A Chinese man who a video showed was being pulled on a trolley by a Zambian in the East African country may be deported if investigations find him “wanting”, authorities say.
A permanent secretary in Zambia’s Ministry of Labor, Chanda Kaziya, told the BBC that government will investigate what was captured on video as well as the issues surrounding the Zambian man pulling his Chinese boss. The video went viral via social media platforms and was condemned by many as “racist”.
The video shows a Chinese man closing what seems to be a storehouse. He then stepped onto the trolley that was pulled by the Zambian now identified as John Zulu. But no farther than a few yards of being pulled by the Zambian, the Chinese man was accosted by two other Zambian men who asked why he was being chauffered.
“You cannot walk? You don’t do this!,” the men can be heard asking the Chinese man several times. They then asked their compatriot to stop giving the ride and walked briskly with Zulu and his boss away from where they had met them.
Meanwhile, the mayor of Lusaka, Zambia’s capital city, Miles Sampa, announced via a Facebook post that Zulu had been contracted to a new job by the landlord of the Chinese expatriate.
Sampa’s post read: “The good news on carousel saga is that the landlord of the Mall Lamasat Ltd have [sic] offered John Zulu a job with their main premises management [sic] office. He further indicated to possibly terminate the tenancy agreement with the tenant that exhibited racial abuse towards his black employee by getting pulled on a trolley for over six hour [sic].”
China’s interests in Africa over the last decade have translated into many more Chinese people in African countries now more than ever before. Many of them are business owners who do everything from manufacturing to retailing. However, citizens of dozens of African countries have reported abuse from Chinese bosses as well as culture clashes.