On the 8th and 9th of June 2023, the Centre for Natural Resource Governance hosted the Zimbabwe Diamond and Allied Minerals Workers Union (ZDAMWU) and mining workers in Mutare for a Mining Communities Human Rights Vulnerability Assessment workshop to equip mining workers with skills necessary to bargain for better working conditions and a healthy working environment.
Under the Strengthening Extractive and natural resources sector transparency and Accountability through citizen action and parliamentary oversight in Zimbabwe (STACAP) project CNRG has been working to strengthen and empower civil society mining-affected communities and citizens to effectively hold duty bearers state actors and the executive accountable.
Workers in the diamond sector continue to face challenges in accessing decent working, living and social conditions including inadequate secure incomes, and social protection, they face cost and other barriers to access quality life commensurate to the value of minerals mined. In the workplace, employees’ knowledge of their rights and policies of the mining sector not only empowers them but helps to promote transparency and their civil liberties.
The workshop was aimed at providing tools to ensure transparency in the mining of diamonds in Zimbabwe, equip workers with skills necessary to bargain for continuous improvement to safe work through protection against job losses, underdevelopment of communities, risks and illnesses, and the promotion of good working conditions and a healthy working environment for the well-being and development of workers and their communities.