“This is contrary to what is happening in my country [Zimbabwe],” adds Mr. Nyastianu, who now lives and works in Chingola. “Mugabe does not want to share power. He controls everything just to promote his political interests. If you ask Zimbabweans whether they support his racial policies, especially the land grabbing policy, they will tell you they don’t. But they cannot do anything about it because that man is a dictator and has no regard for other races and fellow Zimbabweans.”
Cabinet appointments are just one indication, of course, of what a ruling party will do in power. In addition to appointing Dr. Scott as vice president, Sata also has imposed, and then lifted, a ban on the export of Zambian metal ore by foreign exporters, after assuring himself that Zambia was receiving the proper amount of export revenues. And early this week, Sata personally intervened to stop the forced sale of Zambia’s private Finance Bank – owned by a top Sata supporter, Rajan Mahtani, who is currently under investigation for fraud. Sata said the investigation of Mr. Mahtani was politically motivated by his predecessor, President Rupiah Banda. All of these are indications that some things will change greatly under Sata, while other things will remain much the same.
