests in both Chilanga Cement and Zambia Sugar who also had pre-emptive rights on the shares of these companies if ever the state chose to sell them. It’s a pity that such misinformation is circulating and poisoning people’s minds.
Dear Ngobola C. Mayembe
Long article indeed. I follow your mind mapping write-ups which always demand to bring-out full mind latent potentialities.
In this article however, you have digressed to policy ideological issues than the captioned subject (CDC launch). i would have loved you had maintained a line of proficiency than ‘ scholarly economic policy ideology’. You seem conflicted with the captioned topic or perhaps say mumble jumbled. I would have liked you had explained in part:
1. what CDC did to Zambia in brief than the tone you have mentioned.(Reference Citation) – ‘(CDC) are back in Zambia in another form’
2.Highlighted what was proposed/said during the said CDC meeting, You have only cited what the Minister said, what did CDC Say?
3.What is happening that…
That is ? percent true and some of us who went through the process and effects of privatization bleed when we see the same demons revisiting us.
The effects of the pain these caused are still written on our hearts with deep scares and the route our government is taking to let in the west into our country an checked deep into our bedrooms will leave our people poor for the rest our the lives of generations to come.
3.What is happening that the Minister does not know as you have explained?
4. How does free education topic come into this captioned subject matter?
5.Cite a reference (facts of matter) were CDC played role in advisory or what parastatal CDC acquired during privatization?
6.What is mandate or role of CDC?
7.Could you cite were you got information that CDC is connected with Chilanga cement and Zambia Sugar? Is this your presumption?
8.How has agriculture been connected with CDC coming now? cite reference(facts) what happened with Switzerland and our resources? Is this your presumption
9.You have mentioned about topical energy issues, how does it concern CDC- Lusemfwa Hydro or what help (reference) are you talking about from Govt related to Lusemfwa?
10. Your write-up in…
10. Your write-up in conclusion appears to compare and contrast chinese investment with CDC… isn’t this now an economic policy ideology you want to discuss?
11. How does our natural capitals, Sun, Land, water and wind to do with CDC? Thank you
This is a good article which is simplified for a lay person who is not an academician. One can easily follow the argument that the writer is trying to bring out. We need to put our interest first as we look for investors. We are well positioned to succeed with hh. But let us look out for people who are out to make money out of us
I’ve read the book Confessions of an Economic Hit Man for yet an umpteenth time
Garbage post.
What privatization nonsense are you talking about ?
ZESCO (including its Key assets )is literary owned by China Exim Bank. ECL and the PF allowed ZESCO to obtain a debt of $1,5 billion.
ZNBC is practically under Startimes of China for the next 20+ years ,ECL ‘ Dora and the PF borrowed money from China for the digital migration .Even the TV levy which is deducted from the utility bills goes to Startimes.
You can only cheat those born after 1991. Keep those PF lies to yourselves
DRC doesn’t manufature guns and neither does Somalia or indeed many African countries. But these countries have had endless wars using sophisticated weaponry. The point here is the West is not your friend and will use all tactics to make Africa ever depending on them. They will ensure they get our raw material including our best brains( due to lack of opportunities at home thanks to their manipulations) Unfortunately our leaders are ready to deal with the devil… just see how they smile broadly when posing for photos with a white person…. to them meeting Boris Johnson is like seeing Christ himself. CELEBRATE PASSION SUNDAY WITH PASSION
#7 Maybe you didn’t have relatives who died in destitution after being declared redundant…no house, sometimes no pay or very little settlement. Those companies may be under the Chinks as you say but nobody has lost employment.
@Mayembe: You said this yourself :”#i_wish_i_had_more_time_to_write
#zambia_chalo_chesu_fwebene.” And that is all you are good at,writing stupid articles like these -Emamnuel Mwamba style. Let me tell you sir, We Zambians ve been hearing these well articulated articles since we were born, what Zambia needs now is action. You yourself start a company in Geothermal production(Which i dont think u even know what that means, which is what the BSII is coming to invest in) and excell then u can talk & write a meangfull article. You talk of Zambian Investors & IDC -who is Stoppping IDC to go invest in America, China or India? Even the chinese themselves come her in the name of their national Bank & national investment company-so stop kusabaila.
Even if we are to say these investors shouldnt come and we ourselves take up all the investment opportunities; well, we had your PF rule us for the 10 good years,which claimed to be pro-poor, where are the Zambian miniing magnets? i dont see any, and in 10years ka,you dont even have a single mine to point at that you can claim its wholly Zambian nor did you empower any single Zambian other than Ethiopean Airlines and those Sudanese including China which is the soul owner of Zambia currently. Besides, And besides Chiluba,Nawakwi & Chikwanda privatised Zambian companies if you are trying to point fingers at HH for Privatisation nop, it wasnt his baby to nurse. HH has never worked in Government before, so how did privatise GRZ resources while in the private sector? Your own Bemba men -…
I don’t insult anyone on this site. Yet LT doesn’t want to see my posting on the above article.
#12 I suspect their system is sensitive to certain characters while allowing unprintables by KZ.
Well thought and long write up i must; i might not be in the economic field of expertise neither have much knowledge regarding the issue of privatisation as the time all that was taking place i was young, now am grown and have seen and have little experience of what privatisation can do to the economy and our people ~ it has bruised our economy and ground it to dust, with no employment for our people and no or not enough help from government to support individual entrepreneurial ventures, its so very sad.
its sad that those who fully understand what privatisation has done to our economy and witnessed if not experienced the lies of the so called “investors” who crippled our young economy are the ones to allow such back to the table of reasoning and “new dawn” ‘ideology’ of…
the moment the tribe issue is brought in, it defeats the whole idea of one zambia one nation, ‘bembas’ are not the reason the economy has flopped, reason well if you are to see a better zambia one anchored not on tribal division but tribal unity,thank you, please rethink if you mean well for our nation.
@de javu if you post faeces here it will be moderated. I speak the truth hence why my comments sail through.
There is a picture of hh doing rounds where he can be seen laughing. I thought to myself what a wonderful capture of a man who is always looking evil, then I realised one thing, he had whlte people around him in that picture. A clear sign that he is only happy around his masters. It really hit me
The articles may be down voted by those who fail to be objective.
BII is akin to CDC. But when the UK minister came, she did not affirm the collaboration of government to government business. The interest and support is in those firms that were in CDC. BII is here for specific companies while lying in wait for further privatisation and NOT to help the IDC.
#16 Kaizer no wonder people are complaining.