Maravi

‘Don’t expect more from the mines’

‘Don’t expect more from the mines’
By The Post
Tue 01 Mar. 2011, 04:00 CAT

WE have been told not to expect more from the mines by Cathy Walubita from Konkola Copper Mines Plc.

If we can’t expect more from the mines, as things stand today, what’s the use of continuing to mine? Cathy tells us to instead question the government how it was utilising the taxes paid by the mines. This is not bad advice from Cathy.

We should actually be more demanding than we are for accountability on the use of public funds by those in charge of government affairs. But we know that what they are getting from the mines, even if they may be misusing it, misapplying it or misappropriating it, is far less than what they should be getting in more fair and just deals.

We would like to believe that our government is in some partnership with every mining company in this country. We say this because all the mineral resources of our country are owned collectively by the people of Zambia through their government. While the mining companies bring money, equipment and expertise to the undertaking, the Zambian government is bringing in the minerals, the copper ore. This is not nothing. It is a huge contribution to the whole undertaking.

Without the ore, which the Zambian government owns, there would be no mining no matter how much money, equipment or expertise the mining companies may have.

So, a more fair, just and equitable sharing of the benefits from mining is needed. No one wants the mining companies to make losses, to go bust because we are taking all the profits and they are remaining with nothing. We know that they didn’t come here on a charity mission; they are here to make profits for their shareholders. They are not here because they are friends of the Zambian people.

It is not the Zambian people they have followed; it is money, profits from the sale of minerals that they are after. Sometimes – and foolishly so – our politicians, our public servants tend to think that because they have been blinded by gifts, bribes and donations from the owners of these mining companies, then they are their friends who are here to help them develop the country.

Mining companies are not here to help us develop the country; they are here to make as much money, as much profits as possible and take them away to their homelands or wherever they may find it appropriate. If we appreciate this fact, then we will be able to deal with them on a better basis.

All other things they say or claim are just public relations exercises. Yes, it cannot be denied that the roles of business owners and management have a central importance from the viewpoint of society, because they are at the heart of that network of technical, commercial, financial and cultural bonds that characterises the modern business reality.

And for this reason, the exercise of responsibility by business owners and management requires constant reflection on the moral motivations that should guide the personal choices of those to whom these tasks fall.

This is the moral perspective or dimension of the roles of business owners and management. And from a moral point of view, we are told that the motive of business should be not only to make profit but even more to contribute to the common good of society.

We doubt it if mining companies in any way see things this way. Yes, sometimes they employ public relations managers who are experts in saying such things, in telling lies, in hoodwinking the public while they rip them of their resources.

Truly, the sense of responsibility in economic initiative should demonstrate the individual and social virtues necessary for the development and a business enterprise should be a community of solidarity. But this is not so in the world we live in today; it only exists in the utopian world we dream of. And in saying this, we are not in any way saying we shouldn’t be dreaming of such a world, of such a more just, fair and humane world. We should keep on dreaming of such a better world because today’s reality was yesterday’s dreams and today’s dreams will be tomorrow’s reality. We have no alternative but to continue dreaming, with the hope that the better world will become a reality – as it will, if we keep struggling. We should never renounce our dreams of a better world, our utopias. Struggling for utopia means, in part, building it. We should dream of a country in which the motive of business is not only to make profit but even more to contribute to the common good of society. We should dream of a country in which the benefits from the mining of copper and other minerals are shared in a more fair, just and humane manner between the mining companies and our people through their government.

And as Davidson Chilipamushi, a Copperbelt University business studies lecturer, has correctly warned, this unfair, unjust and inequitable sharing of the benefits of mining may soon result in political resentment against the government and indeed the mining companies themselves.

It is visible to all our people that there is very little that mining is benefiting them. Actually, put on the scale, the cost of mining to our people may by far outweigh the benefits. Every day their environment is being destroyed, forests are disappearing, rivers are being polluted, their way of life is being disturbed by mining in so many ways for very little or no compensation.

It is not a curse for a country to be endowed with minerals. We should every day be thanking creation for giving us this beautiful land that is full of all sorts of minerals in its belly. But again this reminds us of the parable of the sower. This just goes to prove the fact that it is not what we are given that differentiates us from others. It is what we make out of what we have.

We have all the natural resources – minerals, water, abundant arable land, good weather and climate, peaceful citizens – but we are still much poorer than those who have none of these wonderful things creation can give. What is it that we want from creation for us to improve our living conditions? In Bemba they say “Lesa tapelakuminwe apalamikafye (meaning God doesn’t put things in your hands, he just puts them near you and the rest is up to you)”.

There is need for us to manage the natural resources of our country in a more intelligent way. These minerals we are today squandering will not be there forever, they will one day finish. And if by that day we have not earned anything from their exploitation, we will be in trouble. If today we are this poor with all these natural resources, what will happen when they are depleted, when they are finished? Will these friends of our political leaders and public servants come here again? Will they still be their friends? For what? There is no friendship here. There is only exploitation, bribery and corruption.

And we have every right to complain about the conduct of these mining companies but in the final analysis the blame should be on us, on our government. To think that these mining companies will exercise moral judgment and by their own accord volunteer to pay more taxes and carry out all sorts of social responsibility is an undesirable step down a very slippery slope.

These companies will always do everything possible to reduce the amount of tax payable and they will always arrange their affairs so that the tax attaching is less than it otherwise would be. And moreover, they are not under the smallest obligation, moral or other, to arrange the tax affairs of their mining activities so as to enable the Zambian government to put the largest possible shovel into their earnings, their profits.

The only way we can benefit more from mining activities is by the government coming up with reasonable taxes and by developing good anti-tax avoidance legislation. If this will keep mining companies away from Zambia, let it be so because the country will not be making a loss; it will be preserving its minerals for future generations to exploit in a beneficial or profitable manner. We shouldn’t give away the natural resources of this country for nothing, for illusory benefits.

Labels: CORRUPTION, KCM, WINDFALL TAX

posted by MrK @ 3:33 PM