THE Mines and Minerals Amendment Bill (2016), which will soon be crafted by Parliament, will be a crucial step towards modernising mineral legislation in the country given that the principal Act, crafted way back in 1961, is now archaic.
BY VENERANDA LANGA
Amendments in the Bill, which seeks to criminalise riverbed mining with penalties including imprisonment, face stiff opposition from small-scale and artisanal miners.
Section 58 of the Mines and Minerals Amendment Bill stipulates that no person can conduct riverbed mining unless if it is done in partnership with government.
Thammary Vhiriri, the deputy legal adviser in the Ministry of Mines, said if this clause is passed by Parliament, any breach once it becomes law will see those on the wrong side of the law going to prison for between five and 10 years.
“We have discovered that mining activities are polluting rivers and government has come up with an initiative that all mining activities in rivers be stopped,” Vhiriri said.
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“It will mean anyone found extracting minerals in rivers will be imprisoned for a period between five and 10 years.”
Vhiriri was speaking during a public hearing on the Mines and Minerals Amendment Bill conducted by the Parliamentary Portfolio Committee on Mines in partnership with the Southern Africa Parliamentary Support Trust (SAPST) and the Zimbabwe Environmental Law Association (ZELA).
Minerals researcher Gracian Godzonga said if the clause is passed as it is in the amendment Bill by Parliament, it will completely destroy the livelihoods of small-scale and artisanal miners, and will result in whole mining villages or communities thrown into prison.
“Gold has become a key livelihood for small-scale miners and criminalising riverbed mining saying the prison terms will be five to 10 years is going to have the whole countryside in prison because of mining. The sentences for riverbed mining are too harsh, and banning it contradicts ZimAsset as these minerals at riverbeds benefit local communities,” he said.
“I suggest that the amendment Bill should instead propose imposition of a fine, and that government should instead emphasise that riverbed mining should take place in an environmentally friendly way. The section (58) of the Bill on riverbed mining is problematic and needs to be reconciled with what is happening on the ground and so prison terms need to be reduced to a reasonable fine.”
Godzonga said many communities were mining in riverbeds and it would be unjust for them to be punished through imprisonment.
Small-scale miner Tinotenda Chidzayi said the best suggestion for riverbed mining is to include clauses in the Mines and Minerals Amendment Bill that will reserve it for Zimbabweans only.
“If it is criminalised, it will force small-scale and artisanal miners to continue selling their gold on the black market and not Fidelity Printers, which will deny government mineral revenue,” he said.
He said government should encourage small-scale miners to sell their gold to Fidelity because the harsh prison sentences for riverbank mining will force people to engage in nefarious mining activities and make them sell to the black market.
“Government must make the playing field comfortable for small-scale and artisanal miners,” Chidzayi said.
Zimbabwe Small-Scale Miners Federation chief executive officer Wellington Takavarasha said criminalising riverbed mining will result in huge drops in gold tonnage mined in the country, as well as in arrests of thousands of artisanal miners as there were approximately 500 000 unregistered artisanal miners against around 12 000 registered ones.
“In 2004, small-scale miners produced 60% of the gold and they outpaced bigger mining operations, while in 2005 about 11, 12% of gold production was from riverbed mining, and at that time they were not being arrested. In 2006 government started to arrest people engaged in riverbed mining and gold production went down from 17 tonnes to 900kg. These are examples of what happens when punitive action is imposed on small-scale miners,” Takavarasha said.
Wence Kutekwatekwa, the chief executive officer and consulting director of Virimai Projects — a company that deals in mining, energy and infrastructure — said the problem that was happening in the crafting of mining legislation was that the Mines and Minerals Amendment Bill was being crafted before a mining policy was finalised.
“We are battling with issues of criminalisation of riverbed mining because we do not have a finalised mining policy. Ideally, a mining policy must already have been completed before we finalise this mining legislation. Can we speed up the mining policy and have it completed before this Bill is passed because that is the correct procedure that the policy is done before the Act, because it is the policy that will deal with issues of riverbed mining and clarify the position?” Kutekwatekwa said.
Among other changes in the Mines and Minerals Amendment Bill that have an impact on small-scale and artisanal mining is the issue of prohibition of child labour where it is rampant.
Vhiriri, the Mines ministry deputy legal adviser, said section 62 of the Bill prohibits child labour in mining, and any person who contravenes this provision will lose his or her licence for a period of five years.
“Zimbabwe, in collaboration with the global community, is taking initiatives to stop child labour. We do not expect that children will be used for mining activities because it will now be in breach of the law if the Bill is passed,” Vhiriri said.
No one was opposed to the clause prohibiting child labour during the public hearings.
Chairperson of the Mines Parliamentary Portfolio Committee Daniel Shumba said amendments to the 1961 Mines and Minerals Act were necessary because the Bill will impact on present and future generations economically, and deal with issues of over prescription of laws to investors, as well as to deal with issues of small-scale and artisanal miners.
“The Bill seeks to address contemporary challenges affecting the mining industry. The principal Act was crafted in 1961 and certain issues were insignificant then, but they are now of paramount importance. These include small-scale and artisanal miners, the cadastral system, the issue of strategic minerals, mines disputes and many other issues,” Shumba said.
He said the committee would engage the Mines Ministry on issues suggested by members of the public pertaining to the Bill, as well as make a presentation of suggested issues in the National Assembly during the Second Reading Stage of the Mines and Minerals Amendment Bill (2016).