BY NATION REPORTER
LUBINDA Haabazoka, one of Zambia’s renowned economists has objected government’s decision to return Konkola Copper Mine (KCM) to billionaire, Anil Agarwal’s Vedanta Resources with the majority 80 percent shareholders after an acrimonious exit in 2019.
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Dr Haabazoka fears that bringing back Vedanta Resources at KCM could be yet another economic blunder as he believes would end up no more than a raw deal not only for the people on the Copperbelt but a country as a whole.Government last week decided to re-engage Vedanta Resources as the company has 80 percent shareholding rights of KCM to invest in the mine and agree the terms and conditions of engagement. The re-engagement of Vedanta Resources as the new owners of KCM has signaled the second coming of India’s mining conglomerate which was acrimoniously divorced by the Zambian government in 2019 following a range of operational and re-investment challenges.
Mr Kabuswe said at a media briefing yesterday at his office that government and Vedanta Resources were negotiating over ten key issues that needed to be resolved before it could take over the KCM.
And now Dr Haabazoka, the former Economic Association of Zambia (EAZ) president says the return of Vedanta to KCM would not not benefit Zambians because the Indian firm had time and again proved that it could not be trusted.
Dr Haabazoka said that he hoped that the Indian firm had changed and that it would utilise the assets at KCM to get capital that would be then used to revamp the mining firm.
He said he was hoping government could have picked a more serious investor and not what was seen with the likes of Vedanta.
“To me I feel they were other better investors but just hope that the government has made a right choice that will not affect the people were this firm operates from,” he said.
And Patriotic Front (PF) member of the central committee Emmanuel Mwamba has wondered what was motivating the UPND government to give KCM back to Vedanta Resources.
Mr Mwamba said Vedanta Resources was broke and the company had a net debt of US$9.66 billion as of 31 March 2022. Mr Mwamba said throughout its existence at KCM, Vedanta had been reluctant to pay taxes and that the company had been declaring consistently been declaring losses because of tax evasion and avoidance. “At the time of liquidation, KCM’s debt had exceeded US$2.5 billion; developments at Konkola Deep Mine Project (KDMP) had stalled; underground operations at Nchanga suspended, while the open pit was operating at very low capacity.
Mr Mwamba stated that the smelter was not running at full capacity due to lack of concentrates.
Mr Mwamba said Vedanta failed to run KCM profitably and technically; it failed to pay taxes; offer decent employment to its workers; pay contractors; repay its loans, and prevent pollution from affecting poor communities.
“The government’s efforts of reviving the company by providing it with a Business Improvement Plan (BIP) to increase production from 132,318 tonnes of finished copper in 2013, to 178,994 tonnes by 2017 were frustrated by Vedanta’s failure to fulfill its commitments resulting in a further decline in production to 86,585 tonnes,” he said.
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