adminEllah Mukwati Harare Bureau
Most mining companies in the country continue to squander resources at the expense of communities. The director of Centre for Natural Resource Governance Farai Maguwu said this yesterday during the launch of Communities, Companies, and Conflict Report in Harare.
“These companies are failing to honour the pledges they made on Community Share Ownership Trust where they are expected to develop the communities they operate in,” said Maguwu
He also said mining companies only aimed at making profits other than the development of the areas where they extract minerals.
“The mining companies did little in terms of real corporate social responsibility (CSR). The communities’ expectations on CSR were for bigger projects such as electrifying community institutions, rehabilitating roads, and provision of educational material in schools,” Maguwu said.
He went to highlight the need to educate people about the importance of farming for the country’s economic growth.
“Fertile soils for agricultural purposes are being turned into mines leaving the communities without enough land to produce food for the sustenance of everyday living,” said Maguwu.
“There were several conflicts between miners and farmers over land. Some of the miners were taking over fertile Agricultural land to mine chrome, hence creating food insecurity in the community”.
Another issue which was raised during the launch was the lack of respect for the locals’ culture.
As highlighted in the report, the mining companies for traditional authority represented by the chiefs in the areas as they began to operate without insight of cultural values of the area.
“At one time Chief Mapanzure ordered the miners to cease operations in his area of jurisdiction because the community was not benefiting. After negotiations, operations resumed but life of the community has not significantly improved,” read part of the report.
It is indicated in the report that some of these miners are causing land degradation.
“Both the Mapanzure and Guruve communities complained that they had lost a lot of cattle which had fallen into the open pits and grazing land was slowing depleting as the miners continue to acquire more land for their operations,” said Maguwu.
Many issues were raised during the event and Rudo Mgodi Gender and extractive Officer also said most of these mining companies are causing displacements of the locals.
“The exploiters always complain about how much they have invested and not what the community has lost,” she said.
“The people from Marange were evacuated from their community because of the diamond mining company without being consulted for their views”.
The Community Share Ownership Trusts were launched by the President Cde Robert Mugabe in 2012 and were expected to transform communities in which mining companies operate.
Online Reporter