Message Ven 11 Fév 2011 08:41

LCM dares Kambwili

LCM dares Kambwili

By Times Reporter

LUANSHYA Copper Mine (LCM) has dared Roan Member of Parliament (MP) Chishimba Kambwili to go ahead with his threats to sue the company, with spokesperson Sydney Chileya maintaining that the MP should stop interfering in operations and inciting workers.

Mr Kambwili is demanding K250 million from LCM as compensation for alleged damages he has suffered from what he calls defamatory statement from the mining firm.

The parliamentarian is also demanding a retraction of a statement by Mr Chileya, as well as a public apology, through the Times of Zambia, for being referred to as myopic.

But Mr Chileya said Mr Kambwili’s insistence that LCM was paying its workers below the minimum wage was unreasonable because he was not part of the negotiations.

He said the MP had been making wild allegations about operations at the mining company which bordered on inciting revolt among the workers.

Mr Chileya said the company’s legal team had received Mr Kambwili’s letter and advised him to press ahead with his intentions because what had been mentioned about the parliamentarian was correct.

According the letter addressed to the mining firm dated February 9, 2011 and copied to his lawyers Chifumu Banda and Company, and Derick Mulenga and Company, Mr Kambwili said failure to retract the statement and offer a public apology within 48 hours would force him to instruct his lawyers to start legal proceedings against the mining company.

Recently, the mining firm described Mr Kambwili as narrow-minded for claiming that the Chinese-run mine was paying its workers salaries below the minimum wage.

“Your claims that I am narrow minded, myopic and bent on destabilising the peace in Luanshya is a direct attack on my personal integrity and cast aspersions on my standing in society and my position as Member of Parliament for Roan.

“In view of the above, I am giving you and your company LCM, 48 hours to retract your statement in the same newspaper, offer a public apology and pay K250 million as compensation for damages caused to me,” he said.

He noted that statements by Mr Chileya that the parliamentarian was alleging that the LCM was paying its workers below the minimum wage was an act aimed at denting his name in society especially among his electorates.

Mr Kambwili said the allegations by the mining company against him were unfounded because he had always been consistent with his statements on the issue of low salaries at LCM.

He contended that the conditions for a minimum wage under the laws of Zambia were only applicable to shopkeepers and small businesses that had no union representation and wondered how he could categorise the LCM salaries into such groups.

Mr Kambwili said it was not the first time that the mining company was issuing defamatory statements in the media, adding that he had warned the firm before.