FINANCE and National Planning Minister Situmbeko Musokotwane has said Zamtel was sold at an excellent and fair price.
Dr Musokotwane said in an interview yesterday that the US$257million that the company was sold at was the best price and the company was not undervalued.
He said the Government decided to sell the company because it had become a drain on the treasury as it was making huge losses, citing the $2 million loss last year.
Government at the weekend concluded a $257 million sale of 75 per cent shares of Zamtel to Libya’s LAP Green Network.
And Dr Musokotwane has cautioned Patriotic Front (PF) president Michael Sata against making wild statements challenging him to report the corruption in the sale of Zamtel to the Anti-Corruption Commission.
The Finance minister said in an interview yesterday that Zamtel had gotten to a point were it was failing to pay salaries for employees.
The sale of Zamtel would make it more competitive, which he said was good for the Zambian consumers.
Dr Musokotwane maintained that those who would lose their jobs would be paid their redundancy packages immediately.
The sale of Zamtel was in the best interest of the company and Zambia and was done in accordance with the privatisation regulations in the Zambia Development Agency Act.
The minister’s statement comes in the wake of Mr Sata’s statement that the Zamtel sale amounts to plunder.
Meanwhile, the Finance minister has said Government has not failed to pay civil servants as suggested by some opposition parties.
“The money is there, the problem has been with the Public Service Management Division (PSMD) who have been computerising the system,” he said.
[Times of Zambia]
These guys are thieves. Firstly why did they not make public the valuation report of Zamtel? Zamtel is a very profitable company which is actually owed billions of kwacha by Govt. Why doesnt Musokotwane clear the outstanding debt?
We do not need foreigners to run Zamtel. The best would have been to sell it to Zambians on the stock exchange and put it professionals not bootlickers to run the company. Shame on you RB and your love 4 kickbacks
Mr Musokotwane, you are very lucky…
YOU and the govt say only hot air, lies or distorted truth
Few people know that you sell off zambians assets for peanuts
Few people read accounts of FQM to know how much Kansanshi mining really earn. Few people know that $18m is a crumb, the amount of minority interest due to zccm-ih by kansanshi is overtaking $300 million !!
Few people know that windfall taxes are not harmful to mines and jobs
Few people that former chairman Maxwell Nkole was sacked and his Task Force on corruption has been disbanded in september 2009 to clear Chiluba
Few people know that 100 million dollars were swindled from ZCCM, the govt knows WHO play dirty trick, and WHERE is money !! but nothing was done… WHY???
I challenge the Minister to make public the valuation report that RP Capital prepared with regards to Zamtel. Just the tangible assets alone are worth more than the $257m. And when we also subtract costs to sell (the $10m going to the valuers and God knows what other hidden costs are in this sale) the proceeds will fall far below $240m.
And as was alluded to earlier, Dora as Comms Minister committed the nation to a financial liability she had no authority to do so. This is criminal!
Does anyone realise that whatever anybody does in Z, there will always someone to complain? Be it, elections. erections, sells, sports, prostitution, evaluation, lawsuit, a hook-up… Is there anything we can look at in retrospect and be proud?
(continued)
Few people read the very interesting report “For whom the windfalls ? Winners and losers in the privatisation of Zambia’s copper mines” written by John Lungu and Alastair Fraser
what a mess for the Zambian people !!!
If many people knew this, YOU and MMD would be swept !
The idea of privatization if all the principles followed is a very good idea. It explains why we have enough buses on the roads, no more queues for essential commodities and a lot of Zambians running their own businesses sustaining themselves as opposed to what we had during UNIP/KK. But the big problem we have is this good thing has been infiltrated by corruption. Chiluba, RB saw this as an opportunity to make money via shoddy deals, tax rebuts and kickbacks. With a very unreliable justice system that only victimizes poor people ( rich people including MMembe are back on the streets few minutes after conviction) it leaves no hope to the development of this resource rich country full of poor people. And the poor are the worst voters. God help us.
No 4,no one has complained about prostitutes in Z.[-x
Musokotwane is a big disappointment.Zamtel was sold because of commissions (kudyamo) thats all.Zamtel has been paying its employees on time compared to Govt which continues to lie about computers,what nonsense:-t:-t:-t:-t:-t:-t So have finally sold off Mwembesh Satelite as well?
#4 “Is there anything we can look at in retrospect and be proud? ”
NO I AM NOT PROUD…
just 2 examples
In 2000 thz govt sold Kansanshi mining for $ 28million
today financial analysts evaluate it t$3,9 billion
2004 : the govt (zccm) sold 51% KCM to sterlite(Vedanta) for near $50 million
2008 : zci sold 28,4% KCM to vedanta for $223 million
today financial analysts evaluate KCM at least $3,6 billion
$2,9 billion part of vedanta 79,4%
What a marvellous bargain for Vedanta!!
And the best :
$100 million were swindled from ZCCM, the govt knows WHO play dirty trick, and WHERE is money !! but the govt does nothing!!! WHY ???
in the same time, RB begs foreign donors for money…
I am not proud of being a BEGGAR !!!!!!!
I am not proud of the bad governance…
Typical of RB, after selling Zamtel he goes on holiday in mfuwe to share the loot with RP capital conmen and sons
#8 Excuse me please:
1. When Government in 2000 sold Kansanshi for US$28 who was in power, Not Mwanawasa and Kavindele.
2. When in 2004 Government through ZCCM sold 51% of KCM to Vedanta who was in power, not Mwanawasa.
3. You say US$100m was swindled from ZCCM, was it swindled by Rupiah Banda. US$100M is a LOT OF MONEY. I would challenge you to report the swindle to Fred Mmembe or the ACC or both. If you don’t then I have no choice but to call you a liar and a coward. Zambians have to stop the bad habit of peddling rumours and lies.
#9 Please let us be serious for the sake of our country’s future. Your post is a very cheap comment.
Went to pay zamtel bills at cross roads, found it closed…WTF? What next and for how long?
this situmbeko will be next going to chimbokaila…he says he has sold zambia at an excellent price!! we got our political freedom there is no need to come and start fighting for economical freedom in future…this is a time bomb.
# 12 can you tell us what RB is doing in Mfuwe with the buyers of ZAMTEL?
The upside to this sale might be that government departments might start having their phonelines and internet access blocked due to non payment of bills! Seriously, I am disappointed by the recent comments coming out of my former lecturer Dr Musokotwane, he seems to have lost his objectivity and has become a politician of the cadre mentality.
No Kapitao, he is executing a job and you can not accuse someone of losing objectivity because they do something that you dissagree with
Musokotwane has lost direction as a Finance minister.he is issuing different statements.ON saturday he said all workers will be paid there redundancy packages and now he is saying only those who will be declared redundancy will be paid immediately.why two different statements why the minister?
useless Govt.
# 10 POLITICIAN
The comment of Crooked was : “we can look at in retrospect and be proud?”
This was a mess for KCM, Kansanshi… it will be the same with zamtel
I have none confidence in a govt which scrapped windfall taxes, continues to sell off Zambian assets, accepts that FQM give only crumbs to zccm-ih (investments are completed but Kansanshi has paid only $3m in 2009, $18m in 2010 whereas the amount of minority interest is overtaking 300m$ !!)…
I am not one of those bad guys who pretend to believe Zambians are incompetent and foreign companies can only manage our mines or companies and save us
(continued)
I am a liar!!!! LOL
I did not say that RB robbed the money, I only said that $100 million were swindled and the govt does nothing to recover this money !!
on the contrary, RB disbanded Task Force on corruption, strange isn’t it ?
$100million, surely a crumb… lol lol
apanews
APA – Port Louis (Mauritius) Zambia and Mauritius, within the framework of the Mutual Assistance Programme are working to retrieve 100 million dollars alleged swindled from the Zambia Consolidated Copper Mines (ZCCM), APA learnt here.
The Zambian government holds 85 percent of shares in the ZCCM.
A high level delegation of the Zambian Task Force on Corruption, Tuesday arrived in Mauritius to pursue the matter
(continued)
Rama Valayden, the Attorney General and Minister of Justice to reporters Wednesday in the capital, Port Louis, that he will hold a working session in the evening with the Zambian delegation to discuss the follow up of the case which implicates offshore companies incorporated in Mauritius.
He said about 100 million dollars have been transferred through the Bank of Butterfield Account in London, before being invested in the banking system in Mauritius and said the suspects in the scam are known by Zambian and Mauritian authorities.
At the beginning of the year, at the request of the Zambian government, the Mauritius Supreme Court issued an ’Attachment and Freezing Order’ to several banks here on the accounts of the suspects, Mr Bernard Mungulude, Mr Kazhi Kateke and…
(continued)
the Laxi diamond company.
The duty of the Zambian Task Force on Corruption now was to seek to identify the local agents and representatives of the suspects so as to be able to recover and repatriate the money.
Hence, local banks have been assigned to submit documentary evidence to expose the criminal gang, or else the banks will face dire consequences, Valayden said.
Inoted that you support RB and his govt
Musokotwane was former director of zccm-ih…
a comment perhaps for the grz key role for disaster of Luanshya…:-;
comments of Ken Ramoutar Seecharran, a mining expert, on his blog, author of “Luanshya report” September 2009
THE INEPTITUDE OF THE GOVERNMENT’s INTELLIGENCE (ZCCM-IH), COULD NOT DECIPHER WHAT WAS GOING ON, DESPITE HAVING A FULLY-FLEDGED MINING PROFESSIONAL WITH A SEAT ON THE BOARD…….. AND THEY REMAINED IN THEIR HEIGHTENED STATE OF SOMNOLENCE, STYMIED BY THE RHETORIC OF THEIR PAYMASTER, TO WHICH THEY SLOVENLY AND OBSEQUIOUSLY CONDESCENDED, IN AN ATTEMPT TO PORTRAY THAT FALSE SUPERCILIOUSNESS, WHILE THE MINE COLLAPSED BEFORE THEIR INCOMPETENT EYES. A MODERN DAY EXAMPLE OF “NERO FIDDLING….AS ROME BURNED”,
(continued)
DAY EXAMPLE OF “NERO FIDDLING….AS ROME BURNED”, SAFELY ENSCONCED IN THEIR ZCCM-IH IVORY TOWER!!!!!!
MikeTe tell ’em dumbers.
Current Government is run by spineless MMD cadres who take their orders from the IMF/World Bank capitalists. The people didn’t want this. And stop telling us Zamtel was making losses. We know and its due to the same type of mismanagement that has caused the salary payment problem for civil servants. You can’t do anything right, Dr Musokotwane. Next thing, you will be hiring a private firm to handle government salaries because you can’t manage them yourself.
Bafikaala what are you going to do with the money? Capitol investments can be wise. But I know that Bwezani and his ka wife will go for holiday togther with master dribller. Ngana bwela mukanyaa ba matoole!!!!!!!!!
Dr Musokotwane – FAIL
@ # 5 MikeTe:
“For whom the windfalls ? Winners and losers in the privatisation of Zambia’s copper mines” written by John Lungu and Alastair Fraser”
Thanks for this. In my own way, I have stopped fiddling while these unpatriotic, spineless cadres run our country into the ground by selling off all of our wealth. Loonies.
# 25 PACT
“Current Government is run by spineless MMD cadres who take their orders from the IMF/World Bank capitalists.”
I am not agree, IMF urges Zambia to up mine taxes to fight poverty but RB and his govt refuse…
They work for foreign companies and …. their pockets…. That’s all…
——-
Friday, March 5, 2010, 2:06
Zambia: IMF urges Zambia to up mine taxes to fight poverty
The International Monetary Fund (IMF) on Tuesday urged Zambia, Africa’s top copper producer, to increase mine taxes to fund roads and hospitals, even after the country scrapped a controversial windfall tax on mining earnings.
Copper is the main export for this southern African country, accounting for over 63 percent of the country’s foreign earnings, and the IMF wants Zambia to…
(continued)
raise more revenue to improve public finances and fight poverty.
# 28
you could read this interesting report on minewatchzambia website
I suggest you to read maravi blog and Zambian economist blog which also deal with these subjects
and about Zambia, I hope that things will change in 2011…
Musokotwane is just a common crook. He still has to answer what has happened to the dividends that were not paid to ZCCM-IH when he was a non-executive director there.
When he is not busy justifying why the mines are not paying taxes, he is busy defending the fire sale of ZAMTEL.
Why doesn’t he disclose who was paid a bribe for this, and how much they received?