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Give govt a chance – RB

By editor
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President Rupiah Banda says government should be given a chance to package ZAMTEL and find a correct formula for its partial disposal.

The President disclosed that ZAMTEL currently has serious financial problems with a staggering K600 billion owed to its employees.

Mr. Banda was responding to journalists at the Lusaka International Airport shortly before departure to Tanzania for a two day official visit.

He however, said Communication and Transport Minister Dora Siliya should be given a chance to issue a ministerial statement in Parliament as directed by Speaker Amusaa Mwanamwambwa.

President Banda said there is need to curb the leakage of confidential government documents to the press.

He was referring to a leaked document concerning Attorney General Mumba Malila’s legal opinion over the engagement of a private foreign firm to evaluate ZAMTEL’s assets.

President Banda said the leakage of the confidential documents constitutes indiscipline and lawlessness.

[ZNBC]

editor
editorhttp://www.lusakatimes.com

91 COMMENTS

  9. Time, Time Time!! How much time, is the question? Until 2011? just before the elections? Hunger knows no time. People are suffering because of mismanagement and RB asks for time!! Just how much is “more time”?
    We need specificity here. Zambians have been more than patient with this govt, honestly. Now he wants more time!! Izavutako briefly iyi, mwee!

  17. :))RB your govt has all the rope to hang itself.2011 is not far.Very soon you will start thinking of paying the piper.

  19. Press Clip:

    Asked just how he thought the Govt would bundle ZAMTEL, President Banda responded, “I don’t know. However i would like to thank the people of this country for electing me as their President during the last elections”.

    Twachula!!!!

  20. The problem with Zamtel is nepotism and family trees at the expense of professinalism.Zamtel has the most blosted work force in Zed,thats why it cant even compete with Celtel and MTN.

    We need an overhaul with Zamtel.A human resource audit shoild be conducted and those found incompetent be fired and replaced by professional ones based on demonstrated ability and competence.

  21. Bushe Govt sii imozi ka, everybody who come in power want a chance to start this and finish that, isnt this being dishonest in the way the deal with public affiars? Talema mwe!!!

  24. #20 Sharp Shooter

    well said! Especially that ni chizungu!! Zamtel is probably the most inefficient parastatal around.
    And yes, a human resource audit is definately required.

  26. Good afternoon brethren and sistren.
    We need to put a stop to all these travels that HE is making. And those entourages too and eating up our resources which could have gone to more important areas of the economy. When we complained in 2002 about the constant travels of LPM, we saw a reduction then. Why don’t we do the same now?

  27. Zamtel should invest in modern technology in order to offer better services. Right now, the customer user experience is close to zero. Just look at their mobile arm, Cell Z. Cell Z has been in existence since 1995 but have only 200K+ customers. Zain/Celtel/Zamcell (whichever name you remember) that came four years later has more than 2M+ subs. Something is not right. Zamtel cannot even take advantage of the fact that they ‘own’ the international gate way and boost of a good backbone to all the provincial HQs.

  29. Mulamu

    90 days after elections,and thats the only sentence he can utter correctly without having to read a piece of paper!
    Its sad. No plan, no direction and worse still, no ideas!!
    :((

  32. Obama was inaugurated not more than a month ago and you can see that he is moving in a certain direction. Our RB is always time time time. What does he want time for? To finish visiting all the African Provinces of Zambia (Sorry Countries)? All I wants to start the tours of the Conutries outside the continent? His he trying to get us eat GMO’s that is why there is a shortage of mealie meal? give us something nangu ukutubepa kofye not bu Macopollo. Come back home and get back to work Old Man.

  34. RB to asy the truth,i gave a benefit of doubt but from the look of things i have no option but to withdraw all little faith i had in you and start re-arming myself and sharpening my vote come 2011.

  35. Obama wurde vor nicht mehr als einem Monat eingeführt, und Sie können sehen, dass er sich in einer bestimmten Richtung bewegt. Unser RB ist immer Zeitzeitzeit. Wofür will er Zeit? Zu beenden, alle afrikanischen Provinzen Sambias (Schade Länder) zu besuchen? Alles will ich die Touren des Conutries außerhalb des Kontinents anfangen? Sein isst er versuchend, uns zu bekommen, GMO’S deshalb es gibt eine Knappheit an der mealie Mahlzeit? geben Sie uns etwas nangu ukutubepa kofye nicht bu Macopollo. Kommen Sie nach Hause zurück und kommen Sie zurück, um Alter Mann zu arbeiten. Ooops hope someone can read**==

  39. I believe we have a leadership that is too detached and abstract in thinking. Fascination with figures and integers, percentages and timelines, as well as high sounding ideas like Vision 2030, have little bearing on the complexity of life of the poor and lowly-paid. RB b-) watch it

  44. Land locked Zambia needs its neighbours. We must invest a lot with our neighbours. LPM started with Angola, Botswana, Namibia and Congo. Hence the Chembe bridge and completion of Kazungula bridge (from FTJ days). Now we need to work on Tazara and Chipata-Mchinji to connect with the Beira corridor. The NW Province needs to get connected to the Benguela-Lobito railway again and we need Congo for this. RB needs to work hard on these Regional projects and the Zambian children will in the long run benefit. Short term-ism was Chiluba’s legacy. He gave us the ‘feel good factor’ for that time, but now the hard slog begins.

  45. It makes me sick to hear Zamtel failures. Why can’t they are just two managers from Zain and MTN for plans? I don’t believe we are failing to run the same business other people are running shame on us. I won’t suprised when houses in police camps are sold to sitting tenants. We are stuck, again.

  47. The world is unstable. Relying on one route to the sea caused us a lot of problems in 1970 when Smith closed the Rhodesian border. Those of us who were there remember very well the difficulties we had to transport copper to the ports. Great North Road was a mud river. ‘Hell-run’ it was called. Some copper had to be airlifted! Young people, learn from history.

  48. Why do we complain about these privatisations when we kicked out a socialist government to bring in the so called ‘free’ market economics? For a telecommunication company to be competitive, it needs to capture a wider market. To do so, it needs a wide covering infrastructure and must invest in new tech. ZAMTEL finds itself in this quagmire because when the ‘free’ market was introduced it had no extra cash. British Telecom had the same problem 15 years ago. But the British internal market is big and so privatisation in UK stays in British hands. Privatisation in Zambia goes to foreigners!

  49. 44. VOTE RIGGER
    Thats much more sensible than what all the other bloggers are saying. As Zambians we can choose to talk ill about the govnt and stop all positive contributions that we make through this blog. We can further choose to be sympathetic to other political parties and pray for the failure or downfall of the current regime. Or we can choose to live with the leadership we have at the moment and contribute positively hoping they will change fro the better in areas that are lucking for our own benefit, the fact of the matter is that whether we like it or not RB is president till 2011. Lets keep advising positively and those with ears will hear us.

  50. The ravenous and gluttonous spirit of Parliament is gnawing at the hearts of those of us whose pay-slips are inverted pyramids, needle-sharp at the bottom from deductions.

  51. Similarly ZESCO. It makes economic sense to divide ZESCO into generating and distributing companies. The state owned part could continue to own and run the generators but leave distribution to private companies. The problem is that the rural places would suffer because it would be uneconomical to distribute electricty to them. But, does it matter? Government would then help the rural areas to produce electricity locally or more locally by other means. Solar power is aplenty in Zambia.

  52. let us hope the partial privatisation of Zamtel does not disavantage locals. I hope it will benefit the economy and zambians, that’s the key word, Zambians, the people on the ground. I hope this is able to improve communications, such as cheaper local and international calls to benefit businesses in zambia, and, and faster, faster broadband please, may be we can even see fibre optic broadband come to zambia, 20mb, 30mb even 50mb, lets hope…:-w

  53. #49. Engines
    I agree with you.
    It shows the difficulty with being a leader in Zambia. Apart from HH, I do not hear of any positive contributions from others at all. Perhaps I may be judging unfairly since I am not privy to personal communications between them and govt, but Mr Sata is the vocal one. It is so sad that every time he opens his mouth only negative things come out. I am certain that if he had nothing to say he would end up criticising the suit RB is wearing. The same goes for his adopted PF publicity machine in the form of a certain taby.

  54. Wow! The notion of privatising Zamtel is still hoboured? Interesting! Is it because – Zamtel is one of the parastatals remaining that when privatised (Partially or wholly) might boost up gvt officials’ personal coffers, while covering its(the governments’) dirt by intoxicating our brains with cheap lies like the one published, that is, ” The privatisation of Zamtel is meant to solve some of the financial problems the company is experiencing like The K600 billion it owes its employees”? In my opinion, I think Zamtel should just be restructured, not to be privatised in any form! The best that Government can do for Zamtel is to provide proper supervision in its operations. The K600 billion the

  55. 51, good point. Many of the problems with these government run institutions stems from bad management and irresponsibility. may be it is time for the government to put their hands up and say look we could with some help here, and privatise some of these assests they continue to keep hold of. So long as the people/ businesses the decide to sell to are credible and have a proven, ethical record and will ensure that the people of zambia benefit.:-?

  56. I shall now be calling him Micahel SataNO. Because he is always saying NO. He said ‘No’ to windfall tax. No to NCC, No to United African States. No to election results. No to privatisation. But when he was in Chiluba’s government he was a ‘Yes’ man. Yes to third term…(It’s history).
    Strange thing is that his lovely doctor wife does not say anything these days! mmm goes to show. She may have become wiser with age… crossed the threshold!

  58. Ladies and Gentlemen,
    The point here is not really being against privatisation but CORRUPTION which is involved in the PROCESS of PRIVATISATION.
    1.ATTORNEY GENERAL was not consulted over ZAMTLEL issue.
    2.There is a big problem at FRA right now concerning importation of MAIZE.
    If RB is allowing all these things to go on then WHERE are we going as a NATION.
    There is no way SILIYA who is just a JOURNALIST can PRIVATISE a big company like ZAMTEL alone;
    Something is foul.

  60. The K600 billion the president talked about is nothing to Zamtel! Its a company i worked for and i know its capabilities! What is it that our government is up to? Sell every thing in the conuntry that has the capacity to generate the Much needed resources for our people? Who will control telephone/ Data traffic charges in the country which these foreign “buyers” will make our people pay after the Giant- back bone carrier of all the country’s communication signals is sold? Zamtel at the moment, Though in its poor state, is providing zambia’s telephony companies with a competing ground. At the moment CAZ is able to punnish defaulting mobile company operators because it knows that There is Zam

  61. 58, good point. Lets not all jump on the wagon of privatisation, but look at the big picture. Let’s analyse and evaluate the issue of selling of this parastatal. Parliament must examine the Communication and Transport Minister’s proposals. May I just says that it is wrong to assume that Minister Dora Siliya is incompetent, especially if we do not know her personally and professionally, it better to be constructive in our criticism as this is more productive and democratic. Perhaps privatisation is not the solution, but may be looking at ways of restructuring. This would include, retraining for existing staff, employing and retaining skilled people to run and service this huge institution.

  62. Mr President we would like to give govt a chance, but we are worried with the way you came in with your policies. Very strong. Allowances increased etc, etc. Very unlike Obama

  63. #58. Donovanosis
    1. Attoney General is government’s lawyer and he gives advice. Advice can be followed or ignored. Another lawyer may have a different opinion.
    2. Siliya is not selling ZAMTEL she has asked this company to value the assets. HH probably wanted Grant-Thornton to do it just like they did with others. We must wait for her statement to Parliament to which the government is answerable and not to a newspaper. MPs are the elected representatives of the people to ask the questions. A newspaper sells papers and the ‘juicier’ the deatils (scoop), the better.
    3. FRA. We don’t have any facts yet. Let us wait and see. If you do let us have them.

  64. 63, Let’s hope Lusaka Times informs us when these facts come in…for free. and thanks by the was LT, keep doing what you’re doing.

  65. It knows that there is Zamtel on our side to rely on! A Good example would be our transport sector. What is happenning to it? Because it has been handed over from government to individuals, mini bus drivers do what they feel like doing at any time. If they want, they can all stop thir operations and govt will be on the knees asking for their service. why? because our Government has no institute of its own to provide competition to the transport sector. It sounds simple – “privatisation of Zamtel”. Look at the vast resources the company has! To give you a crew of how much zambia spent on building zamtels network, i was involved in the O.P’s small intelligent network’s building some years ago

  67. Zamtel is yours and mine truth be told.The tax payer finances the bulk of governement expenditure through PAYE. its this same money that RB and team are using in their never ending travels. Let us ask Govt to bring in a management contractor to run zamtel with the head of this management contractor to report to parliament every so often on the quaterly progress while intergrating a new team of top notch zedians to carry on from where the management cosultant will stop. we can do this for the same money that we engaging a valuer to sell the company. yes it will take time but we can use a SMART approach.

  68. The simple net work for only abt 400 circuits costed zambia abt 6 billion kwacha! Wat abt a network covering the whole nation? wouldn’t it be wise to invest in it and only brush up its bends so as to improve its operations? I believe that we ( Zambians) have the capacity to run this company effectively provided we remove from it developmental barriers like family trees, corruption and many more!

  69. “The President disclosed that ZAMTEL currently has serious financial problems with a staggering K600 billion owed to its employees.”

    Mr President RB Banda, 72 years old, you seem to be travelling too much. Why can’t you delegate some of your assignments to Vice President/Minister George Kunda so that you can rest and also do your Presidential JOB instead of behaving like a TOURIST of ndacibonena nzi. We know vinabwela mochedwa vacizuungu of travelling by plane but please lets learn to take a break.

  70. Obama is disclosing his strategic moves to counter the effects of Global Melt Down (GMD). RB must do the same to keep us calm. he must quickly give us his 3-year plan so that we justify his movements/actions e.t.c with it. right now its guess work or assumptions that they knw wat they are doing and yet not…until 2011 or until GMD effects catch up wit us….by the way your budget was borring!!!!

  71. #70. DM
    Comparing Obama with RB is totally unfair at the most and unhelpful in the least. Obama has an army of advisors and a sytem that is well oiled and robust for the last 400 years! In US Obama had 2 whole years to prepare for Presidency and his views have had the opportunity to be fine tuned 24 hours a day for more than that long. His policies are the same even before the economic meltdown. RB cannot do this with the short time he had to come into office.

  72. 35. Chambishi Ex miner

    that is too broken a language iwe !!

    Hide that German. Awe Kuti watusebanya!! =))=))=))=))=))=))=))=))=))

  75. 42. Chambishi Ex miner

    Feb 9th, 2009 at 4:36 pm Vote: 0 0
    Sharp Shooter Guten Tag? was machst du in Italien spricht Deutschland? Ist es Italien?

    Let me Translate into english!!

    Sharp Shooter good afternoon? What are you doing in Italy speaking GERMANY? Is it Italy?=))=))=))=))

    I also speak England!!! =))=))=))=))=))

  76. “President Banda said there is need to curb the leakage of confidential government documents to the press… President Banda said the leakage of the confidential documents constitutes indiscipline and lawlessness.”

    True Mr President. I propose that you introduce serious penalties to culprits of leaked GRZ information that are identified. This will serve as an example to those who might want to engage in similar practices.

    On another note, I would like to commend you Mr President RB Banda for mentioning that you “would ensure that Zambia also built more universities and colleges” according to Zamnet communications, in Ethiopia while visiting your former university. This is a noble job.

  77. 76 continued.
    In fact, your campaign on a better educated Zambia has been seen in the improved funding to the sector in the 2009 National Budget. On you, President RB Banda, “admired Ethiopia, which had 20 universities and more than 100,000 university students” again according to zamnet, let the admiration be turned into reality. We need to see at least one university in each of our 9 provinces, by the end of your 1st term of office in 2011. This simply means that you have to build 6 new universities one each in Eastern, Luapula, Northern, North-western, the mighty Southern and Western Provinces.
    Then and only then will I be acknowledge that you mean business on this EDUCATION issue.

  78. #51 Vote Rigger: You got your facts upside down. Believe it or not, the so called investors are more interested in the profitable part of ZESCO than the unprofitable and troublesome distribution part. You get it?

  80. If president Obama has an army of advisers, what is stopping Rupiah Banda from doing like wise. The point we are missing here is that Obama cultivated this ability to think, consult and listen to others way back in his university days.

    A journey of a thousand miles starts with one step.

  81. But boss we need to know because tomorrow might be too late to do anything.By the way the guys also have to make a sale so they will persue for such imformation.Let the bwana ministers not go against the AU’s recommendations:d:d:d

  82. I think that the President’s advisors especially people like ‘Teta Mushingwe’, and Fr Shikas are not helping him. Shakas is quoted as saying’ some MMD members are worshipping RB’. If you remember the downfall of KK, those of you who were there – it was said he had good policies but poor advisors who could never stand up against him and tell him the truth. If that is going on the RB camp, expect the same results very soon.

  84. Kodi chamene bafuna ku Tanzania and ether countries nichani? Meanwhile the ministers spend many hours seeing him off and welcoming him back. When will this outmoded charade end?

  87. Felow zambians, you’ve seen how pearl his skin looks like. Ithink we need to prepare for another state funeralnext month.

  89. #88 My Sister,

    And thats the sad part, aint he suppose to envy other country’s services and infrastructure and try to bring it back home.

    He doesnt have a passion for developing Zambia , and you know why, cause it wasnt his dream to be a president, just like the late…same story, yakuchankwila fye..

  90. #63 Ba Vote rigger what Dora Siliya has done stinks of corruption to high heavens. Anyway since you are a typical Zambia I would excuse you. The fact is the awarding of a contract to the Bahamas ‘based’company was a no bid tender. This in itself is illegal in Zambia where govt contracts are concerned. How did she come to know this company? What is its track record? Does it physically exist? Why is it registered in a Tax haven of all places? This is akin to your presidents past and present who sit at State house and proceed to appoint 27 permanent secretaries and a host of people to run parastatals on the basis of nepotism. Zambia is trully a rotten country.

  91. With this Umodzi ku mawa man at the helm Zambia is going down the drain very fast. There is nothing to write home about Zambia now. The country is indeed rotten.

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