Stella Sata – entrepreneurship, yes but you’re out of touch with reality

By Chilufya Tayali

Listening to Stella Mutale Sata on HOT FM 87.7 radio last night, I could tell that the young lady is just from school and having her aspiration of life blossoming and thinks it should be working out for everyone.

Well my dear sister, count your blessings while you open your eyes to see the other side of reality. You are very assertive to express yourself confidently, that is very good, but open your ears to hear the crying lady who has to sell her body to total strangers for her to eat. Many ladies young ladies are pushed to such unspeakable vices due to harshness of life.

You spoke of your hardships as a child brought up by a single mother, I empathize with you. I could hear how you fondly spoke of your Dad, that you greatly missed him. Thank God you are a fully developed child. God saw you through.

On the other hand, I want to think of a child born from an educated mother impregnated by another hopeless boy in Chipata compound. The mother carries this child in her womb crying for herself and the child in her. What do you think of the future of this child when it is born? This is the start of life of many children in Zambia. I want to refer to such a child as Misozi for the purpose of this discussion.

Thank God, you were able to go to school, and I believe good school, but many children do not have that opportunity. Those who survive to go to school and finish, find it hard get into tertiary school due to lack of sponsorship. I am sure you must have heard of a first year UNZA student girl who committed suicide in Mtendere after failing to get bursaries.

Anyway, it is the survival of the fittest, some actually manage to get into campus and fight their way to graduate. In my mind is a child of a cleaner at one of these hotels. I will refer to this girl as Mutinta. This woman came to me to help her get bursaries which she got. But this lady has all her hopes in this girl that she has even changed her name at work, they call her “Bana Graduate”. She invites her friends to come to her daughter’s graduation while the girl is just in first year. What do you think the future is like for this girl when she graduates with high unemployment rate.

On radio you said, Government cannot employ everyone and if it did, it would create more deficit on our national budget. You are right, and I think reasonable people are not expecting that too. However, Government can create employment by putting in policies that will facilitate job creation.

Our Governments have not reformed to modern day policies to answer to high technological global advances in terms of human resource. While the population is increasing, human resource demand is reducing. International competition for investment is also stiff, that countries with unstable policies are shunned.

You are right entrepreneurship by young graduates can help them and help others. But Stella, think of Mutinta, where does she start from? The moment she will finish campus, she will have no bursaries and will have to go back at her mother’s house. Her mother gets paid K700, pays rent, food and other basics. How can it help Mutinta? Certainly it is a mockery to ask Mutinta to go buy a box of tomatoes to sell.

What will Misozi, who has never been to school do? In fact markets are full of women selling vegetables this is why we have street vending which your father (Late President Sata) accepted as a solution for people like Misozi because he understood.

Mutinta will never live or look like you, in donkey years, unless someone gives her an opportunity. She can sell all the tomatoes grown by the Chinese on the land they have gotten on a silver platter from poor Zambians. For Mutinta to be happy together with her mother, she needs a stepping stone in society. She need to get a job. Her certificate is just not a paper, it is a proof that she can think just like you in spite of being born in the compound and her mother cleaning the toilets of the nice hotels.

It is not fair to paint graduates as dunderheads when they cry for jobs because that is why they spent 4 years cracking the nights. No one goes to school to live the same as before graduating, otherwise why spend four years, if they could sell tomatoes without certificates.

Lack of opportunity is not synonymous to lack of intellectual ability to create employment or wealth. It has to take a miracle (opportunity) for a girl like Misozi to turn into an entrepreneur who can sit with you (Stella) and drink tea together.

You appreciated Chipo Mwanawasa for diverting into farming albeit graduating from a Law school, but Stalla, Chipo had all the options and choices available. Everything had been setup for her. The law firm the father worked in is still there. The farm was already setup by his father, so she cannot be an example of the solution to unemployment.

You also said that, the name “Sata” does not help you much. I am sorry my dear, “Sata” is a brand name. It has a value attached to it and you have inherited it whether you like it or not. How many 21 years old girls are posting wisdom on social media and no one notices.

Actually you acknowledges this fact when you said, people have reacted so much because of my father. Exactly, that is how it works even in your business (even relationship – just a tip). If anything people are just reminding you of how privileged you are to have a brand name which sets you up.

When the interviewer asked you about issues of Capital, you said people are born with talents such as waiving hair which they can use to raise capital. You even went to do some maths on how they can make more money than one who is working. I guess you don’t even buy your own human-hair from the shops in town otherwise you would have met these girls shouting to do your hair. Stella, they are many and the economy is bad such that, many ladies can’t afford to hire those ladies by the human-hair shops.

Clearly my dear sister, you have a heart to help but you are lacking real experience to make you effective. I suggest you take time to understand poverty and lack of opportunities. Take time to work with some community organisations on poverty alleviation. Befriend some of these graduates and hear their problems. I could tell you are a philanthropist but take your time before you are frustrated by the majority’s reaction.

Your father always used to advise people to start from the very bottom (community) before you take a leap into the complexities of Government policies to create employment. Even some ministers don’t dare to engage on such.

However, I do understand your point that youths do not need to demonstrate against unemployment because it is not the solution; instead they have to find what can work for them. The youths need to engage the government in a more productive way than demonstrations.