African Parliamentarian Network against Corruption (APNAC) Chairperson Cornelius Mweetwa has said that his organisation has written to the Ministry of Home affairs to seek clarification on the supply and delivery of the security network Phase 111 project Dubbed:’safe City project’ between the government through the ministry of Home Affairs and ZTE Corporation and Zhongxing Telecom service Limited.
Allegations are emerging of a scandal in which the government is accused of single-sourcing the supply of CCTV cameras systems which are to be installed on most streets in Lusaka. The Systems are designed to assist with crime prevention, traffic management and general monitoring by installing street cameras similar to those common in Europe, along with communications equipment.
According to reports, without openly advertising, the government picked a firm to supply the equipment reportedly worthy over US$210 million.
It is believed that the government used the law which allows them to choose a supplier of security and defence equipment secretly without advertising, but critics allege that the CCTV is for civilian purposes like traffic monitoring and cannot be classified under secrecy law.
Zambia’s public procurement regulations require that such contracts should be awarded following an open tender to the public, under which all qualified bidders are invited to participate, enabling the government to compare prices and solutions.
[pullquote]It is believed that the government used the law which allows them to choose a supplier of security and defence equipment secretly without advertising, but critics allege that the CCTV is for civilian purposes like traffic monitoring and cannot be classified under secrecy law.[/pullquote]
And Mr Mwetewa has said that the PF government’s fight against corruption is highly questionable. Speaking during a press briefing in Lusaka today, Mr Mweetwa said that ANAP will judge government’s commitment to fight corruption based on results the fight is yielding and the political will.
He added that APNAC will not base its judgement of government on what it tells the citizenry or the International Community but its actions.
Mr Mweetwa said that it was unfortunate that while on one hand the government claims to be allergic to corruption, its actions on the other hand suggest it is embracing corruption.
The Choma central Member of Parliament stated that APNAC is not satisfied with the strides government has made thus far in the fight against corruption.
And APNAC vice Chairperson Professor Geoffrey Lungwangwa noted that the zeal in the fight against corruption is low in the country.
Professor Lungwangwa said one can only assess the Zeal of fighting corruption if Journalists are accorded an opportunity for a Press Conference by the president.
PF, if you lose the next election you are going to jail. You might want to invest in ultra modern detention facilities
RIP Medado Mazombwe. We have no Cardinal in Zambia now, yaba!!
GBM are you a minister of Defence or Security guards! You are becoming so petty! twanaka
Why is this news ?
Is this a priority in Zambia sure mwe bantu. Are there not more pressing issues on which to spend this kind of money in Zed?? This is not the way to develop a country. I can think of many projects that are more important than this escapade. The rule of thumb when government is spending this type of falanga should be: Only invest in those ventures that will bring revenue and create long lasting jobs for the masses. HH, please learn from these guys mistakes while you are waiting for your turn. Do not make the same mistakes when it is your time.
@1.1 Nubian, that can’t be true that Cardinal Mazombwe can just die.
@Nostradamus
Dont just comment, are going kuchililo?
By way mwaba sents her greetings but she was complaining why Uncle Nostradamus from USA so quite these days… she wants to know about he new found cousin from canada, Nostradamus jr
It is not as simple as that. The case should have been made in Court by the opponents.
The Government should have stated in advance that the CCTV contract was a matter
of National Security. It should be left to this kind of interpretation.
Careful, Sata’s son now has money in his pockets to silence all those against his plunder.
see-see TV Sangwapo!
Ba mweetwa u are making sense now!
Spot on!!
This money can be well spent on Educational and healthy facilities. are these cctv going to be a nationwide, if this will be only Lusaka, i would oppose to this idea. it will be a waste of money which be well spent elsewhere.
National wide or not $200 million is a lot of money…this figure is hideously inflated its no wonder the opted for the secretive Chinese firms. This is the selfsame reason we will never develop as our leaders think of their pockets first INSTEAD of getting the best deal taxpayer.
This happens in a government that is full of ignorant who are not widely exposed. If one had just a little knowledge in technology, these colossal sums of money should have raised alarm bells. Like Jay Jay has said, $210m is alot of money. To invest this kind of money at the expense of education and health is highly misplaced priorities. If Sata’s government was indeed alergic to corruption, all this rubbish wouldn’t happen, but when its family perpetrating this vice, the powers that be is impotent to act.
But this is hearsay at this point! Does this chap have evidence to show that this is actually the case? Or is this his reaction to the challenge that has been asked of him siding with MPs that were convicted of corruption during the last elections?
Kalaki said this… Zambian Watchdog nizi!
Now you are talking Mr. Mweetwa….this what opposition is there for, if this is true this will be the biggest rip off ever and some parasites in gov’t are going to get very rich.
Really, US$ 210 million for CCTV???
These people are spending our money like whores on crack!
in fact the same ones will be stolen by their relatives and sold SA or Botswana
Professor Lungwangwa said “one can only assess the Zeal of fighting corruption if Journalists are accorded an opportunity for a Press Conference by the president.”
This is what I have been stating all along as we don’t really know on what page this president is on – whether he is still “allergic” to corruption. How can we let him get away without one for 2 years.
Mmmmmmmmmm, i really dont know what to say or how to say what i want to say….U$$210mils!!! Are sure it is for spying enermies or for dangerous prey? Either way the amount is rediculous especially when people are as poor as stank!
Mr Mweetwe sir, do you have info as to whether this equipment is for the entire nation, one province or specific centre of interest? Kindly inverstigate and let us know because we would like to be aware of which places to avoid when in town.
This kind of CCTV is absolutely necessary for crime prevention and to zero in on traffic offenders. Its a common feature all over the world now. The Boston bombers were arrested due to CCTV.
My worry is that it can be abused to ‘peep’ into people’s private lives. Probably the City council should have sourced it and not Home affairs. I smell a rat of “BIG BROTHER IS WATCHING YOU!” Of course single sourcing and the size of the bill is of concern.
BIG BROTHER IS RIPPING YOU OFF!!
No one is arguing with whether Lusaka needs this technology or not. The agitation is the amounts that are being floated. For a small perimeter and routes in question, the amounts do not add up. Ask any security company involved with CCTV installations even with a Sci-Fi type control center, no ways would you be talking of $210 million.
Sgt Mkundundani you’re wrong,lol.
I would argue with the need for this. Serious, of all the things Zambia needs CCTV is far from being high on the list and definitely not “absolutely necessary”.
If you want to “zero in” on traffic offenders (….OMG, traffic offenders, say it isn’t so!), try buying the police some cars or even tell the ones manning roadblocks not to let vehicles go by without number plates…. with broken headlights…. with no break lights….. etc! When they manage that, maybe then they will be ready for CCTV to solve “traffic offenses”.
Or if it’s actual crime you want to fix, try putting more plain clothes cops on the street (hello, jobs?) and spend the US$ 250 million on real people instead of imported cameras.
@Spuds
$210m is a lot of money…with that amount of money you can have this selfsame package and equip all our traffic cops with high spec. patrol cars with on-board computers with speed cameras AND have enough change left over for each one of them to have a motorola walkie talkie and a 9mm Glock piston on their holsters.
America can afford it. Most of the crime in Zambia is in the kombonis and mu ma yardi. At night cairo road is empty. Are they going to put them there? With vandalism wrecking robots and street lights around Lusaka will these last? No terrorists here just a waste of money. Use the money to buy hospital equipment and medicines please.
Is there that much crime in Lusaka? This is waaaay overpriced yet you could spend 1/10th the amount by removing street vendors or tearing hiding spots like unused buildings or overgrown bushes.
Its illadvised to spend $210m on CCTV yet the supporting systems are rotten…like a non working 911#,ill trained emergency responders,streets clogged with vendors and rogue policemen more concerned with extracting bribes than preventing crime.
I won that tender its 21 million dollars not 210 dollar isha mweetwa
It explain why govt never wanted ZWD. Popi is keepig us abreast about PF underworld.
He will also run away like Henry and hire the same lawyer calling us usefull ideots. This mambala uyu mambala chite uyu. …AMSTERDAN
Even before the decisions on the method of sourcing and cost was made one would think investment in such infrastructure would be subject to consultative process at the very least at cabinet level if not at parliament. At stake is not just the cost of acquisition but what the ongoing cost of implementation, monitoring and maintenance will be. Do we have the HR? At what cost will the HR be put in place, What of the telecoms and power infrastructure required to run the system. At the end of the day the cost-benefit analysis will show that this is not a wise investment. We do not have such high level of crime in Zambia or road accidents & infringements within the Lusaka to justify this investment. This contract should be scrapped for more reasons than just the single sourcing if not too late!
This puts some of us who were supporting them for removal of subsidies in a precarious position….they talked of directing funds saved to education, health and infrastructure development only to direct funds to hideously OVER INFLATED PRICED PROJECTS. One council in the UK had a tender for such a project and it cost no where near a million dollars for state of the art CCTV system…..THIS IS DAYLIGHT ROBBERY!!!
Priorities pa Zambia,is that borrowed money,cause the budget did not mention anything like that?
So this is where the money from subsidies has gone!! Corruption levels in RB government were nothing compared to what is obtaining now. Nafwa tata Lesa inee !!!
What is Mushota saying about this?
but kwana ba pf, hw can waste so much mone see-see tv wen hone, unza and cbu ar in need of acodamation and wel stock library etc, sata sure wat is wrong wth u or is that yo chines made urine bag is leaking or wat? look at yo drunken minister hz if learng hw to speak- he is an *****.
its surprising u fellows have hope for Zambia..
i dont think this should be a priority..moreover there is no such high crime in lusaka..there are more need areas like health, agriculture and education where we can spend this mpney
you and your cousin Kasolo mwachusha abantu. Ifishi kumana fiwa
The only reason Sata went to state house is to steal.He is surrounded by professional thieves,by the end of his term Zambia will have no money in its coffers.
That is exactly what he went to state house to do. I just do not understand those who voted for Sata – Look at what a mess Zambia has become!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Do we even have qualified and capable personnel to skillfully run,maintain and to fix the expensive system?
Its gonna be like when we had expensive planes and complicated zamtel but it was management skills that we lacked and that eventually broke our camel’s back.
There would be less traffic crime in Zambia if people did not DRINK AND DRIVE. Vast majority of accidents occur because nearly everybody thinks it is ok to drink and drive and no one wears seat belts. There is no need to award such a colossal deal to a company owned by Ukwa’s son.
“see see tv” is not necessary. that 200million dollars is more than enough to build more accomodation facilities at CBU. just over a month ago students there cried for more dorms and the govt said there was no money, so where did this $200million come from all of a sudden? PF ni “Pama Fi” for real.
$210million is not a lot of money. This is like how much I won on the Euro-Millions when I used to live in Europe. Now I have shares at Disney World and Euro-disney where we have stealthy cameras on a 5 to 1 ratio trained on each and very single visitor. We even have pictures of people bonking on roller coasters – One guy came and went at the same time!
If you won that amount, what are you still doing working as a secruity guard at Disney?
Being vainglorious is bad especially for you.It’d be much better for you to say you’re kind,considerate,selfless or hardworking- things that money can never buy.
…and its a lie anyway since you’d have been in the news all over zambia had you won such money.
Plunder! Plunder! Plunder!
HH speaking. Well done PF.
Excuse me! I forgot to mention I gave away most of it to charity…. please! don’t ask me who she is, On a serious note; $210m bucks is a hellloadsamoney to setup CCTV in a poverty and disease stricken country that has no bandwidth to even support 10 remote controlled surveillance cameras. A better idea would be to use that money to setup government run internetlibraries a term I coined myself to empower our youth and general public on the power of the Internet and of course on the other hand enlight them on the dangers associated with it. Then again if this Kafimba of yours has anything to do with it, it won’t happen unless we have a forklift upgrade of the incumbent government. Get rid of deadwood and let us show you the way.
pf is full of corrupt people. they borrow $10m from overseas donnors, yet they’re spending $210m on CCTV cameras. That money could have been used to improve UTH so that Sata and Sakeni and co don’t go to India. they roasted RB for mobile hospitals now they used mobile hospitals at UNWTO. pf has stolen more than kafupi did.
@bricklayer, these PF guys know that this investment is not a national priority. need I tell you that there is uncaring plunder today. people are out to make money, serious money and they don’t care for you.
you voted for the, live with it.
though, I await to see which one of them will live forever and enjoy what they are plundering
PF criticised purchase of mobile hospitals by MMD at US $50m and critised renovation of Society hse at US$98m. Now we hear Sata son is behind the US$210m CCVT camera deal just like HENNRY BANDA would operate.
We have more pressing needs than cameras to be watching street vendors in cairo road urinating on those trees along the road.
ZAmbians ZAmbians ZAmbians ZAmbians, $210m is not a lot of money. That’s why you claim that HH is a rich man when in international context he’s a poor man. What is $210m? Please with inflation eating up the global village it’s even cheaper. Let’s move forward. Technology people. Balance up things. Even smaller countries are equiped with advanced technology which is good for the police unless you are a criminal, CCTV is needed everywhere. Change your thinking if you wanna see change in zed. Negative thinking is why 50years after independence you are still poor. See the big picture. How manytimes does GRZ spend on other things except security? Security is important too you have to balance development. Negative people like here on this blog are what kicked Prof Chirwa out. Learn to think…
If $200m is peanuts why then is Chikwanda signing loan agreements for as little as $10m?
Governments will not develop your country. I’m a professor and I know what I’m talking about. So what’s the point of complaining? No m,atter what you say or do, even the next government will have holes. So the best thing to do right now is get an education, or start thinking big, or start making money that you may safeguard your family and lift them out of poverty rather than waiting to be employed. You can never be richer than your employer unless you use your time wisely and convert your whining and complaining to more productive actions. How many people are in the grave? Go out there and impact the world by making a change from the normal to the abnormal. Do something you’ve never done to get what you’ve never had. Create something that will make you better of and a helper to…
Mind you you can never be richer than your government. There is an equation of wealth in economics which I invented. The richer you as a citizen gets, the richer your government gets too unless you have offshore accounts. All your labours will be taxed and be part of that countries GDP. SO people stop whining. Development depends on citizens doing something different from what they’ve always done. Making a step in the unknown with positive actions until they hit that button of no return where just like China, things start moving smoothly. Development takes time. Unless the population’s mindset changes, there can not be development. Ask any one on the street what they think development is and they’l tell you that it’s what grz does for them and not what they do everyday. Do smth urslf
Mind you you can never be richer than your government. There is an equation of wealth in economics which I invented. The richer you as a citizen gets, the richer your government gets too unless you have offshore accounts. All your labours will be taxed and be part of that country’s GDP. SO people stop whining. Development depends on citizens doing something different from what they’ve always done. Making a step in the unknown with positive actions until they hit that button of no return where, like China, things start moving smoothly. Development takes time. Unless the population’s mindset changes, there can be no development. Ask any one on the streets what they think development is and they’l tell you that it’s what grz does for them and not what they do everyday. Seriously? Do!
dude, the smaller countries that you speak of that have this technology probably also have well stocked hospitals and no accomodation crisis for their university students. It’s a little thing called ‘Prioritising’.
PF is a failled PROJECT, HHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH, 2016 for a better Zambia for ALL! I have with immediate effect defected from the perfect Faillures to mighty Upnd where there are sound minded people.
@Mfumu bloging sayng same thng tht he is educated!Finshi mwasambilila ba slave fr Hichidisabled?It seems u re by far beter educted bt politcaly uli ci puba!Yes kwena mwa sambilila bt voting yabako trick!Hakahivotela Heka!Napashili pabe?Mubepele fye!
Dada, you’re one of my favourite bloggers here. When I see your name, I smile. Give me your honest opinion however about these street cameras and the attached price tag?
I want to believe that ZTE is a Chinese construction company and it has won’t a tender to construct a CCTV. I think it a good idea in that it will increase the security of the citizens as more people will be kept busy by watching CCTV and refrain from crime. Bravo PF.
hahaha! you’re funny!
My brothers and sisters in higher institutions of learning would greatly benefit from this kind of money if it was channelled to building more hostels to accomodate them. Misplaced priorities of the worst kind-God help us!
where is kabimba now. GBM and mweembe are fighting. is he still nursing his lost case from High court.
kwena in niyikali. if there are refusing, we can engage their govt or Norwegian Govt or tu BBC boys journalists . Tuyi lapule majeso noyituma pa you tube.
Nchito move in.
small wonder why pf propanganda mouth piece Post newspaper is writting good stories and comments on mweetwee so that he can be persuded to stop his enquiry.
Some should suggest PF GRZ spend money on a space ship, it would be good for science & tech for the country.
Kulyamo bane, its our time
I’m not supporting any one but whether you complain on this blog or not, it has happened what can you do in a democracy where you can only be heard through elections? Ask yourselves. Is democracy fair? You don’t know who you are voting for and people change. Look at the USA in terms of policy, not every one is happy with government’s decision but that’s the only thing closer to fairness in the 20th and 21stcentury. When you read history, mankind has tried different kinds of governments and I’ve come to my conclusion that none of them work. Only God can govern us perfectly. Not man. Talk, whine, complain, dance, celebrate, it all comes back to one person’s opinions. It’s life. That’s just what it is and how it is. The best thing to do is live peacefully with your neighbours…
The coffers are already dry bwana. They cannot even supply a simple vaccine like BCG.