•President Edgar Lungu breaks the ground to officially launch the Zambia Air Force Twin Palm Public Private Partnership construction project.
Picture by ROYD SIBAJENE/ZANIS

By CHILA NAMAIKO –
‘EMBRACING a Transformational Culture for a Smart Zambia Now’ was the theme of President Edgar Lungu’s speech at the opening of the Fifth Session of the 11th National Assembly on September 18, 2015.
President Lungu has noted that if Zambia has to attain a transformational culture, it should not be business as usual.
All institutions need to think beyond their core business as a measure of sustainability.
One institution which is embracing the transformational culture orb is the Zambia Air Force (ZAF) led by its Commander Lieutenant-General Eric Chimese.
In a bid to generate its own revenue and reduce over dependency on the treasury, General Chimese said ZAF has embraced a Public-Private Partnership (PPP) initiative to implement some developmental programmes.
The PPP Act Number 14 of 2009 was enacted to promote and facilitate the implementation of privately enhanced infrastructure projects.
The Act facilitates for removal of undesirable restrictions on private sector participation in provision of public services, and the development and operation of public infrastructure.
This in turn helps in effective delivery of social services by enhancing transparency, fairness and long term sustainability to uplift the livelihood of beneficiaries and the country at large.
Against this background, ZAF is exploiting innovation and entrepreneurship, and has so far formulated an infrastructure development plan to develop commercial and social facilities for its Twin-Palm, Lusaka, Livingstone and Mumbwa bases.
Recently, President Lungu launched the US$1.4 million ZAF Twin-Palm PPP construction project that will have social amenities and commercial facilities.
The project will be undertaken by three contractors namely, Datong Construction, Drimtown Investments and Shangrilla Investment.
Benefits for ZAF
The immediate benefits include ownership of quality infrastructure to give the Air Force the capacity to raise own financial resources, and take care of the ZAF routine financial  requirements from the intended facilities.
General Chimese outlined the huge infrastructure development plan as involving construction of a ZAF college, a hotel, offices to let, a sports complex, a housing complex, a shopping mall, fire fighting station and a maintenance workshop.
Others aspects of the project will be houses for sale to ZAF officers and the general public at a reasonable cost, a fuel service station, conference and convention centre with helicopter landing sites.
He urged ZAF employees to sign up for the housing scheme as soon as the document was ready which guarantees them decent accommodation in the prime area of Lusaka for use now and when they retire from the institution.
“Our Government’s pension reforms soon to be implemented demand that all of us, by the time we are retiring from Government, should have some reasonable housing plans. Let us use this opportunity to fulfil this requirement,” he said.
The institution has also registered a Special Purpose Vehicle (SPV) namely the ZAF Projects Company Limited to manage the intended facilities with its partners.
Additionally, General Chimese said the ZAF Projects Limited would administer contract management, performance monitoring management and relationship management.
Ultimately, the company would be the sole administrator of these facilities once the concession period was over.
On procedure for selection of developers, he disclosed that at the time President Lungu was Defence Minister, ZAF received authority and through the ministry, a technical team of experts from, among other institutions, ZAF, Ministry of Finance, Ministry of Works and Supply, PPP Unit at State House, Zambia Development Agency (ZDA) and the Zambia Public Procurement Authority (ZPPA) was constituted to actualise the project.
Job creation
Since the ZAF initiative was a partnership and a profit making venture, the project, during its construction phase, was expected to create more than 2,000 direct jobs with an additional 800 when commercial projects were operational.
However, the project would go beyond job creation and create sustainable development and support amenities through the construction of educational and sports facilities for ZAF.
Replication of projects under PPP
General Chimese said ZAF has refused to hide under the guise of limited resource envelope as a reason for not progressing and it would continue to innovate, modernise, think outside the box and challenge the norms.
ZAF plans to replicate the PPP initiative at its bases in Mumbwa Air Force Base, Livingstone, Lusaka (near Kenneth Kaunda International Airport – KKIA), and the ZAF Samora Machel Air Base in Mbala. The process was already receiving attention.
As part of ZAF’s wider infrastructure development programme, within the first week of July this year, President Lungu was expected to commission the Out-Patient Department (OPD) of the 200 bed capacity ZAF Hospital at its headquarters in Longacres.
General Chimese said the hospital was expected to be commissioned together with an upcoming modern aircraft hangar.
The hunger – which is a new maintenance and aircraft storage facility –was the most visible structure on the ZAF side of the KKIA.
ZAF was working on many other infrastructure projects like the intended programme to open air units in areas where ZAF has no foot print, such as the newly created districts, to enhance air space monitoring capacity for the country.
He hailed Government for continued strategic policy guidance to ZAF to achieve a vision of “creating a lean, well equipped, trained, professional and efficient tactical air force, capable of responding to the air power needs of 21st Century”.
On completed projects, Government has constructed over 1,000 houses for ZAF personnel at Twin Palm base under phase-one.
The houses, which were handed over to the officers two years ago, helped to alleviate the accommodation challenges for ZAF personnel in Lusaka.
The conditions of service that Government introduced in 2013 on housing enabled all service personnel who did not get accommodated on base to start receiving housing allowances.
According to General Chimese, this was the first time in the history of Zambia that all Air Force personnel, both married and single, have been accommodated by Government.
“You will agree with me that ZAF and all other Government employees no longer appear in the media as victims of evictions as the case was before 2013. Thanks to Government for the new housing policy for Government employees,” he said.
Benefits to Govt
As though only ZAF will benefit from the huge project, more than K20 billion revenue is envisaged to be generated from commercial entities over the concession period with a direct benefit of nearly K2 billion accruing to Government in concession fees.
President Lungu, who is Commander-in-Chief of the armed forces, praised ZAF for being innovative and taking an active role in the development of Zambia through the implementation of Government’s economic reforms.
“I am therefore gratified that you are re-aligning your institution (ZAF) where necessary, by adopting a new paradigm to resolving current and future challenges to better respond to the changing needs of your organisation,” he said.
He observed that, Government could not afford to ignore the participation of private-sector in the country’s economy and complementing the efforts in the delivery of public infrastructure.
To achieve desired results in infrastructure development programme, President Lungu called for collaboration with the private-sector as an alternative to financing development.
He expressed happiness that the ZAF projects comprise an empowerment package for its personnel who would be engaged in their private capacity to participate in the initiative to empower them economically in preparation for retirement and re-integration into civil society.
Government was also resolved to steering national development agenda as enshrined in the Patriotic Front (PF)’s manifesto, and would continue to explore several avenues to create sustainable employment for Zambians, especially the youths.
“I have travelled the lengths and breadth of this country and I have seen resounding response from our people. The ordinary Zambians, who rank very highly on our development agenda, trust us, that we can deliver greater development to all corners of the country,” President Lungu said.
President Lungu said the infrastructure development have resulted in the PF administration earning itself a tractable and enviable record which needs that do not need trumpet blowing for everyone to see.
“Similarly, this is what ZAF is about to embark on. Such projects would not be possible without my Government’s steadfast commitment to the transformational agenda we outlined in 2011,” he said.
Defence Minister Richwell Siamunene hailed President Lungu for initiating the ZAF PPP construction project at the time he served as defence minister.
Representatives of the project developers, Shen Yaolin gave the assurance that they will help to bridge the housing deficit gap of about two million in Zambia.
Home Affairs Minister Davies Chama, defence chiefs and Chieftainess Nkomeshya Mukamambo II of Chongwe District were among other dignitaries at the groundbreaking ceremony.
To embrace a transformational culture for a smart Zambia now, it calls for affirmative action from various institutions.
Thumbs up to ZAF for making headway to navigate toward realising more sustainable development through their PPP initiative.