Friday, March 29, 2024

Changala alleges that ZAMTEL is facing imminent collapse due to Poor Management

Share

ZAMTEL CEO Mupanga Mwanakatwe(c)
ZAMTEL CEO Mupanga Mwanakatwe(c)

ZAMTEL faces imminent collapse as a result of serious management and financial crisis, civil rights activist Brebner Changala has warned.

Government, he said, must urgently intervene by instituting a thorough forensic audit which senior employees are demanding.

Mr Changala cited the case of the crippled and non-performing internet service for which Zamtel was continuing to receive payment.

“Instead of alerting the nation about the breakdown, they have continued to collect money from customers. This is virtual theft,” Mr Changala said.

But when contacted for a comment Zamtel managing director Mupanga Mwanakatwe told the Daily Nation newspaper to write to his office requesting for a comment.

Mr Changala revealed that ZAMTEL had in the past one month failed to provide internet services and that the workforce at the institution had become highly demotivated because of the management crisis at the institution.

“Senior management employees are despondent and demotivated by the kind of situation prevailing in the company which must be dealt with urgently. Zamtel is in very bad hands and unless Government comes to this realization it will be too late to take remedial measures,” Mr Changala said.

He called on the Minister of Transport and Communications Kapembwa Simbao and the Minister of Finance Alexander Chikwanda to immediately order for a forensic audit at ZAMTEL because there were fears that the company was being extensively mismanaged.

Mr Changala said in an interview yesterday that ZAMTEL, in its current form and shape, was ‘‘nothing but a failed project’’ and unless drastic measures were taken, there was a danger that one of the country’s sensitive installations was going to collapse.

Mr Changala said the security of the country could easily be compromised if Government was going to hesitate to take drastic measures that could save ZAMTEL from total collapse.

ZAMTEL was sold to LapGreen of Libya barely five years ago but the Patriotic Front (PF) reversed the sale soon after assuming power in 2011 under former president Michael Sata and now the country’s single telecommunication company is on the brink of insolvency.

He said he was disappointed that the Zambia Information and Communication Technology (ZICTA) had lamentably failed to supervise ZAMTEL and should therefore take full responsibility for its state.

“ZAMTEL is going through serious management and financial crisis and until and unless Government moves fast to commence forensic audit at the company, there is a real danger that the only State-owned telecommunication installation could easily collapse. We must not wait until such a calamity befalls us and that is why I am appealing to Mr Simbao and Mr Chikwanda to immediately commence a forensic audit to establish the extent of the management and financial crisis that has hit the company,” Mr Changala said.

He revealed that management at ZAMTEL had also cancelled leave days for all its workers because the company had no capacity to liquidate the amount of money that had been accrued by its workers.

Mr Changala said there had been a lot of disenchantment among workers and that it had become important that the management and financial chaos be corrected in the shortest time possible.

Mr Changala complained that his internet service had not been working from 22nd January and that management at the institution had not provided him with any answers to his queries.

But Mr Mwanakatwe said he had no idea what Mr Changala was talking about and urged the Daily Nation to write him a press query before he could respond to the matter.

“If you want any information about Zamtel put it in writing and we shall respond… but if you want to go ahead and publish the story, you are free to do so,” he said.

53 COMMENTS

    • Revelation 22:12
      “Look I am coming soon! My reward is with me, and I will give to each person according to what they have done.”

      The bible is reminding us about embracing changes such as Miles Sampa.

      No one should mock the bible for the Good Lord will save us all- but I ripped that scripture from the bible to show you, that as Zambia is a Christian nation and thus what we are saying here is that in August 2016.

      You will NEVER I mean ever forgive yourself if you do not vote Miles Sampa and the next President.

      DO it – Just do it

      Thanks
      BB2014

    • This is the problem of giving jobs to the FBI (freinds bululus and inlaws) it breeds corruption, nepotism and incompetence. The story is the same at zampost and Natsave. The bigger problem is at presidential level where the president needs to be seen to act on indiscipline and corruption among ministers otherwise we are slowly sinking the Zimbabwe way.The entire moral compass of the nation needs calibration. People that have failed in their duties need to be held accountable and not received as heroes when they join other political parties!

    • Mupangwe Mwanankatwe has no capacity to be CEO at ZAMTEL. Why are AIRTEL and MTN profitable? Simple, Edgar and his PF have flooded all Parastals with incompetent PF cadres like Mwanakatwe.

    • @Mushota, to Hell with your miles Sampa that boy cant be president now. He needs to stop being childish and to be used by Fred Mmembe, right now his motive is to divide the pf that`s all what is preoccupied with.

    • How can Mwanakatwe not know what Changala is talking about??? Every person on the Zamtel network is complaining. And the man in charge does’t know??? Every time we have a complaint we should put it down in writing??? And PF wants to create an e-government??? With clowns like these???

    • Notuma suti kwati fya mano ifyo ba bomba.Zamtel should be returned to Lapgreen.It has been abused by these Pathetic F00LS.Always blabling nama meaningless adverts allover.

    • @James bug it’s not only FBI (freinds bululus and inlaws) its wIves too that breed corruption, nepotism and incompetence. This guy’s wife the “honourable” commerce minister is the one who as a bank ceo borrowed from CEEC and has no intention to pay whilst paupers get their little properties repossesed. These are a shameless pair.

  1. Mr. Changala?
    IN THE END WE ONLY REGRET THE CHANCES WE DIDN’t TAKE.

    I know, I shouldn’t have used Caps- and I am so sorry I did.

    But this is not about me, certainly this is not about you, it is about the message I am trying to underpin.

    Do NOT regret the chance to vote for Miles Sampa.
    Miles is an asset- unlike HH and EL who are anything between liabilities and write offs.

    Through hard work and perseverance – I have finally made it- wait not me .

    Miles will make it.
    Miles is the man to take us to the PROMISED land. A land of no debt, no load shedding, free schools, free public transport, an arirline.

    Believe that

    Thanks
    BB2014

    • @mushota, for your own information don`t say land of no debt, under the PF govt Miles was the first one to have borrowed under the euro-bond facility. He got $750,000,000. What are you telling us.

  2. Zamtel for sure is sinking and on this one let’s call a spade a spade coz services being offered by these miscreants are pathetic. Solution replace management or give it back to initial owners. Just wonder why we Zambians have no sense of ownership. We need to change our mindsets on the way we do things. Even if we change Govt and another party comes in, for as long as our mindset is that of ‘afterall they are not mine’, we shall continue with the blame game.

  3. Zamtel has been in problems since PF nationalised it. They filled it with cadres and the country is now reaping what they sowed.

  4. Zamtel was taken over to be forested by Northerners. And they have done to it what they do best…..Ransack it.

    • RB cried cos he knew Zambians had committed suicide or crucified themselves for voting PF. Kaunda, Chiluba & RB knew Sata very well cos they worked with him. Not Presidential material. Many laughed & mocked RB for crying. Others undressed themselves in celebration for imminent economic misery in 2011&15. He knew the millions of dollars he so hard worked to grow & he left in the reserve bank wud vanish under PF.

      His achievements (micro/macro enonomics) far outweigh his shortcomings i.e. the theft he was accused of & prosecuted.

      Zambia reap your rewards for voting tribe even when the past two drivers were/are economically blind. Fast forward 2016 economy on its knees.

      I just pity those that voted otherwise for being bound by a few disgruntled elements.

  5. This CEO has been a failure where ever he has worked that’s why he put his wife in debt after borrowing to sustain his roofing sheets failing company. We all know his story at celtel where he was fired….we all know the day light thefts on the optic fiber with one Mr. TEMBO, but ACC are toothless as always….we used to be once profitable but now we are laughable…what do you expect from a man who can not put his own house in order…..can he manage a company?

  6. Sata nationalized ZAMTEL from those Libyans. We celebrated when he did that! When RB lost he wept… enze kulila vamene ivi mambala. Peapani bantu banga!

    • JUST WHO DO YOU GUYS, & GREEDY R.B, THINK YOU ARE KIDDING??
      R.B was weeping for his own Belly, pockets, & insatiable greed, NOT for Zambia.
      If greedy R.B, was weeping for the welfare of mother Zambia, he would not have pr0st1tuted himself to “the Visionless Chagwa” @ the last polls.

    • Iwe Keleni whatever you call yourself – how much money did RB leave in the nation’s coffers when he lost in 2011? Zamtel is failing and you are still insulting RB? Do you know how much money its costing the country to keep this pink elephant going when it could have been providing government with tax revenues from a thriving business. You can call RB all sorts of names but the truth is the Zambian economy was much healthier under his tenure than it is now. Even during the global recession of 2008 RB managed the economy under Zambians were still better off and able to buy goods because inflation was so low. Sata used to say that you cant eat inflation – just showing what a loonatic he was and yet Zambians still voted for him. Irony is you cant eat ANYTHING when inflation is too high!

  7. It is just our own indiscipline that we are poor because we fail to take responsibility for our own assets. What Changala is saying should be true because in Zambia we do not respect public property. Look at how we run down our mines and how Chile still maintains some of its mines as parastatals run by Coldeco who we even invited to come and bid for some of our own mines!! The Lapgreen from Libya that took over ZAMTEL is also a state enterprise just like ZAMTEL but our indiscipline led us to collapse our own and sold out. I believe repossessing Zamtel and cancelling other unclear deals that MMD under RB had entered into was not wrong but “privatizing” and milking them through the cronyism of relatives and friends is what we should bring to an end!! It is sad indeed!!

  8. Hopeless PF, you have failed to manage a simple internet provider and your president goes begging for a national airline instead of sorting out the mountains of problems we have like the topic at hand and you want to dream about running an airline ? It seems everyone in PF is preoccupied with plunder. The top of PF is rotten, offering no supervision.

  9. There is nothing substantial that Changala has produced apart from politicizing the institution. I was expecting that he has information that can led Zamtel to collapse, but alas it is the usual hallucinating

    • if they are not providing internet services with out explanation but continue to deduct payments is that normal to you ?those are signs of a failing company. that is the problem with zambians too used of mediocrity, failing companies are business as usual to you.
      same like your ACC, when one points to missing manees, ati bring evidence.

  10. And Lungu says PF is bringing back the National Airline when government has failed to run a single company in it care.

  11. Zambians really amaze me. When Sata nationalized Zamtel, many of you celebrated and regarded him to be a hero. We seem not to learn from our mistakes during Kaunda era. Almost all parastal companies performed terribly due to political interference. I thought we had learnt enough lessons.It is sad that things are falling apart at Zamtel. A company which was turned around by lapgreen is now going down. I feel sorry for the workers who are not in management and have nothing to do with the plunder.

    • Zambians haven’t learnt they are still talking about an airline when a straight forward telecoms company is being driven into the earthes core

  12. I find Changala’s statement lucking substance and financially bankrupt in information.He needs to prove whether a company’s asset cannot match liabilities.He has produced a blanket statement without backing it up with necessary financial information.He needs to come up with viable financial information that makes him come up with a statement that Zamtel is facing imminent closure.He needs to produce financial statement such as a balance sheet,cash flows and profit and loss accounts so that people can evaluate the viability of Zamtel.Otherwise,his statement lucks logic and is like a bullet shot without aiming at any target.If he has issues with Zamtel,he needs to just come in the open.Let him produce the aforesaid statement other than yapping anyhow.

    • The man has asked for a forensic audit of the firm. The financial viability of Zamtel will easily be determined by what comes out of the audit. We are aware that Auditor General reported that the firm has been making losses and now it seems things have reached breaking point. Let them do the audit and do not belittle his statement. The MD as well should have answered the journalists instead of brushing them aside as zamtel is a public company of whose owners (Zambians) need to be informed of what is happening there.

    • mbaluso,
      the company is failing to deliver, that must be normal to you. That is why Zambians live with meritocracy, which is very normal and part of life.
      ati bring financial statements, who gives a fuok about financial statements when obligations are not being met ???

    • As an accountant,I believe in scrutinizing the financial statements of an entity.Zamtel has an obligation to produce statutory statements for the public.The public needs to know how Zamtel is performing by looking at financial statement even before forensic audit is done.Financial regulation stipulates that organisations should publise their financial statements in public tabloids for the public to have a clear picture about their profitability.Changala would have demanded for financial statements of Zamtel before coming up with such a blanket statement of its imminent closure.It is a legal framework that such documents should be availed to the public.

  13. Africans cannot run parastatals. Did you.know.that chilanga cement, Zambia sugar were loss making before privatisation.

  14. Really laughable. .you tell me you cannot run a company with such monopoly like Zamtel; a company filled to the rafters with absolutely useless management including silly Mwanakatwe himself, they are all just good for sleeping around with small girls and taking up loans to buy jeeps…hollow brains forever bragging…this mindset has to change.

  15. mbaluso – I agree with you. The chap is talking about financial matters without figures and some people are busy commenting on matters that have no facts.

    What has this noise maker got to show us in terms of financial facts like what happened at Zambia National Farmers Union? I hope the chap is not seeking political favours. Bring facts and we will support you.

    • if they are not providing internet services with out explanation but continue to deduct payments is that normal to you ?those are signs of a failing company. that is the problem with zambians too used of mediocrity, failing companies are business as usual to you.

  16. I think what Brebnar was talking about is ZAMNET and not ZAMTEL. ZAMTEL is very viable and the internet is working fine, because I use and this is what I am using right now. ZAMNET is the one that is messed up completely. They are even failing to pay rentals on time.

  17. Comment:Those thugs who talking about pf .pls stop .it is power hungry your part missed, you wil stil eat empty promises.let lungu and pf alone just go and manage homes ful of bedbags.PF is winning.com.

  18. Gone are the good old days of Management led by Mukela Muyunda.Things like spares were available,salaries paid on time,and jobs protected.Now we have under fives from Celtel and Telecel who have failed to appreciate that landlines are still our cash cow.Brebner is 100% right.Mwanakatwe has failed to run this parastatal.

  19. Zamtel Internet is not working fine! That is a lie! For more than 6 days customers have had no internet. It is a company with potential but has poor management. Mpanga Mwanakatwe honestly. Doe she have the ability to run a profitable company?

  20. Where is the Eurobond that was pumped in Zamtel? Umufyashi wamano abula fumyia Zamtel kuLapgreen nokupela abana bakwe abaice ati akwangasheni tukafwailako Eurobond ngamwewisha iyi kampani

  21. An internet service provider that cant provide internet for 6 days is a failure. They should give that business up and go back to Telephone lines.

  22. i am a customer undre Zamtel internet and i can confirm to you that their service has been off for the last three weeks. i am just from their office and theyve told me they suspended our accounts till they restore the service. three weeks restoring a service

  23. It is not true that Zambians cannot run parastatals over time we have had some proficient CEOs run institutions, ZISC, ZANACO, ZESCO even MEMACO some of those men who walked those corridors of power where simply great…..GRZ just needs to go back to the archives and ask who where there and where are they?

Comments are closed.

Read more

Local News

Discover more from Lusaka Times-Zambia's Leading Online News Site - LusakaTimes.com

Subscribe now to keep reading and get access to the full archive.

Continue reading