Miners union in Solwezi suspends interim president

Miners union in Solwezi suspends interim president
By David Chongo in Solwezi
Mon 31 Jan. 2011, 04:00 CAT

SOME executive members of the newly formed miners’ union in Solwezi have suspended interim president Thomas Mpashi for bad conduct.

Differences have deepened in the newly formed Consolidated Miners and Allied Workers union of Zambia (CMAWUZ) , leading to the suspension of Mpashi, who had earlier dropped and replaced them with a new team for being non-miners.

Mpashi in an interview said seven members were dropped following recent events in the labour movement suggesting that a union leader must also be employed in the same industry in which he represented other members.

“This change has come with the new ‘Act’ which states that only (eligible) employees in the mines can form a trade union to represent fellow miners,” Mpashi said.

He said initially, CMAWUZ erred by drafting non-miners into its national executive committee but realised the predicament and wanted to correct the anomaly.

Mpashi accused ‘former’ interim general secretary Eshilon Mutobe of illegally withholding CMAWUZ files and purporting that the dropped members were still active by virtue of possessing the documents.

But Mutobe, in a statement, maintained that Mpashi was the one who was suspended for his “bad conduct” and putting CMAWUZ in disrepute.

Mutobe argued that Mpashi could not arbitrarily dissolve the executive as an individual because CMAWUZ regulations did not allow for such an action by any one member.

Mpashi has been on a relentless drive recruiting new members for CMWAUZ in Solwezi and on the Copperbelt.

However, both National Union of Mining and Allied Workers (NUMAW) and Miners Union of Zambia (MUZ) in Solwezi have condemned the formation of CMAWUZ alleging that it was a decoy union funded by government to foment divisions in NUMAW and MUZ for their perceived support of opposition political parties.

At its formative stage, CMWAUZ proposed to campaign for President Banda in 2011 and even presented a budget for funding of the campaign activities.