BY GRACE CHAILE
THE Advocates for National Development and Democracy (ANDD) has appealed to President Hakainde Hichilema to swiftly respond to the petition the consortium of Civil Society Organisations submitted at State House on August 23, 2023 on the need to revamp the mining sector.
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ANDD Executive Director Samuel Banda disclosed that on August 23, 2023, as a consortium of developmental civil society organisations they petitioned President Hichilema to quickly handover KCM to Vedanta, announce the investor for Mopani and address operational challenges at Kasenseli mine, to revamp the country’s mining sector.
“We believe that Government has an opportunity to address economic challenges by implementing recommendations in the petition. Economic challenges such as the high cost of living, excercabated by high fuel and mealie meal prices, unstable Kwacha and mass unemployment, are some of the issues which can be addressed by simply making the mining sector viable,” he said.
He said in the interest of restoring national economic development, reduce cost of living and improve the living standards of Zambians, his organisation wanted to reiterate its position that President Hichilema should hand over KCM to Vedanta Resources and also find a suitable investor for Mopani.
He said as a consortium, they were worried that despite having made progressive mining reforms, government has delayed to make critical mining decisions which are a prerequisite to economic emancipation.
“We want to indicate that by making the mining sector viable, Government will increase revenue which will grow our domestic economy, and reduce dependence on foreign debt. For example to reduce the cost of fuel and Mealie meal, Government can utilize revenues from the mining sector and subsidize fuel and agriculture farming inputs,” he said.
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