Standing in the lobby of a Lusaka hotel, the engineering consultant warns of the pitfalls of doing business in Zambia.
”You must be careful with the payments. Watch your money here. Everyone wants money. Ask me, I have been doing business here since the 1980s,” the bespectacled white man whispers.
Speaking as a veteran business visitor to the landlocked Southern African country, he is aware that greasing someone’s palm is par for the course in Zambia. Colleagues in his company agree, as do most business visitors from outside the country.
Overland travel without provision for bribes at roadblocks can be an uncomfortable experience, locals say, while according to a city architect, abandoned building sites in Lusaka stand as evidence of corruption.
”I know of two cases in which the hot money ran out,” he says.
In an African context, Zambia’s level of corruption is hardly the worst, but it is a problem and politicians, church leaders and ordinary Zambians are starting to speak out against it.
With its new status as a highly indebted poor country (HIPC) and the recent scrapping of its debt to Paris Club creditors boosting hopes of an economic upswing, perceptions are everything.
The HIPC approval has been attributed in part to President Levy Mwanawasa’s anti-corruption drive that has seen charges brought against his predecessor, Frederick Chiluba.
Another high-profile case of corruption against a businessman linked to the ruling party is pending and several serving government officials are under suspicion for allegedly shady dealings.
Such action has earned the government praise from donors and institutions in wealthy nations, but ordinary Zambians are sceptical, while prominent journalists have questioned the motives and commitment behind the anti-corruption moves.
”When you’re a policeman and you get so little money every month, what reason is there for you not to take a bribe?” asks a taxi driver in Lusaka.
Despite the Paris Club creditors writing off money owing to them, Zambia has accumulated $3,8-billion in debt over the past few decades and is likely to remain one of the poorest countries in the world for some time.
About 80% of the population lives below the poverty line, with about half a million people relying on food aid, according to the United Nations World Food Programme (WFP).
Authorities expect the number to rise to about 1,2-million in the coming months.
”We will have to scale up our efforts. We don’t have enough money. We’ve received a fifth of the money needed. With government saying there’s an increase in the number of people affected, we’re very concerned,” said Jo Woods, a spokesperson for the WFP operation in Zambia.
The food shortage is based on government records of crop failures in 27 districts around the country. The outbreak of foot-and-mouth disease and pests also contributed to the present situation.
Over the past two years, Zambia has exported its surplus food to other countries in the region that have been harder hit by weather patterns, poor crop management and a lack of irrigation, but maize exports have now been banned in an effort to overcome the domestic food shortage.
That the country’s agriculture minister has encouraged food-for-work programmes is seen as a positive step and an indication that Zambia is keen to support itself, Woods said.
”One NGO, for example, is involved in fish farming. While the farm is being built, those who are working on it are given a 50kg bag of maize a month,” she said.
Meanwhile, some subsistence farmers are looking at diversifying their crops, with some reverting to the production of cassava.
”We have been trying to make farmers understand that the environment has changed. In the past, farming was a livelihood. We have been encouraging them to go into more viable crops other than maize,” said Zambian National Farmers’ Union economist Ellah Chembe.
Zambia, once at the frontline of Southern Africa’s liberation struggle and a transit point for African intellectuals, scientists and politicians, is determined to recultivate that image.
”It is a country of missed chances, but it is not a hopeless case,” said one foreign diplomat, summing up the new-found sentiment. — Sapa-DPA