"Amandla! Awethu! The Power! Is ours (the peoples)!" The words of the apartheid resistance are still being used in struggles against oppression. Today people call for mining justice. Photo: Jane Vogt Evensen/NCA
Norwegian Church Aid’s partners and organisations from 15 countries from around the world gathered at the Alternative Mining Indaba in South Africa from 6-8 February 2012. This is the third time this civil society conference on mining has been organised in parallel to the companies’, investors’ and governments’ conference of the same name. The original Mining Indaba is in reality not accessible to civil society with its USD 1500 admission fee per participant.
Due to the lack of access to the companies’ conference and the poor attention given to corporate social responsibility and the ethics of mining investments, the alternative conference was first organised in 2010 by Norweian Church Aid partners to provide a platform for civil society to share stories and experiences from the mining areas, and shift the attention from profit towards the realities of mining today.
Since then, the conference has grown and become a platform where faith-based as well as community-based organisations and trade unions from all over Africa, Latin America and Asia meet to discuss the 'other' side of mining.
A global mining community
Despite the participants coming from different countries from different parts of the world, the stories (and the mining companies) are very often the same. The level of revenues from the mining operations are minimal for the host countries, the benefits for the local communities are often fewer than the disadvantages, and environmental destruction is in many cases a fact.
During the conference people from Tanzania, Philippines, Zimbabwe, DRC, Zambia and Ghana told stories of eviction of whole communities to make space for mining operations. Perhaps the most recent example was from Mozambique where about 700 families have been relocated from their homes since 2009 to give way for coal mining, according to Higino Filimone from the Christian Council of Mozambique: "The families were promised new houses, hospital, a school, water and electricity to give up their land".
However, the provided housing was poor and full of cracks, and they did not get access to water, electricity or fertile land. When the Brazilian company and the government did not respond to the community’s demands to deliver on promises made, 500 people decided to block the train carrying coal on its way to the port of Beira. "We were not blocking the train, but the coal, because it is ours!" Filimone says about the community’s outcry. Ten people were injured during this peaceful demonstration and 14 were imprisoned. The prisoners have been released and the Christian Council of Mozambique is now requesting the President to review mining and resettlement issues.
There are similar cases going on that NCA and partners are involved in both in Zambia and Tanzania.
Panzi! Get down! A dance for mining justice outside the companies' conference. Photo: Jane Vogt Evensen/NCA
A call for mining justice
On the last day of the conference, the participants marched to the venue were the companies, investors and government were gathered to deliver a statement from civil society to address key issues and demands. In this statement, the organisations "issue a clarion call on all governments, Parliaments and leaders to live up to their mandated roles by speaking out and acting on behalf of the ultimate beneficiaries i.e. local communities affected by mining including forestry, citizens and the people of the land. We also call on mining companies to end all forms of impunity against the peoples and the environment."