Norton miners back to work as police reign in Maziga
The situation in Norton has normalised and miners are back in operation after police reigned in the notorious Maziga group which had unleashed a reign of terror in the area.
Prince Sunduzani
According to a source, following interventions by the police, the situation has calmed and miners in the Norton area have resumed operations.
Miners had halted operations in fear of the terror group, which was going around terrorizing miners and dispossessing them of their equipment and in some cases their gold.
The Zimbabwe Miners Federation (ZMF) had warned of a repeat of what happened when MaShurugwi were active, leading to a drop in gold production.
The federation called for police intervention to quell the Maziga threat.
According to the source, police made a number of arrests and are currently conducting operations meant to completely weed out the rogue elements, and restore law and order in the area.
“The situation is normalizing following what was happening here in Norton. The Police acted on the issue and made arrests and are currently doing operations in the area. We had a meeting with all the relevant authorities, the neighbourhood watch committee, the community and the police were present. They gave us the situation on the ground and said that investigations are still ongoing,” said the source who spoke on condition of anonymity.
The ZRP could not be reached for comment.
Last week it was reported that 21 illegal gold and chrome miners were arrested at the Mutubva Chrome mining site in Norton.
The arrests were made on May 27 under police’s ‘Restore Sanity’ operation aimed at curbing cases of robberies and murders in Norton, allegedly committed by the illegal miners.
The Maziga terror group had made a comeback on a revenge mission that caused havoc in the Norton mining community.