CURB EMERALDS SMUGGLING

IT IS undisputable that Zambia has continued to lose revenue through rampant smuggling of emeralds and other precious stones. Unless stringent measures are mooted fast enough to stop the dubious dealings in the precious stones, the country will continue to lose out. Despite being richly endowed with vast mineral wealth it is disappointing to note that Zambians have been unable to fully benefit from their resources because of illegalities in the mining sector. In fact, for a long time, emeralds have been a source of attraction to foreigners from across Africa and elsewhere, who with the help of few Zambians, have been among beneficiaries of the commodity through illegal trade. Some foreigners had in some cases even taken advantage of the flaws in the system to freely but illegally own mines in various districts as locals either watched haplessly or provided cheap labour for them. Sadly, nothing much has changed as smuggling and illegal mining of emeralds and other precious stones has continued in various parts of the country because of lack of proper control mechanisms in place. We, therefore, agree with Emeralds and Semi- Precious Stones Association (ESPSA) president Victor Kalesha’s appeal for proper certification laws to be put in place to curb these improprieties. Indeed, failure to introduce proper laws to allow for certification of emeralds before being put on the market will entail continued loss of the much-needed revenue, and denying Zambians an opportunity to benefit from the valuable resource. Once in place, the law would ensure that emeralds were certified before being put on the market as the case was with diamonds in countries that were gifted with the mineral. It is disheartening that from time immemorial, foreigners including a handful of locals have been freely trading in uncertified emeralds and the status quo still remains so. We implore government to seriously look into the matter and stop the illegalities that have contributed to robbing the country of its revenue once and for all. As Mr Kalesha observes, in some countries people are only allowed to deal in certified minerals and by so doing preventing smuggling and loss of revenue. We also concur with Mr Kalesha that government should adopt and localise some of the laws from other countries to prevent smuggling of emeralds and other precious stones. Given the gravity of the problem, our view is that government should engage Mr Kelsha and his association to chart the way forward on this matter if the widespread smuggling and illegal mining of emeralds is to be eradicated. Zambians have for a long time been longing to benefit from their mineral wealth but unless government acts prudently, this will be a far-fetched dream. While acknowledging that the state is already taking steps towards achieving this feat by adjusting the mine taxes upwards, more still needs to be done to ensure this is feasible. Mooting laws to ensure certification of emeralds and other precious minerals is certainly also one of the ways and is inevitable. But Government alone cannot succeed without the support of other stakeholders and this calls for continuous engagements with all mining sector players.