Something big just happened

Many Zambians that I know are beginning to walk with a spring in their step, they are beginning to have this tangible spirit of confidence and a new hope that I am rather envious of. President Michale Sata has arrived and things will never be the same again. I read of some concern that that maybe the man is moving too fast and my opinion is that according to whose terms is he moving too fast? He is indeed moving too fast because as Africans we take time for granted. In Zimbabwe it has taken 31 years and still there is no change, in Libya it took 42 years, in Egypt 30 years, in Tunisia 25 years and here in South Africa it's been 17 years and  we are still counting.

President Michael Sata has within a less than a month ensured that exploitation of Zambian labour is stopped. Appointed a white African as vice president, stopped the plunder of the country's minerals, fired incompetent civil servants and I promise you there is still more to come. We are surely going to see a prosperous Zambia within a year or so as economic emancipation Zambians spreads, the state delivers and Zambians take control of their economic and political destiny.

We must all be encouraged by this man and let that be an example to African governments that their role is to serve the people and ameliorate the economic condition of the majority and nothing else. The Zambian situation must surely be causing some discomfort within the SADC to those who continue to plunder and abuse political power while asking for more time to deliver. We must all now believe that nothing is impossible until we make it so.

In my conversations with South Africans there has always been an argument that this economy is more complex, advanced and sophisticated than the rest of Africa and therefore economic change can neither be too radical nor too rapid because the  negative consequences can be devastating not only to South Africa but to the whole of Southern Africa. My answer to that is always yes and no. Yes because it is much larger and diverse than the rest of Africa and therefore  more difficult to control and no because the slow change is merely because of the fact that  unfortunately we have created a comfort zone for politicians and advantaged blacks who have become successful because of their loyalty to those in power and have no appetite for accelerated transformation.

I am not a prophet of doom nor do I wish failure to this country but in order for meaningful cange to happen we are just taking too long.

Let me give you an example, 17 years after political freedom, 70% of black schools do not have access to a library and 60% learners drop out of school before they reach grade 12. Only 17% of the JSE is owned by blacks as reported with perplexing fun fare recently. There are of course numerous damning statistics the slow pace of economic change and abuse of resources in all sectors of this economy.

My conclusion is that change in South Africa is just happening too slowly and President Michael Sata must surely be an inspiration to us all while Julius Malema is right.

Vince Musewe is an economist and you may contact him on [email protected]

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