By Staff Reporter
FDD leader Edith Nawakwi says Hakainde Hichilema has rewarded Vedanta for raping and abusing Zambians, by dispensing with a national resource for his narrow selfish interests simply because they funded the UPND.
And Nawakwi has challenged Zambia National Service (ZNS) Commander Lieutenant General Maliti Solochi to show documentation to prove that he is actually importing mealie meal from South Africa for re-export to Congo, saying if that were the case she hopes it’s not GMO that will put the lives of Congolese at risk.
Speaking with Daily Revelation, Nawakwi Vendata is a pariah in the mining industry, which has failed Zambia and was successfully sued for polluting the environment has been given the greenlight to take back KCM, not for Zambia’s interests but the selfish interests of those in the UPND administration.
“It’s a tragedy in the management of this country. Look at what the Commandant is doing. Look at what Mtolo is saying. I mean look at what the President is doing. They brought back this Vedanta, a mining pariah in the world of mining. And obviously they were funders to UPND. I think you heard in the past that they were promised that if UPND came in Vedanta will get the mines. So it’s not about negotiation,” Nawakwi said. “Those people ripped and raped our country. They made billions of dollars. They abused our environment and people on the Copperbelt and you go back there and say you can get 80 percent and the people of Zambia can get 20 percent. Obviously the only thing that matters to this group of leaders is the pocket, cash, not the life of the poor people on the streets.”
Nawakwi said if this country had a President, “and not one just in name”, he would have visited the University Teaching Hospital and the other health centers to see the lack of medicines and supplies, saying maybe he could be prompted to act and make decisions in national interests, especially from the important mineral resources.
She said it was tragic that President Hichilema simply can’t listen, saying he’s celebrating $188 million from IMF when the country can make that amount in hours by simply using its resources to the optimum.
But the government has argued that they had little wiggle room on the matter particularly that it was already in the courts of law.
However, Nawakwi said a national resource can always be taken back under national interest and was taken back by the PF under the same arrangement.
She said Vedanta would have needed to justify issues on tax evasion, the huge amounts owed to suppliers and the pollution on the Copperbelt, and that Zambians have even won an environmental case against this same company.
She said the UPND administration has simply done what they intended even before they assumed office that they would give the mine back to Vedanta, and other explanations are simply excuses.
“It’s the only programme that was very clear during the campaign for UPND. When you ask Hakainde Hichilema on any other programme he says we will create a programme when we get into office,” she said, adding that apart from President Hichilema’s pronouncements on Vedanta, he also undertook to reduce taxes for his friends in the mining industry. “Konkola Deep is the richest copper mine in the world and they have had it and failed to develop it. And yet it was part of the development agreement. They would have gone to whatever court they would not have succeeded.”
And Nawakwi said there were indications that those in government were going to import GMO from South Africa which was clearly going to be labeled GMO, wondering if this was the same mealie meal they were now repackaging at ZNS.
“Nomba iyo bachita import ku South Africa, tabachita label ba supplier (But the one they import from South Africa, doesn’t the supplier label the commodity)? What if they import poisoned mealie meal and export it under the label of Zambia National Service? Who bears the responsibility for that liability? The government of Zambia of the manufacturer in South Africa?” Nawakwi asked, saying some people were very naive and thought they could explain illegalities just by mere rhetoric ad there were responsibilities and obligations to contracts. “If indeed the Commandant is right that he imports and rebags and exports, meaning he’s incurring extra costs to bring it in, open, rebags and re-export. It simply means that he’s not a businessman. That’s why he’s called a Commandant. It does not make commercial sense to do that.”
She said all this mealie meal talk pointed to an uncarring administration from the very top, where even the minister of Agriculture Mtolo Phiri was now saying that the price of mealie meal will find its level when Zambians find other nutritious meals to eat.
She said those in Congo undertand that the maize from Zambia was non-GMO and hoped the maize ZNS was importing from South Africa and re-exporting outside met the standards.
“That statement alone is a very troublesome statement that could put our country in great great danger because the people where this mealie meal is going need to have a choice whether it’s GMO or non-GMO,” Nawakwi said.
She demanded for the documents ZNS used to import the mealie meal.
“Ask him to give you the bills of lading from South Africa, port of entry and money spent and invoices,” said Nawakwi. “And tell him that I am telling you over his dead body he has no documents. This mealie meal was produced in Zambia. All I need to do to apologise to the ZNS Commandant is for him to give me the invoices, that’s all … He’s getting into unchartered territory.”
