By Tovin Ngombe:-
Operation at Maamba Coal Mine has been suspended when the owner of the hired Dump Trucks they were using grabbed them.
The Bell Equipment Company of Kitwe grabbed its four Dump Trucks it hired to the mine for their failure to pay the money even when they have been using the equipment.
The company through its lawyers from William and Nyirenda Company of Kitwe saved Maamba Management with a court order to seize the equipment until the matter was addressed in the high court for their failure to pay the money.
The two dump trucks that were operating are packed at Maamba police.
Out of the four dump trucks that the Bell Equipment Company hired to Maamba mine only two were working, one got burnt, and the other one is on breakdown one miner said.
A Police officer who did not want to be identified said despite Maamba mine Management’s promises to pay they have failed to honour it prompting the Bell Equipment Company to issue a court order.
ZANIS could not get a comment from Maamba mine management because Zambia Consolidated Copper Mine (ZCCM) Investment Holdings has since gagged them from issuing any statement to the press.
However, sources from the mine said operation at the mine has been grounded to a halt as workers report for work merely to chat until knocking of time.
The miner said they were not even mining the little tones of coal they have been producing because work could not be done without the dump trucks.
The miner said without dump truck they could not transport coal from the pit to the washing plant.
He said workers report and knock of at any time they feel like because they have nothing to do.
A visit to the coal mine plant would immediately signal to the visitor that the mine is ‘dead’, the premises is always deserted with few workers loitering around.
He said management has assured them that they should not worry about the grabbed Dump Trucks because ZCCM-IH would soon buy their new equipment.
But despite their failure to produce coal for sale ZCCM-Investment holdings has been paying salaries to miners every month and they miners are not owed any salary arrears as it was in the past.
“The government is good despite not producing any coal we getting paid anyway it’s not our problem because ZCCM-Investment holdings is failing to bring the equipment on time,†one miner said.
