Entry Instance

HTTP 200 OK
Allow: GET, PUT, PATCH, DELETE, HEAD, OPTIONS
Content-Type: application/json
Vary: Accept

{
    "id": 385317,
    "url": "https://info.mzalendo.com/api/v0.1/hansard/entries/385317/?format=api",
    "text_counter": 66,
    "type": "other",
    "speaker_name": "",
    "speaker_title": "",
    "speaker": null,
    "content": "We should, as Senators, be moving ahead and developing laws that are congregant to this country. We could arrange a retreat and invite some of these potential investors; the people doing explorations, to come and talk to us about mineral potential in this country. I remember that in the last Cabinet, the Minister for Environment and Natural Resources, Mr. Mwakwere, presented a Cabinet Memo which was very interesting. It gave us a bird’s eye view of the mineral potential of this nation. It was quite mind-boggling. In that retreat, we will be educated by people from the Department of Natural Resources on where our minerals are, what kind of minerals we have, the potential for exploiting these minerals and the kind of investors that we should have. As Senators, we should attract investors to come and exploit these minerals. We are now at a much better position more than other African countries that have had a lot of mineral resources but whose minerals have been pillaged. I know, for example, a country like Congo, which even as recently as five years ago, had areas where companies from the West had built air fields. They fly in with aeroplanes, crack crude mineral resources like gold among others using mercenaries and put them in the planes so that they are refined elsewhere. I know a friend of mine from Argentina who was hired by the Congolese President to try and lay down a regime for taxing these companies. He went there to try and find out how he would tax them but this was very difficult. These people come overnight and scoop all the gold and go away. You must have an army before you think about taxing them. So, the sheer fact that we have a state which is organized means that we should take advantage of it and put in place a law that will protect our people against mineral exploitation. I beg to support. The electronic version of the Senate Hansard Report is for information purposes only. A certified version of this Report can be obtained from the Hansard Editor, Senate."
}