euros in just one transaction. that s cash from the mines going straight into the pockets of one of the most notorious middlemen on the planet. glencore s business in the drc is now under criminal investigation in both the uk and the us. the company says it s committed to operating ethically. the royalties in euros don t breach us sanctions and it s legally obliged to pay them. it says it has no desire to continue dealing with dan gertler. but the middleman is profiting from every tonne of cobalt that tesla buys from glencore. we d been advocating for a long time for financial accountability for dan gertler, as the main sort of external exploiter of the people and
now it is a critical commodity. every car manufacturer is going to want this ? this metal. if they re going to make an electric car, or a hybrid car, they re going to want cobalt. kolwezi should be a wealthy town, but a legacy of political corruption in the mining industry means few have profited from the cobalt boom. when you come here in kolwezi and try to see the people - living in the community - where cobalt is coming from, you are surprised because there s abject poverty. children do not have access to school. - sometimes, there s no drinking water. i and also, electricityl is not there for some of the communities. there are big commercial mines here.
glencore is everywhere. and now, they are taking even these mines. - this is a fight about who owns kolwezi s cobalt. it s back breaking work. but these diggers can at least earn a living. if glencore takes over, the mine will be safer, but far fewer workers will be needed. i have about 15,000 people here, but those 15,000 - will be left with no work. we have children, wives, families. . we can t live like this. glencore says it will help relocate the miners, if a suitable site can be found. but thousands face eviction by tesla s supplier.
the accusations against mr gertler, with respect to his listing, were almost all corruption related. but many people will tell you that corruption and human rights violations, they really go hand in hand here, because of the kind of conditions that people were living in in the mines, their inability to sort of get money out of their hard work, etc, so he was involved in the corruption component, which is why he was listed, but many folks also think that human rights issues, he should have also ticked that box. sanctions were supposed to stop mr gertler profiting from his deals in the drc, but glencore is still paying him royalties for the minerals it mines in kolwezi more than a hundred million euros a year. we ve been given documents by the whistle blowing charity pplaaf that show some of the payments. here, you can see 11 million
for the weekend. but the nuns don t want to rely on handouts. sometimes, i go to the people and i m like, god, how are these people surviving? it s why the good shepherd nuns want change. they have already helped the industry reduce child labour in artisanal mines. we have been successful. in removing 4,000 children from the mines. i am proud of this because we i are trying to achieve something and give a real solution| to some real problems. tesla says it s trying to remove cobalt from its batteries. but last summer, it agreed a deal to buy up to 6,000 tonnes a year from kolwezi.