North-Western province chiefs bemoan raw development deals: they say mines not benefiting subjects

“WE may be poor, but we deserve better.”

These were the words of Solwezi Catholic Diocese Bishop Charles Kasonde in his opening speech at the three-day North-Western province Chiefs Indaba held recently in Solwezi.

In truth, the theme was: “Our Land, Our Future” but you would be right to say the deliberations at the indaba were centred on the eight worded sentence by Bishop Kasonde.

The indabe which was convened by Caritas Zambia with support from Swedish faith based organisation Diakonia under the Strengthened Accountability Programme (SAP) attracted about 24 chiefs and representatives from Solwezi, Kalumbila, Kasempa, Mufumbwe, Manyinga, Kabompo, Zambezi, Mwinilunga and Ikeleng'e districts.

The SAP which is now in its second phase aims at advancing the rights of women, men, the poor and youths to hold duty bearers accountable and to demand improved service delivery and sustainable use of natural resources.

It also seeks to enhance target media’s ability to produce programming that improves duty bearers; accountability and responsiveness to rights holders’ demands for improved service delivery, sustainable use of natural resources, gender equality and corporate social responsibility among others.

And that is exactly what was being advanced at the indaba.

North-Western which in other circles is referred to as the new Copperbelt is endowed with many natural resources that range from natural water bodies, forest reserves and mineral wealth among others.

But despite all the wealth and potential, the province is still regarded as one of the poorest in the country.

It is on this backdrop that Bishop Kasonde urged duty bearers to trade cautiously and only allow development that benefits the people, while promoting peace and justice in the region.

“I am not saying we become enemies of development but we pay attention to what sort of development that enhances us and improves the lives of many people and not a few with egoistic tendencies," he said.

Bishop Kasonde said there is need to guard jealousy the land resource because not all investment can benefit the people.

He said duty bearers should embrace development which is appreciated by the people and benefits the local communities.

"I encourage you our traditional leaders to continue being proactive and work with the Government in safeguarding our cultural heritage, land and environment for the sustainable ecological well-being of our people," he said.

North-Western Province boasts of many sources of Rivers that run their waters throughout the year because of the environment that has been well preserved but are now under threat from industrialisation.

"Due to development and industrialisation, our land may remain vulnerable and susceptible to the depletion of forests, excavation of River sources and rampant degradation of our environment," he said.

Chief Ishindi of the Lunda speaking people of Zambezi district suggested for a mechanism that allows for chiefdoms to have a 10 per cent stake on taxes collected from mines in the region.

Whether that is feasible or not, the suggestion was backed by other chiefs, including Caritas Solwezi projects officer Lewis Miyanda.

He suggested that chiefdoms push for a law that will enable them to own shares in mining companies in the region as opposed to depending on corporate social responsibility programmes to improve the livelihoods of people in communities.

Mr Miyanda said passing such a law will give chiefdoms a sense of ownership to their natural resources.

"There is no way you could be living at the mercy of the mine investors through corporate social responsibility. These natural resources belong to you and your people," he said.

The chiefs also petitioned Government to prioritise the awarding of mining licences to local communities to enable local people benefit from their God given natural resources.

The chiefs wondered how some mining and exploration licences are issued without their consent.

They urged the Government to only issue mining and exploration licences to prospecting investors only after consent letters are given by the chiefs and communities have agreed to the proposed investments.

"While the Ministry issuing these licences is in Lusaka, we only receive documentations which we are expected to sign. In such cases, various chiefs have been robbed off their land," they said in a communique read by Chietainess Nyakuleng'a of the Lunda speaking people of Zambezi district.

"We are concerned about the lack of a prescribed criteria for the issuance of exploration and mining licences which disadvantages potential investors that could bring meaningful development to the host communities because the dormant investors hold on to licences for too long without doing anything," they said.

The chiefs are dismayed with assertions that they consent to selling land to foreign investors.

This came as a result of Zambia Environmental Management Agency (ZEMA) North-western provincial principal inspector Morrison Songwe cautioned chiefs against consenting to certain projects without consulting.

He said: “The problem is that some of you agree to these developments before the implementation stage, making it difficult for us to act once the project has been approved already.”

But in the communique, the chiefs argued, saying: “How can we be accused of selling more than 250 hectares when we are not allowed to do so. We the chiefs understand the need for our land which is our birth right and that of our children that will live on it for years to come."

How about the gold rush in Mwinilunga?

It is real!

Chief  Chibwika’s representative Isaac Mungwala said the situation in Kasenseli village has normalised after the deployment of over 45 police officers to the area to keep vigil.

“We do not need any investor from overseas to come and get the gold and leave without our people benefiting,” he said.

Chief Musele of Kalumbila district advised Chief Chibwika to source for a mining licence to permit the chiefdom to mine the gold legally, for the benefit of his subjects.

“That gold is yours! Just follow the guidelines of the law and start mining it because what we should be discouraging is illegal mining,” he said.

From the deliberations and with the words of Bishop Kasonde still echoing, it is clear that most of the chiefs in the region feel they are getting a raw deal from the mines and the natural resource endowment in the region.

Senior Chief Sikufele of Manyinga district bemoaned the bad state of roads and bridges in his area despite having many investors in the area.

“We don’t even have any Government girls’ school in the province apart from Mukinge Girls Mission Secondary School which is a Catholic school. This is not right,” he said.

The chiefs also urged mining companies operating in the province to be consultative and prioritise the needs of the people when implementing corporate social responsibility programmes.

Government on the other hand expressed concern on the increase in land wrangle cases in the province.

In a speech read for him by assistant secretary Beatrice Muyambango, North-Western Province permanent secretary Willies Mangimela called on chiefs to ensure proper land management and administration to avoid the land wrangles as they push for better deals.

Community radio as watchdog: making listening clubs effective in holding leaders accountable

LESSLY Chibele is a member of the Voice of Kalomo Community Radio station’ Luyaba radio listening club.

Luyaba is a satellite community in Zimba about 54 kilometres from Kalomo town.

She says being a member of the club has helped her in more ways than one.

“Before I joined the radio listening club, I did not know that I had the power to question our leaders on matters affecting us,” she says.

Lessly

Ms Chibele is one of the 35 members of the listening club that gather under a tree every Monday to listen to the People’s Voice, a radio programme that airs on Voice of Kalomo.

The hour-long programme is a Media Institute of Southern Africa (MISA) Zambia Chapter sponsored programme.

The programme is made possible with funding from Diakonia, a Swedish non-Governmental organisation under its Strengthened Accountability Programme (SAP II).

Under the SAP II programme, Diakonia is working with MISA Zambia, Women for Change and also Caritas Zambia to increase people’s awareness on good governance and enhance citizens’ participation in governance.

The project started in February and will run for two years.

Because of the project, Ms Chibele foresees a tough time for all those that will aspire for public office in the coming elections.

“Things have changed from the time that we launched the project and all those aspiring for public office will not have it easy this time around because now, we know what we want,” she says.

How does it work, perhaps you might be wondering?

“We meet every Monday and listen to the radio programme that features civic leaders. After that, we pick topics that are closer to us and dissect whether or not our interests are being represented,” explains Frank Siluwaile, the club’s chairperson. 

Not only that.

“We have also been empowered with a phone to call in on these radio programmes and hold these leaders accountable. Where we can, we applaud them and where we want them to do more, we tell them,” he adds.

And on this particular day, the host on the radio programme was Zimba Town Council chairperson Grave Muleya.

As usual, the group is gathered under a tree, surrounding a car with doors open, listening to the radio programme.

Others would be seen with paper and pen, busy taking notes and waiting for the phone lines to open so that they can ask Mr Muleya who touched on a number of cross cutting issues, their burning questions.

The group listening to a radio program.

“For a long time, pregnant women have cried for a maternity wing at the clinic and up to now, there is nothing. You also said you were going to build us a market shelter but up to now, we have not seen these things. What is happening,” he was asked.

Another one queried Mr Muleya on when Government will consider upgrading the clinic and introduce a dental facility.

“Whenever we want to seek dental services, we always have to go as far as Zimba to access them. We want one here too,” he said.

Among the other issues the club members raised were the need for speed humps, improved water supply, cattle diseases and also the model being used by the Food Reserve Agency (FRA) to sell maize.

Yes! Mr Muleya did attend to most of the issues that were raised.

“Government will try to address most of the issues raised though some of them might not be attainable, most of them will be addressed,” he said.

Well, whereas calling in and holding the civic leaders accountable is one thing, implementation and fulfilling them could be another.

Nonetheless, the people of this community are happy that they have been empowered with skills of holding their leaders accountable.

“We never used to pay attention to these things. But ever since this programme started, we have been taught a lot of things and we now understand that these leaders owe us and they should be answerable to us,” said Barbara Simbwalanga who is the vice chairperson of the Njokwe radio listening club.

Jane Chirwa is MISA Zambia programmes manager and she is optimistic that the project is yielding fruits.

“The project is all about increasing awareness of good governance and encourage communities to take a leading role in holding civic leaders accountable,” she says.

How does MISA Zambia come in?

“As MISA Zambia, we have running projects with partner community radio stations under our Good Governance programme and it is with those same partner radio stations and their audiences to encourage and engage communities through different platforms and fora,” she says.

Participants pose for a group photo.

Diakonia programmes officer Maimbo Kalenge says her organisation will continue to empower communities with knowledge and skills that will lead to livelihood change.

“How we work is that we will not give people money or handouts, but we will impart knowledge in people, through our partner organisations with a presence where we are not that will open their eyes and change the perspective and mindset towards self development,” she says.

In Mapatizya, WfC is at the SAP II centre stage there.

The organisation has been holding training camps with traditional leaders to sensitise them on issues to do with gender equality.

WfC monitoring and evaluation manager Shadreck Chembe says the organisation has partnered and trained a number of headmen in the small mining community and surrounding communities.

“I am very happy that today I have been given an opportunity to learn about the dangers of gender imbalance. Before this workshop, I always used to fancy a male child to a female,” says Edwin Mweene, a local that underwent a gender mainstreaming training.

The SAP II project is not being implemented in Southern Province only.

With different partners, Diakonia which has been in existence for over two decades is implementing the project countrywide.

The making of T-Sean, Zambia's dancehall daddy...

ALTHOUGH a cliche, it is still true that you cannot talk about the current Zambian dancehall scene without mentioning T-Sean.

The talented artiste is one of, if not the most consistent dancehall acts in the country.

A singer, songwriter, performer, producer, sound engineer and children’s rights activist, T-Sean who was born as Richard Mulenga has worked with almost all well established artistes and also underground talents.

T-Sean boasts of a long list of hits. These include Boza, Wonder Why featuring B1, Nalishiba featuring Judy, Daily Daily featuring Hamoba, Lekelela Bokosi, Tako, Osoba, Mulipo, Ordinary Girl, Adam, Dear Wanga, Pyepye, Don’t Lead Me On which is a duet with close friend T-Bwoy, Speedometer Burnup, Balance It Up, Umoyo, Try Again and Mayeso.

He has certainly come a long way.

After completing high school, the father of this former Daina Kaimba and Mkushi Secondary School pupil noticed that his son had interest in computers and therefore bought him one which he used to set up his first studio called Bedroom Studio.

On the song Mulipo, he thanks all those who helped him in kick starting his career including his father.
However, his interest in music though started from a young age.

He remembers singing in the Sunday School at Church and then playing drums during his high school days. In fact, he remembers composing his first song in Grade Seven.
As a composer, T-Sean is well respected.

And rightly so.

As a songwriter, T-Sean has written for the likes of Judy, T-Bwoy, Macky II, Kantu, Ruff Kid, late Joe Chibangu and Dambisa.

Some of the notable hits he has written or co-written include Where You Are (Judy), I Miss You (T-Bwoy featuring Chef 187), Kuti Umvele (Dambisa), Bana Chanda (Macky II), and Wilafulwa (Joe Chibangu).

But when he set up the Bedroom Studio, it was easy to create a song as he had no professional music production skills.

Now, it has all come good.

T-Sean, also known as DJ Baila, is into dancehall/afro beat. His influences though are Oliver Mtukudzi, Bob Marley, Beenie Man, Dr Dre, Timbaland and Amayenge Asoza.

He is somewhat the bridge between the old school ZedBeat and the new; he can comfortably switch styles and still sound amazing. It is about the dancehall tone, a heavy Afro pop Influence, and traces of hip-hop.

T-Sean has albums like Adam (The Definition), 90 Days, nominated for the Mosi Zambian Music Award (ZMA) 2014 Best Dancehall Album, Mu Mirror, Time Bomb, which won a string of awards including the ZMA 2015 Best Dancehall Album, Born & Bred Best R’n’B Video of the Year 2015, Born & Bread Video of the Year 2015 through the song Umoyo, Comfort Zone, Faith and his latest offering Grateful.

Recently, he released a six track EP titled Escobar.

“The EP is strictly hip-hop and dancehall beats and on it I have tried to work with a number of artistes and producers,” he says.

Some of T-Sean’s most popular songs are Boza, Wonder Why featuring B1, Nalishiba featuring Judy, Daily Daily featuring Hamoba, Lekelela Bokosi, Tako, Osoba, Mulipo, Ordinary Girl, Adam, Dear Wanga and Pyepye.

Others are Don’t Lead Me On, a duet with close friend T-Bwoy, Speedometer Burnup, Balance It Up, Umapatefye, Umoyo, Try Again and Mayeso.

As a songwriter, T-Sean has written for the likes of Judy, T-Bwoy, Macky II, Kantu, Ruff Kid, Joe Chibangu and Dambisa.

Some of the notable hits he has written or co-written include Where You Are (Judy), I Miss You (T-Bwoy featuring Chef 187), Kuti Umvele (Dambisa), Bana Chanda (Macky II), Wilafulwa (Joe Chibangu), Million (T-Sean).

In 2010, T Sean got signed to K-Amy Studio under which he released a number of singles which enjoyed healthy radio play and burst local music charts. He then released his first album Adam in 2012, which with songs like Wonder Why, Show Your Swag, the title-track and Sinizaibala, T-Sean was announced on the scene as a musician to look out for.

He earned multiple nominations at the Zambia National Broadcasting Corporation (ZNBC) Born and Bred Music Video Awards.

On stage in Livingstone.

He followed it up with 90 Days, which produced a chain of hit singles that took over airwaves like Boza, Dear Wanga and Awe.

In 2014, he released his third studio album titled Time Bomb, which confirmed that he was not a one hit wonder; the album garnered him nine nominations in various music competitions, particularly at the ZMA and Born and Bred.

He set to launch it in October 2014 at the Barclays Sports Complex.

The album launch, which was to be his first ever promised to be a sellout - but it didn’t happen as it was disrupted by heavy rains even before the artiste could step on the stage.

“I still remember that day like it was just yesterday. I was so eager to just get on the stage and do my thing. I had prepared even too,” he says.

T-Sean, one of the biggest local brands and most sought after acts, runs a record label called Buzy Baila International (formerly Bizzy Baila), producing a number of hits such as Nana’s Booty Call (T-Sean featuring Slap Dee), Lolo Lolo (Macky II featuring Izrael), She a Bomb (DJ Cosmo featuring Kayombo), Filekefye (Damiano), Bana Chanda (Macky II featuring T-Sean), Mulipo (T-Sean) as well his duet with T-Bwoy Don’t Lead Me On.

Under his Buzy Baila label, he has signed the likes of T-Sean, D-Stereo, UNIQ Skillz and The lady Beauty.

Not content with the success, T-Sean on May 26 in 2016, released two albums; Faith and Comfort Zone, one for the local market and the other, a strictly dancehall albuX have singles like Osoba, Will You Marry Me?, Really Mine featuring Roberto and You Hot featuring J Rox.

On the same day, May 26, 2016, T-Sean launched an initiative called Daddy Cares (DCI), which is aimed at promoting the well-being of children in society, especially the under-privileged.

"I would like to help build an environment that will see children grow up and develop into responsible citizens; an environment that is violence free, abuse free and without any form of exploitation,” T-Sean says.

"I realised that I have a rare gift; an artiste that can bring politicians, religious leaders, teachers and lawyers in one place. I want to build a better society by being an ambassador for children. I want to be an artiste that will speak for them. An artiste that will echo their little voices to the whole world that’s what Daddy Cares Initiative is about.”

His vision is to see this Initiative grow and touch the lives of children, families and communities where these kids come from. In line with the same, T-Sean is also working in partnership with Child Fund International as a children’s rights ambassador.

“My focus is on helping build a better Zambia, a better Africa and a better world for children.”

He didn’t stop there.

In 2017, T-Sean was among the local artistes that performed at the Mosi Day of Thunder annual music festival in Livingstone.

Other follow up albums include Grateful and the Escobar EP.

To this day, the artiste who is married and with one child has set up the Baila Empire Music, a label under Buzy Baila International that is aimed at giving a platform to talented up and coming artistes to blossom.

T-Sean’s other moniker is Thee High Grade as is his DJ Baila alter ego.