By July 31, 1996, the eviction process was set to begin. A day after Sutton’s shareholders filed into a Vancouver conference room for the company’s annual general meeting, tens of thousands of Africans were about to be evicted from their homes.
At 1 p.m. on July 31, the voice of the Minister of Water, Energy and Minerals can be heard around the country. His Radio Tanzania speech decrees the small-scale miners have one month to evacuate the Bulyanhulu area.
A few hours later, Major General Tumaniel Kiwelu, Shinyanga Regional Commissioner, arrives at Kakola village, where many of the small-scale miners live. He is joined by armed police, many in riot gear.
He tells the miners they have 24 hours to leave the area, reportedly saying that he only wants to see “birds, lizards, insects and snakes” in the area by morning. Now two different sets of instructions have been given to the miners.
By daybreak, tens of thousands of peasants are fleeing a land they have been fighting to hold for years. But some stay to square off with Kahama and the police.
Mallim Kadau, the Miners’ Committee chairman, quickly gathers several others and speeds back to Tabora, back to the High Court. They hope this time the ruling of the court will be respected by Tanzanian officials.
On August 2, Justice Mchome grants their request for an ex parte injunction—a temporary emergency ruling granted in the absence of one of the parties. Mchome rules that no evictions may occur until the parties can meet before him in court. “Democrasy (sic) Good Governance, the Rule of Law, and Respect for Human Rights require the executive wing not to interfere in matters that are still pending in court,” he stated in the ruling. “Natural justice requires that even a poor peasant at least be consulted before a decision affecting his life is made.”
Amnesty International holds that the ruling is a legitimate “temporary relief.” In a memo Amnesty sent to the government of Tanzania in 1998 on the subject of the evictions, AI declared “the whole point of an ex parte injunction is to restrain an action likely to happen before the court has a chance to judge on the merits of the case after listening to both sides.”
Overjoyed at the ruling, up to 3,000 miners triumphantly return to the mines. Spontaneous celebrations, dancing and singing break out, with colourful flags and banners hoisted into the air.
Once again, the Tanzanian courts have sided with the miners. But once again, the ruling will be defied.
Major General Kiwelu is served with the injunction. When asked why he isn’t obeying it, a witness later says he responded, “I am not an employee of the court, and so do not have to follow the court’s orders.”
Why the court was ignored, and at whose instructions, remain central questions in this case.
Click here to read The Kahama Memorandum
