Friday, March 29, 2024

Austrian firm finally takes over RTSA operations

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Transport Minister Brian Mushimba with officials from Lamasat and Kapsch Group during the unveiling ceremony of the Intelligent Mobility Solutions (IMS), a PPP that will run road traffic system in Zambia.
Transport Minister Brian Mushimba with officials from Lamasat and Kapsch Group during the unveiling ceremony of the Intelligent Mobility Solutions (IMS), a PPP that will run road traffic system in Zambia.

Austrian based firm Kapsch TrafficCom has officially taken over road traffic management functions in Zambia.

In September last year, the Zambian government announced that Kapsch TrafficCom’s joint venture with Zambia’s Lamise Trading Limited had been awarded a nation-wide concession contract by the Zambian Government for the design, installation and operation of systems and solutions for traffic surveillance, vehicle speed enforcement, vehicle inspection and vehicle registration.

Transport Minister Brian Mushimba on Wednesday officially launched the Road Safety Management System at a ceremony in Lusaka saying the PF Government is aggressively implementing interventions that will use a combination of law enforcement, road safety education and intelligent traffic solutions to raise our road safety profile.

This scope of service will be realized in a phased approach over a 17-year contract.

For this project, Kapsch TrafficCom has entered into a 50:50 joint venture with Lamise Trading.

Expected revenues in the first three years of operation are projected to be in the range of 90 million to 110 million Euros.

“By installing and operating Kapsch TrafficCom’s leading edge equipment and systems the joint venture will create some five hundred jobs, provide a boost to the economy in Zambia through improved road transport, and reduce the number of traffic accidents and their impact”, said Walid El Nahas, Chairman of Lamise Trading.

André Laux, COO of Kapsch TrafficCom, said “We feel honored with our partners Lamise Trading to be entrusted by the Zambian Government to help improve traffic safety in the country.”

Kapsch TrafficCom is an internationally renowned provider of intelligent transportation systems and has delivered road traffic management systems in more than 50 countries around the globe.

It’s a family-owned company headquartered in Vienna, Austria and in 2017 celebrated 125 years of successfully developing and implementing new technologies for the benefit of its customers.

As part of the Kapsch Group, Kapsch TrafficCom has subsidiaries and branches in more than 30 countries.

A statement from RTSA confirmed that a Public Private Partnership (PPP) structure has been established between the agency representing Government, and Intelligent Mobility Solutions (IMS) as private sector partner.

The Kapsch Group established Intelligent Mobility Solutions as a Zambian-based company to provide investment and international experience in transport technologies.

The Road Safety Management System is projected to create over 1500 direct jobs and 4500 indirect jobs for the Zambian people.

It is hoped that this will also broaden RTSA’s presence with the establishment of over 30 additional RTSA outlets which will be fitted with mechanised motor vehicle inspection equipment and enhance road traffic enforcement.

Zindaba Soko, CEO of RTSA, said, “The Road Safety Management System follows an integrated road safety strategy which includes vehicle registration and secure number plates, vehicle testing to ensure that all vehicles comply with safety requirements and overload control and weigh-in-motion to prevent damage to roads.

The Technology Enhanced Police Patrol vehicle
The Technology Enhanced Police Patrol vehicle

Mr Soko also said that other pillars include cross-border traffic management to manage in particular all the freight vehicles that transit through Zambia from their origin to destinations elsewhere and law enforcement to ensure that all the rules of the road are abided and a Traffic Management Centre to manage the overall process and to facilitate post-crash response where crashes do occur.

A statement from RTSA emphasised that the Road Safety Management System is completely self-sustainable and will not require funding from Government and that the project does not involve any disposal of state assets and will be implemented on a ‘Build Operate and Transfer’ basis.

It says at the end of the concession term of 17 years, all the assets under the project will vest in the Zambian state.
On the Traffic Management Control Centre, RTSA says the entire programme will be managed and coordinated by a central Traffic Management Control Centre and all the tools mobilised through this Public Private Partnership will be managed from the Control Centre to reduce congestion on roads, improve traffic flow, direct road safety law enforcement, manage vehicle testing and licensing, mitigate damage caused by overloaded cross border trucks and facilitate post-crash response.

On Road Safety Law Enforcement, the new system will support Traffic Officers to patrol the roads and take action on a range of moving violations and conduct road-side inspections ranging from unsafe and reckless driving behaviour and to spot checks for road-worthiness and overloading.

The Technology Enhanced Police Patrol vehicle
The Technology Enhanced Police Patrol vehicle

RTSA also states that Vehicle Inspection Centres will assist drivers to ensure that their vehicles are not killing machines while Electronic Vehicle Registration will inform the agency exactly how many vehicles there are on the roads, the categories and ages of these vehicles, and whether these vehicles are properly registered to be legally driving on the roads.

It also promises to update the e-Zamtis vehicle database and verify the data and keep it updated through secure number plates while cross-Border Traffic Management will ensure that trucks passing through Zambia for commercial purposes contribute towards the cost of building and maintaining the roads from which they benefit.

The new agreement also states that High-speed Weigh-in-Motion and Overload Control will be introduced because overloaded trucks cause disproportionate damages to the roads adding that it is only fair that those truck owners and hauler companies which overload, should pay for damage to the roads caused by overloading.

The number of vehicles on Zambia’s roads increased by 280% to 700,000 in the ten years to 2016 and road fatalities increased from 10 per hundred thousand inhabitants to 13.8 per hundred thousand in the same period.

In 2016 alone, 2,206 people died in traffic related accidents.

Transport Minister Brian Mushimba unveils the Intelligent Mobility Solutions (IMS), a PPP that will run road traffic system in Zambia.
Transport Minister Brian Mushimba unveils the Intelligent Mobility Solutions (IMS), a PPP that will run road traffic system in Zambia.

63 COMMENTS

  1. The sale of national assets is criminal. At the rate we are going, DOCILE Zambia will be a colony owned by foreigners by 2021.

    – ZNBC sold to Chinese
    – NRDC Avic (Chinese),
    – Kamwala Remand to Lamise (Lebanese),
    – RTSA sold to Lebanese & austrians (who brought E-Toll to RSA which was rejected by south africans)
    – ZAF Twin Palm land to Chinese.
    – Lusaka East Forest reserve to Avic (Chinese)
    – Chimbokaila sold to Chinese
    – Luburma Market sold to Chinese
    – Lusaka City Market sold to Chinese
    – Prime land at Mufulira turn-off sold to Chinese
    – Chichele Lodge in Mfuwe sold to Lebanese
    – ZCCM-IH sold to Israeli shelf company (owned by Lungu, a Malawian)
    – KK International Airport soon to be sold to AVIC (Chinese)
    – Kafue & Luangwa National Parks negotiations for their sale…

    • WITH THIS ADVANCED TECHNOLOGY AND NOW START REMOVING ALL THE ZAMBIA STATE POLICE TRAFFIC OFFICERS FROM THE STREETS AND ROADS NOW!

    • One thing we should appreciate about this is that we all benefit…. touch would, you guys arguing in here, your lives are probably being saved by the same minister and ideas you are criticising. You are the chaps who need to die in a road accident for you to understand and it would mean one useless chap off the face of Zambia.

      My prayer is one of you gets involved in an accident so that you understand

    • I’m no fan of PF, but this is not a sale, it’s a concession. Most countries with the best roads have their roads built and financed by private companies. This is because of the long term benefits of these PPPs. At the end of the day, rtsa will become more efficient, own more assets and you won’t have to wait for every single thing to be done in lsk before it is sent back to your small town. I’m all for concessions and digital used systems especially in parastatals where corruption is the order of the day

    • This is wonderful news. The same should be done to the Zambia Police and the Lusaka City Council. Sh!thole countries cant run themselves. We need serious people like the Austrians to transform this country into the best sh1thole in the whole of sh1thole-dom

    • I mentioned it so often before Zambia has been colonised again but say cant or dont want to see it…..what a shame.

    • Economic Colonialisation. The small minds are celebrating selling of our national assets to foreigners.Same way they celebrated when the late President Chiluba sold Zambia Railways,thinking the new owners would bring bullet trains but alas look at it now! So what exactly is Zambian owned? Our children will curse us for leaving nothing for them except debt one day.

    • You are clapping and dancing ?? Why have the Lebanese been brought in ??? What technology do they have ?? Why could this not be done between RATSA and the Austrian firm ?? Lungus corruption , that is why ?

    • More revenue streams taken away from govt entities…then a year down some utterly lazy tin called Edgar will be standing in front of the cameras wondering why RTSA has no money!!
      Zambians wake up from your docility!!

    • Please no more illegal Traffic Roadblocks. If we adopt modern equipment and modern systems be they e-service etc then we need to adopt modern codes of practice. Where in the developed world will you find traffic offiers mounting roadblocks???? It doesn’t happen because they have systems in place to monitor vehicles and check compliance.

      A simple question why don’t traffic officers inspect intercity bus stops before those vehicles depart? They would rather stop buses and inconvenience poor passengers. Why don’t they inspect taxi ranks rather than chasing taxi’s all over which can result in loss of life??? Simple questions that often get complicated answers!

  2. I hope this succeeds. Some Lusaka traffic lights, especially the latest ones can send you to sleep just waiting for your green light to come on. Then, just a few metres another one stops you also again for another snooze session. No synchronization! I hope it works, however, I wonder who is going to stop the corrupt cop who lets the unfit vehicles to pass after ‘kuponya ka zali.’

    • Really small minds. You invite Austrians to fix your traffic lights when there are so many zambians engineers!!!!Its just that you respect the white man more than your fellow zambian.

    • You mean you can not do this yourself via a Facility Management Contract with Siemens or other traffic mgt company this is daylight by lazy Lungu.

  3. A statement from RTSA emphasised that the Road Safety Management System is completely self-sustainable and will not require funding from Government

  4. Do not be ridiculous @ Maloza. They have informed that it is a PPP and lease goes 17 years. Zambia needed this and it is exactly what is in Eurpoe. One thing we need to appreciate is that Government cannot invest and employ, train and buy equipment such as road management. Which means there won’t be overpriced deals like the 42 fire tracks and ambulances we saw in the past months. How much do you think that specialised vehicle shown in pictures would have cost the tax payer had government been in charge?

    PPP is the way, and if Maloza you can understand text above, it says Gov is not going to pay anything and the project is self funding and sustaining.

    Our lovely Zambian population will be a lot safer and take out all those kamakazis off our roads who kill others by trying to show…

    • Cont – us they are Lewis Hamilton.

      Brian Mushimba my friend, as I have always maintained, you are one of the few ministers whose HONOURABLE…

      Look at your ideas, every minister has an opportunity to bring such innovative ways and thinking on the table… anyone, which ministry and under which minister has there been breaking ground like this? NONE according to me!

      Well done Brian my friend you make us proud!!!

    • @ NSCS
      17 years is too loooong to give a foreigner to run such a sensitive department. We have the human resources to operate RATSA.

      We can buy that technology, have expart consultants to train Zambian graduates for 2 years & hand over to them to run the systems. That’s how it’s done all over the world.

      Our graduates will continue roaming the streets whilst all our toll gate fees, license fees, car insurance, carbon tax etc will be externalized to Austria & Lebanon.
      – IT graduates roaming the streets
      – ACCA graduates roaming the streets
      – Electrical Engineering graduates roaming the streets
      – Mechanical Engineering graduates roaming the streets

    • @ Maloza, You know what, if it is going to save your life Maloza, I don not care if it even goes 50 year concession. We need you alive to make Zambia a success. We have tried so many times to save lives, numbers of cars on the road are increasing as are road accidents.

      This is thinking outside the box right there

    • NSCS

      Can you tell us what the Lebanese bring to the table that a Zambian company like Madison insurance can not bring ???

    • @ NSCS
      50 years? You need to have your head examined. You are most likely a Zambian of Malawian origin.

      Clearly this decision to sell RATSA was made over a bottle of whisky. Don’t worry, it’ll be reversed in 2021 or even before that.

    • Whether people like it or not… we are steaming ahead to protect every single citizen.

      It’s funy how all these arm chair critics are silent watching other people die. When government moves with a solution they criticise.

      Where were you and where have you been when over 2,000 Zambians were dieing in the roads?

      Government is presenting the project in particular and not Chichele and NRDC … these are questionable yes but not the road traffic project.

      All you guys as ECL says, keep running your mouths, They will keep developing.

      I rest my case on this subject see you in another debate.

    • NSCS

      You rest your case because you can not tell us what the Lebanese bring that sucsesfull Zambian companies bring….you are not looking deeper…no one doughts the need for modern traffic controll but we are saying involve and empower Zambians

  5. Cont – us they are Lewis Hamilton.

    Brian Mushimba my friend, as I have always maintained, you are one of the few ministers whose HONOURABLE…

    Look at your ideas, every minister has an opportunity to bring such innovative ways and thinking on the table… anyone, which ministry and under which minister has there been breaking ground like this? NONE according to me!

    Well done Brian my friend you make us proud!!!

  6. Zambians at work: Why don’t we use our own graduates they are able to design the best for Zambia instead of our money being taken away.

    • so you would have designed a speed camera and trained in time to avoid losing lives. Any life lost that is preventable is unacceptable. We needed this then we start training Zambians who will completely take over in 17 years. Sounds reasonable time to me for Zambia to leap and anchor into this new alien of technology in Zambia.

      You are right but be reasonable… We need every Zambian alive and not lose them to stupid unavoidable accidents.

  7. JESUS IS LORD,

    If the graduates you are referring to are here in Zambia, why didn’t they design this traffic system. Were they sleeping or drinking whisky at O’Hagans or Rhapsodys? When the Kapsch Group comes in with their technology that is when it occurs to you that even our own graduates can design this system!

    • You create a product or a prospective or existing market. The government of Zambia is supposed be the biggest consumer of Zambian products. Instead, it is the largest importer of foreign products.

      Every prototype of a product costs money, one ought to have a sponsor to invest time and energy into an idea. The lack of seriousness on the part of the Zambian government forces the nationals to develop these things in other countries.

      Not too long ago a group of young Zambians participated in an international contest in Washington DC in which they designed robots. The person who sourced funds was a Zambian student at Harvard. The groups performance was impressive! With all the logistical hurdles they had to go jump over, they were among the top ten.

      These are the kind of things that…

  8. RTSA is one of those strategic institutions we should be managing on our own. What will we remain with?This is our Country mwebantu!We spend huge sums of money to send our people abroad for studies and other training programmes so that we can come and implement what we have learned from them but here we go again: Giving our institutions to them again to manage.Why?What is wrong with our country kanshi?

    • At the moment you have no capacity to manage anything on your own. Over the years you have destroyed the intellect and patriotism that KK built.

  9. This new capability will certainly save lives especially in a country where drink driving is a hobby. Will done Zambia for another innovative way of saving lives.

  10. Much as it not desirable to be caught easily for road misdemeanor, the new system is welcome as it will save lives and moderate our behavior on the roads.

  11. You failed simple cholera management I doubt you had the competence and integrity needed for a road traffic systems.Bribes and tenderpreneurship is all you cared for.

  12. Can you also review the RIDICULOUS SPEED LIMITS! You ought to be riding on a tortoise to comply with the speed limit at Shimabala.

  13. There is nothing wrong with partnering with the Austrian company , but why bring the Lebanese ?? What technology do they bring ?? This is lungus corruption…do you know how many billions those leananse will make ??? I am 100 % sure if you look at lamise shares you will find lungus name somewhere ……every garage certifying cars , every car you import, a cut will be paid to the Lebanese and I am sure lungu and his hang

  14. Zambian can’t a run company.what a shame for this country.please God help us.
    Why selling the country ba Lungu?you’ll be arrested man.

  15. Why bring Lebanese into the equation ? For money to be externalised ?? Look carefully at lamise and you will find lungu as a shareholder……..

    GRZ should have Tasked UNZA school of business with Zambian business leaders to partner with RATSA and the Austrian firm and look for external funding.

    Now you have brought Lebanese into the equation only to externalised more money

  16. Even if you have that partnership to madsion insurance of Lawrence skutwa , a full Zambian company , better that give Lebanese who will only externalised money and bring in more lebanses , what technology do lamise bring ??

    Look at lamise shares you will find lungu connected ….

  17. Has the constitution and the laws of zambia been amended to permit an organisation other than the legally authorised RTSA issue fines and collect revenue. If you look at this critically this is another way of collecting indirect taxes. The motivation will not e on life saving but on profitability.
    Most pipowill be walking now as fitness test will be harder, couple that with the fixed duty rates on imported vehicles and you well might see a decline in the revenue from toll gates. We lurch from one plan to another without a vision. We get offered an idea we take it then try to implement a western world philosphy into a zambian environment
    Africa is not a white society we have our unique challenges that require compromises. Whites are rigid

  18. I don’t subscribe to the concept of FID, I don’t see why govt can embark on a wholesale invitation of foreigners to come and exploit our resources. Now we’re asking foreigners to manage our affairs! For as long as we can’t do it ourselves, we will be looked upon lowly. Austria is just struggling like Zambia. Where is self pride and dignity?

  19. When we say PF corruption , lazyness and negligence is eating and selling zambia , this is what we mean……zambia is doomed with this vissionless corrupt thief lungu……why bring in Lebanese ?? You mean mean there are no Zambian bussiness leaders or sucsessfull Zambian companies to partner with RATSA and the austrian firm ?? If it is funding the lebanese bring , that could have been found by Zambian bussiness leaders …..this is pure corruption to bring in Lebanese …….. lungu has been give shares in lamise and from what we belive lamise was a big financial backer of pf during the last elections …….and they formulated this plan then…

  20. It is good to see govt embarking on such a venture to curb traffic offences and hopefully reduce accidents on our roads. However, govt must encourage research and innovation amongst our youths to come with such solutions, we have departments of computer science at UNZA for example who should be encouraged to try out innovations to curtail various challenges facing the country. How can we be a proud country when almost every important sector of our country is run by foreigners? Can govt please encourage and set aside funds for innovations instead of always resorting to the foreign firms to come and sort out our challenges!

    • There is nothing wrong with bringing in and learning from the Austrian company but instead of brining in Lebanese , GRZ should have looked at empowering UNZA, and Zambian bussiness leaders

  21. Question01: Who will verify and certify that the technology installed is up to standards if its the same foreigners operating it?
    Question02: Won’t they just buy cheap technology from China, thereafter balloon up the costs like everything else with PF, and then recover it from the charges/fees levied on the motorists? Or better still just bring already used old equipment from Austria or Lebanon!
    Question03: Was there an open bid for this questionable partnership with Lamise??
    Question04: What is the role of Lamise in this unique arrangement??
    Question05: Looks like cheating has now been normalized in Zambia – creating employment where? Usually, foreign companies in Zambia are known for manpower reductions and any small subcontracts will be given to their sister companies or friends…

  22. But in all honesty if we continue down this spiral of dependency from foreigners to run EVERYTHING for us instead of innovating ourselves to run these things ourselves we will make our children’s future extremely difficult! These foreigners didn’t get to where they are by letting other foreigners run their systems. they did it themselves after many frustrating generations of failures until they got it right! Zambians and Africans alike, Please lets wake up and sacrifice a generation of experimentation and innovation! We fail, we try again until a generation gets it right! ##LETSDOTHINGSOURSELVES## our children will ask us one day where we were when they took the continent from us AGAIN…what will our answer be!?

  23. Lungu and his gang of thieves are robbing Zambians…….we have many fully owned 100 % Zambian sucsesful companies that should have partnered with the Austrian , UNZA and RATSA……. now lungu gives Lebanese because of his corruption…..tell us what those lebs bring ???

  24. Poor Zambia and it’s people…..you are not being given chance to innovate and develop , everything is being given to foreigners by this lazy corrupt GRZ…..

    Lungu, why did you not task UNZA , Zambian bussiness leaders and engineers to partner with RATSA and the Austrian company ??? Instead you bring Lebanese ??

    This Is similar to 42/42 And the $62 million ZAF uniforms import from China…..it is easier for these lazy corrupt leaders we have to sell on everything than empower and teach Zambians to be masters of our own destiny…..

    god help Zambia.

  25. We know what lungu and his gang will say concerning questions of why lamise was brought in when Zambian bussiness leaders , engineers and UNZA should have been instead…..

    The thieves in state house will tell us that the Lebanese of lamise are nutralised Zambians ………..just watch….

  26. Kindly allow me to comment on this, I have read all the comments, the question as to why Zambians are not doing this and why Zambians are not doing that has come out so strong, my question is how long was it going to take a Zambian firm to acquire the technology that the Austrian firm is bringing on board? Zambian graduates to design such, how many Zambian companies have run away from construction sites despite being paid heavily, how many projects have stalled after being abandoned by our own despite being funded, are our graduates good at practical or theory? The truth of the matter is this fellow countrymen, our education system needs to be overhauled you and me have gone through an education system which has trained us and is still training people to look for jobs and not create…

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