THE PRICE OF POWER: MUDOLO’S DOLLARS AND THE COPPERBELT’S CRY
By Barbrah Musamba Chama
When a voice from the diaspora like that of Mudolo thunders, “I will raise enough dollars to bring the UPND down,” it is not an empty threat. It is a chillingly calculated promise, one born from the bitter understanding of a new, brutal political truth: in today’s Zambia, ideology is dead, and greed is the new currency of power.
Mudolo has done his homework. He has seen the blueprint for political conquest written not in manifestos, but in the scarred earth of our nation’s richest lands. He understands what we on the ground have witnessed first-hand that any political party with a serious war chest now has the capacity to collapse entire structures, not with ideas, but with cold, hard cash.
Look no further than the Copperbelt, the historic engine of our nation, now a case study in political cannibalism. The promise of “more money in your pockets” has been grotesquely twisted into a frenzied scramble where the connected feast while the masses fight for scraps.
The Black Mountain in Kitwe stands not as a monument to industry, but as a stark symbol of this avarice. What was meant to empower the people has become a contested, violent arena where allegiances are bought and sold, and the promise of collective benefit has been sacrificed at the altar of personal enrichment.
The story grows darker in Chingola, at OB 19. Here, the dream of mineral wealth turned into a nightmare of desperation and death. The very citizens who ushered this government into power were left to perish in the bowels of the earth, while the machinery of the state seemed more focused on managing the narrative than saving lives. The grief of those families is a permanent stain on the conscience of this administration.
And for the most brazen display of greed, one must travel to Mufumbwe. The gold rush there unveiled a venomous truth: that some greedy people would allegedly go as far as killing to clear the land. The accusation that leaders became predators, using violence to secure tenements for themselves, reveals a moral bankruptcy so profound it shakes the very foundations of our democracy.
This is the “homework” Mudolo has reviewed. This is the environment that has been cultivated a political landscape where loyalty is a commodity and the people are collateral damage.
When his promised funding floods in, it will not target the steadfast ideologues. It is designed to teach a very specific, and now pervasive, breed a severe lesson: the politically impotent cowards.
These are the faces that were conspicuously absent in the struggle, who materialized only in the blinding glare of victory, pretending to be “more UPND than others.” They are the fair-weather patriots whose allegiance is to the feeding trough, not the flag. For them, the incoming tide of dollars will be a brutal teacher, exposing their hollow loyalty and washing them away in a torrent of realpolitik.
The warning from afar is clear: a monster of pure greed has been created. And now, its creator may be about to learn that such a creature has no master, only a price.
There is nothing you are telling us here.Mudolo boy is just chancer taking advantage of blind Zambians.He used to do pillaged schemes with Bushiri and today you think from just nowhere he can rule Zambia?Let’s be objective sometimes.Who is he and what has he done in Zambia if he has money.Ndambo has been sponsoring students and helping in charity work around the country.What about Modulo?