ZCTU Secretary General
ZCTU general secretary Cosmas Mukuka said Government should get tough and re-examine employment permits of mine owners who frustrate Zambians to the benefit of expatriates.
Mr Mukuka said in an interview that Government and the labour movement should not allow the retrenchment of over 4,000 workers at Mopani Copper Mines (MCM) due to the restriction of power at the mining firm by Copperbelt Energy Corporation (CEC).
“Our appeal to Government is to clean the house and look at cancelling employment permits for these people who have come to squat and draw plans to retrench the workers.
“They have come with a workforce from their countries which they do not want to retrench. These are some of the things that Government needs to be tough on when signing business contracts with these mining companies,” he said.
Mr Mukuka said that if MCM retrenches miners, Government should react aggressively to safeguard the jobs of miners and their families.
“We can have Zambians running their mines and maybe they can be sympathetic to the employment welfare because they are not respecting our feelings,” he said.
And the union has welcomed Government’s policy directive on mandatory HIV testing but advised the state to develop a budget line for effective implementation.
Mr Mukuka said there is need for government to invest heavily in sensitisation and counselling for the policy to succeed.
He said it would be difficult for government to execute the programme without expenditure.
“The absence of counselling and education services might result in a situation where society will still be affected psychologically.
“But mostly when such things come, we rely much on donor support and at the moment donors pull out, we find ourselves in the problem, so we expect the Ministry of Health and charitable organisations to fund projects,” he said.
Mr Mukuka has since called for the involvement of leaders at all levels for the policy to be successfully implemented.
We rely on donor funding so we need the government znd charitable organizations to fund the programme. My friend with the big brain and big mouth what the hell do charitable organizations rely on and what do they do.
They receive DONATIONS and then DONATE ?u are the mine union commenting on HIV tsstimg is not your charter. Be strong and not constzntly praise or bootlick the government to bring attention to yourself.
You as a union should be overseeing contracts signed by mines to ensure yoir members are protected . Dialogue early prevents a disaster later
Simple maths; if operations are non profitable, they pull out with nothing to lose!!! Then our unemployment increases. We dont have the money to take them to task. What good is a permit revoked gonna do. They have already milked you and will easily find another job, easily.
Zambian decision makers are short sighted. We need an overhaul, like the generation that died in the wilderness before crossing to the promised land. You cant move forward with old thinking.
Nonsense this Dead Union has lost relevance even Mummies/corpses in Egypt are more relevant than this Union at least they make money for them. Why are these expatriates working in the mines in the first place ??
No the government should fire the people involved in the contracts with these foreign mining companys. how do you expect the company to keep on staff when their profits are going into operational expenses like the ridiculous tarrif hike of electricity. before a contract is signed the government should look into the future and make estimations. Let us not blame the investors but the people that made up these contracts.
So you’d rather see mopani paying subsidised tariffs when everyone else is paying new tariffs. The increment they are crying for is a fraction that even you can manage to pay it on their behalf. All they want is to arm twist govt to maximise their profits. Copper price is at peak otherwise they would have already pointed to low commodity price.
Just leave them to continue paying low rates but wire them with high taxes to recover on electricity tariffs.
HH OVAL HEAD I AGREE WITH YOU ON THAT ONE OF THEM PAYING HIGHER TAXES THEN IT BECOMES A WIN WIN SITUATION.
Where is the rule of law in a legally binding contract . Yeah jts bad fkr zambia but who signed the contract, that is where the problem is. Government would have known when they increased electricity tarrifsv if they didnt the didnt do due diligence HH oval head defending the indefensibke again my friend your beloved pf government says everything must follow the rule of law
Kubweka and HH oval head you cannot even do that as the taxes are set for all the mines agaiin follow the rule of ,aw. Somebody stuffed up why dont they admit it. Mopani have a contract. CEC has rstricted power outside the terms of the contract and again have not complied with a court direction. Unfortunately if one group of pipo are allowed to not folllow a court order, politicians, then others believe they can do it also. Then you have a breakdown of law and disrespect for the judicuary
@ Masalamuso; thank you; I stand corrected on that.
It’s very expensive to run underground mine operations. You have to pay cobtractors doing drilling and mine development huge sums of money. Mopani is one of the mining companies paying contrators and suppliers 30days on time regardless of amount/invoice. KCM, Lubambe are paying 90days and more. You only look at copper prices, but not monthly production minus operacional costs. You want to kill and destroy a company sustaining suppliers and contractors
Great comments. This whole issue has made it more clearer than ever that a lot of people have no understanding whatsoever of the complexity of this industry. For people to be continually citing the high copper price is only looking at one side of the equation. Low production is the problem. This is not a secret or uncommon knowledge. And unfortunately, part of the reason for the current high operational costs and low production are a legacy of the lack of re-investment and recapitalization under ZCCM.
Zamboans are good at talking yet we have failed to open a sustainable company and employ fellow zambians and the People You are calling foreigners are the ones opening mines and employ ZambiaZaans. Even the foreigners are getting loans and they implement open mines an create employment. When Zambians get loans, they buy expensive cars, Holidays, womanising, and pay debts. Drink until. Zambians are good at critizing. Mine unión must open the mine and employ só that they ccan see for themselves
When Zambians get loans, they are busy destroying other peoples marriage, pregnanting young Girls and infecting women with Aids.When Zambians are appointed in leadership position they only help there relatives -Nepotism and only food on their table.
LET’S LOOK AT THINGS THIS WAY….
CEC is a private but purely Zambian owned company in which ZCCM-IH holds 20% share. It owns the some of the High and ALL of the Medium Voltage distribution infrastructure on the Copperbelt, the company has always been in existence from way back in the ZCCM times.It is in the business of buying and reselling of Electric power most of which it obtains from Zesco, Now can someone tell me where CEC will get the extra power to give mopani if it is also restricted by Zesco? IN NO WAY DOES CEC MAKE THE COST OF ELECTRICITY HIGH FOR THE DOMESTIC USER. CEC ONLY GIVES THE MINES A STABLE POWER SUPPLY AS COMPARED TO ZESCO FROM WHOM YOU DON’T KNOW WHEN THE NEXT COUNTRYWIDE BLACKOUT IS COMING. CEC HAS BIG GENERATORS(80 MW ) INCASE OF SUCH TO GET YOUR BULULUs OUT OF…
I WOULD ONLY URGE MOPANI TO BUY POWER ELSEWHERE IF ZESCO AND CEC HAVE BECOME EXPENSIVE, but then,THEY SHOULD BUILD THEIR OWN POWERLINES,BUY THEIR OWN TRANSFORMERS,CIRCUIT BREAKERS AND ALL ELSE THAT IS INVOLVED IN SMOOTH POWER TRANSMISSION AND DISTRIBUTION
now which one is cheaper and faster
,paying up or building all that?
Good thinking electric guy but even if thry did they they would then be able to to claim tax relief for thst investment and thenmstill not psy for power. Either way the economy doesnt benefit
Mopani should Just build there own Thelmal plant and leave CEC Just like dangote has done and the surplus can be sold to Zesco. In South África Patrice Motsepe has an underground mine which consumes about 2000MW more than we use in Zambia and it goes over A kilómetro and have their own power plant and excess they electricity they sell some which goes back to the grid and lets see where CEC will be boasting and arm twisting. Maamba mine is building there own thelmal power plant. Sindowe is the major shareholder in CEC, Charles Milupi shareholder and they are HH financiers, what do you expect?