By Son Mumbi

I realize that by not giving context of what our copper industry looks like today most of you must be imagining that our copper industry comprises only the big mining multi-nationals. I imagine that some of you flying home may have seen the very positive images of the booming copper industry in your in-flight magazine. Well that is not the entire copper industry. There is a parallel market that I only hinted at in the earlier article. I will describe it from the perspective of a braver, some may say less ethical colleague of mine. My colleague who I shall call, Mwaiche was approached by a number of foreign businesspersons looking to invest in copper but at low cost. Their interest in particular was in recovering copper and other minerals from the copper dumpsites left by ZCCM.

Mwaiche lives in a neighbourhood located near such a dump and one where people in the neighbourhood had already been collecting copper by-product for various uses such as paving the increasingly potholed township roads. What he set out do, without formally registering his business (because of course he knew he would be excavating from dump sites he had no legal title to) was too informally recruit what is now a workforce of 300 to 500 people.

The arrangement was that this workforce (normally young persons because they are less likely to be prosecuted if caught on prohibited territory) would individually excavate the equivalent of 10 tonnes of copper ‘waste’ product per week. This product would be transported at the back of taxis (evading police checks) to his holding house where he would have it arranged to be transported to mini-smelters where it would be melted and reduced to an impure metal mass. When I asked a colleague who owned these mini-smelters, I was told that I should look to those that drove the most expensive military style cars on the Copperbelt.

Mwaiche’s business has been successful and has funded entrepreneurial s

pin offs in transport, property and trade. On the Copperbelt, Mwaiche is lauded as a Robin Hood figure who by appropriating the copper dumps has distributed wealth better than the multi-national companies have.

What Mwaiche was pragmatically aware of was that the cost of doing formal business in Zambia is very high. One has to factor in time lost in lengthy bureaucratic processes, dealing with officials constantly waiting for kickbacks and high taxes. In addition, he was also aware that the most effective way of doing business is along kinship ties (fictious or otherwise), so rather than formally employing a whole lot of strangers, people are recruited along personal networks, very much like highly organised gangs.

Mwaiche has been one of the few local success stories of the copper boom. If he curbs his propensity for expensive cars and women and diversifies into low-tech, ecologically sustainable business, he will still be a success in the long term. Other colleagues who made a short term success through the mine supply business might not be so lucky and may already be feeling the pinch. The reduced investment and cost cutting measures of the mines, means that most are not making the 300% profit margins there were previously and are actually now making losses. Most did not save when their businesses boomed; and we know as Zambians that our propensity for lavish lifestyles and live for today is our undoing. For the masses, the majority who suffered ZCCM retrenchments  (with no guarantee of benefits), they will likely retreat to subsistence agriculture; a difficult prospect with the high value on land. However, if my friend Mwaiche used the capital he has gained from the copper to diversify into sustainable business ventures appropriate for our context; and employing our increasingly low skilled populace, we might still have some hope.

As we face the unfortunately harsh realities of the times, what are We as Zambians going to do?

Omnia Small scale Limited has closed its storage sheds in Kalomo holding several agro inputs intended for farmers under the fertiliser support programme (FSP) with company sources saying government has not paid the company.

Both District Commissioner and area agriculture coordinator Oliver pelete and Dr. Max Chombe respectively confirmed the development to ZANIS in Kalomo, saying frantic efforts were being made to address the situation.

Scores of farmers from primary cooperative societies who had already settled the 75 per cent down under the programme were yesterday stunned when they were informed of the development by Omnia officials..

The district agriculture coordinator, Dr. Chombe said 9,848 agro packs had been received and Omnia was handling their distribution to small scale vulnerable but viable farmers. About half of the packs have been collected by the farmers.

A check by ZANIS at the sheds yesterday afternoon found Omnia staff offloading the last consignment of the inputs but declined to comment over the closure saying government owed the company millions of kwachas which they did not disclose and reffred all querries to their general manager, Vincent Mukuyamba who could not be reached for clarification by press time.

Farmers talked to by ZANIS urged government to quickly clear the company so that they could access the seed and fertilisers for their agriculture activities.

ENDS/MM/PK/ZANIS.

By Mingeli Palata
The rate at which the dollar is moving is worrisome. The markets are in frenzy and the mealie meal prices are not in their best behavior. One wonders whether it’s really the after effects of the global financial crisis or there is some element of irresponsibility on the part of the movers.

Enock Kavindele a man whose Zambia/Angola rail line idea has suffered at the hands of the negative forces of politics finally spoke out about a few days ago. I am not his biggest fan but what he talked about made me start to think there is an element of greed and irresponsibility on the part of the market players and the government itself that has resulted in Zambia’s latest misfortune.

The Food Reserve Agency is busy trying to buy Maize in South Africa, this is not only embarrassing and is uncalled for since FRA say they have these strategic reserves.The funny thing is that we really don’t know how much maize stocks we have in this country. What happened to the bumper harvest we had the previous year and years before? Was that all political posturing? Isn’t it ironic how the truth always catches up with people?

Let’s make an assumption and say that the FRA really recorded a bumper harvest, what happened to the maize then? Was it sold? To whom? The millers? How come maize prices went down during the campaigns?

Look I am just shooting in the dark here but the point is how much more about maize stocks or indeed government operations do we know about? You perhaps would equally ask this question for all but a reason, like Chibamba Kanyama stated earlier this week, this government is not inspiring enough. Its operations and very composition give little hope for the Zambian economy. I am yet to be impressed.

For instance, Kavindele questioned why the government can’t fund key strategic commercial farmers around the provinces who will be responsible for maize reserves. I think it’s a very good suggestion, why don’t we do just that. The government is directly responsible for feeding its citizens, no excuse, and right now they are failing in their duty. Zambia has no maize reserves as implied by plans of importing maize from South Africa, now just imagine if we were under siege, would we survive? I am yet to see GRZ being serious about this issue. It’s such a shame.

Today the kwacha is almost trading at K5, 000.00 to a US dollar; this was not the case in the good and long gone Mwanawasa days. Of course the price of copper has decreased due to less demand and there have been a few greedy people on the market who have bought huge quantities of dollar creating unnecessary demand and landing us all in this quandary, but what has this government done to regulate the exchange rate to our advantage or to stabiles market sentiments? The truth is Magande’s fate and this very government has sent dome jitters on the market and there has not been much put in place by the Reserve Bank to rectify the situation.

Will we ever learn, all we think about is copper and look what it has landed us into now! What’s the plan Zambia? Where are we going? The state of our copper, Maize and kwacha is enough to worry each and every meaningful Zambian.