By Mubanga Mubanga
Economic Freedom Fighters (EEF) party leader Kasonde Mwenda Kasonde says it is unfortunate that a public asset such as TAZAMA which was created for use by a lot of people, is only being used by a few privileged Oil Marketing Companies (OMCs) who have connections to the powers that be.
And Mwenda said allies of State House were the ones running the entire energy sector saying, it was the reason the country was experiencing inefficiencies.
Impeccable sources recently told Daily Revelation that the lMF (International Monetary Fund) had directed the UPND government to open up the TAZAMA pipeline to other users as well, not just those who were linked to the UPND.
Speaking in an interview with Daily Revelation on the matter, Mwenda said the essence of why the pipeline was created was for it to be used sufficiently but unfortunately it was not the case.
“The process now has been monopolised. It has been hijacked by a few … a clique of people that has connections to powers that be,” he said.
He also called for the re-opening of Indeni Oil Refinery
“Zambia should actually be in a place where we have the Indeni running and let the TAZAMA fit into it. Let us have our oil processing plant back to life. We need to have the pipeline back to work with the state as well as to have the Indeni Refinery,” Mwenda said.
He said the government also needed to open up the Lobito connection to Angola in order to get crude oil from that country.
“That way Zambia, we will be energy efficient, unlike this chipantepante we are seeing, where we are buying from the black market,” he said.
And Kasonde said it was an open secret that the allies of State House were the ones running the entire energy sector, hence the inefficiencies the country was witnessing because they were bringing friendship into the governance of the country.
“It is an open secret, if you look at the chairman for transportation, those are business allies. It is people who are business associates that are running the whole entire energy sector,” Mwenda said.
“No wonder they are having inefficiencies because they are bringing friendship to the governance of the country. So the people that are running know that it is not a secret. We highly condemn that, because that is corruption.”
