People who want to carryout mining activity should be with a clear and approved document and legal license to operate, says Patrick Oting Cyprian, Minister of Information and Communication in Eastern Equatoria State.
He explains that it is a process, not that anyone may come with a machine and begin mining illegally.
According to the spokesperson the government has sent a team to the site and finally stopped the illegal mining which was taking place like in the Kapoeta area.
“So we wanted to see that a person who is going to mine has to have a clear documentation, has to have approval, have to have license, has to have the requirement that is needed not just somebody pop from his home or he comes from somewhere he sets his machine and starts doing those, so that thing the government send people they stop it and as we are talking right now, we are working to see to it that everything is in place and people have to abide by the law”, he explains.
The minister adds that the purpose of avoiding the illegal mining is to stop over exploitation of citizens in the area.
“We have decided as the state government that we sent people on the ground, they went and stopped all those dealing with illegal mining, the reason is because we don’t want our people to be exploited, so we wanted the law to be in place, in that law some of the thing in that law it is clear which will actually be beneficial to the local people and it will also be beneficial to the state government and the national government in term of revenue because that is the system that will regulate the mining”, he notes.
The speakers made the remarks to the media on Friday.