Chililabombwe Member of Parliament – MP Paul Kabuswe has clarified that the distributions of free educational and learning materials to vulnerable primary school learners in his constituency is a donation which came from well-wishers.
This follows social media speculation that Vedanta Resources were behind the monsters donation in a bid to win back the mine after having fallen out and lost control of Konkola Copper Mines – KCM. KCM has large scale Nchanga Copper Mine at Chingola and Konkola Copper Mine at Chililabombwe.
The Chililabombwe MP is on record of launching the distribution of free learning materials to vulnerable learners in his constituency, a move that has raised a number of questions with a lot of people wanting to know where exactly the funds used to procure the educational materials are coming from.
Speaking in an exclusive interview with the Zambian Business Times – ZBT, Kabuswe who is also Minister of Mines said there is no much money involved, adding that the donation is only a small budget aimed at helping vulnerable learners.
Kabuswe said the programme will help vulnerable learners acquire these educational materials and as a result, given an opportunity to every child to be in school. He said the programme will be done every after two months as he hopes that it goes a long way.
Chililabombwe MP said all schools in his constituency will receive ten thousand books, pencils and other learning materials each. “There was no money that we received, it is just small exercise books, pencils and pens. It is not even a big budget, it is just for the vulnerable people,” he further said.
The Chililabombwe Member of Parliament could however not disclose who the well-wishers involved in this donations are. Donations by ministers to their constituencies always attracts suspicion due to the power these top government officials hold to sway public policy. Kabuswe is not the only minister who has made donations to his constituency.
Zambia currently has no laws that require political parties and politicians to disclose their sources of funding. As a result, most of the funding to political parties are made in cash or in kind, a situation that makes these donations susceptible to misappropriation and corruption.
