Enact laws that will manage the country’s mineral resources diligently

THE New Dawn government must enact better laws and policies to manage the country’s mineral resources and ensure that the country and its people benefit from them or else there will be no better Zambia if the mineral resources are not managed diligently,,’’ Emerald Production Watch of Zambia (EPWZ) President Musa Kafimbwa has said

Mr Kafimbwa said the country has failed to manage its mineral resources diligently, let alone, benefit its people because of poor policies and so it was important that the New Dawn administration enact laws and policies that will help to manage the mineral resources diligently

In an interview in Kitwe yesterday, Mr Kafimbwa said the New Dawn administration must enact laws and policies to manage resources diligently, give room to some investors to invest in various mining areas of the sector, repossess licenses of the dormant mines regardless of who owned the dormant mine

He said if the mineral resources were managed diligently, there will be no need to get loans to help address the economic challenges because the country will realise enough revenue from its various mining companies for various economic programmes

“Why are we failing to manage our mineral resources diligently? We are failing to manage our mineral resources diligently because our policies are very poor. We should be careful and ensure that we enact laws and policies that will manage our mineral resources diligently

“There is no way we can have a better Zambia if we don’t manage our mineral resources diligently. It is for this reason that the New Dawn administration must enact laws better laws and policies to manage the country’s mineral resources diligently and ensure that the country and its people benefit from them,’’ Mr Kafimbwa said

Mr Kafimbwa said the most worrisome thing in the mining industry of Zambia was that the tax which the country was getting from the minerals was almost zero

“Mining is a business, when you say mining, you mean depleting of the same minerals being mined. It may not mean just depleting the minerals, but also the process of mining, may also affect the environment in the community within the mining area

“So, as the minerals get depleted, the environment get damaged due to mining activities, the citizens of the country must benefit from the mining activities instead of leaving them not only poverty stricken, but also with serious diseases. This is why we are talking about managing mineral resources diligently ,’’ he said

Last month, Mr Kafimbwa urged government to put in place an independent committee to probe the operations at the Black Mountain before few individual continue to get richer at the expense of the majority poverty stricken people who were expected to benefit from the proceeds of the Black Mountain

Mr Kafimbwa said before the Black Mountain completely diminishes, government must put in place an Independent committee to establish how the operations were being conducted and how many benefited from it

Mr Kafimbwa said it was sad that some people were misleading or lying to President Hakainde Hichilema how the operations were being conducted and that a number of people had benefited when in actual fact only a few individuals were benefiting