Anil Agarwal’s ability to manipulate our politicians is insanely admirable

By K Chiwoyu Sinyangwe

Listening to President Hakainde Sammy Hichilema speak about Konkola Copper Mines (KCM) at the  Indaba mining conference  in Cape Town, South Africa on Monday, 9th February 2026 one gets an impression that our President is another Zambian politician captured by Vedanta Group chairman Anil Agarwal’s manipulative antics.

In case you missed it, this is what the President Hichilema said: “Konkola Copper Mines was in liquidation, en route to expropriation. When we came in; before we came in, we said, we’ll stop that expropriation and we’ll end the litigation. Today, we can say that we’ve ended that litigation and the business is back in production.”

Our President Hichilema added: “And today, we’re talking about phase II of that transaction – raising more capital to expand some of our rich resources, Konkola Deep Mine for example.”

Of course, as an oppositionist, I don’t remember HH7 saying that he would end the impasse by restoring Agarwal’s ownership of KCM after that senseless partial liquidation of the mine by Edgar Chagwa Lungu in 2019  “VENDETTA SHOULD HAVE LONG GONE HAD WE BEEN PROACTIVE” https://www.facebook.com/Zambianprotector/posts/hh-saysvendetta-should-have-long-gone-had-we-been-proactivewe-are-receiving-a-lo/2586238234760244/

From inception, Vedanta Resources has maintained a predatory relationship with this country and Agarwal’s greatest lever to pull his strings has always been greedy and often credulously-pretentious politicians who abet his continued plunder of our resources, with impunity. In fact, of  all foreign mining firms in our country currently, Vedanta Resources is the most dishonest!

I don’t mind Paul Kabuswe or any other lobbyists showering superfluous praises on Vedanta, but that coming from the Head of State is hair-raising. Agarwal and Vedanta have no regard for anyone in Zambia.

Lest we forget, Vedanta Resources only paid US $25 million for KCM in 2003, an investment the company recouped in less than three months of operations! Levy Patrick Mwanawasa, State Counsel, Sir, May Your Soul continue to Rest in Eternal Peace.

I always ask politicians this question: Who in their right frame of mind would entrust their treasured asset with Argawal’s Vedanta Resources?

I was a young journalist in 2013 when Vedanta Resources invited late President Michael Chilufya Sata to ‘commission’ the start of trial runs at its Konkola Deep Mining Project (KDMP) which was scheduled for commissioning within a month at the time.

Vedanta had the audacity to invite a country’s Head of State to commission a project that never existed at the time! Sata was going to cut a ribbon to a fictitious – thank God the ‘system‘ was alert the country was saved the embarrassment

Our inability to police investors in this country has for a long time been our economic Achilles’ heel. I believed HH would be different, but like we have come to be accustomed to, politicians are the same.

Last month, I heard a news item that KCM has so far injected US$600 million into the Zambian economy since being reinstated to Vedanta in July 2024.

At first I thought it was a prank. But a little investigation confirmed that yes, John Kunda, a ZAMBIAN highly respectable PR practitioner had in fact issued that statement to confirm that transaction. I wish some of these lies by investors can be criminalized!

Can KCM give a breakdown to how this $600 million has been spent on its operations in Chingola and Chililabombwe? Can it show evidence of the transaction? Ours is relatively a small economy, an injection  if this money came into Zambia, our FX rate would be 14:00 hours… or sorry, K14 to a dollar…

Ladies and gentlemen, US $600 million is a staggering huge amount of money; if this money was invested in KCM operations, Chingola and Chililabombwe would instantly overheat! Can KCM show the country how it raised this money because clearly Vedanta Resources is a broke company.

I always resist applying the theory of political complexities and dynamics as determinant conditions for any development outcomes because politicians are hypocrites. But let’s face it, politics determine policy and our masses hinge their hopes on politicians. Unfortunately.

Patriotic Front (PF) swept to victory in 2011 on the promise to correct some injustices by mining companies like Vedanta Resources. Under PF’s watch, KCM deteriorated to a point it became a political threat to PF itself on the Copperbelt. Unfortunately, a haste and unthinkable partial liquidation of the asset in 2019 came a little too late for Edgar Chagwa Lungu’s PF. He lost all ‘KCM constituencies.’

Honestly, I don’t see HH7 surviving in the ‘KCM constituencies’ even if he applies the delimitation antidote. This may be too late now for people like Kabuswe, Chipoka and Chilundika except this could be extra time for Hon Derricky Chilundika to continue ukupenda indalama.

Vedanta will never change and it’s time we make peace with the fact we are dealing with a chronic manipulator. Vedanta will never develop KDMP; Vedanta will never resuscitate operations of the Nchanga Integrated Business Unit (Nchanga Underground)

What President HH did not tell investors in Cape Town is that while he is credited with having ‘moved mining out of court’ back to the pits and underground, Vedanta is back in court. Vedanta Resources has hauled Copperbelt Energy Corporation (CEC) to the Supreme Court over an electricity bill. And what is the case? Vedanta does not want to pay an electricity bill, maybe they should be put on prepaid so that it should be buying units.

How does a company with US $600, 000 fail to a bill of US $25 pin sure?

Vedanta Resources’ record in Zambia is horrendous; it’s horrible and unfortunately, it is also very loud!

By the way colleagues, did you know that for its 23 long years of operations in Zambia, KCM under Vedanta Resources has never declared a profit? How do you sustain a loss-making business for more than two decades?

To now, it still beats me why we had to extend Vedanta’s KCM licence which was only a few months to its expiry! I am not sure why we enjoy burdening God with our self-created problems.

I repeat, Vedanta will forever remain Vedanta while regimes come and go. Nipano tuli.
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