By Sean Tembo – PeP President
1. For one reason or the other, these days l find myself increasingly disagreeable with the public narrative on a number of issues. And of course, am never shy to be the odd one out. One such issue is the trending alleged corruption in the award of a tender by the Judiciary, to a company called Sarago General Dealers Limited of Kabwata, to supply 46 double cab 4×4 motor vehicles at a price of US$1,012,000 which translates to US$22,000 per unit. Social media has been awash with allegations that there is corruption in this tender award, and l have been scratching my head trying to figure out where exactly the specific wrongdoing is?
2. For starters, the unit cost per vehicle translates to about K462,000 at the current exchange rate. Going by current market prices for double cabs, l cannot really say that this amount is exaggerated. If the unit price quoted by the selected bidder was say US$50,000 then l would also join the bandwagon and say that there is possible corruption in this tender award. But US$22,000 is a perfectly reasonable unit cost for a 4×4 double cab.
3. The other possible basis for an allegation of fraud or corruption is quality. For example, myself together with my party members held a number of protests against the US$42 million fire engine tender because of two reasons; firstly the price of US$1,000,000 per unit was by all means too exaggerated and secondly, the quality of the fire engines was very poor and clearly second hand. Those were the basis of our allegation for corruption and therefore the basis of our fire tender protests. But in this instance, the unit price of $22,000 is perfectly reasonable and the issue of quality does not yet arise because the motor vehicles in question have not yet been supplied. We cannot, at this point, speculate that when the 46 motor vehicles so ordered are supplied, they will be of poor quality. If and when the said motor vehicles are supplied are found to be of poor quality or second hand, then I Sean Tembo will surely join the bandwagon and allege corruption in this tender award. But until then, it is premature to do so.
4. The other basis for corruption allegations that has been put forward by those alleging corruption is that the said company actually runs a car wash in Kabwata, and so how did it find itself supplying motor vehicles to the Judiciary? But did anyone pay attention to the name of the company? It says “Sarago GENERAL DEALERS Limited”. What is your understanding of a GENERAL DEALER? For the uninitiated, a general dealer is an entity that deals in everything and anything. They will supply you with stationary, building materials, goat offals, aeroplanes, Corona Virus Vaccine, etcetera. That’s a general dealer. And so it is not surprising to me, and it should not be surprising to you that a general dealer like Sarago General Dealers Limited can operate a car wash in Kabwata and at the same time bid and win a tender for the supply of 46 double cab 4×4 motor vehicles to the Judiciary of Zambia.
5. The other basis that was advanced by those alleging corruption in this tender award is that how could a small company from Kabwata beat “reputable” and well established motor vehicle supply companies such as Toyota Zambia, Delta Auto, Southern Cross etcetera? Well, a tender has specifications and each bidder is scored against those specifications. It is not unusual for a little known company to beat well-known brands in a tender. Speaking for myself, when my firm was operating in South Africa and Botswana, l was occasionally winning a number of multi-million tenders and beating a number of well-established and well-known professoinal service firms in those countries, and l did all that while l was a twenty-something year old foreigner in those countries. Similarly, well known enterprises like Apple, Facebook and Microsoft started their businesses from a home garage. For them to grow into the multi-billion dollar businesses that they are today, they obviously had to win their first tender, then second and third and fourth and so on, until at some point they decided to get out of the garage that they were operating in and decided to go and rent more decent office space and then grew further from there. Now, can you imagine if someone had stereotyped them and said we cannot award a tender to a company that is operating from their home garage? Would Facebook be there today? No! Would Apple be there today? No! Would Microsoft be there today? No! So let us give small Entreprenuers a chance to prosper so that one day, they can tell their tale of how they started their business. Perhaps 100 years from now, the most popular vehicle brand in the whole world will be … Lord behold … Sarago!!! And the CEO of the company at that time will be narrating to Forbes Magazine how his or her great grandfather started the business with just a Car Wash in Kabwata and got his break when he won a tender to supply 46 double cab 4×4 vehicles to the Judiciary of Zambia, and how he grew the business thereafter and decided to start manufacturing his own vehicle brand.
6. The other narrative that is being peddled by some faceless online media like Koswe and Watchdog is that the owner of the company that was awarded this tender is linked to the Kabwata Member of Parliament who is also Justice Minister and since the Judiciary falls under the Ministry of Justice, the Minister allegedly facilitated the award of the tender. To the uninitiated, this makes perfect sense but to me, it makes no sense whatsoever, primarily because the Judiciary does NOT fall under the Ministry of Justice. Like Parliament, the Judiciary is an independent arm of Government and is not a part of the Executive to which the Ministry of Justice falls. So to me, this allegation makes no sense whatsoever and is merely intended to taint a businessman that is hustling hard trying to make a living in these harsh economic times.
7. Perhaps, this is the right time for me to make an enerst appeal to my fellow country men and women to resist the temptation to pull others down for no apparent reason. Let us build one another so that together we can be a prosperous nation. Speaking for myself, l must confess that l have a very strong sense of fairness and where l see an injustice, l do not hesitate to stand up, step forward and point it out, even if l am the odd one out of the 18 million Zambians. At least my heart is rested.
The point you’ve missed is that the brand they want to supply has a dealership in Zambia, Maronouch Motors. There’s no manufacturer that would directly sell into a market where they’ve a dealer. So where will they get zero kilometers Mitsubishi cars? 2nd hand is possible
Surely our education system has failed our country. We have educated foo.LS. Talk talk ……with no critical analysis of issues. Were can you buy a reliable brand new 4x 4 Double cab at $22,000? This is a case were we get substandard products. This is a case of being the cheapest and with a poor quality product. Just do a simple research on prices of reputable 4×4 double cabs. You can’t get one and resale at such price. Please keep quite if you don’t understand such matters.
Sean Tembo is a PF surrogate like Chilufya Tayali, what these two say must be ignored because they live of the state. Without Kaizer funding them they are useless and would not rant the way they do.
Keep blocking comments
I’m just reflecting on critical perspectives of governance. Sean is awfully wrong
Apart from the other comments above, will this small company be able to provide after sales service?
Although i agree that we should promote our local zambians to do business and therefore the judiciary has done just that by empowering this 1 company with 1 million dollars worth of business….but whatabout the thousands of small businesses such as barber shops, welders, small manufacturers who dont have access to power sometimes 8 to 12 hours during the day. Whatabout our small zambian importers who import goods from SA, dubai and China, where the costs for products have increased to double or tripple due to dollar going up. With this the buying power for customers also reduces. Whatabout the second hand car dealers who were landing a small vehicle at say 3,000 $ which was translating to K18,000 and now it translates to K60,000. Their sales has slumped. Whatabout our farmers and…
Why report on hearsay, do own investigations.
You have shown sense Sean. The upnd f00ls will always cry about everything like pregnant baboons.
The work scenario is win a tender and sell it to the company capable of the actual work. Sarago may have won the tender legally if we want to believe so. But can they supply those vehicles before the Judiciary pays them? Remember we have had cases were some companies have won tenders and the awarding organization (Usually the govt) pays them before the work is done and then nothing ends up being done anyway. Sean Tembo should do not overlook basic issues involved in winning these tenders otherwise he would be encouraging wrong doing. There is indeed a dealer for those specific vehicles in the country, so whichever the case, they will have to get those vehicles from the dealer because nobody is going to supply them from abroad, otherwise the cost will double.
Ask this surrogate of PF to check the prices of used 4×4 Dcabs and SUVs i.e Ford Ranger, Toyota hilux and others and tell the Zambians how zero mileage with authorised local distribution or franchise holding can sell profitably at $22.000. Fimo kutuntonkanya,
Me? Now I am just reading comments.
When it is too good to be true, it is TOO good to be true. $22,000 is the cost of a mid size saloon, and not a 4×4 SUV at wholesale. Add freight charges, custom duty and VAT to this, one can only surmise that the winner of this tender will be subsidising government. This must be a great patriotic Zambian who must be applauded.
Whenever this Government does something big, just know there’s a hidden agenda. There are kickbacks in almost everything they do. They cannot be trusted
Sean some points make sense in your contribution especially when you talked about that every business starts small especially those started by individuals and that it right they win for them to grow.The pull him/her syndrome is not good that is the reason why most business are run by foreigners here in Zambia.The only problem i find weak with you is that you have been bought with pieces of silver like it was seen during the fallen BILL 10 debates
I support this deal…..
Guys in Dubai a brand new Nissan navrra costs from $20,500.
Now maybe the Zambian company is in it not to get massive profits first time round but to establish them selves……
Very possible at that price.
I support this deal…..by an indginous company
Guys in Dubai a brand new Nissan navrra costs from $20,500.
Now maybe the Zambian company is in it not to get massive profits first time round but to establish them selves……
Very possible at that price.
Well done car wash company.
More competition is good. Let these established companies who are daylight robbers see the light.
A brand new Nissan Navarro double cab costs about $ 20,600 in Dubai….
Maybe this company is more into breaking into the market to supply GRZ then massive profits like most other black owned companies who want to get rich overnight
I support this deal
Mr. Tembo please get your facts right.
22,000 USD is not a reasonable nor realistic price for a 4*4 vehicle in Zambia today.
PF in action as usual
Mwalichelwa
In Dubai it is ……
Ba Spaka muli chisushi…have you ever bought a car in that league?