By Daily Revelation Editor
From the gate go we wish to express our sincere sadness over the loss of dozens of lives at the Open Pit mine in Chingola.
Our collective conscience as a nation should go towards the events happening in Chingola right now, as many of our loved ones are mourning the untimely death of their loved ones. Such a tragic, tragic event indeed.
However, such death could have been avoided if only the government worked to ensure that there was a true curb on such kind of unsafe mining, which is happening not only at that tragic site but in many other areas of the country.
It is one thing to say by word of mouth that “we are against illegal mining” when behind the scenes you are encouraging the same and benefiting either directly or indirectly from the same activities you are against. And this problem does not only affect the current administration, but those that have gone before it. Such rampant and careless methods of mining have been encouraged. Who doesn’t know for instance how the PF in government encouraged those illegal activities and benefited financially from them for instance. The UPND administration came on the scene with new promises that such kind of activities would not be tolerated, however, we have all witnessed how quickly UPND officials and their cadres jumped on the earliest opportunity to engage and immediately start benefiting from the same activity they said they would not encourage.
We know of several individuals right now who spend a significant portion of their time at State House and are engaged in the same illegal mining activities, some even operating through the so-called ‘cooperatives’ to give them some semblance of normality when all one finds in the same ‘cooperatives’ is nothing but UPND cadres.
And those thinking that the tragic loss of many lives will give pause to those involved to reflect and change course are simply living in fools paradise. For some, the consideration of lives is secondary to the insatiable appetite for money. We are likely to experience another sad event such as the one we are experiencing today.
Copperbelt Province Police Commissioner Peacewell Mweemba is bemoaning the fact that people are still engaging in illegal mining activities despite police putting in place measures that would avert illegalities among small scale miners. However, Mweemba should have added that those measures only go as far as averting illegal mining involving those few who are not linked to those in government, because we are aware that his police for instance has even failed to act on clear cases that have been brought before them where illegal miners connected to UPND have invaded private dump sites belonging to other people.
Policing illegal mining is something the police should actually be expending most of their energies on actually rather than wasting time stopping opposition rallies and mobilisation meetings, which actually play a pivotal role in enhancing democracy in the country.
From this tragic loss, we want to see progressive pronouncements in terms of how the government will work towards curbing illegal mining for real, not just by mere words but through action. If people want to continue engaging in small scale mining, let them be regularised with proper safety measures put in place, and they should operate within the regulations by respecting the private property of others. Savings lives is more important than the activity they engage in. The government should also go on a robust move in terms of addressing the massive unemployment in the country for it is the absence of such which is pushing our people into such very risky activities.
In more civilised countries, such a tragedy would have had far reaching implications, including forcing the minister in charge to resign.
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By Daily Revelation Editor
From the gate go we wish to express our sincere sadness over the loss of dozens of lives at the Open Pit mine in Chingola.
Our collective conscience as a nation should go towards the events happening in Chingola right now, as many of our loved ones are mourning the untimely death of their loved ones. Such a tragic, tragic event indeed.
However, such death could have been avoided if only the government worked to ensure that there was a true curb on such kind of unsafe mining, which is happening not only at that tragic site but in many other areas of the country.
It is one thing to say by word of mouth that “we are against illegal mining” when behind the scenes you are encouraging the same and benefiting either directly or indirectly from the same activities you are against. And this problem does not only affect the current administration, but those that have gone before it. Such rampant and careless methods of mining have been encouraged. Who doesn’t know for instance how the PF in government encouraged those illegal activities and benefited financially from them for instance. The UPND administration came on the scene with new promises that such kind of activities would not be tolerated, however, we have all witnessed how quickly UPND officials and their cadres jumped on the earliest opportunity to engage and immediately start benefiting from the same activity they said they would not encourage.
We know of several individuals right now who spend a significant portion of their time at State House and are engaged in the same illegal mining activities, some even operating through the so-called ‘cooperatives’ to give them some semblance of normality when all one finds in the same ‘cooperatives’ is nothing but UPND cadres.
And those thinking that the tragic loss of many lives will give pause to those involved to reflect and change course are simply living in fools paradise. For some, the consideration of lives is secondary to the insatiable appetite for money. We are likely to experience another sad event such as the one we are experiencing today.
Copperbelt Province Police Commissioner Peacewell Mweemba is bemoaning the fact that people are still engaging in illegal mining activities despite police putting in place measures that would avert illegalities among small scale miners. However, Mweemba should have added that those measures only go as far as averting illegal mining involving those few who are not linked to those in government, because we are aware that his police for instance has even failed to act on clear cases that have been brought before them where illegal miners connected to UPND have invaded private dump sites belonging to other people.
Policing illegal mining is something the police should actually be expending most of their energies on actually rather than wasting time stopping opposition rallies and mobilisation meetings, which actually play a pivotal role in enhancing democracy in the country.
From this tragic loss, we want to see progressive pronouncements in terms of how the government will work towards curbing illegal mining for real, not just by mere words but through action. If people want to continue engaging in small scale mining, let them be regularised with proper safety measures put in place, and they should operate within the regulations by respecting the private property of others. Savings lives is more important than the activity they engage in. The government should also go on a robust move in terms of addressing the massive unemployment in the country for it is the absence of such which is pushing our people into such very risky activities.
In more civilised countries, such a tragedy would have had far reaching implications, including forcing the minister in charge to resign.
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