PERSONAL PROFILE FOR SEAN E. TEMBO (SET), PARTY PRESIDENT FOR THE PATRIOTS FOR ECONOMIC PROGRESS (PeP)

1. Sean Enock Tembo (SET) was born on 30th of March 1980 in Jabu Village, Chief Kapatamoyo, Chipata District of Eastern Province of Zambia, from Mr.  Gideon Tembo and Mrs. Vaida Tembo. He is the 5th born in a family of 9, of which only 4 are currently surviving. His father was a Miner and worked for Zambia Consolidated Copper Mines (ZCCM), Nchanga Division in Chingola before his untimely demise in 1989 when SET was 9 years old. Sean Tembo grew up in Mtendere Compound of Lusaka and he started his primary school in 1986 and completed his Grade 7 as the best student at Chitukuko Primary School in Mtendere, Lusaka.  He later proceeded to Kabulonga School for Boys in 1993. In his Grade 9 exams, Sean Tembo was one of the best students in Zambia and was admitted to Hillcrest Technical Secondary School in Livingstone where he completed his Grade 12 in 1997. While at Hillcrest, Sean Tembo was one of the best students and obtained a number of awards and also represented the school in several national JETS Olympiad competitions.

2. In 1999, at the age of 19, Sean Tembo was enrolled in the Bachelor of Accountancy programme at the Copperbelt University (CBU) in Kitwe where he was consistently the best student during his 4 year tenure at the University. While at Copperbelt University, Sean Tembo enjoyed several best student scholarships including the Citi Bank best student scholarship as well as the Bank of Zambia (BOZ) best student scholarship. During his stay at CBU, Sean Tembo was the Managing Editor of the Campus Herald Magazine, which was a student magazine with a monthly circulation of about 10,000 copies and was widely distributed to secondary schools in the entire Copperbelt Province.

3. On completion of his undergraduate degree programme at CBU, Sean Tembo was the best graduating student and was awarded the Zambia Institute of Chartered Accountants (ZICA) best graduating student award with a cash prize of K1 million (un-rebased). While writing his last examination paper at CBU, Sean Tembo had 7 job offers from reputable companies and institutions including Konkola Copper Mines Plc, PricewaterhouseCoopers, Bank of Zambia, KPMG, Citi Bank, Deloitte and Copperbelt University as an SDF. He eventually settled to join PricewaterhouseCoopers which is an international audit & business advisory services firm, where he worked until 2004.

4. While working at PricewaterhouseCoopers, Sean Tembo was sponsored to go and pursue the Association of Chartered Certified Accountants (ACCA) qualification by his employer at the Zambia Centre for Accountancy Studies (ZCAS), in Lusaka. While studying for his ACCA at ZCAS, Sean Tembo obtained several worldwide best student awards in various courses and walked away with more than K5 million (un-rebased) in cash prizes from the Association of Chartered Certified Accountants, before completing his ACCA qualification in record time.

5. In 2004 at the age of 24, Sean Tembo left PricewaterhouseCoopers and founded Enosyst Associates, his own audit & business advisory services firm. In 2005, Enosyst Associates established an office in Gaborone, Botswana and in 2008, a third office was established in Johannesburg, South Africa. The firm specialised in the provision of assurance services such as statutory audits, forensic audits, operational audits etc, as well as economic and financial consultancy services to various clients including governments and quasi-government institutions in Zambia, Zimbabwe, Angola, Kenya, Botswana, Namibia and South Africa. This exposure gave Sean Tembo a deeper understanding of the social, economic and political landscape of Zambia and the region.

6.  In 2008, Sean Tembo decided to take a short sabbatical leave from running his firm, to pursue a Master of Business Administration (MBA) Degree from the University of Derby in the United Kingdom, where he also graduated as the best student.

7. In 2015 at the age of 35 and after successfully running his firm, in three countries for more than 10 years, Sean E. Tembo MBA, BAcc, FCCA, FCPA, FZICA, decided to retire from professional work. He now lives on a farm in Ngwerere, in the northern part of Lusaka City.  Sean Tembo has four children and is happily divorced. His hobbies include fishing, safari hunting, playing golf, and is a keen gun collector. He is currently working on being certified as a professional big game hunter. He also enjoys his Mosi Lager and an occasional whiskey in the company of good friends.

8. As a contribution to public service, Sean Tembo has previously served in the Zambia Police Service, Lusaka Division as a Romeo, where he rose to the rank of Assistant Superintendent of Police, before leaving the service in 2013. Despite his limited financial resources, Sean Tembo has also made several donations to various charities including the sponsorship of a 5 year programme to award cash prizes to best performing students every term at Hillcrest Technical Secondary School in Livingstone, as well as Gaborone Secondary School (GSS) in Gaborone, Botswana. These scholarship programmes, albeit small in nature, had the effect of motivating pupils to achieve higher levels of performance not only in the final grade 12 exams, but throughout their secondary studies.

9. After his early retirement at the age of 35 in 2015, and with plenty of time available on his hands, Sean Tembo decided to contribute to the governance of Zambia by joining active politics. His initial plan was to join an existing political party which advances progressive ideas that have the potential to uplift the living standards of the Zambian people. After reviewing the plans, operations and democratic standing of existing political parties, it soon dawned upon Sean Tembo that he may have to consider starting a political party from scratch, as nothing that was currently available appeared tenable.

10. In February 2015, Sean Tembo organized a number of other progressive Zambians and together they started the process of forming the Patriots for Economic Progress (PeP). The Patriots for Economic Progress (PeP) is a capitalist-liberal political party that was finally registered in the Republic of Zambia in 2016 in accordance with the Societies Act, Chapter 119 of the Laws of Zambia, and is also duly accredited with the Electoral Commission of Zambia (ECZ). In November 2016, the Party went for a convention that was held at Mulungushi International Conference Centre (MICC), in Lusaka, where Sean Tembo was elected as Party President with a 5 year mandate until November 2021.

11. The Party’s four core values are Patriotism, Accountability, Competence and Courage. The Party’s vision is “to have a Zambia where the poorest person has an average monthly income of ZMW10,000=00, inflation is below 5%, average commercial bank lending rates are single digit, the Gini coefficient is less than 0.1, Per capita income is above US$50,000, the least educated citizen has a full grade 12 certificate and Zambians having a life expectancy of not less than 70 years”. Sean Tembo strongly believes that Zambia has the necessary potential to make this vision a reality.

12. The Patriots for Economic Progress has been undertaking a number of activities to hold the PF government accountable, which include the fire tender protests of which 42 were planned and 6 have so far been undertaken. Other PeP activities to hold the PF government accountable include (i) the pending petition that was delivered to President Lungu at State House, to commission an independent forensic investigation into the $42 million fire tender scandal, (ii) the current planned law suit to compel the Honourable Minister of Infrastructure and Housing to release information related to the planned Lusaka-Ndola dual carriage-way project including priced Bill of Quantities, architectural and engineering drawings, and (iii) the request for support to UPND to move an impeachment motion in Parliament against President Lungu for violating article 122 of the Republican Constitution by intimidating the Constitutional Court to rule in his favour in an active matter that is currently before the Court in which President Lungu’s eligibility to pursue a 3rd term in 2021 is being challenged, etc.

13. In addition to providing checks and balances, and unlike the majority of other opposition political parties that only point fingers, Sean Tembo has ensured that the Patriots for Economic Progress has actively been providing alternative solutions to national problems and challenges. In this regard, PeP has so far developed and presented a PeP Alternative 7th National Development Plan, a PeP Alternative Political Parties Bill 2017, a PeP 2018 Alternative National Budget, and the Party is currently working on a PeP Alternative Republican Constitution which will be a model Constitution and is due for completion in the first week of February 2018.

14. Among other key matters, Sean Tembo has ensured that the Patriots for Economic Progress is financially self-sustainable so that it can maintain its independence and not become beholden to those individuals and interest-groups that might donate significant sums of money for its operations. To this end, the Party charges its members a membership fee of K60 per annum, except for those that are financially challenged, who are allowed to apply for a pre-approved waiver. In the 2017 financial year, the party has more than 10,000 paid up members. Sean Tembo has also seen to it that the Party engages in a number of income generating activities through the sale of various pieces of regalia. In the 2017 financial year, the Party has sold about 7,000 PeP branded t-shirts at K30 each and various other pieces of regalia will soon be introduced to enhance the Party’s revenue generation capacity. These prudent financial measures have ensured that the Party always has adequate financial resources available to undertake its operations, as well as begin to build the necessary war chest in readiness for the 2021 general elections.

15. The PeP President believes that it is unreasonable for any political party to promise to come and run a financially sustainable government once they come to power when they fail to run their operations in a financially sustainable manner while in opposition. Sean Tembo will be contesting the Presidency of the Republic of Zambia in 2021 and he is expecting a very good performance. His primary target group are the 5.5 million eligible Zambians that decided not to register and not to vote in the 2016 general elections. His plan is to offer himself as the reason why these 5.5 million eligible Zambians need to register and to vote in the 2021 general elections.

PeP Media Team @2017