By Mohamed Massaquoi
Landowners and casual workers of the agricultural company, Socfin have complained about the “manner in which we are being treated by Socfin in Malen chiefdom”.
In an open dialogue meeting at Basalleh village organised by Search for Common Ground, Mamie Mansaray, a land owner and a casual worker with Socfin told the meeting that they were being “enslaved” by the company.
She said they would start work as early as 4am, leaving their children behind and would return very late in the evening. “There is no alternative means of survival as all our previous livelihood areas have been taken over by the company", she explained, claiming that casual workers “are not allowed to eat at work and if we are caught eating we will not be paid at the end of the day”.
Mamie also alleged that “both men and women are allocated to the same weeding space around 150 palm trees a day for Le11, 500. If we leave out even one by mistake it will result in us not being paid”.
She told Politico that “my cassava farm was destroyed by the activities of the company without compensation even after I complained to the liaison officer who promised to act after consultations with management. We are being humiliated by our local authorities over our land and by our very brothers who supervise the worksite”. She asked “where then are the developments that our local authorities are talking about in this chiefdom?”
Another land owner from Gardorhun village, Abdul Morocco, told the gathering that the company “forcefully entered our bush with the support of local authorities and destroyed our family plantations without compensation and we have nowhere to complain”.
He expressed dissatisfaction over the “inhuman treatment” they faced from the company, saying that they were unhappy with the Le15,000 given to them for the use of their land per year. He urged the company to clearly demarcate its own land holdings to prevent conflict.
The chiefdom speaker, Robert Moigua, denied the allegations against local authorities, arguing that to every development process there must be some bitterness. He encouraged landowners to work as a unit to achieve their goals. He commended Socfin for “the development projects being undertaken in our chiefdom” and pleaded for more.
Robert said the company had repaired all the roads leading to their chiefdom and provided scholarships for their children among several others.
He urged the company to speedily demarcate their land area saying the issue has always been of concern to him. He assured the landowners that he would intervene with the company to have their concerns addressed “for the sake of social cohesion in the chiefdom”.
The company's liaison officer, James Pessima, also commended Search for Common Ground “for creating the avenue to know about issues that have been affecting landowners because of our operations”, saying that the company would “immediately respond to avoid conflict”.
He said Socfin had employed 5,000 workers of which 2,000 were women. He denied allegations that the company had destroyed cassava farms. He said more development programs would be undertaken in the chiefdom but gave no details on that.
Chairman of civil society coalition in the district, Ibrahim Swaray, assured landowners that they would intervene on their behalf to see to it that “issues affecting our people are addressed through the appropriate channels”. He said they must be included in the committee that would look into the grievances of the landowners.
Earlier Sahr Bandabla, one of the organisers, told the people that the meeting was all about “promoting equitable land rights in Pujehun district, especially in the operational areas of foreign companies and to sound out the minds of landowners on the question of land use”. The programme was sponsored by the Open Society Initiative for West Africa, OSIWA.
(C) Politico 01/07/14
