MINES Minister Paul Kabuswe says government wants Konkola Copper Mine (KCM) to work because if it fails, poverty and squalor will come.

Meanwhile KCM Chief Financial Officer Manish Saxena has disclosed that salaries of all employees and contractors have been paid on time ever since Vedanta took over.

Speaking during the inspection of KCM, Kabuswe said the success of the mine would have a multiplier effect on the country.

“If you ask them if they do not breathe, I am on their backs all the time. Because if this asset fails to perform, it is not Vedanta going but also the poverty and squalor that will come because this thing has failed. So I want it to work and I’m glad production figures even amidst the energy crisis are still going up because President HH managed to find a way somehow amidst that drought to avail some energy to these mining companies so that production can go up. So, KCM I have said and I will repeat this: your social licence and your mining licences are actually at par. You cannot afford to leave the people behind,” he said.

“Whatever we do to resuscitate any mine has consequences for the people’s benefit. It is not to make Vedanta feel nice, no. The focus is that when this mine succeeds, jobs will go up, and there will be a multiplier effect. For example, if you have paid councils, that is what we need”.

Kabuswe said President Hakainde Hichilema wanted KCM to succeed because of the positive consequences of its success.

“So, we are going to continue to be on your back, but let’s manage propaganda. I want to be blunt to you. UPND do not dance to the tune. These people are trying to make this thing fail so that you are out of power. There are no two ways about it. That is why they are all doing it. All of you did you know that KCM is current in terms of payment to suppliers? The news there is that they are behind for six months. Someone was even on the news saying they were behind by six months. So, we want a serious quantum from you in terms of suppliers and contractors,” he said.

“Please, that is a huge, huge cadre of businessmen that this government wants to support. So I repeat, the reason why President HH wants KCM is because of the consequences of its success. It is the jobs. It’s CSR. You will see when the CSR does the roads, we will be celebrating that now Chililabombwe is back to life”

He further urged contractors and suppliers to engage government if they had issues.

“The minister of Copperbelt operates an open door policy. I am a phone call away. Whatever issues, let’s discuss them. Including you if you are here and you are a contractor or supplier, if you have issues like the President was saying to the church, do not shout at us. You go to the graveyard to do what, on social media, to do what? Talk to us, we will resolve them. Ask the district chairman, we were discussing inside. We discovered that these things are there, it’s because we have been talking to each other. We need to talk to each other. President HH has said we can’t mine in court. We can’t do things in demonstrations. We talk to one another and then resolve the matters,” said Kabuswe.

Meanwhile, Saxena assured that employee salaries and contractors were paid on time.

“The contractors and employees since the time we took over, the salaries of all employees of KCM have been paid on time. And the agreement with the staff is also being paid in the month of December. As we talk we have made the budget for 2026,” he said.

However, he said some contractors were not fulfilling their obligations to warrant the payments on time.

“As far as current payments are concerned, each and every contractor and vendor who supply goods or services have payment plans, and the payment plan says the contractor will submit bills after the completion of the month, they will submit the bill by 15th of the next and within 30 days most they will get paid. We are experiencing, for some reason, our contractors are not able to submit their bills on time because whenever we receive complaints from their employees, we find that the bill has not been submitted on time. We have been requesting through directors and HR teams who are engaging the contractors that submit their invoices on time,” said Saxena.

“We also discovered that a lot of contractors are not fulfilling their statutory obligation for NAPSA and NHIMA. The company is paying money to them but they are not depositing their due. We have discovered in the past 15 days at least three cases of such contractors. Our teams have engaged them that they take money from us but they do not pay their dues to NAPSA and NHIMA. KCM is trying its best but we will need support from all contractors”.