By Chiti Manga
For decades, Africa’s mineral riches have glittered for outsiders while leaving the communities that sit on them mired in poverty.
From copper and cobalt to gold and emeralds, the continent’s underground wealth has too often translated into above-ground inequality. Zambia is a textbook case. Since colonial rule, the country’s minerals have largely benefited foreign interests—first imperial companies, later multinational corporations and shadowy networks—while ordinary Zambians watched prosperity pass them by. 
That historic injustice is precisely what the New Dawn administration under President Hakainde Hichilema says it is determined to change.
Zambia’s copperbelt powered Britain’s wartime industry and post-war recovery, yet the African mineworker returned home to overcrowded townships, polluted rivers and fragile public services.
Independence did not fully break this pattern. Ownership structures changed, but the fundamentals often did not: value was extracted, profits were repatriated, and local linkages remained weak.
Liberalisation in the 1990s accelerated foreign participation but also entrenched a model that privileged capital flight over domestic development. The result is a paradox that haunts many African countries—abundance without benefit.
This is not merely a question of who owns the mines; it is about who captures value across the entire chain. Royalties negotiated in boardrooms far from Lusaka, tax avoidance through aggressive transfer pricing, under-invoicing of exports, and the proliferation of illegal mining have combined to hollow out the public purse. Communities near mines bear the social and environmental costs while schools, clinics, and roads remain underfunded. When locals protest, they are told to be patient; when foreigners profit, it is called investment.
Against this backdrop, the New Dawn government’s renewed clampdown on illegal mining is not an isolated law-and-order exercise. It is a statement of intent. State House has made it clear that the objective is to ensure Zambia’s mineral wealth serves the interests of all citizens, not a connected few. In a recent statement, Chief Communications Specialist Clayson Hamasaka said President Hakainde Hichilema holds a moral and constitutional duty to uphold law and order across the country, including within economic sectors. The ongoing enforcement action, he said, is aimed at restoring integrity to mining, protecting national resources, and creating space for lawful, transparent participation that benefits Zambians.
Critics who frame the crackdown as anti-business miss the point. Illegal mining is not artisanal entrepreneurship romanticised by hardship; it is frequently organised plunder that deprives the Treasury of revenue, undermines safety, fuels environmental destruction, and entrenches criminal networks. When copper, gold, or manganese is smuggled out, it is not just a loss of rocks—it is a loss of classrooms, medicines, and jobs. Allowing illegality to flourish is not compassion; it is abdication.
The deeper challenge, however, goes beyond enforcement. Zambia must break with a century-old extractive mindset that exports raw minerals and imports finished products at a premium. Beneficiation and value addition are not slogans; they are the only sustainable path to shared prosperity. Smelting, refining, manufacturing inputs, and building downstream industries create jobs, develop skills, and anchor value at home. Countries that control their resources without building local capacity remain price-takers in a volatile global market.
President Hichilema’s agenda speaks to this structural shift. By insisting on compliance, transparency, and fair taxation, the government signals that Zambia is open to investment—but not exploitation. Investors who play by the rules, respect the law, and contribute to local development have nothing to fear. Those who rely on opacity and political patronage do. That distinction matters.
Africa’s broader experience offers a cautionary tale. In the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), cobalt powers the global green transition, yet mining communities remain among the poorest. In Ghana, gold glitters in London vaults while illegal galamsey scars rivers at home. In South Africa, platinum wealth coexists with township deprivation. The lesson is consistent: without strong institutions and political will, minerals enrich others.
Zambia has an opportunity to chart a different course. That requires tightening the net against illegal mining, reforming contracts where necessary, strengthening institutions like ZRA and the Mines Safety Department, and empowering local participation through skills, financing, and fair access. It also requires courage to withstand pressure—from powerful interests at home and abroad—who benefit from the status quo.
Minerals are a finite inheritance. Once dug out, they are gone forever. The moral test for any government is whether that inheritance is converted into lasting public value. The New Dawn administration argues that lawfulness is the starting point, not the end. If Zambia succeeds, it will send a clear message across the continent: Africa’s wealth does not have to be a foreign dividend. It can, and must, be the foundation of African prosperity.
