WITH the prices of tin having nearly doubled on the London Metal Exchange (LME) from between US$18,184 and US$18,530 per tonne in October last year to trade somewhere between US$27,030 and US$32,950 per tonne, it is not strange that something that commentators close to the development are calling ugly is brewing in Chilobe, a small community in Zimba district.
The community is deep in Zimba’s Mapatizya area. The area is endowed with tin, a mineral whose price has steadily been skyrocketing on the LME recently to nearly three times more than the price of copper.
Tin is a soft, silvery white metal with a bluish tinge which is mixed with copper to get bronze. It is widely used for plating steel cans used as food containers, in metals used for bearings and in solder.
Following a report from Catholic Commission for Justice and Peace (CCJP) in Zimba that a mining corporation called Ostrich Mining and Exploration Limited had fenced off the Chilobe Mine where locals were earning a livelihood, Caritas Zambia, who were instrumental in helping the community legalise operations, embarked on a fact-finding mission to the area.
The intention was to get firsthand information of what was going on and make recommendations on the way forward. In his report, CCJP chairperson Joseph Kaluwe stated that the situation in Chilobe was tense. “It is a sad situation because the community depends on mining for their livelihood.” he said.
Minutes into the meeting with the community members, the gathering was nearly disrupted with scenes reminiscent of an action movie. Prince Muuzu, who is Ostrich Mining and Exploration Limited - Chilobe Mine site manager made quite an entrance with his Nissan pickup truck and wasted no time in asking who was chairing the meeting.
Visibly displeased, Mr. Muuzu who was locked in a heated discussion with Caritas Zambia programmes officer for economic and social accountability, Mando Chiundaponde claimed his company has an exploration and mining license to the area.
“How am I a bad person when I have allowed these people to mine here and sell to whomever? I haven’t chased them away even if I could if I wanted,” he was heard saying.
Well, let’s just say the back and forth went on for nearly 30 minutes before Mr. Muuzu cooled down, albeit after reaching a mutual understanding.
The background to the story is that Caritas Zambia discovered the group sometime in 2019 and since then, it has been helping the group in capacity building and also in the process of acquiring an artisanal mining license.
Through the Diakonia funded Strengthened Accountability Programme (SAP II) project, Caritas Zambia managed to help the community form a cooperative society and facilitated for the group to get a consent letter from Chief Simwatachela of the Tonga speaking people of Zimba district to facilitate the obtaining of the mining license.
Everything was going well until Ostrich Mining and Exploration Limited came along and claimed the site, and deprived the community of something they hoped would help turn their fortunes round.
Joseph Poipoi is the Chilobe Mining Co-operative society chairperson and says the group had made tremendous efforts in its pursuit for a license, before being duped at the very last minute. “We paid K900 and an additional K1,000 to the Ministry of Mines and officials from the ministry, including their regional manager (Dickson Banda) came here to get the coordinates for the mine,” says Mr. Poipoi.
Just when the community thought it would be given the license, it was later discovered that there was already a license holder in the name of Olibul Mining and Exploration whose licence was to expire in March 2021.
The community was made to wait for Olibul’s license to expire or get consent from it to permit them to go on site as artisanal miners. “But after March, we were surprised to see Ostrich Mining and Exploration coming to fence off the area and lay claim to the mine,” he says.
It is said Chief Simwatachela also gave Ostrich Mining and Exploration, a company owned by a named Rita Hoare who is reportedly Copperbelt based, a consent letter.
Whitewaters Development Trust (WDT) is also another organisation that has been working closely with the Chilobe community in trying to make sure that they have a sustainable livelihood. The organisation has offices in Zimba and Choma.
WDT director and senior trustee Jeffrey Mikunga says the organisation's thematic areas are climate change, sports development for youths, agriculture and tourism and mining. He also explains how they came to learn of the Chilobe community.
“When we went there, we found those people mining without safety measures and it got us worried and concerned. We started to try and legalise the process for them - it was an expensive venture so the quotation we got was somewhere around USD25,000 and we couldn't find people to help us with the moneys.
“When the government made things easier with the introduction of artisanal miners, that's how we resorted to the issue of co-operatives. The people of Chilobe did that and the final step was the application for an artisanal mining license using the co-operative certificate,” he says.
Mr. Mikunga who is also a magistrate at the Zimba local court says Olibul, the previous license holders had even prepared a well thought out Resettlement Action Plan (RAP) for the community.
“But due to hostility, Olibul decided to pull out of the area. We don’t know whether along the way, some people from the Ministry of Mines sold the information that we found on the ground to other people - but that’s how the community has seemingly lost out,” he says.
He said his team has been in contact with the Ministry of Mines to resolve the impasse before it escalates into what he termed as “something embarrassing to the Government and Chief Simwatachela”.
In his letter to the ministry dated March 16, 2021, Mr. Mikunga said: “...unfortunately Hon. Minister, this Co-operative and a population of over one thousand locals of Chilobe area which is under Chalimongela ward in Zimba district are under threat of being displaced due to a mining investor in the name of Ostrich Mining and Exploration Company whom we understand has been given a mining license. The company wants to fence off the entire area thus displacing them.
The letter continued: “White waters Development Trust has a memorandum of understanding (MOU) with Chilobe Mining Co-operative in which it has been given the Power of Attorney. We are now imploring you Honourable Minister to clear this impasse and see how best the community can benefit from the natural resource endowed in their area or from the putative owners and avoid displacement of these people who were earlier displaced in 1955 during construction of the Kariba Dam and they were not compensated. I would also like to inform you that the locals have been mining since 1963 illegally and formalization was done recently due to the new Government Policy on artisanal mining to benefit the Locals.”
Mr. Mikunga says he had assurances from Mr. Musukwa that the matter had been escalated and a response would be given even before parliament is dissolved.
“That is why we haven’t even decided to go to court yet because we believe we can resolve this matter amicably otherwise we are ready to challenge these actions, but first we get a response from the ministry,” he says.
He wondered how Ostrich Mining and Explorations Limited could have a mining license even before satisfying the conditions of an explorations license.
Efforts to get a comment from Ms. Hoare proved futile as her phone went unanswered. “We also don’t understand how Chief Simwatachela gave consent letters to two different people. In fact, we are even told there is someone else with a consent letter from him as well,” he says.
Caritas Zambia programmes officer Chepa Lesa who also held a meeting with Zimba town council secretary says the organisation wants to get to the bottom of the matter before it can recommend a way forward.
She says efforts will be made to have a round table meeting between all parties involved to see how to make sure that the community is not left out. “The idea is to see how we can resolve this matter among the parties involved here before going to the community. Those are our people and we need to go there with one voice and make sure that they are protected,” she says.
The Zimba Town Council is also aware of the mining activities in the district but it has very scanty information regarding the statistics.
Coster Mutandi is the council secretary. He says there is a gap between the council and the ministry of mines when it comes to the issuance of mining licenses.
“We feel sidelined because we just hear of activities happening in certain areas without our knowledge really. That is the reason why we have invited the Ministry of Mines regional manager Mr. Banda to our next full council meeting to come and educate and sensitise the house on how they go about with the issuance of licenses,” he says.
He says the council wants to come up with a clear register of all the mining activities in the district and how they are benefiting the local communities.
“We have noticed that many of these mining companies are not even ploughing back to the communities they are working in. It is our wish that any mining company operating here has a well thought out corporate social responsibility plan. That way, the communities and us as a council will benefit in a way,” he says.
Estely Siambalo is one of the Chilobe community members. All her life has evolved around the community.
The community comprises about 254 people of which 98 are males and 156 females. For a livelihood, the community has been relying hugely on mining tin, of course using unconventional means and a little bit of farming. “We don’t do as much farming here because of the soil and landscape. We keep a few livestock such as chickens and goats too,” says Ms. Siambalo.
This article was published in the Zambia Daily Mail Newspaper on 18, August, 2021. You can find it on this link http://www.daily-mail.co.zm/is-there-any-help-for-chilobe-community/
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