Deputy Mines Minister Polite Kambamura has reiterated the Centre for Natural Resource Governance (CNRG)’s mission that host communities must benefit from resources extracted in their areas.
He made the remarks last Friday at a local events venue in Harare where he was guest of honour at the Mining Media Awards 2023.
“Mining operations must benefit communities in which they take place.
“The people there must benefit. In Hwange for example, all companies that are extracting minerals there must all have companies that process them stationed in Hwange,” he said.
Kambamura urged companies mining coal to ensure that the value chain production happens in communities that they are extracting natural resources from.
“That way people will get employed. That is what we want, to see people benefiting from natural resources around their areas,” he said.
CNRG has over the years advocated for communities to benefit from minerals and natural resources in their areas.
Some of the programmes and activities the organisation has conducted on that mission include building the capacity of communities to defend their right to exist in the face of the ever-growing extractives sector which is posing an existential threat to communities.
In Hwange through training from CNRG, the community has been using environmental audit training to hold mining companies and local authorities accountable. Hwange is arguably the most polluted mining district in Zimbabwe where coal mining, gasification and thermal power generation activities contribute to water, land, and air pollution.
Accordingly, since 2014, CNRG has been in Hwange, working with the community to build their agency to defend their right to live in a clean and safe environment.
This year, the Centre for Natural Resource Governance (CNRG) intensified the #Right2SayNO in Manicaland (Penhalonga) and Matabeleland North (Hwange).
The Right2SayNO is a grassroots campaign that asserts the rights of communities to turn down or reject projects that are imposed on them, particularly extractive projects that affect their right to land, water, forests, rivers, seas, and oceans.
Rural communities have always been the burden carriers of the impact of mining despite not benefiting significantly from these activities. Often, they are exposed to pollution, land degradation, displacement and even loss of ancestral lands to mining operations.
In Penhalonga the community is resisting the environmental catastrophe unfolding due to unsafe mining practices by Better Brands. The community is demanding the filling of pits and an end to uncontrolled mining taking place under Better Brands.
There are frequent deaths due to chemical reactions in the pits resulting in artisinal miners suffocating to death. The community has formed a Right2SayNO WhatsApp group where information is shared in real-time.