FORMER RTSA chief executive officer Zindaba Soko says Transport and Communications Minister Mutotwe Kafwaya should explain what he means by saying the speed camera contract was illegally signed because the same was approved by the Attorney General.

Last Sunday, Kafwaya said the major reason why the speed cameras contract was cancelled was because it was signed by the RTSA chief executive officer when it should have been done by the Minister of Finance.

But in an interview, Soko said the contract was approved by a council of ministers and cleared by the Attorney General.

“All I can I ask you to do is get back to him and get an insight of what was meant by illegal. You see, if there is me signing something illegal…one thing you should understand is that, that contract is not a contract that I did myself, that is a contract that was approved by the council of ministers, chaired by Ministry of Finance and also that is a contract that is cleared by the Attorney General,” said Soko.

And Speaking in a separate interview, Kafwaya said the matter was later resolved.

“We in the Ministry of Transport recommended for the cancellation of the contract. When somebody says we have recommended for a dismissal, it does not mean that you have been dismissed because the process of dismissal is distinct from a recommendation. And I was very clear to say that we want a contract that is more beneficial to the Zambian people. Speed is not the only problem on our Zambian roads and I did say right now because it is a Sunday evening, there could be somebody driving while drunk. So we want a system which is more comprehensive to cover a number of problems, a number of issues not just speed. We want to look at transport, we want to look at drinking and driving, we want to look at driver behavior and speed itself and to do that, we need a much more intelligence system which is more comprehensive,” Kafwaya said.

“And Grevazio (Sunday Interview host) asked further and I said, yes of course it had a number of issues including being signed by somebody who had no authority to commit to government to finance it. But that problem was solved. That is why I said in that interview that the thing (contract) was actually transferred to the Ministry of Finance. It was solved by way of an amendment to the concession. That problem was solved, it is no longer an issue. But even with the resolution of that particular issue, we still think the concession was not comprehensive enough. That is why we recommended for the termination so that we can come up with a much better arrangement which will look at broader issues.”

But when asked how it was possible for Soko to sign a contract on his own, Kafwaya said “You can call him and find out. I am not the one who signed.”