IDC, ZESCO Drama
By Dickson Jere
I had a long call yesterday from one of the former board members of IDC. His call was prompted by my review of the controversial book authored by former ZESCO chairman Mbita Chitala. In nutshell, the caller was telling me how difficult it was to deal with Chitala as IDC because he was appointed by the President and had unfettered powers and looked down upon IDC.
“In Livingstone during our annual meeting, Chitala openly bragged that he does not get instructions from IDC,” the IDC man said.
Two former ministers have also confirmed that Chitala was appointed by State House and therefore was very difficult to manage.
But then IDC has issued a statement saying Chitala was appointed by IDC and not the President. In any case, IDC is chaired by the President.
Anyway, we shall take it IDC is right and Chitala and former IDC board members who included former Ministers are wrong.
“Chitala twice accepted his appointment to the ZESCO board by IDC, contrary to his claims that they were presidential appointments,” the IDC statement reads.
Chitala disputes this in his book and insists it was the President who appointed him. Let us leave that for now.
Interestingly, IDC is saying during the Chitala reign, ZESCO performed badly. Like really? So why did you keep him on the board for five years! In fact when first board was dissolved, he was brought back on the new board.
“ZESCO losses grew by 5,481% between 2017 and 2020…” IDC said in statement, which clearly insinuate that Chitala was bad leader.
“Similarly, in the same period the solvency of the company dropped by 201%, seriously endangering the solvency of the largest power utility in the country,” IDC further claims.
So since you appointed him, why did you keep him for three years as chairman with this record of loss making? This statement is more than meet an eye!
Chitala has mentioned specific cases of attempted asset stripping including the proposed sale of Itezhi Tezhi Power Corporation. He has even mentioned names of the people from IDC who attempted to sell this national asset to the UK company without ZESCO approval. IDC has not disputed this fact except to say there was no asset stripping and that ZESCO is doing much better now after Chitala!
“Since December 2020, ZESCO has gone on to record a profit for the year ending December 2021 after five straight years loses…” IDC statement reads.
This Chitala must be a bad guy. For five years on the board, the company was only making losses and only to recover to profit making a year later after Chitala was out? Stranger than fiction!
Further, Chitala accuses the IDC of being corrupt. IDC has not responded to that accusation. By the way, the IDC CEO was recently arrested and charged by ACC for corruption in the Mukula scam involving one of the IDC subsidiary ZAFFICO. Why has IDC kept quiet on the arrest of the top man?