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Home Field Trips Copper Tour Chingola

Chingola

Unemployment and Underemployment

Next issue - The Environmental Impact of the Production of Copper >>

The mines and metal processing plants attracted many people to migrate from the rural areas looking for waged employment and a better of quality of life than they had enjoyed back in the rural communities. Monthly wages in the mining industry were on average three times that of the wages that could be earned in the agricultural sector. The population of the Copperbelt grew rapidly as the industry grew. However, just as industries grow they also experience decline and the copper industry is no exception. Following its election, the government of President Chiluba, in an attempt to revive the industry's fortunes, has followed the advice of the international donor organisations such as the World Bank and IMF and implemented a structural adjustment programme that has included a radical program of privatisation.

Life in Shanty Towns

Under state ownership the mines and metal processing firms provided a range of welfare benefits to their workers such as housing, medical and educational provision, funeral benefits and even monthly handouts of maize meal, the staple food.

With falling world copper prices firms such as ZCCM have slimmed down and made workers redundant. Benefits to workers such as free housing or children's schooling were cut back or reduced completely. As smaller mines have been privatised they have also laid off workers in an attempt to increase productive efficiency. Many more workers have been put on standby but are never called back to work.

The closing down of mines and the structural unemployment that results has a negative multiplier effect throughout the region. There is a knock on effect on ancillary firms that supply components and provide services for the mining industry. Their order books decline and they are in turn forced to lay off workers. Unemployed workers reduce their spending and the retail sector is consequently detrimentally affected. In the last two decades it is estimated that over 20000 jobs have been lost. At the beginning of the 21st century there were 37,000 people employed in the mining industry and with increasing privatisation this is expected to fall either further.

The case of Mr Chenda

Like his father before him Gorden Chenda's livelihood was linked to copper. He worked as a section manager for ZCCM at Mindola mine in Kitwe. Despite giving him management training, KCCM, in an attempt to cut costs, made Gorden Chenda, who also suffered from asthma gained through working in the harsh conditions in the mine, redundant in 1995. As a 28-year-old there are very few job opportunities around the copper belt. Like many he has found the only way he can support his family is to engage in the illegal trading of copper sheeting. He has an arrangement with security guards so he can get the sheeting and then sells it at about $20 per kilo. The illegal trading of copper is now one of the most buoyant activities in the informal sector.

Next issue - The Environmental Impact of the Production of Copper >>

Related Glossary Items:
Liberalisation
Inward oriented development
Outward oriented development
Import substitution
Parastatals
Exchange control
Privatisation
Structural unemployment
Multiplier

Related Issues:
The Structural Adjustment Policies of the IMF
Privatisation of State Owned enterprises

Related Theories:
Supply side approaches
The Arguments for Privatisation