FDD President Edith Nawakwi has proposed that the Manganese mining must be given to the Zambia National Service to run the business.
Ms. Nawakwi a Former Finance Minister in the Chiluba administration said Zambia has minerals and ZNS is lubricating their equipment every week and must be given one manganese mine to excavate and raise money to even pay some of the debt.
“We have our ZNS with all the equipment being greased weekly with tax payers money and somehow some of the miners hire our ZNS equipment,” she said.
a carat of emerald is $6,000 while a ton of copper is $6,000
Ms Nawakwi advised Zambians to take note that a carat of emerald is $6,000 while a ton of copper is $6,000. She said Zambian mining engineers are unemployed and ZNS have the equipment and the country has people with the minds.
She said that if she had a chance, she would have given a concession of manganese mine and emerald mine to Zambia Army and Zambia Prisons Service and equip them with all the requirements and the skills they need to work in the mining industry.
Mrs. Nawakwi said that unfortunately, all the nice spots including rare earth have been given to foreigners.
Mrs. Nawakwi noted that Zambia is land of limitless opportunities but the only problem Zambians have is that they do not love each other.
Misguided from Edith Nawakwi. Why ZCCM-IH do it? It’s the commercial arm of the Zambian government. Let the military do those things that mske them compete with business.
@Wemwine, did you know that AVIC is Chinese military company?
Smart idea, Edith … ZNS is already on the payroll off the smart people of the Zambian Enterprise and they already have the equipment.
What a smart idea!!! Tweende webo, hire Edith as General Manager to run it and just make sure you watch her fingers.
She was MMD and these are the guys that brought stealing and corruption in Zambia. We had none of that under my UNIP.
But this ideas is noble and needs serious consideration. Let ZCCM-IH and ZNS own it 50-50.
Epo mpelele,
BRM
If God came yesterday I would love that He canes you first, the MMD administration then double h for allowing foreigner to have our assets free of charge.
Secondly ore wealth should not be at the hands of the Army, that is a recipe of untold chaos.
Thirdly if you say ore wealth in the Zambia National Service, I will say sense. Equip them and allow some school leavers to join them.
Also please, can the Country begin to stock pile Gold. Let us have Government Technical shushushus to have mining companies contribute pure Gold dug in our mines to the National treasury. This country doesn’t even have stoke piles for Copper. How dull can we get.
If our National treasury is a preserve of a Dollar, we have misplaced priorities and a dangerous treasury. When I form Government, that is,…
…before double h, I will make this a priority that a National Gold and previous metals treasury is instituted in my first year of my tenure
Sorry for the errors as( luckily they weren’t meaning changing and all readers saw my intention) I was drafting my response to Ms Nawakwi’s proposal on my phone while munching a pizza lunch. ZCCM-IH would be a better idea bcos we know how much capital Zambians hv tied into it and it becomes easier to calculate the usual performance measures. How much capital hv Zambians “invested” in ZNS? As for AVIC being a Chinese military company, I don’t know and even if it is, it’s really wouldn’t be good for us. We already hv a long history of mining and we hv ZCCM-IH. Why start something new? It eould be a duplication and therefore a waste of resources.
What is the new ultra Mongu Stadium?? Kuli kantu ku Zambia na journalism yaso
And this is coming from a former FINANCE MINISTER. What does that tell you?
By the way what is ZNS doing in Lufwanyama on that Emerald Mine?
So funny, romantic but yet blunt right!!
Even KCM they should have given to Zambia army. There are full of engineers there.
Excellent reasoning! While at it let’s do the same for Civil Servants, Hospitals, and Universities. A mine each to take care of salaries and Zambian patients, Students (no more meal allowance bun fights with the government). We have the solution to decentralise financial burdens off the govts.
Look we need a Mines revolution. ZCCM has been sleeping with the enemies is a secretive organisation charged with covering up mines theft. What have they been doing all these years?! Underselling mines, giving dividends to private hands while citizens languish in poverty.
Ba Nawakwi, we dont need our Security forces to be involved in such complex ventures like mining, whats needed is to put right and thoughtful minds to this. Zambia is a mining giant with School of Mines specifically built to train Mining engineers which it has and is still doing. This same school has been an attraction of many foreign students who come to learn the skills and build knowledge about mining.
What we need is this, re-invest in the school of mines, equip it with modern and state-of-the art equipment, recruit credible lectures and make entry to this school very competitive for students. Government should then create a “control” Zambian mining company which is 100% wholly owned. Government can then hire expatriates with specific deliverables where our engineers may have…
Contd
Government can then hire expatriates with specific deliverables where our engineers may have gaps. From there, ensure capacity building is number key for locals who will explore the minerals, mine, process, refine, supply to Value Adding companies like ZAMEFA for production of FINISHED GOODS like High Voltage cable, Motor Cable, Electronic Circuit Hybrids, Reinforcement metals etc.
Above all, Government must create a strong Logistic, Marketing and Financial Directorates to oversee exports of the finished mineral products and supply the local market. In a space of 3 years, Zambia will be swimming in Hundreds of Billion Dollars Reserves.
This money can then be used as investment by lending to other countries, develop Solid Infrastructure like Renewable Energy Source investment,…
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This money can then be used as investment by lending to other countries, develop Solid Infrastructure like Renewable Energy Source investment, Schools, Hospitals, Robust Road Network, Solid Agriculture and Marketing Base, Structured Housing facilities and Environment preservation and Research in Innovation and Technology. We can do all these things believe you me. This is how countries like Singapore , Malaysia Taiwan moved from poverty to prosperity.
Malinso: But we don’t just mine Cu (copper) but other minerals also. We should look @ the entire mineral value chain not just digging stuff out of the ground. Look, it’s not that much different from digging mice as u’re just getting out of the ground what is lying there. Modern manufacturing has changed so much: my Samsung handset has inputs from different countries: Android software is American, as are the computer chips but they could also be Japanese, the circuitry and brand name are perhaps the only South Korean made but the metals in it could be from D.R Congo, Zambia etc. What intermediate goods can we make from our minerals to join the global supply chains for mobile phone making, car making , plane making, ship building, electronics etc. No doubt this is long-term stuff…
They are a wasteful and uninformed bunch. You should have seen the graveyard for machinery at their Makeni yard.
The idea of commercializing the military when you have a civilian government is highly misplaced Ms Nawakwi and all those lauding this idea. The day the military starts to seek profit motives in their undertakings as opposed to service is the day we will start seeing a direct military intervention in our politics. Let’s learn from Egypt, Sudan, Zimbabwe and many other places where the military is easily turned on citizens because of the evil motive of profit (self interest). As things stand in Zambia, we have military generals and other officers who are as corrupt as politicians. Let us not institutionalize corruption in the military by commercializing the military. There is also the issue of the logistics of men in uniform being answerable to civilian managers in these proposed Nawakwi…
That only happens in totalitarian states. The army can’t specialize in mining when they are needed for security
There is also the issue of the logistics of men in uniform being answerable to civilian managers in these proposed Nawakwi mines. It’s a recipe for disaster! Let’s not ignore the waste and abuse that already exists in the military where personnel are commanded to work on personal projects of the generals. The China governance model is very different from our ‘civilian’ model. Therefore, don’t just copy and paste ideas: if AVIC is a military owned company, it does not follow that Zambian military owned companies would be anywhere nearly as successful.
99% of this country’s schools and university laboratories have no copper let alone any of the most common ore extractives on display either as learners aids or just for archival purposes and we are here talking of running a mine. Makes me wonder how many on this blog have even had the privilege to come close to any of their country’s treasured geo endowments. Other than the gerabo initiative it’s like we never even started
Local investors could be engaged in partnership with international investors. That is a win-win scenario. What seems strange is to single out one military unit among others. What does ZNS stand for? What makes ZNS different from Army? How has ZNS performed in agricultural diversification so far? Please focus also on Zambia Development Agency. Please focus also on ZACCI. Please focus also on ZCCM Investment Holding. There is no need to divert attention from special purpose vehicles. If these vehicles are not performing to expectations, then have them capacitated, accordingly. Capacity building may include hiring new CEO or getting more credits and loans.