200 Ngabwe Mine workers protest

200 Ngabwe Mine workers protest
By Misheck Wangwe and Isaac Phiri in Kitwe
Sun 30 Sep. 2012, 09:40 CAT

OVER 200 youths that were recruited by Ngabwe Mine of Central Province yesterday protested in Kitwe, demanding the arrest of the proprietor for allegedly abandoning them at the mine.

The irate youths that were recruited from different parts of the country blocked Kabelenga road in Kitwe, which leads to the labour office and attempted to block Obote Avenue before being restrained by riot police.

The workers said the government and law enforcement wings must take action against Felix Chipaila and his managers who allegedly abandoned them in the remotest part of Central Province in chief Ngabwe's area with no food, transport or means of communication.

A representative of the workers, Victor Bwalya, described working conditions at the mine as slavery, saying the over 800 mineworkers were living in an 'open prison' at the mine.

Bwalya said there was no road leading to the mine when they were taken there and they worked for two months to clear over 250 kilometres but were not paid.

"I came from Kasama and we were recruited from Wusakile here in Kitwe and we were taken to the mine site. It's in the remote area of Central Province. We were told that everything is there, (that) they've put up nice shelters and beds, but we found nothing.

We were sleeping on those big leaves found in the bush. When it comes to food, it's a sad story; we were serving ourselves nshima in cups and when we run out of food, it's only porridge and many times we slept on empty stomachs but we were working like that. Sometimes we would have nshima with salt for a week," Bwalya said.

Bwalya said the management of the mine promised to be paying them K2.8 million as salaries, but had never done so.

He said the working and living conditions at the mine became unbearable as many of their colleagues started suffering from dysentery, diarrhoea and malaria.

"Most of my colleagues became generally weak, a situation that forced the 200 workers to start walking from the mine to chief Ngabwe after the mine site managers disappeared," he said.

"We started begging for food from the villagers in chief Ngabwe and got our clothes and some few valuables in exchange for food. That's how we started walking from chief Ngabwe to chief Mukubwe. We walked over 70 kilometres and the village headman we found assisted us very much. We sold our remaining belongings and we raised about K8 million for transport and we booked a bus from chief Mukubwe to Luanshya and then here," Bwalya said.

He said they wanted the police and the district administration to locate the proprietor who was nowhere to be seen so that he could pay them their dues and be brought to justice as many of his colleagues from various parts of the country were stranded and spending nights at Kitwe district administration offices.

Kitwe district commissioner Elias Kamanga said the police and the district administration was working round the clock to locate Chipaila.

Addressing the workers, Kamanga said it was unacceptable that a Zambian dumped the young men in the bush after promising them jobs, adding that a positive answer would be made known to them by tomorrow.