ZEKEY MEDIA ONLINE

SADC YOUTH IN POLITICS; GOEFFREY PANDE MUTALE- ZAMBIA

QUESTION and ANSWER
Geoffrey Pande Mutale is a 26 year-old Zambian politician. He joined politics in 2014. Since then he has been involved in community services. Goeffrey is a Pan-Africanist who believes in united effort to achieve sustainable development in Africa. He sat down with Zekey Media and had a Q and A.

Q. What motivated you to get into politics?

Geoffrey; I hail from a political background. My father was a politician and I used to go with him to his meetings and I met a lot of politicians. I joined active politics in 2014. I joined as a supporter of certain political part. My father passed away in 2005.

Q. As a youthful politician what challenges do you face in pursuing politics?
Geoffrey; It’s not an easy journey especially if you are young with no resources. It’s not an easy journey at all. Politics of nowadays has been commercialized whereby people are only following those with money or who have something on the table. Now when you a young politician just beginning where do you get the resources from. So, madam, these are some of the problems we are facing as young politicians. We have a lot to offer now the issue of resources is what is making this journey difficult. However, there is always a way. Some people are not following people with money but with ideas. If there see that you can work there are always people to help. This is how I get support from my community.

Q. How did your community receive you when you indicated that you were to contest as their councilor?
Geoffrey; In 2021, I applied to stand as a counselor for a certain part which is a new political part. It was not an easy task. I applied to represent a community that I grew up in so they received me well. However, 2021 general elections were something else. People really wanted change and as a new political party it was hard. People had a bigger opposition party as an option. I lost that election badly but I left mark. My mother was my greatest supporter. She stood by me and encouraged me to never give up. I lost but I am still with my people. I am not like other politicians who come ask for votes and go. So, when I lost, my people told me that this is not your time but keep going. Come 2026, it’s going to be your term.

Q. How important is education to a politician?
Geoffrey: To answer your question, education is very much important to every person not only politicians. We need people to be educated. We can’t have leaders who are not educated. Who are we sending to parliament? Who are we sending to represent us. We won’t see any development if we send people who are not educated. You know, education opens someone’s mind. So we need people who are educated so that we are confident we are sending right person to represent us.

Q. Can you name one person who has had a big impact on you as a politician?
Geoffrey; My father. He was a politician himself and I admired what he was doing for his community.

Q. What are some of the social work that you have done or doing in your community?
Geoffrey: Right now I am working with two organizations. One is for the youth where I am working as a community activist where we are offering different services in the community. We also work with people with disability. We don’t work alone.

Q. In your opinion why is it taking long for Africa to achieve economic freedom?
Geoffrey: I can say it will take even long because of the mindset we have. We Africans are not liberated. We depend on other people even when we have our resources. The biggest problem is our mindset. We depend on others. So if we change our mindset we will be there.

Q. Comparing Zambia with other African countries in SADC, is there enough youth representation in positions of power and governance?
Geoffrey: We have a number of youths in leadership positions. In parliament we have about five young people serving as MPs. At least we are there. Young people are being considered. The political environment in Zambia is very effective. It is on record since 1964 when we got independence in 24 October. We are the first cabinet where the oldest person was 43 years and the President himself Dr. Kenneth Kaunda was 40 years. Zambia has been having a youthful cabinet. So, it is on record that Zambian youth are on the fore-front of leading their country. Young people are the ones leading in the governing of this nation. So in Zambia I can’t lie, young people are all welcome and supported. They too know that if young people are not in governance then there is nothing for us. We need youthful representation. One thing we should understand is that governance is not for an individual is a collective thing whereby you come together and share ideas. Even young people are capable of leading and offering solutions as well. That is why Geoffrey as a young person I have come out to say, No, I can’t sit. I am capable and I don’t work alone. Whatever, my society needs we work together. The community will help out. If we want any development, we need to work together.

Q. What is the cut off age for one to be regarded as a youth in Zambia?
Geoffrey; Around 15 t0 35 years.

Q. Why do leaders fail?
Geoffrey; This is a very interesting question. Africa we have a huge problem. We have a big problem. Leaders do fail because they refrain from what they believe in. African leaders are very brilliant. I don’t why they change after being elected. They get away from what they believe in. They start to be given what to do by others who are not even Africans. Another issue is that a leader should work with other stake leaders.

Q. How democratic is the Zambian political field?
Geoffrey; Political democracy in Zambia is still developing and it is partially there and if I was to rate it on a scale of 1/10 I can simply land it on 4 because in most cases the ruling party is the one which has a big portion and enjoys more when it comes to political engagement with the voters and it has always been like that to every party that comes into power.
In the previous regime we could experience a situation whereby some places were a no go area to the opposition and they were not allowed to step in their feet and one they do that it was chaos all over.

Q. Do you subscribe to Pan-Africanism of open borders and one Africa?
Geoffrey; Yes, in fact I am a firm believer of pan Africanism of open borders. You know it may seem to be a difficult thing to understand but once we realize that for Africa to develop and restore all its lost resources, we should be united as Africans and pan Africanism of open borders is the best way to go.

Q. How do you view China-Africa relationship?
Geoffrey; I can’t describe it as a mutual friendship because Africa has been borrowing from China and in most cases defaulting loans, Africa has ended up making favors to China to cover up the loans defaults. Most of the huge contracts that have ever happened in Africa, the Chinese are mostly the contractors. Hence the relationship between Africa and China is that of a hardworking slave and its wealthy master.

Q. How has been President HH’s leadership so far?
Geoffrey; Well, I can’t say his leadership is bad because the man as at now is in his tenth month from the time he was elected as president of the republic of Zambia and one thing I would recommend him is ending thuggery behavior in the streets , bus station and market place. We saw how these guys were harassing innocent people. Otherwise there is a lot for him and he can only be successful if he pays attention even to us the opposition. And as opposition we wish him well so that he succeeds so that we equally find a developed nation because we are the government in waiting come 2026.

Q. Message to African youths on the importance political, social and economic participation in the development of African states.
Geoffrey; Well , I can only encourage my fellow young people to take keen interest in matters to do with political, social and economic for I believe that Africa has brilliant and sharp young people with innovative ideas. Like I mentioned in Africa we have all the needed resources and all we need is innovative minds to come on board and these are young people who can help to develop our continent with the mentorship of our elders who mean well. So as young people we should always understand that whatever happens in governance it be positive or negative affects us all, so it’s high time we rise on our feet and be part of the change we want to see.

Q. Lastly, is there freedom of speech/ press freedom in Zambia?
Geoffrey; Freedom of speech in Zambia has always been there but freedom after speech is not guaranteed.
Then press freedom is not really there because most of the laws are against the journalist such that they cannot even do their work exceedingly because of the laws. So press freedom still developing but not there.