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Political and Socio Anthropologist James Musonda has said that intentions to have the Konkola Copper Mines (KCM) liquidation case withdrawn from the court will come as naught if the government does not get 50 percent shares in KCM and impose more controls on Vedanta.
In July this year, mines minister Paul Kabuswe directed the Zambia Consolidated Copper Mines Investment Holdings through its lawyers to quickly dialogue issues surrounding KCM and Vedanta Mineral Resources outside court. He said that the government cannot wait for January 2023 for the next court case to be dealt with. He urged immediate attention for resolving the case.
Dr. Musonda charged that the return of Vedanta to Zambia is certain. However, he noted that if Vedanta comes in the same destructive form, it is known the world over; it would be bad for the country while reminding the government to be alert in the way it is handling the KCM matter. He further cautioned that Zambians are monitoring every move being made regarding this issue.
Earlier on another occasion, Mr. Kabuswe said that Zambia needed to hold a bigger stake in new mines and that local communities should benefit more from the mineral values chain. The government needed to have a golden share in new mines, which would give it controlling voting rights, he added.
Read Also:
https://trendsnafrica.com/vedanta-resources-confident-of-getting-back-kcm-mines-in-zambia/
https://trendsnafrica.com/pressure-is-building-on-zambias-vedanta-resources/
Vedanta Resources, which has an 80 percent stake in Konkola Copper Mines (KCM), has been embroiled in a long legal battle with ZCCM – IH, the minority shareholder, over the appointment of a provisional liquidator to run the operations of the mine. In 2019, the Zambian Government, through ZCCM-IH placed KCM under the provisional liquidator, citing poor management of the mine by Vedanta, charges which management at Vedanta disagreed with.
