–Minister Broomes ‘offers ray of hope’

A GROUP of concerned women miners are calling on government to consider small gold and diamond miners and revise proposals and tax benefits which pass through the Guyana Gold and Diamond Miners Association (GGDMA).At a press conference Tuesday morning, the women pointed out that small-scale miners are excluded from several mining benefits included in arrangements that are processed through collaboration with the GGDMA.
“These benefits have never filtered down to the small miners. We need a level playing field so as to promote a better way of life for all,” a founding member of the Guyana Women Miners Organisation (GWMO, Judith David-Blair told the media.
RAY OF HOPE
The women do not endorse the condemnation of Minister within the Ministry of Natural Resources Simona Broomes by the GGDMA, and said President David Granger’s positioning of Broomes within the Natural Resources Ministry offers a ray of hope to small miners in the industry, who have been exploited by the very members of the GGDMA.
They said while she was a miner, Broomes worked not only as a “boss” but also as a “jet woman, marack woman and even as a bahere (cook)”, and understands the ropes and suffering of small mining.
“Minister Broomes was sent to this ministry because of her knowledge and experience in the mining industry,” they pointed out.
She explained that concerned women miners have now refused to stay quiet on the issue of ‘conflict of interest’ which was recently stirred by the GGDMA since the minister has no part in making recommendations for ownership of lands and permission to work, and is not directly attached to the Guyana Geology and Mines Commission (GGMC).
The women claimed however that the same organisation, which claims that the minister’s positioning is a conflict of interest, has members who sit on the boards responsible for all decision-making in the industry, a situation which could possibly be considered instead as conflict of interest.
The women’s group which also includes GWMO Co-founder Carol Fredericks, also praised Minister Broomes as a respectable woman who deserves an opportunity to perform her designated duties.
“It is time Minister Broomes be given a chance to perform her duty and allow the small man to be a real man. Minister Broomes came from a very respectable family. She is a fighter and true representative of the ordinary man. Minister Broomes is the founder of the GWMO along with Mrs. Carol Fredericks and Judith David Blair (presenter). This woman is a motivator!”
They said her determination to set women and children free from being abused, enslaved, exploited and murdered which piloted her to be awarded by the USA even as the last government was in denial that TIP was prevalent in Guyana, should be considered.
“Minister Broomes was a miner then; in fact, she was a miner for the past 28 years and was a successful miner, too. Who else in this country paid the price to enable young girls and women in the mining industry see life in a positive way than Minister Broomes?”
APOLOGY REQUESTED
They have called for an apology from the GGDMA for its disrespectful condemnation of Minister Broomes.
“Sherwin Downer needs to stop being led into speaking non-factual things about Minister Broomes and immediately for defiling her character… he knows absolutely nothing about Minister Broomes in relation to her fighting in the Trafficking in Persons (TIP) scenario for women in and out of mining and our young girls who are sexually abused and enslaved in the mining areas.”
The group strongly criticised members of the GGDMA as those who exploit small-scale miners for their own selfish gains.
The GGDMA, David-Blair said, “is supposed to be a representative of the industry and not an organisation for a few people.” She explained that, “small miners never benefited from the doings of the GGDMA,” but instead its members “are the people who own all the lands and we call them the landlords who use small miners to prospect for them, then kick them off the land when the prospection is good. These are the people who put high tariffs as rental and make contracts to benefit themselves. These are the ones who receive tax exemptions for not only mining equipment but also luxury vehicles.”
“Is it that some people are really concerned about conflict of interest or is it the cut in corruption and their involvement at GGMC that is of their concern?” the women asked.