19/05/2025
A Wedding that has Sparked the Debate about the Rich, the Extremely Wealthy and the Poor in Zambia
Amb. Emmanuel Mwamba wrote;
One of Africa's music top stars, Diamond Platnumz (Naseeb Abdul Juma Issack), had over the weekend traveled to Zambia.
He was in Zambia to perform at a private wedding of the daughter of emerald mining giant Grizzly Mining Chairperson Abdoulaye
Ndiaye, Kadi, and the groom Jimmy Karabassis.
This immediately attracted huge social media attention and fierce debate.
"....we have wealthy people in Zambia, who do not make noise..."
"...money doesn't talk, it walks.....
Clearly, this was not your regular weekend wedding.
The amount whispered to have been spent on the preparations, decorations, the opulent wedding, on artists and guests, had set tongues wagging.
"You mean Zambia has such very wealthy people?"
A POOR PEOPLE
You see, Zambia is one of the poorest countries in the world and is ranked the sixth poorest countries after Niger, Malawi, Democratic Republic of Congo, Liberia, and Somalia
But Zambia also makes it to another ranking.
It's on top of the most unequal country in the world, were there is a group of a few rich and extremely wealthy people living amongst some of the poorest people in the world.
An unequal country is one where there's a significant disparity in income, wealth, resources, or opportunities among different groups within the population.
Zambia is therefore among the top six most unequal countries in the world,based on income distribution, alongside South Africa, Namibia, Colombia, Eswatini, Botswana, and Zambia.
These countries consistently rank at the top of list, measuring inequality using the Gini coefficient, which indicates the extent of income distribution within a country.
Zambia's national poverty rate stands at 64.3%, with approximately 12.9 million people living on less than $2.15 a day.
ZAMBIA A WEALTHY COUNTRY
The Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) and Zambia are often cited as among the wealthiest nations in the world in terms of resource endowment, specifically regarding minerals while.
The two countries depict the paradox of a rich country with a poor people.
its people remain amongst the poorest in the world.
GRIZZLY MINING
In this wedding, the brides father, Abdoulaye Ndiaye is the pioneering founder and
Chairman of Grizzly Mining Limited in Kitwe.
Abdoulaye started his mining career in Zambia in 1972, hustling and trading emeralds in Lufwanyama, located in Zambia's Copperbelt Province.
The Senegalese
born mining executive and entrepreneur acquired the Grizzly Mine twenty-five years later.
For nearly thirty years, he has been leading the way at
Grizzly Mining, qualifying as a gemologist whilst
Grizzly Mining produced some of the world's largest high-grade emeralds.
Through the creation of employment for more than 4,000 workers at their mining operations
Grizzly Mining.
Employees of Grizzly Mining Limited engage in the production and processing, as well as grading, marketing, and supply of emeralds and beryl.
The company is best known as the source of some of the largest high-grade emeralds globally.
Abdoulaye was born in 1952, in the village of Médina Gounass, Senegal, where he attended an Islamic school.
His nickname "Gounass", is from the town where he grew up.
Nearby Kagem and Grizzly have made Zambia topple Columbia as the largest producers of emerald in the world.
The mine produces approximately 60 million carats of emeralds annually.
The Kagem emerald mine next door, is considered the world's largest single emerald mine.
It is estimated to produce approximately 25-30% of the world's total emerald supply.
75% of the mine is owned by Gemfields Group and 25% is owned by the Zambian government through ZCCM-IH and IDC.
Gemfields is a foreign owned entity.
The major shareholders are include Assore Holdings Proprietary Limited, Rozendal & Associates Holdings Ltd, Ophorst van Marwijk Kooy Vermogensbeheer N.V., and Sean Gilbertson, the CEO.
LARGE-SCALE MINES IN ZAMBIA
Large-scale mines in Zambia are owned by foreign entities or multinational corporation.
When Zambia privatised the mines in the 1990s, it reserved an insignificant shareholding of 20% in legacy mines; Kansanshi Copper and Gold Mine, Konkola Copper Mines, Kagem, Luanshya Mines and Mopani Copper Mines.
However, Government holds no shareholding in mines like Kalumbila.
The Kalumbila Mine, also known as the Sentinel Mine, is 100% owned by First Quantum Minerals (FQM),
The Lumwana copper mine is owned by Barrick Gold based in Toronto, Canada.
It is operated by Lumwana Mining Company Limited (LMC), a wholly owned subsidiary of Barrick Gold.
Similarly over 95% of commercial farmers in Zambia are mostly foreigners or foreign entities.
Zambia, there are an estimated 740 commercial farmers, operating on land larger than 100 hectares. Additionally, there are approximately 400,000 medium-scale farmers (20-100 ha) and 1.6 million small-scale farmers.
This is the same story to industries and manufacturing entities.
Clearly this makesnZambia's means of production to be in foreign hands and therefore its economy is mostly foreign-owned.
FACTORS
A combination of poor government policies, poor leadership, system of education, a well-entrenched neo-colonial system, lack of empowerment tools, corruption and other inherent factors prevent Zambians from owning these resources but participate as workers or by-standers.
Time to change is now.
What's your view?
