Maravi

Kabimba blames exploitation of workers on weak laws

Kabimba blames exploitation of workers on weak laws
By Joan Chirwa
Monday November 26, 2007 [03:00]

ZAMBIA’s weak legal regime in terms of investment is to blame for the exploitation of employees by foreign investors, Lusaka lawyer Wynter Kabimba has said. And commerce, trade and industry Permanent Secretary Davidson Chilipamushi said much of the investments taking place in Africa were largely on account of the developed countries’ desire to feed into their economic upturn.

During a discussion on Zambia’s Foreign Direct Investments (FDIs) organised by the Economics Association Zambia (EAZ) in Lusaka on Thursday, Kabimba noted that foreign investments – regardless of their origin – were mainly interested in profit making while leaving behind enormous environmental and social problems.

“Some foreign investments have destabilised communities and have also contributed to numerous environmental problems, leaving behind an impoverished community,” Kabimba said. “The foreign investments have always taken advantage of weak regimes such as that existent in Zambia.”

He said both local and foreign investors must be made to abide by the laws of the country in order to safeguard the interests of the employees.

“It is also not good that the government and the trade unions have partnered in justifying reasons behind the bad working conditions and to say that foreign investors are doing what local investors do,” Kabimba said.

He was dismissing Zambia Congress of Trade Unions (ZCTU) president Leonard Hikaumba’s statement during the discussion that Zambia first needed to put its house in order before foreign investors could strictly adhere to labour laws.

“There is nothing like that in law. You cannot compare a local investor with a foreign investor who enjoys a rebate and you expect the two to pay the same wages,” Kabimba said. “Every employer, whether foreign or local, is obliged to obey the laws of this country and pay living wages to the people.”

Earlier, Chilipamushi said there was a lot of self-interest in the manner investments were being made by foreign companies.

“Talk of any investor from any country, they always have interests of their countries,” Chilipamushi said. “Zambia’s interests when attracting these investments should therefore be to ensure jobs and wealth are created.”

Chilipamushi said the country’s foreign investments must also be targeted at reducing the high levels of poverty through the adoption of good corporate social responsibility programmes.

And Hikaumba said the problem of bad working conditions being offered by investors had been created by Zambians themselves.

“We should put the blame on our local investors who have not obeyed the labour laws, so foreign investors are also doing the same,” said Hikaumba.

Lusaka businessman Mark O’Donnell said Zambians should take advantage of the available opportunities presented by foreign investors seeking partnerships with local businessmen.

“Having foreign investors does not mean they will own everything. We have dozens of Zimbabweans seeking joint ventures with Zambians and these are opportunities that we need to take advantage of,” said O’Donnell.

Labels: DAVIDSON CHILIPAMUSHI, WYNTER KABIMBA

posted by MrK @ 10:37 AM