Lusambo Accuses Chinese Investors Of Abusing Workers

Lusaka Province Minister Bowman Lusambo has accused Chinese investors of abusing their workers in the province, including locking them in factories for fear of spreading the coronavirus if they are allowed to go home.

Mr Lusambo said he had heard of reports that some workers are spending close to two months without visiting their families, forced to send their paycheques home via mobile transfer. 

The provincial minister has consequently ordered police officers to investigate reports of abuse and threatened investors with legal action if they are found to be complicit. 

Mr Lusambo expressed his concern for the workers affected, saying he worried that such conditions would drive many to exhaustion, illness or depression. 

In other news, the Lusaka minister has said that the Chinese owner of a restaurant in Lusaka’s Longacres neighbourhood could be deported if he is found guilty of discriminating against Zambians. 

Tang Wei, owner of the now closed Lantian restuarant, is accused of kicking a Zambian man out of his restaurant, calling him ‘foreigner’. 

Mr Lusambo has said that racism will not be tolerated in Lusaka Province and that employers should respect Zambia’s laws regardless of their own nationality.