STOP THE INDENI SALE MADNESS
Dear Editor, THIS past weekend, I received a petition from several residents of Ndola urging me to engage government to reconsider its position on Indeni Oil Refinery.
The residents believe the route taken by the new dawn government of placing Indeni on care and maintenance is against the greater good of the people of Ndola and the Zambian economy and they want Government to stop it.
I will be sharing the petition with my colleagues in Parliament, the Ndola Members of Parliament (Mr Frank Tayali, Ndola Central, Mr Chisha Mwambazi, Bwana Mkubwa, Mr Lloyd Lubozha of Chifubu) to achieve a bi-partisan approach to this matter.
Placing Indeni on care and maintenance will harm the people of Ndola. It does not make any business or political sense. The decision to kill Indeni is only meant to benefit a small clique of businessmen connected to State House.
A prolonged lack of activity at Indeni would mean the asset will be devalued and less attractive. What will then follow is asset stripping and eventually closing the gates to Indeni - forever.
As it stands, Ndola is economically stressed. Most of the industries have closed down over the years. Indeni is one of the few bright spots in the city which plays a catalytic role in sustaining the industrial and economic status of Ndola.
There are a number of businesses whose survival is directly linked to the survival of Indeni. Ndola Energy Limited which produces around 100 MW of power depends on raw materials produced from Indeni. If Indeni shuts down, Ndola Energy shuts down.
For a government that preaches the enhancement of an energy mix for Zambia, shutting down Indeni means a loss of power generation potential of close to 100 MW, enough to power a whole big province.
The rationale to kill Indeni falls flat at both logic and business level.
Majority of the 300 jobs at Indeni are drawn from constituencies such as Kabushi and surrounding areas and this matter affects the people I represent directly.
Besides providing the much needed jobs to the city, Indeni is very strong on CSR. It responds to a lot of community causes.
Ndola is a football loving city and Indeni Football Club has a rich history tied to the company and to the city. Closing the company would mean saying good bye to a football team that has become part of who we are as a people of Ndola.
From a business perspective, no matter how they would want to argue, investing a further $20 million in protecting Indeni makes perfect sense. Every normal government steps in to protect strategic national industries and Indeni fits the bill.
The short term plan should be to reopen Indeni and get it producing as a matter of priority. Medium term plan should be to bring in a new strategic partner, be it local or foreign and the long term plan should be, using fresh capital, redesign and modernise the infrastructure at Indeni and repurpose it to serve the needs of the industry going forward.
The last administration working with the IDC had started the process of identifying a new strategic partner and I know that the process had advanced.
What President Hakainde Hichilema ought to be doing now is using his much heralded selling skills as Chief Salesman to seek for new partners to run Indeni. Let him go out there and bring in fresh private capital into Indeni.
President Hichilema should be ashamed of himself for even attempting to shove a bad proposition down our throats. As Ndola residents, we say NO to such crookedness in handling public affairs.
BOWMAN CHILOSHA LUSAMBO.