Illegal gold mining “mafia” behind death threats

In the week ending 21 June 2020, several media houses reported that Uganda’s State Minister for Minerals, Hon. Sarah Opendi, told the Parliament of Uganda that she had received death threats from anonymous people whom she described as “mafias promoting illegal gold mining.”

According to Hon. Opendi, the threats against her are intended to frustrate her efforts against illegal mining activities and other injustices in the mining sector that she is trying to stop.

We would like to express our strongest support for Hon. Opendi and the entire administration of the Ministry of Energy and Mineral Development as they go about their work of cleaning up Uganda’s mining sector.

The sector is increasingly under capture, by a combination of State and State-affiliated institutions as well as powerful individuals with strong political connections.

Having been recently placed in charge of the mining sector, we believe that Hon. Opendi’s tormentors are affiliated to some of those institutions and groups of people that have captured the sector. Their mission is to control her and influence her decision making in favour of their selfish interests.

We strongly encourage the Honourable Minister to remain steadfast, resist and expose those economic saboteurs and their anti-development evil self-seeking schemes.

We call upon the Government, Parliament, especially those MPs from mineral-producing regions and the Ugandan public to support Hon. Opendi’s efforts to clean up the mining sector.

It is unfortunate that Uganda’s mining sector continues to underperform despite having immense potential to contribute significantly to the country’s resource basket.

Uganda is endowed with favourable geological conditions associated with a rich and diverse mineral resource base with substantial economic potential.

Geological studies show that 300 million tonnes of Limestone deposits are estimated to be in Karamoja Region; over 6 million tonnes of Copper are anticipated in Kilembe; 7.3 million ounces of Gold deposits in West Nile and western parts of the country; 22 million tonnes of salt at Katwe in Kasese; while 231 metric tonnes of Iron Ore are estimated in Western and Eastern Uganda.

Given this immense mineral wealth, the Government of Uganda has prioritised mining in its Development Plans as one of those sectors that can enable the country to transform to middle income status.

However, little has been done over the years to address systemic governance bottlenecks and institutional underfunding that continue to cripple the sector.

Instead we are seeing a trend of a small group of people continuing to expand their grip on the sector, in the process undermining and diminishing the gate-keeper roles of the Directorate of Geological Survey and Mines (DGSM).

For example, the Police Minerals Protection Unit (PMPU) has taken over many of the supervisory and regulatory roles that the Mining Act 2003 vests in the DGSM. Many miners, especially those involved in the mining of Gold, Tin, Tantalum and Tungsten in Central, Eastern and Western Uganda have been harassed by this Force.

Another example is the Operation Wealth Creation initiative which is assuming some of DGSM’s roles in the sector, including investigations, dispute resolution, investment promotion and formalisation of the ASMs outside the mining sector’s policy and regulatory framework.