Maravi

Zambians will not understand Zamtel sale – Mutati

COMMENT - I think the Minister knows Zambians WILL understand - and understand all too well, exactly what happened. The comedy stylings of Minister Mutati. His argument: lack of transparancy is traditional. Heck, that is how we always do things in the MMD... Check out Cho's post here. Also check out the follow-up to this article in The Post: Mutati under fire over RP Capital (Tue 15 June 2010). If any reader would like to send an e-mail to minister Mutati and tell him that they would want to read the RP Capital evaluation report, and explain why they would be able to understand a simple evaluation report, please send your request here: felixmutati *** yahoo.co.uk, fmutati *** parliament.gov.zm (thanks to Whisper and Anonymous at Cho's blog).


Zambians will not understand Zamtel sale – Mutati
By Mutale Kapekele
Mon 14 June 2010, 04:50 CAT

COMMERCE minister Felix Mutati has said Zambians will not understand government’s decision to privatise Zamtel even if the RP Capital valuation report is released. But Zambia Association of Chambers of Commerce (ZACCI) president Hanson Sindowe has insisted that the government must release the RP Capital report.

In an interview on Saturday, Mutati said the citizens could not understand the RP Capital report on Zamtel and should rely on the government’s explanation on the sale.

“Zamtel is not the first company to be privatised and at no time did the government ever release valuation reports for any of the privatised companies,” Mutati said.

“I don’t see how releasing the RP Capital report will help the citizen because they will not even understand it. It is just figures on paper. I would advise people to instead listen to the rational explanation of the government over the Zamtel sale.”

He said Zamtel was like a patient who was almost terminally ill and did not contribute anything to the revenue of the country.

“Zamtel has for many years not remitted any tax, which amounts to denying the country of resources for development purposes,” Mutati said.

[Do you mean - like the privatised MINES? - MrK]

“That company has been a big liability to the nation because of its inability to make profit. It is like a patient who is almost terminally ill. The government only had two options to save it. One was to recapitalise it by diverting funds meant for other programmes like health and education. Or to sell it and allow an investor to pump money in the company as well as address issues that have led to the near-collapse of the company.”

[Or, to run it well without political interference. And have the government pay it's bills. - MrK]

He said compared to the other two telecommunication companies (Zain and MTN) in the country, Zamtel had over-employed and failed to raise its client base.

“The fact that the other two telecommunications companies have managed to realise huge profits with relatively small numbers of employees is a sign that there is something seriously wrong with Zamtel,” he said.

[It is called political interference. - MrK]

“There is no way a company can have 2,400 employees and still maintain a 200,000 client base. That is not normal. Look at Zain, they have over three million subscribers in the few years they have been operating in the country, what does that tell you?”

[That they don't have landlines. - MrK]

Commenting on the price which has been described as a song by former vice president Enoch Kavindele, Mutati said the government made comparisons with other telecommunication companies that were recently sold on the continent.

“Ghana Telecoms only got US$900 per employee when it was been privatised but we have managed to get as much as US$1700 for each Zamtel employee,” Mutati said.

[Oh, so the value of a company is based on a selling price per employee, right mr. Minister? Not the value of it's assets like real estate, land and landlines, growth potential... - MrK]

“We are getting much more. We made comparisons before we made a judgment. It is not fair to say we sold the company for a song.”

He said those calling for the reverse over the sale of Zamtel were like doctors who re-infected a recovering patient.

[Made sick by the abuse by the MMD government - with the purpose of getting kickbacks from privatisation. Privatisation is just an invitation for corruption, because it relieves the Zambian government of the obligation of running it's parastatals profitably. - MrK]

And in a separate interview, Sindowe demanded that the government must release the Zamtel valuation report.

Sindowe said while the privatisation of Zamtel was good, the manner in which it was done left a lot of unanswered questions.

“Zamtel is unique in the telecommunications industry but it has not been doing well and privatising it was a good thing but the process that was followed was not proper,” Sindowe said.

“Once the new owners pump in money in the company, it’s structure will make business sense.

What I don’t appreciate is that information over the sale has not been made public. This is a public institution and the government must release the valuation report. Why shouldn’t the people know the procedure that was followed? What are they trying to protect?”

Labels: CORRUPTION, FELIX MUTATI, HANSON SINDOWE, RP CAPITAL PARTNERS, ZAMTEL

posted by MrK @ 12:17 PM