GOVERNMENT URGED TO HALT ILLEGAL MINING ACTIVITIES AT SENSELI OPEN PIT
THE Evangelical Fellowship of Zambia (EFZ) has advised government to halt illegal mining activities at Senseli Open Pit mine where a number of miners perished.
In an interview with ZANIS today, EFZ Copperbelt Coordinator Bishop Steven Safwali has instead advised government to find alternative sources of income for the youths engaged in unsafe illegal mining on the Copperbelt to prevent a re-occurrence of the Senseli open pit mine accident in Chingola.
Bishop Safweli said banning the youths from mining from the mine sites as being suggested by some political leaders would not help because those mining activities are a source of income for the youths.
“Illegal as these activities may be but this is their only way of putting food on the table for their families and many may condemn them for being careless but for some of them this is the only job they know, they need help, they are not lazy but hard working and courageous youths who risk their lives for their families,” he noted.
Bishop Safwali said there is need for some intervention that will stop such accidents once and for all.
And Bishop Safwali who said he lost a nephew under a similar accident in the past said the church is praying for the families of the youths that are feared dead.
He stated that those families need support as the accident victims could have been bread winners for some.
The search for the trapped miners is still under way and so far 12 have been retrieved with only one alive.