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, toldReuters.
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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