Lusaka Mayor Miles Sampa has cautioned Lusaka Councillors against commenting on the Forest 27 developments in the media.

Mr Sampa said the Ministry of Lands and Natural Resources is the principle in terms of land allocation while Local Authorities are merely agents which perform delegated duties.

He said the fact that Ministry of Lands has appointed Local Authorities as agents does not take away the power of allocating land from them.

The Mayor was speaking during a Special Council Meeting held in the Council Chamber yesterday.

The Mayor’s comment comes in the work of a story in yesterday’s Daily Nation newspaper banner headlined “FOREST 27: WE KNOW NOTHING…LCC Councillors deny granting authorisation to developers.”

“Local Authorities are simply agents of the Ministry of Lands, which is why they revoke the agency when they discover that a particular Council is not following procedure in land allocation. Granting agency to Local Authorities does not mean giving away the power and responsibility of performing any of those duties,” he explained.

Mr Sampa observed that Forest 27 was legally de-gazetted by President Edgar Lungu and the Ministry of lands in their own rights and powers decided to allocate plots to deserving applicants on their waiting list.

He said it is none of Council’s business who the Ministry of Lands chose to distribute their land to.

“You cannot wake up and complain about who they give their land to, it’s their prerogative” he stressed.

Mr Sampa advised Councillors to always remember Council’s boundaries and stick to its lane.

However, Mr Sampa explained that despite the Ministry of Lands allocating plots in the de-gazetted Forest 27, the power to scrutinise building plans and granting of construction permits still remains with the Council.

In Monday’s Daily Nation newspaper, Lusaka Town Clerk, Alex Mwansa, confirmed that seven developers in forest 27 have been authorised to commence construction.

Mr Mwansa said the developers had met all requirements.

The Mayor reminded Councillors that the plans were approved by Council and that it is unfair for some Councillors to deny granting authorisation to developers.

“When reports are brought before us let us make sure that we read and scrutinise them so that we know what we are approving and take responsibility,” he advised.

And Speaker of the National Assembly yesterday directed Lands and natural Resources Minister Jean Kapata to issue a Ministerial statement of the developments in the Forest Reserve number 27.

The Speaker advised the Minister to also liaise with her counterparts from the Ministry of Local Government and Water Development.

This was after Mazabuka Member of Parliament Gary Nkombo rose on a point of Order seeking a ruling on whether the Ministers were in order to keep quiet on the developments in the Forest Reserve.

Mines and Minerals Development Minister Hon. Richard Musukwa, has told the Europe’s largest Mining and Investment forum that the Zambian Government takes a strong exception to safeguard the prudent management and development of the country’s finite mineral resources.

Speaking on a panel of discussion at the Mines and Money Conference in London, the Minister told the conference that “Government has no intention to nationalise the mining sector and the economy in general. But for a long time, we have let investors take advantage of us, and it is time for us to stand up and ensure that we protect our people and our country.”

Mr. Musukwa further stated that the KCM issue has nothing to do with politics as being reported by some people, “but that the multinational company failed to inject the capital outlay that was projected in the investment portfolio”.

And Vedanta Zinc International Chief Executive Officer Deshnee Naidoo who is also attending the Mines and Money Conference in London said Vedanta and the Zambian Government were in a difficult situation as regards to KCM.

Ms. Naidoo said Vedanta will continue to work towards engaging with the government as the first recourse in finding a solution to the current avenues at play which is largely court cases within the country, as well as an International arbitration case that is currently going on.

Former KCM CEO Deshnee Naidoo said communities and government who are affected stakeholders have to come together and engage.

“When I came to Zambia, I came into a country that was financially stressed and as such I found more of aggressive budgetary stance were taken. What I have found out is that the Zambian government was willing to engage,” she said.

However, Mr Musukwa stated “Government has followed due process in effecting the winding up. The procedures employed are in accordance with our Corporate Insolvency Act, which is similar in most respects to the Act in the UK. If it was Government’s intention to nationalise the company, it would have proceeded by way of compulsory acquisition and keep the company for itself.”

“We would like to see a smooth transition of exit modalities with Vedanta because they were our long-standing partners whom we have embraced in our country for a long time. Zambia welcomes all investors, we will continue to run and operate the mining based on private led sector initiative” he added.

And responding to Former KCM CEO Deshnee Naidoo who said that during her tenure the Zambian government was owing mining companies a significant amount of backlog VAT, and accusing mining companies of not being transparent enough in terms of Taxes and royalties, Hon. Musukwa responded that the failure to pay the vat refund was necessitated by mining houses failing to provide data where they sold the product.

“Can you tell me a situation where you can have a mining entity, they sell Copper, they do not have the documentation of where they sold the Copper and we should refund that kind of operation? Not at all, we would like mining houses to come out clean, be open and transparent and ensure that they are our partners, Government remains committed to ensuring that we provide a fascial regime that is simple, predictable, stable and also anchored on the rule of law”, he added.

Mr. Musukwa said the last time KCM developed or produced their own material was in 2014 and they have been relying on scavenging around for materials from dump sites, something which the Minister said government could not support coming from a multinational company like Vedanta.

“You will be interested to know that in fact when we sent several default notices to them, they committed to a business improvement plan, which they lamentably failed to implement. The turnovers for the CEOs for KCM was actually between 3-4 months in fact, Deshnee was the best CEO that we had and we thought she would stay longer to transform KCM,” he said.

The Minister further added that Government hoped to see more responsive investment in terms of changing people’s lives, as the poverty and squalor associated with host communities where mining operations take place cannot continue to be business as usual.

He said responsible mining is a matter that provides benefits to the local people and the Zambian Government will not shy away to demand the best for its people from mining corporations.

Zambia’s youth leader and entrepreneur Mwala Mooto, has encouraged young people in Africa to pursue entrepreneurial and vocational opportunities beyond seeking employment.

Speaking at the African Union Youth Summit, Mr. Mooto encouraged young people to exploit the opportunities that are available within Africa than seeking the elusive green pasture elsewhere in the World.

He gave himself as an example stating that he abandoned a lucrative career in Accounting and Audit, to pursue farming as a business.

Mr. Mooto said he has since raised $50,000 for his agribusiness project from funding institutions available in Africa.

He urged young people to spend their energies in pursuing the available opportunities.

Mr. Mooto said it was sad that young people were leaving the continent while the rest of the world was rushing to Africa to exploit its potential.

Mr Mooto is among youths from across Africa that is attending the National and Cross-Regional Youth Dialogue Forum being held at the African Union Commission Head Quarters in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia

The Forum is organised by the AU Peace and Security Department to discuss the role of youth in peace mediations accross Africa .

Mwala contributed in a speech on youth involvement on socio-economic development as a peace mediation mechanism in Africa.

This is contained in a statement issued to the media by First Secretary for Press and Tourism at the Zambian Embassy in Ethiopia Inutu Mwanza.

The Zambia Forestry and Forest Industries Company (ZAFFICO) has refuted reports alleging that the Attorney General had suggested that the Industrial Development Corporation (IDC) illegally owns
Zambia will soon default on its debt repayments-HH

Opposition leader Hakainde Hichilema has predicted that Zambia will soon default on its debt repayments.

And Mr Hichilema has advised Finance Minister Ngandu Magande to resign “in order to save face.”

In a Facebook post, Mr Hichilema said he is very concerned about the state of the Zambian economy.

“ I am very concerned. Ordinarily I would say WE should be concerned. Bwalya Ng’andu is in trouble. He must just resign to save his face,” he charged.

He added, “The graphs show you how debt payments are going up (Figure 1) while PF Budget remains static in US$ terms (Figure 2). This country will default on debt very soon.”

“How then did Bwalya Ng’andu inherit such a poisoned chalice?” he asked.

“Here is how; from the US$750 million Eurobond, US$255 was given to ZESCO, for a project that takes 7 years to complete, and we still have load shedding. Another US$120 million to Zambia Railways, a sinking company and the Auditor General’s report said, this money could not be accounted for and it is making losses. Then a $20 million was handed to PF cadres through Development Bank of Zambia (DBZ) to buy buses. The rest, they claim, was put in roads and other public infrastructure, but we know contractors have not been paid.”

He said, “US$395 million down the drain and we expect Bwalya Ng’andu to have money in the economy.”

Mr Hichilema said the PF is a dead institution and that it is time they listened and called for an early election.

“They have failed.”