ZELA Hosted the Provincial Alternative Mining Indaba for the Midlands Province between the 4th and 5th of June 2014. Here is the press statement that summarizes the event.

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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