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| Features | | Tarime in new strategies to reduce crime in mine areas | MUGINI JACOB
Daily News; Friday,September 19, 2008 @20:02
| SINCE 2006 the mine which is situated at Nyamongo area in Tarime District in Mara Region has been under the operation of Barrick North Mara Gold Mine Ltd, a subsidy of Barrick Gold Tanzania.
Production at the mine started in 2002 under the Afrika Mashariki Gold Mine Ltd (AMGM). It was later acquired and operated by Placer Dome Tanzania until 2006.
Recently over 100 development stake holders of the North Mara community gathered in Musoma municipality, Mara region, to deliberate on the challenges facing the mine and the neighbouring communities.
The objective was to come up with effective strategies that will help address the challenges and finally transform the North Mara community, making it the best community by 2015 in areas of business, education, safety and health.
The workshop was attended by local leaders from five wards adjacent to the mine, senior government leaders from the district and the regional level, religious leaders, representatives from non- governmental organisations and foreign embassies.
The list of participants also included senior officials from the ministries of Home Affairs and Energy and Minerals.
Several senior officials with the Canadian Mining Company including it’s regional Africa Vice- President, Mr Gareth Taylor.
Mr Kevin Moxham, the mine’s General Manager told the participants that the company spends a lot of money and other resources on criminal acts that target its operations.
“We spend a lot of time and resources to deal with crime incidents instead of funding developments projects. This also reduces the cake that could have gone into improving the livelihood of the North Mara community, Tarime district and Mara region in general," the GM remarked.
For example, he said, the mine spends plenty of money and resources to deal with a large number of intruders who have been invading the mine to steal gold and fuel.
"School children are often seen trespassing the mining areas when they should be in classrooms. Women are also seen wandering in the mining territory”, lamented Mr Moxham.
He also narrated one of the worse incident in which villagers surrounding the mine attacked a truck that was transporting gold stones from Gokona mining pit to the processing plant causing damage worth 900,000 US dollars to the company.
The GM also went on displaying the pictures of two workers with the mine who have been killed recently while working at the site. Several workers have also been seriously injured, he adds.
He also revealed that over 40 boreholes drilled with the support of the mine in the area have also been vandalised..
He cited illegal crushers who are scattered in several areas in the vicinity of the mine as another problem.
“We need support from other development partners because we (Barrick) can not handle these challenges alone and direct much resources on development issues”, remarks Moxham.
Mara Regional Commissioner, Mr Issa Machibya underscored the importance of the communities surrounding the mine to understand the meaning of the opportunities which they are missing from the mine due to criminal acts.
“If this is known by the villagers at the grass root level then millions of shilling spent on damages will go down. It is my hope that this concept will be realised by the North Mara community after this seminar,” the RC told the seminar.
“Peace must prevail in the area and the resources from the mine should not be used to finance funeral occasions of the mine staff who are being killed," adds Mr Machibya
He also urged the villagers to do away with the misconception that gold extracted in the mine belongs to investors, hence, distancing themselves from cooperating with the government to end criminal acts in the area.
The RC described the seminar as the golden change and urged the participants to discus issue that will help to enhance both economic and social development of the villagers living around the mine and set good example for other parts of the country hosting large scale gold mines to emulate .
At the end of the workshop the participants agreed to open a new page of cooperation and put in place an integrated programme that will help to speed up development of the villagers living in five wards surrounding the mine. The wards are; Matongo, Kemambo, Nyamwaga, Nyarokoba and Kibasuka.
Mr Deo Mwanyika, an Executive General Manager with Barrick Gold Tanzania describes the seminar as a milestone towards eliminating the challenges facing North Mara gold mine and its neighbours.
He says that the three stones namely mine, community and the government will now be working as a team to end to challenges as well as implementing various development projects in areas of education, health, water and infrastructure just to mention a few.
“This is a great success because the three stones will now be working together and we expect significant changes against criminal acts as well as registering admirable success on development issues as it has never happened before,” Mr Mwanyika told the 'Daily News' in an interview here.
It was agreed that the community will identifying the kind of projects to be implemented with the support of the mine and other development partners.
" We (Barrick) have been tasked to coordinate and solicit funds from various donors to support the development within the North Mara community and the community will say which projects depending on their priorities,” he adds.
Nyarokoba Ward councilor, Mr Mustapha Masiani suggested that the government, at different levels, should participate fully in implementing the agreements reached during the seminar to safeguard interests of its people.
Ms Ghati Enock from Nyangoto village said all will go well if the mine General Manager Mr Moxham will be attending village general meetings where various issues pertaining to the mine are also discussed.
“ Moxham(GM) must start attending village meetings and by so doing we will reduce the number of intruders at the mine”, she pointed out.
Antony Magoti, a coordinator with the Tanzania Social Action Fund (TASAF) in Tarime district council welcomed the development integrated plan that seeks to transform the North Mara community into the best community by 2015, but suggested that its implementation should follow Policy Analysis Poverty Alleviation(PAPA) framework.
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