Irate Youth Demonstrate Against Newmont Ahafo Mine

By Michael Boateng

Irate Youth living within the Newmont Ghana Gold Ahafo Mine Area in the Asutifi North District of Brong-Ahafo have staged a massive demonstration against the company for non-provision of jobs, preventing staff and other workers of the company from going to work.

The demonstration commenced in the early hours of Tuesday, 1st August, 2017, which was jointly organised by youth from the five major towns within the Ahafo Mine area of Asutifi North District, namely Ntotoroso, Gyedu, Wamanhinso, Kenyasi No. 1 and Kenyasi No.2.

The youth of Kenyasi No. 1 and 2 started their protest from the principal streets of Kenyasi No.2 through Kenyasi No.1 By-pass and met at the Kenyasi-Ntotoroso road.

Another group from Wamanhiso marched to Gyedu/Ntotoroso and further proceeded to meet the Kenyasi Group at Newmont's Plant site, for the presentation of the petition.

Leader of the demonstrators, Adu Adjei Kennedy, disclosed that the demonstration was necessitated by the decision of Newmont to deliberately employ non-indigenes in more lucrative, permanent or secured and strategic positions, to the neglect of the indigenes.

According to Mr. Adu Adjei Kennedy, Newmont has been giving bogus excuses that the qualification and experience they are looking for could not be obtained locally.

The company has also been deceiving the people by placing job advertisements on their notice board to attract local participation, but would end up employing people from outside.

The irate youth also expressed concern about lack of agreement before Newmont commences its underground mining, adding that there is lack of transparency in most of the activities of the company, which needs to be redressed.

The youth further accused Newmont for failure to honor training programs for the local people before the operations.

The mining giant was also accused of refusing to furnish the community youth leaders with detailed employment statistics of non-locals and neglecting companies owned by the indigenes with regard to awards of contracts.

The demonstrators also touched on environmental pollution, saying: "Our air is seriously being polluted, there is pollution of water bodies and noise pollution, making it dangerous to live in our respective communities, while excessive vibration as a result of the blasting leads to cracks and collapse of buildings."

They said Newmont has failed to upgrade the Kenyasi Health Center to a polyclinic status, as promised before the social license was granted by the communities.

The demonstrators said the company was not only denying them jobs but was also not fulfilling its social responsibility to the community.

Clad in red and black attires, with red head and arm bands, the demonstrators chanted war songs and besieged the Plant Site to present their petition to the Management of Newmont Ahafo Mines.

Some of the placards read -"No job, no peace", "Newmont show respect", "This is not a joke", "We need jobs", "Don't provoke our ancestors", "our ancestors are not happy" and "There are equally good graduates here", among others.

The Regional Minister, Kwaku Asomah-Cheremeh rushed to the scene to help calm the situation, with the assurance of meeting the Managers of Newmont to discuss how best the issues raised could be addressed for peace to prevail.

After a meeting with the Management, which lasted over four hours, the Minister indicated that he has received a copy of the petition from the youth leaders and will meet with the General Manager of NGGL and other stakeholders, together with the youth leaders, on how best the matter would be resolved.

However, Adu Adjei Kennedy told The Chronicle after the Regional Minister's interaction with the irate youth that, they have agreed with the assertion of the Minister and would wait patiently for the next move, insisting that: "If persuasion fails, force will be applied," to ensure that the concerns are resolved.

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