By Chinoyi Chipulu
Emeralds and Semi-Precious Stones Association president Victor Kalesha says government is the one to blame for the bad deals with some investors because they are given too much power in the country.
Kalesha said it was true that investors only came in the country to make money because government had given multinational companies control over everything.
Last week, during an African Union Panel of Discussion on Industrialisation in Africa at the mining Indaba in South Africa, mines minister Paul Kabuswe said investors only came to make money for themselves.
But Kabesha in nterview recently, said investors should be given laid down procedures and guidelines on the partnership that government would love to see between Zambians and foreign investors.
“It’s true that some deals that the government and some mining companies enter into are very bad, sometimes you would even wonder, is this our country? Is this our continent because you give control completely to multinational companies to run and operate and it’s like they are even giving you instructions on how things needs to be done,” he said.
Kalesha said the government had been advised against giving investors 100 percent mining rights.
“In many times I blame the Zambian government because we have advocated for long, that if we are to invite investors and they are coming to invest in our mining sector, we have people that are holding licences, so we give investors procedures and guidelines,” he said. “They need to tell them that we already have people with mining rights hence, you need to partner with them.”
He said leaders in the country should make sure they made policies that would favour the Zambian people.
“You see an investor coming and getting a license in an emerald area, where emerald miners are advocating for partnerships. So we would like mindset change with our african leaders that as policy makers, lets make policies that favour Zambians, where you tell an investor that you are not coming here to get 100 percent but we will allow you to go into partnership,,” he said.
Kalesha said people expected the government to link Zambian mine owners with Zambian investors with already dictated policies.
He said the country would see profits if government gave investors conditions that were favorable n benefitting the country.
Kalesha said his association had advocated for the government to stop issuing licences to investors so that the country could also benefit from profits made.
“We have advocated several times, stop issuing licences to a person who just comes from outside, let them come make a company here, and when they make a company, there should be some Zambian interest into that company, then we will see much more revenue remaining in the country,” said Kalesha.
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