Tightening of screws on Tanzanite commendable

by Daily news

PRESIDENT John Magufuli on Friday launched the wall that surrounds the Tanzanite mines in Mirerani, with the view to tighten security and curb smuggling of the rare gemstone that is a preserve for Tanzania.

It is not a secret that the country is endowed with many natural resources and is rich in minerals and forests just but to mention a few. But, the good thing about all this is that above common minerals that are abundant in the country, Tanzania is home to rare minerals such as Tanzanite.
It is, however, unfortunate that despite the gemstone being exclusively mined in Tanzania, for decades, the country has been positioned as the third world producer of Tanzanite, just below Kenya and India.
This is painful to say the least as something was wrong somewhere and there were a lot of loopholes that supported the then status quo. But, the coming in of the Fifth Phase Government meant that all this had to change.
The government is determined to see wananchi benefiting from their natural resources, hence it put in place some measures meant to protect the minerals sector and close all the loopholes that were causing unscrupulous businesspeople to bleed the country dry.
The government has already taken measures and to date sanity has returned to the mining sector. The banning and probing of the exportation of mineral sand, revision of mining contracts and the relook at laws governing the minerals sector were some of the steps taken to clean the mining sector.
On the other hand, rare minerals were also not left to be plundered. The government has put in place measures to make sure that the country becomes the number one exporter of Tanzanite.
Despite making sure that all the auctions of Tanzanite are done at Mirerani, President Magufuli ordered the construction of a 24.5-kilometre wall to surround Mirerani and it was handed over recently. Now that the Mirerani Tanzanite mines are secure, it is vital for all miners to respect the presence of the wall and make sure that it is not vandalised.
The wall is a positive move that will make sure that the country and its people benefit from their own resources. It is the duty of every citizen to make sure that infrastructure is safeguarded from vandalism so that funds are used for other development projects rather than repairing those sabotaged.
The government on the other hand should continue tightening screws on other minerals in the country and other resources for the benefit of the country