HARARE - Anglo American’s (Anglo) Zimbabwe-based platinum producer Unki mine (Unki) faces protest from the Shurugwi community over recruitment of locals among other issues.
According to Anglo, Unki has been experiencing a series of allegations and protest threats from a group led by one B Dzoriwa from the Nhema area.
He claims to be representing the larger Shurugwi community, where Unki is located.
Among the demands, Anglo said Dzoriwa wants only Shurugwi locals —whose IDs have a 66 district code for the area — to be recruited to the unskilled labour positions.
The global miner said Dzoriwa and company demanded that “Unki should recruit from lists submitted by chiefs and or alternatively recruitment should be done in the presence of chiefs.”
The group also accused Unki of “importing” general hands thereby breaching its promise to give preferential recruitment to Shurugwi villagers.
Anglo said members of the group also alleged that Unki was not considering qualified locals for skilled positions and information regarding recruitment was not being disseminated to locals while the miner’s promotion system was not transparent.
As at 2011, 23 percent of Unki’s total unskilled labour was from Shurugwi while 73 percent were from other districts.
However, Anglo, which insisted that it remained committed to the communities associated with its operations, said it held a meeting with the complainants in August last year to whom they explained the human resources and recruitment strategies.
“The group wanted to know if there has been an increase from the 23 percent,” Anglo said, adding that “Unki managed to reach steady state of 120 000 tonnes per month in 2011 and did not expand since.”
Unki is set to hold a press conference on the community protest against Unki on January 6 with senior Anglo officials expected to attend.