Illegalities in forestry sector must be addressed

Dear Editor,

Troy Resources Ltd, a gold mining company recently announced the severing of over 300 employees. This is quite disappointing for the mining sector. The Minister of Natural Resources must be given credit for his quick reaction on this matter and outlining the Ministry’s and Government’s plan to address same. From what was reported in the print and televised media it seems the Ministry was caught off guard and was not anticipating such a decision by the Company after having met the company before.

Minister and Chairman of GFC, the forestry sector needs your similar prompt and diligent action to curb the alleged and previously reported gross illicit and seemingly corrupt activities within the forestry sector. Minister, the current operation of the monitoring unit has eroded all the efforts made to advance the sector, EU FLEGT, restructuring of the GFC, and the Green State Development Strategy.

A cursory pass through the former Buckhall operations will unearth the scale of obnoxious and vivid abuse of state resources. Logs are moved at all hours of the night without documents, persons cut outside their boundary and are given permits to pass it. Unauthorized forest dealers are engaged in cutting and selling produce.

These abuses can be considered criminal misconduct and yet there seems an unwillingness to engage the affected parties or at least to ensure the monitoring officers conduct their duties properly and not squeezing poor and unsuspected communities for benefits and creating bottlenecks in the system. Similar actions of officers are known to take place in hot spots like Kwakwani, Ituni and Linden and some areas in the North West.

Yours faithfully,

(Name and address supplied)