Wednesday, May 30, 2007

Mining agreements

Mining agreements
By Emmanuel Kasanga
Wednesday May 30, 2007 [04:00]

I have read six of the famous Zambian mining agreements. I can supply copies to those who don't have since I hear they are hard to come by back home. I can't believe they involve my country and that they involve the mainstay of our economy for generations to come.

How can I describe the situation? It is like someone finds you with food that is not yet prepared because you do not have cooking utensils (capital).

Then they offer to provide the utensils so that you can have the food prepared for eating. But before the food is prepared, the owner of the food agrees to have their hands tied behind them, while the hands of the owner of the cooking utensils are free to do anything. I leave the insight to the reader.

To say the least, those agreements were done in very bad faith; they are very exploitative. The ideal policy action is to revise them in totality (not in piece meal) as a matter of urgency.

I am not talking about abrogating them; I am not talking about violating property rights; am talking about revising them in total in order to create a 'win-win' situation for both investors and the country.
It is feasible to replace those agreements without abrogating any local or international legal provisions.

I'm ready to be the first to give guidance on how to proceed. If others can so shamelessly and ruthlessly protect their interests, not caring about us, why should we shy away from protecting our interests as a country?






http://www.postzambia.com/post-read_article.php?articleId=27238

Hakainde Hichilema
By Musonda & Co.
Wednesday May 30, 2007 [04:00]

We have been instructed to issue this statement on behalf of Mr Hakainde Hichilema, the president of the United Party for National Development (UPND) in relation to The Post’s editorial comment of May 18, 2007 in which he was asked to explain how he had acquired the house in which he now lives from Lima Bank as its liquidator.

In the light of the paper’s observation (or challenge) that Mr Hichilema ‘has not explained this issue up to now’, we now take the liberty to put the record straight as follows:

Mr Hichilema has never been a liquidator of Lima Bank. Indeed, even the most cursory search of the relevant public records and information which are kept at the Registry of Companies can confirm that Hichilema has never been one of the bank’s two joint liquidators who were appointed in March, 1997, when Lima Bank was placed under liquidation;

Mr Hichilema purchased the property known as Subdivision 14/3/A/F488 Kabulonga, Lusaka in May, 1995 from the now defunct National Tobacco Company Limited. Mr Hichilema purchased the subject property after making an offer to buy the same to Messrs T.P. Chibwe & Co., the Ndola-based Valuation Surveyors & Estate Agents who had been engaged to sell the property and who had put up the relevant advertisement to which

Mr Hichilema responded by making his offer to buy on April 26, 1995; and prior to making his offer to purchase the subject house, Hichilema conducted a search in the Lands Register at the Ministry of Lands which revealed that the house had previously been owned by the then Tobacco Board of Zambia (from July, 1970) which had also procured the same from a Hannock Jonathan Chileshe.

As a pre-eminent public figure and politician, Mr. Hichilema accepts that both his public as well as his private lives will remain open to public scrutiny and debate.

However, Mr Hichilema expects that anyone who chooses to scrutinise or debate his affairs - be they of a public or private nature- must do so objectively and factually and must not ignore any verifiable facts surrounding such affairs.

Lastly, Mr Hichilema wishes to re-affirm his strong support and admiration for The Post newspaper’s undying and unwavering commitment to the creation of a Zambian society that will thrive on the good name, integrity and uprightness of everyone who chooses to take up public office.

Indeed, Mr Hichilema has issued this statement in the spirit of encouraging The Post to continue with its mission of ‘digging deeper’ and strenuously and painstakingly seeking the truth, championing the immutability of (stubborn) facts as well as exposing lies and falsehoods.

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posted by MrK @ 3:32 AM

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