By Estacio Valoi
Vulcan was notified on the 18th of this month in the province of Tete by the PROVINCIAL ADMINISTRATIVE COURT OF TETE
JUDGMENT No. 47 / TAPT/2024
Case No. 72/2024/CA
The Judges of the Provincial Administrative Court of Tete have decided in conference. The Tete Human Rights Association (ASSODHT), the applicant and with other signs of identification in these proceedings, came to this jurisdiction to propose and enforce the precautionary measure of summons to adopt conduct, under the terms of article 144 of Law no. 7/2014, of 28 February, by means of a class action established in article 81 of the Constitution of the Republic in which the company VULCAN Moçambique, SA, also identified in these proceedings, is requested, having essentially presented the following grounds:
“Decision: In view of the above, the Judges of the Provincial Administrative Court of Tete, on behalf of the Republic of Mozambique, decide to:
- a) Grant the request of the applicant, the Tete Human Rights Association, and order the defendant VULCAN Moçambique, SA, to immediately and provisionally suspend all its coal mining activities in sections 4 and 6 within 72 hours, starting from the date of notification of this decision;
- b) Order the defendant to adopt all measures within 90 days to mitigate the levels of environmental pollution in the communities of the 25 de Setembro, Chithatha, 1.° de Maio, Nhantchere, Liberdade, Malábué and Chipanga neighbourhoods. They set the maximum amount of court costs at 50,000.00MT (fifty thousand meticais) ex vi, article 6, paragraph a), point ii of the Regulation of Costs in the Administrative Jurisdiction, approved by Decree No. 114/2020, of December 31.
Register and be notified.
Tete, December 18, 2024
The Judges of Law:
Eden Jorge de Celestino Fernandes – Rapporteur
By Va s c o L a v o P e d r o M a m b o
Cláudio Duarte Canca
For the Public Prosecutor’s Office
(I was present)
Tuby Eugénio Augusto”
It’s almost 7am on September 24th, a hottest sunny day. 45 minutes after leaving the city center in a 4X4 vehicle we arrived in Moatize. We stood in front of the house of Amadssen Veteran, President of the Moatize residents’ committee, while we waited for him. On the opposite side of the house, black spots were visible on the leaves of a bush that caught my attention.
We stood in front of the house of Amadssen Veteran, President of the Moatize residents’ committee, while we waited for him. On the opposite side of the house, black particles were visible on the leaves of a bush that caught my attention. We are in the Liberdade neighborhood with a frontal view of the Vulcan coal mine at a distance of around 100 to 200 meters. The dry port is right around the corner from where we are, at a distance of between 30 and 50 meters!
For five days, night and day, we traveled around Moatize.In the Liberdade neighborhood, dust is all over everyone and everything. Motorcyclists rumble in a frantic back and forth in endless acceleration, children on their way to school, some dressed in uniform and others not, in a group of ten or less trying to cross the N7 National Road full of Vulcan vehicles and their subcontracted companies. Here, both children, young, old people all eat, drink and breathe the dust produced by Vulcan backed by the ruling government
Foto Estacio Valoi/ Tete/Poeira Carvao Moatize
Was not enough the gift left by VALE 15 years later after the government of Mozambique signed the contract with that mining compan. At the time, the government’s narrative was that coal would develop the country. With Vulcan, environmental, social and economic issues for workers got worsen!
Wilka Filha de Jamal CARVAO mage 2024-09-30
Wilka Jamal Eugênio practically eats and drinks dust. Where you sleep you can’t escape the dust either. She is a baby of about three months. The child is pale with black, lively eyes. Perhaps even in his mother’s womb, he already knew the taste of the dust that marks their lives. Previously, the dust came from Vale, currently from VULCAN, which is the concessionaire that operates the Moatize coal mines.
Wilka spends her days between her home and the local hospital in Moatize. Coal dust causes very serious respiratory problems. Wilka is just one of the many faces doctors are familiar with from constant visits to the local hospital.
Wilka, like many others who live in the middle of the coal concession exploited by the Indian company VULCAN, pay a high price. Your health. Your life.
Tired , Eugenio, Wilka’s father, responds to the doctors: “Yes, we are coming from there. “We were three times to the hospital and the problem doesn’t go away. ”
In Moatize, the water turned black in several taps and swimming pools. In general, people don’t put their bodies in swimming pools. At the bottom of these, a black layer of concentrated dust can be seen.
There are many who seek to protect themselves from dust using the most varied means. However, dust is everywhere. On doors, on the windows of houses or vehicles. Dust gets into pantries and gets into food. In the clothes on the line. Dark people become darker because of dust stuck to their bodies. Even the fairest people end up looking dark!
Meanwhile, coal exploration continues apace. Various analyses, many reports made and studies carried out do not change the situation. Even with the government’s recognition of the amount of pollution that caused Wilka’s lungs and that of many others, there is no indication that the situation will change. There are no concrete measures to solve the problem, the closure of the mine, resettlement and compensation for the population remain a mirage.
From the Frelimo government, the same promises have been made for 15 years since the time when the coal mine was under concession to the Brazilian company VALE. What we hear is that the FRELIMO government does not know where to resettle people. But it is the same Frelimo government whose leaders own large hectares of land in the Mboza area in the Moatize district. Alberto Vaquina, former governor of Tete, Manuel Guimarães, former administrator of Moatize, grabbed thousands of hectares of land and then concession/sold it to Vulcan as it expanded. “They are waiting for the mine to expand.” In the ranks of the Mozambican political nomenclature, they rub their hands: “More money is coming.”
Vulcan will expand ‘its’ mining areas despite not having yet made the mine expansion plan available. Indian multinationals concerned with profit and FRELIMO leaders with five hundred and commissions. “In Moatize, TETE, there is no space for the resettlement of communities.”, say members of the local residents’ commission.
Mozambicans beaten, detained, shot, mutilated, houses cracked, forcibly removed from their lands to accommodate multinationals in mining concessions worth billions of dollars. These are minerals that serve to create jobs, wealth, social and economic well-being in other countries, but in the case of Mozambique, poverty remains after 30 years of looting! Partnerships, expropriation commissions!
In Tete “Industries collapsed, new ones did not emerge, future ones will not emerge either without commissions for a small political elite. Explosives factory in Tete, iron ore factory in Chiúta and many other projects such as the Revúbue mines, all stopped because of Nyusi, Celso Correia and Mesquita. They want a percentage in the business. Demon scoundrels.” Says Zacarias Colher Pneu.
Illnesses
“The Administrator of Moatize has always protected VALE and is now protecting VULCAN’. Residents of Moatize said.
Lives of thousands of people due to pollution are negotiated by the government of the day with
multinationals. The lives of communities are exchanged with offerings of footballs, sports equipment, financing of sports championships, supply of bags of cement, water in tanks, financing of municipal works, etc. These activities are inaugurated by the mayor himself and other prominent figures in Tete.
“So we need to enforce and remove people. That will be our priority, but from what we have heard from colleagues and from VULCAN, the government says it does not have space to resettle everyone and there is also no space for people to survive in the long term,” Samo said.
More on the link : https://moz24h.co.mz/how-many-human-lives-does-moatize-coal-cost/
