By Isaac Zulu
One of the UPND youths that were arrested and expelled from from the ruling party for agitating for the running of Sacko Manganese Mine in Mkushi district has disclosed that some illegal mining activities at the said mine were sanctioned by some senior party members and some officials from the Ministry of Mines.
In an audio recording posted in some UPND whatsapp groups and availed to Daily Revelation, the recording said to be for expelled former acting constituency youth chairman, said that they sought authority from Ministry of Mines and some senior party members before engaging in mining activities at Sacko Manganese Mine.
“The Ministry of Mines gave us a go ahead to do illegal mining when there was a month and two weeks before the illegal mining could be stopped. The letter was signed by the DC senior party officials and the PS at the Ministry of Mines,” the source said.
He said that the UPND youths in Mkushi district had started the process of getting a temporal mining licence so that they can partner with a private investor in the running of Sacko Manganese Mine, but it has not been granted to date, owing to the fact that some senior party officials in the district have also been pushing for the running of the same Manganese Mining company.
“We had started the process of getting a temporal mining licence and madam Hope from Lusaka was helping us with the process of acquiring a temporal mining licence,” the source explained. “Our bosses (senior party members) even identified an investor in Lusaka who even gave them K500,000 which was shared among the UPND ward, constituency and district officials, including the youths. But when they learnt that we were in the process of acquiring a temporal mining licence, they travelled to Lusaka and applied for a mining licence as Truestone company and not as Ndalumba Company Resources as earlier agreed. We realised that they want to bring their own preferred investor. So the youths became angry and started agitating for the running of Sacko Manganese Mine.”
He disclosed that a Chinese investor even gave some senior UPND officials in Mkushi district K150,000 over the running of Sacko Manganese Mine, which was also shared among party members in the area.
“When the Chinese went on a nine day break, we started mining at the site. We were then given K150,000 and all the UPND officials, including women and youths benefited from that money,” the source elaborated. “The Chinese national told us that he has spent a lot of money on that Manganese Mine. He said he has given a lot of money to our senior party officials. We suddenly saw our district chairman (Patrick Sitali) driving a Toyota Hilux. And when we inquired from some people, we were told that it was given to him by a Mr Peter, whose real name is Zang Lee. And when we tried to inquire about Ndalumba Company Resources, we were told that it will be incorporated in Luhana Cooperative, which is run by UPND officials from the main body at district level.”
The source further disclosed that the idea to give the youths the authority to run Sacko Manganese Mine was born in 2021 prior to the general elections, but todate no positive response has been given to them.
“It started in 2021 before the general elections. When our boss the national youth chairman came to campaign in Luano and Mkushi districts, we were calling for the running of Sacko Manganese Mine. And we were assured that we will be allowed to conduct mining activities at the site. Our national youth chairman then told us to put our request in writing so that he can present our request to the President. But todate no positive response has been given to us,” the source explained.
He claimed that some senior police officers have told them to be cautious with the UPND senior party officials in Mkushi district, as they are the ones that were pushing for their arrest and possible imprisonment.
“After being released from police cells, the Mkushi Police Officer in Charge and the Officer Commanding ( who presides over Police in Kapiri Mposhi, Mkushi and Luano districts) took time to counsel us. They advised us to be careful as we get back to Mkushi and told us that some senior party officials in the district; namely Patrick Sitali, Mr Chiengi who is an appointed vice district chairman and Mr Topson Kunda (the UPND parliamentary candidate in the 2021 general elections) for our arrest and possible imprisonment. We don’t know what wrong we have done to these senior party officials,” said the source.
