By Patson Chilemba
Former Commerce minister Bob Sichinga says he warned that any fooling around with the price of fuel will have ripple effect, saying the country is now witnessing a general increase in the prices of goods and services, with some businesses going to the extent of using the same as an excuse to exploit consumers further.
And Sichinga urged the minister of Commerce and his Ministry to take particular interest and address the prevailing situation where businesses are using the prevailing economic situation to exploit consumers further, describing the Competition and Consumer Protection Commission (CCPC) as sleeping.
Sichinga also said the UPND administration must revisit their plan to close the Indeni Oil Refinery in Ndola, as the country did not have sufficient storage facilities and good road infrastructure to ensure efficient delivery of goods.
Speaking with Daily Revelation, Sichinga said the increase in fuel prices was having a domino effect in the economy already.
“If you recall, I explained right from the word go. I said any time you touch fuel it has a ripple effect, it has a domino effect…so any time you fool around with fuel that will happen, and it will increase costs even in areas that may not be directly connected to fuel. Why? Because people are covering overheads in their business. DSTV yes, they will do that (increase prices). They will say to you we want to maintain our earnings, that’s what they will say,” Sichinga said.
He said to counter the exploitation, the competitiveness of other businesses must be enhanced, like Top Star, in the digital platform.
Sichinga said the CCPC should become more proactive, especially in this given environment where businesses are exploiting the prevailing economic conditions to rip-off the consumers.
“They ought to be looking out and saying we need to protect the consumer. We used to have CUTS, that also seems to have fallen by the way side. So it’s important to protect the consumer because not in all cases will the business take their corporate social responsibility, where they are conscious of the fact that it’s not just the owners and the shareholders that are important but the consumer is equally important,” Sichinga said. “So the minister must wake up and really go and check what’s going on, and take an interest in consumer protection.”
He said there were certain things which the UPND administration definitely needed to subsidise in order to balance the economy, saying they could not be generating income, but their absence meant that other fields will increase costs on account of the absence of subsidies, and that every country, including heavy capitalists like the USA subsidised their strategic sectors.
Sichinga further urged President Hichilema to use the current situation as an opportunity to intensify on value addition on the abundant local resources, including coming up with a law guaranteeing value addition on goods, rather than exporting 800,000 metric tones of copper per annum in raw form.
He said late president Michael Sata tried to address this, but no sooner had he died than those who remained behind reverted to a system of exporting copper in its raw form.
“Now you see ZAMEFA has been bought sent to South Africa and ZAMEFA is merely a distribution point. We don’t want distributions. So for me I would be talking about important substitution right now. I would be talking about exports substitution…and say now we are not going to close down Indeni,” Sichinga said.
He urged the administration to revisit their plans against Indeni.
“You see what has happened now, do you have the road infrastructure to carry the tankers? No! And yet you have the pipeline and you have got the whole pipeline, the TAZAMA pipeline. What is happening? You can bring in fuel, but where are you going to store it? In the tankers? Where are the tanks to store that fuel in? Show me, we don’t have. That’s why I was saying that we need a strategic plan. You cannot rely on other countries,” Sichinga said. “That would be my message to President Hichilema. You cannot rely on other countries to say they have goodwill. There is no goodwill in economics. You have to work on the basis of what is it that you are putting on the market? Whether it’s COMESA market, SADC, African Inter Continental Free Trade Area, you have to have some product to put on the market, otherwise your membership is simply to support others.”
He said the road network in the country was terrible, including on the Copperbelt where he was recently, and given that it was the country’s main forex earner.
Sichinga said works must be looked into not only from the political side, which he said was important particularly with the uncertainty in the area where President Hichilema routed former president Edgar Lungu, but the field tilted slightly in PF’s favour at parliamentary level.
“Because of that uncertainty it’s very important that not only should we worry about the political affiliations but also that is the major source of the country’s major foreign currency, and the vehicles ferrying cathodes of copper out of that particular area, you can’t afford not to attend to them, regardless of which political affiliation they may have. So it’s important that the government pays quick attention to this,” Sichinga said, adding that as opposed to doing a dual carriage way between Lusaka-Ndola, the country should focus on doing motor ways of four lanes on each side to reduce the congestion and improve efficiency.
“The trucks we are carrying on the roads is very high, we are talking about 750 trucks either way. So in total the road is carrying about 1500 tankers, big trucks per day. So the vehicles are driving bumper to bumper. Between Kabwe and Kapiri Mposhi the road is so bad that if you make a mistake and move to either side you are going to have an accident,” Sichinga said. “The infrastructure of roads in Zambia, because you are linked to eight other countries needs to be in impeccable condition and they should be large enough to carry that traffic, not just for now but 50 years…You need motor ways up to Solwezi and after that the dual carriage ways we are talking about.”
Sichinga said there were certain developments which could not be overlooked as government focused on what they termed as equalising the other areas which were ignored under the PF administration.
“So you cannot do that on the basis of just regions, no! There is definitely consideration for the regions that were disadvantaged, yes they ought to be recognised and also like North Western, it’s not only disadvantaged but also it is a major source of wealth. The road between Livingstone and Katima Mulilo is in a deplorable state you can’t ignore that,” said Sichinga.
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