140,000 demand compensation for lead poisoning
By Thandizo Banda in Kabwe
GOVERNMENT must compensate over 140,000 Kabwe residents, mostly women and children, who have suffered lead poisoning, an affected parent has appealed.
Derrick Mumbi, a father of twin victims of lead poisoning in Kabwe’s Waya Compound, urged government to look into the plight of residents whose lives had been negatively affected by the lead poisoning.
In April last year, President Hakainde Hichilema appointed an inter-ministerial committee to find ways of mitigating lead pollution in Kabwe.
The committee was to be chaired by the minister of green economy and environment and would comprise the Central Province administration, civil society and ministries of Mines and Minerals Development and Local Government and Rural Development.
However, Mumbi, a representative of Kabwe lead victims, said little progress had been seen in the implementation of the directive.
Mumbi, 42, a former university lecturer and father of 14-year-old Form One twin girls, told The Mast how both his daughters were in 2018 diagnosed with elevated blood lead levels by a team of health and environmental experts.
“We were then referred to Chowa Health Centre for further management of the conditions where the [twins] were given some medicine. But we now feel neglected and not cared for by our government since the people who used to visit and educate us on lead issues have also stopped coming,” he said.
“We need government to intervene and curb the problem of lead in the the hot spots of Mutwe Wansofu, Chowa, Mine and Makululu areas,” Mumbi said.
Lead pollution and poisoning has haunted Kabwe since the 1980s and escalated after the decommissioning of the lead mine during the UNIP administration.
Meanwhile, an advocate for industrialisation and development Cephas Musonda has wondered why Minister of Green Economy and Environment Mike Mposha is failing to implement the presidential directive of tackling lead contamination in the former mining town.
In December 2023 a South African High Court dismissed compensation claims against multinational mining company Anglo American Corporation by some internationally renowned human rights lawyers on behalf of the 140,000 Kabwe residents who were allegedly poisoned from one of its mines.
Musonda said following the dismissal of the case, the Zambian government must show compassion and true leadership by taking up the responsibility and compensate its citizens.
“The class action case was dismissed in South Africa due to lapse of time. But coming back home the President issued a decree and no one is coming back to us with a feedback, which is not right. We are soon getting into 2026 which is an election year with a lot of activities, making it impossible to deal with the issue of lead poisoning in Kabwe,” he said.
