President Edgar Lungu has announced that government has repossessed Kawambwa Tea Company from Zimbabwean investors who have abandoned it.
Speaking in Kawambwa central during a public rally, President Lungu said he has already signed an acquisition order stating the repossession of the tea company.
President Lungu announced that ZAFFIC will take over the running of the company after the June salaries are cleared to ensure viability.
Last year, President Lungu announced plans to revive the moribund Kawambwa Tea Estate after Zimbabwean investors abandoned it and went away with the equipment.
In 2013 the PF government announced that it had chosen the Zambia Forestry and Forestry Industries Corporation (ZAFFICO) to take over operations at the defunct Kawamabwa Tea Company as a Management Consultant.
The previous owners of Kawambwa tea- KHUMO Holdings of Zimbabwe stripped the company of vital assets.All the irrigation equipment was taken out of the plant by the investor. The ‘investor’ also mismanaged the tea fields.
Workers have suffered over ten years since the company has been in the private hands following its privatisation by the former government. Last year,Chief Munkanta complained that workers at the tea company have been working without pay for the last ten years now.Representative of the workers, Wellington Mwewa appealed to government to consider repossessing the firm and further recapitalise it so that it once again could start producing tea.
CAMPAIGN STRATEGY BA PAMAFI…VIVA HH 2016
Letter to the ICC, EU, USA, SADC, AU, COMESA:
How can there be free and fair election when Lungu:
1. is killing opposition supporters and celebrates the deaths by taunting the opposition
2. campaigns on and promotes the unprecedented PF violence and killing machine
3. preventing opposition campaigning by brutality
4. ordering Police not to protect opposition who are killed by PF
5. ordering public media not to cover the opposition
6. using State resources he lies that his party PF are the ones that funded and constructed infrastructure projects
7. invasion of and confiscation of private property Mugabe style
But they have already abandoned it so there’s nothing like repossessing here. Government failed to run it with real managers. I am yet to see how PF cadres will manage to run it effectively and efficiently. Look at ZESCO, Zamtel, etc.
On second thought, maybe Chagwa is doing a commendable job. let him also repossess abandoned companies like UBZ, Lenco, Lima Bank, Namboard, etc. Investors bought some of these companies and later abandoned the business and took the machinery to RSA.
MR. LUNGU, SPARE US THE AGONY WITH YOUR CAMPAIGN LIES. THE PROBLEM IS THAT ZAMBIANS CONTINUE TO BELIEVE THESE LIES EVEN WHEN THEY SEE THAT NOTHING IS WORKING. THIS IS CLEARLY A CAMPAIGN LIE. ZAMTEL WAS NATIONALISED: IT IS ON ITS KNEES TODAY. ZAMBIA RAILWAYS WAS GRABBED FROM A PRIVATE COMPANY: ZAMBIA RAILWAYS IS EVEN IN A WORSE STATE TODAY. IN WHAT STATE IS THE MULUNGUSHI TEXTILE FACTORY IN KABWE TODAY? WHAT ABOUT NCZ? PEOPLE OF LUAPULA DON’T BE CARRIED AWAY BY LUNGU’S POLITICAL LIES. VOTE WISELY.
Good Move Edgar. SONTA APO WABOMBA at work
Have been working for 10 years without pay??!! Why do they go to work?!! Are they retarded? Clearly they don’t produce anything!
Even post workers have been working for a very long time without pay
Hehehe I thought so too
I think this song will never stop.The president mentioned this at the launch of the ZAFFICO shiwan’gandu plantations last year 2015 in december to be precise.Does it mean that, that time it was just a falacy?Or may be the documentation by ZNBC was done wrongly!
WHY ZAFFICO? LUNGU THINKS FOREST TREES AND TEA PLANTATION ARE THE SAME. WORKING HARD FOR VOTES WE CHINANGWA LUNGU
This again I thought the took over already…sell me this company for £1 …I guarantee you profit in my 2 year and put KTC on the map and its tea a niche product. GRZ has no business in running a business.
Ifya mano kutashako pantu ukucita criticise ifili fyonse buwelewele noku kana kwata amano. Well done Government.
THIS IS RUBBISH honestly out of everything that’s wht u can come say, stop fooling people of kawambwa we know it wil develop when we change the govt .we r waiting to come and hear frm the two wise men HH & GBM
fisa naiwe ifya mano?. Where has he been all this time. People don’t take such promises seriously. Kawambwa tea factory has been there long before even Edgar became president. What has he been waiting for and only to appear when it is election time and say we have taken over. I hope they will not reverse the decisions like they have done on other matters.
@Umusambi
Correct version you have said.
There has never been a popular politician in Northern and Luapula provinces than Fredrick Chiluba, Michael Sata and possibly Katele Kalumba. The rest are novices and are not so attractive as these politicians I have mentioned above. This is the more reason I believe that the current crop of politicians remaining in PF can’t much the three. The next politician to have had a big impact and influence would have been Katele Kalumba had it not been for his corruption cases after Micheal Sata. Worse still to think that Edgar can have similar influence in these provinces to much the likes of the latter three. That is why it can’t be 100% for PF or 100% for UPND. It is a question of wait and see.
Another privatization debacle gone bad. Why did the consultants pick Zimbos who just came to strip the company of the vital equipment and disappeared. Look at Monarch in Kitwe, it is just a shell.
Monarch was sold by HH
And the assets the zimbos stripped off KTC government will just let it slide…very disheartening.
That is another Nitrogen Chemicals’ look-alike. Now good luck recapitalizing. Why is Zambia afraid of management buy-out schemes? Let’s try out a few and learn some lessons on our own people for a change.
This is a real rally with massive turnout, NO TWO HANDS LIFTED TO DECEIVE people, faka mulilo PF, faka pressure ECL until Fat Albert deflates and Kachema runs to the Stup1d Muzungus crying foul.
zooona ubushilu tabwakapwe mucalo ici
Zambian politicians seem to only think when campaigning. If Africans were working tirelessly throughout their term of office as they work and promise during campaign time, Africa would have been a developed continent by now. Alas, they only manage to have sex throughput their term of office. Work is quite alien to them.
Bloggers help me please – where is the minister of justice Dr ngosa simbyakula? Is he not campaigning alongside or in company of his president? I stand to be corrected, was he not the one who was appointed as minister before others? Some were saying the president was actually grooming him to takeover after the president? Is he not supposed to help campaign his lungs out to show gratitude?
Good move Edgar lungu, not aba ba chimbwi HH.
@ Matokwani ..let me enlighten you. Forestry is not pine plantations. There’s a lot involved. Before you empty your ignorance here, please do your research. The president has made a good move here and for the first time let’s give praise where it is due. A tea plantation is not different from any other Plantation in terms of management. The same sylvicultural practices apply..it’s in good hands now. I hope for now this information enough for you.
Zambian Government repossesses Kawambwa tea company. Repossess from who?Because the Zimbabweans abandoned that plantation.Due to the fact that its a loss project.And yet here comes the drunken master to claim repossession.Repossession yes,but,from who?since there is no one occupying that property,its an empty and lonely land,there is no one there.Some of these things bane you shd just keep them to yourself than exibit is more ignorance on top of what is on the ground already.The repossession should ve been the machinery which the Zimbabweans took.And that empty barren land.
Well done ECL. MIND YOU, this is one of the companies that HH helped Privatise. The suffering of the people of Kawambwa is stained on HH’s filthy hands. Mwasonteni mukwai ba Lungu