Maravi

Investors mining manganese upset chief Chimese

Investors mining manganese upset chief Chimese
By Misheck Wangwe in Mansa
Thu 22 Dec. 2011, 13:27 CAT

CHIEF Chimese of Mansa says he is upset with the manganese mining investors who have continued to exploit his subjects and have failed to honour their corporate social responsibility in his chiefdom.

Speaking when a group of journalists, musicians and members of the Citizens Forum and the Local Government Association of Zambia paid a courtesy call on him at his palace in Mansa, chief Chimese said the new government through the Ministry of Mines and Mineral Resources must come up with serious interventions to protect the interests of the locals on the mining of manganese in Luapula.

He said with the change of government, people were hopeful that the PF government would put things right unlike the previous MMD regime that failed to protect the interests of the local people in manganese mining.

Chief Chimese said it was unacceptable for the people working for small and large scale investors in the manganese mines to be paid meager salaries when the investors were making huge sums of money.

"I urge the new government not to do things without consulting us. This is the problem we saw with the previous MMD government. They used to make decisions in Lusaka and issue mining licences to bogus investors without consulting us the locals. On several occasions, I appealed to the then minister of mines Maxwell Mwale to intervene but our calls were in vain. My prayer is that the PF government will do things differently," chief Chimese said.

He said government must stop issuance of mining licences on manganese until after scrutinising the operations of the current investors.

Chief Chimese said the voice of the poor in Luapula over their rich mineral wealth was not heard because the government was not willing to listen to their cries.

He said it was unacceptable that his chiefdom had no proper roads, schools and other important infrastructure when it was rich in mineral resources such as manganese.

"Why should our people continue suffering when this is a land of plenty in terms of minerals? Our people working for these investors are given slave wages and conditions. They can't even meet the needs of their families but they are working. We are watching, they are taking our minerals and one day we will remain with empty trenches if nothing is done by the government to correct the situation," he said.

The chief said his desire was to see the lives of the people in the 251 villages uplifted as there was no excuse for them to continue suffering when there was a government in place.

Labels: CHIEFS, CITIZENS FORUM, FDI, MANGANESE

posted by MrK @ 10:23 PM