Amos Malupenga, managing editor of The Post, the country's top daily, says he believes workers have been mistreated by their Chinese employers. But he also identifies subtler, higher-level abuses. "There is a feeling our people are [being] exploited by these Chinese investors," he says, "and a feeling that the Chinese investors receive preferential treatment by the government at the expense of other foreign and local investors." The government rejects such suggestions, but the country's president, Levy Mwanawasa, has twice angered opponents by appearing to side with Chinese business owners against Zambian workers -- first during a recent strike by textile workers and later in a dispute at Chambishi. Mwanawasa only reinforced the impression of subservience when he apologized to China for comments Sata made during the presidential campaign.
In March, in what might have been the most serious attack on management since privatization, 500 workers took to the filthy streets in Chambishi. They chanted anti-Chinese slogans, blocked roads, set ablaze a hostel housing Chinese workers, briefly held Chinese managers hostage, and left one Chinese worker toothless after stoning him in the mouth.
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Recent Comments | 10 Total
June 20, 2008 at 2:09am by Elliot Noteware
Wow what an intereting read, we will be tapped out soon.