Low wages and unemployment, coupled with high taxes, have forced thousands of qualified Zambians to flee the country in search of greener pastures — but President Levy Mwanawasa is calling them “coward failures”.
Mwanawasa told the nation recently that Zambians working abroad were fond of criticising his administration and giving the country a bad name when they did not know the situation on the ground.
“Let them come back here and prove their effectiveness. They failed to make the grade here and have gone to exhibit their inefficiencies outside,” he said.
The address, which was posted on the internet, brought on an avalanche of responses — mainly from Zambians working abroad.
John Malumo, an electrical engineer, who works in Johannesburg, South Africa, says the government does not appreciate its own professionals and prefers to engage expensive and often poorly qualified expatriates.
“I was retrenched from the ZCCM [Zambia Consolidated Copper Mines] despite my qualifications and profession, which were needed on the mines. A person who was less qualified, but was given more perks and a higher salary, replaced me. Since I could not find a job, I trekked to South Africa where within days I was given a very good paying job with a mining company,” he said.
Malumo says contrary to Mwanawasa’s assertions that they are failures, people who work abroad compete on an open international market for their positions. He said they are constantly upgrading their skills to keep up with international standards.
“The last thing we are is failures. It is those who fail to secure jobs outside that are failures,” he said.
Malumo recalls that Mwanawasa himself poached two of his ministers from their international posts to run the Central Bank and the Ministry of Finance.
“Why? Because he knew they had been highly trained abroad to the extent that foreign organisations vied to employ them.”
While Malumo left because he could not find a job, Doreen Malambo, a university lecturer, complains of remuneration. She had a job at the University of Zambia but could not afford to look after her family of five even though she was a top management official.
“Our salaries were a pittance. We could not afford to send our children to proper schools. We lived hand to mouth. Here I am appreciated and remunerated appropriately. I have even bought a house in Zambia, which I would never have been able to do had I remained in the country,” she said.
According to World Bank statistics, 80% of Zambians live on less than $1 a day. The Jesuit Centre for Theological Reflection puts the cost of a food basket for a family of six at more than $200. With more companies being privatised, unemployment is certain to exceed its current 1,5-million (out of a potential workforce of about two million).
Even the 400Â 000 employed in the formal sector, 70% earned less than $100 a month.
Minister of Health Brian Chituwo acknowledged that poor remuneration had “chased away” medical staff. He said more than 2Â 500 Zambian nurses were working in British hospitals alone and about 3Â 400 doctors spread across Britain, Botswana and South Africa. And yet, he said, there was a serious shortage of health staff in Zambia.
Nurse Gina Siwale says there is no future in Zambia’s medical industry. She urged Mwanawasa to work on enticing Zampats (Zambian
expatriates) instead of condemning them.
“When I was in Zambia, there were no drugs in the hospitals. We hardly got paid and when we did, it was peanuts and there was no room for further training. Here I have gone for further training. I would love to go back home and contribute but not under the present climate where I will hardly be able to look after myself, let alone contribute to my family’s income,” Siwale said.
She sends home more than $1Â 000 dollars a month — something she would not have been able to do had she remained in Zambia where she earned less than $50 as a midwife.
The Lusaka branch of Western Union, an international money-remitting agency, says it receives about $30Â 000 dollars a day sent by people working abroad for their families.
“We get more money towards Christmas and other days like New Year,” said Charles Mushingo, who works for a Western Union outlet in Lusaka.
Siwale says many people would like to go back to contribute to Zambia’s development because working abroad has exposed them to higher skills and experiences.
Charlie Makani from New Zealand offers the example of India whose phenomenal software industry is from Indian returnees from the United States’s Silicon Valley.
“Part of Zambia’s problem is that it has never been run by a president with international exposure. All the major economic transformations we read about involve national leaders who had exposure to international best practices [like Botswana’s Sir Seretse Khama and Singapore’s Lee Kuan Yew],” he said.
“Government,” said Makani, “appears jealous of people who live abroad and deliberately make it difficult for them to come back.”
He says Mwanawasa should take a leaf from his Malian counterpart, who recently called a conference on all Malians in the diaspora because he discovered the remittances from abroad far outstripped aid inflows.
“I am encouraging all my relatives to come to New Zealand where there is a great demand for electricians and plumbers. I want them to live a good life, [get] good education and contribute to the clan’s welfare by sending money to our relatives who cannot make it to New Zealand,” Makani said.
It is likely that there will be a further exodus of Zambian professionals following the new taxes introduced by the government this week. People earning more than $170 will be required to pay 40% tax, says Brenda Ngulube, a human resource manager at an international bank.
In this year’s Budget, the government has instituted a wage freeze on public service workers. Last year civil servants went on strike twice demanding higher wages. The government refused to give in, saying there was a Budget overrun of $100Â 000.
“We are all looking elsewhere not because we have failed but because the government has failed us. How can we pay so much tax? There are no jobs and there is too much corruption to engage in business. So what is to keep us here?” wondered a civil servant.
But Mwanawasa has remained adamant. Zambian expatriates, he said, should stop shouting from far and come and suffer with their kinsfolk.
The United Nations International Organisation for Migration, which used to help repatriate Zambians wanting to come back, says it has since stopped the programme in Zambia. This is because no Zambians wanted to return home.
“We are now engaged in repatriating refugees and displaced persons. That programme for returning Zambians stopped some years ago,” an official who begged anonymity said.
Given the current scenario, he said it was unlikely that people would want to come back to Zambia.
“There is very little incentive,” he said. — IPS