Maravi

Nawakwi opposes Zesco tariffs hike

Nawakwi opposes Zesco tariffs hike
Written by Chibaula Silwamba
Wednesday, March 18, 2009 2:44:11 PM

OPPOSITION Forum for Democracy and Development (FDD) president Edith Nawakwi yesterday criticised the government over its failure to reverse the proposed increase in electricity tariffs.

And Nawakwi dismissed MMD spokesperson Benny Tetamashimba's remarks that she should shut up, arguing that her role as an opposition leader was to advise the state either by meeting the President in person or through the media.

In an interview, Nawakwi - a key campaigner of President Rupiah Banda in last year's presidential election - challenged the head of state to reverse the proposed electricity tariffs.

“The management at Zesco has outlived its usefulness. It is high time the President took a surgical blade and passed it through the corporation. These gentlemen running this utility should take their time off even for 30 minutes to go and discuss with the first president Dr Kenneth Kaunda about what the objective of setting up Zesco was. As far as I understood as minister of energy and an energy economist, the true purpose in the Third World countries of creating of an electricity utility is to use it as a vehicle for development,” Nawakwi said.

“I have listened with a very disturbed mind to the utterances from the minister of energy and the management at Zesco that Zesco cannot make a profit because the tariffs are too low. I don't know whoever told them that Zesco is there for making profits.”

She said the purpose of Zesco was to support development in Zambia. She observed that the cost of inputs in production such as electricity was too high.

“This issue of Zesco is a time bomb which the President must step in and sort out. I don't expect the minister of energy to side with the corporation management,” Nawakwi said.

“These are some of the issues that we are raising that people do not have the objectives. They don't understand why they are in certain jobs. Zesco is for development, for supporting development. How are we ever going to develop Nabwalya at an increase of 66 per cent? How are the new investors going to come in? How is the middle-class Zambian going to be made at very high cost? High interest rates! High Zesco tariffs! High telephone bills! Everything is out of this world.”

She said she was merely advising the government by pointing out the pitfalls in the way affairs were being run.

“When we say that this is what is wrong, that is advice to the government. Now if they don't want to listen to our advice let them go to our first president and find out from him. Why did he build Kariba North Bank? Why did he put money in building Kafue Gorge? Why all these investments in electricity? Was it to make profit or was it to use the electricity utility as vehicle for developing our nation?” Nawakwi asked.

“When I was minister of energy I planned to electrify Chilenje, Matero and Twapia. The World Bank told me that it was an exercise in futility because electrifying these compounds does not give us a return.

“As a government, we made a decision that our people need electricity in Matero. We did that. The time I moved from Chilenje to Matero, the World Bank came in when we were commissioning Matero. That is when they came and they said what can we do to support rural development? Now we have a Rural Development Authority.”

She urged Zambians to stand up and demand for the government to deliver the services they require.

“The nationals have to stand up for their rights and if you have management and ministers who don't have the objective of our country at heart, sure we must stand up and tell them that they are going in a wrong direction,” Nawakwi said.

“Surely, Zesco management has outlived its usefulness. If you dared to find out what is going on their store doesn't even have a single spare. We made Zesco profitable to an extent that foreigner companies such as ABSA were able to put in a lot of money for refurbishment.”

She advised the government to subsidise production cost in various sectors to improve the economy and livelihood of Zambians.

“This government gave very little money to FRA; they have got very little stocks of maize in reserve. They exported maize to Zimbabwe during the sham elections there. Now we have no strategic reserves in this country. What this government is doing now is to subsidise the purchase of maize,” Nawakwi said.

“In essence that money is going to private grain dealers who are able to go out during the beginning of the marketing season and buy maize at as little as K30,000 per 50 Kg. That same bag if you gave some grain dealers the maize that they were buying at K700 per kg they are reselling it to government at K1,700 per Kg. Now the government is quite comfortable to pay grain dealers to subsidise us people in town.”

Nawakwi said her observations were not misplaced and hoped that Tetamashimba did not say what was attributed to him.

“As an opposition leader, my role is to advise the state through various means, I can go and see the President or can say things through the media. This is straightforward advice from a politician who is a qualified economist. I am not talking from a position of without, I am talking from a position of knowledge that what you should do in times like this is to subsidise production,” said Nawakwi.

“A hungry woman is an angry woman. A hungry child is an angry child. A hungry soldier is an angry soldier. So the only product that the government must concentrate on now is food.”

On Saturday, Tetamashimba told Nawakwi to shut up and not condemn the way President Banda is running national affairs because he had asked her to advise the President on how she would want him to run national affairs.

Tetamashimba's remarks followed Nawakwi's recent statements that President Banda had not performed to her expectations.

Tetamashimba said: “None of them wants to give advice to Rupiah Banda. I personally told Edith and [ULP president] Sakwiba [Sikota] that 'find time so that you give President Banda your views about how the country should be run'. Ask them if they have ever been to State House and if they have not been, they should shut up because they should have told him that, 'look we campaigned for you and we feel that the country should go in this direction.'”

Nawakwi campaigned for President Banda in the run up to the October 30, 2008 election.

Labels: DEVELOPMENT, EDITH NAWAKWI, ENERGY, NEOLIBERALISM, ZESCO

posted by MrK @ 2:43 PM