DOGS AND VOMITS: THE CASE OF MINE UNIONS
By Hon. Bowman Chilosha Lusambo
At a time I served as Copperbelt Minister, all Unions representing mine workers always frequented my office seeking interventions. One of their key complaints was around Vedanta Resources and KCM. As their resentment towards Vedanta grew, it became apparent that the company had lost its social licence to continue operating. I was transferred to Lusaka Province and the inevitable happened, President Edgar Chagwa Lungu used the law to cause ZCCM-IH to liquidate KCM in public interest. A common feature in the entire process was the mine workers unions. They vehemently advocated for Vedanta to leave Zambia and as a listening leader that President Lungu is, he heeded their calls and KCM was liquidated.
Now watching these Union leaders turn around and take a 360 turn on a position with grave consequences is not only disappointing but frightening. To watch the way President Hichilema is pussyfooting around the KCM issues speaks to his failure to understand the Copperbelt economy.
The Unions are hypocrites. They called Vedanta a bad investor but today, they are telling President Hichilema that they want Vedanta back. What has changed?
The Union leaders have started behaving like dogs around its vomits. They are ready to sacrifice their members at the altar of political expediency. The other thing that has changed is that both Vedanta and the Union have seen in President Hichilema, a willing partner in the process of bringing back Vedanta. All the promises of reinvestment, improved CSR, KDMP development and production ramp up have been made before and never actualised. Vedanta reduced a thriving business like KCM to a mere trader as no mining was done. Vedanta only survived on processing copper concentrate from the DRC. Vedanta killed people and polluted our rivers. Bringing them back will therefore be shortchanging ourselves and our future generations.
Listening to President Hichilema discuss the issue of KCM shows that his administration has already settle for Vedanta. Watching President Hichilema with those union leaders completes the puzzle, President Hichilema is bringing Vedanta and it’s just a matter of when and not a matter of if.
It is shocking that Mines Minister Hon. Kabuswe who was a PF District official in Chililabombwe only a few months before elections and heavily supported the removal of Vedanta could sit here now and call for its return. The same for Copperbelt Minister Hon. Elisha Matambo who was UPND Copperbelt Chairman and called for the removal of Vedanta. The way the two officials are behaving today is not different from the way dogs behave around vomits.
Our call is to the members of these spineless Unions, your subscription fees are only making these leaders fat. When they sit on the negotiation table with Vedanta, UPND Ministers have ifitumbuwa (fritters) in their mouth and therefore cannot defend any bad deals presented to them. You have the right to withhold your subscription.