Zambians shouldn't be taken for granted - Scott
By Roy Habaalu
Sun 08 Jan. 2012, 14:00 CAT
VICE-President Guy Scott says Zambians should not be taken for granted. Speaking after a 30-minute closed door meeting with unions representatives and Kansanshi Mine management in Solwezi on Friday, Dr Scott said his appointment as Vice-President showed that Zambians could not be taken for granted.
"That's reason why they (Zambians) made a muzungu Vice-President, it sends a message that you Zambians cannot be taken for granted," he said.
Briefing journalists after the meeting, Vice-President Scott said the management system at Kansanshi had broken down and urged management to reorganise itself.
Vice-President Scott, however, did not elaborate further the outcome of the meeting which was called to discuss workers' concerns over salaries and working conditions at Kansanshi Mine.
Kansanshi Mine is Zambia's largest producer of copper. It is majority owned by First Quantum Minerals while the Zambian government has retained 20 per cent shareholding in the mine.
Over 50 miners at the mine last week went on strike, demanding 100 per cent salary increase and other improved conditions of service.
They also demanded, among other things, the removal of some senior managers including public relations manager Godfrey Msiska.
Just after a closed-door meeting, foreign affairs minister Chishimba Kambwili warned Msiska of dismissal.
Meanwhile, Vice-President Scott, in an interview, said former MMD ministers under probe should know that times have changed.
Vice-president Scott said the government would continue investigating anyone alleged to have stolen public resources until they were recovered.
"I am warning them (MMD officials) that times have changed. In some cases some South African companies were donating bicycles to MMD so we have to keep investigating. Who knew we would find K2 billion buried?" asked Vice-President Scott.
"Some of them (investors) were making donations to the MMD in return for contracts, especially the Chinese. In some cases, they inflated contract prices so the investigations will continue until we are satisfied."
On foreign investment, Vice-President Scott said the PF government is investor friendly and expected investors to respect ordinary Zambians.
He said the PF government would not forget the poor and ordinary Zambians like the MMD did in 20 years of being in power.
"We're concerned because the MMD slipped into a disorderly situation.
They were only oiling their wheels without respect for unions and workers. Poor people remind us that they hired us to work for them," said Vice-President Scott.
Labels: GODFREY MSISKA, GUY SCOTT, KANSANSHI MINING PLC, LABOUR
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Kansanshi mine strike is illegal says FQM
TIME PUBLISHED - Wednesday, January 4, 2012, 2:32 pm
First Quantum Minerals says the strike action by miners at its Kansanshi mine in Solwezi is illegal.
Workers at the Kansanshi mine, Zambia’s largest copper mine which produced 231,000 tonnes of the red metal in 2010, downed tools on Tuesday demanding 100 percent pay rises and bringing production to a halt.
Company spokesperson Godfrey Msiska says there was no deadlock reached and as far as the management is concerned the strike is illegal.
He confirmed that the strike action by the workers has entered the second day today, with workers blocking the gate to the mine plant.
Mr Msiska has appealed to union officials to convince the workers to go back to work so that negotiations, which had been suspended because of the strike, could resume.
[Reuters]
Labels: FIRST QUANTUM MINING, GODFREY MSISKA, KANSANSHI MINING PLC, MINING, STRIKE
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Kansanshi launches K200m community project
By David Chongo in Solwezi
Mon 03 May 2010, 22:40 CAT
KANSANSHI Mine has launched a K200 million poultry, irrigated vegetable and fish farming community empowerment project under parent company First Quantum Minerals Group’s corporate social responsibility programme.
Releasing details of the initiative in a statement to The Post in Solwezi, Kansanshi public relations manager Godfrey Msiska said the project was targeted at creating income generating activities for the surrounding Kyafukuma community near the mine.
He said the three-phase programme was aimed at not only creating employment for the local community but also enriching the environment and communities in which Kansanshi Mine operates.
Msiska said the projected amount in the exercise included the cost of rehabilitating old existing infrastructure, maintenance works, construction of new buildings, training and purchase of materials and livestock.
“Kansanshi will provide funding to meet the cost of rehabilitating the existing infrastructure such as the canals. The vegetable-farming project will entail the setting up of an irrigation system to tap water from one of the rivers in Kyafukuma, so that the community can grow vegetables all year round.
The budget on this project also covers training of the community in appropriate and sound training in fish farming, purchase of 11,000 fingerlings and start-up feeds… chicks, medicines, chicken feed, drinkers, feeders, doors, lamps and charcoal; all the inputs for vegetable growing which include fertilisers, seeds, pesticides and fungicides, spray pumps and other similar implements,” he said.
“A number of residents will be employed as brick layers, supervisors and labourers during construction of the irrigation system. Labour alone will gobble up K30m of the K84m earmarked for the irrigation project. These projects will not only create employment for the Kyafukuma community, but will also provide them with a source of sustainable income which should, in turn, spur them to create their own wealth.”
He hoped that the community in Kyafukuma would regenerate the investment and set up a revolving enterprise in capacity building and cater for some foodstuff needs of the province.
Beside the K84 million set for irrigated farming in the K200 million funding, K49 million would go into poultry farming and K67 million toward fish farming.
The project, in which Kansanshi is has received technical assistance from the district veterinary, fisheries and agricultural offices, follows the mine’s promotion of the jatropha out-grower programme in Kabwela and Mushitala and the bee keeping project in Mutanda.
Labels: FIRST QUANTUM MINING, GODFREY MSISKA, KANSANSHI MINING PLC, TAXATION
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