‘Kasenseli gold only benefited politicians, foreigners’
Published On November 18, 2021 » 1036 Views» By Times Reporter » Features
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• YOUNG people who claim to have discovered the gold at Kasenseli scavenge for the minerals near the restricted Kasenseli Gold.
Picture by JOWIT SALUSEKI

By JOWIT SALUSEKI-
A FRESH investigation into operations at Kasenseli gold mine by journalists under the auspices of the Free Press Initiative (FPI) has revealed that mining activities in Mwinilunga have only benefited some foreigners and a few political individuals.
This is despite the fact that the previous Government legalised the operations of the mine through a joint venture of Zambia Gold Company and ZCCM-IH.
A number of people interviewed in Mwinilunga alleged that only a few lucky individuals, especially politicians with connections to the former ruling party were able to benefit from the mineral deposits which are found in an area that lies on the western part of Mwinilunga district.
The investigations comes against a backdrop of complaints from the local people of Mwinilunga and the traditional authorities who live in Kasenseli that the local people who discovered the gold have not benefited from gold mining in any way in terms of jobs and Cooperate Social Responsibility.
Among those who were previously mentioned to have illegally benefited from the gold discovery was late North-Western Province Chairman Jackson Kungo.
According to the locals, a number of foreigners also took advantage of the situation to illegally benefit from the gold discovery by sneaking into the vast forested Kasenseli area with the help of local people.
However outgoing PF Secretary General Davies Mwila said Mr Kungo was cleared of the allegations by the party’s Central Committee after a team was sent to area to carry out its own investigations.
But an on the spot check at the site by the author whose operations are currently suspended by the Government revealed that some Police officers also who were tasked to offer security to the mine area were allegedly also corruptly charging between K10 and K20 for the locals to have a 30 minutes access to the restricted Kasenseli Gold Mine.
The Police top command in North-Western Province however denied the allegations.
“The Police officers were charging as between K10 and K20 to access the gold site,” complained Shemmy Mutepuka of Kasenseli.
Mandona Ntambu, another local resident said the local people were able to identify the foreigners who had invaded the Kasenseli gold mine by their accent and through interactions.
“After we created a rapport with them, the foreigners were able to tell us that they had come from countries such as Congo and Tanzania in search of gold here ,” Mr Ntambu said.
Peter Mungwala , a resident of Kabanda Township said before the operations at the mine was suspended , the site was a hive of activities with high profile people frequenting the area to look for good.
Senior headman Simeon Matemba, whose village superintends the area of Kasenseli, said in an interview that the gold discovery was marred with corrupt activities and several illegalities.
“Only a few corrupt individuals and politicians from the previous regime used to benefit from the gold from Kasenseli at the expense of the local people of Mwinilunga and surrounding the community.
“But the youths who discovered the gold when they were quarrying for stones earmarked for use in the construction of the new Mwinilunga General Hospital in Kawiko are very bitter because they are still living in poverty with no prospect of even getting jobs ,” Mr Matemba said.
Last year , the previous Government said K60 million of the gold had been produced from the time operations commenced.
But the local village headman who presides over a population of about 5000 residents said even in terms of viability of the gold mine project, a lot had been left to speculation as the investor said they were mainly only carrying out explorations.
A detailed investigation by the author revealed that the local community of Kasenseli have not benefited from the promissory jobs or any meaningful Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) arising from the mining of gold.
Similarly, the local Mwinilunga council too says it has not been collecting any revenue in terms of taxes from Kasenseli.
Chief Chibwika in whose area sits the Kasenseli gold mine complained that from the time when the mining activities were legalized through a joint venture of ZCCM-IH and Zambia Gold Company, the community was expecting that the young people especially the one 15 youths who discovered the fortune were going to be employed.
He said in 2019, the PF government promised that over 200 locals in Mwinilunga district were going to be employed during the development of the project in exploration, fencing, mining and processing at the gold mine.
In addition, local people who had cassava fields covering several hectares of land, which were earmarked to be encroached on, were promised to be compensated.
But this has not happened.
Further investigations revealed that the investor promised to build a school and a health post, and also promised to work on the poor road network in the area, and sink a solar powered borehole with 10,000 litres tank capacity and three water collection points in Kasenseli.
While the 10,000 litres tank was installed in the area, the facility is non functional much to the disappointment of the people in Kasenseli.
Mwinilunga Council Chairperson Jonathan Chinyimba said it was sad that the discovery of gold at Kasenseli has not benefited the local people and the local council in terms of mineral royalties and taxes.
Mr Chinyimba said despite the presence of over 80 State police and private security officers , gold was still been siphoned from Kasenseli Gold Mine area.
Even the farmers who were evicted from their land have not been compensated.
Collins Mungwala who spoke on behalf of other farmers said the local farmers whose land was encroached are still waiting to be compensated.
Chief Chibwika said before the Government finds a serious investor to run Kasenseli in a profitable way, it should first consider partnering with the Chibwika Development Trust whose focus is anchored on taking economic transformation to the community through local empowerment.
Senior Chief Kanongesha, who heads the North -Western Province Council of Chiefs, said he too was saddened that the discovery of gold at Kasenseli has not resulted in poverty reduction and job opportunities for the local people.
But Zambia Gold Company Kasenseli Mine Site Manager Moses Siyanda in an interview before the mining operations were halted said that the exploration and geological examinations were expected to take about four years, by which time an economic impact was going to be measured.
In a separate interview, Mines and Minerals Development Minister Paul Kabuswe said Government had decided to halt activities at Kasenseli due to what he termed as the ‘primitive’ ways in which the operations were being carried out.
The minister confirmed that the mining activities were marred with a lot of illegalities while the local people also wallowed in poverty.
Mr Kabuswe said there were a lot of operational issues at Kasenseli, which left the Government without data on matters such as employee numbers and figures of operations and how much had been made from the sale of the gold.
He said a serious investor will soon be sought.
Kasenseli gold was discovered on June 18, 2019 by 15 young men who stumbled on a ‘stone’ weighing three kilogrammes which they later sold to a local teacher at K6000.
The site is currently been manned by the Zambia National Service (ZNS) after the removal of state police who were initially tasked to offer security to the controversial Kasenseli Gold Mine were seen to be compromised.

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