Amb. Emmanuel Mwamba wrote;

One of Africa’s music top stars, Diamond Platnumz (Naseeb Abdul Juma Issack), had over the weekend traveled to Zambia.
He was in Zambia to perform at a private wedding of the daughter of emerald mining giant Grizzly Mining Chairperson Abdoulaye
Ndiaye, Kadi, and the groom Jimmy Karabassis.

This immediately attracted huge social media attention and fierce debate.
“….we have wealthy people in Zambia, but do not make noise…”
“…money doesn’t talk, it walks…..

Clearly, this was not your regular weekend wedding.

The amount whispered to have been spent on the preparations, decorations, the opulent wedding, on artists and guests, had set tongues wagging.
“You mean Zambia has such very wealthy people?”

A POOR PEOPLE
You see, Zambia is one of the poorest countries in the world and is ranked the sixth poorest countries after Niger, Malawi, Democratic Republic of Congo, Liberia, and Somalia.But Zambia also makes it to another ranking.
It’s on top of the most unequal country in the world, were there is a group of a few rich and extremely wealthy people living amongst some of the poorest people in the world.

An unequal country is one where there’s a significant disparity in income, wealth, resources, or opportunities among different groups within the population.
Zambia is therefore among the top six most unequal countries in the world,based on income distribution, alongside South Africa, Namibia, Colombia, Eswatini, Botswana, and Zambia.
These countries consistently rank at the top of list, measuring inequality using the Gini coefficient, which indicates the extent of income distribution within a country.
Zambia’s national poverty rate stands at 64.3%, with approximately 12.9 million people living on less than $2.15 a day.

ZAMBIA A WEALTHY COUNTRY
The Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) and Zambia are often cited as among the wealthiest nations in the world in terms of resource endowment, specifically regarding minerals while.

The two countries depict the paradox of a rich country with a poor people.its people remain amongst the poorest in the world.

GRIZZLY MINING

In this wedding, the brides father, Abdoulaye Ndiaye is the pioneering founder and Chairman of Grizzly Mining Limited in Kitwe.
Abdoulaye started his mining career in Zambia in 1972, hustling and trading emeralds in Lufwanyama, located in Zambia’s Copperbelt Province.

The Senegalese born mining executive and entrepreneur acquired the Grizzly Mine twenty-five years later. For nearly thirty years, he has been leading the way at Grizzly Mining, qualifying as a gemologist whilst Grizzly Mining produced some of the world’s largest high-grade emeralds.

Through the creation of employment for more than 4,000 workers at their mining operations Grizzly Mining.
Employees of Grizzly Mining Limited engage in the production and processing, as well as grading, marketing, and supply of emeralds and beryl.
The company is best known as the source of some of the largest high-grade emeralds globally.

Abdoulaye was born in 1952, in the village of Médina Gounass, Senegal, where he attended an Islamic school.
His nickname “Gounass”, is from the town where he grew up.

Nearby Kagem and Grizzly have made Zambia topple Columbia as the largest producers of emerald in the world.
The mine produces approximately 60 million carats of emeralds annually. The Kagem emerald mine next door, is considered the world’s largest single emerald mine. It is estimated to produce approximately 25-30% of the world’s total emerald supply.
75% of the mine is owned by Gemfields Group and 25% is owned by the Zambian government through ZCCM-IH and IDC.
Gemfields is a foreign owned entity.The major shareholders are include Assore Holdings Proprietary Limited, Rozendal & Associates Holdings Ltd, Ophorst van Marwijk Kooy Vermogensbeheer N.V., and Sean Gilbertson, the CEO.

LARGE-SCALE MINES IN ZAMBIA
Large-scale mines in Zambia are owned by foreign entities or multinational corporation.
When Zambia privatised the mines in the 1990s, it reserved an insignificant shareholding of 20% in legacy mines; Kansanshi Copper and Gold Mine, Konkola Copper Mines, Kagem, Luanshya Mines and Mopani Copper Mines.However, Government holds no shareholding in mines like Kalumbila.

The Kalumbila Mine, also known as the Sentinel Mine, is 100% owned by First Quantum Minerals (FQM), The Lumwana copper mine is owned by Barrick Gold based in Toronto, Canada. It is operated by Lumwana Mining Company Limited (LMC), a wholly owned subsidiary of Barrick Gold.Similarly over 95% of commercial farmers in Zambia are mostly foreigners or foreign entities.
Zambia, there are an estimated 740 commercial farmers, operating on land larger than 100 hectares. Additionally, there are approximately 400,000 medium-scale farmers (20-100 ha) and 1.6 million small-scale farmers.

This is the same story to industries and manufacturing entities.Clearly this makes Zambia’s means of production to be in foreign hands and therefore its economy is mostly foreign-owned.

FACTORS
A combination of poor government policies, poor leadership, system of education, a well-entrenched neo-colonial system, lack of empowerment tools, corruption and other inherent factors prevent Zambians from owning these resources but participate as workers or by-standers.
Time to change is now.
What’s your view?

When I first read the headline, “Changing Governments Is Not, In Itself, A Solution To Poverty,” at Lusaka Times, I assumed it was mere satire. It wasn’t. It came from Leslie Chikuse, the self-styled president of the Republican Progressive Party, agreeing with Vice President Mutale Nalumango’s remarks at the Regional Poverty Reduction and Climate Resilience Conference.

I have spent my academic life studying the intersections of governance, corruption, and climate justice. In “God’s Family, God’s Earth,” I argue that corruption isn’t a marginal concern—it’s the systemic rot at the heart of both poverty and ecological collapse. This isn’t abstract theory. It’s a lived Zambian reality, where poverty and environmental degradation are not parallel crises but interconnected.

Take charcoal burning, for example. One cannot discuss its environmental toll without engaging the economic plight of those who rely on it. The rural poor cut and sell; the urban poor buy and cook. Meanwhile, load shedding drives demand. This vicious cycle is not just ecological—it is political. You cannot solve Zambia’s climate vulnerabilities without addressing the poverty that makes them inescapable.

Which brings me to the center of the Vice President’s misleading claim. Poverty is not apolitical. To pretend otherwise is to insult both scholarship and lived experience. Throughout history, political leadership and poverty have been entangled. Governance either disrupts poverty or entrenches it. Here, who governs matters. In this case, poverty eradication (not just reduction) is not ideologically neutral. It is shaped by policy—and policy is shaped by power.

Consider President Hakainde Hichilema’s decision to open the Lower Zambezi to mining. This was not a technocratic decision; it was political. The ecological and social repercussions will be felt for generations. Ask the people of the Gwembe Valley. They are still living with the anthropological insults of the late 1950s when the Kariba Dam was built.

Poverty is about fairness, too. Why are marketeers—overwhelmingly poor women—subject to daily local government taxes, while elite traders in emeralds, gold, and other precious stones enjoy tax holidays? Why do foreign investors receive generous incentives that local businesses are denied? And why do our politicians get “tax-free this and that”? These are not economic accidents; they are deliberate political choices. They expose whose interests the government protects, and whose it abandons.

So yes, political transitions matter. Governments campaign on concrete promises to fix roads, create jobs, and end poverty. If changing leadership had no bearing on poverty, why hold elections? Leadership change alone won’t fix everything—but it is the first step to ending poverty.

I feel for the Vice President’s bind. With 2026 approaching, perhaps she’s managing expectations. But in doing so, she alerts us to the problem. If we continue treating politics as a popularity contest, changing parties will not change outcomes.

I believe Zambia doesn’t just need a new president. We need a new political culture. We must dismantle the ‘ngatwesheko” mindset—the dangerous belief that anyone deserves the presidency simply because it’s “their turn.” You wouldn’t hand the car keys to someone blindfolded, no matter how many times you change the driver. Visionless leadership, no matter how often rotated, will only reproduce failure.

So let us be vigilant. Ask the hard questions. Demand concrete plans. If a candidate cannot clearly articulate a strategy during their campaign, what makes us think they will lead effectively once in office?

Is BaShiPromise Hichilema, alongside BaNaPromise Nalumango, not already proof of the cost of vague rhetoric over visionary leadership?

It is time to stop gambling with our national future. Poverty is not simply a developmental challenge—it is a failure of leadership. Unless we confront it head-on, the slogans may change, but our Poverty will not.
Kapya Kaoma