By Sharon Chimenya
MASVINGO — Zanu-PF Secretary for Mines and Mining Development, Paul Mangwana, has called for a sustainable and collaborative solution in the mining sector to restore and strengthen relations between miners and farmers.
Speaking at the recent Zanu-PF Masvingo Provincial Coordinating Committee (PCC) meeting, Mangwana said the party believes there should be a way to harmonise disputes between farmers and miners.
“We want to see progress in the relationship between farmers and miners. It should not be that minerals found on my farm yield me nothing; they say only the top five percent of the soil is yours, and anything below that is not. So, as a farmer, should I watch while others benefit from my land?” he said.
“There has been conflict between farmers and miners, with farmers saying, ‘The farm is mine, gold has been found on my farm, and I am told I cannot benefit from it.’ So, we need a law stating that if minerals are found on a person’s farm, the farmer should receive something.”
“We think there needs to be a way to mend the relationship between farmers and miners,” he added.
However, Mangwana called for the government to invest in small-scale miners as it has done in the agricultural sector, which benefits from credit facilities and extension workers.
For the first time, he said, the party was able to scrutinise a bill coming from Parliament, incorporate its views, and develop a document which they sent to the Minister of Mines and Mining Development.
In the document, he said, they underscored that they do not support the amendment bill as it does not democratise mining.
Mangwana said the bill still views mining from a colonial perspective, where mining was an activity reserved only for large-scale companies.
“We don’t see any programmes showing how indigenous people can benefit from mining. There are no credit facilities in mining. What encouraged widespread participation in agriculture were government programmes such as the LDOs, Village Business Units, and Village Business Advisors in almost every village, who assist people with farming,” he said.
“We are asking for similar programmes in mining so that wherever there are minerals, a mine extension worker is placed to educate miners on proper methods and to implement programmes that ensure credit facilities, with payments made through Fidelity when a miner delivers gold.”
Mangwana said this is one of the issues that highlights how the mining law does not show how people can be empowered.
“Government does not invent what we want; they are informed by us. So, let us have meetings in our areas to state how we want the mining sector to benefit us. We want to engage in proper mining, and we want to protect the environment,” he said.
