Copper mines in Zambia - Straight through Africa | VPRO Documentary

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copper fever Look at that. This is all that remains... of what used to be the biggest and most successful copper mine in Zambia. This is just lying on the ground. They're not with the police. I am a bad boy here in the copper region there is copper for the picking I am MC Macky 2 Rude Boy whoever sees me, will be happy I no longer hang out with lazybones I am making money now, man as I will show you Do you see how bad things are? The government isn't helping us. Copper. Here it's survival of the fittest. Look at that. The local boys are digging, over here and there... It's extremely dangerous. You could easily fall. The soil is very loose. Almost one thousand. Yes. Do you have any protection, do you make it strong? No protection. Yes, it is. There is no protection. This is illegal. Very big problems. They come and push us out. We run. Yes, we give them money. Run, the security guards are coming. They are bastards. He could get arrested, and we too. Okay, no worries. We will talk later. We are flying over the Kansanshi Golf Estate... which is the residential area for senior employees of the mine. Sweep around to the right and go up a little bit higher. My house is in the trees. Just... That's my house. So that's where the assistant general manager of the mine lives? We are traveling with the largest copper mining company currently in Africa. Being high up in the sky gives it a surrealistic feel. Man, his machines and the unquenchable thirst for minerals. For the general manager, however, it's all very normal. Just a way of life. what the Lord has given me is too beautiful to describe too beautiful to describe what the Lord has given me is too beautiful to describe too beautiful to describe Lord, You are truly great You are really great We're going to the place where Zambia's largest copper producer... has located even more and bigger copper supplies. He can't wait to get started. We are working, filling the potholes. Yes. We go to where the potholes are and close them... so you can pass very well. We need money. Yes. The government does nothing. So we decided to fix the potholes. No problem. Ten kwacha, thereabouts. No problem. Thank you, God bless you. Move it. Thank you. Johannesburg in the jungle, that's what the mining company is after: A well-planned El Dorado for Zambia's fortune hunters. But a local activist warns me to be wary of those promises. Yes. This was the kitchen. Here was the spare bedroom. Here, for example... was my television. Do you miss your neighbours? I miss everybody. My offspring lives here. Our family has fallen apart. Some were sent here, others there. Another child was sent somewhere else. They should have placed us together... just like we used to live in the villages. They know there are minerals in the ground. That's why they and our chief said that we had to leave. We moved away, but we didn't get enough compensation. We lived right on top of those minerals for years. Even if we never touched them, we have lived here for years. We lived here from generation to generation, for years and years. This is where we lived, worked and slept. We have always been here. These people turned our lives upside down. They just said they were going to turn Kalumbila into a mine. But instead of a simple mine, it kept getting bigger and bigger. They have turned all the villages into one big mine. In the beginning, three villages had to disappear... but that number kept on growing. Village upon village had to disappear, and they just kept on drilling. They are chasing people out of their homes. There was no possibility of appeal. We had to either put up or shut up. We just got told that the land now belonged to someone else. And whether we wanted to or not, we had to get out of there. They stole our cassava fields. We were left with no food and have to go begging in neighbouring villages. And the place they're sending us doesn't even have a garden. This is fertile soil. We always lived well off our fields. We have inherited this land. We were never consulted, we just have to move. We are being forced to leave, and to leave soon. But we don't want to go. In Lunda we have a saying: 'You will instantly recognise someone who will share his meal with you.' This saying definitely does not apply to the people from the mining company. No, they have been lying to us from the start. Those who already left, received a small amount of money... but I wouldn't call that compensation. We have been cheated. We hardly got anything. Actually, we got nothing. 150 or 250 euro's isn't going to get me far. I have children and grandchildren. I have to pay their school fees and buy new land. It's nowhere near enough. Even if I got 6000 euro's, I'd still spend it. A good field is a perpetual source of income. They're here temporarily on business. I live here. This is the house of the area's royal chief. The big shot, if you like. He is the man who sold the people's land to the Canadian mining company... for 250,000 dollars, or so I've been told. I'd like to know why. You kneel. They promised to renovate the palace. Actually, to build a new one. But the palace was only intended for my benefit. I would be the only one to enjoy it. That's why I asked them... to divide the money that was set aside for the palace... so that both my entourage as well as the community could benefit from it. Like a company with shareholders. Not to my knowledge. I never got that information. Yes, I regret it deeply. To this very day. Firstly, they forced me to sign something against my will. Secondly, they lied to me. They said they didn't want all the land. Only the land that contained minerals. I was forced to sign. That doesn't sit well with me. If we'd been happy, we wouldn't have filed a claim. We blame the government for not protecting us. The government should have saved us from this. Hello. How are you? Are we welcome? Are we welcome? The visitors have arrived, they will be filming. Now you can practice your English. They're sending us to a place without land. We haven't been given enough money. What did you think when they came? The chief made many false promises. We thought we'd be better off, but we were fed a pack of lies. All these promises they never intended to adhere to in the first place. Empty promises. Mummy is busy. Are you ready to leave? You always speak in a negative tone when there are visitors. Just be glad your child and husband have a job. That's good, right? Make sure everything's out, the demolishers are ready. You will be living in town. You will no longer have to work the fields... to grow your own food. This is your site, forty by forty metres. Over there is your toilet. This is the toilet. Make sure you keep it clean, it's quite small. It's a hole in the ground and it has a door. from 10 square metres to 19 square metres Mrs Mweenda, did you use to have a toilet? These are the keys to your house. Don't you dare lose them. If you do, you have to pay for a new set. I won't be able to help you. There you go. Enjoy. -Thank you. Thank you. Are you happy? -It's looking fine. Not yet. Now you have a real house. Congratulations.
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Channel: vpro world stories
Views: 86,403
Rating: undefined out of 5
Keywords: First Quantum Minerals, Copper industry Zambia, illegal mining Zambia, Trident Project, Musele Task Force, customary land, customary law, Musele people, Chief Musele, Bram Vermeulen, Documentary Africa, Documentary Zimbabwe, Documentary Zambia, Documentary Angola, Politics Africa, Life in Africa, South Africa, Straight through Africa, Africa, vpro world stories, world stories, free documentary, subtitled documentary
Id: z4RJSi96oAE
Channel Id: undefined
Length: 43min 29sec (2609 seconds)
Published: Thu Sep 20 2018
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