WHO IS is BENEFITTING FROM THE the ABSENCE OF BOARD, MD AT ZESCO?

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WHO IS is BENEFITTING FROM THE the ABSENCE OF BOARD, MD AT ZESCO?

How does one explain that at this time of the worst power crises in history, ZESCO is running without a board of directors and a managing director?



When Victor Mapani left his position as managing director last year, it was not unexpected – we all saw it coming three months before the expiry of his contract. The Board’s mandate also expired almost in tandem, and these events were easier to predict and planned for. It is not like one is attempting to predict the rainfall pattern!


Historically, ills of bad corporate governance have always plagued our state-owned enterprises and ZESCO is often the nerve-centre of this plague. Zambians have always prayed and yearned for the correction of this legacy problem.

In opposition, President Hakainde Hichilema campaigned to rein in this politically-engineered mess in management of public companies and simultaneously swab the accumulated rot.


The message resonated well with most voters! And who would have doubted HH given his vast experience in corporate governance as a member of the highly-respected Institute of Directors?
But certainly, this is not what we signed up for!



Zambia does not have a shortage of human capital to constitute a new board of directors at ZESCO, later a new MD! What is wrong with confirming Justin Loongo as ZESCO managing director? He’s well-rounded in ZESCO and possesses all the requisite requirements to manage ZESCO at this very difficult time…maybe he’s not politically correct????


It is increasingly frustrating that UPND and HH appear to have learnt nothing from the chaos and misrule of the PF. Maybe that’s why they use PF as a yardstick for their perceived improved governance record. PF was our lowest level of leadership, and you can never raise a bar of performance by outdoing the worst – that in itself is mediocrity!

Life does not provide for a vacuum for a long time. In the absence of positive and precise decisions, the vacuum at ZESCO will soon be overtaken by negative ones –assuming this is not already in motion!


Not too long we remember how a WHOLE Head of State signed a sovereign guarantee for ZESCO! You could say that was Edgar Lungu, but how many of such hazy and clandestine deals are being cut in the dark, of course powered by this confusion… Remember, politicians are cut from the same cloth!

Only a fool rests their hopes in a politician!
President Hichilema has proved to be the most indecisive in Zambia’s history, something outlandishly frustrating given his CV and track record!


Now you’ve a scenario where an obscure and improperly defined organization in the name of the Presidential Delivery Unity is remotely running ZESCO! This is not what we signed for!

The PDU may be President Hichilema’s favourite vehicle as its creator, but that thing cannot run ZESCO! In the current chaos, ZESCO needs seat-of-the-pants men and women to run it – and we have no shortage of that material, unless there are other considerations other than merit!

We cannot surrender ZESCO to some obscure informal task force whose primary obsession and assignment is to find ways to fire public workers, frustrate government programmes, all in the name of driving efficiency.



Look, if you can’t find qualified Zambians to constitute the ZESCO board and later a managing director, bring back Vickson Ncube and Mapani! After all, the IDC is already engineering to bring Mapani back even before it constitutes a new board of directors.

But the maneuvers to bring Mapani back to ZESCO could prove to be more daunting than the unscrupulous process of attempting to ‘find a lost lover.’


As MD, it appears like Mapani gained the world but lost his people. Mapani’s track record was impeccable: He was instrumental in the reviving and completion of the 750MW Kafue Gorge Lower; he managed to rein in the exploitive and unsustainable power purchase agreements with private power producers; he managed to get serious traction on the ZESCO debt, reducing it to $500 million!


You may not agree, but it was under his reign that ZESCO, for the first time, achieved a 1, 000 MW surplus, effectively making Zambia a net exporter of power.

Forget the current load shedding, our installed power generation capacity surpasses our peak demand.



But again Mapani was a highly divisive figure, according to those who were close to him. He had a frosty relationship with the Ncube-led board and on the other hand, ZESCO workers loathed him for introducing austerity measures while he ring-fenced himself.


In fact, to achieve efficiency, ZESCO migrated from robust operational vehicles – Land cruisers and Nissan Patrols to those new ‘yangos’ that fail to access certain areas of our shanties!

ZESCO needs serious leadership direction from President HH, which sadly is missing at the moment.

ZESCO is too important an institution to be allowed to run on autopilot, worse still being surrendered to an informal establishment whose mandate is solely to slash spending and bureaucracy.



No one would be faltered for attempting to walk back on a $25, 000 a month job, but a question on why Mapani “did not request for a contract renewal” will linger on.

Sadly, despite his many achievements, Mapani left ZESCO as the face of load shedding!

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