We are not nationalising mines - Musukwa

GOVERNMENT has no plans whatsoever to nationalise any mining entity, Mines and Mineral Development Minister Richard Musukwa has said.

The minister castigated people spreading lies and said that Zambians must not be swayed by such people who did not mean well.

“Our role is to ensure that we continue running and operating the mining industry anchored in a private investment “That is misinformation from detractors who don’t want to get facts as they are, I have said and I want to repeat we have no plans to nationalise the mines,” Mr Musukwa said. He said yesterday that if Government had such plans it would have come out in the open to tell the nation and the world at large.

He was reacting to some section of international community that the Zambian government wanted to nationalise the mines because it was anti-foreign investor.

Mr Musukwa said: “In this case if you talk about Konkola Copper Mine (KCM) Zambians are the victims by a multinational company which short changed the people of Zambia. So you expect the Government to fold its hands and just watch the law being abrogated, the answer is no. we had to move in.

“As a matter of facts, he said, if Government did not move in and liquidate it things would have been bad. Do you want to surrender the people in the hands of foreigners, the answer is no, we had to move in and provide confidence to the people.

Mr Musukwa said from the time the liquidator took over there have been positive results that were being generated at KCM. He said the company was purely mismanaged by Vedanta Resources and as a regulator, the Government had a duty to do what was best in the interest of our people.

“We have no plans to run and operate the mine. So we don’t have plans to directly run KCM,” Mr Musukwa said.

The minister was hopeful that the liquidation case could be finalised as soon as possible so that the operations could get back to normal.