THE LEGISLATION WHICH DOMESTICATES THE PRINCIPLE OF PERMANENT SOVEREIGNTY OVER NATURAL RESOURCES IN TANZANIA MINING INDUSTRY: THEIR COMPLIANCE WITH PROVISIONS OF NATIONAL LEGISLATION, BILATERAL INVESTMENT TREATIES AND MULTILATERAL TREATIES

Abstract

Since independence to the year 2017, stakeholders in the mining industry in Tanzania have been of the view that mineral extraction and revenues have made very little positive impact on the lives of most Tanzanians. This happened despite the fact that the country had major breakthrough in the industry. This is because in 2007, Tanzania was among the African countries with good exporting records of gold and diamonds. All these successes were only seen on papers, but the real situation was that Tanzanians and their country remained poor and did not see the benefits of their minerals. Overtime Tanzania government conducted investigations in the industry to find the best way to gain maximum benefits from the industry. These investigations were conducted in the form of presidential commissions. The most notable presidential commission is the one of 2008 famously known as Bomani Commission. This commission report revealed that, the contribution of mining industry to the country was unsatisfactory this is because the industry experienced a number of problems. The problems included revenues from the industry were not collected well, environmental degradation, conflicts between mineworkers and investors and weaknesses in the legal system. These were observed to be major problems facing the industry. In spite of the identification of the problems and recommendations offered by the commission, problems in the mining industry continued to exist. This pushed the fifth phase government of Tanzania to form a presidential committee to investigate into the issues facing the industry. The committee came with a report which discovered a number of irregularities such as corrupt practices, unfair dealings in the investment legal regime, tax evasions and others. Apart from presidential commission and committees, investigations and reports, different stakeholders, academicians and activists observed indicators of problems in the mining industry. All these people were of the view that the investment legal regime was weak and needed reformations. It is contended by Magogo that the investment legal regime favoured much the investors than the country and its citizens. This is because; tax regimes were not good because they encouraged tax holidays, tax exemptions, royalties, charges, fees and foreign dispute resolutions, and investment contracts favoured much investors than the country and it citizens.