Government to resurrect KK’s Zambianisation programme
TIME PUBLISHED - Wednesday, November 30, 2011, 4:22 pm
The government has resurrected Dr Kenneth Kaunda’s 1971 Zambianisation program that aims to put locals in management positions. The Zambianisation Committee is lead by Deputy Minister of Labour Rayford Mbulu, who this morning visited Airtel, the biggest telecommunications company in the country, to inquire on the number of expatriates it has employed.
Mr Mbulu told the Airtel Managing Director Fayaz King that the Patriotic Front Government wanted to see Zambians in “decent employment” adding that it was going to focus on citizen’s empowerment and was not going to accept cheap expatriate labour.
“We are only going to accept expatriates with very rare skills that cannot be locally obtained,” Mr. Mbulu said. “Even then, they should be understudies to transfer those rare skills to locals so that those people can quickly handover to locals. That skills transfer will build capacity and will make Zambians excel.”
He then asked Airtel to submit how many employees it had, what skills existed at the company that were not locally possessed, the number of expatriates and the expected length of stay and at what point they were going to hand over theirpositions to Zambians.
In response, King disclosed that Airtel currently employed 393 locals with just four expatriate managers.
Mr King said Zambia was among the top four important investments in Africa which called for the best skills locally and across the continent.
He said it was the policy of Airtel to let its African operations run by Africans but not necessarily Zambians.
Mr King disclosed that a couple of Zambians were working in other parts of Africa and that it was important that the country also accepted staff from those countries.
He also disclosed that the biggest challenge the telecom had was staff retention as rival companies tended to poach skilled labour after the company trained them and sent them abroad for work experience.
“When our staff comes back from training or from working in our international operations, they attract a premium and the opposition gets them,” he said. “We are trying to fill all availablepositions with locals, that is in line with our policies. Our brand is unique and requires a lot of training, they are no short cuts. Unfortunately, after that training, we begin to compete with the international job market. In some instances, where you pay an engineer US$3000, they are offered US$12, 000 which makes it difficult to retain them.”
Labels: KENNETH KAUNDA, RAYFORD MBULU, ZAMBIANISATION
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Rupiah warns investors over employees’ safety
By Darious Kapembwa in Kitwe
Mon 29 Nov. 2010, 04:01 CAT
PRESIDENT Rupiah Banda says he has received complaints that
unemployment levels remain very high despite the huge investments and the country’s economic growth.During the commissioning of the west ore body at China Non-Ferrous Corporation Africa (NFCA) in Chambishi on Saturday, President Banda directed investors to ensure that jobs that Zambians were qualified to do were offered to them.
“The Zambianisation committee at the Ministry of Labour and Social Security should henceforth ensure that this directive is adhered to at all times,” President Banda said amidst approval from a sizeable crowd that witnessed the ceremony.
President Banda said the government valued the safety of miners and would not tolerate unsafe work practices that were harmful to both workers and the environment as that negated the whole purpose of mining.
“I wish to warn all mining companies and indeed all companies operating in Zambia that the government will take stern measures against those who choose to compromise on safety and environmental standards by adopting unsafe occupational practices for the sake of profit,” President Banda said.
He said with the opening of the west ore body, Chambishi mine had a revived productive underground mine employing 1,500 people and producing one million tonnes of ore per annum, with a life span of 25 years.
China Non-Ferrous Metal Mining (CNMC) group president Luo Tao said the company would also put up an additional US$400 million in the development of the south east ore body of Chambishi Copper Mine whose completion would bring the total copper production to 100,000 tonnes.
He said the company had invested US$1.4 billion in Zambia and an additional US$1 billion would be invested in the next three years through construction of Chambishi sub-zone and Lusaka sub-zone of cooperation, Muliashi leaching project in Luanshya, expansion of Chambishi Copper Smelter and the south east ore body development.
“By the end of 2013, CNMC’s total investment in Zambia will surpass US$2.5 billion with over 20,000 job opportunities provided,” Luo said.
He dismissed as false information that some workers sent on recess during rehabilitation of two winders at Baluba Mine in Luanshya would lose their jobs.
Luo said no employee would be sent away.
Luo also announced a donation of K500 million each from Chambishi Copper Smelter (CCS) and NFCA to Kalulushi Municipal Council.
Kalulushi Municipal Council and CCS have been embroiled in protracted disagreements over the K8.5 billion unpaid land rates which were later reduced after the company asked for rebates with government intervention, prompting councillors to argue that the reduction would affect service delivery.
The two parties later reached an agreement to dismantle the revised debt in installments and the company had started paying.
Earlier, NFCA chief executive officer Wang Chunla said the mine was expected to produce one million tonnes of ore with 18,000 tonnes of finished copper.
Wang said the mine would pay US$10 million to the government as annual mineral royalty and corporate tax.
Labels: RUPIAH BANDA, ZAMBIANISATION
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Law to empower Zambians with key positions in firms on cards
Wednesday, August 11, 2010, 15:34
Government has disclosed that it will soon enact a law that will give Zambian nationals a chance to hold high positions in companies owned by foreign investors.
Labour Deputy Minister Simon Kachimba says Zambia has highly qualified nationals who have the capability to effectively run most of the big companies in the country hence the need to for them to be given a chance to hold key positions in these companies.
Mr Kachimba said though investors can bring in a few expatiates in key positions like finance, the majority of top portfolios should be held by local people, adding thatGovernment will ensure that this happens in its bid to empower local people.
The Deputy Minister was speaking in Lusaka today when he addressed the Zambianisation committee that has been tasked to implement measures aimed at curtailing the recruitment of cheap expatriate labour.
Mr Kachimba said Government is committed to providing decent employment for its people and will do everything possible to ensure that it safeguards employment for its nationals.
He stressed that Government is also committed to preparing Zambian nationals so that they take over jobs from expatriates as a way of empowering them.
Mr Kachimba however said for this to happen it is vital to come up with a succession plan aimed at identifying and developing internal personnel with the potential to fill key or critical organisational positions.
He urged the Zambianisation committee to follow up each company’s succession plan so that the country has fully backed nationals who will runcompanies effectively once they take over.
[ZANIS]
Labels: LABOUR, SIMON KACHIMBA, ZAMBIANISATION
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Govt to re-introduce Zambianisation committee
By Chibaula Silwamba in Nchanga
Thursday November 08, 2007 [03:00]
THE government will soon re-introduce the Zambianisation committee that will stop foreign cheap labour from coming to Zambia, labour and social security minister Ronald Mukuma has assured. Mukuma on Tuesday expressed concern at unskilled labourers coming to Zambia to do jobs that could be done by Zambians.
“I have to assure you that the interest of Zambian citizens is being taken care of. As a result the government in the laws which are being amended, is going to re-introduce the Zambianisation committee and this Zambianisation committee will mainly look after the interest of Zambians to ensure that we don’t have cheap labour coming into this country to occupy the positions that can be held and done by Zambians,” Mukuma said.
“So the Zambians’ interest is being taken care of in the amended laws that we are going to introduce and therefore nobody should cheat you that these investors are coming to control us. That is not possible.”
He urged Zambians not to worry about investors colonising them.
“That is not true because what is happening is that every investor that comes in will have to operate within the laws of Zambia,” Mukuma said.
“We are currently having a lot of investment in the mining sector and as a result, the employment rate on the Copperbelt Province is increasing at the moment, we have quite a lot of people who have been re-employed compared to the time before the New Deal government came into power.”
He attributed the increase in the number of investors to the good economic policies, which the Mwanawasa government implemented.
Two weeks ago commerce, trade and industry minister Felix Mutati expressed concern at the increasing number of Chinese labourers coming into Zambia.
Labels: CEE, ZAMBIANISATION
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