Dzikamidzi villagers of Shurugwi who recently attended a workshop organised by the Centre for Natural Resource Governance (CNRG) have said the programme tailor-made under the Right to Say No was useful in their lives.
In separate interviews, they said the activity was participatory in manner, and CNRG facilitated the layering of a level field allowing them to lay their concerns over the mining project.
The villagers also presented the proceedings of the first meeting they held with Unki Mine and formulated their position with regards to the mining activity and mapped a response and way forward
Omia Kanyimo, a member of the Dzikamidzi village committee, praised CNRG for the chance and engagement opportunity, noting that both have greatly aided the village’s efforts to demand and defend its rights.
“We are deeply thankful of the efforts and work that CNRG is doing here in Shurugwi; the Right to Say No capacity building workshop actually opened our eyes to fight for and protect our environment from the operations of Unki Mine,” said Kanyimo.
There has not been any official dialogue between the community and UNKI mine to discuss its operations in the area. As of the end of August, UNKI has started blasting and this is causing massive sand and dust storms to flow into the village.
Following the capacity building workshops held in July, the community has been able to approach UNKI and advocate for the blasting to stop. The trained villagers cited that they have not given consent for these operations and that they have a right to exercise their land rights.
“The training that we received from CNRG was very useful as it gave us the zeal to approach Unki Mine and call them to stop the blasting. Unki mine was actually infringing our constitutional right as they never sought for our consent in the first place”, said Gift Munemo who is also a villager from Dzikamidzi.
Since then, the workshops and community actions have achieved some positive results, with UNKI Mine meeting the Dzikamidzi village representative for the first time since the mine’s expansion began. Despite the fact that the community was not represented in proportion, the meeting was a first step toward a proper dialogue.