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Sifelani Tsiko Agric, Environment & Innovations Editor
SADC countries must strengthen the parliament’s role in overseeing extractive industries in the region to curb illicit mining cash flows and ensure their citizens benefit from sustainable management of natural resources, a senior SADC Parliamentary Forum official says.
Secretary general of the SADC Parliamentary Forum, Ms Boemo Mmandu-Sekgoma told a virtual meeting for journalists on reporting natural resources governance in Southern Africa that the extractive industry’s processes must be more transparent, more accessible to small businesses and more equitable in terms of revenue generation to benefit the people of the region.
“Debates on natural resources governance must address issues of prosperity that extraction should bring to the people, address weak accountability systems, mismanagement of resources or the siphoning of money for corruption,” she said.
“As a region, our parliaments must advocate for an extractive industry that in all fairness, provides the necessary incentives for private investors, but at the same time ensures that the state and citizens benefit adequately from the exploitation of the resources.”
Most communities living in areas where natural resources are exploited are hardly benefiting from the resources found in much of Southern Africa.
“The issue that mostly affects Africa today, including the SADC region, is that the extractive industry is visible, but the gains are not. There is thus a need to instil fairness to the system and to reinforce checks and balances,” said Mmandu-Sekgoma.
“We have the SADC Protocol on Mining and a lot remains to be done towards equitable distribution of resources. Parliamentarians can act as strong voices to request for transparency from the Government regarding arrangements made with the private sector over exploitation of resources.
“In this vein, it is also important to recognise the importance of the media in uncovering unfair revenue management practices through investigative journalism and promoting a culture of transparency and openness.”
The Southern African Research and Documentation Centre (SARDC) in partnership with the Southern Africa Trust (SAT) organised the virtual workshop to strengthen the capacity of the regional media to report objectively and from an informed point of view on natural resource governance in Southern Africa.
“How do we explain the scarred topography of many of our countries’ land mass, awash with abandoned pits and holes of past and present mining activities? What capacity do we have as countries to negotiate or structure what are often complex mining contracts? asked Munetsi Madakufamba, executive director of SARDC.
“In whose interest do those who negotiate contracts with multi-nationals are doing so? How much money on a yearly basis are our countries losing through acts of commission or omission?
“These are just but a few pertinent questions that our media should be asking authorities and multinationals, with a view to enlightening our people, and to hold those in positions of power accountable for decisions they make on behalf of the general populace.”
Many African governments, he said, were being short-changed in a number of natural resources negotiations, particularly in mineral extraction as they were not aware of the exact quality and quantity of their minerals.
Furthermore, he said, a number of mining laws and royalty regimes and systems were now too old and had actually led to the scourge of illicit financial flows (IFF) from the continent.
It is estimated that Africa has lost more than US$1.8 trillion to IFFs between 1970 and 2008 alone, and continues to lose resources valued at up to US$150 billion annually through illicit capital flight, mainly through tax evasion, under-invoicing of exports by multinational companies, according to a recent study commissioned by the African Union (AU).
SADC has abundant natural resources such as minerals, forestry, wildlife, and agricultural land.
Experts say more than half the gross domestic product (GDP) of the 16 states comes from agriculture, forestry, mining, and tourism.
The extractive industry, especially mining alone accounts for more than 50 percent of exports and is the largest foreign exchange earner.
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