mining dialogue in mwanza a succes

Vice Chancellor of the St Augustine University of Tanzania (SAUT),Fr Charles Kitima, delivers a speech at the “Inter-Varsity Mining Dialogue 2009” held at the St Augustine University of Tanzania (SAUT) in Mwanza over the weekend
The gathering was too big for the venue to accomodate…. A cross section of the participants outside at the “Inter-Varsity Mining Dialogue 2009” listen to a presentation by Zitto Kabwe, Member of Parliament for Kigoma North and also a member of the Judge Mark Bomani Mining Review Committee.The lawmaker presented a paper on “How Tanzania should manage its resources

Zitto Kabwe, Member of Parliament for Kigoma North and also a member of the Judge Mark Bomani Mining Review Committee presents a paper on “How Tanzania should manage its natural resources” during the Inter-Varsity Mining Dialogue 2009” at the at the St Augustine University of Tanzania (SAUT) in Mwanza over the weekend

A cross section of the participants at the “Inter-Varsity Mining Dialogue 2009” listen to a presentation by Zitto Kabwe, Member of Parliament for Kigoma North and also a member of the Judge Mark Bomani Mining Review Committee.The lawmaker presented a paper on “How Tanzania should manage its resources

From Mdau in Mwanza
Lack of transparency and effective communications between the government and the public has been cited as the main cause on the misconception about the mining sector in the country.
This was said over the weekend by the Vice Chancellor of the St Augustine University of Tanzania (SAUT),Fr Charles Kitima, when opening a dialogue on mining held at the institution.
He said at the event dubbed “Inter-Varsity Mining Dialogue 2009” that failure by the government to inform the public timely on mining has raised the public anger against the investors in the fast growing sector.
“Had the government done its job of communicating timely to the public, this misconception we are witnessing today wouldn’t be there”, he told the 2,000-plus audience that included students from different universities, dons, politicians, entrepreneurs and miners.
The dialogue has been organized by Capital Promoters International and sponsored by the Tanzania Chamber of Minerals and Energy (TCME), universities and the Tanzania Standard Newspapers Limited, publishers of Daily News and Habari Leo.it aims to bring together students, scholars and dons from various higher learning institutions to discuss the mining sector openly.
He said the government should encourage for a partnership between the investors and the locals so as to have a win-win situation.
He also called for the government to take deliberate measures at the soonest to invest in education, saying that would be part of the solution to have more experts in the big mining investments in the country.
“Tanzania needs to own technology, not depending on experts if we are to develop fast. Look at other East African countries like Kenya, Uganda and even Rwanda. They own technology, that’s why their development pace is far much netter than us”, he said.
“And this is the reason why we don’t hear killings of albinos in those countries. It only happens in Tanzania as if there are no albinos in those countries. We need to impart knowledge to the small scale miners so that witchcrafty that leads to the killings of our innocent fellows ends ”, he said.
Dr Peter Kafumu who is the Commissioner of Minerals in the Ministry of Energy and Minerals said in his paper “Is the government losing out to mining companies” that the government will be more transparent by engaging the public in getting right information about the mining sector.
He admitted that low level of communication between the government and wananchi contributed a lot on the public misconception about the mining sector.
“There has to be more transparency because there is nothing to hide. The public notion that the government has been weaker than the investors in the mining sector was wrong”, he said..
He said that there are many challenges such as low participation of the government and the public in the mining sector, fast growth of the sector compared to the government capability to handle, low support to the small-scale miners as well as the local government participation in big mining investments.

“But despite all these challenges, we need to ask ourselves as scholars: If we chase the investors out as most of you would like, do we really have a capacity to carry on?.The answer is no. So, let us be partners by engaging a positive dialogue so that we are all winners, the government and the investors”, he said.

Zitto Kabwe, Member of Parliament for Kigoma North (Chadema) and a member of the Bomani Mining Review committee said Tanzanians need not to “cry” about the investors in mining but rather to suggest solutions to such problems, if any, so that the country attracts more Foreign Direct Investments (FDIs).

In his paper “How Tanzania should manage its natural resources”, the youthful lawmaker said that Tanzanians made mistakes in the past on the mining sector, saying the best way of dealing with such situation was not to repeat same old mistakes.
“May be we can make new mistakes but not repeat old mistakes”, he said.
He said that Tanzania lacks capacity to handle the mining business for lack of enough experts on the ground.
“Right now, Tanzania has only seven mineral economists and some of them are working in Mali and the Democratic Republic of Congo. We need to see this as a problem and find ways of finding a solution”, he said.
Deo Mwanyika, Honorary Secretary of the TCME said that the government could earn more from the sector if the locals were given enough capability to be contributors to the growth of the mining business.

“We are spending about 57 per cent of our capital on many areas such as to improve the infrastructure and imports. The percentage could have gone down if we could source locally, say foodstuffs, spare parts and some other supporting services. But the fact remains that we are forced to source from other countries like Kenya, South Africa,Zambia,Zimbabwe because there are no reliable supplies here”, he said in his paper “Challenges, Opportunities and Prospects in the Mining Sector”.

He said that the chamber and the government are working jointly to ensure that the small scale miners and the communities living near the mines to improve their businesses.

“For example. We have supported farmers associations in Bulyanhulu, Shinyanga to grow vegetables which they sell back to the mine. As of today, they have made about 2.4 billions of shillings. Let assume that we have such groups engaged in various activities that could support the mines”, he said.

Richard Mgamba, a seasoned journalist and the CCN Award Winner 2008 said in his paper on the role of media in shaping the future of mining in Tanzania that there has been “too much emotions on the media reportage” than facts.

“Today, the media concludes that the mining sector has done nothing positive to the national development. This is fallacy because its not supported by any fact. In order for the media to write fairly and balanced, we also need to learn from other countries like Ghana, South Africa and Botswana on how the sector has played a key role on their economies”, he said.

Mgamba who is the Managing Editor of Sunday Guardian said there was need for the media specialization, saying that practice now where a single journalist can cover almost everything was outdated”.

“Take a simple example of some of our sports reporters. One writes that a team was playing crafty long passes but not a word of format. For a specialized sports reporter, this kind of reporting would be laughable”, he said.
The next dialogue which is slated for Mzumbe University on Saturday, followed by another one on April 18 at the University of Dar es Salaam.

University of Dodoma will host the last one on April 25.