Rupiah and his Zamtel scam
Rupiah and his Zamtel scamWritten by Editor
A fool will sell his family’s or his people’s valuable assets for nothing, for peanuts. Anyone who behaves or speaks in a manner that lacks intelligence or good judgement is a fool. When you are going to sell something valuable, especially that which is not yours, you must make sure that you act in a manner that demonstrates good judgement, honesty and integrity.
As we have continued to reflect on Rupiah Banda’s announcement that he wants to sell 75 per cent of Zamtel, we cannot help wondering whether he has exercised good judgement, honesty and integrity over this matter. It seems that when Rupiah has made up his mind to do something wrong, no amount of reasoning can turn him away from his evil intention.
We say this because it is clear that his intentions on Zamtel are less than honourable. Rupiah is in a hurry to transfer the ownership of Zamtel in some questionable way. This is why he was quick to defend Dora Siliya when questions were raised about the way she was dealing with the Zamtel transaction. We said then and we continue to say that although Dora did wrong things, she was not alone. She was with Rupiah, his family and friends. She had their complicity and support. As everybody saw, she also enjoyed their protection come what may.
What Rupiah is proposing to do to Zamtel is nothing short of criminal. This transaction will haunt him. There are not too many countries on the African continent that could beat Zambia in the shameful accolade of having carried out the most reckless and devastating forms of privatisation. Throughout most of the 1990s and even as recent as 2006 when Zambia National Commercial Bank, now Zanaco, was given away for a song, Zambia has been a guinea pig for all sorts of ill-advised and corruptly conceived economic experiments. Thousands of our people have lost their jobs and many assets that this country once owned have disappeared into thin air.
It is said that those who cannot learn from history are bound to repeat its mistakes. But we cannot be so charitable as to think that what Rupiah is doing is a matter of mistakes, or oversight. These are deliberate and conscious acts of betrayal against the people of our country. The scheme that Rupiah wants to run on Zamtel is not designed to benefit the people of this country. Giving away 75 per cent of Zamtel will yet again be robbery against our people.
This whole transaction is questionable from beginning to end. Just in case some of our people have forgotten, we were told that RP Capital Partners came out of the blue – no bidding, no advertising for invitations to bid but simply single sourced from somewhere by someone. Rupiah and his friends want us to believe that RP Capital just volunteered from nowhere. What kind of nonsense is this? What kind of arrogance is this? Do they think the Zambian people are fools and can’t see what they are trying to do, can’t read their game plan? This is seriously underrating the collective intelligence and wisdom of the Zambian people.
This is what happens when people in leadership fail to do anything out of the interests of the people; when they are in office to simply feather their own nests. If Rupiah was acting in the interest of our people, the solution to the problems of Zamtel would not be difficult. The government has enough experts who would tell them what they needed to do. Zamtel is not the first company to find itself in the position where it is and the solutions are tried and tested. But what is clear is that Rupiah and his friends are not looking for a solution that will help Zamtel. They are looking for what is in their best interest. They are looking for opportunities to benefit themselves out of Zamtel’s problems.
Not too long ago, our people told Levy Mwanawasa not to sell Zambia National Commercial Bank in the way that he was proposing because that was not the best way. The unions spoke. Many other well-meaning people spoke. They were ignored. The government went on to sell 49 per cent shareholding in Zambia National Commercial Bank for US $8 million, an amount which was so small in relation to the value of the company. That was worse than daylight robbery. A few months ago, a smaller portion of Zanaco was sold on the Lusaka Stock Exchange to our people and more money was raised than what we sold 49 per cent for. Are we so stupid as a people that we refuse to learn from mistakes which we made even just three years ago? This is what arrogance does. This is what corruption does – it defies logic and reality.
Every generation has obligations to the next. We have a duty to make Zambia better than we found it. This is our generational responsibility. Our children and our children’s children should not be saddled with the consequences of our stupidity, our inability to think clearly and to act in an honest manner.
We have a very narrow-minded government. Rupiah and his friends do not seem to feel any sense of responsibility to our people, let alone the next generation. They don’t seem bothered that we might consign our next generation to a permanent state of servitude. They want our children and their children to come and engage in fresh liberation struggles because of the economic yokes of oppression, marginalisation and humiliation that Rupiah wants to bequeath them.
Rupiah is a very strange old man, a very careless old man. Our little experience with old people tells us that many of them become preoccupied with a sense of their own mortality. They begin to wonder what legacy they are going to leave for their children and their grandchildren. This makes old people more sober-minded, more rational, more honest and sometimes risk-averse. Rupiah behaves like a testosterone-driven teenager who thinks he is on top of the world because he can do one or two things that he was unable to do before and nothing can stop him. The more we look at Rupiah, the more it becomes clear that we have the most careless president this country has ever known. Actually, this man is not a president. He is something else. Rupiah is so reckless in his words, in his decisions and in his actions. The only thing that he seems to be successful in is creating fear among those around him and others who work for his government.
As we have said before, if he was not such an old man, we would have said he is immature. But with his age, maturity should not be an issue.
We are saying this because from his behaviour, Rupiah seems determined to show everybody his power, that he is the President. That is all that matters to him – being president and being seen as such. Today he can say sell 75 per cent of Zamtel to a foreign equity partner. He expects it to be done because he is President. Even the so-called cabinet committee that he put together to look at this matter is a fuss never intended to differ with his intentions. From the very beginning, Rupiah had already decided that Zamtel was going. After all, it is one of the few valuable assets that the government still controls. It is not surprising that his son, Henry, was in the forefront organising the work of RP Capital.
What is annoying is that anyone looking at who RP Capital is will know what the deal is. RP Capital is not the most reputable merchant banking firm. They don’t have a very good name. Their connections are enough to worry anyone who has the interest of our people at heart. They seem to have made their money running all sorts of questionable transactions in the Congo. They also are in the business of finding undervalued assets which they acquire for their ‘clients’.
And in this case, they had the fortune of being asked to value the assets of Zamtel. And now Rupiah wants the Zambian people to believe that RP Capital can find purchasers of 75 per cent of Zamtel. Yes they can. But who is going to be the purchaser of Zamtel? From their track record, it will be some opaque off-the-shelf offshore company whose ownership will be questionable. This is what they have done before. And we have no doubt that they will do it for Rupiah and his friends.
If what Rupiah was looking for was money for Zamtel, they would not have gone about it the way they are doing. Zamtel is a very very very valuable company. Only a fool will tell you that Zamtel is valueless. The future of the world economy is inextricably linked to telecommunications. Zamtel has infrastructure built over many years through taxpayers’ contributions and government borrowings which any respectable telecoms company would die for. Yes, today Zamtel may look like it is going nowhere. But this can only be so to people who don’t understand things. We don’t think that Rupiah doesn’t understand that Zamtel is very valuable. He does. This is why he and his friends in RP Capital are busy telling the nation that Zamtel is valueless. They want it offloaded for a song.
Our mistakes over Zanaco have taught us how things should be done or should not be done. If we want to raise money for Zamtel, let Zamtel be restructured and the resultant company be offloaded on the stock exchange to pay back the costs of restructuring. This is what people would do if the issue was benefitting our people.
No one will ever convince us that a telecommunications company can be useless and fail to raise money for its restructuring. Why is Rupiah not giving us the results of the RP Capital valuation of Zamtel? What lies is RP Capital peddling to make Rupiah run to give away or take away 75 per cent of Zamtel? Failing to restructure Zamtel, such a fundamental business in the economy of our country is the highest form of incompetence, dishonesty and corruption that Rupiah and his friends are showing the people.
The selling of 75 per cent of Zamtel is a highly technocratic issue. Where are the technocrats? Why are they quiet? We know what happened over the engagement of RP Capital because it was made clear to the nation at that tribunal. The technocrats were not involved. The engagement of RP Capital was purely a matter for Rupiah, his friend Dora and his son Henry – there were no technocrats involved in a meaningful way. And they have continued with the same approach.
Rupiah thinks Zambia is a kantemba. That is why even when he is failing to run the medical sector, he can continue talking about mobile hospitals. This is why we say when Rupiah has decided to do something wrong, he is unyielding, there is no retreat. The mobile hospital fiasco has been opposed and trashed by all our technocrats in the medical field. But Rupiah is determined to push this scam. The same is true about Zamtel. Rupiah knows that what he is doing is wrong and will not benefit the Zambian people. But no amount of advice will make him stop pushing this RP Capital scam. If Rupiah wanted a real solution for Zamtel, he could have found solutions right here at home. What Rupiah is trying to do to Zamtel must be opposed. Giving away 75 per cent of Zamtel in the manner Rupiah wants to is criminal.
Labels: CORRUPTION, PRIVATISATION, RUPIAH BANDA, ZAMTEL
posted by MrK @ 11:38 AM
1 Comments:
Mr K,
I am for privatising Zamtel for the industry's and the companies own good, but I have also raised the same concerns over unanswered questions about RP Capital's involvement.
It is now an established fact that the disgraced Dora Siliya did not follow procedure when she engaged the services of RP Capital to evaluate Zamtel's assets. She went so far as ignoring the advice from the country's Attorney General over the matter, which is a very serious offence indeed!
It is also believed that RP Capital themselves are interested in acquiring a stake in the company which they're evaluating. How odd is that?
Given these circumstances, the right thing to do for the President is to begin on a new slate and follow laid down procedure to call for bids to evaluate Zamtel's assets. RP Capitals evaluation is NOT valid at resent.
Post a Comment
Subscribe to Post Comments [Atom]
<< Home