JOURNEY TO THE WEST: IS ZAMBIA, ANGOLA READY TO TRADE?
By GEORGE CHOMBA
Ever imagined being thrown out of State House because of lack of an invitation pass?
That aside. What about flying as a Government official in a foreign land without an aircraft ticket?
This was my experience 15 years ago when assigned to travel to Angola, Zambia’s western neighbour.
Don’t blame me, it is the nature of the profession, or rather the craft whose talent should be finding the news or something in the current affairs.
Back then in 2008, I was assigned to travel to Angola to cover President Levy Mwanawasa who was honouring an invitation by his counterpart, Jose Eduardo Dos Santos.
For those who care to know, this was in the aftermath of a cold war between the administration of Zambia’s second President Frederick Chiluba and the Angolan Government.
During Dr Chiluba’s time, his administration was being accused of sponsoring, Dr Jonas Savimbi, the rebel leader of UNITA to destabilise the Angolan Government.
So, after Dr Chiluba left office in 2001, Dr Levy Mwanawasa was being a neutral person to ‘normalize’ relations with the Angolan authorities, hence the invitation.
That is a story for another day.
I was not on the Zambian list of State House officials to visit Angola, but Zambia Daily Mail was determined to ‘spend’ a little bit to put yours truly on Air Angola to fly to Luanda, the capital city.
There I was armed with an air ticket in my jacket heading to Lusaka International Airport which is now Kenneth Kaunda International Airport to fly to Angola on a tour of duty of the Kizomba music country.
On arrival at 4 De Fevereiro International Airport in the capital, Luanda, a friend from the Angolan embassy in Lusaka who sat next to me whispered about the intention of his Government to shift the airport and turn it into an oil field because they had find petroleum at the site.
At that time, this was just for my information but fast forward, considering the high cost of fuel imported from the middle east, I wish importation of the petroleum products from Angola could have started in 2008.
At the airport, I parted company with my Angolan connection and linked up with the Zambian State House Presidential party.
I didn’t have my own transport and who am I not to enjoy the privileges which were over flowing in the body of my colleagues from the Zambia Information Service (now ZANIS) on the Government budget.
Thank God, I met Maxwell Chindele, may his soul rest in peace. We worked together when I joined ZIS before my search for greener pastures at Zambia Daily Mail.
Luanda was expensive then and I believe is still expensive. If I could buy groundnuts from street vendors at $1 in 2008, I don’t know how much the cost is in 2023.
If you are scrutinising why buy groundnuts on the street when I was US Dollar rich, the pocket was expected to leave some money for shopping.
In fact, don’t play with the Kwanza, the Angolan currency. If you do, blame no one for arriving back home with empty pockets.
And talk about food, real food the Zambian standard from Matebeto, we had to find some backyard arrangement to adequately satisfy our stomach.
This is whenever, we were not eating with the VVIP at some official function.
Fast forward, like the itinerary of President Hakainde Hichilema so far made available, so was Mr Mwanawasa’s back then in 2008.
According to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and International Cooperation, President Hichilema who has travelled to Angola for a State visit from 11th to 12th January 2023 at the invitation of his counterpart Mr. João Manuel Gonçalves Lourenço, will address the National Assembly of Angola, as well as travel to Benguela Province where he is scheduled to tour the Lobito Port, the Benguela Railway Company, and the Lobito Petroleum Refinery.
Turning back the hands of time, yours truly has the bragging rights of having visited the venues.
However, not all can be rosy and my encounter with the Angolan securities at their ‘State House’ is memorable.
I was not an official guest like my colleagues on the Presidential party were and so suffered an ‘eviction’.
Before this episode, I was in love with Angola’s State House which is on the shores of the Atlantic Ocean.
This is where the guard of honour for President Mwanawasa was conducted before the official bilateral talks with his counterpart, Jose Edwardo Dos Santos.
It’s not a nice thing for a journalist to be waiting for accredited colleagues to feed them with third party information about what transpired in the meeting.
But I had to defy the old proverb of; ‘once bitten, twice shy”.
After the bilateral talks and after President Mwanawasa addressed the Angolan Parliament in Luanda, the next point of call was the Benguela trip, some hundreds of kilometres, if not a thousand kilometres, from Luanda.
Getting to Benguela required some ‘bird’ to fly the Zambian delegation.
Those who have never witnessed Presidential security, should try going near the KK international airport when President Hichilema is receiving a counterpart.
But if asked to choose a profession if were to live again, journalism still rings a bell.
I was on the plane flying to Benguela Province and at Benguela’s Lobito Port listening to the harbour manager explaining to President Mwanawasa how it would be easy for Zambia to receive imports through Angola.
The reasons became even more clearer when we visited the Benguela Railway Company.
At the time, Angola was building a railway line from Benguela to the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC).
The interest to Zambia was that the railway was passing near North Western Province.
It was during that time that Former Vice President Enoch Kavindele had interests in building a public private partnership railway line from North Western Province to the Copperbelt.
It was being suggested that instead of Copper from North Western Province being transported by road, Mr Kavindele’s railway line could connect to the Benguela system and the mines would use that route to Lobito port.
North Western Province was being earmarked as the next Copperbelt, as reality seem to be dawning on Zambians through FQM’s Kansanshi and the nickel mine in Kalumbila.
Looking back at the commitments then, one is left praying whether Mr Kavindele’s dream will come true.
President Hichilema says on his facebook page; “Whilst in this country (Angola), we will discuss various issues affecting our two nations, and these will centre around unlocking sectors in energy, infrastructure, trade and investment.
“We are optimistic that this visit will lead to opening more opportunities for both Zambia and Angola as we are firm believers that before we look for partnerships and cooperation at the International platforms, we must look within our regional neighbours”.
The question therefore is aside the railway:
- Are Zambians going to see cheaper Angolan Petrol and Diesel powering their vehicles and industry
The journey to the west. Is Zambia and Angola ready to trade?