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 (DIZ)
has 400 workers building a $400
million dollar cement plant, a
staff count that should rise to
2,000 when production starts in
November, deputy industry
minister Miles Sampa told
Reuters.
Aliko Dangote: Cement company
in bribery row.

During a tour of the plant in
Ndola, 300 km (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 them 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.

“There is no union and
according to the reports I have
received those who have
attempted to join unions have
had their contracts terminated, "Shamenda told Reuters on
Tuesday.

“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
[url=thenewsnigeria.com.ng/2014/09/16/dangote-in-bribery-row-in-zambia]Source[/url]

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