The Mozambican government is investing 13 million meticais (about 420,000 US dollars) in programmes for the social reinsertion of miners and their families in the southern provinces of Maputo, Gaza and Inhambane.
The Mozambican miners working in the gold and platinum mines of South Africa still make a significant contribution to the Mozambican balance of payments. There are about 41,000 Mozambican miners in South Africa and their remittances amount to around 600 million rands (87 million US dollars) a year.Labour Minister Helena Taipo on Monday visited some of the areas where the programmes are under way in Manhica and Magude districts, in Maputo province. She personally handed over oxen for animal traction, poultry pavilions, ploughs, and other agricultural inputs to the local associations of former miners. The Manhica district administrator, Artur Chindalali, said that the government’s initiative responds to a longstanding dream not only of the former miners, but of widows and orphans who lost their husbands and fathers in the mines.“We shall make good use of the equipment so that it produces the desired effects”, promised Chindalali. He pledged to invite Taipo to return when the project is producing.Speaking to reporters at the end of her visit, Taipo recalled that in the regular meetings that representatives of the miners have held with President Armando Guebuza, they had insisted on the need for projects to reinsert miners who had completed their contracts, and also for the widows and orphans of miners.“This initiative arises in response to those requests”, she said, “and right now we are carrying out pilot projects here”.Taipo added that the South African mining companies would support the projects, because “they are aware of the obligations they have to their former miners”. No money has yet been received from the South African companies. “Perhaps we haven’t been insistent enough in implementing this agreement”, Taipo admitted. “But the South African side knows that it has to participate. They’ve even said that they are waiting for our signal”.Initially, 18 associations, each of which has 20 or 30 members, will benefit from the pilot projects. Taipo believed that, if undertaken well, they will have a major impact on the living standards of the former miners and their families. Asked if the associations would have to repay anything invested by the government, Taipo said their only obligation is to return the oxen after two years, so that these can then benefit other associations.If the projects are working properly, the associations who initially benefitted should by then have raised enough funds to buy their own draught animals.
The Mozambican miners working in the gold and platinum mines of South Africa still make a significant contribution to the Mozambican balance of payments. There are about 41,000 Mozambican miners in South Africa and their remittances amount to around 600 million rands (87 million US dollars) a year.Labour Minister Helena Taipo on Monday visited some of the areas where the programmes are under way in Manhica and Magude districts, in Maputo province. She personally handed over oxen for animal traction, poultry pavilions, ploughs, and other agricultural inputs to the local associations of former miners. The Manhica district administrator, Artur Chindalali, said that the government’s initiative responds to a longstanding dream not only of the former miners, but of widows and orphans who lost their husbands and fathers in the mines.“We shall make good use of the equipment so that it produces the desired effects”, promised Chindalali. He pledged to invite Taipo to return when the project is producing.Speaking to reporters at the end of her visit, Taipo recalled that in the regular meetings that representatives of the miners have held with President Armando Guebuza, they had insisted on the need for projects to reinsert miners who had completed their contracts, and also for the widows and orphans of miners.“This initiative arises in response to those requests”, she said, “and right now we are carrying out pilot projects here”.Taipo added that the South African mining companies would support the projects, because “they are aware of the obligations they have to their former miners”. No money has yet been received from the South African companies. “Perhaps we haven’t been insistent enough in implementing this agreement”, Taipo admitted. “But the South African side knows that it has to participate. They’ve even said that they are waiting for our signal”.Initially, 18 associations, each of which has 20 or 30 members, will benefit from the pilot projects. Taipo believed that, if undertaken well, they will have a major impact on the living standards of the former miners and their families. Asked if the associations would have to repay anything invested by the government, Taipo said their only obligation is to return the oxen after two years, so that these can then benefit other associations.If the projects are working properly, the associations who initially benefitted should by then have raised enough funds to buy their own draught animals.
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