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Grand acteur de la Société civile œuvrant dans le secteur des ressources naturelles, Franck Fwamba revient sur l’épilogue du projet de lithium de Manono. Pour <a class="mh-excerpt-more"...
econewsrdc.com
A major civil society player working in the natural resources sector, Franck Fwamba looks back at the epilogue of Manono's lithium project. For the good of the country and the happiness of the wounded people of the territory of Manono, in the province of Tanganyika, he calls on each party to the conflict to "put water in its wine for the fair gain of each other". Interview with Econews.
Franck Fwamba, you are one of the few activists and journalists who have been fighting for the protection of the heritage of certain mining companies in the State Portfolio for years, so that their exploitation benefits the country and not individuals. At the end of March, your Coalition TOUS POUR LA DRC facilitated a meeting between Dathcom Mining partners and delegates from the Manono population of the population delegates of Manono. Can you tell us more?
The Civil Society of the territory of Manono, as a riparian community impacted by the mining project of DATHCOM Mining SA, being seized of the cancellation of the operating permit of the company that it sees working on the ground, resolutely wished to gather around a table the disagreeing parties in order to understand the contours of the discordance, to put them back together so that the exploitation of the Manono lithium mine begins without delay, the only source on which the population of Manono relies for its development. To achieve this, Civil Society requested the assistance of the Bishop of Manono, Monsignor Vincent de Paul Kwanga, and Bishop Guy Mande of the Methodist Church, to lead the mediation exchanges between the parties in conflict, namely the partners of the DATHCOM Project, mainly COMINIERE, AVZ and DATHOMIR.
What was the strong message that delegates from the people of Manono conveyed at this meeting?
Indeed, the organizers were keen to work with all stakeholders to find a lasting solution. Thus the Cominière who wanted to distort company was pushed, if not obliged by the Catholic and Methodist bishops before the delegates of Manono, to participate by telephone. Thus, Mr. Kibeya Célestin, the technical director of Cominière who acts as the temporary manager, participated, promising to find common ground with his partner AVZ who was represented in Lubumbashi and online on GoogleMeet from its headquarters in Perth, Australia.
case of MMCS in arbitration in Paris where the elements of the feasibility study of Dathcom served as a spearhead to the arguments of the Congolese side). Now that the child is conceived, that the ultrasound has even revealed his sex, why do we want him to be a stillborn, an abortion? "
Was Dathomir present at that meeting in Lubumbashi?
I don't think so and the organizers can answer the reason for the absence as well as the people concerned if they were contacted.
Is the population of Manono afraid to live on a cursed and problematic deposit?All of us, as Congolese, regret what has happened for ten years in this deposit that has already seen Global Tin leave, then Manomin abruptly. The majority shareholder of the latter went to arbitration in Paris. You know what EcoNews, other media and NGOs did the day before recent arbitration sessions to avoid that Cominiere and the DRC are represented while by a suspicious letter to the lawyers, the Cominiere did not want to go, preferring to pave the way for the Dig Oil scenario of bad memory. Incredible but true that this mine of strategic minerals is in the hands of unconscious if not incompetent leaders given several elements in our possession.
Is the people of Manono aware of this?Some, yes. Indeed, Bishop Kwanga had said things in a clear and simple way. I quote: "We thank the various partners of Dathcom, especially Cominiere and AVZ, for their openness to share their concerns with us and their willingness to dialogue to iron out differences so that finally the lithium child can be born in good health from his parents who understood him. We are counting on you, because by examining the risks of blocking, we believe that it cannot benefit any stakeholder. Among these risks, we have singled out a few: loss of an investor who has provided quality work; arbitration proceedings that can cause the Congolese State to lose funds (as was the case with KMT, Frontier and COMISA, etc.) and the arrest of certain state and parastatal officials; loss of credibility of COMINIERE with the population of Manono; diversion of the project which would have new investors, which would delay its operationalization; loss of capital invested; in the event of termination of the contract, there would be the over-politicization of the project which would call into question the vision of the Head of State, or even compromise it; if the cancellation of the Exploitation Permit persists, artisanal diggers could invade the concession of PR 13359. It is therefore important that each party puts water in its wine for the fair gain of each other by considering the respective contributions, in particular the deposit brought by the DRC and the valuation provided by AVZ". there would be the over-politicization of the project which would call into question the vision of the Head of State, or even compromise it; if the cancellation of the Exploitation Permit persists, artisanal diggers could invade the concession of PR 13359. It is therefore important that each party puts water in its wine for the fair gain of each other by considering the respective contributions, in particular the deposit brought by the DRC and the valuation provided by AVZ". there would be the over-politicization of the project which would call into question the vision of the Head of State, or even compromise it; if the cancellation of the Exploitation Permit persists, artisanal diggers could invade the concession of PR 13359. It is therefore important that each party puts water in its wine for the fair gain of each other by considering the respective contributions, in particular the deposit brought by the DRC and the valuation provided by AVZ".So, the people of Manono have said everything through the mouth of Bishop Vincent Kwanga whose wisdom and mastery of what is happening at Cominière is not in doubt.
The population of Manono believes in the AVZ, while Cominière and some officials reject it, going so far as to accuse it of corruption. What do you say? Any objective mind who knows Cominière well knows that among all the partners who are in Manono, only AVZ is the serious one and the darling of the population who expect more from her. Regarding corruption, the length taken by the Dathcom file, from the filing of the Feasibility Study to the granting of the Exploitation Permit, is one of the longest in our mining history. It demonstrates that Australians have complied with their listed company regulations, refraining from corruption. If you are referring to Marius Mihigo's file, it is shameful and surprising that those who say he was hired to corrupt people forget that his facilitation contract has no connection with the transformation of the Exploration Permit into an Exploitation Permit whose procedure and conditions are clearly defined in the Mining Code and Regulations. As a reminder, large and medium-sized companies legally resort to facilitators and lobbyists of several orders, including lawyers, customs agencies, public relations managers, including contacts with politicians, the media and NGOs. We had learned that the former French Prime Minister Dominique de Villepin had come to Kinshasa in 2019 to meet Congolese officials and Jeun Afrique wrote this: ''Since 2008, he has been at the head of the Villepin International cabinet, which he makes prosper thanks to an address book acquired within the Chiraquian networks. On May 8, in Kinshasa, he proposed to President Félix Tshisekedi to work on strengthening the relations of the DR Congo with, on the one hand, Russia, and on the other, China. In Hong Kong, the French also chairs the advisory board of the rating agency Universal Credit Rating Group. Several other Congolese media spoke about it. Glencore, Trafigura and others have them too. Several other Congolese media spoke about it. Glencore, Trafigura and others have them too. Several other Congolese media spoke about it. Glencore, Trafigura and others have them too.
In the United States of America, lobbyists who are very numerous in Washington, New York, Paris, Brussels and Strasbourg are well paid in millions of dollars or euros by companies and governments to facilitate contacts and relay with officials Americans and Europeans within the framework of their interests without talking about corruption. Why when a company hires a lobbyist in the DRC, it makes noise and it is accused of all evils. Civil society is interested in seeing the list of corrupt or potential corrupt from the accusers or whistleblowers of Mr. Mihigo Marius in order to file a legal complaint against him and AVZ. Otherwise, it would be a strategy of the people indexed by the IGF report around mismanagement,
In Mihigo's place, I would have filed a complaint for defamation and slanderous denunciation without compromising. What about the leaders of Cominière whose justice claimed to have solid elements to charge because a senior magistrate had told my colleagues Henri Muhiya of CERN-CENCO and Ernest Mpararo of LICOCO the day of the handover of the copy of the Agreement between the DRC and Ventora by the Minister of Finance, Nicolas Kazadi, to Civil Society, at the beginning of December 2022?
If we take into account what is happening at dathcom, Marius is a collateral victim of the networks that are angry with AVZ by violating his right to the presumption of innocence.
FK: Do you believe in a favorable follow-up despite the presence of Zijin?We believe in the vision of the Head of State to do things better and above all not to leave all our strategic minerals at the mercy of the control of the Chinese who are already a rope around our neck by controlling at least 70% of our cobalt. industrial and artisanal. The DRC is not going to make the suicidal choice to let China control Manono's coltan and lithium, especially since our American partners have clearly announced at Mining Indaba in Cape Town their position, that is to say not to let the China control the sources of supply of certain critical minerals for electric batteries including lithium. A grand coalition with Canadians, Europeans and Australians against China in the mining sector has been announced and implemented under American leadership with whom we have good relations. Also, everyone should read Congolese and international NGO reports and press publications to realize that Zijin is often accused of human rights violations from various angles. Our lithium and coltan sector in Manono does not need such a partner at Cominiere. Let's do like Zambia, let's diversify the partners in our minerals without letting a single country have the monopoly of production and control at the risk of asphyxiating our economy.
What does that mean?
Taking into account the IGF report and several documents in our possession, "TOUS POUR LA RDC" wants the DRC to develop the Dathcom project with the partner who has valued it by removing the other partners who have brought nothing to it. . May the Government sit down with AVZ and find a lasting solution for the country and the development of the communities, as you often said through several publications. The Chinese want our mines to secure their sources of supply, not to develop them, according to standards, taking into account our interests. The case of Sicomines is a great illustration of this and the Westerners observe that it was they who had ceded certain mines to the Chinese. Today, they regret it with this story of energy transition.
What can you learn from your advocacy?
We insist on the appointment of new agents, competent and patriotic, at the head of the mining companies of the State in difficulty, including Cominière. Louis Watum, Delphin Tshimena, Gustave Nzeng and several young executives are better than those who currently direct these lame ducks, such as Kisenge-Manganese, Sodimico, Miba, Cominière. We ask the State to do what it did at Gécamines by changing management to relaunch these strategic companies.
For the population of Manono, the message is that conveyed by Bishop Kwanga of the Catholic Church during the workshop in Lubumbashi: "As it is in the name of the population of Manono that we have initiated this process, we ask that the different interventions take their expectations into account. In the interests of a balance in the development of the country, the populations of Manono In the interests of a balance in the development of the country, the populations of Manono believe that it would be in all justice for the transformation of lithium to be done in Manono through the Special Economic Zone announced by His Excellency Félix-Antoine Tshi-sekedi Tshilombo, as President of the DRC and Chairman-in-Office of SADC, on the occasion of the Mining Investment Forum "Investingin mining Indaba 2023" in February 2023".
Thanks to EcoNews for the noble struggle alongside Civil Society for the defense of the country's interests and the development of communities. "Bendele Ekueya Te" and may the DRC win beyond our differences!
