ELECTRICITY & PRIVATISATION IN ZAMBIA

This makes interesting reading:
In an ERB article in the Times of Zambia of April 10 2005
"The ZAM spokesperson said the utility could even increase revenue without demanding more money from the consumers".

Take for instance the report in the Times of Zambia of sometime in March 2005 which said ZESCO has about 30,000 illegal connections. This translates to K90m per month if the said customers are put on a fixed charge of say K1,000 per day if their meters remained in a specified consumption.

Revenue can also be raised if middle men like the Copperbelt Energy Corporation (CEC) are cut out of the link so that ZESCO charges directly to the mines, etc. (please compare this jump in income with the income expected from the proposed tariff increases.) CEC should be declared an illegal company.

I bring in the case of CEC because this the ZCCM Power Division was dubiously sold by some five (05) ex-ZCCM senior officials who entrusted to sell the Division but decided to provide data to their wishful partners. The country ended up selling the Division cheaply. Three months later CEC (owned by National Grid (UK) and Cynergy (USA) recouped their investment. This is public theft.

Some employees who were declared redundant by CEC have not been paid their benefits in full. CEC has nearly bribed every lawyer on the Copperbelt whereby ex-employees are failing to make their cases heard. Repatriation, school fees and salary increments while serving notice were only paid without interest (lawyers bribed!) after seven years!

Coming back to electricity: Why should electricity generated in Zambia and the bulk of it used in Zambia (mines) be owned by an outside company. The answer is there was no need to privatise ZCCM Power Division!

The Division had all the infrastructure to operate efficiently and no wonder CEC started to make money on day1.

The profits being generated by CEC (refer to their plus 1US$ per share earnings by the directors) can be assumed by ZESCO and avoid unnecessary tariff increases.

In the process of reversing the sale of CEC the shares should be redistributed to every employee at the time of the sale. The so called G-5 (who apparently include the ZESCO MD) should, to start with forfeit their shares to the said employees and be prosecuted (a simple case for our TASK FORCE!).

We stopped CEC from supplying power to the Northwestern mines to ensure the middle man is cutout and reduce the unnecessary burden. The CEC concession is coming to an end in 2012. The spirit of cutting out CEC must continue and come 2012 National Grid and Cynergy should be seen packing their bags. America grew out of investment from the Americans. Zambian should decide their own destinies by assuming some of the investments. Some privatised mines like Mopani are failing to pay suppliers in time. What was the need to privatise? The resident of the mining resources are not benefiting in any apart from seeing sponsorship of football leaving core issues like roads, street lighting, clean water, good schools and hospitals (hey, Chibuluma Mines is selling the Hospital, why? To fund raise on a resource that is our. They should instead donate it to the government or community). Luanshya Copper Mines is also fund raising by selling the shaft head gear for over US$70m. How much did they buy the mine for (peanuts!). Binani (then RAMCOZ) fundraised by selling the Ndola-Luanshya railline, the smelter components, etc, (Chibuluma Mines also sold the Kalulushi-Kitwe railings).Don't be surprised if Vivendi came to privatise your water resources and then they start reselling it to the Middle East or Kalahari, see?

Ladies and Gentlemen, who says Zambia is poor? Open your eyes and see gold! West Africans (Senesene's) came and reaped our emeralds which we never saw and are still not seeing. By the way Zambia is number two world producer of precious stones in the world. Where does this revenue go? (Answer = outside the country, when it supposed to be used for building infrastructure (schools, mortgaged housing, hospitals, retarring roads,etc)). The HIPC foura is a ploy by our leaders to reap more. Where did the money Chiluba is purported to have stolen come from? How was he stealing it? We couldn't see and we can't see because most of us are not educated to reason what we see. We see and fail to notice or register what we are seeing, like passing through a red light! May be the next Pope would face this theft challenge of resources from poor countries like Africa. Bravo President Mbeki: Aids is poverty related. Can't you see?

National Grid and Cynergy please return our resource because you have breached the European trade restrictions!

When these huge earnings are assumed by ZESCO we shall see our street lights lit, domestic tariffs reduced and jump start some more manufacturing industries. The logic is very simple.