Daboase (W/R), Sept. 28, GNA - Mr Edward Tawiah Amprofi, Mpohor Wassa East District Chief Executive has stressed the need for dialogue instead of demonstrations.
He said demonstrations did not solve problems rather it led to vandalism, hostilities and lost of opportunities.
Mr Amprofi said these at a meeting convened by Mpohor Wassa East District Security Council (DISEC) to find amicable solution to grievances, which resulted in demonstrating against Golden Star Wassa Limited by four of the Mine's catchments communities. Golden Star Wassa Limited is a mining company based at Wassa Akyempim in the Mpohor Wassa East District.
The communities were, Wassa Akyempim, Nsadweso, Old Subri and Kubekro.
The people of these communities claimed that the mine did not employ the indigenes and the few, who had been employed were denied promotion, the mine did not award chiefs contracts and the Management of the Mine did not respect the chiefs.
The Human Resource Superintendent Mr Paul Esa and two others were traced to be the cause of these problems and therefore recommended his dismissal from the company.
Mr Amprofi said communication gap was one of the causes, which led to the demonstration and pleaded with the communities to liaise with the mine to develop the area.
He said any mineral resource belonged to the state in spite of the land belonging to the chiefs and people in that area. Mr Amprofi said proceeds from the mineral resources were used in developing the country.
He said it was the government, which granted license for the mine to operate, and it was even the government, which should be held responsible for problems emanating from mining.
Mr Amprofi said the mine had come to stay and the communities should find an amicable way of staying with it and reap the benefit thereof, because demonstrations could not solve the problems. He pleaded with the chiefs to be transparent in the selection of indigenes for employment at the mine.
He said agitating for the dismissal of Mr Esa and two others amounted to personalizing issues, saying, the problem was between the mine and the communities.
Mr Amprofi said nobody had the right to ban anybody from working at a place, adding, Wassa people are also working elsewhere. Reacting to the grievances, Mr Paul Esa said 490 permanent workers from catchments communities had been employed and many casual workers, which he could not say off hand.
Supporting this claim with document Mr Esa said sub-contracting firms working for the mine had also employed some of the indigenes. He said promotion was done at the departmental level, taking into consideration one's performance.
With the contract, Mr Esa said indeed some chiefs had not enjoyed contracts but others had benefited.
He said the spokesman of the chiefs Nana Bogya Kwaw of Nsadweso, for instance, stopped his contract with the reason that his divisional chief did not give him a share of the royalties, because of the contract. Again, he said, owing to chieftaincy dispute in Akyempim, an order was issued to stop awarding contract to the queenmother of Akyempim. Mr Esa said it was not true that management did not respect chiefs, questioning, "how could we have stayed up to date". He said indeed "human as we are, we cannot claim to be perfect but it is not true that we do not respect chiefs". Mr Esa said the mine had started building a community centre at Akyempim, extended electricity to Akyempim and Kubekro, electric poles worth 40 million cedis had been bought for extending electricity to other communities.
He said the mine sponsored some indigenes in the area to University of Mines and Technology (UMaT) for short causes so that the mine could employ them in future.
"To mention just a few, it is unfortunate that when we are thinking about the communities, some leaders of these communities were planning against the Mine". Mr Esa added.
Mr Richard Gray, General Manager, Golden Star, Wassa Limited, said 65 million dollars had been invested in the mine. He said shareholders had not even benefited the returns of the mine and demonstrating against it would send bad signal to them and may decide not to invest any more.
He said if the mine closed down, long-term benefit would elude everybody, saying, employment opportunities, skills development rendering of social responsibilities would not be there. Nana Kwaw said the communities would sit down with the mine to draw a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU), which would address the concerns of the communities. 28 Sept. 06
