GRANITE-MINING companies have been violating labour rights and effecting forced evictions in the Mutoko and Mt Darwin areas, creating a human rights catastrophe, a report has revealed.
NATHAN GUMA
Many foreign-owned companies in the sector have not been providing written contracts that specify employment benefits to local workers, thereby fuelling job insecurity.
This is according to a report titled “From Mountains of Hope to Anthills of Despair”, by mining law experts James Tsabora and Darlington Chidarara, produced last week and first availed to The NewsHawks.
Findings of the report show that most foreign-owned companies mining granite in Zimbabwe have been offering local employees short-term contracts only. In other instances, some workers have not been given contracts at all.
“There are no foreign migrant labourers in the areas under research; all workers are Zimbabwean citizens and above 90% are labourers from the local areas.
“Historically, migrant labour used to originate from countries such as Mozambique, Malawi and Zambia, but most of these have now been naturalised and are now part of the communities they reside in,” reads the report.
Estimations by the Black Granite Workers’ Union indicate that there is high job insecurity in the sector. Over 80% of the employees are on contracts shorter than three months. Chinese-owned companies remained the worst in terms of contracts, paying the lowest wage, according to the report.
Surewin, one of the four implicated companies, has 98% of its 90 workers on short contracts in Mutoko and Mt Darwin, areas well known for granite mining. Other companies, Dingmao and Jindings, do not have permanent employees, with the longest contracts being one to three months long.
The use of short-term contracts, which are renewed a number of times, is clearly illegal under Zimbabwe’s labour laws. “The relevant provision is section 12 (3) (a) of the Labour Act [LA]. In terms of this provision, a fixed contract can only be renewed two times. Any renewal or granting of a short-term contract for a third time means the contract[1]ed worker is now a permanent employee.
Accordingly, mining companies are in violation of section 12 (3) (a) of LA,” read part of the report. In addition, the report has revealed shoddy contracts given to workers, thereby undermin[1]ing job security and the International Labour Organisation’s (ILO) decent work principle.
“Workers do not receive contracts when they are contracted for a month — they just sign in their details in a company register,” the report reads.
The report further showed that workers are working beyond the stipulated working hours. The gazetted working time is 208 hours per month, translating to 48 hours per week, for 26-27 working days per month. Some selected workers were being promised unspecified incentives which are fixed by the employer without consultation. Workers said they are exposed to environmental hazards that come with granite mining.
“Common human risks include exposure to unhealthy conditions caused by excessive dust and noise. Physical activities such as blasting rocks are inherently dangerous and workers accepted these as occupational hazards.
“Workers complained that most companies do not undertake regular medical and health checks for their workers and wait for the national bodies to do so,” reads the report.
Villagers in the Mutoko and Mt. Darwin areas have also been victim to forced evictions without informed consent. Some villagers interviewed lamented the ease with which they can be evicted, forcibly relocated and given alternative lands elsewhere by mining companies, with government authorities supporting such actions.
The research observed that mining licences and certificates granted to granite mining companies provide stronger rights than land rights held by communities. The community members interviewed in the report did not have free-hold ownership of the land, occupying and using the lands at the mercy of the state or local governing authorities. This has seen communities lose out in land conflicts as locals are not protected by legislation.
The forced relocations are also being done without clear guidelines and assessments for compensation. Communities in Mutoko have been at the mercy of mining companies, with government departments at district or provincial levels un[1]able to assist, according to the report. There were few cases of compensation for re[1]location, with the highest package being US$5 000, according to a local councillor quoted in the report.
“In Ward 5, two families are facing relocation after Jindings mining company vowed to establish black granite polishing factory at the mine,” he said in the report.
“The traditional leaders had chosen a site which is not suitable for habitation for these families. The amount of compensation agreed was US$4 000 and US$50 for groceries every month for six months and US$500 for grave exhumation”. In another case that occurred in 2021 involving granite mining company Jinding, an amount of US$3 500 was agreed, with the family given three months’ notice to relocate. Negotiations on compensation have not been based on professional valuations of households, with villagers incurring losses. Smallholder farmers, who make the bulk of agricultural producers in Mutoko, have been at the receiving end of the forced evictions.
“We are looking at companies that are min[1]ing granite in Mutoko, an area where smallholder farmers do not have title deeds over land,” said Ngoni Chikowe, Zimbabwe Smallholder Organic Farmers’ Forum (Zimsoff) agricultural technical officer based in Mutoko.
“So, whenever there are some developments that are of national value, smallholder farmers are displaced without their consent,” Chikowe said.
“They are not even consulted or compensated as well because government wants some revenue from the investors coming into the area. This is something that is very unfavourable to farmers who have been living on their ancestral land for generations.”
Chikowe said there has not been informed consent before evictions, thereby breaching the small-scale farmers’ land rights. “If there has been at some point a plan for compensation or agreement between villagers, government and investors, people wouldn’t cry foul that we have been displaced. But now, if people would like to resist, there would be the police beating people in favour of the foreign direct investment (FDI) brought by the Chinese who are doing mining,” he said. Chikowe said smallholder farmers lack representation, unlike the mining companies.
“The ministry of Mines seems to be more powerful than the ministry of Agriculture. This is because we have never heard of a place where mines have been closed for agriculture to take off. People have approached the traditional leaders and ministries, but to no avail,” Chikowe said.
Environmental lawyer Darlington Chidarara says Zimbabwe should take seriously the recommendations of the United Nations Guiding Principles on Business and Human Rights (UNGP) in curbing rights abuses by international mining companies.
“The UNGPs are founded on three principles,” Chidarara told The NewsHawks.
“The first is the nation’s obligation to fulfil human rights and fundamental freedoms. Secondly, the role of the business is to comply with all laws and to respect human rights, whilst the third is for people to be remedied where they have been breached.”
