ZAMTEL REPORT.

31 October 2011 Strictly Confidential Page 1 of 114

REPORT TO H.E THE PRESIDENT OF THE REPUBLIC OF ZAMBIA MR. MICHAEL CHILUFYA SATA OF THE COMMISSION OF INQUIRY INTO THE SALE OF ZAMTEL CHAIRED BY HON. SEBASTION ZULU S.C. MINISTER OF JUSTICE 31 October 2011 Strictly Confidential

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INDEX
1. Minister’s Report
2. Recommendations of the Commission of Inquiry
3. Summary of Technical Committee Key Findings
4. Report of the Technical Committee inquiring into the sale of 75% of GRZ shareholding in Zamtel
5. Appendix I -Sequence and timeline of events
6. Appendix II - List of documents perused by the Technical Committee
7. Appendix III - List of people interviewed by the Technical Committee
8. Appendix IV - List of oral submissions made to the Commission of Inquiry
9. Appendix V - Transcripts of oral submissions made to the Commission of Inquiry
10. Appendix VI - List of written submissions made to the Commission of Inquiry
11. Appendix VII - Written submissions made to the Commission of Inquiry
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Recommendations of the Commission of Inquiry
1. Zamtel
1.1 The immediate termination of all Agreements relating to the sale of Zamtel to LAP GreennN and the immediate return of 100% of Zamtel to the people of Zambia for the following reasons:
i. LAP GreenN failed ALL the 3 mandatory prequalification criteria rendering this transaction null and void ab initio;
ii. The price at which Zamtel was sold clearly shows that the company was grossly undervalued and GRZ paid more than it received;
iii. In effect, GRZ paid LAP GreenN to receive a gift of 75% of Zamtel;
iv. The ZDA negotiating team was not independent as required by Law and did not negotiate in the best interests of the Zambian Nation resulting in Zambia receiving the same amount of cash equivalent to the amount paid to a single consultant for its sale of the whole of Zamtel.
1.2 The immediate termination of LAP GreenN appointed and seconded directors and management for the following reasons:
i. As a natural consequence of 1.1 above;
ii. In order to ensure compliance with the UN sanctions on LAP.
1.3 The immediate reconstitution of the board of Zamtel for the following reasons:
i. In order to ensure compliance with the UN sanctions on LAP;
ii. In order to reflect the recommended new shareholding.
1.4 A thorough and comprehensive audit of Zamtel post privatization.
2. Zesco Optical Fibre
Immediate termination of the IRU between Zamtel and Zesco and return of control and ownership of the optical fibre to Zesco for the following reasons:
i. It was illegal;
ii. It was signed by Zesco under extreme duress;
iii. It was not in the interests of Zesco and was solely designed to benefit LAP GreenN at the expense of the Zambian people.
3. Zambia Development Agency
i. The ZDA senior management must be held fully responsible and culpable for the grossly negligent and cavalier manner in which they conducted and "oversaw" the sale of Zamtel.
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ii. ZDA should immediately account for and render the balance of GRZ proceeds received for the privatization of Zamtel and must immediately transfer the same to GRZ.
iii. ZDA must forthwith focus on monitoring post privatization a provided in the ZDA Act.
4. RP Capital Group
i. That a civil lawsuit be immediately instituted to recover the excess fees paid to RP Capital;
ii. RP Capital, its affiliates and its employees must be immediately barred from conducting business in Zambia;
iii. A civil lawsuit be immediately instituted against RP Capital and Simmons and Simmons for professional misconduct / negligence in qualifying LAP GreenN in spite of LAP GreenN failing ALL the 3 mandatory prequalification criteria.
5. Other
5.1. A review of all the legislative changes made to accommodate the Zamtel transaction at the expense of the Zambian tax player such as:
i. Reduction of mobile license fees;
ii. International gateway fees;
iii. PSTN exclusivity license;
iv. Barring of a fourth mobile operator.
The Zamtel sale was a clear case of economic sabotage which pervaded and compromised key GRZ institutions to the extent that GRZ decisions and policy were being managed by a foreign consultant. The full extent and continuing effect of these actions can only be determined if a full scale and thorough comprehensive forensic audit of the Zamtel privatization process is instituted.
Internal RP Capital documents project the value of Zamtel in 2015 being in excess of US5 Billion, the benefit of which the Zambian people would not have enjoyed. 31 October 2011 Strictly Confidential Page 5 of 114
SUMMARY OF TECHNICAL COMMITTEE KEY FINDINGS
1. ENGAGEMENT OF RP CAPITAL PARTNERS CAYMAN ISLANDS
1.1. The engagement of RP Capital Partners Cayman Islands for the valuation of the assets of Zamtel, by way of a MoU signed and executed by the Ministry of Communications and Transport and the Zambia Development Agency, on the 22nd of December 2008 was totally irregular.
1.2. The single-sourcing selection of RP Capital Partners Cayman Islands was single-handedly driven by the Minister of Communications and Transport against the express advice of her ministry officials and that of both the Solicitor General and the Attorney General.
1.3. We also note that the ZDA Board, at a Board Meeting held on 26th December 2008, expressed great disquiet at the attempt to have the ZDA Board essentially rubber-stamp a MoU that was fundamentally flawed, non-transparent and one that did not follow laid-down procedures. In addition, the Board noted that a due diligence exercise to establish the credentials of, and the persons behind RP Capital Partners had not been undertaken.
1.4. We also note, from the Zamtel Audited Accounts for 31st March 2009, that Zamtel had, in the past, engaged world-renowned international experts in the field of telecommunications open market assets valuation (i.e. Experts engaged by Commonwealth Telecommunications Organisation in 1997). This is an example of the caliber of consultants that would be expected to undertake the valuation of Zamtel’s assets.
1.5. We further note, that it was an essential pre-requisite for Cabinet approval of the partial sale of Zamtel, that Cabinet be availed of an accurate, professionally conducted valuation of the Zamtel assets. A proper valuation of the Zamtel assets did not take place.
2. ENGAGEMENT OF RP CAPITAL AS TRANSACTION ADVISORS
2.1. RP Capital Advisors were engaged by the Zambia Development Agency to act as Transaction Advisors for the Zamtel Sale.
2.2. The basis for ZDA’s decision to single-source RP Capital Advisors as Transaction Advisors was based on ZDA management’s satisfaction with the work that had already been completed by RP Capital affiliates in respect of the "valuation" of the Zamtel assets.
2.3. We note as per 1.5 above, that a proper valuation of the Zamtel assets did not take place under the MoU. Even under the Agreement appointing RP Capital as
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Transaction Advisors, no mention is made of RP Capital Advisors conducting a valuation exercise of the Zamtel fixed assets.
2.4. We also note that no due diligence in respect of the suitability of RP Capital Advisors (capacity and capability, previous experience, etc.) was ever conducted by ZDA when they elected to single-source RP Capital Advisors.
2.5. This Committee hereby places on record that the engagement of RP Capital Partners by ZDA, was extremely hasty, did not follow normal tender procedures and may have been under duress. Each of the above, renders the engagement illegal.
3. VALUATION OF ZAMTEL ASSETS/BUSINESS
3.1. As has been stated in 1. above, a detailed, professional valuation of Zamtel assets never took place. The only "valuation" that this Committee was availed, is the one contained in RP Capital Advisors’ final report. This "valuation" is not a professionally conducted assets valuation, but essentially a desktop paper exercise that make numerous assumptions.
3.2. The value of Zamtel’s fixed assets as contained in the summary report by RP Capital Advisors dated 22nd July 2009 and presented to Cabinet is US$ 38 million.
3.3. We further note from the Audited Zamtel Accounts dated 31st March 2009, that the book value of Zamtel’s fixed assets only (property, plant and equipment) was approximately US$ 81 million (K 412,072,000,000). This is however, the book value and not the market value of Zamtel’s fixed assets which would be expected to be considerably higher than the book value.
3.4. This Committee finds it difficult to understand how RP Capital Advisors could arrive at a value of Zamtel’s fixed assets of US$ 38 Million in the absence of conducting a thorough, detailed and professional valuation of Zamtel’s fixed assets.
4. ZAMTEL SALE
4.1. The Cabinet decision to endorse and authorize the partial sale of Zamtel shares took place at the Cabinet Meeting of the 23rd July 2009. The Cabinet decision was based on a five page Project Zamtel: Cabinet Summary report provided by RP Capital Advisors. This report is a summary of the 316 page final report produced by RP Capital Advisors. Both of these documents are dated the 22nd of July 2009.
4.2. This Committee finds it totally inconceivable that the Cabinet and any of its sub-committees, officials and advisors could have read, digested, analyzed
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and drawn meaningful conclusions from the voluminous report within a period of less than 24 hours.
4.3. We repeat 3.2 above, and state that in making its decision to proceed with the partial privatization of Zamtel, Cabinet did not have a proper value for Zamtel’s fixed assets, as the fixed assets value presented in the RP Capital Advisors summary is only US$ 38 million.
4.4. LAP GreenN failed all three of the mandatory prequalification criteria and ought to have been disqualified in the preliminary stage.
4.5. The negotiating team appointed by ZDA was not independent.
4.6. The negotiating process gave away more than it gained.
5. ZESCO OPTICAL FIBRE NETWORK
5.1. A Joint Technical Committee comprising Zamtel and Zesco staff was set up under the auspices of the Communications Authority in July 2008 on the understanding that the two parties would seek to rationalize and harmonise their optical fibre network roll-out and expansion plans, based on mutually beneficial and agreed commercial terms.
5.2. Contrary to the above, on the 28th October 2009 the Zesco Board were informed by the Board Chairman that the Ministry of Finance, as principal shareholder, was directing Zesco to cede their optical fibre network to Zamtel and to cease all commercial operations on their optical fibre networks.
5.3. Immense pressure was exerted on the Zesco Managing Director to sign an Indefeasible Right of Use Agreement (IRU). Named individuals threatened him with the loss of his job and accused him of dragging his feet and holding up the process.
5.4. Revenue sharing under the IRU is 80% Zamtel and 20% Zesco; provisions of the IRU will apply to all existing and future optical fibre networks to be rolled out by Zesco.
5.5. The Zesco MD whilst on an official trip to Egypt, was forced into signing the single signature page of the IRU Agreement under extreme duress and thereafter faxing it back to Zambia on the 17th of December 2009.
5.6. The Zamtel board retrospectively approved the IRU in a board meeting held on the 24th of December 2009.
The Zesco Board passed a retrospective board resolution at a Board Meeting held on the 28th January 2010 authorizing Zesco to sign the IRU Agreement which had, in fact, already been signed by Zesco on the 17th December 2009 and the Zesco MD’s contract of employment was terminated. 31 October 2011 Strictly Confidential Page 8 of 114
5.7. This Committee believes that in expropriating the Zesco optical fibre network assets and handing them over to the soon to be privatized Zamtel, GRZ acted in bad faith. GRZ was in effect purloining valuable assets from a 100% government owned company and giving them away – free of charge – to a company that they would soon only own 25% of! We believe that this was done with the express intention of making the soon to be privatized Zamtel, a more attractive proposition to potential buyers, and did not take into account that Zesco had made a considerable investment (approx. US$ 20 million) into their optical fibre network and were operating it on a very profitable basis.
6. FINAL PURCHASE PRICE OF ZAMTEL
6.1. The final purchase price for a 75% shareholding in Zamtel by LAP Green Networks (LGN) was US$ 257 million and is broken down as follows:
ZAMTEL STAFF PENSIONS LIABILITY: US$ 20,000,000
CHINESE BANK LOANS: US$ 32,700,000
ZAMTEL WORKERS REDUNDANCIES: US$ 97,700,000
LAPGREEN NETWORKS EQUITY INVESTMENT: US$ 64,000,000
GRZ PROCEEDS: US$ 42,600,000
TOTAL PAID BY LAP GREEN N: US$ 257,000,000
From the information provided by ZDA Chief Accountant, the proceeds due to GRZ have, to date, been disbursed as follows; Expenditure Breakdown of Govt Proceeds of
$42,600,000
RP Capital Advisors
$12,689,759.03
Net Cash GRZ Proceeds to date (MoFNP)
$15,000,000.00
Legal Fees
$702,296.33
Zamtel Staff Incentives
$85,926.59
ZDA/Zamtel Staff Incentives and Overtime
$307,462.73
ZDA Negotiating Team
$65,797.25
Zamtel Staff Training
$192,907.51
Adverts
$87,468.98
Grant Thornton Consultants – Financial
$94,859.14
ZDA (Zamtel sale) Assets
$46,388.08
Bank Charges
$8,304.28
Other Zamtel Related Payments
$19,473.60
Total Disbursed
$29,300,643.52

Today's Post Editorial Is It In Order.

Is The Post In Order On the Editorial Below?

‘Reforms in the Judiciary' By The Post Mon 16 Jan. 2012, 14:00 CAT

WE would like to commend James Banda, president of the Law Association of Zambia, and his entire executive, for the courageous and honest position they have taken on the state of our Judiciary.Things must be called by their right names. This does not mean that we are speaking with hate, nor harshly about anyone. We should analyse, censure, criticise seriously all these things. It requires little intelligence - if a little is all one has - to realise that something has gone badly wrong with our Judiciary; things are not the way they should be. There is need for urgent reforms in our Judiciary. But as the Law Association of Zambia has correctly observed, no reforms can be meaningfully implemented with the current leadership of the Judiciary in place. We have for some time consistently questioned the integrity and capacity of the current leadership of our Judiciary. If one thought we had a personal issue with Chief Justice Ernest Sakala and some of his friends, then we are not the only ones because the entire Law Association of Zambia is with us. Things are out of control. There is something seriously wrong with the leadership of our Judiciary. And the buck stops at justice Sakala. The current leadership of the judiciary is not interested in meaningful or serious reforms of the institution. Justice Sakala doesn't seem to see that the Judiciary has much more bigger problems than funding or budgetary allocations. And it seems he doesn't like to hear anyone raising the issue of the integrity of our judiciary. We understand his sensitivities over this issue because he has single-handedly destroyed the integrity of our Judiciary. Justice Sakala has defended everything that is wrong about our Judiciary. He has exhibited a very high level of sensitivity and intolerance to criticism. But Zambians cannot stop talking about his destruction of this very important institution of our state. There are so many questionable decisions that have been carried out with his blessings and clear collusion. We challenge justice Sakala to take us on so that we can show everything wrong that he has done; we can show where his hand has been in all these wrong things that have come out of our Judiciary. Some of our judges, who are very close to justice Sakala, are not fit to be on our bench - they are criminals fit to be in prison. But they are protected and have been promoted because they have been doing wrong things on his behalf. We support the suggestion by the Law Association of Zambia to critically and systematically review some cases and judgments to determine whether or not the issues of capacity and competence arise. In some of these cases, it would be discovered that it is not even the issue of competence and capacity but of criminality. And justice Sakala knows all these things. He has not been promoting justice but injustice. Some of our best judges have been marginalised because they are not part of his league. Only those he is able to use or rather abuse have had it easy. There is a limit to how far one can run such an important public institution as if it is a personal kantemba. We agree with the conclusion of the Law Association of Zambia "that the Judiciary needs a new momentum and a breath of fresh air to carry the reforms which we will be suggesting forward. We are of the view that the current leadership of the Judiciary would find it difficult to embrace and carryout the reforms we will be proposing. Judicial reform invariably includes filling the Judiciary with forward-thinking, credible, competent judges and magistrates with integrity operating under clear and transparent rules without impunity and with secure tenure. The rules and laws of appointments and removal should be clear and not subject to manipulation by the Executive. To us, this is what judicial reform to a large extent entails". We support the demand by the Law Association of Zambia that "judges should not serve on contracts as this is inconsistent with judicial independence more so that the terms of those contracts are not known to the public". Justice Sakala, the Chief Justice of our Republic, is serving on a contract given to him single-handedly by Rupiah Banda. It is not difficult to see why justice Sakala's conduct was so much tilted in favour of Rupiah; why he could not even shake hands in church with then opposition leader Michael Sata. But the same justice Sakala today feels honoured to shake hands with Michael. Using his own words we ask: "Since when?" It's clear that justice Sakala has destroyed whatever independence our Judiciary had together with its integrity. There is no need for his contract to continue. We have no time to lose. We are a nation in a hurry to advance in so many ways. There is no need to wait until his contract finishes sometime after the middle of this year. And even just as a matter of personal integrity, justice Sakala should resign on his own, should realise that his time is over because he misbehaved and mismanaged things. There will not be room for impunity in this country anymore from anyone. As the Law Association of Zambia has aptly put it, "Whilst we are strong proponents of strong judicial independence, we are equally stronger proponents of judicial accountability. Judicial independence and judicial accountability are not inconsistent and can therefore co-exist. The Judiciary should not be ungovernable and elitist or untouchable. The old days of respectful deference and fearful silence have gone forever." This reminds us of the behaviour of our intelligence services before 2001. It became a conduit for stealing public funds in the belief that nobody would ever get to the bottom of what they were doing or question their thefts of public funds because intelligence expenses could not be questioned. There are some judges who think they can do anything, including using judgments to enrich themselves or to gain favours or promotions from politicians, thinking nobody will ever question what they have done. This will not continue to be so. We know what they did over the Chiluba acquittal. We also know what they did over the London High Court judgment registration. One day, justice Sakala and those working under him will have to answer for these things. The constitutional protection that our judges enjoy was not meant to be used in that way. It was meant to protect them from legitimate errors of judgment not from political connivance to evade the course of justice. We hope, from the position taken by the Law Association of Zambia, Michael's government will realise that there is something seriously wrong with our Judiciary that calls for immediate remedies in whichever way it is possible. Any unnecessary delay will cause more damage to the integrity of our Judiciary. We are not only calling for justice Sakala to go but on all those who have deliberately done wrong things because they too will be pursued without respite.

By Field Ruwe They call the Third World the lazy man’s purview; the sluggishly slothful and languorous prefecture. In this realm people are sleepy, dreamy, torpid, lethargic, and therefore indigent—totally penniless, needy, destitute, poverty-stricken, disfavored, and impoverished. In this demes...ne, as they call it, there are hardly any discoveries, inventions, and innovations. Africa is the trailblazer. Some still call it “the dark continent” for the light that flickers under the tunnel is not that of hope, but an approaching train. And because countless keep waiting in the way of the train, millions die and many more remain decapitated by the day.“It’s amazing how you all sit there and watch yourselves die,” the man next to me said. “Get up and do something about it.”Brawny, fully bald-headed, with intense, steely eyes, he was as cold as they come. When I first discovered I was going to spend my New Year’s Eve next to him on a non-stop JetBlue flight from Los Angeles to Boston I was angst-ridden. I associate marble-shaven Caucasians with iconoclastic skin-heads, most of who are racist.“My name is Walter,” he extended his hand as soon as I settled in my seat. I told him mine with a precautious smile.“Where are you from?” he asked.“Zambia.” “Zambia!” he exclaimed, “Kaunda’s country.” “Yes,” I said, “Now Sata’s.” “But of course,” he responded. “You just elected King Cobra as your president.”My face lit up at the mention of Sata’s moniker. Walter smiled, and in those cold eyes I saw an amenable fellow, one of those American highbrows who shuttle between Africa and the U.S.“I spent three years in Zambia in the 1980s,” he continued. “I wined and dined with Luke Mwananshiku, Willa Mungomba, Dr. Siteke Mwale, and many other highly intelligent Zambians.” He lowered his voice. “I was part of the IMF group that came to rip you guys off.” He smirked. “Your government put me in a million dollar mansion overlooking a shanty called Kalingalinga. From my patio I saw it all—the rich and the poor, the ailing, the dead, and the healthy.” “Are you still with the IMF?” I asked.“I have since moved to yet another group with similar intentions. In the next few months my colleagues and I will be in Lusaka to hypnotize the cobra. I work for the broker that has acquired a chunk of your debt. Your government owes not the World Bank, but us millions of dollars. We’ll be in Lusaka to offer your president a couple of millions and fly back with a check twenty times greater.” “No, you won’t,” I said. “King Cobra is incorruptible. He is …”He was laughing. “Says who? Give me an African president, just one, who has not fallen for the carrot and stick.”Quett Masire’s name popped up.“Oh, him, well, we never got to him because he turned down the IMF and the World Bank. It was perhaps the smartest thing for him to do.”At midnight we were airborne. The captain wished us a happy 2012 and urged us to watch the fireworks across Los Angeles.“Isn’t that beautiful,” Walter said looking down. From my middle seat, I took a glance and nodded admirably.“That’s white man’s country,” he said. “We came here on Mayflower and turned Indian land into a paradise and now the most powerful nation on earth. We discovered the bulb, and built this aircraft to fly us to pleasure resorts like Lake Zambia.”I grinned. “There is no Lake Zambia.”He curled his lips into a smug smile. “That’s what we call your country. You guys are as stagnant as the water in the lake. We come in with our large boats and fish your minerals and your wildlife and leave morsels—crumbs. That’s your staple food, crumbs. That corn-meal you eat, that’s crumbs, the small Tilapia fish you call Kapenta is crumbs. We the Bwanas (whites) take the cat fish. I am the Bwana and you are the Muntu. I get what I want and you get what you deserve, crumbs. That’s what lazy people get—Zambians, Africans, the entire Third World.”The smile vanished from my face.“I see you are getting pissed off,” Walter said and lowered his voice. “You are thinking this Bwana is a racist. That’s how most Zambians respond when I tell them the truth. They go ballistic. Okay. Let’s for a moment put our skin pigmentations, this black and white crap, aside. Tell me, my friend, what is the difference between you and me?” “There’s no difference.” “Absolutely none,” he exclaimed. “Scientists in the Human Genome Project have proved that. It took them thirteen years to determine the complete sequence of the three billion DNA subunits. After they were all done it was clear that 99.9% nucleotide bases were exactly the same in you and me. We are the same people. All white, Asian, Latino, and black people on this aircraft are the same.”I gladly nodded.“And yet I feel superior,” he smiled fatalistically. “Every white person on this plane feels superior to a black person. The white guy who picks up garbage, the homeless white trash on drugs, feels superior to you no matter his status or education. I can pick up a nincompoop from the New York streets, clean him up, and take him to Lusaka and you all be crowding around him chanting muzungu, muzungu and yet he’s a riffraff. Tell me why my angry friend.”For a moment I was wordless.“Please don’t blame it on slavery like the African Americans do, or colonialism, or some psychological impact or some kind of stigmatization. And don’t give me the brainwash poppycock. Give me a better answer.”I was thinking. He continued. “Excuse what I am about to say. Please do not take offense.”I felt a slap of blood rush to my head and prepared for the worst.“You my friend flying with me and all your kind are lazy,” he said. “When you rest your head on the pillow you don’t dream big. You and other so-called African intellectuals are damn lazy, each one of you. It is you, and not those poor starving people, who is the reason Africa is in such a deplorable state.” “That’s not a nice thing to say,” I protested. He was implacable. “Oh yes it is and I will say it again, you are lazy. Poor and uneducated Africans are the most hardworking people on earth. I saw them in the Lusaka markets and on the street selling merchandise. I saw them in villages toiling away. I saw women on Kafue Road crushing stones for sell and I wept. I said to myself where are the Zambian intellectuals? Are the Zambian engineers so imperceptive they cannot invent a simple stone crusher, or a simple water filter to purify well water for those poor villagers? Are you telling me that after thirty-seven years of independence your university school of engineering has not produced a scientist or an engineer who can make simple small machines for mass use? What is the school there for?”I held my breath.“Do you know where I found your intellectuals? They were in bars quaffing. They were at the Lusaka Golf Club, Lusaka Central Club, Lusaka Playhouse, and Lusaka Flying Club. I saw with my own eyes a bunch of alcoholic graduates. Zambian intellectuals work from eight to five and spend the evening drinking. We don’t. We reserve the evening for brainstorming.”He looked me in the eye.“And you flying to Boston and all of you Zambians in the Diaspora are just as lazy and apathetic to your country. You don’t care about your country and yet your very own parents, brothers and sisters are in Mtendere, Chawama, and in villages, all of them living in squalor. Many have died or are dying of neglect by you. They are dying of AIDS because you cannot come up with your own cure. You are here calling yourselves graduates, researchers and scientists and are fast at articulating your credentials once asked—oh, I have a PhD in this and that—PhD my foot!”I was deflated.“Wake up you all!” he exclaimed, attracting the attention of nearby passengers. “You should be busy lifting ideas, formulae, recipes, and diagrams from American manufacturing factories and sending them to your own factories. All those research findings and dissertation papers you compile should be your country’s treasure. Why do you think the Asians are a force to reckon with? They stole our ideas and turned them into their own. Look at Japan, China, India, just look at them.”He paused. “The Bwana has spoken,” he said and grinned. “As long as you are dependent on my plane, I shall feel superior and you my friend shall remain inferior, how about that? The Chinese, Japanese, Indians, even Latinos are a notch better. You Africans are at the bottom of the totem pole.”He tempered his voice. “Get over this white skin syndrome and begin to feel confident. Become innovative and make your own stuff for god’s sake.”At 8 a.m. the plane touched down at Boston’s Logan International Airport. Walter reached for my hand.“I know I was too strong, but I don’t give it a damn. I have been to Zambia and have seen too much poverty.” He pulled out a piece of paper and scribbled something. “Here, read this. It was written by a friend.”He had written only the title: “Lords of Poverty.”Thunderstruck, I had a sinking feeling. I watched Walter walk through the airport doors to a waiting car. He had left a huge dust devil twirling in my mind, stirring up sad memories of home. I could see Zambia’s literati—the cognoscente, intelligentsia, academics, highbrows, and scholars in the places he had mentioned guzzling and talking irrelevancies. I remembered some who have since passed—how they got the highest grades in mathematics and the sciences and attained the highest education on the planet. They had been to Harvard, Oxford, Yale, Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), only to leave us with not a single invention or discovery. I knew some by name and drunk with them at the Lusaka Playhouse and Central Sports. Walter is right. It is true that since independence we have failed to nurture creativity and collective orientations. We as a nation lack a workhorse mentality and behave like 13 million civil servants dependent on a government pay cheque. We believe that development is generated 8-to-5 behind a desk wearing a tie with our degrees hanging on the wall. Such a working environment does not offer the opportunity for fellowship, the excitement of competition, and the spectacle of innovative rituals. But the intelligentsia is not solely, or even mainly, to blame. The larger failure is due to political circumstances over which they have had little control. The past governments failed to create an environment of possibility that fosters camaraderie, rewards innovative ideas and encourages resilience. KK, Chiluba, Mwanawasa, and Banda embraced orthodox ideas and therefore failed to offer many opportunities for drawing outside the line. I believe King Cobra’s reset has been cast in the same faculties as those of his predecessors. If today I told him that we can build our own car, he would throw me out.“Naupena? Fuma apa.” (Are you mad? Get out of here) Knowing well that King Cobra will not embody innovation at Walter’s level let’s begin to look for a technologically active-positive leader who can succeed him after a term or two. That way we can make our own stone crushers, water filters, water pumps, razor blades, and harvesters. Let’s dream big and make tractors, cars, and planes, or, like Walter said, forever remain inferior. A fundamental transformation of our country from what is essentially non-innovative to a strategic superior African country requires a bold risk-taking educated leader with a triumphalist attitude and we have one in YOU. Don’t be highly strung and feel insulted by Walter. Take a moment and think about our country. Our journey from 1964 has been marked by tears. It has been an emotionally overwhelming experience. Each one of us has lost a loved one to poverty, hunger, and disease. The number of graves is catching up with the population. It’s time to change our political culture. It’s time for Zambian intellectuals to cultivate an active-positive progressive movement that will change our lives forever. Don’t be afraid or dispirited, rise to the challenge and salvage the remaining few of your beloved ones. Field Ruwe is a US-based Zambian media practitioner and author. He is a PhD candidate with a B.A. in Mass Communication and Journalism, and an M.A. in History