Pilato
Top Zambian musician and civil rights activist Fumba Chama – popularly known as Pilato – has joined calls to halt plans for an open-pit mining project in the Lower Zambezi National Park.
Despite many conservationists, civil society organisations and two of Zambia’s former presidents publicly opposing the project, the government has announced that after a lengthy legal process dealing with objections, the project will now go ahead.
The current administration, which won power last year, is blaming the previous government for giving the go-ahead for the mine, a decision which it says cannot easily be reversed.
But this hasn’t put off Pilato, who on Sunday released a song called Zambezi to raise awareness.
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“We will have the Zambezi river exposed to contamination with toxins from the mine and in the end expose people and animals to contaminated water,” he told the BBC.
He argued that the local people won’t benefit from the investment but will pay the consequences.
The song calls on people to protect and save the Lower Zambezi now.
The Lower Zambezi National Park provides refuge to globally threatened wildlife species such as elephants and wild dogs and is home to some unique vegetation.
Pilato is well known for his activism in Zambia having been arrested a number of times under the previous government – including once for a song that he released that was thought to have been critical of then-President Edgar Lungu.
