- Zambian miners
killed a Chinese supervisor
and seriously wounded
another on Saturday in a
pay dispute at the Collum
coal mine, labor 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 ($110)
for maids and household
servants, and to 1.1
million kwacha ($220)for
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 portalangop.co.ao/motix/en_us/noticias/africa/2012/7/31/Zambian-miners-kill-Chinese-supervisor-over-pay,be583c2e-4270-4a1e-91a2-f7b07bf3c0e7.html