The Ghana National Association of Small Scale Miners’ members have demanded the prompt resignation of its officials, claiming poor leadership and a disdain for the organization’s well-being.
The executives were accused by the members in a statement of operating the association without responsibility or following the constitution since their election four years prior.
Several complaints were brought up in the statement, such as the association’s stagnation due to inadequate leadership, exploitation for personal gain, and failing to account to members.
In particular, the members charged that the leaders had “disintegrated the association by allocating 30 out of 90 concessions designated for national distribution to certain executives, gross disregard for the general membership, exhibiting unprecedented levels of greed and ineffective leadership.”
Members voiced their dissatisfaction with the existing state of affairs.
“How can you move forward if you are unable to meet to discuss plans or even review plans that have been discussed to shape your actions? We are therefore by this statement demanding the immediate removal of our executives to step aside for an interim team to take over to reorganize the association.”
The small-scale miners feel that their attempts to stop illicit mining and deal with internal issues will be ineffective without responsible leaders.
“With these leaders, it will be a fruitless battle to have a clean and united front to deal with the difficulties our association faces, particularly with illegal miners who do not belong to us.”
They’ve given the Minerals Commission a two-week deadline to take action and called for their intervention.
“We should be leading the battle against illicit mining as a group, but we won’t win if we don’t have responsible leaders. The members said, “If our call for emergency elections to remove our current executives is not followed in two weeks, we will take further action.
Source: Ghanatodayonline.com