Lungu must come and sort out KCM issues now – Chilundika

A community leader in Chingola has urged President Edgar Lungu to go to the mining town and sort out the Konkola Copper Mine (KCM) issue immediately.

Derrick Chilundika, a Chingola resident and community leader, says the people of Chingola have tried everything possible to communicate with the government on the problems of KCM, but no action is being taken.

In a statement made available to Zambian Eye, Chilundika who is a UPND member says the President must travel to Chingola and see the suffering of the masses are going through as a result of KCM problems.

“The people of Chingola have tried their best, through the media we have tried to communicate, there have been two attempts to do peaceful protests which have been shutdown the latest being being the 13th of may 2019 yesterday,” he said.

“It has come to our attention that all the Civic leaders, members of parliament and the ministers especially the minister of mines have failed to deliver the true information and picture of what is obtaining and the suffering people are passing through here in chingola, Konkola and any other towns where KCM operates”.

He urged President Lungu to come in person soon and see for himself the challenges being faced in the mining town.

“Looking at the effort that we have been making as the communities of Chingola and chililabombwe to communicate the problem that we are facing as a result of bad operations of KCM, we have now reached a stage were we are petitioning the president of the republic of Zambia president Edgar chagwa Lungu to come to chingola and handle the issue KCM himself,” he said.

“We have tried peaceful protests as way of trying to bring the failures of KCM to the attention of those in government but to no avail and all we could hear are ministerial ultimatums that have never materialised.
We are also not happy that the minister of mines Hon. Musukwa is the suspect behind the floop of yesterday’s planned peaceful protests making us suspect that the entire PF government is behind the current KCM state of affairs.”

And Chilundika has warned that if President Lungu fails to heed to the community’s demands that he comes to chingola to sort out the problems created by KCM, they will have no option but to tell the community that it is actually President Lungu who has instructed the mining company to stop mining leading to the current job losses.