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Small tanzanite miners want govt to publish probe team findings
2006-04-11 09:10:14
By Asraji Mvungi, PST, Mererani
Artisanal miners at the Mererani tanzanite mines in Simanjiro District want the government to make public the findings of a commission set up to investigate allegations of ’unfairness’ in the business.
The miners confronted Prime Minister Edward Lowassa when he visited here recently on a campaign against HIV/Aids, saying it was only fair for them to know what the commission found out and what the government was going to do about the findings.
They told the premier that the commission of inquiry instituted on the issue was under the former Minister for Energy and Mineral, Edgar Maokola-Majogo.
’Nothing has happened about our complaints. The status quo remains. Large scale miners continue to undermine us,’ their representative told the premier.
’The evils committed against us continue unabated even as years pass by,’ he said.
The former Phase Three administration formed the commission afters small-scale miners complained big miners were allegedly flying out of the country minerals without paying taxes.
They had also said they were getting raw deals in sharing of mining lands. Also big miners had armed guards who occasionally threaten to shoot small miners in case of trespassing.
The small-scale miners explained to Lowassa that they have been complaining for years about the injustices committed against them but seemingly there was no one to listen to their concerns.
One of the miners said: ’The commission of inquiry came to Mererani and listened to our side of the story as well as that from the other side. We are worried no action was ever taken and even if it was taken without informing us the situation remains the same.’
They said one of the mining giant was committed to gradually eliminate in Mererani all small miners.
’Why do the guards of the company occasionally shoot at us on pretext that we are trespassing on their land? Even if it was true, Tanzania has laws and nobody should take the law into his hands,’ another miner said.
’They shoot at people as if they were birds to be hunted. This is wrong. The government must move in to protect us,’ he added.
They also told the premier they were not prepared to leave the mining sites which have been allocated to them just to pave way for large scale mining companies, saying the trade was their livelihood.
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