Workers didn’t support Zamtel sale – Chilyobwe

Workers didn’t support Zamtel sale – Chilyobwe
Written by Margaret Habbuno
Sunday, August 09, 2009 9:33:17 PM

NATIONAL Union of Communications Workers (NUCW) Ndola branch chairman Mwepa Chilyobwe has refuted assertions that the partial privatisation of Zamtel was supported by all workers. Reacting to NUCW president Patrick Kaonga's statement that workers were the first to get the news of privatisation of Zamtel, Chilyobwe said that was not true because the employees were left out of the whole process.

"As the Zamtel workers, we have never been given a platform by our union where we could air our views but we were surprised when we read in the Daily Mail newspaper dated August 5, 2009 that we were of the idea of partial privatisation of the company. Our president Mr Kaonga is not telling the truth because we have been left helpless after the [planned] partial privatisation of our company as workers," Chilyobwe said.

He said the national union did not consult the workers on what their views were regarding the partial privatisation of Zamtel.

"We were not asked on what our suggestions were or maybe the solution to the current problems the telecommunication company is facing, what the percentage of the partial privatisation would be, so the statement by Kaonga that he made to the newspaper was unfortunate, misleading to the nation and did not reflect the view of the workers," he said.

Chilyobwe said it was important for union leaders to get views from the workers and present them to the government and management.

"We are in a position of helplessness now as workers have lost faith and trust in the union leadership. The poor leadership that exists currently in our union is unfortunate and does not have our blessings," said Chilyobwe.

Last week, Kaonga said Zamtel workers were the first to get the news of privatisation of the company because they were not only stakeholders in the company but also Zambians.

Kaonga's statement came in the wake of President Rupiah Banda’s announcement that the government had decided to offload 75 per cent shares in Zamtel to a strategic partner while the remaining 25 per cent would be floated to the public through the Lusaka Stock Exchange (LuSE).

However, several stakeholders have opposed the manner in which the government is handling the privatisation of Zamtel with others calling for the immediate release of the valuation report on the company that was carried out by RP Capital Partners of Cayman Islands, which was single sourced by the Ministry of Communications and Transport to undertake the exercise.