Maravi

Letters - ZAMTEL and Privatisation

Sale of Zamtel
Written by Benson F. Chipungu, Lusaka.

In my opinion one of the very few good things that Frederick Chiluba did when he was Republican president was to call back Mr R Mwansa from South Africa to come and save Zesco.

At the time, the monstrous parastatal was on the verge of total collapse due to mismanagement and government interference in the operations of the company. The results of Mwansa's call-up were amazing! We all saw a vibrant company whose presence was felt almost everywhere around the clock every day.

The state of Zamtel today cannot be compared to that of Zesco then. Zesco was practically limping.

Surely, are there no Zambian professionals who can manage Zamtel in a profitable manner and ensure its presence is maintained in today's competitive world of telecommunication?

Has Rupiah Banda got no confidence at all in his compatriots for him to start looking up to foreigners for the resuscitation of the company?

Rupiah's vision for our country is either badly impaired or there is something sinister behind his intended sale of Zamtel.

I have a very strong premonition that we are about to witness a state-sponsored scam that will only benefit Rupiah and his cronies whilst leaving a huge number of Zambians suffering.

We need to find a way of stopping this wanton raping of our economy.


Zamtel privatisation: employee’s concern
Written by Concerned employee, PK
Thursday, August 06, 2009 5:39:22 AM

I write to support my fellow Zamtel employee who wrote in a recent edition of The Post that the company is not valueless as our learned economist Rupiah Banda puts it.

First and foremost, I want to say even a grade 2 pupil can tell that a company like Zamtel with assets in all 72 districts in Zambia, with a fleet of over 500 vehicles, qualified technical manpower on which Zain and MTN have been founded, prime land, switches in all locations, not to mention the Mwembeshi Satellite Station, cannot be valueless.

Yes, every business owes someone. The little we owe the Chinese should not be a national anthem to sing at all press conferences. We dealt with the corrupt-free Swedish, Japanese and British in terms of technical support and no one sung a song. Now that we are dealing with Chinese, Zamtel is not viable.

Fellow Zambians, the problem we have here is corruption, unpatriotism, selfishness and being myopic.

None of our past managing directors has raised a finger to lambast the greedy politicians and tell the nation how these companies are milked. The current managing director presented a budget for the year 2009-2010 which was to see Zamtel make a profit, but the powers that be [Dora Siliya] dissolved the board the following day upon seeing that budget because it was going to derail their plans of selling the company for thirty pieces of silver.

I am schocked that the presenter of the budget - the managing director - has joined politicians after ascending to the throne on the basis that Zamtel is viable.

The reasons why Zamtel is ailing are: -

(1) it’s too centralised in its operations;
(2) the managing director makes decisions that are not implemented, they accumulate dust at the ministry before implementation and are usually overtaken by events;
(3) resources such as fuel, vehicles, hotel accommodation are abused by the government;
(4) lack of support from shareholders such as ministers, and the permanent secretary. Senior government officials are all on MTN or Zain, only when it’s free do they use Cell Z, that includes internet. [5] Former president Kenneth Kaunda’s policy for government to do business with Zamtel has been thrown out because there are no kickbacks when you do business with Zamtel. Services that Zamtel used to provide even at State House are now in private hands.

This company belongs to our children. Let’s not s**t in the well after drinking from it. Let the Chinese work in China, we don’t want Chinese cleaners here. Our children have the right to work, and Zambia will only be developed by Zambians.

Labels: MANAGEMENT, PARASTATALS, PRIVATISATION, ZAMTEL

posted by MrK @ 4:56 AM