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| Dangote |
A row is brewing between Zambia and Dangote
Cement, a major employer in Africa’s second largest copper producer, after a
government minister accused an executive at the local unit of the Nigerian
company of attempting to bribe him.
The dispute appears to be the latest in a string
of incidents in which the southern African nation’s government has resorted to
strong-arm or unorthodox tactics against foreign investors it believes are
circumventing labour laws.
Dangote Industries Zambia has 400 workers building
a $400m cement plant, a staff count that should rise to 2,000 when production
starts in November, deputy industry minister, Miles Sampa, told Reuters.
During a tour of the plant in Ndola, 300km (188
miles) north of the capital, Lusaka, labour minister, Fackson Shamenda, said a
Nigerian executive seconded to the Zambian unit tried to bribe him at a hotel a
week ago.
The company described the allegations as
“malicious misinformation.”
“For the record, DIZ categorically deny any
claims of corruption and bribery, and reserve our rights on this matter,” it
said in a statement.
Shamenda did not specify what was offered by the
executive and said he rejected it because he had critical labour issues to sort
out with the company – owned by Nigerian Aliko Dangote, Africa’s richest man –
and did not want to be compromised.
“He told me that it was a tradition in their
culture to give someone a token of appreciation. Maybe his idea was that I turn
a blind eye to what is happening at Dangote,” Shamenda said, according to local
media reports.
Shamenda also said DIZ should offer workers at
the company permanent employment and allow them to join unions.
Shamenda told Reuters on Tuesday, “There
is no union, and according to the reports I have received, those who have
attempted to join unions have had their contracts terminated.
“I have asked the labour commissioner to
investigate and tell me all the categories of employees, because the reports we
have received indicate there are no permanent employees.”
DIZ said in its statement that Shamenda had made
four surprise visits to the cement plant in the last four months, prompting the
company to complain about his conduct as it felt that the minister was
deliberately looking for wrongdoing.
“DIZ was beginning to feel harassed and unwelcome
in Zambia, and immediately brought this to the attention of the Ministry of
Commerce, Trade and Industry,” it said in the statement.
A year ago, Zambia revoked the work permit of the
chief executive of Konkola Copper Mines, owned by London-listed Vedanta
Resources, and threatened to rip up its mining licence when the firm announced
plans to lay off 1,500 workers.
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