ECONOMY-ZAMBIA: China’s Growing Presence Met With Resistance

By IPS Correspondents Reprint | | Print |

Isabel Chimangeni

LUSAKA, Oct 18 2006 (IPS) - Votes cast for presidential contender Michael Sata in the recent election suggest a growing discontent among Zambians over the effects of increased Chinese involvement in their country.

President Levy Mwanawasa won the Sep. 28 poll, but Sata received an overwhelming majority of votes in the capital – Lusaka – and the Copperbelt, two areas where Chinese traders and investors have a strong presence in the economy.

Despite the cordial relations that exist between China and Zambia, resentment towards Chinese businesspeople is widespread among small-scale Zambian businesspeople and poorly-paid workers.

Neo Simutanyi, a political scientist at the University of Zambia, says the anti-China sentiment that Sata raised in the run-up to the election endeared him to many voters in Lusaka and the Copperbelt.

Simutanyi believes the labour practices of especially Chinese businesspeople spurred some people to vote for Sata. The Chinese are frequently accused of being the main culprits in the use of casual labour, which involves lower pay and no social security benefits.

According to the Chinese embassy, investment by its nationals in the Zambian economy stands at more than 300 million dollars, spread across 160 enterprises and employing more than 10,000 Zambians.

Sata, who was Mwanawasa’s main challenger, made China’s presence in Zambia’s copper mining and trading sectors a campaign issue. “They ill treat our people and that is unacceptable. We are not going to condone exploitative investors. This country belongs to Zambians,” Sata said of Chinese investors.

At another event he said that “Foreign relations must benefit all concerned. It must not be one-way traffic. Chinese investment has not added any value to the lives of the people of Zambia. We want investors – local investors, foreign investors – who add value.”

Sata is not alone. The Federation of Free Trade Unions (FFTUZ) in Zambia threw its weight behind his campaign, and trade union leaders made similar accusations.

Mwanawasa defended the Chinese when Sata first made the threat to review state contracts should he come to power. Later, Mwanawasa agreed with the general complaint about the quality of investment, saying he would order the arrest and prosecution of investors in the copper mines that broke labour laws.

Although the president did not single out the Chinese it is generally believed that they were the ones he was referring to, as Chinese businesspeople have been accused of mistreating miners.

Such sentiments have become more pronounced in the wake of deteriorating working conditions at Chinese-owned factories. For most residents on the Copperbelt, home to most of the copper mines in Zambia, memories are still fresh of the BGRIMM blast that killed 40 workers.

The BGRIMM factory, which manufactured explosives, blew up with workers locked inside. Questions have been asked as to why all the Chinese workers escaped. Compensation claims have also not proceeded well.

In another incident, six workers were shot to death at a Chinese-run mine earlier this year after they demanded an improvement in working conditions. The Zambia-China Mulungushi Textiles of Zambia has struggled despite Chinese investment, shutting down several times.

Zambian traders in Lusaka are also unhappy with Chinese traders who have taken up shops in the sprawling market of Kamwala. It is the city’s oldest trading place and has historically been dominated by indigenous Zambians.

Traders say since the Chinese moved in a few years ago to trade in the textile business has never been the same. The Chinese retailers bring in cheaply-priced garments which have lured customers away from the Zambian traders.

“Ever since the Chinese came in, things have got worse for us. In the past, we were doing fine,” says Mwamba Chibesa, a trader in Kamwala.

Her colleague, Charity Besa, agrees that people now prefer to buy cheap Chinese garments instead of the “salaula” (second-hand clothes) which has been a booming industry for Zambian traders since 1991, the year that the country moved to free market economics.

It is people like Mwamba and Charity and their dependants – jobless youths – that Sata largely appealed to. Chinese investors simply became the embodiment of all that threatens Zambians’ livelihoods.

FFTUZ president Joyce Nonde blames the country’s weak legal framework which allows foreign investors to abuse Zambian workers with impunity. Fackson Shamenda, regional director of Union Network International-Africa and former Zambia Congress of Trade Unions president (ZCTU), agrees that there is a need to strengthen investment and labour laws to make them more favourable to the Zambian worker.

Shamenda, who took over leadership of the ZCTU from Zambia’s second president – Frederick Chiluba – says that laws should specify which positions can be held by foreigners in a foreign-owned company. Presently, investors fill posts with their own staff even when qualified Zambians are available.

Ironically, this is coming against a background of strong economic and political ties between Zambia and China dating from pre-independence days. China has expressed interest in helping the country build a multi-million dollar national sport stadium. Zambia is set to host the All Africa Games in 2011 but has no proper stadium for this event.