Provincial and District Government in Zambia, Part II*
| DOI | http://doi.org/10.1002/j.1099-162X.1968.tb00350.x |
| Published date | 01 October 1968 |
| Author | William Tordoff |
| Date | 01 October 1968 |
Provincial and District Government in
Zambia, Part
11*
By
WILLIAM
TORDOFF
Dr.
Tordoff
is Professor of Political Science, University of Zambia, on secondment
from
the
University of Manchester.
IN Part Iof this article, we noted that the transformation
of
the inherited
structure
of
Provincial Administration proceeded on lines similar to those
already mapped out in Tanzania. Many of the duties formerly performed by
officers of the Provincial Administration have devolved on the police and
ministries.
The
administration has been politicised in that each of the eight
provinces into which Zambia is divided is now headed by a politican called
a Minister of State.
The
latter is supported politically by at least one Public
Relations Assistant and between one and four Political Assistants, and
administratively by a Resident Secretary and a Development Officer (both
civil servants).
The
Minister presides over a Provincial Development Com-
mittee, which meets on average every three months to consider ministerial
progress reports and to identify and resolve bottlenecks in implementing a
centrally-formulated National Development Plan which is broken down into
regional programmes. In the past, Provincial Development Committees have
enjoyed very limited powers, thus giving rise to local feelings
of
frustration.
Tentative steps are however now being taken to decentralise responsibility for
executing the Development Plan. Such decentralisation will have important
consequences for the administration of the country's forty-four districts.
It is to the district level that we now turn.
Zambia has a much larger urban population than Tanzania - some 25
per
cent of its near four million people live in towns as against approximately
four per cent
of
Tanzania's ten million people.
The
main reason for this
difference is, of course, Zambia's industrial complex centred on the Copper-
belt. Awayfrom the line of rail and apart from certain fertile areas such as the
Luapula and upper Zambezi valleys, the population is scattered thinly over
an area of over 250,000 square miles.
The
Zambian Government estimates
that "70 per cent of Zambia's population are small-scale cultivators,
the
majority on a subsistence basis." I
The
main crops grown and sold by Africans
are maize, barley and Turkish tobacco, groundnuts, cotton and fruit and
vegetables; there is also a substantial livestock industry. Total earnings of all
employees in 1965 increased by 21 per cent, while total employment rose by
10.6 per cent over the previous year; the corresponding figuresfor 1966 were
22 per cent and (for threequarters of the year only) 12 per cent. In 1965 the
average earnings of both African and non-African employees rose in every
•
Part
Iappeared in the July issue of
the
Journal.
The
Article is mainly based on
discussions with politicians and civil servants; the
author
is of course solely responsible
for the views expressed.
IEconomic Report, 1966 (Lusaka, 1966), p. 87.
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