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Kitwe businessman, Mulepula Mwamba, says ministers should stop misleading President Hakainde Hichilema on mining policies.
Mwamba claimed that the current mine policies favoured foreign entities which called for policy measures to broaden the participation of local enterprises in the mining value chain.
He said this during a public forum on Konkola Copper Mine and general performance of the mining sector hosted by News Diggers at Kitwe’s Garden Court on Monday evening.
Discussants included Copperbelt Minister, Elisha Matambo, Mineworkers Union of Zambia (MUZ) president Joseph Chewe, Association of Mine Suppliers and Contractors president, Coster Mwaba, and representatives from academia.
“Stop misleading President Hichilema that everything is well, local suppliers and contractors are being short changed, they are not getting business in the mines, Ministers need to tell the President the truth,” he told Matambo.
Mwamba called for local content laws to protect local suppliers and contractors against unfair competition.
Read more: Zambia’s current mining policies misguided, claims ex-Commerce Minister, Sichinga
He said only late and former President Kenneth Kaunda was committed to local participation in the mining industry; the rest have been failing to protect local interests.
Mwamba challenged Matambo to deliver the message to President Hichilema so that the government can start acting in the interest of the country for the people to start benefiting from the mineral wealth.
He accused mining entities of refusing to provide business to locals on the guise of lack of capacity saying locals have been running the mines from time immemorial.
Matambo pleaded with Mwamba and other stakeholders to be patient with the government as it looks to protect the interests of locals in the mining value chain.
“The local content law is coming, up to K24 million worth of mining tenders have been reserved for locals in the draft mining local content law,” he said.
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