‘HH WANTS TO GIVE BACK MINES TO FOREIGNERS’

By ROGERS KALERO THE main agenda of the UPND pushing for change of government is not to come and improve people’s lives, but to give back mines to their business partners, the PF Copperbelt Presidential campaign team has charged. UPND presidential spokesperson, Anthony Bwalya however said the principal preoccupation of the UPND and its President Hakainde Hichilema would be to harness Zambia’s mineral resources for local job creation, increased but fair tax remittances from the industry, as well as optimizing the participation of Zambians in the industry. PF Copperbelt Presidential Campaign team chairman, Frank Ng’ambi, said the opposition political parties like the UPND were against Government’s decision to take over the mining industry because they want their international allies to run the mining sector in the country.  In an interview in Kitwe at the weekend, Mr Ng’ambi said some politicians who were now blaming the PF for poverty in communities, were actually the architects of reckless privatisation which left places like Luanshya to be ghost towns. He said some leaders in the opposition had plunged the communities in serious poverty because of their selfishness when they were involved in privatisation. “When we took our decision to save jobs by repossessing Mopani Copper Mines (MCM) and Konkola Copper Mines (KCM), the opposition opposed our decision because they were being used by some international organisations who want to take charge of the mining industry in Zambia,” Mr Ng’ambi said. Mr Ng’ambi said the PF was being perceived to be a stumbling block to some international organisations taking over the mining industry because of its decision to take over the running MCM and KCM Meanwhile, Mr Bwalya said the PF were nowhere near competent to manage Zambia’s mining industry. He claimed that under the PF, production at KCM have plummeted to circa 2,000 metric tonnes per month from the previous 8,000 metric tonnes.