A Konnect Africa Interview with Stella Mutale Sata

A new month, new things! Welcome to June Konnect Africans!

Guess who is in the house?!

She is the daughter of the Zambian President, a 20-year old with a Masters Degree, a young woman driven to make an impact in and far beyond Zambia’s borders.

Stella Mutale Sata is the creator of the StellaProject, which showcases brilliant change-makers and inspires future change-makers whilst actively searching for change-makers in rural communities or excluded communities who may otherwise remain in obscurity because of infrastructural and other hurdles.

In this no-holds-barred interview, Stella tells us about the challenges and joys of the new Zambia, her life as the daughter of a President, why she inspires young people, her achievements, failures, and her faith in this generation of Africans!

Enjoy!

Learn. Think. Act. Repeat!

KA: Your philosophy of life is?

I take care of God’s business and He takes care of my business.

KA: What are your fondest memories of childhood?

Spending time with my grandmother was my favourite thing. She taught me how to read in Bemba (my language) and at 8 years old, I was the youngest Bemba reader in church reading in the adult’s local language Mass. My grandmother also used to tell me stories (utushimi) which had proverbial morals at the end while she cooked. I relished every moment and I would always look forward to coming back home from school to spend time with her.

KA: Educational accomplishments? Career goals?

My greatest educational accomplishment to date is completing my MSc in Management and Development of International Financial Systems. Apart from the pride of being a 20 year old with an MSc, knowing I worked extremely hard to get 9 out of 11 distinctions in my course and to complete the thesis even when I was exhausted, tired and demotivated gives me great joy. I have a Ba (Hons) in Accounting and Finance and a Diploma in Business Administration too. Maybe in the near future, I shall complete the remaining levels of my Chartered Financial Analyst (CFA) Charter, which is a professional course for finance and investment analysts, or pursue a PHD; I am still deciding whether I want to go the academic route or the professional route in education.

Career goals: “The (unemployed) graduate must not seek employment but create employment.”- Botsalo Morotsi.

That is my ultimate career goal; to create employment.

KA: What do you love most about Zambia? In present day Zambia, what are the challenges and sources of inspiration?

I love the work ethic and spirit of Zambians, every one, everywhere is trying to make a living, to provide and to develop. When you go to Soweto market, you’ll see the man who rents out gumboots in the rainy season and wonder- why didn’t I think of that? When you drive from the rural area or vice versa, you’ll see the men and women who take the night shift to sell tomatoes, mushrooms, and fish to the traveller who may have forgotten to get some when they left their village.  It is both sad that people work without rest and inspiring that they will not sit at home and whine or complain but they will do their best.

Young people are getting much more engaged in all areas of governance and development. Young people are starting businesses and seeking to grow different sectors from agriculture to finance to engineering. We are networking with people from other parts of Africa. Also, people from the Diaspora are returning home.  Did you know that the 2011 elections had the highest participation of young first time voters? We are not being left behind. 99% of children are completing primary school education. All these things are beautiful and inspiring.

Some of our challenges include the lack of electricity in over 70% of the country yet our country exports electricity to our neighbours. We have water issues as well. Most of Zambia’s employment comes from the informal sector and the public sector. There is a need to facilitate the sustainability of growth in the private sector and to transform informal jobs into formal jobs in order for people to be able to earn a reasonable and steady income.

Our political climate is also a challenge at the moment. We are hailed as one of Africa’s inspiring democracies with a smooth transition of power but we still have the challenge of reducing fragility when political wheels change. If we stay on as the democracy that we are, we will need to find ways for continuity when new governments come to reduce the issues of having to always start afresh with every new leader.

This can only be done if and when the opposition and the ruling parties stop viewing each other as enemies and the former stops condemning every policy made by the latter but instead, they begin to engage in constructive debate on policies. This will ensure that in the event that the opposition does take over power, they are aware of certain policies and they do not have to U-Turn on them and start all over again.

Stella + Parents