MY TALKNOTES DURING 9TH ALTENATIVE MINING INDABA 2018
SEEKING TO REVERSE THE RESOURSE CURSE THROUGH LEGISLATIVE, POLICY AND INSTITUIONAL REFORM
I Was raised in a town where you drive 30 – 40 minutes to a Mwadui Williamson Diamond Mine, at primary school age I could will hear people talking bout “Mwadui” as a good place and that workers there are staying in good houses , they own cars and that all the roads good. I was told that there is a plane and an airport at “Mwadui”. This is back in 1983-1988. Between years 1989 -1996 I was again privileged to study in schools close(even close to 5km) to gold mines in Lake Victoria region, So this is the time I used to hear only about all good things in the mining sector, there was no serious debate in school about extractives. Today, I feel bad when I remember the topics we discussed during our school life (school debates) and essays we were asked to write about.
At university, again in Lake Victoria region studying journalism there was few debates going on about mining sectors, these focused more on child labor and how one secure job in mining companies after university.
So, generally you can see how majority of us were raised with “total darkness” about this mining sector. Today I hear about; social responsibility, social accountability, social market economy, social contract. The time when I have seen, read and heard about the impact of mining to local communities, I thank the work of interfaith committee and Oxfam for the enlightenment. We speak of “social” but we use our brains more than we use our hearts, that is the reason why we think of policies and laws, frameworks etc.
In Geita area, few km from the lake Victoria where deposits were discovered in 1930s, farming community is still chasing their right to compensation, their water is polluted, their soil is contaminated, after big mining investment owned by Acacia Mining Plc. In Kahama, few km from the Lake Victoria where there are two gold mines ofBuzwagiand Bulyanhulu(which after it was opened we became third largest producer of gold in Africa) you will see why we need to use the hearts more than our contaminated brains...
When you enter Kakola villages (where there is Bulyanhulu mine) by road, you will spot a sign post that informs you that you have crossed a boarder entering a mine area, after few km you will see community, schools, and shops and houses and families and children, you see “life”, you wonder why are these people here ? How did they arrive here? I crossed the “boarder”, Idecided to start conversation with a man, in a open space close to a public primary school, then two more people came and joined and many more, about 20 people gathered. I took my notebook, as I started writing one said, you will fill your note book, we have lots to say, and another man said, what different will you do, many have come to take our stories here, they come and live and life is the same. Those from a village named “number 9” were complaining that they have not being paid land compensation; some said that all the villages surrounding the mine are not recognized, that the mining company is claiming that they (villagers) have invaded company’s land. Little was known to them about service levy, tax, environment, local content, CSR. I asked if they participated in last election, they said yes and they have a full village council, they voted for counsellor and they participated in general elections where they casted votes for a member of parliament and for president. Majority were questioning about the poor condition of health and school facilities for their children while the mining company is making money from their land.
Are all these because of laws and policies? , these people (investors) they have experiences in mining sector (bad and good ones), if we are talking about “social”, we have not used our hearts! Speaking about “social” is about reciprocal, love and brotherhood. If they (investors) stablish that our policies and laws are weak why can they advise and stop mining until those laws and policies are ready? They have good lawyers and they do have think tanks to do consultations, we know they conduct lots of study to know about amount of gold under our soil, they certainly do studies about laws and policies of these countries too. So, what do they do when we discuss laws and policies or when our policy and law makers debate on laws and policies? Here in this Indaba we come to discuss about laws and policies and how to harmonize? No, we need a new thinking; we need alternative thinking and may be not alternative mining! LET US FIRST AGREE THAT WE NEEDALTENATIVE THINKING AND WE WILL COME BACK TO LAWS AND FRAMEWORKS LATER! We need to re-think about this type of investment, we need to think about the difference between exploitation and investment. Our President, with his slogan “hapakazitu” knows that the problem is in our reluctance to do things differently, he stated it not though laws and policies, he started differently, now we are discussing about stake of mining assets, right to buy share to 50% of the business, increase royalties from 4% to 6%, clearing fee of 1%...
Governments, politicians and investors are not bad BUT they can be very good again!
Kaka Jimmy Luhende is a Tanzania, now working with a local CSO; Actions for Democracy and Local Governance (ADLG), which he found in 2010 for the purpose of enhancing mining communities to articulate mining issues, voice and establish informed dialogues.