By STEPHEN KAPAMBWE –
The tragedy of losing jobs for the 3,600 retrenched miners at Mopani Copper Mines (MCM) on the Copperbelt might be their worst moment; but for some, what appears to be the end of the journey could actually be the beginning of a better life.
This is because the retrenched miners have a chance to work with the Government which has shown goodwill towards addressing their plight.
And that goodwill has been expressed from the highest office in the land, the Office of the President.
Shortly after fate of the miners was sealed by the distribution of retrenchment letters to those affected, President Edgar Lungu, in consultation with mineworkers union leaders, took steps to ensure that the miners did not end up destitute.
Firstly, President Lungu directed local authorities to make land available to each one of the 3,600 miners so that as they got their retrenchment packages, they could have a piece of land on which to invest.
Secondly, President Lungu directed that the miners’ packages be not taxed so that at least the packages, small as they might be, could be meaningful.
In addition to that, President Lungu has announced further measures aimed at providing help to miners losing jobs on the Copperbelt.
Addressing a press conference at Sate House, President Lungu announced that the Zambia National Service (ZNS) has been directed to speedily set up infrastructures to ensure that retrenched miners are assisted to transition to other livelihoods through the co-operatives.
President Lungu said in addition to that, the Government would in the first quarter of next year start working on capital projects that would become a source of employment to some of the miners that have lost employment.
The projects are the construction of the US$397 million new international airport in Ndola, which would provide employment for 3,000 people; the construction of 400 kilometres of Copperbelt Township roads under the US$492 million C-400 Roads Project which would employ an estimated 4,000 people; and the US$400 water reticulation system for Kafubu Water and Sewerage Company which is expected to provide 3,000 jobs.
The combined cost of the three projects is US1.3 billion of K16 billion.
President Lungu said to help Copperbelt recover from challenges in the mines, authorities should ensure that 20 per cent of the contract sum in each one of the capital projects is awarded to local contractors based in the province.
He further said contractors working on the projects should source their labour from the Copperbelt rather than get people from elsewhere.
Mineworkers union leaders who have been taking part in negotiating packages for the retrenched miners, said each of the affected individuals would get their pension plus K18,000 ex-grata which would be exempt from taxation.
“President Lungu responded favourably to this because he is sympathetic and he has asked the Ministry of Finance to allow the miners to each receive K18,000 without the money being taxed,”
Mineworkers Union of Zambia (MUZ) General Secretary Joseph Chewe said.
Mr Chewe said this when he addressed journalists at a press briefing hosted jointly with National Union of Miners and Allied Workers (NUMAW), United Mineworkers Union of Zambia (UMUZ) and Zambia Union of Nurses Organisation (ZUNO) leaders in Kitwe recently.
He said in seeking a sustainable way of assisting the retrenched workers, the unions requested Government to help empower the retrenched miners with land for agriculture purposes, hence President Lungu’s directive to district commissioners in Kitwe, Mufulira and Chingola to ensure that land was identified and made available to each of the former miner workers.
“We are grateful that the President has responded to the unions’ cause and the good thing about this is that it will resonate well with Government’s programme for diversification of the economy,” he said.
To armchair critics who may not appreciate the value of these interventions, these measures may seem meaningless just like NUMAW president James Chansa put it.
Mr Chansa said armchair critics of Government hell bent on embarrassing the State over happenings in the mines have been critical about interventions to address the impact of low copper prices and reduced copper demand on the global market.
This is in spite of the fact that the problems obtaining in the mines are driven by international factors affecting countries like China which consumes most of the copper produced in Zambia.
Nevertheless, to the discerning mind, the measures directed at lessening the suffering of the retrenched miners could actually be the beginning of something better for the affected individuals.
This is why it is vital that the mineworkers unions to go further by ensuring that the each one of the ex-miners gets counselling, motivation and advice to invest in income generating activities rather than squander the money they will get and later on fall into destitution.
UMUZ president Wisdom Ngwira hinted on this aspect when he urged the ex-miners to realise that they are fortunate to be empowered with land.
Mr Ngwira said the former miners should seize the opportunity and make good use of what they would receive.
To start with, the land – being a factor of production – will help the ex-miners to launch into economic activities like farming, so that they could, for example, venture in raring farm animals like chickens, go into cultivating crops or vegetables.
The ex-miners could also use the land as collateral to access credit from lending institutions in order for them to make a meaningful investment in preferred business activities.
The mineworkers unions should be commended for having been actively involved in ensuring that mine companies and the Government appreciate the prevailing challenges facing the mines.
The unions have been mature enough to engage in negotiations while preventing mineworkers from resorted to work stoppage as a way of airing their grievances about the harsh economic realities of affecting international trade in copper.
The unions have even taken it upon themselves to advise the retrenchees to form groups and draw viable project proposals that could be used to secure funding from the Citizens Economic Empowerment Commission (CEEC).
That good counsel should be followed through by stakeholders if the nation is to ensure that those losing jobs, even outside the mines, do not needlessly become destitute.
In the past, the Government created social safety net programmes to minimise the impact of job loses especially during era of the infamous Structural Adjustment Programme (SAP).
The country might not be in that era now, but certain programmes, such as access to CEEC funding, should be relevant enough so that those losing jobs, who are still in the prime of their working lives, get help to transition to other productive activities.
Helping the former MCM miners to start new life should be used to draw lessons on how the country can start moving towards economic diversification, so that slowly, strategies should be drawn on how factors of production, such as labour in this case, can start moving from mining to other sectors like agriculture.
This is where diversification comes in.
That word, diversification, is not new. It is almost on the lips of everyone in and outside Government who has realised that it is not prudent for the country pin all hopes of development on copper mining.
In fact, it is not a secret that Zambia is experiencing difficult economic times partly because copper mining has been developed at the expense of other potentially productive sectors like agriculture, tourism and energy.
Among those urging diversification is Copperbelt University (CBU) School of Business Lecturer Muyunda Habazoka who recently told State radio, ZNBC, that time has come for Zambia to make agriculture the mainstay of the economy.
Dr Habazoka said development agriculture would be beneficial because firstly, the country has favourable weather and good soil to sustain production; and secondly, the majority of the population draws its livelihood from agriculture and hence improving the sector would lift many people out of poverty.
Therefore, developing agriculture would mean problems like
unemployment and food insecurity would fall and farming communities would have sustainable incomes.
Dr Habazoka said improving agriculture would directly benefit households which rely on selling farm products like chickens, eggs and crops.
He gave examples of countries like China, Japan, Brazil, Rwanda and Botswana that have reaped great economic benefit from improving their agriculture sectors.
“This is why you have people here in Zambia coming from as far away as China to invest in agriculture,” he said.
Zambia International Trade and Investment Centre Chief Executive Officer Sebastian Kopulande equally believes agriculture holds the key to the country’s economic survival.
Launching the Least Developed Countries 2015 Report (LDCR) under the theme ‘Transforming Rural Economies’ in Lusaka recently, Mr Kopulande said the only way the country would achieve sustainable development goals is through diversifying agriculture, among other things.
Local and international experts, among them Finance Minister Alexander Chikwanda, have said agriculture is most suited to turning the economic situation around because it is the only sector where projects have the shortest gestation period; meaning the country needs only one season, at best, to see the benefits of investment.
Therefore, it is prudent that the ex-miners are helped to transition from their previous occupation through initiatives like access to land, coupled with sound counselling so that they learn to invest.
President Lungu has already shown that Government has systems in place that can lessen the impact of job losses not only in the mines but in any sector that might be affected by economic hardship.
But to realise that, families and communities of those losing jobs should heed President Lungu’s call to change their attitudes and help to “…lay the foundation for a smart Zambia…”
Those losing jobs, like the ex-miners, should realise that they can transition to other occupations, especially if they take it upon themselves to form groups that can seek Government intervention in accessing help through various programmes like those of the CEEC, or accessing of agriculture inputs under the Farmer Input Support Programme (FISP).
Late legendary soccer commentator Dennis Liwewe repeatedly used the analogy of a game in soccer where he said that anything was possible until the referee blew the final whistle.
Teaching retirees at Future Search where he worked as resource person, Liwewe used to jokingly say even a team trailing at half time could score an equalising goal and win the game in the final seconds of extra time if the players keep fighting for a positive result.
Liwewe, who himself survived after being retrenched from the mines, always said after retrenchment or retirement, individuals could either sink or swim depending on their resolve to regress into oblivion of fight destitution.
By successfully transitioning to new livelihoods, the ex-MCM miners will help the country to start preparing for the inevitable slowing and eventual closure of mines reaching the end of their lifespan.
That time is inevitable because historical records show that the first commercial copper mine in Zambia was opened at Roan Antelope (now Luanshya) in 1928.
This means the country has been mining copper in the last 87 years.
Copper being a wasting assert, a good number of the mines could soon give up their last copper ore and then the country will have to look elsewhere for sustenance.
So, just like the energy sector is being forced by climate change to exploit greener and renewable energy sources besides hydro-power, tumbling copper prices and reduced copper demand should make the country realise that copper mining is not always going to be the backbone of the economy.
Yes, the copper prices have been projected to recover and rise later on.
But the writing is on the wall; it is time to diversify rather than wait for the last piece of ore to be scooped out of the mines.