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5 October, 2008
On 16 September, 23 regional representatives of ICEM’s Sub-Saharan African Region met in Douala, Cameroon, and developed an ambitious agenda around project work, organising, and health, safety, and environmental matters. The forum was headed by Regional Chairman Rayford Mbulu, General Secretary of the Mineworkers’ Union of Zambia, and served as the Executive Meeting of the region.
Delegates took up the dire political situations on the continent, including the power-sharing agreement now in place in Zimbabwe between political parties headed by Morgan Tsvangirai and Robert Mugabe. The committee gave a cautious nod toward the arrangement, but did call it a step in the right direction for Zimbabwe. The ICEM African union leaders called for monitoring of the power-sharing commitment by the world’s political leaders.
ICEM Sub-Saharan Africa Region Chair Rayford Mbulu
The Sub-Saharan African committee also expressed concern over political situations in the Democratic Republic of Congo, Côte d’Ivoire, Somalia, and Sudan.
The committee gave whole-hearted support to the inauguration of an ICEM project on Contract and Agency Labour in the region, with trade unionists from the former WFIW present promising to explore avenues of additional funding. They also discussed the possibility of development of a project around Chinese investment in Africa, as well as a separate women’s project.
They also took up a situation involving a uranium mining project in Malawi. An NGO, Citizens for Justice Malawi, has brought the project before the ICEM region on environmental and workers’ rights grounds. The project, by Australian Paladin Energy Ltd., is expected to begin extraction early in 2009. The regional committee will dispatch a fact-finding team consisting of ICEM Regional Coordinator Fabian Nkomo and Derrick Elbrecht, the General Treasurer of South Africa’s National Union of Mineworkers (NUM).
Besides ICEM President Senzeni Zokwana of NUM, other representatives of ICEM affiliates present at the 16 September regional Executive Meeting includes comrades from Botswana, Cameroon, Côte d’Ivoire, Democratic Republic of Congo, Nigeria, South Africa, Togo, Zambia, and Zimbabwe.