Tuesday, March 19, 2024

Minister condemns Chinese “filthy” Coal mine

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Deputy Minister for Local Government and Housing Elijah Muchima has described the sanitary condition prevailing at the Nkanddabwe Collume Coal Mine for Chinese in Sinazongwe district as pathetic.

Mr Muchima who was accompanied by government officials from the Ministry of Mines and the ministry of Health to ascertain the real cause of the cholera outbreak in Sinazongwe district equated the road leading to the mine as that of a “cattle shed.”

He said the miners and the surrounding communities were subjected to drinking water that was unfit for human consumption a situation that has led to the spread of the Cholera cases in the district.

The Deputy Minister noted that the operation of the mine was hazardous to the employees.

He said the mine was previously closed for its failure to observe safety measures but it was being reopened adding that such situation could not be condoned.

Mr Muchima said the experts would write a report to government to ensure that an appropriate action was taken to address the situation at the Nkanddabwe collume mine.

He said government supports Chinese investment in the country but would not accept a situation where Zambians will be working as slaves.

“We would rather be poor than to subject our citizens to inhuman conditions, government will not tolerate such attitudes of enslaving our own people. I am disturbed with what I have seen,” Mr Muchima said.

21 COMMENTS

  1. this mine should be closed indefineitely bravo muchima for speaking out. these CHINESE should treat us with dignity and respect.

  2. Why can’t the powers that be take action for a lasting solution at this mine. We are talking about lives of people here which are at risk

  3. This minister of rare breed is funny only last week Sata said the same, all pygmies, hyenas, veterans in sin condemned him, now he has seen sense!

  4. This is exactly what the role of govt and Ministers, worthy their salt, supposed to be—to lookout for the interests of their constituency, the Zambian worker!! This Minister needs every support he can get to right this wrong. I hope no one above him will shut him up and tell him to fall in line.

  5. This is what Sata has been saying. Zambians are not animals to be treated in such manner. Pravo minister, hope you will not be fired for speaking against the chinese infestors???

  6. In as much as i agree with the minister about the conditions at this mine.I tend to think their is more to this story than meetsthe eye ,someone somewhere is being paid by these chinese creeps to reopen this mine.Its not the first time iam reading about this mine in Sinanzogwe,from what i have ready this mine has been closed three times before and it keeps on reopening without meeting the minimum safety standards.What i suggest is criminal charges should be brought against the owners of this mine,because the last time it was closed there were some people were killed in some accident which has not been explained upto now.Make these so called invetors accountable so that when they go back they will tell their friends in Beijing about it.!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

  7. Prevention is better than cure, how could this situation have been allowed to reach such pathetic levels triggering the spread of a medieval disease, chorela, before a government minister comes in breathing fire and pretending he cares? Before privatisation, we had mine inspectors from the ministry of mines (just like we have meat inspectors from the dept. of vet) inspecting these mines on a regular basis and this was meant to avoid situation like these. Only recently, your oil refinery packed and you were without fuel for a while and your Kanitundila claimed “I was misled”. Fellow country men and women, wake up, its not the Chinese, there is a pattern here and its apparent to all with eyes to see, its a tragic failure of leadership we are facing here.

  8. #8 Taiwan is a province of China and has no the kind of money China is bringing into Zambia. Besides, they were in Malawi where Sata was always meeting them, where is Malwi today? Even if Sata sold you to a renegade province of China, the status quo shall persist as long as you allow foreign investment to play out in a vacuum. You need a strict and enforceable investment framework within which all investment is supposed to play out and for one I doubt your Sata has a clue about this either because it was him, Penza and Chiluba who gave South African retailers massive tax holidays to sell South African goods in Zambia and once the tax holidays were over, they packed and went back home, rich.

  9. Leaving you with an addiction to patterns of consumption for which you have zero means to sustain, hooked you’re!

  10. Thank you #10 Sebuloni. Surely there must be something wrong with the way this government is running the affairs of the nation. It seems Zambians don’t even know or care anymore who is supposed to do what in this country. The surprise and anger of the Deputy minister of local government at what he found at this mine is evidence of what people mean by a government that is out of touch with reality. And undertandably he ignorantly misplaces the blame.

  11. ba minister dont just talk..what is environmetal council of zambia doing ??? pipo are geting sick bcoz of pollution here is the minister just talking do something ..stop these pipo from polluting our lovely country

  12. Now this is what Sata is against coming from the Chinese. Now each and every Zambian need to DETEST this kind of behaviour from the Chinese. It’s pathetic and unacceptable.

  13. Mukabe, the chinese are a neccessary evil. What i always say is lets engange them on a win – win basis. But we need them and so they need us to

  14. LT please take this thread on the top. Why should you hide it? People should comment on the bad treatment of Zambians by the chinese.

  15. Good comments. Isn’t this the same mine where a lady Minister openly wept when she saw the deplorable conditions under which Zambian workers were working in? The characters were so arrogant that they could not allow the Minister to conduct an inspection. Instead the poor Minister was dismissed by LPM. We need action – and this action must be extended to all so-called investors including Indians who lock helpless workers in their factories workers at night (no racism here we call the Chinese, Chinese). I have mentioned this before on these blogs here. To say that this is what Mr Sata is saying is completely misplaced – Mr Sata has no idea what he is talking about. Mr. Muchima should go back to this mine in a few weeks’ time – in fact let us have a few investors deported to show…

  16. One chap here attacked me when I supported the PF MPs who are not attending the NCC. He told me that it was a law and any body failing to attend was liable to punishment. Now here in Zambia, any one running a mine is supposed to join the Chamber of Mines. It is a law by an act of parliament.My point is why have all the Chinese Mining houses refused to join CMZ? And why shouldnt they be cited? The CMZ actually assists mining cos to understand our safety requirements better.

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