Abstract
M.A.
This study seeks to look at Gecamines contribution to socio-economic conditions of its employees and the province of Katanga and the entire nation. This study has the potential of improving the effectiveness of Gecamines’ socio-economic programme and socio-economic conditions of its employees as well as the people in Katanga Province. This study is also important in the sense that it will raise awareness by looking at the living conditions of some remaining 10, 000 Gecamines’ employees and former employees who left the company due to the World Bank Voluntary Departure Programme after the company went into partnerships with private firms to exploit copper and cobalt. Furthermore, by scrutinising Gecamines and the impact of its joint ventures on the socio-economic conditions of its employees in particular and Katanga province in general, this study attempted to extend its scope on these joint ventures’ contribution to the national treasury as well. This is important to see whether Gecamines and its partners can be relevant again in the Congolese economy as it was the case in the 1960s and 1980s.
It is also possible that, through this study lessons can be learnt from the findings, and thereafter applied to other mining companies, in improving their socio-economic contributions in the interest of the employees, and the entire population through generated revenues for the state. The study employed a case study design with a qualitative approach research in its endeavour of exploring Gecamines’ socio-economic contribution to its employees and the development of Katanga Province as a whole. Semistructured interviews helped me interact with Gecamines’ managers, unskilled workers and the provincial department of mines’ officers. The key findings from these interactions are that, the company’s low level of production caused by poor management, political interferference, corruption and poor institutions had negative ramifications on socio-economic conditions of the workers. A remedy to these challenges lies in strengthening the country’s instutitions to fight corruption and poor management of parastatals. Autonomy of parastatals from political influence and control is also important to enable the company to play a crucial role in socio-economic development of employees.