|
|
Mozambique: Attempts to Re-Open Zambezia Mines
 |
 |
|||||||||
|
||||||||||
|
|
|||||||||
|
||||||||||
Agencia de Informacao de Mocambique (Maputo)
22 February 2008
Posted to the web 22 February 2008
Maputo
The Mozambican government has offered to allocate mining areas in the central province of Zambezia to former workers of the long defunct state mining company, MAGMA, if they form themselves into associations.
This is the offer that emerged from discussions in Maputo between the Minister of Mineral Resources, Esperanca Bias, and the governor of Zambezia, Carvalho Muaria, on the crisis that has erupted in Gile district where people who claim to be former MAGMA employees have shut down the pegmatite mines at Muiane.
A press release from the Ministry, received by AIM on Friday, notes that the paralysis of the mines, now operated by three private companies, and the physical assaults against citizens "have nothing to do with the right to demonstrate or any tights that the supposed workers of the defunct company may possess".
The meeting between Bias and Muaria was also attended by one of the former MAGMA workers. His name was not given in the release, and it is not clear whether he had any authority to speak on behalf of the demonstrators.
He told Bias that many of those now demonstrating had left the mines of their own accord in 1986, because of the war of destabilisation that was then spreading across Zambezia. They did not return until 1992, the year in which MAGMA was wound up.
Asked for documents proving that the demonstrators had once been employed by MAGMA, the worker admitted he had none, and suggested a "focal point" should be appointed in Muiane who could indicate which of the demonstrators currently demanding compensation really are former MAGMA employees.
But this would not do much good - Bias pointed out that there is no possibility under Mozambican law to pay compensation to people who left their jobs, of their own free will, more than 20 years ago. But since the government is interested in normalizing the situation in Muiane, allowing the private companies to restart their operations, but also finding sustainable alternatives for the demonstrators to earn a living, Bias suggested that the former MAGMA workers set up association who would be granted areas to mine.
|
The unnamed worker promised to take this proposal back to the demonstrators, and ask them to return to their normal lives, allow the mines to re-open and form the associations suggested by the Minister.
| |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
|
| |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
|
| |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Copyright © 2008 Agencia de Informacao de Mocambique. All rights reserved. Distributed by AllAfrica Global Media (allAfrica.com). To contact the copyright holder directly for corrections -- or for permission to republish or make other authorized use of this material, click here. | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
|
| |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Make allAfrica.com your home page | RSS Feed | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
|
| |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Top | Site Guide | Who We Are | Advertising | Search | Subscribe | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
|
| |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Questions or Comments? Contact us. Read our Privacy Statement. | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
|
| |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
|
| |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
