BLACK MOUNTAIN FIRMS CRAFT PACKAGE FOR BEREAVED FAMILIES
By NATION REPORTER AN EMPOWRMENT programme has been worked out for families of 11 victims of the Black Mountain accident in Kitwe.
The seven companies that own 10 per cent of the copper slag, operating under Chapamo Mineral Processing Investment Limited, have come up with a package for the families of the 11 people who died in an accident last month.
Chapamo Director Kelvin Tembo said in an interview in Kitwe that a package had been worked out for each of the 11 families.
He however emphasised that the people who died were not employees of any of the firms operating at the Black Mountain and that the support was being rendered on humanitarian grounds.
Mr Tembo said the holding firm was putting together resources, which would be distributed to the bereaved families of the June 19 mine accident.
“It may have taken long, but we first wanted to clear expenses towards the funeral programme. We are done with that. We`ve worked out an empowerment programme and this will help towards the families. We are just putting resources together,” he said.
He said it was going to be difficult to execute an empowerment package alongside the funeral programme because it would have created confusion in families.
“We want to give the resources to deserving people in these families. We could not have done it earlier because some members of the extended families who travelled from other areas were present and could have misunderstood the empowerment to mean it was for all of them,” he explained.
Mr Tembo said he and other members at Chapamo agreed with Government as well as 3atriotic )ront 3) officials that the bereaved families be empowered since their breadwinners had died at the mine site. “We sat with Government officials and leaders from the PF. We agreed that we take up the financial responsibility. Although the victims were not our employees, we felt that since these families had depended on the people who had died, we needed to somehow assist them,” he said.
It would not be long, he said, that the funds would be released to the deserving families for them to engage in some income-generating activities.Mr Tembo could not however disclosed how much would be given to each family.
Some of the deceased were Maybin Mwansa 26, Raphael Muyutu who was also 26, Blessings Bwalya , Chibwe Mwansa , Combell Kutobola , Makina Banda , 5odgers Bwalya , Allan Chama and Enock Chirwa.
On safety measures, Mr Tembo said five safety officers and security personnel at Chapamo were working with experts from the Mines and Mineral Development Ministry to ensure safety was above per cent.
“Of course, you cannot have safety at 100 per cent, but we want to ensure that safety for our workers is guaranteed,” he said.
He said Chapamo would not rush into pushing for the lifting of suspension on operations, but would instead wait until all aspects were taken care of.
Mr Tembo said the 1 workers would continue getting their salaries and was hopeful that soon operations would resume.