HWANGE residents yesterday urged government to adopt pro-community policies in the mining sector to ensure sustainable mining activities and that communities should benefit from local resources.
by Obey Manayiti
Presenting their views yesterday during a public hearing on the Mines and Minerals Amendment Bill, residents said they had a right to be involved in any mining activity in their communities, but they were not benefiting from the extractive industry yet their livelihoods are grossly affected.
“We want the Mines Act to make it mandatory for wide consultation at local level. The government should disseminate information on who is coming to mine in the area,” local councillor, Wilson Maphosa, said.
“In other instances, people come with licences and locals will have no say, even if they are affected. With such kind of resource management, we will not develop from our own resources.”
Others said there should be clear mechanism for companies to plough back into the community.
One resident, who identified herself as Chipembere, said Hwange remained marginalised in spite of it being endowed with rich coal beds.
“Sometime back, the President (Robert Mugabe) told companies to plough back into communities. Imagine that we don’t have a district hospital, we don’t have a university or colleges, proper schools for our children,” she said.
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“Some schools are closing because they don’t have teachers. Our roads are in bad shape and we don’t know who to approach. The intended law should address that.”
Another resident, Casper Ndlovu, said mining boards should include locals so that local interests were addressed.
A pensioner, Lennox Dube, called for devolution in mining management, where people experience no difficulties in accessing their money or presenting grievances. Others spoke of the need to put clauses that enforce employment of locals, awarding of scholarships to locals and women empowerment.
“Our children are dropping out of school because we cannot afford school fees. We cannot afford because we are not employed,” Anastasia Gumbo said.
“Even for general work, you see people from other areas being employed ahead of us. We have seen initiatives for women in mining in other areas, but that is not happening in Hwange.
“We need that to be properly addressed in the act so that we are also empowered. The new law should also give room for compensation to those who lose their land to mining investors.”
Some called for the protection of the environment.
“There is a lot of water pollution. This has affected human life and animal life. This has killed other sectors such as tourism, as natural resources and animals are dying. The new law should address that and offer punitive measures for those who pollute and destroy our environment. We want cohabitation among different sectors,” another resident said.
The others said there should be a separate fee that looked into rehabilitating the environment, while another section argued they needed the amended act to be flexible to allow new smallscale miners to apply and practice mining.
The Mines and Energy Parliamentary Portfolio Committee is on a countrywide tour gathering people’s views on mining regulations.
The committee was led by Uzumba legislator, Simbaneuta Mudarikwa, who promised to include all the views in his report.
