KAFIMBWA COUNSELS BLACK MOUNTAIN CONSORTIUM

THEBlack Mountain consor tium must find better ways of addressing challenges of safety, health and other issues as opposed to resorting to silencing stakeholders by reporting them to police whenever they raise concerns regarding operations at the site, Emerald Watch Production of Zam bia (EWPZ) has said

EWPZ President Musa Kafimbwa said the Black Mountain consortium should not resort to silencing people, but must show leadership by engag ing stakeholders in addressing the challenges at the site which resulted into the death of an 18 year old boy Lombe Joshua, three boys getting injured from a number of riots and operations

Mr Kafimbwa was reacting to the decision by the Black Mountain con sortium to report the Daily Nation to the police over a story that Govern ment should halt operations at the

Black Mountain until mining safety measures were put in place

The consortium, through spokes person, Kangwa Kamando report ed the Daily Nation to Police after a statement by a mining expert Edward Simukonda that lives especially that of the youths were being claimed at the site which need attention from government.

He reminded the group of the his tory of the Black Mountain and poor safety measures which resulted in 11 lives being lost when the black mountain carved in trapping those who were digging below.

Mr Kafimbwa said, instead of try ing to silence or intimidate the stake holders by reporting them to police, the consortium must find better ways of addressing challenges of safety, health and other issues which have resulted into deaths and inju ries PF youths who have been chased from the site

“They climb on top of the trucks because, in some cases the material at their dumpsite is not delivered.

There are a number of issues which need to be addressed to bring sanity at the Black Mountain. So the con sortium must find better ways of ad dressing challenges of safety, health and other issues as opposed to re sorting to silencing stakeholders by reporting them to police whenever they raise concerns regarding oper ations at the site,’’ Mr Kafimbwa said

Mr Kafimbwa also said he was aware that some ministers and sen ior UPND officials were the biggest beneficiaries of the Black Mountain hence they were getting very much annoyed when someone hints or proposes the halting of operations at the site to put in place safety meas ures and address other challenges.