By RABECCA CHIPANTA –
ENERGY Minister David Mabumba has dismissed rumours of looming retrenchments at Indeni Refinery once the Government finds an equity partner.
Mr Mabumba assured the workers that not a single job would be lost and that the decision to look for a strategic partner at the refinery was aimed at recapitalising and repositioning the facility for improved operational capacity.
He explained that at full-capacity, the refinery would generate more revenue and would even manpower would be taken on, creating further job opportunities.
He said the idea was to improve the capacity of the plant by taking the production levels back to its design capacity of 1.1 million litres from the current 650,000 litres.
Mr Mabumba said prolonged low production levels had resulted in stagnation at the refinery.
“At the moment, the establishment for Indeni is stagnant, simply because our production levels have gone down. Instead of retrenchments, you actually create more jobs. We are going to retain all the jobs at Indeni and create more,” he said.
This was contained in a statement made available by press secretary at the Zambian Mission in Botswana, Kasabo Kalusa.
Meanwhile, Mr Mabumba said the Government would undertake a local investors’ conference to encourage participation in the recapitalization of Indeni Petroleum.
He said the symposium was aimed at ensuring local investors wishing to get involved during the recaptalisation process were not left out.
Preparations for the conference are underway and with the Ministry of Energy closely working with the Industrial Development Corporation (IDC) to ensure maximum participation from the local entrepreneurial base.