Musokotwane Dismisses Corruption Claims Over Lusaka-Ndola Dual Carriageway

Former Finance Minister Situmbeko Musokotwane has rejected corruption allegations surrounding the Lusaka-Ndola Dual Carriageway, insisting the UPND government's $649 million contract has never been revised and costs far less than the PF's earlier $1.4 billion proposal.

Responding to claims made by lawyer Makebi Zulu, Musokotwane described suggestions that the price rose from $450 million to $650 million and then to $850 million as "pure fictitious imagination" and "total lies." He confirmed the contract signed under the UPND's Public Private Partnership (PPP) model remains fixed at $649 million.

Musokotwane then turned attention to the PF, where Zulu previously served. He said the former government had planned to fund the same road through a Chinese loan worth $1.4 billion, a figure that would have climbed to $1.8 billion once interest was added. "Had the Lusaka-Ndola Road been constructed by the PF government, it would have cost more than double what it is costing now," he said.

On financing, Musokotwane explained that China never approved or released a loan for the project because Zambia was already in default under the PF. Instead, he said, the PF drew $30 million from the Treasury and paid it to a contractor, yet "not a meter of the road" was built. He insisted the party must account for the missing funds.

He added that NAPSA is only one of several lenders to the PPP consortium, not its sole financier, and dismissed Zulu's suggestion that lenders should operate tollgates, noting that financiers exist to provide funding, not to run enterprises.