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Press Release Over 120 Delegates participate in the Midlands Provincial Alternative Mining Indaba as ZELA plans for the Manicaland Indaba The 2014 Midlands Provincial Alternative Mining Indaba was successfully hosted in Shurugwi between the 4th and the 5th of June 2014. With over 120 delegates participating in this edition of the Provincial Alternative Mining Indaba (PAMI), the theme “creating space for community voices on mining” was endorsed. In his keynote address, Honorable Matangaidze, the Member of Parliament for Shurugwi, set tone for the meeting by asserting the Indaba’s theme as important especially with the ongoing debate on natural resources ownership and control. He reiterated the need to debate on natural resources governance from an apolitical standpoint given the spatial and temporal manner of natural resources, the continued scramble for access to natural resources and the need to ensure that members of community benefit from the natural resources found in their areas. The keynote touched on wide ranging issues from the mining legal and operational environment, community rights, community share ownerships trust schemes, environmental impacts, small scale and artisanal mining and beneficiation. Some of the fundamentals noted by Honorable Matangaidze included the fact that the extractive industry is regulated by International law that protects human rights and the environment; the permanent national sovereignty over natural resources; and the need to review the Mines and Minerals Act to capture our aspirations. He further acknowledged that the Community Share Ownership Trusts need to be transformed to ensure that they are not paternalistic and top-down, do not ignore socio-economic development and environmental management, disregard community participation and ecological justice as well as the lack fundamentals for accountability and transparency. Following his keynote, communities challenged him on the need for legislators to interact more with the community beyond elections so that they understand the obtaining situation in the communities they represent. Chiefs Banga of Shurugwi, Muposi from Mberengwa and Chipuriro from Guruve were also present at this all-important Indaba. Besides giving insights into the importance of tradition and their role as custodians of culture they also raised concern over the continued practice of mining companies holding on concessions that can possibly be given to other investors and benefit the country.

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The youth voice was also well represented with their key concerns being the need for mining operations to create employment opportunities especially for young people that live adjacent to the mining operations. The youth challenged traditional leaders to take the responsibility of championing the needs of each and every member of their community without being hoodwinked by benefits that some mining companies dangle to them. Five (5) councilors for wards within Surugwi, Zvishavane and Guruve Districts participated in the Indaba expressing their concern over how polarization and politicization of development issues has negated their key role of facilitating development in their communities. Other Honorable Members, Mutematsaka of Guruve and Holder of Zvishavane, also participated throughout the Indaba and acknowledged the critical contributions that the community members were making. “This Indaba is an important and necessary platform that should continue given that everyone is able to voice out their concerns at a neutral platform whose thrust is to promote development”. Said Holder in one of his comments. The legislators were also challenged to use tools such as the Southern African Resource Barometer to effectively play their oversight role and ensure that they produce state of the extractive industry reports with the aid of organisations such as ZELA. The 3 CEOs from Guruve, Runde and Tongogara Rural District Councils were also key in providing insights on the current or ongoing development projects in their communities and highlighted that much needs to be done to ensure more development. ZIMPLATS also participated in this meeting and went on to present their corporate social responsibility work that includes various projects such as building of schools and irrigation schemes for the community. Mutuso, the ZELA director also spoke on the need for companies to continue upholding the UN Guiding Principles on Business and Human rights. He applauded the participation of ZIMPLATS as an indication that relationships between them and the civil society have significantly improved from the era of naming and shaming to now an era where there is more collaboration and engagement for the benefit of the community and the country. The Environmental Management Authority (EMA) also shared a presentation that had alarming images of environmental damage due to mining. Following their presentation, the community members challenged the high costs of Environmental Impact Assessments and the low costs of fines that are demanded by EMA which are not a deterrent especially for big mining companies. Issues of gender and mining were also explored outlining how mining operations and impacts affect women and men differently with women bearing

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the most of the negative brunt of mining impacts whilst they normally enjoy the least of the benefits accrued from the same. Some of the key areas that the Indaba recommended government to consider include; ensuring that communities benefit from resources found in their areas, a revisit on the CSOTs models to ensure that communities participate meaningfully and the need to monitor and ensure fair distribution of revenue for immediate benefits as well as sustainability.

Mining companies were encouraged to differentiate Cooperate Social Responsibility projects from projects being implemented by Community Share Ownership Trusts for the benefit of the general public, respect rights, protect the environment and promote education and training of local communities to improve their employability in line with their human resource needs.

ZELA was also challenged to further decentralize the Indaba so that it reaches more community members and also ensure that the discussed issues are taken up to influence policy and government strategy. Moving forward, ZELA shall host another Provincial Mining Indaba for Manicaland between the 18th and the 19th of June 2014 as well as the National Alternative Mining Indaba that shall be held in September 2014.

 Delegates during the Midlands Provincial Alternative Mining Indaba

 The Indaba was made possible by the Support of: Norwegian Church Aid, ActionAid, OSISA, Christian Aid, the European Commission and the Norwegian People’s Aid  Circulated by: Zimbabwe Environmental Law Association Email: info@zela.org or darlington@zela.org