Mufulira’s Kantanshi Member of Parliament Yamfwa Mukanga has urged Mopani Copper Mines to consider giving full sponsorship to Division One North side Mufulira Wanderers.
Wanderers have never had tangible sponsorship since the privatisation of mines in the late 1990s.
Mukanga, who is also Transport and Communications Minister, said Mopani have a corporate social responsibility to sponsor the legendary club.
The MP stated that he would like to see Mopani set aside funds in its budget and help the struggling Shinde outfit.
He added that being a major company in Mufulira, Mopani should sponsor recreational activities to help the mining town rekindle its lost glory.
Mukanga hoped that Zambia’s triumph at the ended Africa Cup would also motivate corporate entities to sponsor sports activities in the country.
You are right Honourable Yamfwa! Â If we had been aware that privatisation to Mopani meant ditching our teams I think we shouldn’t have given them our mines! Â Look at Copperbelt Energy! Â Mopani are even responsible at the demise of our great team Nkana! Â How can they give a team $5,000 a month? Â That is a joke! Â We must get some shares back to GRZ or else it is time they got serious!
My poor Yamfwa, Mopani has no money because of huge cash costs…
You don’t know that…! ;-))
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According to NGOs in its pilot audit by Grant Thornton, Zambia and Econ Poyry, Zambia lost an estimated income of USD 175 million in tax revenue between 2003 and 2008 from tax avoidance practices’ by Glencore AG International owned Mopani Copper Mines.
copper from Mopani is sold under a contract with copper in one instance being sold at 25 per cent of official prices at LME. In other words, they are not paying taxes over 75% of the copper sold to Glencore.
Moreover, in the report by Action Aid, which Mopani has described as flawed and incomplete draft added that the Zambian government (ZCCM-ih) , may probably be losing USD 50 million annually on dividend payments from its 10%
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stake in Mopani Copper Mines. zccm-ih lost $300 m ! so at least $ 500 million !!!
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“The auditors found that MCM resisted the pilot audit at every stage. The company’s book-keeping was incomplete, several legally required documents were lacking and the general ledger analysis showed several loopholes and couldn’t be matched with the trial balance,” the organisations stated. “The auditors also found an inexplicable doubling in the costs of the company between 2005 to 2007, which shows that the company has been artificially inflating its costs to minimise the profits shown in their books so that they could pay less taxes. Despite the fact that the audit was finished in the fall of 2009, it was kept secret.”
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The former Zambian government has declined to investigate Mopani’s tax affairs despite calls from development charities. “We are disappointed with the government’s lukewarm reaction,” said Savior Mwambwa, executive director of the Centre for Trade Policy and Development, Zambia. “They need to take action and change the whole taxation system.”
“Zambia continues to lose on dividends from Mopani Copper Mines as the Glencore owned mine never declare any dividends to Zambia Consolidated Copper Mines InvestmentHoldings. During the period under review, Action Aid estimates that the Zambians government lost an estimated USD 50 million per year in undeclared dividends to ZCCM IH by Mopani.Copper Mines, according to Action Aid was avoiding declaring
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any dividends by ZCCM IH through transfer pricing and over statement of the costs.”
Mukanga, we don’t want CRUMBS, the govt must revoke the Glencore licence!!
LOOTERS OUT !!
Fortunately mines minister Simuusa is going to audit the mines…
Not only Mopane ask people like. GBM (defense minister), HH, Musokotwane, they can just buy some teams. Think of Moses Katumbi owner/sponsor of TP Mazembe. Come-on Zambians, this the time to show passionate not just donating free K200 millions, that is worthy a team.
GBM United
HH Rangers
Musokotwene Warriors
These 3 guys have money
Mighty my team has really struggled in terms of sponsorship and I do concur with the MP that Mopani must inject funds into a team that in terms of league titles is second to Nkana and has won more cups then any other Zambian team. The other thing Mopani must do is rehabilitate Shinde Stadium. It is in a very poor state
The state of affairs in Zambia is interesting. We have regressed instead of progressing. Whatever little we inherited has actually broken down. Traditionally, we didn’t even have to go to theoretical lengths to justify corporate citizenship and social responsibilities by companies. Nowadays, however, it appears we have designed new ways of explaining why we should continue to develop backwards. We must wake up if we are to cement our newly found success!
Its sad that the only thing he has seen wrong is that MCM isnt sponsoring Mighty when there are big issues like the Status of the Mufulira Sabbina road, which i believe he used when he was in Mufulira recently to attend the burrial of MUZ president….
what i find odd is that Mr Mukanga being a Mufulira resident and Transport Minister has not said a word over the road and makes me wonder what kind of people we send to parliament.
8-| . not long agao did he used to complain about the raod when he was driving in it using the collara during elections but not that the government has given him a Mitsubishi Pajero that is high… he doesnt care anymore!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!1111 Shame!
Mighty and Nkana should get proper sponsorship from Mopani. Period! Circumstances have changed, when they took over the mines metal prices were at the their lowest and granted there was no need to continue with some social activities, but now these guys are making super normal profit some of which can be chanelled to these very important football clubs in our football history. We also need to have soccer administrators who are innovative, we should not just wait for handouts.
Not only Shinde stadium but Harry Hart Stadium, it is now a shell, the whole football infrastructure which produced great players like J Boating, Masec, Bufuke etc is all gone.
Hope this can be done now but for these mines to do that we have to give them concessions by allowing the CSR costs in their tax computations aotherwise mwailasha bane we will continue going down the drain and chance cups such as what happened at the AFCON 2012
Please bwana MP make sure you pay a visit to Mopani Copper Mines Plc and present your proposal. Who knows maybe because of the AFCON 2012 Victory, they might think of giving more support other than the petty $5,000.00 which they give per month. Mighty is the team where a lot of legends in our soccer history have come from or played for eg; Zoom Ndlovu, Nkole brothers, Musenge, Great Kalu,Late Wawa just to name a few.
Mighty is Zambia’s most glorious club. In other countries business would exploit that reputation to its advantage. Business entities in Zambia, not only Mopani, should have been rushing to have their name tied to such a brand as Mighty.
Commercialism seems not to have caught on in our beloved country despite our switch to capitalism. However Mopani should be chucked out of Zambia because they have only come to exploit its mineral resources and do not want to contribute to its people. Even the Chinese are better than Mopani. Katongo and Chamanga please get us a sponsor in China to revive our Mighty!
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