Maravi

Collum mine gets ultimatum on safety

COMMENT - "Gashum Muchindu, said he earns K20,000 a day. Are these the famous 'jobs' that giving away all the country's resources for a bribe will bring to Zambia? K20,000 at K5,000 is $4 per day. Hardly an improvement over $1,- per day. I say give people land, and cheap credit, and they will create their own jobs, which will pay A LOT more than that. It is time for the Zambian government to get serious about taxing the mines.

Collum mine gets ultimatum on safety
By Gift Chanda
Thu 15 Mar. 2012, 12:59 CAT

THE government has given Chinese-run Collum Coal Mine a 30-day ultimatum to improve safety conditions or risk closure. And workers at the mine have threatened to strike over wages.

Well-placed sources disclosed that the ultimatum on Collum Coal Mine was given during a closed-door meeting held recently in Lusaka with the three Chinese brothers who own the mine in Sinazongwe.

Sources said the mine was given up to end of March to implement a set of guidelines that border on safety, failure to which the mine risks being shut down.

"During the meeting, the officials from the Ministry of Mines made it clear that if safety standards are not improved at the mine, government will not hesitate to close the mine," the source said.

"The mine has been problematic from way back and it is clear that the mining method in use is not the best. So the government told them to look into that as well. They were also told to provide safety gear for the workers."

Early this year, then mines minister Wylbur Simuusa threatened to revoke the mine's licence and shut down its operations due to poor safety standards.

Simuusa expressed sadness at the way the mine was being run by the Chinese, saying it was clear that the owners were totally disregarding safety standards and did not even have qualified personnel approved by the Ministry of Mines to run the mine.

A miner early this year died while underground after a rock-fall occurred at shaft 3 at the mine. And workers at the mine have complained of poor working conditions. They have threatened to down tools if their conditions are not improved. The workers complained of working long hours with little pay. They accused management of threatening them with dismissals whenever they complained about wages.

An underground worker, Gashum Muchindu, said he earns K20,000 a day for loading a 75-tonne bucket with raw coal.

"All the workers have agreed to down tools if salaries remain the same at the end of this month," said Rodgers Sinda, a mine representative.

Labels: CHINESE COLLUM COAL MINE, LABOUR, WYLBUR SIMUUSA

posted by MrK @ 5:19 PM