Mpelembe Drilling employees accuse Musokotwane, others of damaging Rupiah's image
By Mwila Chansa-Ntambi
Wed 27 July 2011, 13:59 CAT
SOME Mpelembe Drilling employees have accused the ministerial and technical committee constituted to look into the issue of terminal benefits for the company’s former employees of ‘campaigning against’ President Rupiah Banda.
The employees and concerned citizens, led by Mineworkers Union of Zambia (MUZ) Mpelembe Drilling branch chairperson Geoffrey Lishika, told The Post in a walk-in interview in Kitwe that the ministerial and technical committee was playing double standards.
About K19.5 billion is owed to the ex-workers in unpaid terminal benefits.
“We raised a petition to President Rupiah Banda over terminal benefits for Mpelembe Drilling employees who have not been paid their terminal benefits. About 1,800 employees are affected. This includes those who stopped work in December 2009 and those whose terminal benefits were not paid after privatisation,” Lishika explained.
“President Banda replied and told us that he would constitute a team of permanent secretaries and ministers to look into this issue. The team was constituted in December 2010 and from the technical side, Mr Evans Chibiliti was chairman while Mr Situmbeko Musokotwane was chair on the ministerial side.”
Lishika said stakeholders felt that the team constituted was not working effectively because they had never done anything tangible from the time it was established.
“We travelled to Lusaka with my secretary and we were sleeping at InterCity Bus Terminus for over a month but nothing tangible came out. When you see this person, he tells you to see the next person just like that. Those people are playing games,” Lishika said.
He complained that when they went to State House, they were blocked by President Banda’s private secretary Eddie Mwanza.
And secretary of the pressure group, Daybin Siuluta charged that President Banda was surrounded by ‘a pack of wolves’.
“We just want him President Banda to call us so that we find the way forward on this issue. The people involved to solve this are too many and they’ve been telling us to be patient. But our patience has run out, and we have turned into patients,” Siuluta said.
He wondered who was going to benefit from the ‘unprecedented’ development that the government always boasted about if its people were suffering.
And MUZ Mpelembe Drilling branch secretary Chisha Indako urged President Banda to accommodate the union and the pressure group so that they could find a way forward for all interested parties on the issue of terminal benefits.
Labels: MPELEMBE DRILLING COMPANY, RUPIAH BANDA, SITUMBEKO MUSOKOTWANE
Read more...
Mpelembe Drilling workers urge ZCCM-IH to take over operations
By Zumani Katasefa in Kitwe
Sun 28 Mar. 2010, 04:00 CAT
TROUBLED Mpelembe Drilling Company (MDC) workers in Luanshya have urged the government through Zambia Consolidated Copper Mines (ZCCM–Investment Holdings) to take over the running of the company.
The workers said this following the seizure of various property from MDC by court bailiffs over debts the firm owes various institutions.
“At the moment about 800 workers are not working, they have not been paid their salaries for months. This is why we want the government to allow ZCCM-Investment Holdings to take over the running of this company,” Mine Workers Union of Zambia MDC branch chairman Geoffrey Lishika said.
He said it was sad that the government had failed to quickly intervene in the problems the company was facing for some time now and workers had been reduced to destitutes.
“Almost everyone is not working, only a few workers who are based in Chingola are working. So right now (Friday) we are here in Lusaka to seek audience with commerce minister Felix Mutati over this problem,” Lishika said.
He complained that on a number of occasions, the workers had written to the government seeking its intervention in the matter but there had been no favourable response.
He hoped that the government would urgently intervene in the matter and help improve the situation at MDC.
“We are facing serious problems, our children cannot go to school, we cannot also afford a decent meal ... honestly how do you expect one to live like this?” he wondered.
Another worker who declined to be named for fear of victimisation said Luanshya member of parliament Simon Kachimba who is also deputy labour minister had done little to help the workers despite being fully aware of the problems.
“This man is not good, he was supposed to be in the forefront helping us, but he has completely ignored our plight, he is our member of parliament but he is too silent over our issue,” he complained.
For sometime now, MDC workers have been staging protests in Luanshya and Kitwe against the erratic payment of their salaries by management, among many other issues.
Labels: MPELEMBE DRILLING COMPANY, ZCCM-IH
Read more...
Police deny Mpelembe Drilling workers permit for demo
By Zumani Katasefa
Thu 26 Nov. 2009, 04:00 CAT
MPELEMBE Drilling Company (MDC) workers have complained against police’s decision to deny them a permit to stage a peaceful demonstration to pressure government to intervene in the
non-payment of their over-six-months salaries.
Mine Workers Union of Zambia (MUZ) Mpelembe branch chairman Geoffrey Lishika complained yesterday that the police asked the workers to instead seek permission from Kitwe district commissioner McDonald Mtine for them to go ahead with the demonstration.
"Police have denied us a permit and they asked us if we could just hold a meeting or see the district commissioner before we could stage our demonstration," complained Lishika.
He said it was sad that workers were not provided with a platform through which they could air their grievances. Lishika said workers had made several complaints to the government over the problems they were going through but it had never come to their rescue.
"The government should help the company get the K6 billion the defunct Roan Antelope Mining Corporation owes the company; this would help the company sort out some of its problems," said Lishika.
He complained that a few weeks ago workers were just given K500,000 salary advances and wondered what one could do with such little amounts of money.
He said some employees on half salaries had not received their half salaries for nine months.
Lishika said among other things the workers were complaining about were unpaid Christmas bonuses for 2007 and 2008 and that widows had not received their benefits.
Last month wives of Mpelembe workers from Mufulira demonstrated against non-payment of their spouses’ salaries.
Labels: DEMONSTRATION, MPELEMBE DRILLING COMPANY, SALARIES
Read more...
