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In an interview, Comesa Council for Artisanal and Small-scale Miners’ president Mr Wellington Takavarasha said his organisation was working on forming federations in member states that did not have representative bodies for artisanal and small-scale miners.
The council was formed two months ago in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) to regularise and enhance activities of miners in the region.
“The focus of the Comesa Council for Artisanal and Small-scale Miners is to regularise activities of miners for sustainable development. We have noted that some of the Comesa member states do not have mining federations representing the interests of artisanal and small-scale miners.
“As a council, we have already started working on the formation of mining federations for the miners in respective of countries that did not have such bodies,” said Mr Takavarasha, who is also the Zimbabwe Miners’ Federation chief executive officer.
“We have drafted the constitution for the council and member states have started responding by putting their considerations.”
He said input on the council’s constitution had already been received from countries that included DRC, Uganda, Zambia, Rwanda, and Burundi.
Mr Takavarasha said the setting up of the miners’ federations would result in the creation of synergies with multi-lateral institutions such as the World Bank through funding programmes to enhance and promote small-scale mining activities.
He said his association would also learn how small-scale mining operations in Tanzania had been receiving funding from multilateral institutions.
It is believed that the formation of federations for artisanal and small-scale miners in Comesa member states will also facilitate in determining a database of its members and the core minerals being mined in the region.
derick.khumalo
Online Reporter