STRIVE TO STEM THE TIDE OF CONFLICTS IN MINING SECTOR
Mining contributes much to Tanzania’s GDP despite a myriad challenges, including rampant mining disputes which deny the country considerable revenue. Recently, Minerals minister Doto Biteko threatened to close a gold mine in Bunda District over protracted disagreements between land owners and miners.
Such conflicts almost invariably result in crippling minerals production and disruption of peace in some mining sites. Indeed, the minister’s warning holds water – if only because it seems to have averted deteriorating relations between land owners and licensed miners.
However, it is imperative that the ministry delves deeper into the matter to effectively address the age-old concern which plays havoc with the production of minerals.
The ministry should invest more in providing education to land owners, who many a time enter into bogus agreements with miners.
Many land owners have limited legal and financial knowledge, thus almost always losing to mining licencees who take advantage of loopholes in policy and regulatory frameworks to make a killing.
Land owners need guidance, as they have for many years been signing mining deals with mining companies or individuals, but always ending up the losers.
Admittedly, much has been done to address such conflicts in many minerals-producing areas, but the problem has refused to go away. This, then, calls for a review of the current mining policies and laws.
The 1999 Land Act, as amended in 2002, gives Tanzanians aged 18 and above the right to own and develop land in accordance with the law. However, the 2010 Mining Act, as amended in 2017, grants licensed miners the right to own underground minerals. Sadly, such amendments have been triggering land-versus-mining conflicts.
Hopefully, mining officers will come up with a new approach to stem the tide of disputes, most of which are avoidable, as the officers are obliged to intervene and help resolve disputes relating to mining activities.
DODOMA MOVE PRAISEWORTHY
The government’s stated current National Development Vision is of a semi-industrialised, middle-income economy by 2025: roughly four years hence. But, while the World Bank upgraded Tanzania from a low to a lower-middle income country, we still have a long way to go to become an upper-middle income economy.
On the other hand, government efforts to significantly industrialise the country are ongoing – with the latest such effort being designating part of peri- urban Dodoma, the national capital, as “a prime site for the development of new manufacturing industries”.
To that noble end, prospective investors are cordially invited to move in and establish light, medium and heavy industries. In that regard, water and power supplies, as well as transport infrastructure, are being significantly improved to make the place investor-and-business-friendly. Besides, investment-related bureaucracy has been reduced, with prospective investors required to deal directly with the metropolitan authorities, not through middlemen.
As it is, the Burundi-based Intracom Fertiliser Limited is already constructing a $180 million fertiliser plant at the site with an annual production capacity of 600,000 tonnes of natural fertiliser.
The move by Dodoma is worth emulating across the country.
