Miners and Contractors Protest Against Corruption of KCM

Miners and Contractors in Chingola have continued protests against the corruption and poor management of the Konkola Copper Mine (KCM).

The protests on Tuesday follow a string of demonstrations over the last month which have occurred to dispute delayed payments of redundancy benefits by majority owner Vedanta.

The first redundancy payment was due to be paid on the 1st March however, almost two months later, miners are yet to see this money in their pockets.

Almost 4,000 workers were made redundant by the company back in December 2020 after a government re-structuring of the mine which split the mine into two firms, KCM SmelterCo Limited and Konkola Mineral Resources Limited.

The restructuring brought with it concerns around political motivations in making redundancy decisions as well as a likely decrease in efficiency of the mine under these two new firms. Lack of transparency around the restructuring decision made by the government also brought with it concerns of government corruption in the running of the mine.

The restructuring occurred with the guise of increasing efficiency, fostering optimisation and boosting business opportunities.

KCM has also been in headline news as a result of unpaid compensation to over 2,000 villagers. Those affected sued the mining giant in a London court case, which started as far back as 2015, after their crops were destroyed by toxic chemicals from the mine.

Only today have such compensation packages started to bear fruit, almost six years after the case began.

Photo: MiningMX