The Four-Headed Monster: How Youth Unemployment, Nepotism, Tribalism, and Cronyism Are Crushing an Entire Generation- Thandiwe Ketiš Ngoma

The Four-Headed Monster: How Youth Unemployment, Nepotism, Tribalism, and Cronyism Are Crushing an Entire Generation

By Thandiwe Ketiš Ngoma

Under the UPND government, Zambia’s young people are staring down a brutal and unforgiving reality. Jobs are scarce, opportunities are few, and the system is rigged against them. What they face is not just an economic crisis; it is a structural betrayal. At the heart of this betrayal lies a four-headed monster: youth unemployment, nepotism, tribalism, and cronyism. Together, these forces are undermining the present and crushing the future. This is more than bad governance. It is the systemic exclusion of a generation that should be building Zambia’s tomorrow.

The Lost Generation

On one hand, an entire population of young people is stuck. They are qualified but jobless, ambitious and hardworking but blocked. With youth unemployment soaring, these young people roam the streets, clutching their hopes like expired passports to a country that no longer exists.

On the other hand are the tribally connected and political loyalists who enter a job market that now functions like an exclusive club. If you are not in favor or not from the right region, you are not on the list. You are left out in the cold.

Nepotism, the employment of relatives, tribesmen, and women, and cronyism, the employment of party and political loyalists, have become institutionalized under the UPND government. For example, VJ’s son is in diplomatic service in Sweden. Nevers Mumba’s son is in diplomatic service in South Africa. Lesley Mbula’s son now heads the Emoluments Commission. Mapili’s daughter is at the Zambia Development Agency. Gary Nkombo’s sister is in diplomatic service in Morocco. The list is endless.

Jobs go to the connected. Contracts go to the inner circle. Appointments are based on who you know, not what you know.

Fellow Zambians, Mufumbwe is the tragedy that exposes this rot. The recent events there, where a confrontation involving illegal mining activities turned deadly, show what happens when access to opportunity is engineered for the few and denied to the many. When public jobs, contracts, and empowerment programs are distributed not based on merit but on loyalty, tribe, and connection, disaster follows.

The results are clear. First, the poor remain poor, the hopeful become hopeless, and the excluded explode with frustration. Second, we see a strangled economy, an underperforming civil service, and a public sector that serves the party instead of the people.

Lessons from History: Andrew Jackson’s America

In 1829, U.S. President Andrew Jackson created a toxic system of governance that rewarded loyalty over competence. His infamous “spoils system” hollowed out American institutions, replacing experienced professionals with party loyalists, friends, and family. The result was corruption, inefficiency, and an erosion of professionalism in public service.

Sound familiar?

Jackson’s cronyism weakened institutions and normalized a culture where public jobs were rewards, not responsibilities. After Jackson, it took President Theodore Roosevelt decades later to confront the rot and clean up the American civil service. Roosevelt cracked down on corruption, broke up elite monopolies, and restored integrity to public institutions.

After five years of the UPND government, Zambia needs its own Roosevelt in 2026—a reformer who understands that loyalty, cronyism, and tribalism cannot replace competence. Public service must serve the public, and the future must belong to all Zambians, not just the connected few.

Reform or Ruin

Therefore, the choice before us in 2026 is clear and urgent. Another five years of this visionless and exclusionary leadership, and Zambia risks losing an entire generation. Not just their jobs, but their hope, their trust, and their belief in the promise of their own country.

The four-headed monster of unemployment, nepotism, tribalism, and cronyism must be defeated in 2026. If we do not change government in 2026, the damage will be irreversible.

In 2026, when you enter the ballot booth, you have two choices: reform or ruin.