UPND leader Hakainde Hichiema says Vedanta should have gone a long time ago due to numerous breaches and violations of contractual agreements and obligations with the Zambian people.

And Hichilema says the ongoing mishandling of KCM and other mining houses has wider and long term implications on generations to come.

In a statement, Wednesday, Hichilema also charged that the ongoing crisis at KCM was motivated by lack of proactive actions and the desire for personal benefits which top PF leadership are enjoying.

“We have been very categorical and consistency that Vedanta should have gone a long time ago due to clear breaches and violations of numerous contractual agreements and obligations with the Zambian people. Like we stated before, the Zambian government is fully represented in the KCM board through ZCCM-IH appointed by the PF regime and were fully participating in the daily operations and the management of our mining giant. To that end ZCCM- IH obviously updated the PF and State House on an ongoing basis on the state affairs in KCM, but they took no action. We have no doubt that the lack of proactive actions that would have averted the ongoing crisis was motivated by personal benefits that the top PF leadership were enjoying from the ailing KCM at the expense of employees, contractors, citizens on the Copperbelt and the country at large,” Hichilema stated.

“Ultimately, the real power lies in you our fellow citizens to determine the governance of our country, by either continuing with the same mediocrity and incompetence, or change the course of action. The power is firmly in your hands. But we should all know that the ongoing mishandling of KCM and other mining houses has wider and long term implications for generations to come. We have been in business long enough and for the love of our country, and for the sake of our citizens who are directly and indirectly affected by the ongoing indecisive actions on KCM, we rendered free advice to government which by now would have quickly resolved these matters.”

And Hichilema advised those calling for him to intervene in the issues happening in the mining sector that he had no executive powers to do so and all he could do was to offer advice.

“We are aware and have been advising our PF colleagues on many other challenges being faced by our citizens in other mining houses such as Mopani, NFCA, Luanshya Copper Mine and many other public entities, but as per usual incompetence, nobody wants to take proactive interventions. Our social media platforms inboxes are full of complaints from our citizens requesting us to intervene, but our people should know that we don’t hold any executive powers at the moment, and the least we can do is merely offer advice and alternative solutions,” stated Hichilema.

“Already we are paying a heavy price over the manner we mismanaged Lap Green and generally the entire economic situation such as heavy massive borrowing from expensive windows like the Eurobonds. The unfortunate thing is that some of the people who claimed to be patriotic citizens and put us in this huge debt burden and economic mess are no longer there, but we are all paying for their mismanagement.”