Maravi

Property seizure grounds Lafarge operations

Property seizure grounds Lafarge operations
Written by Chiwoyu Sinyangwe
Friday, September 11, 2009 4:54:26 PM

LAFARGE Cement Plc has suspended operations after court bailiffs started seizing its property to execute a High Court ruling which awarded US $13 million to Citizens for a Better Environment (CBE) for environmental liabilities caused by the giant cement manufacturing company.

Head of Corporate Affairs Eugene Chungu said yesterday that the ruling had negatively affected the operations of Lafarge Cement Plc since last Friday when the execution of the ruling started, resulting in some properties for the company being seized by bailiffs.

Chungu did not immediately indicate whether Lafarge Cement Plc would resume operations after Kitwe High Court judge Catherine Makungu stayed the execution of an earlier ruling pending appeal in the Supreme Court.

According to the ex-parte order for stay of execution dated September 7, 2009, judge Makungu ordered that the execution of the judgment stays pending appeal to the Supreme Court.

Chungu, however, refused to comment further on the matter but said Lafarge Cement Plc was optimistic about getting a positive ruling in the Supreme Court where the company had appealed against the ruling of Kitwe High Court deputy registrar Justin Mukolwe.

“That is the sad reality. I am afraid I can’t say much except to say that the ruling [of Kitwe High Court] has negatively impacted on our operations,” Chungu said. “It is now over a week because it started on Friday. But we have been given leave to appeal to the Supreme Court and we are optimistic about the outcome.”

Some local contractors had this week complained about the failure to access cement from Lafarge Cement Plc, a move they said would negatively impact on their projects.

“We have not been clearly told what the problem is but we are unable to pick cement from Chilanga because they have suspended operations owing to the legal issues,” complained one local contractor on condition of anonymity. “But you see, this will delay the completion of our projects and it means extra costs which are unnecessary.”

According to company sources, the company was forced to suspend operations after court bailiffs started seizing Lafarge Cement Plc’s properties after the ruling that awarded CBE, suing on behalf the citizens US $13.2 million for environmental liabilities caused by operations of Lafarge Cement in Ndola and Kitwe.

Mukolwe made the ruling against Lafarge Cement Plc following its failure to remit contributions towards the Environmental Protection Fund (EPF) under the Ministry of Mines.

According to the judgment dated February 13, 2009, CBE was awarded US $2, 588, 796.77 payable into the EPF as summation of the statutory cash liability on its operations in Ndola and Lusaka.

CBE was also awarded more than US $10,355,187.05, payable into EPF as statutory summation of the total redeemable bond liability for both plants.

Damages were also awarded to the sum of US $323,560.

Labels: EUGENE CHUNGU, LAFARGE, PROPERTY SEIZURE

posted by MrK @ 3:57 PM