By RUTH ZULU
A CONSORTIUM of civil society organisations championing the revamping of the mining industry has petitioned President Hakainde Hichilema over the sluggish progress made in revamping Konkola Copper Mine (KCM) and Mopani Copper Mine.
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The consortium is also requesting the Head of State to address the operational challenges at Kansenseli gold mine.
A consortium member, Mr Samuel Banda, who is also Advocates for National Development and Democracy Executive Director, says this is in the interest of creating job and business opportunities for the local people.
“Fellow citizens, as a consortium that has been advocating for the resumption of the mining sector, we have petitioned President Hakainde Hichilema to unlock the mining sector, but particularly Konkola Copper Mines and Mopani Copper Mine.
“We have also requested our Republican President in our petition to address the operational challenges at Kansenseli Gold Mine. We must make it clear that in our petition, we have requested the President to unlock KCM in the interest of creating employment and business opportunities for our people.
“The government must also ensure that KCM pays off the debts it owes suppliers and contractors. As you may be aware, that both KCM and Mopani owes some contracted suppliers around US$200 million and these two giant mines can only clear off these debts when they begin to operate at optimum level,” he said.
And Zambians for Unity Peace and Development President Ronnie Jere says the consortium has resorted to petitioning the Head of State after seeing that all engagements with the Minister of Mines have proved futile.
Mr. Jere is confident that President Hichilema will resolve this matter.
“We have decided to do that because we have tried other avenues of engaging the Minister of Mines but our engagements have not received any positive results. We have resorted to engage His Excellency because we know that he will help us to resolve these issues based on his previous experience in sorting out issues such as this,” he says.
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