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Mining

The Chililabombwe District commissioner – DC has denied allegations that that the youths or cadres who earlier (on Saturday 28 May) petitioned to the Minister of Mines through her office in Chililabombwe were sponsored by the ruling United Party for National Development – UPND.

Speaking in an exclusive interview with the Zambian Business Times –ZBT, Chililabombwe DC Precious Njekwa said government or ruling party could never sponsor such a thing as it will mean being insincere to the Zambian people.

Njekwa said Government has no position on that petition as it is supposed to be taken to cabinet adding that the petition was based on freedom of expression and it need to be respected regardless of the status.

There has been mixed messages in the new dawn government were President Hakainde Hichilema categorically states that Vedanta will not be allowed back but his party functionaries and at times senior appointees are later seen to be entertaining the very idea that seem to have been put to rest, in the process resurrecting it.

The Chililabombwe DC said the youths only took advantage of the minister of mines Paul Kabuswe who is also Chililabombwe member of parliament presence during his visit his constituency to demand for the return of the mining firm.

Chililabombwe DC has since warned that those that are saying the petition was sponsored should be very careful as they might be called to show who exactly sponsored it. She stated that the allegations were a total lie and no government official had sponsored that as it was just the voice from the youths of Chililabombwe.

Njekwa reiterated to ZBT that, “government does not want Vedanta back and it has no position to state whoever they want, so there is no position actually from government.” She further said the UPND government is a listening government and will listen to what the people want and if they say they want Vedanta back, then it has to sit down and come up with the better solution.

Recapitalization of both Konkola Copper Mines – KCM and Mopani Copper Mines have dragged delaying the rebound of the Zambian economy despite record high copper prices. ZCCM IH who currently owns the two mines have been mute on securing financing even for the medium term, thereby making the two mines operations much more difficult.

 

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The Chililabombwe District commissioner - DC has

Mining

Mines minister Paul Kabuswe has stated that his ministry is not aware nor have they sanctioned the exhuming of graves in Southern Province to pave way for coal mining activities.

This follows reports that have gone viral on social media concerning a mining firm in Sinazongwe district of the Southern Province which is reported to have started exhuming graves and ejecting the remains of the dead and relocating them to a new site to facilitate the establishment of a new coal mine.

Speaking in an exclusive interview with the Zambian Business Times – ZBT, Kabuswe denied any knowledge of such an undertaking under his ministry. He told ZBt that he was not aware of such development and has since sent his staff from the ministry to investigate the matter.

However, a report in state owned Zambia Daily Mail confirmed that about 30 graves in Mulungwa village under senior chief Mweemba will be exhumed and relocated to pave way for the establishment of African Power Coal Mine.

Affected families were consoled as some of them had not been fully engaged in the exercise. It’s still not clear which government officials approved this exercise but sources say the ministry of mines and ministry of environment are the key players for such exercises.

The ministry of mines had recently suspended mining activities at Collum coal mine due to growing public and mining safety concerns. The Sinazongwe area is rich in goal deposits and houses Maamba coal mine.

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Mines minister Paul Kabuswe has stated that

Markets

As the Energy Regulation Board – ERB in Zambia was finalizing its new pump price computations after relative peaking of international crude oil prices, The European Council on 31 May announced further sanctions against Russia which have sent prices into another increase spurt.

This announcement has immediately led to a jump in international fuel prices which which are expected trickle down to Zambia and other emerging non oil producing countries. Asia has already reported crude oil price increases of about 4% just a few hours from the announcement.

As if it’s not enough the damage the recent fuel price increases on the back of the Russia – Ukraine conflict have inflicted, the EU council announced further sanctions on the last day of May that will have cost of living implications for most of the world.

The EU council in a statement seen by the Zambian Business Times – ZBT strategy that “to intensify pressure on Russia and Belarus to thwart Russia’s war against Ukraine. The European Council calls on all countries to align with EU sanctions”.

The European Council stated that “the sixth package of sanctions against Russia will cover crude oil, as well as petroleum products, delivered from Russia into Member States, with a temporary exception for crude oil delivered by pipeline.

Charles Michel, president of the European Council, stated that the sanctions will immediately impact 75% of Russian oil imports. And by the end of the year, 90% of the Russian oil imported in Europe will be banned.

ERB is expected to issue new prices for fuel pump prices which were anticipated to be largely flat as government has indicated to have no intensions of putting in place subsidies to cushion the economy.

The IMF seeing the adverse economic impact that fuel prices increases have had even in top economies, has since revised its advise and urged governments across the world to consider subsidies for fuel and food.

Food and Fuel prices in Zambia have increased compounded with “no money in circulation” liquidity challenges which is pushing most households with limited to no savings to the brink of destitution. The new dawn government economic management team is yet to announce any measures to combat the high cost of living being experienced by the majority.

 

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As the Energy Regulation Board - ERB

Politics

Holding public office comes with having ones affairs such as salaries and allowances being made public. This is for a simple reason that elected public officials are remunerated from tax payers funds and are responsible for implementing public policies.

Their role is therefore to serve the public and take decisions that are in the best interest of the majority of their electorates. These roles are not for getting super high salaries, but meant for citizens who are well accomplished and want to serve the country and contribute their vast knowledge and experience.

It is in this spirit that government issues Statutory Instruments (SI) to publicly state the emoluments of public workers. This also is meant to aid both the law enforcement agencies as well as members of the public with information that they can use were public officers are seeing to be living beyond their means.

The Zambian Business Times – ZBT below has been able to exclusively compile the salaries of top public officers from the President, Veep upto the level of constitutional office holders such as the speaker and various key legislature top officers.

According to SI no.14 of 2022 seen by ZBT, President Hakainde Hichilema is entitled to an annual salary of K553, 209 and a special annual allowance of K146, 755, which translates into an average monthly salary of K58,330. President Hichilema is also entitled to a special monthly allowance of K12, 229.58.

SI No.15 of 2022 seen by ZBT stipulates that Veep W.K Mutale Nalumango receives a basic salary of K334, 474 per annum, K84, 011 special allowance per annum and a utility allowance of K66, 145 per annum. This translates to an average monthly salary of K40,386.

The Speaker Nelly Mutti receives an annual basic salary of K319, 796, a special annual allowance of K74, 498 which gives an average monthly salary of K32,858 while the First Deputy speaker receives K253, 202 annual basic salary and K65, 408 special annual allowance, and the Second Deputy Speaker receives K246, 185 annual basic salary and K62, 589 special annual allowance.

Cabinet Ministers, the Chief Whip, and the Leader of the Opposition are at the same level of pay and  receive K253, 202 annual basic salary and K65, 408 special annual allowance, this translates to a monthly salary of K26,550.

Deputy Chief Whip receives K246, 185 annual basic salary and K62, 589 special annual allowance, the Opposition Whip receives K241, 341 annual basic salary and K55, 051 special annual allowance and Private Members or simply members of parliament (MP’s) receive K236, 497 annual basic salary and K47, 515 special annual allowance.

The Vice President, Speaker, First Deputy Speaker, Second Deputy Speaker, Cabinet Minister, Chief Whip, Leader of the Opposition, Deputy Chief Whip, Opposition Whip and Private members are all entitled to an additional annual salary of K66, 145.

Constituency allowances for the Vice President, Speaker, First Deputy Speaker, Second Deputy Speaker, Cabinet Minister, Chief Whip, Leader of the Opposition, Deputy Chief Whip, Opposition Whip and Private members are K49, 608 for rural, K39, 688 for urban and K33, 072 for nominated.

Dear ZBT reader, are the above salaries in line the current economy? Why should ministers get salaries much lower than parastatals and government agency staff or heads who they supervise? With this level of emoluments, should government consider making these salaries competitive so that top public officers can concentrate on doing their jobs rather than scouting for external business opportunities? What is your take?

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Holding public office comes with having ones

Lifestyle

Permanent Secretary – PS in charge of Administration at the Ministry of Local Government Maambo Haamaundu has admitted that the delay in the utilization of the Constituency Development Funds – CDF is not all as a result of bureaucracy, but is also caused by the process of approval that has been laid out for the said funds.

This follows the Minister of Finance – Situmbeko Musokotwane accusation of incompetence on the part of Ministry of local government officials handling CDF who seem to have failed to timely disburse the first quarter funds even after treasury released the first tranche. Quarter two is now done and no CDF disbursement has been successfully made.

Haamaundu said that the said process involved to disburse and enable the utilization of CDF funds are things that are sitting in the law and in regulation. These regulations were developed centrally as a guide on how the funds would be handled.

In an exclusive interview with the Zambian Business Times – ZBT, the PS said that there are a number of projects which have come through to the Ministry of Local Government, thus the ministry will compile a report by the end of the month [May 2022] which will be revealed to the public and show what has been done.

He said that his the Ministry is on course in making disbursements but will not release money just for the sake of it. He told ZBT that the members of the constituency development committee have been advised to take a leaf from the planning and budgeting act to plan ahead, because the act gives broad framework in terms of the developmental priorities.

“Members of the constituency development committee must establish a priority framework in which they operate from”, he said.

Haamaundu said that the problems being experienced now are good problems because they are informing on which doors should be unlooked for people on hoe to better lives, it is not something that is so worrying because money is available, so there need to utilise the money to improve the social economic status of a society and members of the society.

Minister of Local Government Garry Nkombo has not issued any target timelines in which members of the public can expect these bottlenecks to be removed. Zambia has 156 constituencies and four billion Kwacha (K4 billion) was allocated towards the different constituencies in the national budget for each constituency to meet their specific developmental agenda. Each constituency will have about $1.5 million to spend.

The decentralization of spend has been welcomed by most citizens but red tape and incompetence has been sighted as the major challenge is fully leveraging this shift. Some have accused government of not having enough funds and using technicalities to avoid disbursing the funds as only quarter one funds have been released when by now, quarter three funds should ideally be released.

Others say the Ministry of Local Government which is struggling to get rid of garbage in major cities and towns of Zambia has no competence to timely handle CDF disbursement, let alone implement the controls that are needed to monitor the use of funds.

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Permanent Secretary - PS in charge of

Agribusiness

Freshmark – the fresh fruit and vegetable buying unit for shoprite has been accused of deliberately buying and stocking poor quality onions to tarnish the image of local and Zambia based onion farmers.

This follows the stocking of poor quality onions across most shoprite stores in Zambia after the Agro ministry and the Zambian National Farmers Union – ZNFU called for a halt in issuing of import permits on the basis that the country has enough and excess onions being locally produced.

Freshmark Zambia which is responsible for the procurement, buying and distribution of the fresh fruit and veg produce sold through Shoprite stores across the country has been accused of deliberately buying poor quality onions to force government and ZNFU to rescind its policy decision to stop onion imports mostly from South Africa, which happens to be its home country.

A farmer who spoke to the Zambian Business Times – ZBT but asked for their names to be withheld said Freshmark needs to be investigated for unbridled business practices. Their buying prices are sometimes deliberately low and discouraging such that most local emerging farmers and even Zambian based commercial farmers opt to sell directly into the local markets or even export.

To further investigate these allegations of poor quality of onions being locally grown, ZBT engaged the Zambia Fruit and Vegetable Traders Association who confirmed that though its members had previously also engaged in import of onions, their engagements with ZNFU has revealed that there are enough high quality onions on the local market.

A further check with commercial onion farmers based in Mkushi shows that the country has serious onion farmers that are currently growing the crop with some of its even being bought by traders from other countries.

One such Agro firm is Mkushi based Touchwood Estates. It’s Managing Director and Commercial farmer Williem Grobler told ZBT that Zambia is capable of and is growing high quality onion as it has the ideal soils to grow very good quality onion for both local consumption and export.

Grobler, who’s farm is located in Central Province, grows about 25 hectares of onion per season and produces about one and half thousand tonnes of good quality onions. There are also other commercial farmers who are growing specific quantities of high quality onions and are ready to rump up production if a relatively consistent ready local market is created.

Freshmark Zambia is a local unit of Freshmark South Africa which operates via its own network of distribution centres across South Africa and has distribution centres across the African continent. It is one of the largest buyers and distributors of fresh fruit and vegetables in Africa. Efforts to get a comment from Freshmark Zambia proved futile by press time 

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Freshmark - the fresh fruit and vegetable

Agribusiness

Consumers have expressed concern over the poor quality of onion that local farmers have been supplying to various supermarkets since government suspended the import of onion and potatoes in February this year, following an outcry from farmers.

However, Touchwood Estates Managing Director Williem Grobler says Zambia is capable of growing good quality onion as it has the ideal soil to grow very good onion for both consumption and export.

Grobler, who’s farm is located in Mkushi, grows 25 hectares of onion per season and produces close to one and half thousand tonnes of onion adding that the farm employs about 300-400 people for a period of four months when harvesting.

Speaking in an interview with the Zambian Business Times-ZBT, Grobler said government’s decision to suspend the importation of onion would help the country develop, as there is no reason why Zambia should continue to import onions which in turn exports jobs.

He noted that farmers in other countries have huge subsidies whereas Zambia has very high fuel costs and as a landlocked country, everything has to be imported to produce a product in Zambia therefore allowing imports only hurts the country’s economy.

“I harvest in August, marketeers come and buy them on the farm. It is freedom of market and I feel just the taxes need to be right, if somebody wants a pink onion that comes from America and they are willing to pay $20 for it then they can. That’s free market but if they are importing onion into Zambia which is cheaper than what local farmers are able to produce then that’s breaking the Zambian economy”, he said.

Grobler said in a country where unemployment is already high, it is a good thing for Zambians to be able to grow crops such as onions, which the country can benefit from instead of other countries that bring their products into Zambia.

“Countries like South Africa and Brazil machine harvest onions and don’t pick them by hand so Zambia is losing out when it has to import things and also has to find forex to pay for those things. If they were paid for in Zambian currency in South Africa then that’s a different story but that’s not the case meaning forex is going out of the country”, he said.

He mentioned that the biggest challenges farmers producing onion experience have to do with storage facilities and onion dryers adding that the cost of putting up an onion dryer is very expensive.

Grobler commended government on the suspension of customs duty on onion driers and other agricultural machinery as this will help address some of the challenges farmers face when it comes to onion production.

He said government should continue to put in place measures that will be able to build the country adding that Zambia needs to focus on increasing production and be able to develop a market for onion, which is huge as the country can export into the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) and other countries.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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Consumers have expressed concern over the poor

Lifestyle

Socialite and Former Aspiring Member of Parliament (MP) for Mwandi Constituency Iris Kaingu has advised Zambians to be comfortable in their own skin and be confident enough to wear whatever they feel comfortable wearing.

Yesterday, Singer and Entrepreneur Rihanna’s Fenty Beauty and Fenty Skin products launched in Zambia. Rihanna launched Fenty Beauty in 2017 in a partnership with luxury goods company LVMH (Moet Hennessy Louis Vuitton).

Fenty Beauty reportedly made $100m in its first 40 days and Rihanna is now worth $1.7bn, with an estimated $1.4 bn coming from the value of Fenty Beauty.

The launch of the brand in Zambia saw various personalities from the entertainment industry coming together and Kaingu who was one of the attendees caused a stir due to her revealing outfit, which she says was inspired by Rihanna-the queen of all trends.

Speaking in an interview with the Zambian Business Times-ZBT, Kaingu said she is not shaken by public opinion as people always have something to say about her dress code

“I just know that whatever I do, good or bad people will always talk. It is very hard to be body positive, when somebody comes out like that, you might find some people being encouraged to just be themselves, people always find anxiety over these things”, she said.

She mentioned that her actions would not affect her political career in anyway if she stood for public office again in the future noting that the people of Mwandi constituency will understand that they have the freedom to express themselves and feel how they feel.

When asked if her family has any reservations about how she carries herself, her dress code and the photos she shares on social media, Kaingu said she has not had such a conversation with her family.

 

 

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Socialite and Former Aspiring Member of Parliament

Agribusiness

Farmers in various parts of the country have disputed the statement by Zambia National Farmers’ Union-ZNFU that soya beans prices are likely to increase this year compared to last year.

Some farmers in Lundazi District, Eastern Province have noted that soya beans prices have continued to go down as the commodity is currently trading around K8-K8.50 per kg from between K10-K11 per kg around mid-April.

Speaking in an interview with the Zambian Business Times-ZBT, the farmers who asked to remain anonymous claimed that the major offtakers in Lundazi are Zambians of Indian origin, who have decided to buy the commodity at low prices so that they can make more profit from exporting the commodity to India.

According to the farmers, India’s decision to consider cutting an import levy on soybean and sunflower oils in a bid to address the surging local prices of food in that country is the reason the Zambians of Indian origin are buying the commodity at a very low price from local farmers in order to export to India and make huge profits.

They mentioned that demand for the commodity remains very high but most farmers have stacked their soya beans in their houses waiting for prices to go up adding that Mount Meru Petroleum is buying soya beans at K9 per kg and K5.50 per kg for sunflower while Aliboo Trading is buying soya beans at K8.50 per kg and K5.50 per kg for sunflower.

And farmers in Mumbwa District, Central Province who also sought anonymity have expressed concern over the current low prices of soya beans.

The farmers explained that two weeks ago, soya beans was trading at K11.40 per kg but as of this week, the commodity is trading between K9-K9.80 per kg.

“It was expected that because of the high demand, prices would be high but it’s surprising that the prices are low, people are saying there might be a cartel trying to control the price at the expense of the farmers. The fact that demand remains high, farmers are still shelling and it’s not peak period yet, prices should be high unlike what is happening now”, one farmer said.

 

 

 

 

 

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Farmers in various parts of the country

Markets

The International Monetary Fund (IMF) has u-turned is now advising governments around the world to subsidize fuel and food for its poorest citizens. This move has been seen as a u-turn and at variance with the advise the fund gave to Zambia just five month back.

In December 2021, the IMF had advised the Zambian government to scrap off fuel and electricity subsidies as part of a staff level agreement which is a precursor to an actual extended credit facility under IMF which finance minister Situmbeko Musokotwane is pushing to get by next month June 2022.

The Zambia Finance Minister Situmbeko Musokotwane has been laboring to sell the message to a skeptical Zambian public on why he has proceeded to remove subsidies at a time when the country is barely out of the woods of the corona virus pandemic and its deep adverse economic and social effects.

Situmbeko has been explaining why the adjustment is necessary in order to reduce the pressure that the subsidy support was putting on the national treasury, but this u-turn of the IMF has now questioned his wisdom in going ahead to cut subsidies on advise of an institution that u-turns when its key markets in Europe and USA are now facing up to a rising cost of living.

IMF Managing Director and Chairman of the Executive Board Kristalina Georgieva has called on member countries to consider subsidizing fuel and food for their vulnerable citizens. What is however disturbing is that Zambia’s Finance Minister opted to take the IMF advise and administer the strong medicine to vulnerable Zambians which they themselves seem not ready to take.

Fuel subsidies in Zambia have been cut leading to high fuel pump prices that have resulted in increase in prices for food and other consumer goods. The cost of living in Zambia is high but most people are holding out in the hope and promise that the clinching of the IMF deal may be the silver bullet needed to help the local economy bounce back.

Power utility ZESCO has also put in a proposal to increase electricity connection fees by over 500%, a move seen to be a pre-condition on ending subsidies. The government has also announced that it will streamline the Farmer Input Support Program – FISP with legumes and other farmer subsidies expected to be eliminated.

The U-turn by the IMF is perhaps a lesson to local economic managers who are on the ground not to just adopt prescribed economic policies but look to rather engage financiers such as the World Bank and IMF to sell policies that fit into the local economy. Blanket adoption of policies such as wholesome withdraw of subsidies at difficult times even before the Covid pandemic and its effect has been dealt with risk bringing social and civil strife.

Currently, there are cries that there is “no money” in circulation, but we are yet to hear any tangible solutions from the economic management team on how they are handling this feedback.

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The International Monetary Fund (IMF) has u-turned