The Sunday News
Rutendo Nyeve, Sunday News Reporter
THE Ministry of Mines and Mining Development is set to launch the first ever internationally-acclaimed mining information system that is expected to see a reduction in mining disputes and enhance security of tenure among other benefits.
A mining cadastre which is an electronic platform for all stakeholders in the mining sector of Zimbabwe to engage directly with the Ministry of Mines is to be launched in the next few months following a four-year system development.
The system records the geographical location, ownership and time validity of mining rights while allowing mineral rights’ holders and small and large enterprises from other countries to consult and apply for these rights.
The country in the past has been using a manual system of registering mining claims. According to the Ministry of Mines and Mining Development, the system caused problems such as double allocation of claims resulting in disputes.
The ministry is on record saying such disputes have affected production, reduced effectiveness of other policies such as the use it or lose it policy and the ease of doing business policy which is aimed at attracting investment into the country.
In an interview with Sunday News Business, Mines and Mining Development Permanent Secretary Mr Pfungwa Kunaka confirmed the latest development saying the ministry was now feeding data into the system.
“I can safely confirm to Zimbabweans that we now have a cadastre system. What remains is for us to launch it and going online.
The mining cadastre is a new Information Communication Technology (ICT) based system that we are introducing which will be web based. In other words, it will be computerised and will be working online.
“The idea behind the mining cadastre is title management.
This involves the process of people applying to use the land in terms of mining as well as starting the actual mining.
We have various categories of mining but all of them will have to be computerised,” said Mr Kunaka.
He said the ministry was in the process of capturing data for all mining titles that are in the provinces as everyone registers at their respective provinces.
He said the process of data capturing has however, taken long due to some disputes.
“We have already developed a system and we are now feeding the data into the system. The process also includes cleaning up data that we already have. In the mining sector there is a lot of concern about mining disputes, as such we cannot upload the data when there is a dispute as we will not be able to use it.
A lot of processes are touching on cleaning up the data, in other words carrying out the reconciliation as well as re-adjustments.
These processes are ongoing and I am afraid this is where we are a bit stuck (for lack of a better word).
We wanted to see the system rolling and going live when all the data is captured,” said Mr Kunaka.
He said they had already launched the pilot of the system in Manicaland Province.
“As we speak, if you go into our computers in Manicaland and at our head office, you can access the data of the pilot project online.
There are some issues that accompany launching, for example we still need to conclude with our service provider who developed the system on some maintenance agreements.
The system has been under development for the past four years,” said Mr Kunaka.
Mining – Image taken from Shutterstock
He said the advantage that comes with it was that it would deal with disputes between miners and farmers as those things would be corrected timeously.
“There are efficiencies which we hope to get from the cadastre system. The larger and bigger picture that we look at addressing is investment in mining and promoting mining so that by the end of the day we grow our economy and proffer benefits to our people in terms of improving livelihoods and job creation.
“As I said, the system has been developed, we have tested it and we know that it is working.
What remains is the completion of the data capture and improvements in terms of how much equipment we have for use in our provinces.
We are hoping to launch it in the next three months. We will start using the system whether or not we have completed everything that has to be done, we are satisfied it is working and there is nothing that can stop us from using it throughout the country,” said Mr Kunaka.
Information Communication Technologies
The development of the computerised cadastre system is in line with the National Development Strategy 1’s digital economy pillar which places Information Communication Technologies (ICTs) as key enablers for economic development, and its entrenchment across all national development strategies is indispensable, for universal access by 2030 to be attained.
In order to ensure improved access and usage of ICTs during the Strategy Period, Government targets to increase internet penetration rate from 59,1 percent in 2020 to 75,42 percent by 2025. — @nyeve14
