BLACK MOUNTAIN: A UPND AFFAIR, SAYS JERABOS
By ROGERS KALERO
FORMER miners at the Black Mountain have complained that mining activities at the Black Mountain have a new scheme which has been reduced to a mere UPND affair.
A group of women and youths led by Samuel Banda, Noria Chibuta and Christine Njovu said the whole thing had been turned into a UPND affair where the ruling party cadres had formed cooperatives comprising themselves.
They said that senior ruling party officials were dictating conditions which were not in the interest of various stakeholders thereby delaying the beginning of the operations.
Ms Chibuta said from the time the Minister of Mines and Mineral Development, Mr Paul Kabuswe handed over the Black Mountain, it had been a UPND affair with ruling party cadres running the show and no member of the community has a say.
“This is why to start with, they said a consortium of cooperatives, but when you ask what is the name of the consortium, they don’t know. If you ask them how many cooperatives, they don’t know. If you ask them to mention even one name of the cooperative, they will not mention any.
“They cannot answer any of the questions now because they don’t know because that is when they are making the consortium, that is when they are making the cooperatives. They have taken long because they are working to ensure it is really a UPND affair,’’ Ms Chibuta said
And some community members from Wusakile, Bulangililo, Ndeke and others told the Daily Nation that the operations at the “Black Mountain” which were set to begin on Monday had failed because of various issues ranging from operational and payment modalities to self-enriching conditions which UPND officials were making.
More than two weeks ago, Emerald and Semi-Precious Stones Association of Zambia official Shadreck Mwape, said investigations had revealed that some ministers had come with “fake” cooperatives from Lusaka so that they could use them to benefit from the “Black Mountain.”
Mr Mwape said during the handover of the “Black Mountain” by the minister last week, his association demanded to know how many cooperatives were there and their names, but no convincing answer was given.
Mr Mwape, however said some aggrieved UPND cadres told him that some of the cooperatives who had come at the “Black Mountain” had come with a named minister from Lusaka so that he could use them to benefit from the Black Mountain.
A day later, Mr Mwape challenged Mr Kabuswe to explain how the operations at the “Black Mountain” will be carried out and how payments will be done after loading so that various suspicions could be put to rest.
The minister defended himself saying he was innocent in the matter and that he had consulted the relevant authorities.
Most members of the cooperatives have rubbished the idea of cooperatives not being present at the “Black Mountain” during loading, but waiting to be paid their money from their respective homes in various townships.