MINING ACTIVITIES IN LOWER ZAMBEZI WILL SPUR ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT – MTAYACHALO
By Daily Star Reporter
PF Chama North Member of Parliament Yotam Mtayachalo says mining activities in the lower Zambezi National park will spur economic development.
Mtayachalo said he is in full support of the stance taken by Feira Parliamentarian to support mining.
“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 a lot of 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,” said Mtayachalo.
“… it is indisputable fact that the wildlife sub sector has been dominated by white foreigners at the expense of indegenous Zambians and above all these wild animals are being conserved for the foreigners to benefit as local people who stay near Game Management Areas(GMA) recieve 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 accassionary crop some wild animals on yearly basis especially those animals which had multiplied in numbers in order to ease man-animal conflict and the meat was given to the local people and this used to be a source of protein but nowadays it is a different story such that if a person is found with a mere bird or a skin of a duicker or rabbit just to mention but a few custodial sentences are being imposed on them once convicted and on the other hand accused persons waiting for trials are confined in remand prisons for a long period of time and some of these charges maybe based on trumped up wildlife related crimes therefore making so many families to suffer and thereby congesting our correctional facilities.”
He said it should not be business to just watch people suffer and treated like slaves.
“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 suspects are being searched in their homes in the midst of the night or at dawn and as the results there are being dehumanized by some of these wildlife scouts and this is a gross violation of human rights.”
“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 representation to successfully defend them in our court,” he said.
Mtayachalo is asking the Government to launch investigations and find out what is happening to the local people.
“Therefore, I want to appeal to the government to launch investigations in these serious allegations and ensure that it gets 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 and as a member of parliament I want this matter investigated thoroughly because some people are in jail not that they committed crimes but for the offences they did not commit which is not right,” he said.
Mtayachalo is further asking President Hakainde Hichilema to consider pardoning people arrested for wildlife related crimes.
“I also want to make an earnest appeal to His Excellency President Hakainde Hichilema to consider pardoning a long list of people convincted of wildlife related crimes in chama district who are currently serving jail sentences in the correctional facilities in the districts I have mentioned as above because we don’t have a correctional facility in the district in order to decongest these facilities so that these people can reunite with their families and as such the affected families will highly be indebted to the President should he consider pardoning our people who are languishing in various correctional services.”