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Patriotic Front (PF) Acting President, Given Lubinda, has called on Zambians to draw lessons from Zimbabwe’s display of patriotism and its decision to prioritise industrialisation through value addition.
In a telephone interview with Zambia Monitor on Thursday, Lubinda welcomed Zimbabwe’s suspension of raw mineral exports, describing the move as a bold and commendable demonstration of leadership.
“Patriotism is measured by action, especially by leaders. We have seen some presidents and leaders showing high levels of patriotism to their countries and, in effect, being Pan-Africanists. The announcement by our southern neighbour, Zimbabwe, to suspend the export of raw mineral resources is a very, very welcome development,” he said.
Read more: Zimbabwe suspends raw mineral, lithium concentrate exports with immediate effect
Lubinda said the decision was encouraging and signalled a renewed commitment among African leaders to place the continent’s long-term interests first.
“For more than 100 years, Africa has been exploited. Initially, it was through the export of its human resources. Africans were taken to build megacities such as London, New York and Washington, and to work on plantations in the Americas,” he said.
He said exploitation later shifted to Africa’s vast mineral wealth, which continues to be exported in raw form for processing elsewhere.
“Our minerals are taken out of Africa for value addition, only for us to re-import finished products at a very high cost. This has been at the expense of job creation, technological development and industrial growth on the continent,” he said.
Lubinda criticised the global economic system for keeping Africa dependent on imported technology despite being the source of critical raw materials.
“Today, the world is successfully producing lithium batteries, yet the countries manufacturing electric vehicle batteries do not produce lithium. Lithium is extracted from Africa, but Africans are forced to buy finished batteries and generators from outside the continent because we lack value-addition industries,” he said.
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