NOTHING LEARNED FROM SALGAOCAR DEBACLE

THE opening of Lufafa Gold Mine and now the Bulembu mine in the name of exploiting asbestos dumps, should be triggering alarm bells across the nation at the wake of experiences of Salgaocar’s exploitation of iron ore dumps at the old Ngwenya Iron Ore Mine.

Following the commissioning of the Lufafa gold mining operations a year or so ago, Kobolondo Mining has recently been licensed to rehabilitate the formerly Bulembu Havelock Asbestos Mine asbestos dumps.

Like Salgaocar Swaziland, Kobolondo Mining’s shareholding is split into 25 per cent each between government and iNgwenyama in trust for the Swazi nation and the other half is held by private investors behind the venture. 
It is common cause that the Salgaocar venture disintegrated acrimoniously culminating with a civil court case, by the company’s boss Shanmuga Rethenam, in Canada over a E120 million debt that involved the impounding of a then private jet – in the midst of the court case the aircraft became State property - that must have caused some embarrassment to government.  As I see it, given the turn of events apropos Salgaocar, any new mining venture in  the Kingdom of eSwatini should have been preceded by an intensive interrogation of the Salgaocar experience.

The importance of such an exercise cannot be overemphasised given reports that the country could have been robbed hundreds of millions of emalangeni in lost revenue. To date government has not taken the nation into its confidence about the revenue it earned from that venture except consequently slapping Salgaocar boss Rethenam with a E4 billion criminal suit ostensibly for lost revenue, a matter that is still pending if ever it will see the light of day – assuming that was government’s intention, which is doubtful.

In the middle of the court battle in Canada over the State aircraft, cloak and dagger dealings emerged that did not augur well for the leadership of the country. It emerged from that court case that government, specifically the PM, had not been candid to the nation about the origins of the aircraft.

Ironically, government had been warned about Salgaocar when it went to bed with the company. This was in respect to the company’s track record in India where its licence had been revoked and it - including its executives and some Cabinet ministers - was criminally prosecuted for stealing minerals it had not been licensed to exploit. Government’s explanation, at the wake of Cabinet ministers being gifted with expensive top of the range tablets, was to insult the intellect of the Swazi nation by saying the Salgaocar it had licenced to exploit the iron ore dumps at Ngwenya was a local company that had nothing to do with that which previously operated in India.  Besides the fact that Rethenam was conferred diplomatic status and provided with police escort – an act that reduced this country into a banana republic - Salgaocar’s Ngwenya operations were mired in controversy, especially the high security and secrecy. Viewed from the backdrop that massive amounts of gold had been discovered during the life of the iron ore min, such behavior was bound to raise suspicions from discerning citizens.

This raised the question why a simple exploitation of iron ore dumps should be secretive and a high security operation when the mining of iron ore itself had no such security. Could it be Salgaocar was exploiting and exporting more than the iron ore dumps? If it was, was this done with the full knowledge of those charged with leading this country? If not what measures have been put in place to ensure that this never happens again?

As I see it, what has emerged from the shambles of the Salgaocar experience is that the Kingdom’s prevailing mining regime is neither favourable to the nation nor a catalyst to spurring economic development.  Like the rest of Africa, as the Kingdom of eSwatini is not reflective of its mineral wealth hence a majority of the people, approximately 64 per cent, are slaves to grinding poverty while the majority of the youth, including university graduates, are without gainful employment.

Perhaps the obtaining mining regime is deliberate given the frailties of the obtaining political order but in the remote event that it is accidental, there is an urgent need to reform same as in yesterday.

In fact opening new mining operations while the legal and policy framework is as disastrous as it is was ill advised. Indeed the obtaining regime informing the exploitation of minerals in the Kingdom of eSwatini is confirmatory to the narrative of this being a fiefdom in which the ordinary folk are second class citizens good for serving the socially and politically mighty first class land owners.  

Then there is the narrative of beneficiation to which just about every African leader has, at one time or the other, paid lip service.
But on the ground there is little that is being done to engender a conducive policy environment and practical implementation strategies. Instead what is abroad are African leaders enriching themselves at the expense of their people. 

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