A traditional leader says the issuance of mining licences is not transparent and lacks accountability reason why the current procedure needs to be reviewed.
There is also no consultation between government, companies involved and the communities were these licences are issued.
Chief Mumena of the Kaonde people of Solwezi says he is not happy with the current situation where licenses are given from Lusaka.
The chief says as much as he wants to see his chiefdom developed he will not consent to development that does not give preference to his subjects.
Chief Mumena was addressing his subjects during the National Savings and Credit Bank – NATSAVE feasibility study meeting in Solwezi yesterday.
He says at the moment the licenses are issued arbitrary with NO regard to the plight of the affected communities.
But Mines Minister Chris Yaluma says the government has not issued any mineral exploration license since it took office.
He says a Mining Advisory Committee has just been constituted to preside over the issuance of mineral explorations.
Mr Yaluma says the committee will be given its terms of reference next week before getting down to work.
The Minister says his government has taken measures to restore sanity in the issuance of exploration mines.
Mr. Yaluma says the new system will take care of all concerns raised by stakeholders while officers that will be founding wanting shall be dismissed.
Meanwhile Mr. Yaluma says government is in the process of revoking mineral exploration licenses for people holding them for speculative purposes.
He told ZNBC news in a telephone interview from Kasama that the PF government will NOT tolerate illegal schemes in the mining sector.
ZNBC
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The Litunga did not consult Lamba chiefs and got away with millions in royalties.
Ibyo Bukwe!
#2 MAJORITY RULE – please stop boring everybody with your inferiority complex. What has the Litunga got to do with your failure? Was he even there? How far did you go in school, by the way? Respect yourself and keep to the subject in the story. I suspect you are one of those people who has had to repeat every grade in school. If you are dying from the cancer of inferiority complex, please die quietly. Some of us want to think about what the Chief is complaining about and the response of government.
#2 the Barotse National Treasury was transfered into the national one by KK and Arthur Wina, so whatmore do you still want from the Litunga? Such ignorant bigoted stupidity sucks real big time.
This minister he’s busy issuing orders in the another ministry to give a corrupt bishop mambo large chuck of land which belongs to the poor people of lusaka west
these north western chiefs are a nuisance, they are talking about the mining licences and yet they give letters of land offer to these so called investors after they have smeared their hands..why lie to the people to make yourself look innocent….USELESS KAONDE CHIEFS….
Chief Mumena is useless,they were employing kaoneds in Lumwana,now that Kaoneds are sidelined because of Education he thinks the issuance of mine license is corrupt.He is a tribalist chief.
@majority rule, go back to school and get a proper education. Cecil Rhodes British South African company owned all mineral rights in Northern Rhodesia and all royalties were paid to this company until kk’s economic reforms in 1968. My dear just go and upgrade that matero university degree of yours!
Perhaps chiefs should ensure that they make long term plans to invest in the education of representatives who can specifically address issues unique to the communities they represent. Nothing wrong with ensuring future chiefs have to hand their own team of relevant expertise to cover environmental, local development and legal alongside the key investment areas that impact them directly including mining, agriculture, tourism etc. That might also assist in putting up transparent systems of their own progress and can articulate arguments based on their own recorded research and data. It could provide local skilled jobs that benefit both local and ultimately national level interaction. Just a thought.
@Cycle Mata and Reality, you are stupid *****s. I know you are Luvales based in Solwezi. Chief Mumena has a point and he was expressing his opinion. You need to consider the plight of the locals before allowing any one to start mining activities.
All things considered, the Chief is right. Chiefs need to be involved in these deals because eventually they are the ones who get affected in their localities. Let us take an example of an investor given 400 hectors of land, which he may or may not develop depending on circustances. It will mean some people have to vacate the land and find somewhere else to live. Some of these investors are not those you can tell to leave because they have failed to stand to their investment programme. The moment you do they will just bring a battalion of soldiers. Chiefs should really assist even in the selection of investors. LONG LIVE CHIEF MUMENA.
This is why there is what we call the environmental impact assessment.Because of politics people are not interested in the EMS adverts in papers whenever a project is embarked on.The adverts are open for discussion of the EMS.The EMS document is always accessible for scrutiny to the public.To be fair , this are ordinary people who go on about their lively hood only to be displaced.Some times ENVIRONMENTAL COUNCIL shares the blame.They do not reach properly to locals to understand what is going on.There are also so many NGOs out there who can help but alas the majority are in the AIDS business.At least CEE is doing a great job as an environmental pressure group
where is my comment>?
Did you make one?
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