Maravi

HH accuses Rupiah of scheming food crisis

HH accuses Rupiah of scheming food crisis
By Staff Reporters
Wed 21 Oct. 2009, 15:31 CAT

UPND leader Hakainde Hichilema yesterday said President Rupiah Banda wants the current fuel crisis to cause food shortages so that his sons can supply GMO maize to the government.

And Economics Association of Zambia (EAZ) immediate past national secretary Chibamba Kanyama has observed that the current situation in the energy sector has clearly shown that Minister of Energy Kenneth Konga does not know what is going on.

Hichilema said the current fuel shortage was a huge cost to the country’s economy and on ordinary life of Zambians. Commenting on the current fuel shortage, Hichilema warned that if not checked, the fuel crisis would result in food shortages.

“Rupiah is directly responsible because of his meddling in the awarding of the fuel tenders. Things are now coming out so he is just deceiving himself,” Hichilema said.

“Fuel is the engine of the economy. When fuel runs out itís going to cause shortages in food including job losses. He (Rupiah) is directly responsible because of meddling in the awarding of tenders. They want to give tenders to their sons so that they bring in Genetically Modified Organisms (GMO) maize when there are food shortages as a result of the fuel crisis.”

He said President Banda’s irresponsibility and corruption was beginning to negatively affect the lives of Zambians.

“Rupiah’s corruption and incompetence has come here to roast. Initially the minister of energy (Kenneth Konga) said there was enough fuel. He must come out and apologise,” he said.

He insisted that President Banda was behind the current fuel crisis.

“Because of his desire to favour certain persons he is causing this fuel crisis. The fuel situation has been going on well until he started to meddle in this sector. Just look at the queues around town, look at the lost production hours. All this is caused by an incompetent head of state,” Hichilema said.

“Then he is coming out to say nobody should be blamed. He is basically saying he is not the President of Zambia. If somebody did a calculation of the cost arising from the fuel shortage, loss of production, loss of man hours, it’s a huge cost to the economy of the nation and on ordinary life.”

Hichilema said President Banda was guilty over the current fuel crisis.

“The guilty are always afraid, he is guilty. Rupiah Banda thinks he is very clever,” said Hichilema.

“He is now worried and saying nobody should be blamed because he knows where this thing is going. It’s pointing and directing a finger to his corruption.”

And Zambians for Empowerment and Development (ZED) president Dr Fred Mutesa yesterday stated that the stance by the government on the on-going fuel shortages, which have caused chaos in the nation, reveals serious confusion and lack of truthfulness on their part.

“It is irresponsible for the Head of State to say that nobody is to blame for the paralysis in this vital sector of the economy. Does he know how many man-hours have been lost by sleeping on queues at filling stations which could have been spent on more productive things?” Dr Mutesa asked.

And Kanyama regretted that the country lacked institutional mechanisms to respond to serious crises like the one witnessed in the energy sector.

Since the start of the energy crisis about two weeks ago, Konga has been issuing statements assuring the nation that the energy crisis was under control.
But on Monday, Konga told the nation that the country had enough fuel stocks and urged motorists not to panic despite the deteriorating situation which is characterised by long queues both during day and night.

“In oil there are politics involved, key players. Within the political structures, we have who is answerable to who? What are the penalties involved, what are reporting processes? They are not in control of the chain and that is where the problem is,” he said.

Kanyama said the risk profile emanating from the shock in the energy sector was too high to be left to chance and that accountability was paramount.

“It is very important to have a power-risk profile in any given country. Energy has a higher impact on the economy, then copper,” Kanyama said.

“The question is how prepared are we as country to manage that risk? What kind of risk management processes have we put in and you want to look at what is that you cannot control and of course, there should be a process of strong accountability.”

Kanyama also supported Bank of Zambia governor Dr Caleb Fundanga who warned that the current fuel crisis was a threat to the domestic economy and economic fundamentals such as inflation were going to be negatively impacted.

He said without clear signals to solutions, the danger to economic harm was higher than the danger to the reduction of copper prices.

“If the solution is there, it is not communicated to the key stakeholders. It has come out clearly that the minister doesn’t know what is going but all he was told is the fuel is on its way. If it there, it is just lying with one of the players,” said Chibamba.

And the Energy Regulation Board said the strategic reserves of the Oil Marketing Companies (OMCs) have depleted owing to the current acute shortages. ERB acting executive director Lukonde Mfula stated that most OMCs had continued to comply with the regulation requiring them to stock 15 days fuel at any one time to respond to crises like the current one.

Mfula also defended ERB, saying the regulator had been implementing its oversight role, contrary to public perception that the current crisis could have been averted if the OMCs kept the statutory regulated quantity of fuel.

He claimed that most OMCs generally complied with the statutorily requirement on storage reserves and were up to date as at end of August 2009.

Mfula stated that all OMCs were expected to re-establish the 15 days working stock and be fully compliant by end of November 2009. And a check in Livingstone yesterday revealed that only Vuma service station had petrol.

Engen and Kobil only had diesel while Gawula, formerly Caltex Service Station and BP Zambia had completely run out of both diesel and petrol.

On the Copperbelt, the shortage of petrol has continued with long queues forming at service stations where the commodity was being rationed.

On Monday evening, taxi ranks were deserted and many vehicles had camped at different service stations that were either expecting petrol or were rumoured to have petrol.

The few taxis that had petrol and were operating had a field day charging twice the normal fares.

Taxi fares between the city centre and Riverside which were normally between K20,000 and K25,000 had shot up to K40,000 and K50,000 on Monday evening.

Labels: CHIBAMBA KANYAMA, EAZ, ERB, FOOD, HAKAINDE HICHILEMA, RUPIAH BANDA

posted by MrK @ 4:14 PM