Q FM Africa's Modern Radio
Green Party President Peter Sinkamba has petitioned Speaker of the National Assembly Dr. Patrick Matibini to direct Transport and Communications Minister Brian Mushimba to issue a Ministerial Statement on the value and status of Zambia Railways assets in South Africa and Britain.
Mr. Sinkamba has disclosed that Zambia Railways co-owns mining concessions in South Africa together with National Railways of Zimbabwe and the South African Government through a company called Pan African Minerals Development Company (PAMDC).
Zambia Railways is also believed to own pension properties in Britain and elsewhere in the world jointly with the National Railways of Zimbabwe through the defunct Rhodesia Railways Pension Fund which the two railway companies ran during the Federation of Rhodesia and Nyasaland.
Mr Sinkamba says PAMDC was created in 2007 to take over the mining concessions previously owned by ZIZA Limited, an acronym for Zimbabwe-Zambia Limited.
He explains that during the Federation of Rhodesia and Nyasaland, the two railway companies co-owned the mining claims in South Africa through ZIZA.
Mr Sinkamba states that when the mining law was changed in South Africa in 2004, which law vested all mineral rights with the State, the South African Government consequently became a shareholder in the ZIZA Limited claim, leading to the creation of PAMDC.
He says the PAMDC and Pension Fund properties could be worth millions, if not billions of dollars which could be used not only to contribute towards repayments of Eurobond debts, but also modernizing Zambia Railways.