Dangote Cement’s Zambian subsidiary has sued the country’s labour minister for libel and slander after he accused an executive of the company of attempting to bribe him.
A row has been brewing between Zambia and Dangote Cement after the minister made the allegations in September.
Dangote said in papers filed in court that the minister had created an impression that the company was exploiting Zambian workers and enticing government officials with bribes.
“The plaintiff has been brought into public scandal and its reputation has been injured,” Dangote said in a writ of summons dated October 10.
The dispute appears to be the latest in a string of incidents in which the southern African nation’s government has resorted to unorthodox tactics against foreign investors it believes are circumventing labour laws.
Dangote Industries Zambia (DIZ) has 400 workers building a $400 million cement plant, a staff count that should rise to 2,000 when production starts in November.
During a tour of the plant in Ndola, the minister of labour, Fackson Shamenda, said a Nigerian executive attached to the Zambian unit tried to bribe him at a hotel.
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