WE ARE NOT AGAINST THE NDOLA-LUSAKA DUAL CARRIAGE WAY PROJECT
…we are against the manner in which the New Dawn has decided to build this road – SP
Kitwe, Tuesday, March 7, 2023 ( Smart Eagles)
The Socialist Party (SP) has expressed displeasure with the manner in which the government of “angels” is handling the Lusaka-Ndola Dual Carriage Way.
Socialist Party Spokesperson Frank Bwalya wondered when he held a briefing in Kitwe today as to why a company with no resources would be given such a contract.
Mr Bwalya said the 25 years in which the contracted company is expected to be collecting the toll fees is too much.
He said this despite revealing that the party has no problem with the project in general.
“We wonder why a company with literally nothing would come to Zambia, say they will build a road for us and they will use our money, and after building the road for us after using our money, they are going to own that road, collect toll fees, in other words pay themselves for 25 years. There is a component of maintainance in that 25 years but that road will not be what it would have been 25 years before” he said.
“We wonder why this government has decided to take that route. As you all know by now, they are going to borrow over 80% of the money that is required from our money. And when we say from our money we are not strictly talking about tax payers’ money. We are talking about money that belongs to Zambian workers, held by NAPSA…as compensation fund and so on.”
He warned Zambians that this is how capitalists operate.
“They come with nothing, they only register a company, they use your money, money for all the workers, money that you sweated for, you suffered for, that is the money that they want to use. At the end of the day, after using that money in that manner, they are the ones who are going to go away smiling and laughing. They are the ones who are going to make a lot of money in terms of profits. And they are not doing that for themselves, they are doing that for their children,” he said.
“So 25 years, after that road is done, the person, the young man who is going to be born on that day when the road is commissioned, by the time this company stops collecting the toll fees, collecting the money, that person, ndishi umutoto walipona, alisunka, aliamfula kale, alyenda, alipwisha na grade seven na grade nine, Aliya naku university, alingila nenchito, abombako limbi na three years. We thought that we should put it that way so that some that may think this 25 year is a short period, can realise…”
As he reminded citizens that President Hakainde Hichilema was against middle men when he was in opposition, Bwalya tipped Zambians that there are now middle men in the said project.
“When that road is given back to us, depending on when the project will start, I think I will be 85. Zambia will require, perhaps 10 times or 20 times or even 50 times more, the money that will be spent to build that road, to rehabilitate it, or build it afresh,” he said.
“HH is a businessman and what they are going to do is capitalist. Although they are saying they are being methodical, it’s all about betraying our people. We are not against the project. We are against the manner in which the New Dawn has decided to build this road.”