49
Innovators
Zamefa w
as onl
y
priv
atized in 1
9
9
6
.
Why
did it
tak
e so much time to priv
atize the company
?
It is true that many others were privatized much
earlier than us and, on the other hand, some of
them had not made it in into 1996. Public compa-
nies were very inefficient and carried quite a lot of
debt. When some of these companies went into
private hands, the new owners felt that they were
not earning enough in terms of business and there-
fore they decided to pull out
During the ten-year era of president Chiluba,
everything went into trading and there was very
stiff competition. Indeed, these companies could
not withstand competition and they found it very
difficult to stay in the market. Currently, the struc-
ture of the manufacturing sector is not really well
packaged. Despite a lot being done, most of these
are small to medium scale businesses that are not
captured formally.
How
is the company
structured?
Within Zamefa, I am responsible for the whole unit,
but with the American system that we use, we work
in a matrix system. Beyond me, we have a regional
structure, because we are trying to run the busi-
nesses as a region in Sub-Sahara; there is a dis-
tribution center in South Africa, so the businesses
run as a regional business at regional level.
So at that point, I am part of the regional group
that makes strategic decisions for the region, and
at the same time responsible for the unit in Zambia.
Some decisions are made locally, but those that
impact on the region are made regionally. We are
also report to Europe, and some level of decisions
are made by the CEO for Africa and Europe.
When it comes to our services, we only have one
manufacturing plant which is in Luanshya, opened
in 1968. The company has about 360 employees in
Luanshya, with quite a large number of contractors
on site. We are indirectly offering more than 300
jobs, some of them working with machinery, and
some others working with scrap. Basically we are
in Luanshya, a few kilometers from the mines and
we get copper from Mopani Copper Mines Plc and
Konkola Copper Mines.
t
The proximity to the mines gives Zamefa competi-
tive advantage compared to countries that have no
copper. At the Luanshya plant, Zamefa manufactu-
res copper rod, which is a raw material for the ca-
ble, and they also have a manufacturing plant. We
have a casting plant and a cable plant and the pro-
duct that comes from the casting plant is fed into
the main plant to make the different sizes of cable.
This year the company expects to grow by 20 to
25% because of the machinery that has been ins-
talled. This will give Zamefa the capacity to produ-
ce more and it will also give us a little more efficien-
cy. The only problem is the market drives – there
are so many rod manufacturers, so even though
you produce tons, if the market is depressed, you
have nowhere to sell it.
zttHow
do y
ou expl
ain the fact that Zamefa is
the onl
y
copper cabl
e producing
pl
ant w
hen
the country
is special
ized in the production of
copper?
There has been quite a lot of debate on this and
at some point the World Bank did and extensive
study. Although they think we really cannot add
value to copper because the would-be customers
in terms of economies of scale are not here, we
actually add value to copper in different forms, and
we really have to export to China and other coun-
tries.
Not a lot of people have ventured in this business.
We are able to access cash because we have a pa-
rent guarantee like General Cables but, normally,
you cannot access cash without that if you have to
depend on the banks. This is a sector that requires
the big ones to come in order to make it possible.
Ev
en if the Worl
d is dev
el
oping
fast in social
terms,
there are not a l
ot of w
omen in infl
uential
positions.
How
does it w
ork
for y
ou? Is it more
chal
l
eng
ing
?
Yes, it is challenging. I am in a sector that is male
dominated – the engineering sector. Even when
you go to Zamefa, out of the 360 employees, you
have 35 women. So you can just see that women
in this sector are trying to force themselves be-
cause there is more than 90% of men and a little
percentage of women. This is a good challenge be-
cause it shows that women are still capable. There
is nothing magical about engineering or being in
mining. Basically, all you have to know is to unders-
tand the sector.
