President Edgar Lungu says he does not endorse any job cuts in the mining sector. President Lungu stated that he has and will never endorse any retrenchment of workers in the mining industry saying doing so would be a betrayal of the Zambian people.
Head of State said this through his Special Assistant for Press and Public Relations, Amos Chanda shortly after a closed door meeting with leaders of mine unions in Kitwe yesterday.
President Lungu who met leaders from the United Mine Workers Union, Zambia Union of Nurses, Mine Workers Union of Zambia, and the National Union of Miners and Allied Workers said he will continue to engage all stakeholders in the outstanding labour insecurity facing the mining sector.
He disclosed that he will meet managements of Mopani Copper Mines and Luanshya Copper Mines regarding the laying off of workers and the on-going standoff by workers on Monday and Tuesday respectively.
The Republican President added that mine unions will also be present at the meetings.
And the Mine Workers Union of Zambia (MUZ) described the meeting between the unions and President Lungu as fruitful.
MUZ President, Nkole Chishimba said the position of the Union is that job redundancies are to be prevented in every way possible.
Mr. Chishimba explained that job losses in the mining sector are an industrial issue, rather than a political one.
He said his union is committed to protecting the jobs of its members.
the meeting was not fruitful! as those who have already lost jobs haven’t been reinstated. & I suppose more job loses are looming.this is just a fallacy.
Whether you endorse or not the miners are being laid off. So this is cheap talk Mr president.
I can not understand why our governors cannot get this inevitable business reaction. It is equally not the wish of the mining industry to stop earning billions of dollars by deliberately closing up business; but they have to, because they are now making losses and costs money to pay salaries that were not generated by the business.
This is not politics where you promise people more money in their pockets when you have no clue how you will shove money in their pockets.
Ka Lungu, no amount of sweet talk will prevent the inevitable. All mining jobs are on the chopping board whether you endorse it or not. You have no moral right to declare that as you have never run a business and have no clue what implication lack of energy coupled with low copper prices has on the mining operations.
Mr President inform us how many jobs you have prevented or reversed. Otherwise, this talk is cheap and all too familiar.
Endorsing or not endorsing is not important. The important question here is are you putting in place measures that will stop job losses? By the way by not doing what you are supposed to do which ends up in job losses, you have endorsed job losses.
@Misango Yaba Chairman – this is an impressive response! Weldone!
How can he endorse when is not a shareholder and a mere politician at the the end of the day…its about profitability and productivity. This lazy bum thinks running a mine is like running his government where you have money to spend spend spend and beg for loans everyday.
Lungu and his PF are a delude bunch who live in cocooland! CB are gullible and easily cheated. They will still vote for Lungu even if they have no jobs and no food.
UPND the only option to restore Zambia.
Chishimba ati walitumpa efyo batile ba kateka. Mailo.
Here is a snap shot of some vocabulary from one “humble” Edgar Lungu;
– Ama teachers balitumpa
– GBM Lishilu
– GBM Chipuba saana
– Chi GBM Chalitumpa
– Atase (Arrogance, no humbleness)
– Bupuba bwenu
– ichiMuntu
– Ifi maTeacher nala fitamfya
– Ici muntu caya.
I think meeting investors with union leaders will not yield anything; in fact there won’t be any candid talk at all. Waste of time again. Learn to deal with real issues with the right people at the right time.
This Mambala, Now he says he will meet the managements. what has he been doing there. Kekekekekekek. this man is truly a Chikomenkome Chankutyu. Can you tell us the results of your visit because it over. even when Jesus took to places, he had results. a garden boy who spends his day in the backyard comes to tell you he has cut the lawn. And he says Boss I have cut the lawn. you have said the Zambian people are your boss. So can you tell them what you have found and what you will do or have done.
The problem is once you learn to steal which is easy you loose the sense of work. Ask for repentance from the people you ate money for ECL as a lawyer not just giving them back. you have time through the lord you are pretending to use. USE HIM FOR REAL.
he was dancing at freedom park grounds with dandy crazy!!!
Why speaketh through your press aide Mr P? Not good public relationship especially that the miners expect more from you since state house shifted from Woodlands to old ndeke village. Show us more amaka bwana P. As at now miners are an endangered species
And that you are camped on the CB Mr. P!
It is not for a President to endorse or not to endorse. The dictates of the economy endorse retrenchment so. I think Zambians must begin to kick politics out of important sections of their lives so we can eventually get good political managers who will know where peoples’ lives begin and where politics end…
Mr. President, you don’t need to endorse as this is a commercial decision made by the board. Just as they didn’t consult you when employing, they don’t need to consult when terminating jobs.
This is Amos Chanda’s Monday morning spin-doctoring to show that his boss is working…irrespective of whether its smart working or not …the lazy bum himself is currently nursing a hang over from last nite oblivious of all this.
@ Steve,
So you want our miners to be jobless and to you this is okay? Kwena imwe mulifipuba, which miner therefore will ever vote for your Ichilema with this kind of stup1d1ty? You have lost on it on so many fronts and we will remind abekala chalo about your wicked ways. You were lying to yourselve that PF has lost kopala, infact the opposite is true. The whole Copperbelt know that Ichilema is just despaerate and there is nothing special he can do about the people of kopala that H.E. Edgar Chagwa Lungu is not doing, so be prepared for massacre in 2016.
In the midst of these trying moments, you can see for yourlselves the trust kopala has in PF and President Lungu and come 2106 when there will be no load shedding, umo akanya openly, get it from us.
hate to see these people lose their jobs. these jobs likely will be cut with or without government endorsement. however, after this statement, if the jobs do get cut, the President is going to appear unable to reconcile or somehow appear weak. If he is able to save the jobs, he will appear strong and his position will carry even more weight. This is a real roll of the dice…
So what is he offering the mines in return for them to keep deadwood on their payroll when productivity has been reduced? YOU think about it yourself would you keep 30 instead 18 casual workers on your farmer when there is no work, yet you still have to pay for salaries, fuel, rentals of machinery , tax etc…what would say when someone who doesn’t have share in your farm tells you to keep the workers on so they can feed their families?
Wake up and think!!
Lungu, in case you are too dull to understand, it is not your job to endorse or not endorse job cuts.
That is the job of the management of the company.
YOUR JOB is to save Zambian taxpayers money by cutting down on the bloated Cabinet that YOU have appointed.
And saving money by not wasting it on $300, 000 airplane charters !
To all you above; even UPND members will be badly affected
That’s why it is distressing to have PFools vote in incompetent leaders. We are all suffering. Economic mismanagement does not affect PF kaponyas alone – the whole country is suffering. That’s why a change of govt in 2016 is critically essential!
You are almost there. This fu*k-up affects all, even ars lickers like you 1mbecile
Why isn’t Lungu telling the miners that his opinion about employment in the mining industry does not matter because this is a worldwide problem? That miners are losing jobs in Chile (Codelco has laid off over 300 supervisors), and iron ore mines are being shuttered in Australia? Lungu should do his usual trick and wash responsibility to God and blame the world.
Lungu needs to have basic knowledge of economics and business in a liberalized market.
How can you teach convicted embezzler basic knowledge of business?
This dull drunk is incapable of such intelligent reasoning. It is totally beyond the capacity of his JAMESONI soaked brain!
This man is a clown!
Just look at the lazy dull bum in the photo above…he is happy to invite bootlickers with no brains like MUZ to ask him irrelevant questions but terrified of inviting the media even the gov’t controlled like TIMES or Daily Mail because he will exposed for dullness about basic issues.
The reason why PF will be voted back into power again is because it has a message for its people something no one in the opposition has disputed other than hoping for the vote. People cannot vote for promises especially for someone who has an agenda to bring back the thieves (Anglo-American) who ran away and left the same miners in the cold.
Furthermore, will the opposition change the price of copper on the world market? The answer is a resounding NO! They will vote for someone who has a plan and is engaging the mine owners over the temporal challenges. It happened to Obama and today he is the most likeable President in America.
ECL will win the 2016 elections with ease because he has strategies which are already working.
Ati ” they will vote for someone who has a plan ”
Does lungu have a plan?? Ula dobbola Iwe UFO?
So to you its a case of “When choosing between two evils, you always like to try the one you’ve never tried before?”…think before you post what this dull so called lawyer Lungu has uttered. Who do you think draws up agreement and contracts with these mining investors when the come? Its the gov’t you think investing in mines is like buying property in Kabwata….if you do not put clauses in those contracts to protect yourselves they will think twice before leaving. This is why I say this Edgar can not be a lawyer he is simply too dull some needs to re-look at his credentials again and validate them.
The man is a genius..
UFO,
Sometimes we wonder whether people like have any clue or understanding the excrescences happening in Zambia. Just recently inflation doubled in one month & u say ELC has knows & has a plan of how to run this country. Even under KK, when things really got bad this never happened. The worst Mining recession was in 2008/2009, when Chambeshi & other mines where temporary closed for almost year. The MMD managed to weather the storm & even the Kwacha just hobbled a bit. The copper price was almost $2,000 per tonne. The price now is about $5,000. This is the worst government ever in the history of this country, like or not it is a fact & live with it.
learn never to say never……it does not guarantee that if he does not endorse then there wont be any redundancies…..
….the redundancy cloud is also meant to overshadow the salary increments…mine management is using that as a strategy to subdue high demands of salary negotiations….wakeup unions..
Mr President, can you lead a fair society.last week for the first time on ZNBC news,we saw defectors from the ruling party to the opposition which was progressive as this is a public broadcaster. Today the director of news Mr Maduma is fired, how cruel
Sound bites again, very symptomatic of desperation. Do you really think that you cane stop anyone from firing their employee if there’s justification? The executive has no power to interfere with private business, if they don’t break the law. The reality is that the government itself is struggling to pay employees and those who are retired can’t even get their terminal benefits. I would advise Mr Lungu to look to the future and devise plans to counter the current situation, empower Zambians through ownership of their resources. Instead of encouraging the PHD syndrome, empower the diaspora and the local Zambian entrepreneur. Create the environment for self respect and pride in buying Zambian.
It is very confusing. Ecl is always dilogue,dilogue, dilogue, why can’t he comand them?
In a criminal prosecution, a defense by the accused that he was briefly insane at the time the crime was committed and therefore was incapable of knowing the nature of his alleged criminal act would very well suffice in this case whether Jr. claims he will do it again or not. And also note that temporary insanity is claimed as a defense whether or not the accused is mentally stable at the time of trial. Jr should have just put Sr out of his misery, finito!
So UPND is advocating for job loses in the mining industry, how then does he expect the same to waste their vote on the desperate and confused HH? These chaps in UPND dont understand the dynamics and the people of Copperbelt hey, do they think they are dealing with cattle hustlers?
Majority of people in Lusaka are from Copperbelt and Eastern Provinces and the majority on the Copperbelt are from Luapula and Northern Provinces, so do you homework, we cant vote for this tribalist from Southern Province. The Presidency of Zambia will oscillate between a Bemba and an Easterner for the next 100 years FULL STOP!!!
Hmm yesterday the wording was “I will not allow” job losses, today it’s hastily revised to “I’ll never endorse” job losses… What will the revised statement be tomorrow?