Anil Agarwal’s ability to manipulate our politicians is insanely admirable – Part 1 &Part 2

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

Listening to President Hichilema speak about Konkola Copper Mines (KCM) at the Indaba mining conference in Cape Town on Monday, 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 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 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 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 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.

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 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.

Anil Agarwal’s ability to manipulate our politicians is insanely admirable – Part 2

All it took for Vedanta Resources to increase its stake in Konkola Copper Mines (KCM) to 80 percent was for Hon Felix Mutati to act as Finance Minister for few days!

When Anil Agarwal came to Zambia in 2003, his Vedanta Resources acquired only 51 percent of KCM while Zambia Copper Investment (ZCI), a remnant and proxy of the previous owner Anglo American retained 28.4 percent while the remainder went to our beloved ZCCM-IH.

But that structure was to change abruptly circa April 2008 when Hon Mutati announced that “pursuant to the call option deed between Vedanta Resources PLC and Zambia Copper Investments (ZCI), Vedanta has exercised its option to acquire a further 28.4% shares held by Zambia Copper Investments in KCM.”

Simply put, Vedanta Resources expressed intention to buy ZCI’s shares in KCM.

The Zambia Competition Commission (precursor of the Competition & Consumer Protection Commission) raised a red flag about the transaction and objected to the transaction. But being a department under the Ministry of Commerce whose substantive minister at the time was firmly Hon Mutati, Zambia Competition Commission was easily steamrollered and it was never again to poke its ugly nose in the business of the big boyz!

Because of that short time, today Vedanta Resources owns 80 percent of KCM, a position that gives Agarwal an obnoxious authority over the affairs of KCM.

Why am I bringing up this history? Today, we have a monster in Agarwal’s Vedanta Resources that we can’t control or police over the manner one of our coveted mining assets is being run.

Any collusion between a highly cunning investor and a credulous, gullible or sometimes an unprincipled politician spells disaster for any nation.

I am not in any way suggesting Hon Mutati fits into any of the caps.

Hon Mutati is someone I have a personal relationship with and respect so much, but his management of that transaction is a perfect reminder of not how to handle prized national assets.

According to Hon Mutati at the time, the government had an agreement “in principle for Vedanta to offer part of its shareholding in KCM to the Zambian public, cognisant of the need for greater participation of Zambians in corporations operating in the country.” https://www.lusakatimes.com/2008/04/14/vedanta-to-acquire-more-shares-in-kcm/

In short, as part of the agreement, KCM was going to list on the Lusaka Securities Exchange (LuSE) for Zambians to own shares in the mine.

That was 2008, ladies and gentlemen.

Between 2008 and today, Hon Mutati has gone on to serve as a Cabinet Minister of four presidents (Levy Mwanawasa, Rupiah Banda, Edgar Lungu and Hakainde Hichilema). And guess what, KCM has never listed on LuSE and no Zambian public owns shares in the mine!

The tragedy with contemporary politicians is that perhaps Mutati has even forgotten he made such a commitment.

National humiliation has a way of clarifying loyalties and today, we look and appear like a country that has franchised its sovereignty, thanks to the decisions of our own people we elect.

Any scholar of the scandal-ladden Zambia privatization horror will discover that for KCM, the condition precedent was for any investor to firmly commit to develop the Konkola Deep Mining project – the future of the mine.

It is often said that a fair measure of stupidity is when a society rests all their hopes on politicians, but complete lunacy is when one believes that Agarwal and Vedanta Resources will one day develop the KDMP!

Just like Vedanta Resources previously lied through Hon Mutati it had plans to list on LuSE, that is exactly the situation we find ourselves in today. Vedanta wants us to believe it will develop KDMP; that it will become profitable….

Liars like witches and other evil persons always look for fronts; faces to transact on their behalf. There is no limit to how far Vedanta can go in their scheme of things. They even ready use the Head of State to convey a dishonest position on their behalf.

If one strolled around Nchanga mine today, you are instantly hit with depression; the mine plant looks like Benghazi or Aleppo at the peak of the bombardments.

KCM is not going to invest millions of dollars to revive KCM; maybe in the next life.

I strongly doubt anyone in Vedanta can have the balls to show what projects have gobbled US $600 million that is claimed to have been injected in KCM since 2024? And can the government independently audit this allegation and prove its candor?

Vedanta Resources has been in this game for a long time and perfectly understands how greedy and credulous our elected people can be sometimes.

Vedanta can afford to mobilise a few millions of dollars to go round for politicians and their sycophants while it rakes in billions of dollars at the expense of the KCM asset.

Under the PF regime, ‘contractors’ with strong ruling party affiliation were kings at KCM, but where are they today? This time is for UPND: it is not unusual for UPND minions, most of whom condemned Vedanta five years ago, completely u-turn today, and openly state that, in fact, under UPND, KCM is a specimen of good health!

All is well today because they are having access crumbs which they are mistaking for huge contracts. Same script, different cast.

Today, Agarwal is busy in the United States, opportunistically positioning himself to reap from renewed appetite of American investors to have a bite at Zambia’s critical minerals platter, and guess his bait; our KCM.

Agarwal may succeed in raising billions of dollars from resource-hungry American investors, but will that money go into KCM, I doubt it!

As a people, we need to have an honest and candid bipartisan conversation around KCM’s future and our continued relationship with Agarwal’s Vedanta Resources.

Previously or present, I have never trusted our politicians with Agarwal.

By the way, we often accuse foreign investors of screwing us, but we forget that it is our people we elect who leave this country naked.

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