TI-Z has reviewed an article in the Mast Newspaper, dated 11 December 2023, in which it is alleged that the Solicitor General, Mr. Marshall Muchende S.C, overruled the ZCCM-IH Chief Executive Officer, Dr. Ndoba Vibetti, in the lead-up to the signing of the KCM agreement, amidst reservations. Our assessment is that the article is a clear demonstration of the urgent need for the Access to information law in Zambia. In the absence of this law, the public will continue to speculate as to the motivation behind the decisions made by public officials who are in close proximity to power and public funds. According to the article, the Chief Executive Officer of ZCCM-IH, Dr. Ndola Vibetti, wrote a letter on 26 October 2023 to the Solicitor General to raise concerns before the signing of the KCM agreement between the Government of the Republic of Zambia (GRZ} and Vedanta Resources. Dr. Ndola Vibetti alleged, in his letter, that Vedanta included provisions in the draft documents that he did not agree with and which he perceived to be against the interest of both GRZ and ZCCM-IH. Most importantly, Dr. Vibetti also added that some specific matters added to the draft documents were not part of the resolutions from the Committee of Ministers, which were supposed to guide the drafting of the agreements.
In response, the Solicitor General, Mr. Marshal Muchende S.C., overruled the concerns raised by the ZCCM-IH CEO. After a second letter written by ZCCM-IH, further insisting that there is need to consider how to treat the specific matters that were not previously discussed, the Solicitor General called for a meeting on 30 October 2023 to deal with these issues. The meeting, attended by lawyers from both ZCCM-IH and Vedanta, resolved to sustain the new clauses added by Vedanta. Thereafter, Mr. Muchende directed ZCCM-IH to proceed with the signing of the agreement without any further delays. ZCCM-IH and Vedanta consequently signed the implementation agreements and the revised shareholder’s agreements on 6 November 2023.
In considering the above, TI-Z notes that the actions of the Solicitor General, though legal and in accordance with his mandate, are not void of suspicion as the public is not privy to the specific matters in these agreements and the matters raised by ZCCM-IH. As it stands now, the public have the right to question the motives behind the forceful stance taken by the Solicitor General, in ignoring the issues raised by ZCCM-IH. TI-Z therefore calls upon the Ministry of Justice to disclose the specific matters that ZCCMIH considers to be against the interest of the Country and how these matters were addressed in the final KCM agreements. In the same breath, we challenge the government to make public the content of other agreements entered into by government on behalf of the people of Zambia.
Raymond Mutale (Mr.)
ACTING EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR
