CHILDREN from families living near mines find themselves in precarious situations that do not bode well for their rights and welfare. This was said recently by Ms Loyce Lema, the Executive Director of Environmental Human Rights Care and Gender Organisation (Envirocare) based in Makongo Juu, Dar es Salaam.

Ms Lema said child labour, including exploitive labour and harmful labour, was common in small-scale mines, while children ought to be well-groomed and cared for to be able to grow into maturity and be responsible adults and law-abiding citizens.

“Child labour includes domestic work like selling charcoal and mining activities to earn money for food, school fees and supporting the family. In small-scale mining, where there is inadequate occupational safety, as miners lack requisite mining technology, skills and protective gear, children are always at a distinct disadvantage,” explained Ms Lema as she called on the media to keep reporting on the plight of children working in mines.

Strategies to prevent child labour

As a response to prevent child labour in small-scale mines, Envirocare advocates a twofold-strategy. In relation to child labour prevention, the non-governmental and non profit organisations raises public awareness of the Law of the Child Act (R.E 2019) on the rights and duties of the child, appeals to the responsible authorities to put in place by-laws that protect children in hazardous small-scale mines and pushes for the reintroduction of children’s councils in primary and secondary schools and sensitises communities on children’s health risks in hazardous small-scale mines.

In relation to parental, it educates parents or guardians on the rights and duties of the child, appeals to law enforcers to hold accountable parents or guardians who violate the Law of the Child Act (R.E 2019) and urges parents or guardians and members of the public in general to protect the health of children.

Envirocare utilised meetings with local government leaders and representatives of women miners’ groups, organised a national workshop and the media to sensitise communities on children’s rights and parental duty to raise children in an enabling and safe environment, including distributing leaflets written in Kiswahili, which highlight children’s rights and welfare in mines.

“By the end of our project in July 2020, we were able to see a difference from the time we started it in August 2019. We have played a positive role in mitigating child labour and this has to be maintained lest the situation retrogresses,” Ms Ediltruda Michael, Envirocare Project Officer said.

The Ghana Mineworkers Union (GMWU) of TUC-Ghana, as part of its contribution to the development of human resources and health and safety of Ghanaians, has presented health items and educational scholarship worth more than ¢50,000 to four institutions in the mining communities.

The beneficiary institutions are OLA Girls Senior High School at Kenyase in the Ahafo Region, Patmos Children’s Home at Obuasi in the Ashanti Region, Tarkwa Municipal Hospital in the Western Region and Adausena Health Centre at New Abirem in the Eastern Region.

OLA Girls Senior High School at Kenayse received hospital beds with mattresses, drip stands, bedside cabinets, high blood pressure device and pulse oxymeter for use in its infirmary. Two students people from Patmos Children’s Home at Obuasi were offered ¢8,000.00 scholarship per year to pursue their three year course at the Offinso College of Education. Tarkwa Municipal Hospital was presented with Cardiac Monitor for the Pediatric Unit, while Adausena Health Centre at New Abirem, received 55″ inch Television and Desktop Computer.

The donations were made recently as part of activities marking Ghana Mineworkers Union’s Maiden Miners week celebration, with the goal of getting closer to the people in the mining communities and together join forces with the chiefs and people to advocate improved infrastructure for the communities, given the huge resources that emanate from those areas which generate foreign exchange for Ghana.

The theme for the Maiden Miners week was “Integrating Labour and Community interest for socio-economic development.”

The leadership of the GMWU made up of the National Chairman – Mensah Kwarko Gyarkari; General Secretary – Abdul-Moomin Gbana; Deputy General Secretary, Jerry Andoh and Head of Training and Programmes – Mrs. Vida Brewu, were joined by some members of the GMWU’s National Executive Council to make the donations to the beneficiary educational and health institutions and also paid courtesy calls on some chiefs at Abirem, Obuasi and Tarkwa. The chiefs included Nana Amoh Kyeretwie I of Abirem; Opagyakotwere Bonsra Afriyie II, Adansihene and Nana Kwabena Angu II, of the Apinto Divisional Council at Tarkwa.

The GMWU National Chairman, Mensah Kwarko Gyarkari said the visit to the chiefs was to assure them of the determination of the leadership of the GMWU to engage with them, so that together they can lead the crusade for better infrastructure for the mining communities.

He stated “we need the total support of our traditional chiefs to ensure that government initiates deliberate and coordinated interventions to addressing the huge infrastructure deficit in the mining towns. Infrastructure in our mining communities must reflect the huge revenue generated from there.”

The GMWU National Chairman indicated that since their members leave and work in such communities, improvement in the infrastructure, especially the road network will also impact positively on their living conditions so they can continue to give of their best in mining the precious minerals for the general good of Ghana.

The GMWU General Secretary speaking at the presentation at OLA Girls Senior High School at Kenayse, advised the students to study hard because the future that lies ahead of them is great.

He urged them to pay serious attention now to the teaching and learning, “so that you will be well prepared to contribute constructively to Ghana’s development in all fields of endeavours. He gave this assurance to the students. We look forward to welcoming you in the not too distant future into our fold as you get opportunities to work in the various mining companies.”

The GMWU General Secretary used the occasion to remind Ghanaian workers not to forget the sacrifices of their past union leaders to protect the rights of workers and also to advance their socio economic interest.  This according to Mr. Gbana is what the union has lived up to for the last 76 years, and counting, and will always strive to make the GMWU as a special purpose vehicle  at the forefront protecting and promoting  the rights, welfare and well-being of workers as well as championing better socio-economic facilities for Ghanaians in general.

The scholarship beneficiaries, Emmanuella Anokye and Joshua Obeng were grateful to the GMWU for supporting their education which, they described as a solid investment in their future.

The officials at the various institutions that benefited from the GMWU donations expressed their appreciation to the union leaders and entire membership for extending a helping hand to them with critical items to promote quality healthcare and education towards the national development course.

The Ghana Mine Workers’ Union has called for a full-scale tripartite (Government, the Ghana Chamber of Mines, and Ghana Mineworkers’ Union) investigation into the frequent occurrences of mine accidents, for a more sustainable panacea to the issue.

The Union has also urged the Ministry of Lands and Natural Resources, and by extension the Minerals Commission and its Inspectorate Division, to as a matter of urgency conduct a thorough investigation into the recent underground accident that saw three of its valued members working in the same area trapped, out of which two managed to escape and one still missing since Tuesday May 18, 2021.

“The Union will also want to use this opportunity to renew its call and advocacy on the need for government to prioritize the ratification of International Labour Organization Convention 176 (Safety and Health in the Mines Convention) in order to further tighten and align the industry’s health and safety regulatory framework to globally acceptable standards”, it said in a statement.

This is coming after AngloGold Ashanti announced the suspension of operations at its Obuasi mine, over a missing staff.

“Globally, activities around mining in general are risky but the level of risk exposure doubles when the operation is underground. It is against this backdrop that the industry is heavily regulated in terms of occupational health and safety standards and best practices”, it said.

Furthermore, it said “Ghana as a prominent hub of mining in Africa has not fared badly in regulating the formal subsector of its industry but in recent times, a notorious trend of mine accidents and incidents with its consequential fatalities happening in some of the underground operations, particularly AngloGold Ashanti, Obuasi Mine, and its surrogate Underground Mining Alliance that has claimed three precious lives since June 2020, are becoming a blot on the enviable record chalked up by Ghana, especially after the structural adjustment programme in the 80s”.

As a trade union organization that has for 75 years sought the protection and welfare of workers in the industry, it said it takes an uncompromising opposition to these worrying and preventable fatalities that are shedding the blood of innocent workers in atonement for the profiteering motives of these multinational corporations.

The union therefore pointed out that it will not countenance any more of these avoidable deaths and shall therefore not hesitate to withdraw its services if urgent and robust steps are not taken to eliminate and prevent these needless accidents from becoming a recurrent feature of the workplace.

AngloGold Ashanti suspends Obuasi operations over missing staff

AngloGold Ashanti reported last week “with deep regret”, that an employee of its mining contractor at the Obuasi Gold Mine in Ghana, is “missing after a fall of ground in one of the operation’s mining stopes”.

In a statement, the miner said the incident occurred on Tuesday morning and “immediately triggered a search and rescue effort”.

“The mine rescue teams have been working tirelessly in difficult geotechnical conditions in the immediate area, to locate our missing colleague”, AngloGold Ashanti said.

THE Southern African region has abundant mineral resources, making mining activities some of the largest economic drivers across the countries.

Zambia, one of Zimbabwe’s key trading partners is big on copper and is the second largest copper producer in Africa after another SADC country, the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC).

The mining industry in Zambia is an important pillar to its economy, also supported by cobalt and emerald mining activities.

Botswana is the largest producer of diamonds in Africa and the second in the world after Russia.

Gold, diamonds, platinum, and coal are the most well-known among the minerals and metals mined in South Africa, which is Zimbabwe’s largest trading partner.

Mozambique holds some of the world’s largest untapped coal deposits and the recent gas discoveries are expected to increase the contribution of mining activities to the nation’s economy.

In Angola, mining activities are concentrated around oil and diamonds.

This small scan of the mining sector in southern Africa demonstrates export potential for Zimbabwean companies to supply a wide range of support products and services to the mining companies.

Evidence shows that local companies are still to unlock opportunities in production and supply of protective clothing to mining companies spread across the Southern African region.

Apart from the mining sector, sectors such as agriculture, health and construction offer untapped opportunities for local companies to supply a wide range of protective clothing.

Protective clothing falls under the broad category of personal protective equipment (PPEs), which now includes overalls, safety boots, gloves, helmets, and eye protection equipment such as safety goggles.

Zimbabwean companies are already producing competitive and quality PPEs in the form of overalls, gloves, masks, aprons, dust coats and reflective clothing.

By comparison to products coming from other countries, the quality of Zimbabwe-produced protective clothing is high and preferred by most companies.

What is important now is getting the price right and to penetrate markets that are located around mining towns in the region.

Factors driving demand for protective clothing

In all countries in the region, it is a requirement for companies in the mining sector to provide their employees in certain sectors with protective clothing for their day-to-day operations.

Employers in sectors such as agriculture, mining, engineering, hospitality industry, health services, building and construction cannot afford to do without protective clothing.

This requirement is seeing the demand for PPEs going up in the region, thus unlocking export opportunities for local producers.

With most countries in the region focusing on increasing production in the mining sector and improved value addition and beneficiation, it is projected that more jobs will be created which in turn will increase demand for PPE.

Since 2014, the entire Southern African Development Community (SADC) has been pushing the idea that value addition and beneficiation of raw materials from the region should form the basis for industrial development, economic diversification and creating stronger linkages in the regional value chains.

This drive is therefore expected to see increased job creation and production along mining value chains, which in turn will increase demand for PPE.

Global prices of copper and cobalt have firmed up and this has bought good tidings to resource-rich countries like Zambia and the Democratic Republic of Congo.

The increase in the mining activities and the downstream effect that the mining sector has in these countries present market opportunities for local companies in the clothing sector.

Given the reputation Zimbabwe holds as the home to quality and reliable PPE products, some countries in the region are already looking at local manufacturers to satisfy anticipated growth and demand.

Currently, ZimTrade — the country’s trade development and promotion organisation — is working with some distributing companies in Zambia, Mozambique and DRC who are looking to import from Zimbabwe to meet demand coming from mining companies.

ZimTrade is planning an Outward Seller Mission to DRC in May this year to improve linkages between Zimbabwean producers of protective clothing and buyers in the market.

Apart from the changing dynamics from the mining sector driving demand of PPEs, the infrastructure development in most countries in the SADC region has seen an increase in demand for protective clothing.

In addition, the coronavirus pandemic has increased the demand for PPE across all sectors of the economies in the region.

People are now required to wear masks when going about their day-to-day activities, hospital staff has been beefed up to cope with the numbers of infected patients, further increasing the demand for medical coats, gloves and aprons, among other apparel.

Further to this, the region received good rainfall and farmers in countries such as Zambia, Mozambique, South Africa and Malawi are forecasting bumper harvests.

The harvest will inject more life into industries down the value chain that is expected to employ more people in areas such as harvesting, milling, packing, sales, and distribution.

All these numbers will need to be provided with work suits, overalls, masks, gloves, and safety shoes.

Growing exports to meet growing demand

Zimbabwe is already exporting clothing products, including protective clothing and there is potential to do more.

According to Trade Map, Zimbabwe’s exports of clothing items increased by 77, 1 percent from US$6, 7 million in 2015 to US$12 million in 2019.

The major market remained South Africa accounting for more than 70 percent of total export throughout the entire period.

Zambia, Mozambique, Malawi, and the Democratic Republic of Congo are also importing locally manufactured clothing items.

There is a need to leverage on existing trade agreements to diversify our exports into the region.

Zimbabwe is a signatory to bilateral and multilateral trade agreements which allow local companies to
export clothing articles duty-free and quota-free.

There are bilateral trade agreements with Malawi, Namibia, Botswana, and Mozambique.

The country is also a signatory to the multi-lateral trade protocols of SADC and COMESA, which target to improve access to markets in the region.

To improve access to markets, clothing manufacturers should also invest in understanding their markets and come up with products that meet their requirements.

For example, companies that operate in a hot climate require protective clothing made of cotton, which is cooler, absorbs sweat and is quite comfortable to wear in summer.

Companies in countries with cold winter periods usually require protective clothing that provides warmth in addition to protection for their employees.

Seventeen miners at a coal mine in southern Zambia survived gas suffocation while working underground, a mining official said on Tuesday.

The accident happened in the early hours of Monday at Collum Coal Mine situated in Sinazongwe district at shaft 6 underground when suspected carbon monoxide gas filled the underground passage as the miners were working.

Acting Mine Manager Oliver Kabango said the incident resulted in some of the miners fainting although there were no fatalities, according to the state-run news agency, the Zambia News and Information Service.

He said the miners were taken to a local hospital where they were treated for gas suffocation and later discharged.

Safety officers have since been dispatched to the accident scene to ascertain the source of the carbon monoxide, he added.

District Commissioner Sheena Muleya, who visited the mine, expressed concern over the accident and urged management to ensure maximum safety in the operations

Seventeen miners at a coal mine in southern Zambia survived gas suffocation while working underground, a mining official said on Tuesday.

The accident happened in the early hours of Monday at Collum Coal Mine situated in Sinazongwe district at shaft 6 underground when suspected carbon monoxide gas filled the underground passage as the miners were working.

Acting Mine Manager Oliver Kabango said the incident resulted in some of the miners fainting although there were no fatalities, according to the state-run news agency, the Zambia News and Information Service.

He said the miners were taken to a local hospital where they were treated for gas suffocation and later discharged.

Safety officers have since been dispatched to the accident scene to ascertain the source of the carbon monoxide, he added.

District Commissioner Sheena Muleya, who visited the mine, expressed concern over the accident and urged management to ensure maximum safety in the operations.

DR Congo’s mines ministry has proposed lifting lockdowns at mining operations after workers went on strike to protest compulsory on-site confinements during the coronavirus outbreak.

Human rights organisations said earlier this month that mining workers in the vast African country were being forced to stay in overcrowded, unsanitary accommodations.

During a council meeting on Friday government ministers acknowledged the “abysmal housing conditions” of employees in the mineral-rich Katanga region.

Since a lockdown put in place on March 10 by companies producing cobalt and copper, many employees have been forced to work beyond their eight-hour shifts with no additional pay, according to a group of local and international NGOs.

At some sites, “Congolese workers were not given adequate food and water rations, were not provided with appropriate sleeping arrangements and, in some cases, were not given a choice to accept the confinement without fear of losing their jobs or other forms of reprisal,” the organisations, including Amnesty International and Human Rights Watch, said.

The workers are at a great risk for COVID-19 due to the lack of personal protective equipment and handwashing facilities, the group said in a letter to mining companies, stressing that the findings were “of great concern”.

– ‘Forced lockdown for 68 days’ –

One mining giant, Tenke Fungurume Mining (TFM), confined its employees for two months to its site located between Lubumbashi and Kolwezi.

“We went on strike due to a forced lockdown for 68 days without seeing our women and children. They paid us a special bonus of $500 (450 euros) per worker,” employee Joel Muyeba Kalambwe told AFP.

The information was confirmed to AFP by a TFM executive, who spoke of an agreement with around 3,000 confined workers and of “a premium of ten dollars per day of lockdown”.

The country’s mines ministry “has proposed the deconfinement of workers at mining sites following the strike movements of TFM workers in Lualaba province and those of KCC (Kamoto Copper Company, a subsidiary of Glencore) in Upper Katanga,” according to the minutes of the ministers’ meeting on Friday.

DRC President Felix Tshisekedi ordered a state of emergency on March 24, which has been extended several times by a vote in parliament.

Under the measure, borders, schools, places of worship, bars and restaurants are all closed, and gatherings of more than 20 people are banned.

While the country has not issued a stay-at-home order, partial confinements have been decided at the local level — as they were recently in Lubumbashi, the capital of Upper-Katanga Province in the country’s south-east.

The Democratic Republic of Congo has so far officially recorded 5,672 coronavirus infections and 125 deaths.

The country produces 70 percent of the world’s cobalt, an essential element in the manufacture of batteries for electric cars.

About half of the total Covid-19 coronavirus cases in the North West, which has almost tripled its numbers in just a week, are in the mining industry.

North West had recorded a total of 523 Covid-19 cases by Sunday, while the Minerals Council SA revealed that the mining industry in the province had 198 confirmed cases on Friday.

This has raised fears that the industry is becoming a new epicentre and that the Covid-19 curve could remain on a steep upward trajectory, with even more mine workers, including those who had been at home in neighbouring countries, set to return to work in the coming weeks.

In its latest figures, the Mineral Council SA has revealed that the mining industry has recorded 572 Covid-19 cases – Gauteng leads with 294 cases; it is followed by North West and then Limpopo with 75.

We have told mining companies that those bringing people back must say where they are coming from and each returning mine worker must go into a 14-day quarantine before getting to work.

Provincial Health MEC Madoda Sambatha

Cases skyrocket

North West has recorded a sudden spike in numbers, which went from 143 cases on May 29 – with only nine new cases recorded on the day – to 364 a week later.

The province recorded 49 new cases on Thursday alone, 44 of which were in the mining areas of Rustenburg and Matlosana, which registered 24 and 29 cases, respectively.

The Bojanala Platinum District Municipality, under which Rustenburg falls, was at 66 cases just more than a week ago. The number has since trebled and was at 215 by Friday. Rustenburg was at 198 cases on the same day.

Matlosana had 44 cases just a week ago, while the district under which it falls, Dr Kenneth Kaunda District Municipality, had a total of 60 cases on May 29. Matlosana had registered 98 cases, while the district had 121.

Province points finger at mines

Provincial Health MEC Madoda Sambatha said the numbers in North West showed the “direct impact of mining operations” on Covid-19 cases, and emphasised the need for things to be done differently as mining companies bring back most of their employees in lockdown level 3.

He pointed out that a mining company in the area had recorded 78 cases at one operation site in the area.

Sambatha reiterated the need for precautionary measures in the industry to be beefed up as more mine workers return to work.

“We have told mining companies that those bringing people back must say where they are coming from and each returning mine worker must go into a 14-day quarantine before getting to work. Contact tracing must also not only be limited to workplace contacts, but must include where the worker stays and where they originally came from,” he said.

Where there has been large-scale testing, a high number of cases have been picked up – this is mainly in the gold mines on the West Rand in Gauteng, where Mponeng Mine has 196 cases.

Head of health at the Mineral Council SA Thuthula Balfour

Sambatha also expressed concerns about asymptomatic people.

“There is a mine in Rustenburg where five people worked for almost five days with their teams and only reported being sick themselves when they were underground. It was later discovered that they had 68 contacts who also tested positive,” he said.

“Another challenge is that people were lying during the screening process. We have discovered that some people told their employees that they had remained in North West during the lockdown, but they were in fact in other provinces, including the Eastern Cape.

“The reason coal mines in Mpumalanga were not registering a high number of cases was because workers there never went into lockdown – they continued working and living in same area. The mining industry must be ready to handle the return of workers differently this time, and quarantine should be taken very seriously.”

Mining industry promises to improve

The Minerals Council SA has promised to implement aggressive screening of workers before they return to work, as well as quarantining those who return from neighbouring countries.

The council said about 9 500 mine workers were expected to return mainly from Mozambique and Lesotho.

Head of health at the Mineral Council SA, Thuthula Balfour, said not all of the workers were going to come back to South Africa because some were susceptible to catching Covid-19, such as those who were older than 60 and others who had comorbidities that were not under control.

The council said screening was going to be done on workers in their countries before they boarded transport organised by their employer to South Africa, and that none of those presenting symptoms of the virus were going to be allowed to travel.

Meanwhile, Balfour said, the industry had so far screened 227 000 of its workforce of about 450 000 to arrive at the recently announced 572 cases.

She said more cases were discovered where most tests were done.

“Where there has been large-scale testing, a high number of cases have been picked up – this is mainly in the gold mines on the West Rand in Gauteng, where Mponeng Mine has 196 cases,” she said.