The Government of the republic of Zambia have eventually sold and got rid of the non-performing only telecommunication parastatal organisation, ZAMTEL. The process to sale the Company has been done under very questionable clandestine atmosphere resulting in several unpalatable whispers going on in the grapevine. The sale of ZAMTEL on the Lusaka stoke market has been characterized by several meetings being held away from the public eye and the watchful gaze of watch-dog organisations. 75% of the sahres were touted on the market and several international companies attempted to participate in the negotiations that took place under extremely difficult conditions. FDI that would have loved to participate were very carefully disqualified until only the Libyan company that has finally been awarded the Company reigns.
The sale of ZAMTEl has brought a rather sour taste in the mouth in the manner that the Company has finally been sold off. As History would have it, Libya does not in itself boast of a fantastic telecommunication infrastructure that would have attracted the Zambian government to have confidence that the telecommunication industry in Libya would be replicated in Zambia! The unspoken vocabulary that individuals and organisations that were involved in the practical selling of the Organisation are going to benefit immensely has left Zambians fuming and totally dismayed that the repeat of the Sale of the Zambian Mines by the FTJ government was at hand.
When businessmen like Hanson Sindowe, the chairman of the Commerce and business fraternity in the country requested for details of the capital valuation of ZAMTEL to be published for the general public to view and make informed opinions, the Minister of Commerce Felix Mutati has gone on record stating that "Zambians would not understand the figures contained in the report" and as such irrelevant to even fathom the publishing of the report. This is utter arrogance and there is need for a retraction of this statement. The author has written to the local Post newspaper to demand that Mr Felix Mutati should apologise and retract the statement as it boarders on insulting the general public. Below is the letter to the post:
Dear Editor,
I am a Zambian Architect who lives in the UK but has great interest in the Political and economic developments that take place in Zambia. I write to your uncompromising paper to express my personal and several other concerned Zambians’ disapproval of being insulted by COMMERCE minister Felix Mutati who has said that Zambians would not understand government’s decision to privatise ZAMTEL even if the RP Capital valuation report was released.
As a Zambian citizen, I demand Felix Mutati to retract and apologise for having such a diabolical opinion of Zambians that they are so inept, dull and incapable of understanding “figures” of the RP report. It is this attitude that makes some of us Zambians to detest politicians and their actions in the way the Nation is run. If Mutati has been able to understand the figures and has approved them, what right does he have to assume that Zambians would not understand them?
By way of this letter, I demand that he apologises to the Nation and immediately release the RP report for the Nation to make a judgement independently. We are able to understand even more complex figures than accounting figures that are contained in the RP report. What we may not understand would be why politicians are reportedly pocketing great revenues in their private accounts as a result of this clandestine sale of ZAMTEL!
The Eye
Typical response from the government will normally be docile and dismissive but I realize that the truth and desires of the general Zambian Masses will eventually be clear for all to see.
No comments:
Post a Comment