election vote-counting still in progress...

Zambian presidential elections were yesterday and votes are still being counted. I visited a polling booth near the house, and, as expected, everyone seemed to be voting for Michael Sata. (woo hoo!).

It was rather annoying that there were no taxis around and everything was closed. But, I walked around outside on the dusty roads and found an empty bar willing to serve me Coke, ice, and access to TV. [I miss TV... well, sort of...]

Below is an article former NYT writer Howard French wrote about Zambian-China relations.
By the way, most media portrays Michael Sata as being "maverick" and "dangerous" to foreign investment. I disagree; he's doing what's best for Zambia even if he is rough around the edges in terms of his rhetoric (which I don't necessarily think is bad...though that's probably because I tend to err on the offensive/careless side when I try to speak truth...). All that he's done is stand up to China for legitimate reasons. When he threatens to kick out "bogus Chinese investors," he says that to defend Zambian labor rights and to promote better foreign investment in the Zambian economy. While it's nice for a poor African country to import cheap goods from a foreign investor, what the Zambians really need is a foreign investor who will develop real infrastructure in terms of physical assets [plants, factories, etc] and also in terms of "human" assets, i.e. providing good training to equip Zambians with practical skills.

Any political candidate willing to stand up to China (or any other powerful/rich foreign country) for the long-term development of their people and economy is a good politician, in my books.

Michael Sata, if I were a Zambian citizen, you would have my vote.

http://www.howardwfrench.com/archives/2006/09/29/chinas_african_embrace_evokes_memories_of_the_old_imperialism_zambia_anger_over_employment_practices_has_spilled_over_into_a_general_election_prompting_intervention_from_beijing/

China's African embrace evokes memories of the old imperialism ZAMBIA: Anger over employment practices has spilled over into a general election, prompting intervention from Beijing

September 29, 2006

Copyright - Financial Times

Zambia's Copperbelt, an industrial hub set amid torrid African bush, is one of the world's richest stores of the metal. During British rule the region formed the backbone of the colonial economy and served as a cradle of Zambian nationalism. In the 1970s Maoist China, in a mark of solidarity with southern Africa's newly independent states, built the Tanzam Railway linking Zambia's Copperbelt with the Indian Ocean ports of Dar es Salaam and Mombasa.

Today China - as an emerging economic colossus hungry for raw materials - is back in Zambia as a direct investor. Like past foreign patrons, the Chinese are taking no chances with their new prize.

In July six workers at the Chinese-owned Chambishi mine were shot and wounded after rioting over wages. This was the company's second serious incident in just over a year. In April 2005 a massive and still unexplained blast levelled an explosives factory on the premises, owned by China's NFC Mining Africa, killing 46 people. A witness says rescue workers were still retrieving body parts from the scene the next day.

Both incidents had a brief impact on world copper prices. They also stirred resentments in Zambia against the Chinese, a growing economic and diplomatic force there as they are around Africa. Now the issue has ricocheted directly into Zambian politics as the country prepares to vote in today's general election. Michael Sata, a maverick populist challenging the investor- and donor-friendly incumbent Levy Mwanawasa for the presidency, has accused Chinese investors of underpaying and neglecting the safety of Zambian workers, and vows to limit foreign ownership of Zambian mines to 51 per cent.

In an unusual diplomatic intervention, this month Li Baodong, Beijing's ambassador to Lusaka, said Chinese investors were holding back from committing funds pending the outcome at the polls. He also warned that China might sever relations with Zambia if Mr Sata won. While Beijing later distanced itself from Mr Li's remarks, the incident starkly illustrated China's ascendancy on a continent traditionally dominated by the US, France and other western powers.

Elsewhere in Africa, the growing Chinese presence has been greeted with a mixture of appreciation and resentment. Lax regulatory regimes have allowed Chinese goods, traders and workers to move into the continent's underserved markets with relatively little hindrance. On the positive side, poor African consumers like the cheap goods China exports to their countries. Beijing has also proved a pragmatic, sleeves-up economic partner for governments at odds with the US, from Sudan to Zimbabwe.

But tensions have flared over various issues, from China's use of its own nationals to rebuild war-ruined infrastructure in Angola to its export of cheap clothing to South Africa, which trade unions there say is destroying local industry. In Zambia, in addition to mining, Chinese investors have moved into sectors as diverse as farming, timber and retail.

In some cases, the newcomers have angered Zambians by importing Chinese citizens for unskilled jobs in areas such as construction. "We need capital and we need skills but we take exception to someone bringing labourers in," says Chileshe Mulenga, director of Zambia's Institute for Social and Economic Research and a supporter of Mr Sata.

Chinese investors have also been criticised for deploying poorly-paid and under-equipped Zambians in dangerous jobs. In June Zambian authorities closed the Chinese-owned Collum Coal Mining Industries, based in southern Zambia. This followed reports that workers were being sent underground without protective clothing or boots.

The workers involved in last year's explosion at Chambishi were unskilled and, according to unions, unprepared for work with hazardous materials. "That explosion happened due to negligence," says Albert Mando, general secretary of Zambia's National Union of Mining and Allied Workers. "You need experienced people to work there, but they decided to employ casual labour and cheap workers who didn't know the dangers of an explosion."

NFC was greeted as a saviour when it paid Dollars 20m (Pounds 11m, Euros 16m) for 85 per cent of the Chambishi mine in a 1998 privatisation deal, averting a threat of closure. But since then, against a background of soaring copper prices, tensions have flared between workers and management over wages and other issues.

In the July clash, one worker was shot by Zambian police at the plant after employees rioted, according to Xu Riyong, Chambishi's company secretary. Another five were taken to hospital after they stormed into the Chinese residence, prompting expatriate management to open fire, says Mr Xu, who expresses regret for the incident.

Labour relations have recently improved since the implementation of a new collective agreement with workers. "When we came, conditions of service for employees were quite bad," says Mr Mando. "We negotiated with them and conditions started improving."

In addition to criticising foreign investors, Mr Sata has also promised a more assertive relationship with donors, who finance a large portion of the poor country's government budget. "I think China's relationship (with Zambia) is very imperialistic and that the attitude of western donors is also very imperialistic," says Guy Scott, general secretary of Mr Sata's PF party. "We had the western powers and then the Russians here in the Seventies," he says. "Now we have the Chinese."

Recent opinion polls show Mr Mwanawasa's government fending off the threat from the PF leader. But even if he loses the election, Mr Sata does appear to have put Mr Mwanawasa's government on the defensive. The Zambian president last week ordered the arrest and prosecution of investors in the copper industry who violated labour laws.

Support for the opposition candidate certainly runs high in Kamwala, an area of modest trading shops in Lusaka. Mabvuto Nkoma, a 24-year-old trader selling gauzy women's skirts made in Dubai for Hong Ling, a Chinese-owned trading company, is one of many local people who say they will vote for Mr Sata. "I like the way he talks," Mr Nkoma says of the candidate. "I want a government that will encourage people to build (infrastructure) - not just investors who will come here to start trading."