Man loses house to sand poachers

Vincent Gono, Features Editor
A 66-year-old Methodist Village man on the outskirts of Bulawayo lost a two-roomed house to sand poachers recently while the whole village is now relying on city council bowsers for water after the pipe that supplies the area was vandalised.

As if that is not enough, the road that connects the village to town via Luveve was dug off leaving the bridge serving no purpose. So serious are the activities of the sand poachers in the area that the elders are appealing to the authorities for security saying the problem was now beyond city council, police and the Environment Management Agency (EMA). Sunday News visited the village last Wednesday and spoke to Mr Fred Ncube whose house collapsed after sand poachers dug through his yard.

“I had a two-roomed house that had a corrugated iron roof but it collapsed after sand poachers dug through my yard,” he said.

Mr Ncube said most of the young people who were digging were from the village.

“They were almost ten and there was nothing I could do. I am old and they will be drunk and so menacing. They are capable of harming, even killing you. They are so daring,” he added, hinting that the digging through the yard did not happen at night but in broad daylight, at around 10am.

He said he pleaded with them but they shouted obscenities at him and his wife. “And so, we removed valuables from the house and watched helplessly as they dug,” he said.

The village with an estimated population of 1  000 people is now reliant on bowsers for water after the city council pipe that supply it was dug out and vandalised by the sand poachers. Chairperson of the residents Mr Makoni Sibanda said the sand poaching activities were presenting them with an endless headache.

He said all the relevant authorities were aware of what was happening in Methodist Village but no one seemed to show the will and stamina to tackle their problems and as a result people were doing as they please.

“Council is aware, and so is Ema but we don’t know why they are not taking action. All these stands were pegged by city council, in fact, we are not different from other town locations except that we are peri-urban.

We now ask the Government to bring in security, even the army to stop this environmental degradation because we are now worse than those areas with gold deposits,” said Mr Makoni.

He said what happened to Mr Ncube and his family was not supposed to happen in a country like Zimbabwe where rule of law and order was observed.

“The people are not from town. They are our children within this community and their excuse for doing that is that there is no employment. We reported the case but there were no meaningful arrests.

It’s so sad. Right now, the whole village is dependent on city council bowsers because of some people’s negligence. We are all suffering and unfortunately, we don’t have any boreholes like our neighbouring villages, Mazwi and St Peter’s that are also supplied from the same vandalised pipe. Women are made to wake up very early to queue for water at the vandalised pipe and in this cold weather one can not help but feel for them,” he said.

Bulawayo City Council Ward 17 Clr Sikhululekile Moyo confirmed the loss of Mr Ncube’s house and the problem of water triggered by sand poaching activities and said council was working to restore normal water delivery to the three villages.

“It is true that one resident lost a house to sand poachers but that was some time ago. Currently we have challenges of water after sand poachers dug out and damaged an underground pipe supplying water to the villages. The road that connects the village to town through Luveve was also dug where the bridge ends and the gullies that are forming are scary and are isolating the village from the rest of the world. It’s worrying but we are trying to make sure the activities are halted,” said Clr Moyo.

EMA corporate communication manager Mrs Amkela Sidange was not readily available for comment but recently told this publication that sand poaching was a serious menace particularly in Bulawayo and Harare where infrastructure development was high.

She said EMA was working with relevant Government departments to make sure the sand poaching activities were stopped. She encouraged councils to designate areas for sand mining where it could be done in a regulated manner.