Towards a conceptual framework for local participation in the Zambian power sector

• Jurisdiction: South Africa
• Date: 31 March 2021
• Published date: 31 March 2021
• Author: Mate, L.E.
• DOI: https://doi.org/10.47348/JCCL/V6/i2a5
• Citation: (2020) 6(2) JCCL&P 139
• Pages: 139-165

https://doi.org/10.47348/JCCL/V6/i2a5

139

TOWARDS A CONCEPTUAL

FRAMEWORK FOR LOCAL

PARTICIPATION IN THE ZAMBIAN

POWER SECTOR

LYATITIMA (LEE) ERNEST MATE*

Doctoral candidate, University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg

I INTRODUCTION

Seventy per cent of the Zambian population do not have access to

electricity1 and local participation in the form of local ownership,

employment and procurement are low. This situation is unjust

because energy is essential for socio-economic development and the

provision of basic human needs,2 and local participation can foster

the fulfilment of individual aspirations.

This paper seeks to demonstrate why local participation should

be maximised in the Zambian power sector. In this paper, local

participation refers to improved access rates, and local ownership,

employment and procurement. At the heart of the matter appears to

be a choice between fostering grid infrastructure expansion initiatives

on the one hand and promoting electricity access initiatives on the

other. There also appears to be a contest between the right to property,

the autonomy of investors and inclusive economic empowerment

initiatives.

This paper is divided into four sections. The first section provides

an overview of local participation in the Zambian economy with

an emphasis on recent developments in the power sector which

illustrate the problem of a lack of local participation. The second

section reviews the Zambian policy and legislative framework, which

further illustrates the problem of a lack of participation. The third

section proposes a Zambian conceptual framework for the problem,

based on liberal egalitarianism and critical theory.

* LLB LLM (cum laude) (Western Cape).

1 Central Statistics Office ‘Living Conditions Monitoring Survey Report’ (2015),

available at https://www.zamstats.gov.zm/phocadownload/Living_Conditions/2015%

20Living%20Conditions%20Monitoring%20Survey%20Report.pdf, accessed on

19 August 2018.

2 Zambian National Energy Policy (2019) https://www.moe.gov.zm/?wpfb_dl=51,

accessed on 20 December 2020.

(2020) 6(2) JCCL&P 139

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140 (2020) 6(2) JOURNAL OF CORPORATE AND COMMERCIAL LAW & PRACTICE

https://doi.org/10.47348/JCCL/V6/i2a5

II OVERVIEW OF LOCAL PARTICIPATION IN THE

ZAMBIAN ECONOMY

(a) Introduction

This section provides an overview of local participation in the

Zambian economy with an emphasis on recent developments in

the power sector which illustrate the problem of a lack of local

participation. It aims to show that this problem is not unique but

that it extends to the rest of the economy. It is not a new problem

and in a sense, it is something that the country has been dealing with

for a long time.

(b) Pre-Independence: 1953–1964

Zambia was colonised by Britain in the 1890s and gained

independence in 1964.3 Thus the country has a colonial history of

about 80 years. Although some say that the colonial powers had a

civilising influence on the country and prepared the colonised people

for a successful future as an independent nation, this is relative to

the society that it is being compared to. Empirical evidence shows

that in relation to the context of levels of education on the eve of

independence, Zambia was ‘one of the least prepared populations in

the whole of Africa’.4 Further it is noteworthy that the low levels of

access to electricity and the low levels of participation by locals in

the economy are legacies of the colonial period.

Racial segregation and subjugation in social, political and economic

life symbolised colonial society:

Until 1959, five years before independence, there were only three

high schools for African children in Northern Rhodesia [as Zambia

was then]... By contrast, every town and major village with white

residents had fully equipped schools from kindergarten to secondary,

exclusively for white children… Africans were barred from artisan

jobs on the mines in line with the closed shop agreement negotiated

between the mining companies and the European Mineworkers

Union...Each mining town had a Trades school, but admission was

confined to white miners’ children… Black government workers

in Northern Rhodesia were barred from officer status, both in the

administration and the police. The highest position an African could

3 Zambia: History: https://thecommonwealth.org/our-member-countries/zambia/

history#:~:text=In%201889%2C%20the%20British%20South,main%20

resource%2C%20copper%2C%20began, accessed 17 June 2020.

4 Andrew Sardanis ‘Zambia: The First Fifty Years’ (2015) 104(1) The Round Table 9 at

10.

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