President of the Guyana Women Miners Organisa-tion (GWMO) Simona Broomes says miners should unite in protest to force the administration to take their concerns seriously and help to cushion the impact of the falling gold price.
Broomes says interventions by government only help large-scale miners, while those with small operations continue to suffer.
“I recommend that miners should come together and let us demand from government more…,” Broomes told the Sunday Stabroek in a recent interview, while recalling protest action five years ago when there was a shutdown in Bartica.
“I am saying to miners, let us withdraw our support from government and let us come together and protest. If the large-scale miners and everybody who talk about really caring for the small and medium-scale miners, let us come together and protest, let us stop the talk, let us ensure it happens,” Broomes stated.
According to Broomes, the drop in gold price has really affected GWMO members tremendously as while they are earning less money, their expenses remain the same and government is not giving any real concessions to small-scale miners in particular.
She also took a swipe at the Guyana Gold and Dia-mond Miners Association (GGDMA), which she said would make media releases from time to time to point out that the government is not supporting miners in various areas.
But Broomes said the GGDMA knows the government is doing nothing for miners and the releases are just for the record to indicate that they are doing something.
Voicing her frustration at reading articles in the newspaper which are just to show that persons recorded their concerns in the press, she said it is time for action and she is prepared to be invited to any table which establishes that government is doing nothing for the miners who are really suffering.
“I am prepared to come to that table,” she said.
According to Broomes, the problems in the mining sector have remained the same over the years, such as health and security. She pointed to the number of persons who would have lost their lives over the holiday period. “How many people get stabbed to death and chopped up? And those who didn’t lose their lives were hospitalised because of the lack of security. Billions of dollars coming out of the sector yet all the police are on the coastland,” she lamented.
She said a roving patrol alone is not the answer to the security problem in the sector where people continue to lose their lives. Many men also continue to die in mining pit accidents, she noted.
She also described the request made by small-scale miners to the government for duty-free concessions as a well-played out song, while pointing out that similar concessions are given to farmers and others. She said too that despite the drop in the price for fuel on the world market, the miners are not benefiting. Further, she said the 16% Value-Added Tax (VAT) was like an albatross around the neck of small and medium-scale miners. “The government is not giving you anything. They would have removed VAT from mining. We should have been VAT-exempted. I think it is a robbery, clear robbery,” she said.
‘Taking a stand’
Miners should understand that as part of the private sector they should say to the government what they want, Broomes said, while adding that she is frustrated to know that the government could bail out rice farmers to the tune of billions of dollars while never doing the same for miners.
She noted that the GWMO had applied for land for its members, who can come together and work on claims and in the process reduce their overhead expenses, but it is yet to receive a response to its application.
“There is no assistance. But I want to encourage women and I want to encourage small miners… that we should take a stand. It is not about what the government feel, the government would never want to do anything for miners because the government is not miner-friendly,” she stressed.
She said while in talks the government may appear to be supportive of miners, the question should be asked: what has the administration done for miners?
Broomes made it clear that when she says “miners,” she is not referring to the large-scale miners, who can personally contact top government officials, but the small miners who do not have the same access. She pointed out that while some miners can contact President Donald Ramotar by telephone, her organisation cannot even get his office to acknowledge one of its letters.
“The smaller miners, we can’t write him to ask him to meet in his office much less for him to listen to us,” Broomes said, while reiterating that her organisation was never allowed the opportunity to say to President Ramotar what its problems are even though a request was made.
And initially Minister of Natural Resources Robert Persaud had promised to meet the GWMO on a monthly basis but this was never done and after many letters to his office meetings were set up with the Permanent Secretary. But after three meetings, the GWMO executive decided to discontinue the meetings, “because the PS can’t make any decision and so he has to go to the minister and then come back to us, like if we are running a relay….”
For Broomes, it was an insult since the minister makes time to meet with the men and she questioned why the women of the sector cannot be afforded the same treatment.
She also questioned whether there is a deliberate attempt to frustrate the small miners, who would eventually be forced to sell, pack up and leave the sector for the large-scale miners. “Where were these large scale miners 28 years ago? Where were these people 40 years ago? We brought this industry… to where it is today. We were able to raise our families and employ so many people. I am a living testimony of what this industry could do,” Broomes declared.
