GOVERNMENT has deployed a team of officials to investigate allegations that scores of local people have been displaced to pave the way for mining activities.
Reported cases of informal mining activities indicate some evicted villagers were not compensated.
About 1 200 families displaced more than a decade ago to make way for a joint government and Chinese-run diamond mine in Manicaland are still waiting for compensation while many others have been displaced in the Mutoko area to pave the way for granite mining.
Mines and Mining Development permanent secretary Pfungwa Kunaka told the Zimbabwe Independent on the sidelines of the Association of Mines Managers of Zimbabwe Annual General Meeting and Conference in Victoria Falls that titles were allocated in terms of the Mines and Minerals Act, which does not allow allocation on a settled area.
Kunaka said where there have been displacements based on titles given by the government, it was outside the law. But he was quick to say the cases were not as prevalent as reported in “the media”.
“The way we administer is based on acts of Parliament, which is the Mines and Minerals Act and any action we take as a ministry stem from there. I am referring to the issue of giving a title. It is a due process,” Kunaka said.
“As you may know the ministry of Mines decentralised into provinces and these titles are managed and supported by a team of surveyors, metallurgists and peggers. There is no policy that says an officer cannot peg in a settled area.”
“When talking of granite, we have people who are legitimately awarded the title to mine. If there are those happening outside the law, we will condemn that. Where we sit except for isolated cases, it’s not as prevalent as we read it in the media,” he added.
Kunaka said the government was working with the Chinese Embassy to address alleged displacements and non-compliance of Chinese miners.
“We have launched a blitz of inspection across the country. We have teams that are out to look at how the Chinese are behaving in terms of labour laws and ability to stay with our people in the communities,” he said.
Kunaka, however, could not disclose any compensation plans for the displaced.
Zimbabwe has enjoyed a close relationship with China for decades, but the bond between the two countries solidified when the West imposed economic sanctions on the late former president Robert Mugabe’s government. As credit and investments dried up, China stepped in.