The protestors were mainly young brick makers who were resettled in Cateme because their original homes were on top of Vale’s coal mining concession.
According to the non-governmental organisation Academic Action for the Development of Rural Communities (ADECRU), the protestors had been seeking an urgent meeting with Vale over what they see as a failure to honour promises made at the time of resettlement. The protest was triggered when Vale allegedly ignored these requests.
The protestors blocked two roads and the railway line with rocks. As a result, a train fully loaded with coal was unable to depart on schedule for the port of Beira.
The source of the dispute is the loss of jobs suffered when small brickmaking enterprises at the site were closed to make way for the mine. According to the protestors, Vale promised to compensate each person involved in the industry between 90,000 and 120,000 meticais (roughly between 3,000 and 4,000 US dollars), but has only paid 60,000 meticais.
The independent news sheet “Mediafax” cited protestor Alberto Ricardo as complaining “we received 60,000 meticais in compensation covering three years and were promised that we would receive a second tranche. But when we went to the government we were told that we have to go to Vale, and when we go to the company they say that they do not owe us anything”.
A statement from ADECRU calls on “the local and national government authorities to urgently intervene to finally resolve this conflict that has lasted more than four years and whose main responsibility is Vale in connivance and complicity with important parts of the Mozambican government”.
In a press release, Vale stated that compensation was set at 60,000 meticais and the process was supervised by the Moatize authorities in consultation with interested parties.
According to Vale, under this process 785 brick makers received compensation totalling 47,100,000 meticais made directly to the beneficiaries.
The police reported that the protest was peaceful with no arrests.
Protests broke out in January 2012 when people resettled in Cateme blocked the railway line to highlight their complaints about the poor construction of the houses Vale provided for them, saying that rain water seeps into their homes.
They also complained that Vale had promised to allocate two hectares of land to each family whilst only one hectare each had been provided.
Post published in: Africa News