Maravi

Sardanis hails street vendors for their initiative

Sardanis hails street vendors for their initiative
By Carol Jilombo
Monday April 16, 2007 [04:00]

Lusaka Business man Andrew Sardanis has hailed street vendors for their initiative since their trading spaces have been taken by foreign traders, especially Chinese and Lebanese. Launching his book on Saturday; “A venture in Africa, the challenges of Arican business”, Sardanis expressed concern at how Zambians were suffering at the hands of some investors, citing the local labour force and local products as the biggest casualties.

Sardanis said foreign investors came in many guises of 'new colonizers', coat tails of the new colonisers and 'immigrant investors'.

"At the top are the new colonisers, they are almost above the law," Sardanis observed. "The foreign investment gospel is so deeply embedded in the minds of some African governments that foreign investors are given carte blanche to do pretty much what they want."

Sardanis said Zambia's development was being hampered particularly by those who come on the 'coat-tails' of new colonisers. He said such investors ignored rules that do not suit them and adjusted others for their convenience, without much resistance from governments, who he claimed had been brainwashed to accommodate the whims of foreign investors.

"In Zambia, the biggest casualties of these second-tier investors are the labour force and local products, foreign imports take preference over local products and the local industry and agriculture have to struggle as a result," Sardanis noted.

"Last September, I saw on the shelves of a foreign owned shop in Kasama, South African cucumbers, cellophane wrapped and bar coded."

He observed that many shops in Lusaka City Centre and Kamwala markets were occupied by Lebanese, Indian and Chinese small-scale traders.

Sardanis said this had stripped the Zambian traders of having a chance to own a shop as well as any market space they had before the shops were built.

"With commendable initiative they (vendors) spread their wares on Cha Cha Cha Road and Freedom Way," he said.

Sardanis said he applauded the street vendors actions.

In addition, he noted with concern that some investors, in order to avoid paying an accumulation of benefits to their workers, dismissed them every six months only to re-employ them the following day in the same positions.

Sardanis warned that opening the domestic market to foreign goods destroyed local enterprises that could not compete with imported ones.

He said he feared that in the long term, foreign investment would pursue its own goals on its terms and remain a caste apart.

And commenting on his book, Sardanis said he wrote the book with mixed emotions, as he tried to maintain his humour about himself while writing about the most painful time of his life; the collapse of the ITM group and Meridien BIAO Bank.

He said the liquidation of the defunct Meridien BIAO Zambia Bank was not handled properly.

In addition, he said the move was not necessary and was wasteful.
"I criticised the liquidation process of Meridien, it wasn't necessary, it could have carried on," Sardanis said.

He said he had a great sense of regret about the whole issue because it affected many people.

"Imagine how devastating it was for me and the people," Sardanis said.
He said he had tried to do the best for the continent with the bank.

Sardanis thanked the thousands of customers who had placed their trust in the bank and suffered as a result as well as the 23,000 employees of his business group.

The book highlights the rise and fall of the African Business Group that Sardanis founded in 1971 and led for 25 years.

Labels: ANDREW SARDANIS, MARKETEERS

posted by MrK @ 3:48 AM