ELA-Zambia reports ‘China Captures Zambia’s Timber Trade’

China Captures Zambia’s Timber Trade: As ‘Mukula’ Tree Faces Extinction – Foreign Minister Resigns in Protest of Corruption and Foreign Domination!

By Mainda Simataa | ELA General Secretary Comments on the illegal Trade and Export of the Mukula Tree to China | 4th January 2018 | Lusaka Zambia |

China is Permitted to Steal by the PF Zambian Government
A little over a week ago, as the country was in the festive Christmas mood, a clandestine state-sanctioned operation involving a convoy of twenty-one trucks carrying a heavy consignment of banned contraband – logs of an endangered tree species call ‘Mukula’; secretly and stealthy made its way to the Zimbabwean border under the cover of darkness and escorted by state-security and transport agents. But then the unexpected happened! By some tip-off from big PF Party people who were obviously unhappy about the secret deal for reasons best known to themselves, the convoy was intercepted and impounded by a hostile and upset youth faction of the ruling Patriotic Front (PF) government. The ensuing public expose of this illegal and illicit trade in the Mukula tree later culminated into the resignation of the Minister of foreign affairs, Hon. Harry Kalaba, MP.

When a Politician Resigns to Save his own Skin – After Eating Well with Thieves!
Mr. Kalaba cited corruption as the main reason for his widely circulated and publicized letter on his facebook page: https://www.facebook.com/honharrykalaba/. In it, he intimated, though belatedly, that Zambia has been totally overrun and overtaken by foreigners working in collusion with a corrupt regime (the PF). He said Zambians are benefiting nothing from the opportunities and resources abundant in their country (repeating what we already know). And typical of his kind, and like every other corrupt political scumbag who jumps ship to save his own neck; he made the hypocritical remark that he could no longer serve in a shamelessly corrupt regime; a corrupt regime which he was very much an architect of, and supported until the day he resigned! When it suited his pocket and belly, Happy Harry could not smell nor speak of the corruption he is singing about today like a Parrot on heat!

The PF Government’s Double-Speak and Collaboration with Corrupt Chinese
Meanwhile, the Chinese mafia and Mukula loggers whom Kalaba and his former partner in crime (President Edgar Lungu) brought in the country, continue to loot our logs with impunity and rapacious intensity! Despite the official ban, the Chinese continue to circumvent and transcend all measures meant to curb the trade in the forbidden Mukula tree; and this they do with the secret help and collaboration of the state. Videos have been captured where Zambian prisoners are being used as cheap labour in the illicit Mukula trade – cutting and loading for free, while top officials who are in on the deal benefit handsomely! All the while, senior PF officials who are quizzed on the Mukula saga either claim ignorance, or blatantly deny that illegal Mukula trade is not happening, and as far as they are concerned, the ban on Mukula remains in force. But such double-speak is patently false given the recent revelations! Mukula is being fed through to Chinese furniture, medicine and weapons industries; by hook or crooked means; by bending or breaking the law!

Mukula Trade, Banned on Paper, but not in reality!
It must be noted and remembered that as of last year (2017), there has been an official ban in force on the harvesting, trade, and export of the Mukula tree. The PF government even went as far as sending the Zambian Army to guard the endangered trees in the forests. But recent revelations have shown that unofficially, the state is still cutting the Mukula, and cutting bedroom, backroom and dark-corner deals with the Chinese timber mafia. All the while, state media flurry and frenzy about government banning the trade in Mukula is meant at blinding the population from the truth, and also to cut out all Zambian competitors to the Chinese trade Mukula, so that the Chinese who pay big money for it, can have the trade all to themselves – a Chinese monoploy! There is no doubt that the PF government is in bed with the Chinese dealers of the Mukula tree, and such an exposure is only a tip of the iceberg as far as the depth of the rot and corruption in the PF government goes.

Damning evidence of videos posted on social media https://www.facebook.com/bruce.ernest/videos/10156951976559829/ indicate that the ruling PF is in fact the chief Chinese accomplice, and culprit in the indiscriminate flouting of trade in the Mukula logs; and has since cleared the cadre-impounded trucks and instructed the Zambia forestry agency (ZAFFICO) to proceed with the export of the Mukula logs to China. The Minister of Home Affairs Stephen Kampyongo has since disowned and warned the PF faction of youths who intercepted the illegal contraband in what he termed criminal behavior. The PF has turned on itself!

China’s Capitalist Exploitation Must be Stopped!
However, what is certain is that the Chinese capitalist invasion and infiltration into the Zambian economic and political sphere has left ordinary Zambians with no recourse to the continuous rapacious exploitation of the Chinese – a rapacious exploitation which is taking place with the full consent and approval of the ruling and truly corrupt PF regime whose legacy is, and shall forever be, one of unbridled and unmatched corruption in the history of Zambia!

Clearly, China has put Zambia to the sword, and millions to poverty! Our necks are literally on the Chinese chopping board! Therefore, a revolutionary struggle to reclaim our economic and political sovereignty must be mounted now, and a political struggle waged today. Looking at the speed of Chinese exploitation, tomorrow may be too late; we may never have the green and beautiful Zambian landscape we see today, if we wait for tomorrow. The Chinese care less if Zambia becomes a devastated and deforested wasteland like Mongolia; as long as they have harvested everything there is to harvest, including our body organs, and made off with billions of dollars in bloody profit; leaving us poorer and desolate than ever before…in economic shambles and political disarray!

*Stop the Chinese Capitalist Now!
*Expel all Chinese Looters from Zambia!
*Down with Chinese Exploitation!
*Down with the political puppets of China!
*All land, all resources and all Power to the Zambian People!