By Prof L. Haabazoka
Zambia has a lot of successful people, and one piece of advice they always give me is this: only show people what you can afford to lose. If you don’t want to lose it, hide it from the masses. As a result, many business people even hide the fact that they own certain companies. The reasoning behind this is that, in Zambia, we often assume that when someone is successful, they must have stolen from us.
In Zambia, it’s like we are allergic to success. We are allergic to good things. We are allergic to happiness. When a couple gets married, people will even say, “fikapwa.” When someone starts a business, people say, “bakawa.” When you buy a nice car, people say, “shakwiba.”
We carry this behaviour everywhere. Because of it, some people are even afraid to do well because they do not want to be subjected to ridicule. Unfortunately, we unknowingly transfer these behaviours into every aspect of our lives. We become jealous of our wealthy relatives. We elect the least suitable class monitor at school, and we want to elect the biggest thief into political office, saying, “wapa easy.” Many of the best leaders this country has had were elected either by accident or after people had been greatly disappointed by those who came before them.
Even in business, it is very difficult to get a tender from a fellow Zambian unless someone “alyamo,” yet a foreign company may award you business with much greater ease. We even go to the extent of scandalising the country’s largest taxpayer, forgetting that negative publicity can affect that company’s access to capital markets, limiting its ability to expand its operations, create jobs, and pay even more taxes. If you believe the trickle-down effect from that mine is not sufficient, address that issue, but don’t destroy the business.
Zambian politics should not be an avenue for getting rich. When I look at our current politics, the loudest voices are often those seeking to get a share of the little tax revenue this country generates. As voters, kindly look at the people involved in the current political process. Many of them have little or no education, many have never built a business, and many have never held jobs other than those they obtained through political appointments. For me, a successful politician should first demonstrate that they succeeded in a profession, career, or business before entering politics. Politics should not be the first and only career someone has ever known.
As Zambians, we are emotional people. We need to search our souls and make our decisions wisely. Its always easy to destroy but difficult to build. The right path is always painful. Evil is easy and sweet…
Otherwise, enjoy your weekend.
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