By Patson Chilemba
Energy minister Peter Kapala says he is now ready to sit with the tank drivers who have been protesting that they have lost out on business due to the involvement of foreigners, but warns that the same demand will backfire as Zambian drivers will be targeted in other countries.
The tank drivers have been protesting that government must put in measures to ensure that they should be the ones to transport the stock from the sea costs into the country as opposed to foreigners participating in the undertaking, and that they have lost out massively on business since the government started transporting the diesel directly via the TAZAMA pipelines.
“You see, what our people need to be sensitive to is they will be driving into these foreign countries, right? To pick up the products, do you think those drivers will let them just pass their country freely? Remember what happened in South Africa. I don’t want to lose any life as a result of a decision that will backfire on all of us. And we should tone down on this issue, no foreign drivers, no we want 100 percent,” Kapala said. “Look there is free trade coming in now isn’t it? How are we going to react to that? You get me? So I am more concerned about their health and safety more than they realise that it’s not about financial gains only. We are dealing with neighbors. If we had a coast line that was going to be easy because they will just be falling within our country.”
Kapala warned against banning foreign drivers, saying that the country will be in trouble.
He said he needed to sit down with the transporters as he could not sit down with them the last time they were on strike as one could not sit with someone who was pointing a gun to their head.
“Can you negotiate properly? You sign papers in duress. So now that the strike is over I am open to come and sit with them so that we can come up with a solution, but bearing in mind that their safety will be jeorpardised if they insisted on the 100 percent moving the cargo,” he said.
But asked on what he felt would he a win-win situation, Kapala said the win-win situation would be to raise the ratio from the 50 percent to 70 percent so that the foreigners can also have a piece of the cake.
“I am worried. These things, yes it could be a lot of political pressure on me and I sign and tomorrow you hear one Zambian tank driver has been burned together with a tank by say Zimbabweans or Mozambican or Tanzanians, I don’t want to to see that happen,” Kapala said.
Asked on information that the administration had purchased drones to monitor the TAZAMA pipeline which runs from the Tanzania coast line to Zambia, from further damage after it was sabotaged last month spilling huge quantities of feed stock, Kapala said those are security issues he would not want to comment on, but the administration was putting in place stringent security measures to protect the pipeline
