#SouthernAfricaIsNotForSale
We demand Just and Equitable Taxation
of the Extractive Sector
Make mining work for the People of SADC!
The Tax Justice and Extractives Week of Learning and Action runs under the theme ‘Just and Equitable Taxation of the Extractive Sector – Making mining work for the people of Southern Africa.’ This theme has been specifically selected in order to point the SADC community to the problem of the Regionís failure to collectively hold the Extractive Sector accountable for rampant resource leakages and illicit financial flows that leave the region poorer, unstable and more prone to debt, conflict and extreme patterns of inequality. It is crucial now more than ever to shine the spotlight ontax justice and the extractive sector with a view towards seeking more sustainable, just and equitable ways to manage our natural resources.
‘A Re-Introduction to the SADC-EPA’s 23 August | 09h00-11h30 | Join Zoom |
In this information-sharing session, the aim of our panel discussion will be to determine what events occurred since the implementation of the SADC Economic Partnership Agreements (EPAs) in 2018 and map the way forward for civil society’s role in the EPA’s. Our keynote address is provided by Ms Keatlaretse Dintle, the SADC EPA Chief Technical Advisor, during our panel discussion with key civil society experts and activists.Organisations: Tax Justice Network Africa |
Growing Government Revenues from Mining 23 August | 10:00-12:00 | Join Zoom | Live Stream on Heart &Soul |
This Webinar discusses the case for growing government revenue from mining in the SADC region, zeroing in on policy reforms, opportunities, challenges, and progress recorded. Key focus will be placed on beneficial ownership disclosure as a tool to promote shore up government revenue from mining by curbing corruption and illicit financial flows focusing on the SADC region. The discussion will be joined by Honourable Major Alex from Malawi whose interventions will focus on the role of Parliament as well as legislative and practice reforms to grow government revenue from mining, focusing on Malawi as a case study.Organisations: Tax Justice Network Africa |
Students Movement Dialogue Series 23 August | 18:00 – 20:00 | Topic of the Day: State of the Youth in SADC Today |
Gender Transformative Public Finance Management 24 August | 09:00 – 13:00 | Live Stream on Heart & Soul |
The Conference on Gender Transformative Public Finance Management aims to generate policy and practical recommendations to ensure that women empowerment and social protection mechanisms are taken into consideration in Regional and national policy frameworks. There has been a lot of rhetoric around gender responsive budgeting yet no real change in budgeting processes and public service provision has been made. The conference will therefore bring together stakeholders involved in budgeting from the government officials, parliamentarians, Civil Society Organisations (CSOs), Community Based Organisations, women’s organisations, women and youth small holder farmers, informal traders and artisanal miners to discuss effective strategies for the achievement of gender transformative public resources management.Organisations: Zimbabwe Coalition on Debt and Development; Rural Women’s Assembly; WILSA; ZELA |
The Gendered dimensions of Illicit Financial Flows 24 August | 10:00 – 12:00 | Join Zoom | Live Stream on Heart & Soul |
Increasing womenís voice and participation in extractive governanceTax policies are not neutral; they can hinder or promote social equality and gender equality. Women and men experience the impacts of tax policies differently, because of their diverse and unequal positions in the workforce, as consumers, producers, asset owners, and as those responsible for the activities of the care economy in households and outside. |
Organisations: WILSA; Tax Justice Network Africa |
Increasing Women’s Voice and Participation in Extractive Governance 24 August | 14:00 – 15:30 | Join Zoom |
Tax policies are not neutral; they can hinder or promote social equality and gender equality. Women and men experience the impacts of tax policies differently, because of their diverse and unequal positions in the workforce, as consumers, producers, asset owners, and as those responsible for the activities of the care economy in households and outside.Organisations: Publish What You Pay |
Increasing Women’s Voice and Participation in Extractive Governance 24-26 August | Alternative times | Interested Journalists please email chido@misazim.co.zw for further information |
The Journalists Masterclass is an interactive learning experience to strengthen Journalistsí understanding and analytical capabilities on issues to do with tax justice, debt and extractivism in the Southern Africa region.Organisations: Media Institute of Southern Africa |
Webinar on Child Marriage in the context of Covid-19 24 August | 12:00 | Join Zoom |
Rozaria Memorial Trust engaged in a research on Covid-19 and child marriage in collaboration with IM Swedish Development partners (WOREC and NGOCC) in Zimbabwe, Zambia and Malawi. It is evident that the rate of child marriage increased due to school closure and other country regulations. The webinar will focus on the experience sharing from other Sadc countries to protect girls from child marriage |
Organisations: Rozaria MemorialTrust |
Students Movement Dialogue Series 24 August | 18:00 – 20:00 Topic of the Day: Who is benefiting from SADC’s natural resources and why? |
Alternative Mining Fiscal Regime in Southern Africa 25 August | 10:00-12:00 | Join Zoom | Live Stream on Heart & Soul |
The Webinar will reflect on the findings and recommendations of the Alternative Mining Fiscal Regime in Southern Africa research report. Mounting evidence strongly indicates that a people driven approach to mining taxation is central to the achievement of optimal utilization of mineral resources for sustainable socio-economic development. However, several historical, structural and policy impediments inhibit the achievement of a just and equitable framework to guide mining taxation in the SADC Region. The Webinar will therefore provide an open platform for CSOs, governments, duty bearers and other relevant authorities in Southern Africa to consider what an alternative mining fiscal regime in Southern Africa looks like and the necessary measures required to establish such a regime. |
Organisations: ZELA; Alternative Mining Indaba; Publish What You Pay Mozambique |
Towards an equal society, when tax justice becomes key 25 August | 14:00-16:00 | Join Zoom Meeting ID: 838 3550 2047 Passcode: 053867 |
The event seeks to explore the intersectionality between inequality, tax injustice and extractivism. This will be done using a disability lens, exploring how tax justice can be key to bringing equality to society. |
Organisations: Centre for Disability and Development |
We Rise for our Land: Land Struggles and Repression in Southern Africa Book Presentation 25 August | 15:00-16:00 |
In recent years, southern Africa has aroused the interest of domestic and foreign investors targeting several sectors. Agrarian and extractive capital has been most penetrating in the countryside, causing land conflicts, displacement of local rural and peasant communities and, in worse cases, deaths. Neoliberally oriented, most SADC states have, by and large, colluded with local and international capital, often to the alienation and disfranchisement of the generality of peasants and citizens. The corollary of this has been the espousal of pieces of legislation and policy frameworks that are hostile to the peasantry while advancing the interests of capital. This session presents findings from various countries in the sub-region on the implications of land displacements with a view of empowering civil society organizations and small-producers to defend their land rights. Organisations: Sam Moyo African Institute for Agrarian Studies (SMAIAS) |
Students Movement Dialogue Series 25 August | 18:00 – 20:00 Topic of the Day: Why mining companies don’t pay their fair share of taxes? |
Understanding the Debt and Extractives nexus 26 August | 10:00-12:00 | Live Stream on Heart & Soul |
The Webinar will look closely at the link between debt and extractives as epitomised in the resort to resources backed loans (RBL) in many Southern African countries. RBL have become an important feature of fiscal tension in several resources rich countries following the aftermath of the Covid-19 pandemic which started as a health problem and transformed into a fully blown economic problem. Despite huge mineral resources endowment, it is baffling to note that the continent is saddled with a debt burden which accounts for 57.8% of GDP as of 2020 (IMF 2020), this includes all the government debt which includes public and publicly guaranteed debt. External debt stood at 27.8 % of GDP. This negatively impacts social economic development and delays progress on the achievement of Sustainable Development Goals.Organisations: AFRODAD, Oxfam |
Inequality and Extractives in the SADC Region 26 August | 14:00-16:00 | Live Stream on Heart & Soul |
The Fight Inequality Alliance seeks to facilitate a discussion on inequality and extractives in the SADC Region. The discussion will be held on the side-lines of the 2021 SADC Peopleís Summit. The dialogue will facilitate experience sharing on the forms and manifestation of inequalities in mining host communities across the SADC region. The platform seeks to bring to the fore the various mining induced inequalities and injustices in these communities. The planned dialogue session seeks to proffer recommendations for the mining host communities to coalesce and share experiences in fighting inequalities and exclusionary mining policies and practices within their communities and also sharing adaptation and resilience strategies in situations where mining has failed to transform the communities social and economic wellbeing rather worsened their plight. This also includes advocacy towards mining policy change in the region for them to be pro-people. The ultimate goal is strengthening citizensí voices in the struggle against mining related injustices and inequalities. The session will be held in form of dialogue. |
Organisations: Fight Inequality Alliance |
Students Movement Dialogue Series 25 August | 18:00 – 20:00 Topic of the Day: Why are resource induced conflicts on the rise in Southern Africa? |