Maamba Collieries retrenchees ask government for relief food

Maamba Collieries retrenchees ask government for relief food
By Tovin Ngombe in Maamba
Sun 13 Dec. 2009, 04:00 CAT

MAAMBA Collieries retrenchees in Sinazongwe district have appealed for relief food from the government before they die of starvation.

The retrenchees have requested the District Disaster management Committee (DDMC) to assist them in acquiring relied food since the government had taken long to pay them their packages.

Sinazongwe district administrative officer Sokoloku Daka told the DDMC meeting on Friday that the disaster management committee under the office of the Vice President would be informed of the development in Maamba to assist the starving families.

A team of officers from the DDMC that carried out a mission to ascertain the level of vulnerability among the retrenched workers in Maamba Township revealed in their report during a meeting at council chambers that government should pay the retrenched workers to save them from starvation.

The team discovered that most of the retrenchees were surviving through the sale of mangoes and that Maamba Collieries, their former employers could also not assist them because the mine was also undergoing financial difficulties.

The team has recommended that the government should give them relief food while their issue of retrenchment package was being addressed.

The 187 retrenched workers last received K2 million, each two years ago, and they have been having difficulties in sending their children to schools.

Maamba ward councillor Peter Siavulwe, who is also a retrenchee said the retrenched workers would meet on January 15 next year at the High Court in Lusaka to calculate the money that government owes them as salaries.

He said they were supposed to be on a salary until government paid them their full package but it was not done and they were being paid small amounts for the past 10 years.
Siavulwe said from 2000, government had failed to pay their retrenchment packaged in full.