SATA Uncomfortable STAYING At STATE HOUSE “It’s not easy to adjust here. They restrict what you eat, they restrict whom you talk to, they restrict whom you meet.”

Michael Chilufya Sata, Zambia’s president talks to The Africa Report about how he plans to meet voters’ expectations and make foreign investment benefit the population. Exclusive interview..
Six weeks after his election, President Michael Sata still seems unsure about what he is doing at State House. Few really believed he would actually make it here. Now he is reluctant to move in, preferring his own home – where crowds of Zambians thronged the streets the night of his election victory on 22 September. For a politician whose populist Patriotic Front (PF) party has spent the past 10 years campaigning to end the 20-year rule of the Movement for Multi-
party Democracy (MMD), the hushed corridors of the State House feel far removed from his old, busy, noisy office at Farmers House on Cairo Road in downtown Lusaka.


Unpredictable, irritable and with a tendency to shoot from the hip, 74-year-old Sata is no natural diplomat. But he is a seasoned politician, with a reputation for getting things done, for the quick fix. He must deliver one now, having promised jobs, lower food prices and a new constitution within 90 days to his young, urban support base.


Within weeks of the election there were wildcat strikes over poor labour conditions and low pay at Chinese-owned mines. But for all his history of anti-Chinese rhetoric – toned down in the run-up to the polls – so far the man whose acerbic exterior earned him the nickname King Cobra has been more kind than firm. As long as China’s demand for copper holds out, Sata knows he needs “our Chinese friends”.


Some of his appointments have left serious question marks over his claim to be “allergic to corruption”. Sata backtracked over appointing Xavier Chungu, the spy chief to former president Frederick Chiluba, when he saw how it angered Zambians. It was his first misstep, but a big one. 



I’ve told the Chinese: when you are in Rome, do as the Romans do

The Africa Report: How are you adjusting to life in State House after 10 years in opposition?

Michael Sata: 
It’s not easy to adjust here. They restrict what you eat, they restrict whom you talk to, they restrict whom you meet. But all the same, at least we are in the driver’s seat to try and see to it that we can change the rules, that we can apply taxpayers’ money to benefit the poor. 



You won 4 percent of the vote in 2001 and 29 percent in 2006. Why do you believe you were able to win in 2011? 


We have been very consistent and the people of Zambia have seen that. Our messages were targeted on the poor and from 2001 up to today we still maintain the same thing. 



You’ve promised to bring jobs and to redistribute wealth. How?


In less than 90 days you saw the price of fuel coming down; in less than 90 days you will see the price of mealie-meal coming down. So it’s not easy, you cannot overcome those things overnight. You cannot overcome unemployment, you cannot overcome poverty, but our measures, our ministers’ measures, our policies are going towards that direction. 


You’ve promised to create jobs for the unemployed. How will you bring local businesses on your side? 


We do not need local businesses alone. We need development policies. We have a very ambitious roadworks programme. We are talking to countries like South Korea, Japan, Turkey. If we go for the areas which target the poor, because if we have one stretch of road, it’s going to hire more than 1,000- 2,000 low-paid workers, they will have their money in the pocket. We are looking at the textile industry. We are looking at the factories like Mulungushi textiles, Kafuwe textiles, the sawmills in Ndola, several other things. And at the same time, good projects like the ones the former president [Rupiah Banda] embarked on in rural-urban areas, we will continue with them, and schools and health which they.
The Africa Report