MUCHINGA’S GOLD MUST NOT BECOME ANOTHER BATTLEFIELD BETWEEN THE STATE AND ITS OWN PEOPLE ️ THE PEOPLE’S POLITICAL SCIENCE {SPECIAL EDITION}
The Government has given illegal miners in Muchinga Province until 18 November 2026 to vacate mining sites, with military intervention reportedly scheduled thereafter. From North Western Province to Muchinga, Zambia risks institutionalising a perilous culture of coercive operations against citizens whose economic desperation demands intelligent public policy. No nation has industrialised its way to prosperity through an endless succession of military operations against its impoverished population. China and the Asian Tigers built productive capacity through industrialisation, investment, skills development and economic mobilisation. Our colonial masters deployed coercion to suppress the aspirations of our people. Our freedom fighters resisted that oppression with the indomitable conviction that human dignity and liberty are the birthright of every human being, endowed by Heaven. I am a religious Jew and a man of deep faith. I only fear the Throne of Heaven, the King over kings of kings.
Muchinga is not an ordinary province in the geography of poverty. According to the Zambia Statistics Agency’s 2022 Living Conditions Monitoring Survey, 82.6% of its population lived below the national poverty line, the highest provincial poverty incidence in Zambia. These statistics must inform the Government’s response. ZAMSTATS was established to guide national policy through empirical evidence. When young Zambians descend upon goldfields seeking economic survival, the state must investigate the socioeconomic circumstances propelling them there. Poverty, unemployment, social exclusion and the desperation of households demand multidisciplinary intervention, involving economists, psychologists, social workers, counsellors and security specialists.
For the record, I neither condone illegal mining nor advocate environmental destruction, criminality or disregard for the law. Reports of deaths, polluted rivers and criminal activities in Muchinga require decisive intervention. However, national security encompasses the preservation of livelihoods, public confidence, social cohesion and political stability. A state that relies excessively on coercion risks manufacturing the very instability it seeks to extinguish. The republic must never permit the militarisation of poverty to become an enduring substitute for economic governance.
I propose the immediate establishment of an inter ministerial task force, bringing together Mines, Finance, Labour, Youth, Community Development, Local Government, Home Affairs and the relevant security institutions, alongside traditional leaders and representatives of affected miners. Before displacement, undertake an urgent registration and socioeconomic assessment of Zambian miners, identify existing mineral rights, demarcate lawful mining areas and provide a credible pathway into regulated production.
Tanzania’s experience demonstrates the value of organising artisanal miners, issuing appropriate licences and providing technical assistance. Zambia already has the statutory framework for an Artisanal and Small Scale Mining Fund under the Geological and Minerals Development Act of 2025. Let us operationalise these instruments with urgency.
Transparency must become the antidote to suspicion. Government has announced the issuance of hundreds of artisanal mining rights nationally. Who are the beneficiaries? Which districts and provinces do they come from? Which cooperatives hold the licences, and where are their mining concessions situated? Publish an accessible register of licence holders, beneficial owners, cooperative membership and geographical allocations, subject to lawful personal data protections. Introduce blockchain backed mineral traceability, digital licensing, transparent gold marketing centres, affordable financing, geological assistance and enforceable environmental safeguards. Let the Government collect its rightful revenues while Zambian citizens participate meaningfully in the exploitation of their country’s mineral wealth.
I appeal to the Government to reconsider the proposed military removals until a coordinated, lawful and humane transition programme has been established, while immediately securing dangerous sites, protecting communities and enforcing environmental and criminal laws. Engage these young Zambians. Give eligible miners an opportunity to formalise their operations. Protect existing lawful rights. Prevent clandestine reallocations that could generate accusations of favouritism, dispossession and political patronage. The state possesses sufficient institutional capacity to transform artisanal mining into an organised national industry. It must deploy that capacity with discernment, probity and economic imagination.
Zambia’s destiny must be reclaimed through the collective enterprise of its people, irrespective of tribe, colour, political affiliation or social standing. Our mineral endowments should become instruments of emancipation from poverty, productive employment and intergenerational prosperity. We cannot perpetually send armed men to confront young people searching for a livelihood while leaving the underlying conditions of their desperation substantially undisturbed. Let us organise our people for prosperity, not mobilise the state against their poverty.
Saviour Chishimba
(Yehuda ben David)
Jewish Scholar
Principal & Founder
THE PEOPLE’S ACADEMY