Situmbeko Musokotwane Defends Lusaka-Ndola Road Cost, Challenges PF Record

FORMER Finance Minister Situmbeko Musokotwane has dismissed corruption allegations over the Lusaka-Ndola Dual Carriageway, saying the UPND government’s $649 million contract has not been revised and costs far less than the PF government’s $1.4 billion proposal.

In a statement responding to lawyer Makebi Zulu, Musokotwane said claims the road cost rose from $450 million to $650 million to $850 million are “pure fictitious imagination” and “total lies.” He said the contract signed under the UPND’s Public Private Partnership, PPP, model remains $649 million.

Musokotwane turned the focus on the PF, where Zulu served. He said the PF planned to finance the same road with a Chinese loan at $1.4 billion, rising to $1.8 billion with interest. “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 said China never approved or disbursed a loan for the road because Zambia was already in default under the PF. He said the PF instead disbursed $30 million from the Treasury to a contractor, with “not a meter of the road” built. “The PF must explain where the money went,” he said.

He said NAPSA is one of several lenders to the PPP consortium, not the sole financier. He rejected Zulu’s suggestion that lenders should run tollgates, saying “financiers’ role is to provide finance, not to run enterprises.”

Musokotwane concluded that Zulu’s video was “camouflaging the wrong things during their time” and called on the PF to account for the $30 million.

(Mwebantu, Sunday, 21st June, 2026)