March 2005

On March 9th 2005, Alex Barrett returned to Zambia to progress Project Z16 and soon found himself tangled in Zambian red tape but he has decided to try and fight his way through the knots and persevere. Here are some extracts from his diary:

"Saturday, 12 March 2005

"I have now been in Zambia for two full days and have nothing to do today, this first Saturday, simply because I haven’t yet got any wheels turning. The main priority over the next week is to get my visa sorted out. The chap at the airport immigration desk would only agree to give me a visitor’s permit for 30 days. Although I had hoped to be stamped through until June, perhaps it is no bad thing to be focussed on getting the right paperwork immediately."

"Sunday, 20 March 2005

"Theoretically today is the day that I should be paying for the lease on my site but, as Oliphans et al. have not made any real effort to reach me here at the hotel, that is not going to happen.

"It has been quite a week with the major task being obtaining my permit. I had not expected this to be a simple procedure and everything went as I expected. Initially, on Monday, I was told that my letter of application was perfect for a work permit but not for a temporary permit. Of course, this was only after I had gone through the palaver of obtaining a bank cheque to pay for the darn thing that I would not be able to return. This little episode – the getting of the cheque was interesting. After queuing at enquiries I was sent to business management and waited there for half an hour before being seen. I thought I had it cracked when the lady advised me that a cheque for K2m would cost me 125,000 Kwacha and agreed readily to the premium. Then we went back to enquiries to find the right form to fill in. I waited amongst the throng of customers obtaining balances, statements and ATM cards and after a few minutes the business manager returned and informed me that I could not have a bank cheque without an account. Then she thought for a second or two and light dawned “Ah, but you cannot open an account without a permit.” “Exactly!” I responded emphatically and she retired to consult with her superiors. And so, the bank flexed its rules for me and provided the cheque.

"That little victory was followed by another when the immigration officer accepted my revised application letter and submitted my application for a temporary visa for ninety days and by the end of Tuesday I thought I had cracked it. I visited the office on Wednesday morning – “Come back this afternoon.” – Wednesday afternoon – “Come back tomorrow.” – Thursday morning – “It has been approved and should be here by now, come back later”.

"On Thursday afternoon my new friend, Mrs Topam and I wandered around the office trying to find my application. According to the log, the permit was approved and the file was with the Regional Immigration Officer (the Boss) so I introduced myself to him and he went through the files on his desk. The application was not there. More worrying for me was that my passport was with the application. On Friday morning the application was still lost and in the afternoon I returned and announced that I was going to sleep in the office until the file was found and that if it was not found I would report the passport lost or stolen to the High Commission. Two hours later with the assistance of the Deputy Immigration Officer, the Chief Immigration Officer, Mrs Topam (my Immigration Officer) and finally an efficient Secretary the file was found on the desk of a Section Officer who had nothing to do with my application and therefore was doing nothing with the file! I walked out soon after five o’clock, or seventeen hours as I now have to refer to the afternoon using the twenty-four hour clock to avoid misunderstandings, with both permit and passport in my hand. I didn’t get everything I wanted however; the Chief Immigration Officer only gave me until 20 May on the temporary permit. It would be uncharitable to think that the knocking off a month was because I had caused him stress on a Friday afternoon. Basically what I am going to have to do next is to come back in mid-May and change my permit for a self-employment permit that can be extended for the length of the project. I can’t do that until I have built the camp and given it a physical address as my residence, neither the banks nor immigration are happy to accept a GPS co-ordinate, understandably."

Paperwork aside other things seem to be progressing well:

"In the meantime my driver, Bruce, and I have been getting prices for the camp. He has proved to be a reliable and useful assistant and during the week has been invaluable in helping me settle down into the Zambian way of doing things. Over the last week we have sourced absolutely everything on my list and priced everything except wire and pipes and fittings. It took minutes to sort out a warehouse to store all the stuff, the people that are receiving my fridge freezer and tents here in Lusaka have lent me a huge old cold store room that is dry clean and secure. Bruce has sorted out a truck so we start gathering the goods tomorrow morning. It’s going to be quite a day tomorrow; I shall be spending over twenty-million Kwacha on camp equipment. We’ve already bought most of the electrical stuff from a marvellous Dutch lady Gerda Smulders and taken on board her advice to run a 220v system relying more on the inverter than initially planned as I am not using solar power. This makes sense give my equipment requirement with the fridge, computer and camera charger. Wiring will be simpler, cheaper and the best benefit is that I already understand that sort of wiring and safety requirements. I can run the computer of the car’s 12v supply directly and the camera battery should last adequately for road trips using borrowed mains electricity. I can always buy a small inverter later for the car."

"Monday, 21 March 2005

"It is getting more real every day now. I have just spent the morning making purchases for the camp. It was a pretty successful run and Bruce proved himself as more than just a taxi driver by organising the truck and team to carry the goods to the warehouse. As far as I can make out we are pretty much there now with only minor purchases to complete tomorrow and a supply run on Thursday. I am not easy about the generator that I have had to purchase having had to compromise somewhat because of the lack of availability of the equipment that I originally specified. It is a pretty noisy beast but hopefully I can build it a nice little enclosure to dampen the sound to some extent. I shall take advice this evening when I am visiting the Cumings."

"Saturday, 26 March 2005

"Well here I am sitting in the office at Conservation Lower Zambezi Headquarters, my little laptop connected to the internet via satellite and slowly coming to terms with the task that I have set before myself. Having put the permit problem aside for the time being, I am progressing according to plan and meet with Chiawa Development Committee tomorrow to discuss rental payment and site possession. Then it will be on to the task of hiring the right staff to clear the site and sorting out exactly what needs to be done and how.

"On Tuesday morning, Bruce and finished collecting supplies for camp – the thing that I had forgotten and other small stuff and in the afternoon I paid a visit to the Enterprise Centre to gain further clarification of the permit situation. It was they who agreed that I did not fit into the self-employment permit box as an investor and recommended that I talk to ZNTB, which I immediately did. They recommended the letter to Ms Lumpa the Managing Director.

"On Thursday I purchased the provisions for one month and Shoprite had just about everything in stock. How Zambia has progressed in the last few years. Back in 1999, that morning of shopping could have taken days.

"The drive down to Chirundu yesterday was pretty smooth, thankfully the Good Friday Bank Holiday meant that there were fewer trucks on the road than usual and we made very good time. I radioed Riccardo, the owner of Kanyemba Lodge from Gwabi Lodge, which was as far as our city car could reasonably be expected to go, and he kindly leant me a boat for the trip all the way down to CLZ. Of course, I made the usual mistake of forgetting sunscreen on the river because of the deceptive cool breeze from our speed and am now suffering with a burnt nose and forehead!

"On the way down we stopped for a few moments to take a look at my site from the river and I am quite concerned that there is very little natural shade available there and I shall have to pick my site pretty carefully to remain within the lease agreement."

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