Government says it is investigating reports of unscruplous people are allegedly looting gold deposits in chief Sandwe’s area in Petauke district in Eastern Province.
ZANIS reports that Provincial permanent secretary Chanda Kasolo confirmed the development in an interview adding that he will ensure that the people behind the illegal gold mining are brought to book.
Mr. Kasolo notes that after mining the gold, the unscruplous business person with the aid of unsuspecting villagers are allegedly selling kilograms of gold at K10, 000 tax free.
Mr Kasolo said the activity is against the Minerals Act and others provisions of the Law that stipulate procedures to be followed regarding mining.
The permanent secretary also notes that the illegal miners are putting themselves at a health risk as they are failing to provide protective measures to the workers.
He states that mining is a highly technical activity which can be dangerous as it requires the rules of health and safety to be followed.
PF Cadres are responsible. Arrest them.
THE WORD ‘INVESTIGATE’ IS THE MOST MISUSED (OR EVEN ABUSED) WORD. IF THE AUTHORITY OR THE MEMBERS OF SOCIETY HAVE NOTICED THIS ILLEGAL MINING, WHY INVESTIGATE AND NOT JUST SEND POLICE TO GO AND ARREST THE ILLEGAL MINERS? PA ZAMBIA AUTHORITIES LOVE INVESTIGATION, TOO, MUCH. IS IT ANOTHER LOOPHOLE FRO STEALING PUBLIC MONEY?
Zambia has become lawless…yet you have the whole police force surrounding a courtroom!!
Mismanagement of resources
That’s your PFooIs for you.
Initiative they are not stealing! Can they afford mining licences?
You cannot loot what you have made for yourself. Instead of stealing Eurobonds, these PFooIs are doing it for themselves by mining the God-given gold. PF just want the taxes. They are broke.
It’s better they continue and benefit from our countries resources because very soon all those mines will be sold. Our government is selling everything.
Let them be. How many foreigners are ripping this country of it’s God given minerals without paying any tax. They are doing it in broad day light making their countries of origin richer and they are being called investors. When zambians try to do the same thing, they are called illegal miners or jerabos. Today our country hosts a number of foreign nationals who doing all kinds of illegal businesses and the so called Chanda kasolos of this world are quiet.
Ye arrest them
Why don’t we have Zambian miners to be mining so the country can benefit? It is because Zambians are stupid and they want foreigners(chinese, Indians and Europeans) to loot everything in Zambia, what a bunch of *****s you people are there in Zambia, yet people are suffering with all those resources. Zambia will remain poor because of stuff like this.
Lungu is useless as is all PF cadres, HH and all those pathetic opposition parties. HH screwed Zambians in the 90s and that is how he became rich, so all those clueless need to know this. Lungu is visionless and corrupt and he is weak. He is selling Zambia at a cheap price to foreigners. You fools need to wake up. Those foreigners will take over everything in Zambia while you are watching. Your children will have nothing left because everything is being taken over by Lungu’s corrupt foreign thieves. Raise up against Lungu and his corrupt bunch if you love Zambia and your Children.
Lungu is useless as is all PF cadres, HH and all those pathet!c opposition parties. HH screwed Zambians in the 90s and that is how he became rich, so all those clueless need to know this. Lungu is visionless and corrupt and he is weak. He is selling Zambia at a cheap price to foreigners. You f00ls need to wake up. Those foreigners will take over everything in Zambia while you are watching. Your children will have nothing left because everything is being taken over by Lungu’s corrupt foreign thieves. Raise up against Lungu and his corrupt bunch if you love Zambia and your Children.
Foolishness – everything has to be Lungu. That is where we have a problem because the component in our population that has such a foolish attitude is so high. We have people getting paid to ensure that the security and safety of this country is guaranteed, including Kasolo but what do they do, continue getting paid and lamenting. We as citizens need to be in charge.
Good evening Zambians. I am sorry for not blogging today but I have had a very busy day. I will be back in full swing to share my wisdom and knowledge . I thank you
Actually no one missed you id!ot!
Hi Zambians: It is a Christian Nation leave them. Only those Villagers are the ones who are foolish why cant they start harvesting their resources.
Be proactive Govt.Give them a TAX holiday,let them form a company and support them buy getting them equipment on loan which they will payback after sametime.End of story
@ Ze Mwila
Ideally this should be the approach Government should take! Why arrest them as if they are stealing when they actually are doing the mining themselves? Encourage them to form a ”cooperative” if you like, fund them and ask them to be paying taxes kwasila. So ngati ndimwe ba Kasolo mufuna kudyamo, ndiye vuto! Kano nga ebo mentality!
The headline is misleading; you can only loot what has been mined already and being stored somewhere. What we are doing as Easterners is that we own the land God gave us and we are taking advantage of what minerals are there so the issue of tax! wait a minute we are on tax holiday and moreover ZRA has given us aminest sorry PS i thought you knew.
@ chickenmoyo, I agree with you the headline is misleading and the facts are there is no gold in Sandwe area as the deposit was mined out in 1940s. Sasali was the first gold mine in Zambia, what is in the area is copper deposit and good land for farming. Peter Daka is the MP for the area and he knows it better than the Provincial PS.
A kilo of gold at K10,000???
Alarmistic PS. He wants people of Sandwe to be forever poor. And by the way, why not inform the people that they are being ripped off their gold? K10 000 a kilo?