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Introduction:

Zambia is a country with huge copper reserves. It is a nation with powerful natural resources. 
In the 1960s, Zambian export and trade of copper practically dominated the international 
market. In the first years following independence (1964), Zambia enjoyed a Gross National 
Product comparable to that of Singapore and Malaysia and with levels of development similar 
to those in South Korea. Not because Zambia was rich, but because it was prosperous and 
promising due to its large copper reserves and its strong position on the market. Furthermore, 
political analysts described Kuanda&rsquo;s government of being honest and credible. 
 
Thirty years after independence however, the Zambian average national wage was not even 
half that of the average at the time of independence. By this time, South Korea was already 
considered to be eighteen times richer than Zambia and on average a Zambian made in a year 
what a Korean could make in three weeks of work. Bear in mind that South Korea has no 
reserves of precious minerals, such as copper. 
 
Zambia never went through war, which is responsible for a large proportion of poverty and 
suffering in other African countries. The truth is that today Zambians live in more poverty than 
they did in the 1960s. Why? You may ask yourself.Why did South Korea develop and Zambia 
become impoverished? The answer may be simple. The reason is that mining left nothing in 
the country; all the mines were privatized and owned by the mining companies and their 
shareholders, the majority of which are foreign. 
 
In the last five years (2011), there are signs of a return to copper mining on a large scale. Some 
companies, from China, Brazil, Canada, Switzerland and South Africa are in the advanced 
stages of cooperation with Zambia. Of these companies, the Chinese companies are the most 
contentious. They employ cheap labour and pay low salaries; they deny trade union rights and 
working conditions for Zambian employees are the worst imaginable. But because of the 
poverty in the country, the people are racing to the mines in search of a job and abandoning 
other industries, such as farming. 
 
Michael Sata, the new president of Zambia (2011) has warned the mining companies that they 
should better benefit Zambians and that taxes shall be raised. The president has shown that he 
is in agreement with the entry of multinational copper mining companies. Indeed he accepts 
this, but we must not forget the past, which resulted in a country suffering with extreme 
poverty and hardship. The companies arrive with investment policies, more jobs for young 
people and development objectives, but with profit as their goal, which at the end of the day 
penalizes the lives of the local people. 
 
Now the people of Zambia should remember that since Kaunda&rsquo;s era, the copper industries 
never benefitted the Zambians. Kaunda wanted to change this, but coming under pressure from 
the multinationals and some financial institutions, he created chaos in the political and 
economic situation of the country, which led to his loss of credibility among the people and 
consequently to his defeat in the 1991 elections. 
 
Today Zambia should follow a different road to development, better visioning its future and 
not looking to the copper mines as a solution, because its past history has surely left some 
negative examples. 
 
Broaden your knowledge from the files available. 
 
Good luck!

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