By Christopher Miti
CHAMA North member of parliament Yotam Mtayachalo says the mining investment in the lower Zambezi will bring maximum economic benefits to the country.
In a statement, Mtayachalo stated that he supports the stance taken by his Feira counterpart Emmanuel Tembo, who is supporting mining in the lower Zambezi.
“I would like to take this opportunity to come in full support of the stance taken by Feira member of parliament Hon Emmanuel Tembo and other interest groups in the district for supporting large scale mining activities in the lower Zambezi on condition that the company shall be compliant with the benchmarks set out by the Zambia Environmental Management Authority (ZEMA) in order to ensure that the environment is protected. The mining investment in the lower Zambezi whose inhabitants are very poor will undoubtedly bring maximum economic benefits to the country and the local people in as far as contribution to Gross Domestic Product (GDP), job opportunities and wealth creation at household level is concerned,” he stated.
Mtayachalo note that the wildlife sub sector had been dominated by whites.
“It is an indisputable fact that the wildlife sub sector has been dominated by white foreigners and all these wild animals are being conserved for the foreigners to benefit as local people who stay near Game Management Areas (GMA) receive lip service from hunting safaris and as such the local people are not deriving maximum economic benefits from their God given wildlife resource. However, in the olden days the government used to authorise the Department of Wildlife to occasionally crop some wild animals on a yearly basis, especially those animals which had multiplied in large numbers in order to ease man-animal conflict and the meat was given to the local people,” he stated.
Mtayachalo stated that these days it was a different story because if a person is found with a mere bird or a skin of a dicker or rabbit, they are arrested and given custodial sentences.
“This cannot continue while we watch helplessly and seeing our own people being treated like slaves in their own country and needless to say that while I support conservation of wildlife, the same must not be done at the expense of the local people because our people are being searched in their homes in the middle of the night and dehumanized by wildlife scouts for being suspected poachers and this is a gross violation of human rights. Furthermore, there are reports in Chama district in Eastern Province of wildlife scouts planting evidence such as animal skins and game meat on homes of suspected poachers and unfortunately some of the accused persons are currently serving prison terms on crimes they did not commit because they do not have access to legal presentation,” he stated.
Mtayachalo appealed to government to investigate cases involving people that were wrongly convicted for wildlife offences.
“I want to appeal to the government to launch investigations in regard to this issue and ensure that they get to the bottom of this matter so that those officers involved in this scam are dealt with severely because it is evil or inhuman to plant evidence on suspected poachers leading to their arrests and ultimately being jailed in Lundazi, Mpika and Chinsali prisons while their families back home suffer. As a member of parliament, I want this matter investigated because some people are in jail for the offences they did not commit, which is not right,” he stated.
Mtayachalo appealed to President Hichilema to consider pardoning some people who were convicted of wildlife crimes.
“Lastly, but not the least, I also want to make an earnest appeal to President Hakainde Hichilema to consider pardoning a long list of people convicted of wildlife related crimes in Chama district who are currently serving jail sentences in the correctional facilities in the districts I have mentioned above because we don’t have a correctional facility in the district in order to de-congest these facilities so that these people can re-unite with their families and as such the people of Chama will highly be indebted to the President should he consider pardoning our people who are languishing in prison,” stated Mtayachalo.