Business
Zambia: President Michael Sata – the first 40 days
Zambia President Michael Sata. PHOTO/Reuters/Makson Wasamunu
Six weeks after his election, President Michael Sata still seems unsure about what he is doing at State House. Few really believed he would actually make it here. Now he is reluctant to move in, preferring his own home, where crowds of Zambians thronged the streets the night of his election victory on 22 September. For a politician whose populist Patriotic Front (PF) party has spent the past 10 years campaigning to end the 20-year rule of the Movement for Multi- party Democracy (MMD), the hushed corridors of the State House feel far removed from his old, busy, noisy office at Farmers House on Cairo Road in downtown Lusaka.
Unpredictable, irritable and with a tendency to shoot from the hip, 74-year-old Sata is no natural diplomat. But he is a seasoned politician, with a reputation for getting things done, for the quick fix. He must deliver one now, having promised jobs, lower food prices and a new constitution within 90 days to his young, urban support base.
Within weeks of the election there were wildcat strikes over poor labour conditions and low pay at Chinese-owned mines. But for all his history of anti-Chinese rhetoric – toned down in the run-up to the polls – so far the man whose acerbic exterior earned him the nickname King Cobra has been more kind than firm. As long as China’s demand for copper holds out, Sata knows he needs “our Chinese friends”.
