ZAMBIANS ARE CAPABLE OF RUNNING MINES – DR. M’MEMBE
…says most of the foreign companies owning and managing Zambian Mines are doing so on borrowed money
LUSAKA… Friday, September 6, 2024
SOCIALIST Party President Dr. Fred M’membe says Zambians have the capacity to run their own Mines.
Speaking in Lusaka today, Dr. M’membe said historically, Zambians have demonstrated that they have capacity to own and manage their own Mines under ZCCM.
He said most foreign investors running Zambians Mines are doing so on borrowed money.
He said some of them even borrow money from local banks which they use to buy mines at a song.
“We are told it’s not possible for us to to own Mines because they are to expensive and complicated, but the truth is that those that own those Mines today don’t run them, the managers of those Mines are not the owners. Even the money they use to develop those Mines is no their own money, they go and borrow, starting with Cecil Rhodes himself he didn’t come with his own money, he borrowed that money from the UK, USA and South Africa, even Vendanta they came with almost nothing but they managed to buy mines,” Dr. M’membe said.
“Sometimes they even come and borrow from our own local banks, even from NAPSA they borrow and mine the minerals and take them away. We can manage these Mines, we can borrow, we did demonstrate at one stage in history that we are able to run these Mines, we had capacity under ZCCM,” He said.
Dr. M’membe adds that at one point Zambia was at the same levels with world’s number copper exporter Chile but Zambia pulled back and Chile moved forward.
“Today Chile is exporting mining experts. Some of the people running mining Mines on the Copperbelt and Northwestern province are from Chile. People running Mines in Australia are from Chile, even in South Africa you will find Chileans running Mines there, what is so difficult for us to run our own Mines,to own our Mines. We can also borrow the way they borrow. Today our mining potential is under one third exploitation, we still have two third potential to exploit,” the SP leader said.
Dreaming is free when you need a Presidential job. If you failed to run ka newspaper, you are not the right person to advise on running mines
Dr. M’membe, what prevents you and other Zambians from running mines? Are Zambians excluded from acquiring mining licenses?
What happens in most cases is that Zambians obtain mining licenses and then sell them off to foreign entities because as Zambians we are not wlling to do the hard, dirty work or wait for long periods before realizing reasonable returns on our investment. Remember the case of Mr. Kakubo and the Chinese investor?
We suffer from the get rich quick syndrome and mining is a long term investment.