The Sunday News
Marvelous Moyo Gwanda Correspondent
SMALL-SCALE miners have called on Government to introduce policies conducive to the growth of the sector, saying the existing ones were a hindrance to their advancement. Presenting their concerns before a Parliamentary Portfolio Committee on and Energy in Gwanda Town on Thursday, small-scale miners said there was a need for Government to put in place a policy framework that would cater for their development.
The miners said existing mining regulations constrained their operations and suppressed them from growing big as they were put in place during the colonial era to favour the whites.
The Zimbabwe Miners Federation (ZMF) president, Mr Trynos Nkomo, said most small-scale miners were “desperate gold diggers” because they did not have rich mining areas of their own but depended on leftovers left by mining giants.
“The big mines are the owners of rich mining areas and small-scale miners are desperate gold diggers. We have nowhere to mine because we are digging areas left by big mines. We need a new approach that will empower us and allow us to move from being small.
“We need a policy change, a policy framework that is going to allow participation into small-scale growth. It is high time we have a robust mining change and we suggested to Government to take an approach similar to that of the Land Reform Programme. We need to have a Mining Reform Policy,” said Mr Nkomo.
He said small-scale miners needed to be empowered as indigenous businesspeople through the allocation of rich mining areas.
The committee heard that some mining companies had mining claims that have gone for years lying idle while small-scale miners continued to suffer in searching for gold worsened by the lack of mining machinery.
“We need Government to provide land in the same way it created A1 and A2 plots under the Land Reform Programme.
“In the Gwanda District, Blanket Mine and Vumbachikwe, are the owners of prime mining areas and are holding some mining claims for speculative reasons,” said Mr Nkomo.
He said Government was working on formalising the small-scale mining sector and was optimistic that the mining environment would soon be conducive for the growth of the sector.
Miners said there were still traces of a colonial pattern visible in the sector which they said Government should eradicate.
“We appeal to the Government to revisit the mining regulations because the regulations used on big mines are the same used on us as small miners. It becomes difficult for us to grow under such circumstances,” said Ms Sibongile Sibanda, the chairperson of the Gwanda United Miners Association.
The Matabeleland South provincial war veterans’ chairperson Cde Never Ncube said: “Only the rich have access to mining claims and as for us who are poor, we have nothing. These rich people are the same people draining the economy because they channel the gold to the black market.”
Women in mining also called on Government to support them with mining machinery as they were struggling.
“Every year Government provides support for the agricultural sector. We also like to see that happening to the small-scale mining sector. As women, we need that kind of support,” said Cde Sister Bhebhe.
