MINERS IN PAY BONANZA

By ROGERS KALERO MORE than 5000 miners would start receiving their terminal benefits tomorrow following President Edgar Lungu’s intervention, Mineworkers Union of Zambia (MUZ) President Joseph Chewe has said. Mr Chewe said President Lungu has worked tirelessly to unblock the financial woes which had chocked most miners at Mopani Copper Mines (MCM) through his intervention to ensure that they are paid their terminal benefits,  Mr Chewe said most miners at MCM were in serious financial woes, but President Lungu’s intervention to ensure they were paid the terminal benefits they worked for under Glencore Plc would lighten their financial burden. He said in an interview yesterday that more than 5,000 miners at Mopani would be paid the terminal benefits which they had worked for under Glencore and also the money which was held in trust under the ZCCM-IH. He said the union was grateful to President Lungu because he had taken a lot of bold decisions to save the interests of the miners despite sustained criticism. Mr Chewe said first instalments of the terminal benefits will be paid on Friday this week while the second instalment will be paid on October 3, this year with the last instalment will come in January, 2022 Last month, President Lungu assured miners that government would pay them their terminal benefits which they had worked under Glencore PLC because it had already set a precedent by paying their colleagues at Konkola Copper Mines (KCM).