Mererani grinds to a halt
‘End of the road for tanzanite small scale local miners’

By Valentine Marc Nkwame

End of tanzanite business for small holder

Hundreds of small scale miners and other residents of Mererani mining hills are fleeing the area following a decline of tanzanite mining activities, a recent visit to the world famous mining area has revealed.

Local leaders have also confirmed the residents' exodus, warning that in a few months the entire township will be reduces to ruins.

"People are deserting Mererani, some are even demolishing their houses removing iron sheets and frames taking the items away with them, " said Oscar Lawrence Gunewe, the chairman of Zaire location which is the central trading and residential area of Mererani.

According to the chairman, life in Mererani keeps getting tougher due to slump in mining activities such that the residents cannot even afford a single meal per day. "Mining is the core business here, others such as hotels, lodges and retail shops are all dependent on it, now there is no more tanzanite and therefore people are leaving."

A visit to the once vibrant mining vicinity last weekend revealed a shocking transformation of closed shops, empty houses, deserted bus station and relatively sad faces of the few remaining residents who have lost all hope of survival.

"It is scary, women and children flock to the Mererani Catholic Parish to beg for food and water." revealed the church priest, Father Promphil Mrosso. Apparently, there isn't even a single drop of water at Mererani as you read this.

Awadh Omar the ward councilor of Mererani pointed out that almost all the people who had moved into Mererani area have left. "Those you see around are the natives who have nowhere else to go and that includes myself," he said.

"I was thinking of committing suicide!" lamented Samson Nduru a miner who lives in Endiamtu village. "I have three children of my own and seven others left by my deceased brothers, they all have to go to school but I am now jobless and heavily in debt."

At the bus station another miner, Elly Jumanne could be seen struggling to load iron sheets and various pieces of furniture onto a bus. "I have just demolished my house. I am vacating Mererani for good," he said, adding that his family had already left a week before.

Until recent months Mererani had an official population of about 50,000 permanent residents among them 20,000 voters, with over 100,000 daily visitors. Local leaders are not sure how many of these are still around.

A few kilometers uphill from the town where the tanzanite quarries are, some miners could be seen lazing about either sleeping in wooden shacks or following a football match on small radio sets. "Mirerani is dead and so are all of us!" they summed up.

But why is Mererani dying? Mshindi Ngao an outspoken activist in the area blames it all on the 'invasion of a foreign mining company' which now claims territory of the area where most of the tanzanite yielding rocks are.

"It is a well known fact that the entire mineral hold can be found at Block C where the South African mining company is allocated, other quarry blocks A, B and D are simply routes to the central mining location which the government had granted to Tanzanite One." pointed out Mr. Ngao.

His views are echoed by other miners who add that at the moment all the little tanzanite that could be traced in the other locally owned quarries is gone and only the foreign mining company enjoys bumper mineral harvest