CBOs conspire to round up errant miners

Community-based organizations (CBOs) in Manicaland province have created a committee to hold local and foreign mining companies accountable for their environmental, social and economic transgressions in the province.

The resolution was made at a recent community dialogue that brought together almost 50 representatives of community organizations in the province.

Community organizations that attended the meeting included the Manica Youth Assembly, the Zimbabwe Diamond and Allied Workers Union (ZIDAWU), the Zivai Community Empowerment Fund (ZICET), the Young Entrepreneurs Fund (YETZ) and the Mutasa Youth Forum Fund.

The dialogue was convened by the Development Information Fund under the theme: Impact of local and foreign gold mining activities on the environment and local socio-economic rights.

The meeting comes in the wake of prevailing and harmful environmental practices by some local and foreign mining companies.

For example, a joint venture between the Zimbabwe government and some Belarusian investors has been accused of engaging in mining on the Penhalong River bed, resulting in massive siltation and pollution of the Mutare and Odzi rivers.

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Also in Penhalonga, artisanal gold mining activities are causing serious environmental degradation and cyanide poisoning of rivers.

The CBOs tasked the committee to engage mining investors to come up with win-win strategies. The committee will involve the parliamentary portfolio committee on mines, as well as other stakeholders including the Environmental Management Agency.

“We are going to ask the government to act on previous requests that they have ignored as a starting point for the action plan,” said YETZ leader Fungai Nhaitai.

The communities resolved to work on an information dissemination framework that will be used to mobilize affected communities to have a united front in their fight for environmental and socioeconomic justice.

Prince Mupindu, a youth volunteer from the Zimbabwe Coalition on Debt and Development, said: “We are going to use existing legislation and harness its powers to demand our socio-economic rights. Communities have the right to manage their own affairs and should get their share of mining revenues.

“Communities must be empowered to demand their rights and accountability.”

The communities resolved to mobilize and participate in the development of a new mining and mineral law that seeks to guarantee stricter environmental protection, an effective resolution of disputes between farmers and miners and greater accountability in the ownership of mines, among other things.

“There is a need to identify common ground so that, as communities, we also benefit from the precious resources that are extracted in our area,” said Precious Gamunorwa, a legal expert at ZIDAWU who was one of the panellists.

Cosmas Sunguro of the ZIDAWU Trust told the meeting that youth and women were not benefiting economically from the minerals being mined in their communities.

ZICET’s Mildred Muzanechita said women and youth were the most affected by unsustainable mining practices.

“Currently, communities must bear the costs of mining as they lose livestock and even human lives due to environmental degradation caused by foreign investors,” he said.