By Amb. Emmanuel Mwamba
Bad Deal; 51% Shareholding sold for investment commitment
In the past, when shares were sold, Government received actual money besides the investment commitments made by the investor.
It is not to be with the sell of shares of Mopani.
51% FOR EQUITY CAPITAL
The Mopani Copper Mines sale involves US$620 million that will be provided in the form of new equity capital in return for a 51% stake in
MCM.
The investor is very clear, this money will be used for Mopani Copper Mine’s capital projects, and to stabilise the working capital position of the business.
Looking at the loss of state-owned enterprises during the privatization programme through transactions such as this, Zambians decided to codify their instructions in the Constitution ; any sale or transfer of shares of any major asset including shareholding requires Parliamentary approval of two-thirds majority.
This sacred instruction to the governors by the people has been flagrantly been ignored and the law broken in relation to Mopani.
This blatant disregard of the law will haunt President Hichilema in future and may threaten the validity of this transaction in future.
Exactly what Mwanawasa did to KCM and we ended up with a biggest loss in revenue. The next government should definitely scrutinise this starting with the IRH owners.