For the uninitiated, it might seem a natural arrangement of a fine belt of rocky mountains stretching over several kilometers and walling Teberebie, a farming community near the gold mining town of Tarkwa in the Western Region.
The picture is particularly deceptive if seen dimly in between the leaves of tall trees from a far corner of the village.
But if it was a natural occurrence, sixty two-year-old James Sarpong could not have owned a farm there since 1984. Indeed, he could not have built a cottage there and lived with his wife and five children in the midst of the crops.
So one is taken aback, on getting closer, to learn that the place was a low lying farmland and that it took the incredible might of the bulldozers and heavy dumpers of the international mining giant AngloGold Ashanti to create such an extensive rock waste of pyramidal scope. What explains that, perhaps, is because to mine a ton of gold, they say, is to mine three tons of rock waste.
Even so, James Sarpong is still fond of his farm buried as it is under the rock waste. He spent no time in establishing that he was on familiar grounds when we reached the base of the rock waste. “Can’t you smell a ripe pineapple?” he asked yours truly in a voice akin to that of a mother who has heard the wailing voice of her dying child. Totally at sea, I stood still and kept a keen eye on the farmer. And true to his word, after a steadied frantic search in the bushes, he called my attention to the almost rotten fruit.
Fact is; Mr. Sarpong could have, at least, salvaged a few things before the rock waste spread to his farm; he could have collected his clothes, utensils, fowls and perhaps some of the ripe pineapples, palm fruits, plantain, maize and yam.
But he could not bear the pain of checking out of the farm on which he irked out a living all these years unlike several other farmers who took their compensation and went to sit at home. He rejected the GHC7400.00 (?74,000,000.00) AngloGold Ashanti offered him in 2003 as compensation for dumping rock waste on the crops on his eight-acre land. Indeed, he and 34 others, with the support of WACAM, an NGO, took the matter to the Tarkwa High Court and the case is still being heard.
But even as the case is yet to be decided by the Tarkwa High Court, the next hearing is on August 18 2008; James Sarpong was hauled before another court in Sekondi, another town in the Western Region, on the same matter.
“I was here when I received a letter on June 11, 2009 that I had been summoned to appear before court in Sekondi on June 19,” he recounted. “I was truly taken aback for how could they have summoned me in Sekondi when the case is before the Tarkwa High Court? But upon advice, I obliged and prepared to travel to Sekondi for the trial. But to my shock again, after listening extensively to the plaintiff’s case and a little to my side, the trial judge declared there and then that I was at fault and so ordered that I vacate the ‘mining concession.’ I traveled to my hometown the very day for a funeral. But immediately upon my return to Tarkwa, I was informed that the company had sent their machines to pull down my cottage. What sort of law is this?”
In 2007 when Public Agenda first broke the ‘The Battle of David and Goliath’ part one, the rocks were a distance away from Mr. Sarpong’s hut, but upon our visit last two weeks, the rock waste had been spread to cover where the shed stood. James Sarpong was not sure whether the demolition team took his belongings away or they buried everything under the rocks. He had since been rendered homeless, he noted, until WACAM came to his rescue by providing him with a temporary place of sleep.
Public Agenda enquired from Mr. Kwamena Sekyi-Yorke, Community Relations Officer of AngloGold Ashanti about the whereabouts of James Sarpongs belongings. Mr. Sekyi-Yorke confessed he was not privy to information on that and that he was going to find out from the police who supervised the demolition exercise upon the court order. He however, said he trusted the police must have done what is right in the circumstance since James Sarpong was playing “hide and seek.” But why did they refer the matter to another court whilst it was before one? Mr. Sekyi-Yorke’s reply was that he was also involved in a court case that was before two different courts.
In a press release signed by its Executive Director Mr. Daniel Owusu-Koranteng and copied to Public Agenda, WACAM described the judgment by Justice Anthony Oppong of the Sekondi High Court as flawed. “The judgment ignored the legal requirement of compensation payment in cases of compulsory acquisition by the state as a precondition for a mineral holder to have access to the land or properties of an owner/ lawful occupier to undertake mining operations. The High Court Judge erred by not acting in accordance with the tenets of the 1992 Constitution of Ghana and the Minerals and Mining Act, 2006, Act 703 regarding compensation payments relating to compulsory acquisition of land/properties for mining operations-WACAM condemns the demolishing of James Sarpong’s village as an inhuman act which has rendered him homeless and very poor.
We call on the Chief Justice to run educational programmes for Judges on the human rights challenges in the mining industry to ensure the protection of the rights of people affected by the operations of multinational mining companies as enshrined in the 1992 Constitution of Ghana and the Minerals and Mining Act, 2006(Act 703) to avoid situations where our legal system would be used to strengthen the impunity of multinational mining companies in the violation of the rights of marginalised people in the mining communities.”
But even whilst James Sarpong and the 34 others wait for the verdict of the Tarkwa High Court, Martin Appiah Gyimah, who took GHC 4000.00 (C40,000,000.00) in 2003 as compensation for his farm is, today, not a happy man. In fact, he spoke to the surprise of some people, who wondered why he would be critical of the company now after championing their course when the tussle over compensation begun.
Mr. Gyimah who introduced himself as the Chairman of the Teberebie Farmers Association, complained bitterly that Anglogold Ashanti did not fulfill part of the agreement under which his land was taken. Apart from monetary rewards, he observed, the company was supposed to resettle them to a place they could continue their farming. “Now, our situation is such that we have to travel to Tarkwa and other places to get foodstuff to buy; so we are farmers without farmland. I have 16 children, how do I feed and pay their school fees?” His group, he noted, is also considering taking the matter to court.
The state of human rights in Ghana’s mining communities has long come for mention. The Commission on Human Rights and Administrative Justice (CHRAJ) in its 2008 report on “the State of Human Rights in Mining Communities in Ghana” noted among other things that there is:
“Deprivation of the inhabitants of the affected communities of their basic material means of sustenance; Failing to pay prompt, fair and adequate compensation to those who have been affected; Unemployment carrying in its trail, poverty and crime; Pollution of water bodies and water resources; Dynamite explosions that cause vibrations, noise and dust in the affected communities and Use by mining firms of the police and the military to enforce law and order, sometimes, in inhumane, crude and illegal manner resulting in excesses.”
The commission thus recommended to government that “in view of widespread poverty in the mining communities and the changing economy of food crop production in the world, the government should not grant or renew any mineral rights until a cost benefit analysis of the mining industry has been done.”
It equally called on Government to review the Minerals and Mining Act (703) “to give better protection to people living in mining areas in the country.” Government is however yet to act on these or will it?
