Maravi

Rupiah is very incompetent – Nawakwi

Rupiah is very incompetent – Nawakwi
By Patson Chilemba, Ernest Chanda and Moses Kuwema
Sun 01 Nov. 2009, 04:01 CAT

FDD leader Edith Nawakwi yesterday charged that President Rupiah Banda is a very incompetent and inept leader who has failed to manage the fuel crisis. And fuel supplies in Lusaka have remained erratic despite government assurances that the commodity is available.

In an interview, Nawakwi, who also former energy minister, said the artificial fuel shortage which had been created would have devastating consequences on the 2009/2010 farming season. She said President Banda was an incompetent leader who could not even manage his kitchen.

Nawakwi said if it was true as claimed by President Banda that he was misled on the issue, energy minister Kenneth Konga would have been on the streets by now.

“If he can be misled on this issue, what is he responsible for? I expect my head of state to be responsible for (1) defence, (2) food, (3) my health, education. Those are things that whenever my head of state wakes up, they ask 'do I have enough diesel? Do I have enough fuel?' Because a neighbouring country can declare war today, how is he going to defend me?” Nawakwi asked.

“So if a head of state says they have been misled on such a strategic issue, I know they are incompetent, they are inept; they don't deserve to be in that office. And this means that such an incompetent leader cannot manage even the kitchen table because the shortage of diesel in October, November simply means that next year there will be no food on our kitchen tables. And I don't think this government has any foresight beyond December this year.

“They are just sitting, thinking there is no diesel, bambo sorry, bambo sorry…you can't create an artificial crisis in October, November when people are planting.”

Nawakwi said there was nothing that was working out in the nation as almost everything was at a standstill.

“There is no President anyway…if you have no food in the home you say there is no mum; there is no dad. This country doesn't have a head of state. If we had a head of state, we can't have a fuel crisis which is over one year,” Nawakwi said.

“President Rupiah Bwezani Banda is even failing to manage the kitchen table; how does he expect to put food on the table next year when there is no diesel now?”

Nawakwi said the current fuel shortage should be blamed squarely on President Banda's government.

She recalled that during the time she served as energy minister, the government used to stockpile petroleum products which could last up to 50 days to cover for the period when Indeni Petroleum Refinery was shut down.

“I don't know how they do it. When you want to shut down Indeni, you stockpile. This country has capacity to store close to 50 days of all products. You can shut the refinery for 50 days, you will not need to look around for products,” Nawakwi said.

“Now if somebody tells me that because of Indeni there is no diesel then I know that people are inept, they are incompetent, they don't deserve to be in the offices that they are in.”

Nawakwi said President Banda had been misled because he wanted to. She said there was no way an energy minister could mislead the President on such an important national issue. She said a leader was supposed to lead and not to be misled.

“There is no room for error for heads of state, and in this country there is no room for being misled. I hope one day United States President Barack Obama could also say that he was misled,” Nawakwi said.

She also asked the government to intervene in a situation where a Zambeef truck fell into the Kafue River at a pontoon in Chiawa.

Nawakwi said Zambeef was investing millions of United States dollars in the economy and it would be wise for the government to come to their rescue.

She said rather than rushing for the Chinese investors, the government should support its local investors.

Nawakwi said she had been asked to work on a public road in Chiawa as if there was no government.

And during a check by The Post around Lusaka's central business district yesterday, most service stations had run out of both petrol and diesel.

In Longacres, there was neither petrol nor diesel at both BP filling station on Haile Sellase Avenue and at Total filling station on Los Angeles Boulevard.

At Total filling station on Chilimbulu Road in Kamwala, there was a long queue of motor vehicles waiting to refuel.

Motorists were found waiting for a petrol tanker, which was offloading petrol, while several others still trekked in to have a share of the commodity.

One motorist, Ackson Mwanza, said he had gone round town looking for petrol and could only find it at that service station.

"... I live in Olympia, I tried to check around that area and I couldn't find any petrol. And just when I was about to give up, a friend called me and told me that there was petrol at Total Kamwala; that's how I found myself here. And we've just lined up here waiting for that tanker pointing to a petrol tanker to finish offloading petrol. At least for diesel the situation is not as bad as it is with petrol. So I don't even know why this energy minister Kenneth Konga guy keeps lying to the nation that the fuel situation has normalised. These guys are just a bunch of failures," said Mwanza.

At Engen service station on the junction of Makishi and Great East roads and at BP service station at Manda Hill, both diesel and petrol were available, but there were long queues of motorists.

But Konga has maintained that the country has enough stocks of fuel. Konga appealed to the public not to panic when buying fuel. He also appealed to the media not to issue what he called alarming statements on the fuel situation in the country.

"The media should be responsible in their reports, somebody went on radio and announced that Indeni had closed and yet Indeni has been closed for sometime now. And because of that, everybody is panicking because somebody created this panic on the market because of their report.

We have fuel trucks that are coming in the country on a regular basis. So let's tone down on our reports and manage the situation together," Konga said in an interview on Friday. "Let us be analytical. The OMCs oil marketing companies are bringing fuel into the country, where will it go? The public must not panic; Indeni is re-opening next week and they will start refining."

Konga blamed what he termed as poor action from the Energy Regulation Board (ERB) management for prematurely increasing fuel prices without the board's consent.

“So all of us need to be responsible because as of today Friday 350,000 litres of fuel were brought to Lusaka alone and 11 trucks crossed the Nakonde border en route to Ndola. 24 trucks are also expected in Chirundu, so this is more than we need. Customers should therefore carry on with their normal lives because the situation is under control,” said Konga.

Labels: EDITH NAWAKWI, FUEL, INDENI, RUPIAH BANDA, ZAMBEEF

posted by MrK @ 6:31 AM