The government has admitted that its allocation of mining claims is chaotic, resulting in double allocations that end in ownership disputes.
According to the Mines and Mining Development ministry , for decades mining titles were being issued to multiple applicants.
This challenge is mainly affecting artisanal miners, who have to guard their mining sites to ensure that they are not occupied by other people.
To deal with problem, former Mines and Mining Development minister Zhemu Soda was working on speeding up the process of repealing the Mining Act of 1961 and replacing it with the Mines and Mineral Bill.
The proposed legislation seeks to establish a system where mining information would be captured in real time.
Soda has since been reassigned to the National Housing and Social Amenities ministry with former Local Government and Public Works minister Winston Chitando returning to the portfolio.
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“We are working entirely to ensure that the legislation is renewed in the way of repealing the legislation, which was done in 1961,” Soda told Standardbusiness hours before his reassignment.
“We will repeal that law and it will be replaced by a brand-new law, which will come through the finalisation of the Mines and Minerals Bill, which is now before Parliament.
“It is in the same Bill that we will introduce the mining cadastre, a mining information management system.
“We hope that system, which is a computerised or a computer-based system intended to manage some mining titles, including even the application for mining titles and processing of the mining titles.”
Soda said the current manual system was posing some challenges, which were affecting miners and these included mine overlaps.
“You might also be aware of the issues that we encounter from time to time,” he said.
“Issues of the overlapping of mines where a single site can by mistake be allocated to multiple owners or multiple applicants and this has been a result of the manual system that we have been using.
“But we will migrate from the manual system to a computer-based system, which now recognises the use of coordinates.
“There were chances whereby applicants would use some maps and in the process of trying to draw the maps, there could be some overlap, and that in most instances ended up creating some disputes.”
Soda was reacting to a question from Standardbusiness on whether he was aware of the challenges that artisanal miners and women face in relation to mining titles.
Other challenges include delays in processing licenses to conduct their mining process. Artisanal miners account for more than 50% of the country’s total mining output.
Women Empowerment in Mining Zimbabwe chairperson Chiedza Chipangura said they wanted the government to help them on the issue of mine overlaps and delays in the issuing of mining licences.
“When the Ministry of Mines delays issuing out mining licenses we end up having issues of corruption where you have to bribe the mines officials so that your documents get processed earlier than others,” Chipangura said.
“So, considering women and our culture, you can’t socialise as much as the men.
“ When they meet the men who are mainly the officials in the Mines ministry, they demand sex from the women.
“Look at the number of disputes that have been created. It is all a hassle for us.
“It is a mammoth task for us. So, we are engaging government, and we continually do this.”
Tina Kadhau, a woman in mining empowerment advocate, said there was a huge backlog for mining licensing and this was frustrating women.