A law unto themselves

ARTISANAL miners have played an important role in the economy contributing to the
overall gold production in the country, since receiving State support, but has this
recognition and support created a monster the Government can no longer reign in?
According to Fidelity Gold Refineries – the country’s sole and authorised buyer of
gold – small-scale miners were responsible for 65.5 percent of total gold production
of 35.3 tonnes last year (2022).
Notwithstanding the significant contribution from this sector of the mining industry,
there have been several unsettling developments relating to the apparently out-of-
hand activities of small-scale miners.
In March this year, 14 pupils at Globe and Phoenix Primary School in Kwekwe, in the
Midlands, were injured after a classroom block at the school collapsed because of
illegal underground mining activities by suspected gold panners. The artisanal
miners had dug up the school premises. The collapse of the classroom blocks led to
the closure of the school, apparently with no action being taken against the illegal
miners.
The illegal gold miners had dug inside the classrooms, with tunnels running
underneath the classroom blocks.
Everyone agrees that the illegal mining activities are causing destruction of
properties and threatening infrastructure, but somehow there is paralysis of a
decisive response.
It is not just the Kwekwe tragedy where the illegal activities of the gold panners have
visited. In Bindura, in Mashonaland Central, the gold panners have dug their way
close to or under the railway line, setting the stage for an accident waiting to happen.
In Shurugwi in the Midlands, the panners have dug underneath the Boterekwa area,
threatening the collapse of the highway.
Then, a few weeks ago the activities of illegal gold miners forced the Government
complex in Kwekwe to close fearing imminent collapse because of mining activities
underneath it.
The Government offices affected are the District Development Co-ordinator’s, the
District Development Fund and the Civil Registry.
The decision to vacate the offices followed a study by the Zimbabwe National Geo-
Spatial and Space Agency (ZINGSA), which showed that most of the foundations of
the buildings of the affected offices had been degraded by the illegal mining
activities.
In Gwanda, a war has erupted between farmers and gold panners. The points of
conflict are the manner in which the illegal gold miners go about their activities. The
second point around which the farmers and illegal gold panners are in combat is the

environmental damage they have wrought without rehabilitating their working sites,
which become deathtraps for animals, livestock and even unsuspecting human
beings.
Then there is the hazard of chemicals used in extracting gold from the ore and the
attendant effects and impacts of the chemicals used on the environment, aquatic life
and domestic and wild animals that might drink from contaminated water sources.
In the Gwanda case, farmers are outraged by the mushrooming mining activities
which created an environmental wasteland, trapping and killing their livestock in pits
left without being rehabilitated.
In the Dubani area the illegal miners are conducting their mining activities along the
road and closer to a power station, thereby posing danger to human lives.
How many lives should perish before action is taken?