For the first time in 20 years, Zambia has a new ruling party. Michael Sata’s Patriotic Front (PF) swept to election victory in September promising to tackle élite corruption and exploitative foreign investors.
Sata’s first official visitor to State House was the Chinese ambassador. After the meeting he said, ‘we welcome your investment, but as we welcome your investment, [it] should benefit Zambians and not the Chinese’. New mining licences and metal export permits have been suspended pending an audit of the mining sector, and senior PF figures are mooting measures ranging from increased state ownership to windfall taxes.
