REUTERS

“Taxation in the mining industry needs to be monitored much more closely as most of the companies in the industry have either been evading payment or are enjoying an abnormally long tax holiday,” John Capel of Benchmarks said on the opening day of the Alternative Mining Indaba, which is being held at Woodstock in Cape Town, just a few kilometres down the road from the African Mining Indaba.

The Alternative Mining Indaba also called for improved disclosure from mining companies and for governments throughout Africa to implement reforms such as the Extractive Industries Transparency Initiative, which aims to enhance accountable governance in the extractive industries.

The Alternative Mining Indaba brings together representatives of civil society organisations and trade unions from across Africa. The delegates represent communities that are affected by the activities of the large mining companies on the continent.

Capel told Business Report yesterday that many of the factors that had a negative impact on mining communities in South Africa were the same that affected communities across the continent. He said the constant calls for the mineral wealth to be nationalised reflected the frustration felt by the communities that lived adjacent to mines.

“The Alternative Mining Indaba raises the issues that the Mining Indaba deliberately refuses to raise – the issues about poverty of communities adjacent to mining activities, the lack of job creation and the environmental impact of mining activities on these communities.”

He regretted the fact that the exorbitant entry fee meant that civil society had difficulty accessing the Mining Indaba. “In the face of this exclusion from a forum where key stakeholders meet to discuss African resources, civil society created the Alternative Mining Indaba to tell a different but true story of the impact of mining on African people. Mining companies do not discuss seriously the impact of mining on communities and their exclusion from participating in the management of their resources.”

Roy Mwaba, the secretary-general of the Zambia Congress of Trade Unions, said it was crucial to change the law with comprehensive reforms in the mining sector that would ensure mining activities in Zambia generated long-term benefits for Zambians.

“While the resources are still available Zambia should ensure that it benefits from its mineral wealth,” Mwaba said. He said that mining companies should be encouraged to invest profits within the domestic economy in order to stimulate investment in other sectors. Tax reforms, strict environmental regulations and improved levels of transparency were needed, Mwaba said.

The Alternative Mining Indaba, which will run until tomorrow, ends with a march and the handing over of a petition to the Mining Indaba at the Cape Town International Conference Centre. - Ann Crotty