NO RHETORIC, TIPTOEING AROUND REAL ISSUES

BY WISDOM MDZUNGAIRI

Zimbabwe has been in a state of idling since 2008 and on Saturday March 16, the landlocked Southern African nation decided to move towards harmonised elections later this year.

The poll is expected to settle old scores between veteran leader President Robert Mugabe and long-time foe Prime Minister Morgan Tsvangirai.

These two could perhaps be described as main players in the political gamesmanship.

Indeed it is a fact that the two national leaders are main players on the country’s political stage for now given their multitudes of supporters.

Industry minister Welshman Ncube and Deputy Prime Minister Arthur Mutambara’s fallout could have thrown them on the wayside. This subject is for the future!

At a day Zimbabwe voted for a new constitution, world greens were winding up a global environmental meeting at Queen Sirikit Convention Centre in Bangkok, Thailand.

It was an historic two weeks for marine and timber species, but not for African elephants.

Given that the elephant poaching crisis was at the forefront of the minds of all at the 16th meeting of the Conference of the Parties to the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species (CITES) as never before, what was actually done by CITES to stop the killing of elephants across Africa? Nothing much!

There was actually a lot of rhetoric and tip-toeing around elephant poaching. 

While it was an historic weekend for Zimbabwe, the actual outcome was far short of what was expected and, indeed, what was needed to secure the fate of elephants.

Many other key events that have a bearing on our motherland happened in the preceding week — but I beg for your indulgence to dedicate this week’s instalment to the state of the small-scale and artisanal mining sector given environmental damage this has caused in the country.

Artisanal mining is itself an environment disaster requiring the attention of every politician worth their salt.

Perhaps that explains why Mines and Mining Development minister Obert Mpofu sought to side with gold panners by advocating for their registration.

It’s neither here nor there, but the fact of the matter is that small-scale and artisanal mining is a sector that government had until recently seen as only a problem.

Yet the sector could be a source of sustainable livelihoods for millions of marginalised people.

The sector is a paradox — productive, but undervalued, conspicuous yet overlooked, and “small-scale”, but economically and socially significant.

According to researchers at the International Institute for Environment and Development, it produces about 85% of the world’s gemstones and 25% of all gold.

Its mines provide jobs and income for 30 million of the world’s poorest people and support the livelihoods of five times that number.

Overall, artisanal and small-scale mining employs 10 times more people than large-scale mining. But it takes place in very remote areas, usually involves poor and vulnerable people — including women and children — and is renowned for severe pollution and harsh working conditions.

Despite all of this, governments not only locally, but globally have historically given little attention to the sector and how to make it sustainable, instead focusing on large-scale mining.

Rather than supporting small-scale mining, government policies are often poorly designed or implemented, or even repressive.

The miners themselves lack access to the rights, financial services, market information and technology they need to make this a prosperous economic activity with reduced environmental impacts.

As a result, many are often driven to operate illegally — and it is this illegality that has biased attitudes about the whole small-scale sector.

So while there is good hands-on experience and innovation on the ground — for instance, with some governments adopting more inclusive policies and with the beginnings of ethical sourcing — these are often not widely known about, or face huge implementation challenges which stall progress.

Since the time Mpofu announced that government would protect panners, nothing much has moved.

Perhaps after the referendum, our leaders could borrow from the experience of development agencies to overcome weaknesses in the way that knowledge is gathered and influences policy, such as the lack of information from panners or small-scale mining communities and limited co-ordination between sector stakeholders.

This will promote dialogue, learning and leadership at national and international levels and give rise to practical solutions to sector-wide challenges, such as child labour, health hazards, informality, human rights, pollution, and transparency in supply chains.