Unions in the mining sector have urged Mopani Copper Mine to immediately recall over 11 000 employees sent on forced leave, following management’s decision to place the mine on care and maintenance.

This follows successive talks, held between government and Glencore, the owners of Mopani Copper Mines, who have agreed to rescind its decision to place Mufulira and Kitwe mines on care and Maintenance.

Mine Workers Union of Zambia President, Joseph Chewe said that Mopani must also reinstate all contractors, whose contracts were terminated to immediately start production.

Mr. Chewe, who was speaking during a joint media briefing in Kitwe, said that Mopani’s decision to place the Mines on care and maintenance without consulting government and unions should never be repeated.

And National Union of Miners and Allied Workers President, James Chansa said the 90 days period Mopani intends to dialogue with government on its future Must not lead to job losses.

Mr. Chansa has also commended the Government for compelling Mopani to follow the right procedure when placing the mines on care and Maintenance and urged the Mining firm to invest heavily in projects in order to boost production.

Yesterday, Glencore, the owners of Mopani Copper Mines rescinded its decision to put mines in Kitwe and Mufulira under on care and maintenance, but will instead write informing the Director of Mines of its intention to place the two mining operations on care and maintenance in 90 days, while still in dialogue with Government on possible solutions.

This followed a meeting held via video conferencing between a Team of Cabinet Ministers and Top Executives of Glencore.

Meanwhile, Government has allowed Mopani Chief Executive Officer Nathan Bullock to leave the country and Charles Sakanya has since been appointed to Act as CEO. Mr. Mulenga said Mopani Copper Mines will also avail the Government a detailed plan on how they intend to proceed in the 90 days period and possibly beyond, adding that the Mine Management has also sought relief on a number of issues mostly related to tax and in particular VAT.

Mr. Mulenga said the Minister of Finance will respond to these issues raised once he studies them and that Mopani will defer some non-production activities and reduce capital expenditure in a bid to unlock some cash flow.

Mr. Mulenga said the Government applauded the gesture of goodwill from Glencore to rescind its earlier decision and opting for dialogue.

Those that were part of the meeting are Mines Minister Richard Musukwa, Minister of Finance Dr Bwalya Ng’andu, Minister of Labour and Social Security Joyce Simukoko, while Glencore Executives included Mark Davis, Mike Westerman and Nico Paraskeva.

ZESCO Board Chairman Mbita Chitala says the construction works at the Kafue Gorge Lower are at 96 percent and is expected to start operations in September this year.

Dr. Chitala has told ZNBC News in an interview that the Kafue gorge lower is expected to generate over 750 megawatts once it becomes operational and will reduce the load shedding hours.

He further said the delay in the plant being complete is due to the COVID -19 that has not only affected Zambia but the globe further stating that among the issues is the contractor Sino hydro went on break in China and have NOT come back since.

And Dr. Chitala said Government availed 186 million US dollars from the Eurobond to ZESCO which was directed to the construction of the Kafue Gorge lower.

He said the institution has also sourced for funds to help the company meet the target of the construction of the Kafue lower gorge which is 500 million US dollars.

The ZESCO Board Chairperson further said the company is in negotiations with various pensions fund to help come on board and give financial support to the project.

Dr. Chitala said for now the country will continue to experience 10 to 12 hours load shedding because water levels at Kariba dam are still low.

He said the utility company has also diversified its power generation to other sources of energy so that the country is not only reliant on hydropower.

The government has given UZZI up to next month to start operating as forth mobile telecommunication company or risk having the license revoked. Minister of Transport and Communication Mutotwe Kafwaya says the government has extended UZZIs license twice and yet the mobile company has not made progress.

Mr. Kafwaya said that should UZZI fail to start operating, ZICTA will be directed to look for another company to operate. The Minister was speaking in Kitwe when he featured on Radio Icengelo as part of the COVID-19 sensitization. Mr. Kafwaya said Zambians are in need of cheap data to enable them to access Information on the COVID-19.

Brian Mushimba, the then Transport and Communications Minister in March 2018 announced UZZI Mobile had finally been given a license after meeting the requirements from ZICTA.

UZZI committed about US$400 million investment to set up a new network across the country which would also come with 400 direct jobs at various levels.

Mr Mushimba said the government was excited that a new mobile service provider would join the already existing three in the country namely Samuel, Airtel and MTN.

The fourth mobile service provider in Zambia comes as a response to outcries by local service end-users over the inept services received from the existing companies, Airtel, MTN and state-owned Zamtel.

In 2017, UZI Zambia won the licence to enter the local market after the telecommunications regulator, the Zambia Information and Communication Technologies Authority (ZICTA) floated a public tender.

According to economic experts, the UZI Zambia investment would contribute to the growth and development of the telecommunications sector in the country through the implementation of the latest LTE technology to provide reliable and high-quality products and services through a national 4G network, and investment in 5G network in the near future.

“UZI Zambia Mobile will create new jobs and opportunities in Zambia and will focus on the training and development of all its employees as well as building its relationships with the local communities through its social responsibility programmes,” John Kasanga, an independent trade and economic consultant said.

According to reports, former Angolan president Eduardo dos Santos’ daughter, Isabel, Africa’s richest woman, is believed to own a stake in UZI Zambia. According to commentators, Unitel International Holdings BV, in which Dos Santos owns a 25% stake, had initially pledged to invest more than US$500 million through a local unit to be called UZI Zambia Mobile Limited instead of the proposed US$400 million.

The investment would, however, be increased based on the expansion of the business in the country, given the increasing interest in mobile communication services including money transfer services being maximised by the three service providers.

Last year, an Angolan court placed a freezing order on the Angolan assets of Isabel Dos Santos, her husband Sindika Dokolo, and one of her executives, Mario da Silva, accusing the three of engaging in transactions with state-owned companies that led to the government incurring losses of $1.14 billion.

“Freezing my accounts prevents me from being able to manage and recapitalize my companies,” Dos Santos, who has been living outside Angola since 2018, said in an emailed statement to Bloomberg. “As such, they have all but been sentenced to death.”

Ms SAntos amassed a fortune during her father’s almost four-decade rule and has an estimated net worth of about $2 billion, Bloomberg data shows. In Angola, her business empire includes stakes in Angola’s biggest mobile telecommunications company Unitel, two of the country’s biggest private lenders, Banco de Fomento Angola and Banco BIC, a supermarket chain, a beer factory and a cable company.

This year the BBC run a documentary that showed leaked documents revealing how Isabel dos Santos made her fortune through what was described as exploiting her own country, and corruption by getting access to lucrative deals involving land, oil, diamonds and telecoms when her father was president of Angola, a country rich in natural resources. The documents showed how she and her husband were allowed to buy valuable state assets in a series of suspicious deals.

However, Ms. Dos Santos said that the allegations against her are entirely false and that there is a politically motivated witch-hunt by the Angolan government.

It is not clear whether the delay in launching UZI in Zambia is a result of the troubles that Isabel dos Santos is going through.

On Saturday, 11th April 2020, Hon. Alan Kyerematen, Minister for Trade and Industry in Ghana paid a working visit to four Ghanaian Garment Manufacturing companies in Accra.

The companies have been selected by the Akufo-Addo Administration to produce Personal Protective Equipment (PPEs) for the frontline health workers leading the fight against the Corona Virus Pandemic.

The local Garments companies visited by Hon. Minister were Dignity DTRT, Sleek Garments, Cadling Fashions and Alfie Designs Limited, are among other companies producing Face Mask, Medical Scrubs, Hospital Gowns and Head Gears using fabrics from ATL, Volta Star Textiles and GTP.

Mr. Kyerematen who was accompanied by a team from both Ministry of Trade and Industry, and Ministry of Health encouraged both management and workers of the companies to adhere to the World Health Organisation’s preventive protocols and express the gratitude of the Government to them for supporting the fight against this global pandemic.

The International Monetary Fund has clarified that Zambia long with a few other African countries is not in the priority bracket for accessing debt relief package from the Fund.

Zambia among with Burundi, Zimbabwe and Congo including Cote d’Ivoire are some of the countries that have missed out on the Covid-19 debt relief.

IMF Director of the African Department Abebe Selassie explained that Zambia missed out on the initial list of debt relief beneficiaries because it is not classified as most vulnerable and poorest.

Mr. Selassie was answering questions from Journalists during a virtual press conference when the Fund launched the Sub-Saharan Africa Regional Economic Outlook report recently.

“First and foremost, of course, is the financing we’re providing to countries to be able to pursue the supportive policies and have more resources to spend in health, have more resources to provide social protection to populations,” Mr Selassie said.

“And I’m happy to say that in the next 6-8 weeks, we will be — for the 32 countries that have already made requests and we are processing those requests — we will be providing of the order of about $11.5 billion for those 32 countries in Sub-Saharan Africa that are in the process of — the discussions are well underway.”

He added, “Over and above this, what we have done is to look for resources that would allow us to provide grants to countries that have debt service payments falling due to the IMF for the remainder of this year.”

“And these grants will offset the debt service payments that would otherwise have had to be made to countries. So, what this will do, of course, is create more fiscal space for countries to devote to higher health spending, higher social protection, that needs to be spent.”

“So, whether you’re a beneficiary of this grant depends, first and foremost, on countries — you know, we have enough resources for the poorest, most vulnerable countries; 25 or so countries — so, a per capita income threshold. And then second, whether you have debt service payments due falling this year.“

Mr Selassie said the Fund hopes to extend the financing relief should it generate more money in the coming months.

“But right now, we have enough resources, really, to provide this debt relief for this year. And the resources for this have come from donations from member countries of the IMF, including the United Kingdom and Japan, amongst others,” he said.

Transport and Communications Minister Hon Mutotwe Kafwaya says the global aviation industry has been negatively affected by the outbreak of Coronavirus (COVID-19) which he says will have an impact on countries’ economies.

Hon Kafwaya says movements of people and cargo have reduced following the outbreak of the disease.

He said this when he featured on Sun FM Zambia’s special program on Monday afternoon in Ndola.

“The global aviation industry has lost business because of the outbreak of Coronavirus (COVID-19). We had South African Airways flying into Zambia five times a day, Air Link, Ethiopian Airways, Emirates flying five times a week and others, but now only one airline is able to fly into Zambia which is Ethiopian Airways. Sometimes they come with two passengers and in worst scenarios even one passenger. This is the extent to which the global aviation industry has lost business because of COVID-19,” said the Minister.

Hon Kafwaya said players in the aviation sector have to rethink on how to address the impact the disease has caused in the industry.

He reminded the program listeners that President Lungu ordered the closure of three international airports in Zambia namely Simon Mwansa Kapwepwe in Ndola, Harry Mwaanga Nkumbula in Livingston and Mfuwe International Airport in Eastern Province as a preventive measure to prevent the spread of Coronavirus.

He also took time to encourage the listeners to remain at home safely or if they are moving in public to observe social distance and wear face masks so as not to contract the virus.

He emphasized the need for all busses to ensure that their passengers wear masks at all times.