500 Jerabos bid to legalize their business

Tue, 20 Jun 2017 13:50:47 +0000

By SANDRA MACHIMA

 FIVE hundred informal miners, known as Jerabos, in Chingola district have formed a mining group with the hope of obtaining mining rights as a form of economic empowerment and other associated reliefs from the Government.

The group, led by chairman Martin Kalunga, was targeting to recruit nearly all the more than 3,000 illegal miners in Chingola to join the organization.

He said illegal miners were compelled to be involved in that risky undertaking due to lack of employment.

“We will not tolerate personal interest to precede public interest because this is a collective entity that is aimed at addressing the challenges of unemployment among youths,” he said.

Mr Kalunga, a self-confessed illegal miner, bemoaned the dramatic turn of events in terms of hostility in their work where they were always harassed.

This was in response to Mines minister Christopher Yaluma who had audience with illegal miners (popularly known as stone dealers) to be helped by the Government.

He said the market for stone dealing had been lost following the Government’s decision to ban their Chinese regular buyers, saying the group wanted the indulgence of the Government for help.

“As I speak on behalf of the group, we have plenty of mined copper ore albeit without any ready market because our potential Chinese market is no more and life is unbearable.

‘‘We have been harassed at times for criminal trespass even when all the members worked from disused, abandoned or over-burdened historical dump sites belonging to ZCCM-IH which lie idle with no hope of the land being reclaimed.

‘‘It is unfortunate that all our capital is held in those unsold copper stocks, and as such the Government may in the alternative urgently establish a reliable market within our reach owing to huge transport costs involved and copper grading and pricing ramifications with the Chinese buyers,” he said.

Mr Kalunga claimed that although his members mined in restricted areas, they did not intrude into active mining sites or interfere with their operations as it happened recently near Nchanga open pit where an illegal miner was shot dead and several others wounded for alleged criminal trespass and sabotage.

Mr Kalunga said their organization shall ensure that all its members followed the law or risk being banned from work forever.