THE upgrading of electricity generation capacity at Kariba North Bank extension power project has reached 80 per cent completion point and one new generator is expected to be commissioned by the end of this year, ZESCO acting managing director Christopher Mubemba has said.

Over the last two years, ZESCO has been spending about US$420 million at the 360 Mega Watts (MW) Kariba North Bank extension power project in adding two new generators to the existing four.

Mr Mubemba said generator number five was expected be spinning and commissioned by the end of this year while generator number six would be commissioned and operational by early next year.

He said this in Livingstone on Tuesday during his presentations at the Energy Regulation Board (ERB)’s public hearing on ZESCO’s application to revise electricity tariffs by an average of 26 per cent across all customer categories.

Mr Mubemba said ZESCO was intending to invest heavily on electricity generation to meet continued increment in the demand for electricity.

“This year, we have an approved budget under US$ 750 million (KR3.62 billion) to boost power supply.

Over the next five years, we will spend about US$ 5.3 billion on generation expansion, transmission expansion and distribution expansion among others which translates to about KR26.4 billion,” Mr Mubemba said.

On the 120 MW Itezhi-tezhi hydro power project where ZESCO was adding two machines, Mr Mubemba said access roads and offices had already been built at the site while houses for contractors were currently being built.

He said ZESCO was currently concentrating on tunnelling works on the US$ 250 million project where which was 20 per cent complete and was expected to be completed in the year 2015.

On the 750 MW Kafue Gorge lower power project, Mr Mumemba said more works would be done in the next five years.

“This is our biggest project which we will we need to deal with in the next five years as the project will cost us US$2 billion.

Without projects like the Kafue Gorge Lower, we will have power deficits of about 1, 000 Mega Watts by 2020,” he said.

On transmission side, Mr Mubemba said ZESCO had started building 330 kv a line from Pensulo to Kasama as well as another line from Pensulo to Chipata to boost power supply in the surrounding provinces.

“These works are ongoing and once projects are completed within next 18 to 24 months and they will immediately address the current low voltage problems in Northern, Muchinga, Luapula, and Eastern Provinces.

They also will help investors set up projects. It is not a secret within Eastern Province that investors have been interested to invest in so many areas but they can’t so because of low voltage problems,” he said.

In Luapula and Muchinga, investors have also been interested to set up large mines but such projects could not take off due to inadequate power supply.

Out of the US$ 750 million which the Government raised from the euro bond, ZESCO has received US$ 255 million.

About $186 million would be ZESCO’s equity contribution towards the Kafue Lower Gorge project while about US$ 69 million would be for improving electricity distribution and rehabilitation.

The on-going National Constitution Convention has retained an article in the First Draft Constitution on the borrowing and lending by government to permit it to borrow money from any source but subject to parliament authorization.

Clause (1) of Article 282 provides that Government may borrow money from any source and further in clause (2) of the same article explains that government shall not borrow, guarantee or raise a loan on behalf of itself or any state organ, state institution, authority or person except as authorized by or under an Act of Parliament.

But clause (3) has categorically explained that notwithstanding clause (2) the government shall lay before the National Assembly the terms and conditions of the loan which shall not come into operation unless approved by a simple majority vote of National Assembly and pay any money received in respect of the loan paid into the consolidated Fund or into some other public fund which exists or is created for the purpose of the loan.

In this case Government will be required to lay before the National Assembly terms and conditions that includes the source of the loan, the extent of the total indebtedness by the way of principal and accumulated interests, the provisions made for servicing or repaying of the loan and the utilization and performance of the loan.

Meanwhile , the house has adopted Article 279 (1) to provide that the president shall subject to clause (2) cause to be prepared and laid before the National Assembly in each financial year, not later than ninety days before the commencement of the financial year, estimates of revenues and expenditure of the government for the next financial year.

And clause (2) of the same article has been adopted which provides that the Minister shall, when presenting the estimates of revenue and expenditure under clause (1) specify the maximum limits that the government intends to borrow or lend in that financial year.

While clause (3) states that in any year where a general election takes place, the president shall cause to be prepared and laid before the National Assembly, within ninety days of the swearing in of the president, estimates of revenues and expenditure of the government for next financial year.

The group justified that the clause would ensure that the government-elect could implement their plans and policies in the following year.

The Draft Constitution has further mandated Parliament in article 280, to enact legislation relating to the annual budget and estimates of expenditure including the method for the preparation of the budget, the preparation of medium and long term development plans indicating corresponding sources of financing.

The house adopted the recommendations by the thematic group on Public Finance that the article be adopted without amendment after it was explained that the amendments would be provided for in an Act of Parliament.

But the house agreed that the marginal note on article 280 be amended by introducing the words ‘planning and ‘ , so that it could read as planning and budget legislation after amendment.

By Laura Miti

The National Constitutional Convention is currently going on at the Mulungushi International Conference Centre, in Lusaka.

Citizens all over the country are holding thumbs praying that sooner rather than later, this protracted process that has gobbled up insane amounts in taxpayers’ money will be put to bed.

The kind of money the constitution review process has used up, carelessly and uneconomically, is actually one for the history books. This has been a criminally wasteful procedure since President Levy Mwanawasa engineered it to be as unending as possible.

Every administration after that has continued to ensure that the constitutional review process is useful only to silence immediate demands by citizens.

Meanwhile, it has continually been designed to never compromise subsequent governments’ unyielding quest to continue ruling via the flawed document that places interest of politicians before that of citizens.

Of course, citizens pray not only that the unnecessarily long money wasting roadmap, whose end even now is known only by State house reaches its conclusion.

More importantly, the earnest, collective supplication directed heavenwards is that the end to this meandering, start and stop path we have been on will deliver the kind of document that will change Zambia for the better forever.

But it is not really the constitution convention I want to talk about today. Rather, it is something that came to my attention because of that gathering. The matter exercising my mind this morning is that of how many Chinese nationals are apparently holding menial jobs in the country.

You see, I happened to visit someone who is a delegate to the constitutional convention and is, with a couple hundred other delegates, accommodated at the New Golden Peacock Hotel on Kasangula Road, in Roma.

Boy was I shocked at the number of Chinese people doing very basic jobs in that hotel!

From what I could see, the hotel is employing Chinese waiters, bartenders, and even guards at the gate.

My question is why, how? Are we issuing work permits to Chinese nationals to come and cook Nshima?
I ask because the Nshima I ordered was brought to the table by a Chinese waiter.

Now let me quickly hasten to say that I am no xenophobe. I well understand that in this global village we now inhabit, labour, like capital, travels freely and lands in corners far away from “its home.” I really have no problems with skilled non-Zambians competing for and taking up high end jobs in Zambia if we do not have the personnel for them.

[pullquote]What story did the Golden Peacock cook up to convince an immigration officer that they needed expatriate bartenders, waiters and supervisors?[/pullquote]

I cannot, though, accept that in this country where millions of young, able-bodied people with basic, and many times tertiary, education are unemployed, we would allow basic positions to be filled by the Chinese.

Isn’t government supposed to protect these jobs for citizens in order to reduce the massive poverty and unemployment statistics? Forget statistics, shouldn’t government be doing its damnest to ensure that every jobthat can be done by a Zambian is made available to them so that a few hundred more citizens can have their sorry lives dignified by work.

My question is how are the Chinese coming here to work as guards getting the work permits they require? What story did the Golden Peacock cook up to convince an immigration officer that they needed expatriate bartenders, waiters and supervisors?

As things stand, given our policies that allow free flow of profits generated by “investors” out of the country, it is safe to assume that apart from a large amount of the money Zambia is spending on accommodating delegates to the constitutional convention making its way to China, even the little that could remain in salaries is taken out by cooks and waiters.

My oh my! Ibetter end.

Yes, I have avoided belabouring that little matter about how President Sata and the PF executed an acrobatic about-turn deserving of an Olympic gold medal regarding their campaign promises to deal with the Chinese unskilled-labour situation.

The Golden Peacock is, of course, a great example of this. All I will say is it is time the PF reconsidered this question. It is time to institute polices that give the 20-year old Mwansa, Mabvuto andMundia, currently sitting around in Chawama somewhere, an outside chance at holding a basic job in their own motherland.

SOME Livingstone residents have rejected the proposed average of 26 per cent increment of ZESCO tariffs arguing that the upward adjustment will increase the cost of production and in turn push up the cost of various commodities.

But ZESCO defended its proposed electricity tariffs increment saying the move would enable the power utility firm to meet various operational costs, high inflation and increasing demand for electricity.

A Livingstone resident, Samuel Banda, said ZESCO employees were not productive as they were getting 2, 000 electricity units each at a far reduced price every month while ordinary Zambians had to spend huge sums of money to buy electricity units.

Mr Banda said the Government had cut down on the distribution of mealie meal to military personnel and stopped the use of pool vehicles to civil servants to reduce on costs hence ZESCO should emulate such a move.

He was speaking in Livingstone at New Fairmount Hotel yesterday during Energy Regulation Board (ERB)’s public hearing on ZESCO’s application to revise electricity tariffs by an average of 26 per cent across all categories of customers.

“As I make my submission, I wish to strongly oppose the increment of electricity tariffs. The reason is that ZESCO increased the tariffs a year or two year ago but we never saw any tangible changes in the supply of electricity and service delivery. What is the guarantee now that we will see changes in its operations?

“Secondly, ZESCO has failed to minimise operational costs of producing electricity. ZESCO has been buying luxurious vehicles and they pass these costs to us electricity customers,” he said.

Mr Banda urged ZESCO to find an equal partner to inject investment capital into the firm and also consider listing on Lusaka Stock Exchange (LuSE) to enable the utility firm raise the required funding.

“I wish to suggest that ZESCO employees start buying electricity units at market price to help the institution raise the required funds to enhance power generation,” he said.

At this point, ERB board vice chairperson Robinson Mwansa assured consumers that the institution would have a final say on ZESCO’s application to increase electricity tariffs.

Another customer, Ruth Hansen said if the electricity tariffs were increased as proposed, the cost of stock feeds and mealie meal would go up as such commodities required electricity to drive their production.

Ms Hansen said she would have to increase charges at her hammer mills as electricity was one of the major costs of production.

But in his presentation at the function, ZESCO acting managing director Christopher Mubemba said there was need to increase proposed electricity tariffs to enable the power utility firm meet various operational costs as well as high inflation and increasing demand for electricity in the economy.

Mr Mubemba said ZESCO would like to contribute positively to the development of the country and hence it was necessary to increase the tariffs.

“If we fail to increase the electricity tariffs, we will be contributing to Zambia failing to achieve the vision of the country attaining the prosperous middle income nation status by the year 2030,” he said.

ERB chairperson George said it was undeniable fact that the energy sector in Zambia was at crossroads

Dr Chabwera said there were structural difficulties in the energy sector which did not just require new thinking and ideas.

In its application, ZESCO has proposed the adjustment of 32 per cent for residential, 11 per cent for large power consumers, 24 per cent for small power consumers, 24 per cent for commercial consumers and 18 per cent for service consumers.