Batanai Mutasa

“We are aware of the general opacity that shrouds deals between African governments and the Chinese government which makes it difficult to even access the terms of loans for accountability institutions like ours to monitor the effectiveness of the loans because [ as I mentioned in my earlier point] defaulting means you are risking critical revenues from your natural resources,” Maybel Acquaye, senior. policy analyst at the Africa Centre for Energy Policy quipped during the inaugural China-Africa Dialogue on Green Minerals for Responsible Investments (CADRI) held on the sidelines to the 16^th edition of the Alternative Mining Indaba. Her statement validated remarks by executive director of the Zimbabwe Environmental Law Association (ZELA), Mutuso Dhliwayo, explaining the need for this and other conversations between Africa and China to ensure investments by the Asian country were both responsible and reputable.  

Acquaye was speaking on a panel leading discussions on this intercontinental dialogue organized by ZELA and Global Witness (GW), a platform established against the backdrop of significant Chinese investments in transitional minerals in Africa. Although these investments are crucial for economic growth and development, they have been criticized by various stakeholders for leaving a trail of social, environmental, and cultural concerns due to questionable business practices.

Representing a lithium mining community in Zimbabwe, Mary Nyadome had earlier presented a list of pain points in her community, emphasizing issues such as the mining company’s failure to employ local people, increased pollution, moral decadence, and, overall, the lack of a grievance redress mechanism to amicably address arising issues through consultation with the company.

As Nyadome passionately narrated the grievances of the Goromonzi community, the questions initially raised by Dhliwayo about whom to approach and seek an audience with to address issues with Chinese investors increasingly begged for an answer.

“How best can we engage with the key Chinese actors and, where possible hold them accountable? I think for a very long time we were really struggling to say, who do we interact with? Who do we have conversations with? I think today when we have some serious problems with Western investors, one could sit there and think of a number of people that they can get in touch with, whether it is in Brussels, London, New York, DC or any of these other western capitals. But for a long time we were really struggling when it comes to Chinese investments, who do we deal with?” asked Dhliwayo.

In response, senior advisor for transition minerals at Global Witness, Lai Yun explained that the challenges with accessing Chinese companies was not peculiar to Africa but was also an experience that local communities in China faced, especially when they attempted to contact these organizations as stand-alone communities.

“I hope many more people from Africa [will] have the opportunity to visit China to gain a better understanding of the situation there. When we talk about engaging Chinese stakeholders, it can be quite challenging—not only for you but also for the Chinese people,” said Lai Yun. “We need to develop a strategy for engaging with Chinese stakeholders based on the specific situations at hand. I understand that for local communities, this is a significant challenge. That’s why I believe local communities should seek support from local CSOs and even international CSOs to connect with Chinese and other international CSOs to work together to address ESG challenges in local communities,” he added.

The transition minerals expert also implored communities and their representatives to take advantage of convenings such as the AMI to invite and meet with Chinese stakeholders to not only present their concerns but also understand their position on contentious issues.

“When we look at all the people attending this event, I think I’m the only one coming from China. In the meantime, we know that we have another Africa Mining Indaba. For that event, we will probably see many more Chinese faces. However, for this event, which is for the CSOs and the local community to discuss the challenges related to transition minerals, we do not see any other Chinese faces—only mine.”

“Very few stakeholders from China attend these international events to discuss challenges, including ESG challenges. This is my second time attending this event, and luckily, we have this session where people can participate and have the opportunity to exchange opinions, where we are not only hearing voices from Africa, but I think it’s important to hear voices from China as well (sic),” said Lai Yun.

The China-Africa Dialogue on Green Minerals for Responsible Investments, therefore, proved a groundbreaking CSO led initiative that marks a new phase in the way African CSOs approach responsible mining, and through collaboration with Chinese actors focus on learning, policy development, and problem-solving strategies for community benefit.