Governments Failing To Benefit From Mining As Multinationals Put Communities’ Lives At Ri

Jan. 28, 2010 - PRLog -- The event, on Tuesday, 2 February, 2010 from 9am to 1pm at the Fountains Hotel, in Cape Town, will be officially opened by Archbishop Njongonkulu Ndungane.

The loud voice of greed

EJN, Bench Marks and a number of faith based organisations, civil society members and church leaders from across the African Continent strongly condemn mining corporations for excluding communities, trade unions and other key stakeholders at the forthcoming Mining Indaba that will be held in Cape Town from 1st to 4th of February.

“This event has been turned into an-in house affair and once again provides the mining houses with an opportunity for them to ignore the voices of the trade unions and those communities that are affected by mining activities,” said John Capel, chief executive of Bench Marks Foundation.
According to Mining Indaba’s website, “Attendance is limited to investors and Industry. Speakers are by invitation and include top global economists, industry analysts and mining management.”

Atrocities committed in the pursuit of profit

EJN and its partners aim to use this opportunity to involve and target the media and important policy makers with a message of hope. Victims of mining activities in Mpumalanga, South Africa as well as religious leaders from Tanzania and Zambia will present evidence of atrocities committed by mining companies in the pursuit of profit.
While enterprise is sovereign and has its place in the fortunes and wealth of a country, the abuse of communities when governments act irresponsibly and put profit ahead of their mandate to safeguard vulnerable communities and the environment must come to an end.

“It is unacceptable that our governments continue to turn a blind eye to the fate of our vulnerable communities while protecting the interests of mining companies who contribute very little to the countries’ economies because of corrupt deals and tax concessions,” agreed Rev. Malcolm Damon, Executive Director of the Economic Justice Network.

Research in several African countries has revealed that:
1.   Generally mining contracts with governments are clouded in secrecy and civil society has no meaningful way to give input.
2.   Civil society and communities are excluded from negotiating the terms and conditions of how mining will take place.
3.   Environmental Impact Assessments are done without community input and even if communities could input, they would be at a disadvantage as the language used is not translated into easy readable material.  
4.   Revenues and payments to governments are often clouded in secrecy and when made public are pitiful, and keep African countries trapped in poverty.
5.   Mines need to ensure a more level playing field by releasing funds so communities can access their own expertise in the form of scientists and so on so that they can meaningfully engage and make input relevant to them.
6.   Mines rarely do proper adequate social and economic impact assessments and if they do, they are filled with half truths, promising jobs that are really a minimum as mines use technically advanced technology creating few jobs. Community livelihoods are at stake and community life breaks down due to negative impacts on water, air quality, waste, with severe health implications.
7.   People have to make way for mining resulting in their way of life breaking down; cultural impacts that change the way of life, kinship relations, and especially women suffer as they are torn away from subsistence farming often turning to prostitution.
8.   Communities have high expectations when mining is proposed only to find out later on that they do not benefit, but instead carry the costs of mining that have been externalised. E.g. water pollution and the impact on subsistence farming.
9.   Mining companies pay lip service to consulting, only doing the minimum and do not have policies in place committing themselves to engaging properly and in a clear and unambiguous way to communities.
10.   Local economic development is bypassed in favour of bigger more established contacts leaving small local business out in the cold.
11.   Thousands of Artisanal miners lose access to their livelihoods often in the name of investment that brings little local community benefits.
12.   Mines continue to operate in areas of conflict, e.g. Ghana and DRC not adhering to the World Bank Extractive Industry Review that says that in areas of high risk or armed conflict mining should not take place as there is mounting evidence showing that mining in this situation fuels conflict. This is true when weak governance systems, high levels of poverty and inequality exist side by side.
13.   Migrant workers used in mines place enormous pressure on local communities and authorities competing for health at clinics and hospitals, housing, local amenities and is an indirect cost of mining passed onto communities. HIV and AIDs is spread with mines not extending programmes and medicines to communities along side.
14.   HIV and AIDs testing is voluntary, where senior, junior workers and management get tested and mines adopt these statistics as official rates of the disease, allowing for inadequate programmes on their side.
For further Information please contact:

Mandla Mbongeni Hadebe
Economic Justice Network
Church House
1 Queen Victoria Street
Cape Town, 8000
Tel: +27 21 424 9563/1322
Fax: +27 21 424 9564
Cell: +27 72 952 2402
Skype: mandlahadebe
E-mail: mandla@ejn.org.za

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EJN is the economic and social arm of FOCCISA and it works in the furtherance of economic justice in 11 of SADC countries namely South Africa, Lesotho, Swaziland, Botswana, Namibia, Angola, Mozambique, Zimbabwe, Zambia, Malawi and Tanzania.
The major role of EJN is to build capacity and facilitate the National Christian Councils
(NCCS) to get engaged in economic and social justice work at the national and regional levels.