has been outstanding in the last one year where he managed to secure tens of thousands of jobs amidst the global economic crisis.
State House Special Assistant to the President Dickson Jere says the remarks attributed to Mineworkers Union of Zambia (MUZ) General Secretary, Oswell Munyenyembe, claiming President Banda had failed to inspire and impress miners in the one-year he has been in office, is regrettable.[quote]
Mr Jere pointed out that one of the key achievements of President Banda has been the manner he (Mr Banda) handled the crisis in the mining sector at a time when most investors had planned to put the mines under care and maintenance, which could have led to job losses.
This is according to a statement received by ZANIS by Mr Jere.
” President Banda personally intervened and persuaded mine owners not to pull out of the country. If they had done so, tens of thousands of mining jobs would have been lost,” he said.
The Special Assistant to the President explained that statement by Mr. Munyenyembe, in The Post November 7, 2009 edition shows that he has deliberately chosen to ignore the facts on the ground.
” Under the leadership of President Banda, Zambia has done remarkably well in mitigating the adverse impact of the global economic crisis,” he said.
He explained that Luanshya Copper Mine is out of care and maintenance and thousands of jobs have been saved and created. Munali Nickel Mine is about to re-open and jobs will be created adding that recently, Chambeshi launched its copper smelter, creating more jobs.
Overall, growth in the mining sector is robust and the sector is expected to grow by 15.2 percent this year despite the global economic crisis.
He reminded Mr. Munyenyembe, that the measures taken by President Banda have helped to stabilise the membership of his union.
” While Zambia lost an estimated 8,500 jobs in the mining sector, the comparable figure for the Democratic Republic of Congo is 200,000 and South Africa 30,000. Most of those who lost jobs in Zambia have been reemployed in case of Luanshya Copper Mines,” Mr Jere said.
The so called jobs were saved and salaries cut. For Chambeshi, cheap labour to the extreme.
I think Levys ghost is in state house. There is no way a president can travel the way this guy is doing. You can go to Chipata and come back to luskaka the same day for a head of state.
Mr Jere you know nothing about mining compared to Mr Munyenyembe. When Mr Munyenyember speaks, he knows what he is talking about unlike you who is talking from without together with you boss. The price of copper has risen and mines have started increasing their copper production. For them to do so they need to employ more workers. Whatever way you look at it, miners would have still being employed. So your boss has not done anything whatsoever!
Mr Jere you are not a miner but RB’s spokesperson enjoying the sweat of a toiling miner who is heavily taxed and barely manages to feed and educate his children. Miners are suffering due to heavy taxes in different forms to enrich the few in govt. Imagine Kapoko and friends enjoying poor tax payers money. Miners toil and so Mr Jere just listen to their complaints and address the situation as leadres instead of always being on the defensive!
Spare Jere he has a living to make
‘ While Zambia lost an estimated 8,500 jobs in the mining sector, the comparable figure for the Democratic Republic of Congo is 200,000 and South Africa 30,000. Most of those who lost jobs in Zambia have been reemployed in case of Luanshya Copper Mines,” Mr Jere said.
These statistical comparisons are out of scale, dull Jere, are the populations and scales of operations of same magnitude in these countries and companies?? Accept defeat when its genuine, the country has been on auto pilot and you knw that, the upturn of metal prices changed the mind set of investors not RB, pls also give us a figure of those re-employeed.
Dick is out of touch with reality. To start with what does he mean 10s of ks of jobs were created? This would mean that up to 100,000 jobs were created? No its not true – less than 10,000 jobs were created by mine owners. And as for Luanshya- in Bemba they say INKALAMO NGAYAPELELWA ILALYA NECHANI. If they had a choice people in Luanshya would not have opted to work for the Chinese.But the situation is desperate and has been made so by GRZ. The other mines have now found away of bringing their nationals who in most cases are far less qualified than Zambians. Dick your President should be concerned on why if he has created 100,000 jobs are we having thousands children becoming street kids. The answer is simple, there are no new jobs created- it is the old jobs that coming back and much less
Zambia was not affected by the recession from the mining point of view,companies threatened to close down because of the royalty tax and other taxes which were introduced in early 2008,copper prices came down from about $9000 per tonne to about $2900,any mine would consider its viability in the industry with such a drop in pricing,meanwhile the government didnt want to do away with the taxes which were still high.what RB did was to renegotiate these taxes and reduced them,it could have added about 9% of domestic government revenue.No mining firm ever threatened to close down due to the recession,all they did was to renegotiate taxes due to the fact that copper prices on the intl market dropped,either they cut off the workforce,reduce their wage bill or pull out,nothing to do with recession
numbers than before. The MUZ is on the ground and they know that the Chinese are only employing people who are sympathetic with the MMD. Can this inspire anyone? Zambians are worse off and there is no hope in site.
when negotiating these deals,no mention of conditions of service for workers was ever mentioned,which was a raw deal,and that the point MUZ are trying to put across.It scrapped the ‘windfall tax’, which fell due when copper prices exceeded a certain level. In fact, prices had fallen below this level in October 2008, so no further tax was liable.However, companies were keen to get rid of the tax, arguing that it penalized high cost mines because it was levied on the overall value of copper produced, not on profits.The government allowed hedging income to be included as part of mining income for tax purposes. This is a serious setback as it is relatively easy to demonstrate a loss on hedging (and move any profits offshore), allowing companies to further minimise their tax payments.
This Jere guy doesnt know what he’s talking about,to RB renegotiating taxes and reopening a mine that was undergoing a scheduled maintance was a political mileage, Zambia has been in recession since independence,
It might be important to remind bloggers that in Zambia it is not the Government that decides the salaries workers are paid. This is not a command economy, unless that is what you want Zambia to be, in which case it will only be Zambia and North Korea with that kind of system. The salaries in Zambia are agreed through a process of free collective bargaining between unions and employers. You may also wish to know that in Zambia a union can declare a dispute and strike if no agreement is reached with employers. As for those who hate Chinese, please know that change is a permanent feature of the world and if you still want British employers, the British may not have the kind of sovereign funds that the Chinese have for investment. As for Ba Sata, does he even know that Taiwanese are Chinese
#12 NKOLE, just a bit of disagreement with you. The GRZ has an input in salary structure/increament. GRZ does not want a situation where miners are given say 2m kwacha increament, because this will cause problems in the country when it comes to negotions with civil servant unions. Above all GRZ has put a minimum wage of K260,000/month and the investor will say is that by paying K600,000/month he has done me a favour as he has paid me twice the GRZ minimum. Its a two thing.
WOW TALKING SOME SENCE.lets give credit to the govt where it is due we will continue politicking forever so lets just work
#10, 11 Smoothcriminal, I am impressed with your reasonable assessment of Zambian mining investor reaction to the global recession and precipitous drop in copper prices. As you read the criticism of government you will notice that none has pointed out the mistake government has made in its reaction to the global recession. It is not enough to just dislike Banda. That would be childish. It is important to identify the mistakes he has made and explain what would have been a more effective government intervention. In my view government handled the recession well and as a result our international reserves are currently the highest for 38 years despite the recession. Our currency is convertible and I can use my ATM card for my Kwacha account at any bank any where in the world.
# 2 Mbuzi you are very right. This man is never at State House. I think I dosent really know what is required of his job. this man had no clue that one day he can become the head of State. He does not actually know what he is doing in State House hence the travelling all the time just to kill time and enjoy tax payers money . I’m surprised why he is even lobbing for another term.
Of course I am conscious of the Zambian goverment’s repeal of the Windfall Tax and its replacement with the variable profit tax system. I am in favour of the windfall tax but I am alive to the fact that government was against the wall during the global melt down and wanted to give some extra incentives to the mining companies. This is one of those issues which can be classified as unfinished business to be renegotiated at a more favourable time. I know that Situmbeko Musokotwane is not a fool even if you think Rupiah is.
Even america is turning to china, so you britons of the brown slavery getting it in your head.
#2 MBUZI,#16 INSAKA, Your comments at 2 and 16 are childish and show that you do not know what the job of a President is. In case you have forgotten, Mwanawasa did not die in State House. He collapsed while travelling outside Zambia.
Even if those jobs hv been created does the president stop to ask how much those workers will be going home with. Wat is a 8zale or one metre??Truth be told chinese and indian Investors are pathetic employers. KCM workers rite now are on a strike demanding 4 an increament to their salaries.
To top it all the laws of the land are weak,esp labour laws..This Dick shudnt just tok about statistics he doesnt know anything about..
Abakali Tabalanda bacitafye ifipapo. Its only people who are supposed to give you credit not yourselves. Please Mr. President learn to listen from the masses and not to be blinded by people surrounding you.
Don’t think anyone who speaks negatively about the government is in opposition. NO. The truth is that very little have been achieved in the last one year.
It is true that mines started closing down last year citing global economical crisis. These Mines would have survived looking at windfall profits they got from high copper prices. The problem is that our government has shown a weakness that we cannot run these mines ourselves and therefore they took us to ransom by closing the mine to avoid paying windfall tax.
We can run the Mines as Zambians. What we are lucking a government…
What we are lucking is a government with a political will to give Zambians an enabling environment to invest in the mines.
Don’t even boost about Chinese investment in the mines. Those working for them are modern slaves in their own country allowed by their own government.
#20, Ba Bulanda, You may be right that Chinese and Indian investors are pathetic employers. But employees can go on strike to demand for increments on their salaries. This is normal. It happens in Zambia, it happens in UK and it happens in South Africa. The government can not interfere in such negotiations unless it is invited to negotiate. This is not a commandist economy. Zambians did not want a commandist economy, that is why they got rid of UNIP. So whether it is HH, Rupiah or Sata, they wont change the system of barganing. If you recall, Ba Sata was Minister of Labour under Chiluba. What change did he bring? Let the union leaders at Konkola negotiate with KCM and get a better deal for employees. Government can only set a minimum wage. It can not set salaries for companies.
MUZ still thinks the govt controls the mines.despite the fact that i do not see much in our president,i have problems with oswells thinking.the unions have never negotiated any better packages for miners.where does that leave them.the issues of safety are the worst in zambian mines .the issues of environment ,including social responsibilities,yet the union seems only preocuppied with salaries.the is much the union cn do that can improve the lives of miners without money exchanging hands.everyone has everyone to blame.the govt is us .
Govt should not priase itself, the union (MUZ) is on the ground and feels the impact.These punks in Govt have no clue of what is going on.Do the work and people will praise you not blowing your own trumpet, this Govt Sucks!!!
#22 Ba Bwafya, You must be very young to forget that Zambians ran the mines under ZCCM for 22 years from 1969 to 1992. Our experience during the 22 years and the low prices of copper forced us to privatise the mines. I suppose you are proposing that government should nationalise the mines again because you don’t like the Chinese and Indians? Please be clear.
Goodmorning
The truth hurts…why should they be upset Jere is telling lies? It would be better for them to prove him wrong instead.
The emperor and his Jere are misguided, when did Jere start speaking on RSA and DRC’s behalf. Rupiah is sick with self praise, twapapata mwebantu! Am in the mining industry and I know he has performed badly, very badly.
#19 Nkole – I dont think it right for you to say that my comments are childish. Everyone except you has noticed that the movements of RB are just far too much. There a lot of issued on the ground that need his attention instead of him garavanting up and down he is hardly in the office. What was so important in the eastern province you mean just to address a rally for thanks giving NO MAN this is unacceptable not when there are a lot of issues at hand which needs his attention. If you are an RB fun sorry to say that RB has totally failed the Zambian people.
Ladies and Gentlemen, its like our country is in the hands of people with no capacity to govern. Whatever, they are doing is out of trial and error. Literally, they have no capacity and this explains their limited analytical skills, poor decisions and most of the time dodging State House in preference to just flying around.
What is the way forward before they bring this country to its knees?
#26 NKOLE- Again I disagree with you. The mines were not sold due to low copper prices, it was one of the conditions put up by the IMF and WB for Zambia to access any form of relief from these two organistions. If the reason to sell was due to low copper price, then even the investors were not going to benefit. First you must work out how much its going to cost you to produce a ton of copper after that then you look at the size of labour that will make you produce a ton of copper profitaly. So what you do is retrench or reduce labour. Thats all the so called investors did- which our government failed to do. No magic. ZCCM was making a lot of money but most of it went to subsdise UNIP functionaries. KK decided to group RCM with ZCCM so that he could have complete control of the industry.
#26 Nkole.. Stop that nonsense right away! You cannot lecture anyone here about Mining industry more specifically Zambia’s Copper mining history!!
point of correction,what RB meant that he had created 10,000 jobs where foreigners had brought their labour into Zambia,i don’t think these guys even know who pays their taxes if at all these companies pay at all…
I get very annoyed when people want to slate ZCCM.. #26Nkole.. ZCCM was not privatised because of Low Copper prices. The decision to sell ZCCM had nothing to do with the business of mining but was POLITICAL DECISION based on political reform the MMD dragged us into based on new world order CAPITALISM & FREE MARKET following collapse of USSR..
#26 Nkole- KK picked on Mr. Francis Kaunda to be chairman inpreference to Mr. David Phiri, because he knew that Mr. Phiri would not accept..
#26 FYI.. ZCCM even when poorly run in the 90’s had only one(1) year in which they had and operating loss 1992/3 cant remmber which… And it was the copper futures on the commodity exchanges we tied ourselves to on the trading side, when we were trying to hedge against volatile prices, that lead it. We commit to supply tonnage at X price, we didnt produce enough, prices went higher than delivery we had to buy from Chile.. we made loss… ALL developing countries have now partially dumped the Capitalist US/UK model which now has Investment based on Current price (spot pricing) and 3 month profitability back to real 30 plus year based investment decision..
#23,didnt say govt is part of the bargaining table. But that these employers take advantage of da employees coz da laws are weak and they know it. Thats why dat chinese in siavonga hd da guts to punch da honourable minister in da face wen questned abt safety and otha conditions..
We r nt so desperate 4 investors or are we?? If u had da priviledge of opening those bid envelopes iam sure u will find european,american or australian businesses interested in our mines. But wat does GRZ do,always picking chinese or indians. Why? Iam sure u and I kno da answa..
Todays investor (mining firms) from these developed countries, especially the opportunistic ones, will suspend operations and cut workforce if Metal prices fall below certain level even if for 3 months only..Imagine.. Thats why Venezuela, Russia, China, Taiwan, India, Brazil & all other emerging economies have said hang on.. We dont want your model.. We’d rather run the mines on our own if we have to or support LOCAL ownership by ensuring minimu local content (Private or public) in each mine foreign investor want to set-up etc.. BWAFYA #22 was right.. Why should GOVT run some of these mines.. Why cant why develop new mines ores.. on behalf of the people? US will now run GOVT hospitals..What ‘s hard about it given our experience in mining.. RB and friends are simply lazy have no vision..
#31 DE ja VU.. I agree with you but beg to differ on the issue of KK. Sorry guys but now grown and educated have taken time to really read about KK and what he was trying to do.. His economica plan and social vision for Zambia.. Even wikipaedia will tell you a bit that will enable you understand the man.. eve Wikipaedia have respect.. CONSOLIDATION OF COPPER MINING IN ZAMBIA was necessary in order to achieve scale economies and and benefit from synergies (1+1=3), from better skilled and resourced R&D, reduced duplicity of support function(HRmgt, logistics, Fin.) right now there’s a lot of COnsolidation in other metal industies.. MITTAL STEEL, RIO TINTO take over of BHP etc. formation of ZCCM, and then ZIMCO was necessary.. REad KK’s plan.. you smile..
NKOLE……… We all know that mine workers lived well generally before your pipo privatised the mines. The idea was good . But the operations and performance of the mines since being privatised has been a sad story. Dont give us kak about the copper pricing. Even the barman in Chilenge knows that we have been screwed on the mines deal. And stop this nonsence about the countries improvement on foreign reserves and kwacha being convertible. How is the common man benefiting from these reserves now? Dont confuse development with a visa atm card. We need proper development for all not just you Bwana Nkole.
#39 DIGGA- Than you. I am not condemning KK wholesomely, but having been born and brought up and trained by and employed on the mines, I have observed the evolvemen of the mines. Yes he did alot of good things such as making sure that we Zambians became managers etc. But KK did not want to see what was going wrong in the mines or indeed the whole PARASTATAL set up. If he had seen this maybe he could averted the fall of ZCCM. But all he did was to deploy officers from OP to ZCCM division full time and on ZCCM pay roll to spy on anti UNIP elements . Of course he is human and liable to err. I dont blame him, but we should use his mistakes to avoid disasters in future. Right now we are even making bigger mistakes. Mines are exporting raw concentrates which value is hard to determine. Thanx
No.1 to No.40, you are wasting taxpayers money – get back to work, NOW!!!!!
# 39 Digga!! Spot on, KK had a vision!! his concepts are currently being used by big international companies
#40 Motsepe, I would like to invite you to #38 posting by Digga and see whether it makes sense. Why can’t we develop new mine ores… because exploration requires risk capital which we don’t have. Developing new mines requires money which we need for education and health services. That is why we invite investors whether foreign or local. As to the socialist model, I have no objections myself being a socialist but I am realistic about the world and only too familiar with North Korea and Zimbabwe. That is not the route I want Zambia to take. But more importantly I know that Rupiah is not power hungry and never actively sought to be President. He has a good education too. Bashi Chilufya is power hungry with no education and has been condemned by Kaunda, Chiluba and Mwanawasa.
The Politicians thinks we are so dull. The price of copper has gone up and so the so called investor are coming back and opening up. Surely they have to employ cheaply since the government does not give a f*k about the welfare of a common Zambian. The Zambian economy runs on simple mathematics. The price of copper goes up, white people and Chinese come to screw us, the US dollar drops down proportional to how much the copper went up. The other areas benefits and more people cheaply get employed. During Mwanawasa the copper price was at the worlds highest explaining the Kwacha at 3500 so these guys are just auto pilots takin credit of outside forces they have no control over. What we have right now is shortage of fuel, high mealie meal prices and Tourist RB like Mwanawasa.
interesting stuff really,,,actually #40 Motsepe,pricing has got everything to do with what is happening in the coppermines at the moment,copper prices dropped drastically on the intl market so much so that its not profitable anymore,what the government needs to do is to shift from concetrating so much on mining to agriculture,whatever these mines make is siphoned out of the country,the only thing that remains in zed is taxes,these owners do their transactions ofshore,i doubt if any money goes through any of the banks in zambia,the other thing is to stop these miners from exporting unprocessed copper,instead start to turn it into cables or cathods and export them as finnished products,thereby creating more jobs,all it takes is political will,tourism is another sector
Looking at the debate going on here, I now believe we are nation of talkers not actors
#41 Deja Vu . Okay buti ba shikulu balisa lubana ko the way he was managing kuma last when thigs didnt go as planned.. you have a point… #44 NKOLE.. Si munakambe manje manje ati tuli naka lapu ka Billio USD muma reserves? Nanga nkani yaba RB.. If he is not power hungry why is he hell bent on destroying his party as long as he remains president?
# 44 Nkole . Its very true we need investors but are we getting better deals on the current investors we have sold our profitable entities to? This is not about personal decisions. Lets look at what benefits the masses. The mines have been privatised and our government has a small interest in the new setups. Do we even know how much the government makes from this interest? What is the purpose of having an Economist president who cant even see that his so called ministers are failing to plan e.g Fuel-with available means to procure. I dont do names. I want a leader with a vision. Someone to drive us in a right direction.
Who is urgly between Sata and Rupiah Banda? Or who is more handsome between Sata and Rupiah Banda?
Who is the ugliest is more appropriate
#50 Ahmadinejad. I dont know. But here is a story. There was UGLIEST FACE COMPETETION and the winner was going to get US$1m. After the announcing the winner, all losers protested that they had been cheated, with each one claiming to be uglier than the winner. So it depends on what we mean by ugly.
Jere and RB had their leavers ball, why can’t I have mine?
I agree with jere some of this people called the unions are being used by politicians i kno munyenyembe personally he is a PF no wonder he can say tht.let him research with a net wide how th global crisis has affected some of th countries lik th way jere has put it th liks of democratic republic of congo,south africa etc we should give credit were its due th leadership of RB played a pivot role on job losses and sustain th economy to date with a stable exchange rate against other currencies.
But kwena guys mulabwatabwata!
#54 IG
the comparisons Jere made are inappropriate looking at them in absolute terms. It would have been helpful if they were in percentage terms. I’m sure he avoided percentages because they would have revealed something else. So he opted to give the stats in absolute terms as they would reflect well on his boss. But we know that the countries he referred to have employed far too many workers in mines than Zambia. How misleading!!!
#26 NKOLE WAMAPEMBWE. Thankyou for asking for clarification. I don’t mean to nationalise the mines but I mean for the government to encourage Zambian to owen the mines by giving them similar incetives given to these foreigners. Its true that we failed to run the mines at one time but failing to learn from our past mistakes and failing to make corrections is the actual failure. (Need to check your facts ZCCM started privitasation in 1998 and complted in 2000. I joined ZCCM in 1993 and I can tell you more about mining operations because that’s my field.) Are the Chinise and indians not nations just like Zambia. What magic did they do to acquire money to invest in other countries. The simplest answer is they first invested in their countries and flood it. Made a lot of money but lacked…
Made a lot of money but lacked raw materials for their investments. Inticed us with their money by promising to bring it into our country and what have we gained since 2000. Only damaged roads transporting our minerals resources back to their country of origin. I’m not saying no foreign investor but I mean well meaning investor who will pay workers a living wage, be will to pay tax. At the same time government to find a way of making it easy for zambia to own and run the mines competitively.
Alright gentlemen, we regret selling ZCCM. But why dont we own the new mines, like Lumwana?
Firslty Dicksons job is to defend the president and provide the presidents side of view, kind of like a lawyer, so spare him However his statistics while right are not a an acurate reflection bcause the mining sector in these other countries is much larger.Now i see that a lot of issues have arisen I will try to tackle them 1- Well th unions have the right to voice the opinion, that is democracy (2) Dickson also has an obligation to provide the Presidents version , and if the government feels it has done well, then they should say it as every Goverment does (3) THE HANDLING OF THE MINING CRISIS – there was and still is a crisis in the minin gand I think Government did quite well to quickly move in and act, the mine owners (especially the high cost ones) were threatening to close and
(3) contd-Government quickly intervened in Luanshya and it is now running, and the same for Munali, the amending of the tax regime from windfall to the present system was one such intervention which i surport and will comment in more detail later) . What would be interesting is to ask what other steps were expected? what should goverment have done? (4) Government role in salary negotiations, well these are private companied and we are in a private sector run economy. so government does not have any major role in negotiating miners salaries, just like it does not have a role in setting house workers salaries or any other private employees e.g. sales attendants, taxi drivers, private sector managers. NGO employees etc
Mr. Jere, please listen to what people are saying about your boss’s failures, not to what your boss says he;s achieved. It’s all in his head. MUZ knows what your boss has and has not done for them. He’s a failure. Period.
All the government has done is to set a minimum wage at about K250,00. And i must state that Goverment setting salaries in the private sector tends to be unproductive, the labor market is better as a willing buyer, willing seller. If wagesare set too high, then employment creation is stiffled. That is why most of you in ths diaspora do not have gardeners, cleaners at your homes because it is too expensive. (4) Well as for ZCCM , my view it was a great idea that stoped working at some time, and change was inevitable, that change could have come indifferent forms but the Goverment chose to sell it, and by the tme it was going , it was making losses of over US$ 1m a day. (5) I Find winfall tax questionable because it taxes in price and not profits so i disadvatages high cost mines like LCM
The result is the high cost mines end up going under,As Nkole says they were some mones sold as far back as 1988, because they were not profitable, now these are aorking but stand to close if you will tax them acccording to the prices and not their profits. The problem with variable tax is that , ZRA lacks the capacity to accurately ases the tax obligations but I a sure they can build capacity. I think i wll end on two issues – zambians owning new mines and the Chinese. I am presently doing a study with some economists from Washinton and just today theywere talking of how the Chinese have literally btaken over certain industries like the textile in America and England. The point is – YOU CANNOT AVOID THEM
tHEY ARE investing big time and appear right now to be the only country with money to invest. So when you are selling a mine or amy asset, they are likely to make offers, . So what do you do? you cant wait for a preferred bidder, who is not interested, It is that simple.. Then as for owning mines like Lumwana, UK ZED observer, my take is . We do not have the money or technical expetise in the country. Lumwna cost 700 million, the largest coppermining project n Africa, that is bout 20 % of our annual budget. This is collosal, , However here are lots of Zambians who have copper and meraid mining licenses, which basically are not being used
ATASE………..TUBOMBELA AKABWALI!!!