The Lusaka high court has ordered Konkola Copper Mines PLC –KCM- to pay 10 billion kwacha to 2000-Chingola residents for polluting the Kafue River with mining effluent.
Passing Judgment Supreme Court, Judge Philip Musonda, ordered that two thousand affected residents who dragged the mining company to court be paid five-million- Kwacha each.
Judge Musonda says in their countries of origin such recklessness would have attracted severe criminal and civil sanctions.
He said the residents had proved their case against KCM in common law and statutory law and that KCM is reckless and had no regard for human, animal and plant life.
He said KCM acted with impunity and immunity thinking that they were politically correct and connected.
Judge Musonda said he agreed with the residents’ pleadings that KCM was protected from criminal prosecution by political connections and financial influence, which he said put them beyond the pale of criminal justice.
He said the fine on KCM was to deter others who may discharge poisonous substances without diminishing their potency not to cause harm to the environment, human beings and animals.
Judge Musonda reiterated that KCM’s action amounted to lack of corporate responsibility and criminal and a tipping point for corporate recklessness.
He said there was gross negligence by KCM whether human beings died or not saying the company deprived the community the right to life, which said is a fundamental right in the country’s constitution.
“Here is a multinational enterprise which has no regard for human life for the sake of profit and turned the residents of Chingola into Guinea Pigs and showed no remorse,” judge Musonda said. “In their countries of origin such recklessness would have been visited by severe criminal and civil sanctions.”
Judge Musonda said the judgment against KCM may appear to be investor unfriendly but stressed that international standards needed to observe high environmental standards saying that was a global approach.
He said the fact that Zambia is in dire need of foreign investment to improve the well being of its people did not mean its people should be dehumanized by greed and crude capitalism which he said puts profit above human life.
The 2000 residents who were being represented by Lusaka lawyer Kelvin Bwalya sued KCM as the first defendant, Zambia Environmental Management Agency (ZEMA) formerly Environmental Council of Zambia as second defendant and Chingola Municipal Council as third defendant.
According to the 2000 residents, ZEMA is alleged to have failed or neglected to carry out inspection or supervise the pipes that were discharging effluent into the river.
They claimed that Chingola Municipal Council failed to take adequate measures to mitigate and control the effects of pollution of water supply by maintaining sufficient water reserves.
They stated that this caused great pain and suffering to the residents as the local authority collects huge amounts of rates from KCM which benefits the residents needed to enjoy.
However, Judge Musonda said ZEMA did the best it could by shutting KCM operations adding that he found no negligence on its part and acquitted the agency.
MUVITV
Ba nsami, if you did that to the Ganges, you would be thrown to the lower caste and ostracised from society!
Kinda reminds me how certain gases were openly allowed to choke up residents of a Copperbelt town daily at 4pm. The siren went off and you had to rush indoors:) Congratulations to the residents. Let’s hope conditions improve.
KCM will find ways of recovering that money very quickly…
Where is the Min or Dept of Envirnment? GRZ must be in forefront of protecting the environment, habitat and the pipo from the capitalist vultures like KCM. My advise to chingola resident is ..now sue GRZ ….after all these monies is peanuts..
What is 5 million Kwacha: the company should have been slapped 500,000 million kwacha for each complainant!
Absolutely, they are guilty on all counts, and the fine is a joke. Damage to the environment, to future health, to the people has to be in the tens of millions of US dollars, not Kwacha.
10 billion Kwacha is $250,000. It is a joke. It is absolutely no deterrent to future lawbreaking by KCM.
This is peanuts. $1000 per individual. I wonder this will deter other miners.
Its oky for the start, it never used to happen in the previous Government..
PLEASE KCM RUN TO THE FINAL COURT AND ARGUE YOUR CASE…JUST MAYBE THE AMOUNT WILL BE INCREASED TO 20 BILLION KWACHA!!! Africa is waking up…fair judgement…the charge is even little, 5million minus legal fees?! Either way, justice has spoken for the first time in a loooooong time…Congrats Zedians, well done!!!
Though the fine is adequate but it’s a good starting point
This is the way to go, like it when he points out that they thought they were politically connected and would get away with the crime. Surely this sets out to be an example to would be culprits even if the money slapped on the firm is a bit too small. But since they are first offenders we say thanks to justice.
Judiciary is very busy in Zambia these days!
Chingola people are so dull, did it have to take a court order to take their dues sure! Too many ba shimaini mu Chingola!
K5M is an insult to the residents. They should have also have been fined HEAVILY to prevent this from happening again.
Above should be: KCM should have also been fined heavily…….. Apologises
Good
Good evening
The compensation is nothing compared to the dangerous effects caused to the health and hygiene of the people and their environment. This case just shows how evil a capitalist mindset can be when it comes to making profits. We can only hope that other multinational companies have understood the message and comply with corporate laws.
ONLY IN AFRICA
The fine is ridiculously laughable; remember BP signed a blank cheque for the damage in Gulf of Mexico oil spill and costs are still mounting, KCM won’t even feel the effects of their negligence.In the States or Europe lawyers would have a field day, that paltry fine would have just covered 1/4 of their legal fees.That’s even before you put the residents and their health concerns in the equation.
Obama championed the cause. We need to exert political pressure as well, from the President.
You can’t compare the two cases as they are totally different. Oil giant compared to indian nobodies, extent of the damage including loss of human as well as animal life, loss of income by fishermen, etc.
O.K, WE ARE MOVING ….OUR PLANET HAS BEEN SUBJECTED TO ALL SORTS OF ABUSE WITH IMPUNITY.AS A MATTER OF FACT,ONE IMPORTANT BIOLOGICAL SPECIE IS IN DANGER OF DYING:MAN.
RIGHT NOW I´M DOING ENVIRONMENTAL EDUCATION AND THERE IS A RULE HERE ON THE ISLAND THAT IF ´´YOU CONTAMINATE YOU PAY´´.NEVER HAVE I HEARD SUCH AN ACTION IN ZAMBIA BEFORE,IT SHOW THE RIGHT STAPE IN THE RIGHT DIRECTION.THOUGH THE FIGURE IS LOUGHABLE, ATLEAST WE HAVE MADE A STEP…A STEP IN THE RIGHT DIRECTION AT THAT!
LT PLEASE BRING SUCH TOPICS INSTEAD OF THE USUAL POLITICS.
If you live along the downstream of the Kafue River, I mean the entire length of it, you might be entitled to some compensation as well. See me.
Here is a judge who takeshuman life seriously. If only we had ten Zambians like him in the Judiciary!!
In all fairness, the awarded amount is too small. THink of the long term effects on the health of the people affected. Since we don’t know, that is my worry.
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They should have paid each residence $ 20,000 US Dollars. We lobbied for this case for a long time and finally the result is out. If the Law can apply again, the Lawyer representing the residents should go back and quest for more money.
We do not know the effects these chemicals will have on the future generations.
In Japan, the people still have effects caused by the Atomic Bomb since 1945 due to the fact that the chemicals are still in the soil and end up in agriculture products in some parts of Hiroshima City.
Because of that, some babies are still born with defects and the Japanese & US governments are still paying compensation to any baby proved to have been born with Radioactive Chemicals or Nucleus in the body.
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KCM should pay for future medical bills if any miner is found to be contaminated with chemicals. We know cases are already there and we just need Medical Professionals to prove the case
Rajan Mathani was backing KCM on this case in exchange of benefiting from KCM’s Business Transactions for his Finance Bank. (He never just stops being a dirty crook)
This judge is telling me that if PF had not been in power this case would not have
gone this way as KCM was then well connected to MMD.Ma rubbish law! which only
has teeth when there is a change of government.Has Kelvin Bwalya got back his law
Practice Licence?
This is a good start at least people’s concern have been heard. Congratulations government at least this is a better decison than the first one earlier made of K21,000,000 during the tenure of MMD.
K5m each is still nothing but the collective figure is punitive enough for starters. A message has been sent, the victims will receive some relief and a very big figure would have caused some unnecessary appeals. This is a good indication that the PF GRZ is not going to treat investors with kid gloves!
I am not a lawyer and and the law is not really my forte, but common sense just tells me that a lot of comments made on this thread are just coming from emotions and not thinking at all.
Do you even know the maximum penalty that a company should be given for breaking the law before you starting blaming judges. As far as I know the Judge’s job is to interpret the law. if the law says max penalty for such an offence is K5m per person, then that is it. There is nothing more a judge can do. Question the Judge if the law says max penury is $10m person and he dishes a $1 fine.
The law is the law. Here in SA, God forbid, you can go kill 2m people, maximum penalty is life sentence. No amount of emotionalism will make the judge slap death penalty. That is the law
SO if you want KCM to be fined $10 million per person affected, begin by taking that bill to parliament and make into into law. The judge will ‘enforce’ it for you.
Let us make it clear in the environmental ACT and say that if any company breaks that law they will be fined , say 40% of their profit. You don’t want a law that mentions a figure because of inflation issues that am known to talk about.
If we have this in black and white then if the company breaks the law, they will know what the consequences are . Let us not leave the fine decision to emotional bloggers who think you can just keep going to court and demanding more money out of the same case like an ATM machine.
Wake up call for Insurance companies in Zambia to underwrite public liability business prudently, insist for improvements in risks than just looking for premiums.
This insurance company that grabbed this business at 50% of prevailing premium and did not reinsure the risk 100% is going to pay through their nose.
Also, department of mines, ministry of environment, city council and labour unions shall continuously monitor risk management practices of mining houses.
Naku mufulira Fi mopani shud be fined!but ba mufulira ninshi ukupwalala abanenu ba chingola ba getako Ka 5mil!!
Did ZCCM pay for polluting the air with Senta in Kitwe and other towns? Just shows our history.
This case is a good start. Expect more case and tighter pollution laws as Zambians awake to this right.
Once such legal cases gather momentum, politicians will jump on the wagon. Obama put pressure on BP. That’s why they coughed up a lot of money. Our politicians so far sided with KCM. We need similar political pressure from our President.
So these *****s enjoyed government connections, find the *****s and fine them as well, judge be proffessional next time, dont tell us you knew of this stupid connections its annoying, we will doubt you as well.
Great start Judge Musonda – We should have no tolerance for such disregard. And if there is a limit to punitive damages for such atrocities, we must constitutionally lift that limit – Furthermore, we must strengthen the institutions that are tasked to monitor the environment and the overall well-being of our land, animals and our people from the potential abuse by so called investors. As citizens, we must be super alert and vigilante to drive the process of judgement as the residents of Chingola did…. Efi kala Abantu..