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Zambian miners kill Chinese supervisor over pay


LUSAKA (Reuters) - Zambian miners killed a Chinese supervisor and seriously wounded another on Saturday in a pay dispute at the Collum coal mine, labour minister Fackson Shamenda said on Sunday.

Chinese companies have invested more than $1 billion in copper-rich Zambia but animosity towards them is growing as Zambian workers accuse firms of abuses and underpaying.

Workers at the Collum mine, situated 325km (200 miles) south of the capital, attacked the Chinese men demanding wage rises in line with those stipulated by the government in July.

Zambia last month raised minimum wages to 522,000 kwacha for maids and household servants, and to 1.1 million kwachafor shop workers without unions.

"We are yet to establish the exact circumstances but the report I have is that one Chinese was killed and another injured as the workers demanded the new minimum wage," Shamenda told Reuters on Sunday.

Two years ago, Zambian police charged two Chinese supervisors at the Collum coal mine with attempted murder following the shooting of 13 miners in a pay dispute.

Resource-hungry China is investing heavily in Africa, a supplier of oil and raw materials like copper and uranium, but critics have warned that its companies are importing their poor track record on workers' rights.

In July, Chinese President Hu Jintao offered $20 billion in loans to African countries over the next three years, double the amount it pledged for the previous three-year period in 2009.

The main problem I see in Zambia is that the coal mining company is entirely owned by the Chinese. The Zambian government does not own a single share in the company, hence it has no say in how the company operates. Its the incompetence of the government that has opened up the opportunities for exploitation of the workers. It's a corrupt government whose only job is to collect taxes and royalties from the mining companies.

The Eritrean government smartly avoided similar problems from occurring in the country by setting up a state-owned national mining company that owns a 40% stake in all mining projects and operates in partnership with all foreign mining companies in the country. While it requires a lot of sacrifices to achieve equal partnerships, if you want to protect your own citizens from exploitation it is more than worth it.