Kansanshi Mine has failed to build hospital - Salivaji

Kansanshi Mine has failed to build hospital - Salivaji
By Mulimbi Mulaliki in Solwezi
Monday October 15, 2007 [04:00]

NORTH Western Provincial Permanent Secretary Richard Salivaji has accused Kansanshi Mining PLC of failing to construct a hospital after promising to do so last year. Responding to concerns raised by specialist doctors who came to Solwezi General Hospital for specialist treatment, Salivaji the current facilities in hospitals were not meant to cater for increased population.

Salivaji complained that despite the government allocating land last year where Kansanshi was to construct a hospital, the mine management had just been promising to start the project soon.

“They came to request us to give them one ward at Solwezi General Hospital so that they could renovate it and turn it into a high cost so that people could start paying,” Salivaji said.

Salivaji said his administration refused to give them a ward on moral grounds because the government built the hospital for the local people.

“I don’t know when they are going to build the hospital. I have been here for one and half years, the promise has been going on. Perhaps they are still planning,” he said.

Salivaji said the government advised the mine management to build a hospital, which would cater for their workforce since Solwezi General Hospital could no longer cater for the increasing population that kept.

“We need to raise the ceiling of the province because we can’t run away from the responsibility of helping our people,” he said.

Salivaji said that though the mine was helping in some of the community projects, the hospital was more important because the population increase had been brought about by the mining activities in the district.

Kansanshi Mine has contracted Hill Top Hospital which is operating in a rented building at Mema House in Solwezi, to cater for its workers.

But Kansanshi Mining Plc public relations manager Godfrey Msiska said Salivaji’s statement on the issue of the health facility was factually incorrect.

Msiska said the mine was never given land but requested Salivaji to help in acquiring land from Solwezi Municipal Council where they could construct the medical facility.

“As far as Kansanshi mining is concerned, the Permanent Secretary Salivaji’s statement on the issue of the health facility is factually incorrect. We have a long-term plan to put up an all purpose medical facility in Solwezi which is already in motion,” Msiska said.