(TIMES) State assures nation‘...we’ll preserve jobs in mining sector’

State assures nation‘...we’ll preserve jobs in mining sector’
By Times Reporter

GOVERNMENT has assured the nation that it will do everything possible to preserve jobs in the mining sector.

President Rupiah Banda made the assurance yesterday when he addressed MMD cadres at Chipata Airport shortly after arriving for a two-day private visit in Eastern Province.

Mr Banda noted that with the global recession and fall in copper prices, some mines were threatened with closure and many miners were likely to be retrenched.

He said he had a fruitful meeting with the Mineworkers Union of Zambia (MUZ) and Luanshya Copper Mines (LCM) management on Saturday.

He said the Government would do everything to ensure that miners, especially the people of Luanshya who had gone through a lot of misery in the past due to the closure of the mine, did not suffer again.

“Yesterday (Saturday) I had a meeting with the union officials and management. I asked them how Government could assist in preserving jobs in the mines,” he said.

The president, who was accompanied by Foreign Affairs Minister Kabinga Pande and two friends, former Bank of Zambia governor Jacob Mwanza and Lusaka businessman Ephraim Mweenda, said the Government was in the process of attracting more serious investors to the mining sector in order to avoid job losses.

He also cautioned that investors could not come and settle in a country where demonstrations were the order of the day.

Mr Banda said that was the reason why the Government did not allow the planned demonstrations by the Patriotic Front (PF) over the rise in prices of mealie meal.

The president said he was happy to learn that mine workers’ representatives on the Copperbelt had distanced themselves from the demonstrations because such acts could hinder investment in the mining sector.

He urged the people of Eastern Province not to be involved in the demonstrations but only concentrate on farming activities.

On the fertiliser support programme (FSP), the president said Government intended to increase the allocation so that it could benefit more farmers.

He said even if the Government increased the allocation now, it would still take more time for the commodity to arrive in the country.

The president said plans were underway to revamp the Nitrogen Chemicals of Zambia in Kafue, but there were a number of pending technicalities.

Mr Banda, who was visiting Chipata for the first time after being elected as the fourth Republican president, thanked the people of Eastern Province for voting for him.

And Mr Pande thanked the people in the province for voting for Mr Banda not because he came from there but because he was the best candidate among those who participated in the race.

He said the president got votes across the country as opposed to some opposition leaders who only won in certain regions.

The minister said demonstrations over the increase in food prices would not help in any way and advised the people to spend their time in fields cultivating.

Earlier, Eastern Province Minister Isaac Banda said the people in the province were happy with the FSP but suggested that the allocation be increased.

He said he was happy that Omnia had resumed the distribution of fertiliser to farmers.

“As people are busy trying to demonstrate against the increase in mealie meal prices, the people of Eastern Province are busy demonstrating against weeds in their fields,” he said.

Eastern Province MMD chairperson Kennedy Zulu assured the president that the party in the province was intact and ready for future elections.

Mr Zulu appealed to the Government to send relief food to some parts of the province hit by floods during the last farming season.

The president is today expected to visit Mfuwe national park before returning to Lusaka on Tuesday.