Brian Mulenga wrote I WAS THERE WHEN HISTORY WAS MADE - THE BIRTH OF POST NEWSPAPERS Two guys walked into the company I used to work for. One guy was white and kind of laid while the other guy was black, slim, wiry and very focused. The black guy was very intense and demonstrative, the white guy very cool and relaxed. The company which they walked into was called Computech and it was above the Bata Store in Cairo Road right next to Shoprite. The owner was Rolf Young, a German American, ex Vietnam Vet, with the combat medals and citations to show for two combat tours in Vietnam. He had then gotten a business education, BBA and MBA on the GI Bill (the US Government has a program whereby serving soldiers or soldiers after leaving service get their education subsidized or paid for at University). Rolf then worked for Mobil and travelled the globe before becoming the CEO of Mobil Zambia in the 1980s. He fell in love with Zambia and when his time in Zambia was up, he cashed in his benefits and started two companies Primary Care Health Services a medical clinic in Rhodes Park along Great East Road opposite where the Handymans Paradise shop is and CompuTech. Rolf Young was quite a character and was a great guy to work for. He was also super connected and had friends in Government and business circles. For instance Billy and Joe Modise, big ANC honchos (Joe Modise would become the first black South African Defence Minister under Mandela) were constant visitors. His second company was CompuTech the company that brought Apple to Zambia. He also had shares in a recording studio at Northmead whose name I forget. The white guy was a white Malawian guy called Mike Hall, whose father Richard Hall had been the editor of Times of Zambia once upon a time. The black guy was Fred Mmembe, a guy I knew from around town as a friend or relative to Matali Suba (who would later run one of the most popular discos around town but now runs Cell Site a chain of mobile phone shops). He also had left a name at CBU then UNZANDO, as the publisher of a scurrilous, libellous newsletter that actually caused him to get into a fist fight in the cafeteria!!! The two guys were looking for Apple Macintosh computers. This was 1990 and at the time only Apple Macintosh could do serious graphics and desktop publishing, the alternatives on the PC platform Ventura and GEM were clunky and hard to use and very balky. So we put together a quote for these guys. Apple Macintoshes, a network, scanners, laser printers etc. It all came to a tidy figure something like US$85,000 if I remember correctly. When the quotes were being made Rolf was not interested but when he saw the figures he came out to see the two guys who wanted all this equipment. After some negotiating and talking and haggling a deal was struck. Now where was the money going to come from? The two guys disclosed they had a long list of shareholders and the names where the whos who of Zambia. Names like Ronald Penza, Enock Kavindele, Theo Bull etc. Rolf said I won’t deliver if you guys don’t produce the money. The next day a slim light skinned handsome man, who I knew from my Kitwe days as a student at Mpelembe and CBU, as one of the richest guys in town as he owned an emerald mine, accompanied them. His name, Baldwin Nkumbula. US$85,000 cash!!!! Baldwin paid Rolf right there in the office. We ordered the equipment and a month later it came in. We then set up the equipment and trained some journalists and sub editors in how to use Apple stuff. The first office for the Post was in Woodlands with people like Mann Banda, Wam Kwaleyela etc. all helping out. For me the ones who stood out were the young ones my peers, Bright Mwape, Pascalina, Chris Chitanda, Jowie Mwiinga, Nkonkomalimba Kafunda, Joe Kaunda etc. The people who conducted the training were my workmates Bwalya Mwewa, Chimba (a distant cousin of mine and a former art teacher at Munali), Jason Arthurs. Two or Three mock-up copies of the Post were published complete with stories. One of them I remember talked of the how Copper sales were being diverted to fund UNIP and had a Trevor Ford cartoon of cowboys robbing a stage coach carrying copper!!! The Post moved into premises in Jesmondine just up the road from Marshlands. They launched with great fanfare with a hot air balloon fliers etc. The first issue sold out in two hours!!! So there it is I WAS THERE WHEN HISTORY WAS MADE, THE WEEKLY POST WAS BORN!!! —
Posted on: Tue, 22 Jul 2014 07:28:11 +0000
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