Tunatazama - Community Monitors

Marange Community Profile

  1. Marange
  2. Size of communinity : 15 000
  3. No of houses: 4000
  4. People in community
    1. men/women 42%/58%
    2. young/0ld 60%/40%
    3. Residents before/after mining 70%/30%
  5. About the mine
    1. Name of Mine: Zimbabwe Consolidated Mining Company (ZCDC)
    2. 50% government 50% private ( MBADA Diamond Co, Marange Resources, Anjin, DMC, Ganyamc, Kuseng Diamonds
    3. Open cast mining
    4. Workers from both local community and outside
  6. About the community
    1. Influence or power over community decisions: Traditional Leaders and Marange Development Trust
    2. Talk on behalf of community MDT
  7. Organisation
    1. MDT
    2. Members 2000
    3. 62% male/38% women
    4. 68% young/32% old
    5. Formed June 2014
    6. Formed after the discovery of diamonds to represent community issues
    7. Meets monthly
    8. Works with ZELA and CRD – both 150k away
    9. Financial support for Training capacity and monitoring
    10. Receives capacity building training

 

 

 

 

 

 

Email sent out via Ianra – 21stSeptember 2016

 

The Zimbabwe Consolidated Diamond Mining Company (ZCDC), which is mining Alluvial Diamond in Tinoengana village in Marange, Zimbabwe, has so far since its inception in February 2016 not cared much about the welfare of the community in which it is operating. There is unprecedented air pollution all over the place in addition to the nauseating sight of rubble from the open cast mine. A visit by Marange Development Trust to the sites revealed shocking environmental degradation arising from reckless dumping of alluvial.For instance, it was noted that one of these dumping areas was a ‘mountain’ of raw ore about fifty metres high behind homes of these communities .Having witnessed the most excessive dust which is being consumed day in day out ,felt sorry for the infants  .There are about twenty three children below the age of five who are among the most affected. We therefore fear that if there is no urgent action taken to save the lives of these children, we will regret it. Before the amalgamation of diamond mining companies, we never witnessed such a disturbing situation like this. In our view, ZCDC is doing all this just to frustrate communities so as to make them desperate for relocation without compensation.

 

Malvern Mudiwa

Chairman, Marange Development Trust

 

whatsapp-image-2016-09-26-at-12-17-17-am