Chambishi smelter wouldn’t have opened ‘if a mad person took over’ from Levy – Banda

Tuesday, October 20, 2009

Chambishi smelter wouldn’t have opened ‘if a mad person took over’ from Levy – Banda

Chambishi smelter wouldn’t have opened ‘if a mad person took over’ from Levy – Banda
By Mutuna Chanda in Chambishi
Tue 20 Oct. 2009, 09:22 CAT

PRESIDENT Rupiah Banda has said Chambishi Copper Smelter (CCS) would not have been commissioned if a mad person had taken over the country after president Levy Mwanawasa's death.

And a CCS employee was yesterday forked out of the conference room where President Banda commissioned the smelter after he attempted to alert President Banda of workers' poor conditions of service at the smelter.

Meanwhile, Copperbelt minister Mwansa Mbulakulima politicised what was otherwise a corporate occasion save for the presence of MMD cadres and made a veiled demand for respect from The Post not to refer to President Banda as “Rupiah.”
Commissioning the smelter, President Banda, in apparent reference to PF leader Michael Sata, wondered if the smelter would have been opened if a mad man took over from late president Mwanawasa.

"Can you imagine if as fate would have it our president left us and some mad person came and said 'the Chinese must leave' would we be here today?" President Banda wondered as the audience responded "No!"
President Banda said there were no problems in Lusaka, Kasama and Livingstone and the problems that people read of were imaginary and in the minds of failures.

"The people of the Copperbelt have been called upon not to lose hope about the future of their country because of what they hear on a daily basis," President Banda said. "Actually I want to tell you I have just arrived from Lusaka, there is no problem in Lusaka at all, it's just in the minds of a few people and they are spreading it to everyone 'there's lots of problems in Lusaka'. There's no problem in Lusaka, there's no problem in Kasama, there's no problem in Livingstone.

I was in Kasama, I was in Livingstone, I was in Chipata the other day, all over Zambia the Zambian people are ready to keep this country together and to work to overcome the problems that we are facing as a country."
President Banda's remarks followed Mbulakulima’s statement earlier that problems by civil society organisations in Lusaka had not reached the Copperbelt, and that they should end there.

President Banda praised China's investment in the country.
"During the global financial crunch our Chinese friends did not downsize or close their companies," he said.

"I wondered as President because I spoke to the Chinese Ambassador and the Chinese investors who said 'we will not lay off any Zambian workers, we will not withdraw our investment in this country, we will continue to invest because we believe that the future lies here!' At that moment even I was beginning to doubt whether they were wise people.

Now we all know. There were those who were saying no 'we must pull out, this is the end of the Zambian economy and today those same people are coming back and saying 'no we want to continue, will you give us back the mine?' And I say 'I am sorry the train has left.' So my advice, and I am old enough to advise the world, 'look at China and listen to them carefully, they are the people who really know economics.

If you consider 30 years ago, 40 years ago China was a poor country and because of foresight, their discipline, their hard work, they are where they are today and the whole world depends on them. The whole world including those who were telling us that Chinese investment is here to exploit you, they themselves are queuing up in China for assistance."

He also indicated that the government was considering expanding the road network around Chambishi to ease the movement of goods.

CCS has a capacity of 150,000 metric tonnes of copper concentrate per annum and receives feed from Lumwana, Chambishi Non Ferrous Metals Corporation Africa (NFCA) and Chibuluma Mine.

CCS is among the investments that are in the Chambishi Multi Facility Economic Zone (MFEZ) that will include manufacturing and export led institutions.
CNMC also invested US $2.8 million in building a power substation, in which it has 60 per cent shareholding while Zesco has 40 per cent that provides electricity to CCS. President Banda expressed delight that more than 600 jobs had been created at CCS.

However, after President Banda's address in the conference room, one of the more than 600 workers at CCS who was standing in the audience on the north western side raised his hand in anticipation that he would be given a chance to raise issues over the conditions of service at the Chinese run smelter.

Security officials confronted the man and quietly took him out of the hall.
Outside the hall the man explained that he wanted to let President Banda know of the poor conditions of service that workers faced.

He said the highest-paid employee at the smelter got K700,000 while the lowest got K350,000 and that their medical schemes did not include anyone of the immediate family such as spouse or children.

And Chinese Ambassador to Zambia Li Qiangmin said 2009 would see the sharpest increase of Foreign Direct Investment from China to Zambia with the taking over of Luanshya Copper Mines (LCM) and Munali Nickel Mine.

Ambassador Li said Chinese investment in Zambia reached US $800 million by the end of 2008 and that should the investment plan, such as the US $400 million in LCM and in the MFEZ among others, be carried out, the Asian nation's FDI to the country would double in a few years.

China Non-Ferrous Metals Group Corporation (CNMC) vice-president Zhang Keli said the capacity of CCS would soon be increased by 100,000 metric tonnes to process 250,000 metric tonnes of copper concentrate per year.

Meanwhile, Mbulakulima in reference to The Post complained of what he termed as 'insults' and wondered in which part of the world that happened.
He said even in most advanced states, heads of states were not referred to by their first names.

He said much as the head of state, Vice-President and Cabinet as well as deputy ministers were the people's servants, they were human beings who required respect.

Mbulakulima also called on Zambians on the Copperbelt to reject the actions of the consortium of civil society organisations in Lusaka to protest against the acquittal of former president Frederick Chiluba and the decision by the Director of Public Prosecutions (DPP) not to appeal.

Labels: CHAMBISHI MINE, RUPIAH BANDA