If you’re looking for jobs from mining
investments, forget it – M’membe
By Thomas Ngala
TODAY, one small excavator costing $30,00 or $40,000 wipes out 2,000 to 3,000 jobs of miners, Dr Fred M’membe has said as he warns those looking for jobs from mining investment to forget.
Speaking when he featured on Diamond TV’s COSTA programme on Sunday, the opposition Socialist Party (SP) leader said mining and technology have changed.
He reminded Zambians that mining did not start yesterday but in the early 1900s.
Dr M’membe said Zambians have been fooling themselves for a long time adding that citizens needed to sober up.
“Mining did not start yesterday, let us look at the history. Mining started in the early 1900s by the same people who are coming back. By the same people we are dealing with today, by the same entities we are dealing with today. Where are we? More than 100 years of mining, where are we? We are talking as if mining is starting tomorrow. What major changes have been made in the way mining is conducted? What fundamental changes have been made so that we benefit from this mining?” he asked. “And if you are looking for jobs from mining investments, forget it. Mining has changed, technology has changed. Today one small excavator costing $30,00, $40,000 wipes out 2,000 jobs, 3,000 jobs of miners. If you are looking for jobs from mining you will not get them. What we need is to get fair taxes from the mines so that we pump those fair taxes into education, health and agriculture. Let us not get excited with old things that appear to be new. We have been dealing with these people for a very long time. We have not benefited. We keep on fooling ourselves for a long time. Let us sober down. Let us avoid this unnecessary excitement.”
Dr M’membe charged that the investors are not coming for the country’s benefit but for themselves.
“We are not new to these people and they are not new to us. These people are not coming for us, they are coming for themselves. We are in a weak negotiating position. How strong are we? What have we agreed? Let us be clear about this. In life it’s important to be clear about things. What is on the table? You are talking about electric vehicles, batteries and so on. You have not seen any plan, any deal about that. And this is the problem of getting excited with just even an idea,” he said. “We are not saying there should be no investment in the mines. Let us look at every deal that is there. Put everything on the table for people to see for themselves. For people to analyse things for themselves. Even you a very well informed journalist, what do you know about these investments on the Copperbelt? I am in politics, what do I know about the investments? What have they disclosed to us? Maybe you are an investigative journalist, tell us what you have dug out. Show us what is there for us to get excited.”
Dr M’membe said the UPND is not the first government to promise so much investment.
“We have been on this path for a long time. This is not the first government to promise so much investment. Over the last 30 years plus, we have been on this path. The [Frederick] Chiluba regime was there, privatised, inviting foreign investors and so on,” he recalled.
Commenting on the inflation rate, Dr M’membe said the cost of living keeps escalating despite the fall in inflation.
He explained that there are two economies, the real economy and artificial one.
“Any student of political economy, not just mere economy will tell you that we have two economies. There is the real economy, that is based on the goods being produced. There is what we call, for lack of a better term an artificial economy that just deals with the exchanging economies and you make money. Today you can incorporate a company saying there is uranium found in Chongwe. And that company starts to sell shares because they believe that the grade of uranium is very high in Chongwe that you have found,” he explained. “You list that on the stock exchange, it will start to make money. It may take 10 years to actualise that project but shares are being exchanged. No production at all. Then later on in the ninth or eighth year they realise that actually the grade of the uranium you are talking about in Chongwe is of low quality. So that project will not take place.”
Dr M’membe said what is being seen with the figures of inflation is not coming from the production of goods and services.
He explained that it is rather coming from “simply” playing around with monetary issues.
Dr M’membe warned that Zambians should not be excited that inflation rate is going down.
“Demand and supply, you reduce it. You suppress a bit of demand from the kwacha, from the dollar and so on. That pushes the exchange rate a bit lower. That also helps lower inflation and so on. Have you reduced the cost of living? No. Are prices really coming down? Have prices really been coming down the way the rate of the inflation rate is coming down? Or prices have been going up? On the real economy, prices have been going up,” said Dr M’membe.
