The future rests in ASM
Zimbabwe Miners Federation (ZMF) Mashonaland central chairperson Masango Mahlahla speaking at the Mashonaland central outreach program held in Bindura last month said Zimbabwe like other African countries need to realize that supporting indigenous miners (Artisanal and Small Scale Miners ASM) and fostering their future is the way to go.
Dickson Rudairo Mapuranga
Mahlahla said that African mines are owned by foreigners who after mining would return profits back to mother countries living Africans in abject poverty, therefore it is the duty of Africa to stand tall and promote its indigenous small and artisanal miners,
“From time immemorial African mines are run and owned by Foreigners with millions of dollars migrating from our continent… we look forward to raising our miners to new heights of transformation, growth of mining operations from small to medium and from medium to large, cultivating a new crop of indigenous large scale Zimbabwean Miners.” Said Mahlahla.
He outlined that to achieve growth in ASM, ZMF is working closely and tirelessly with its stakeholders such as local government, ministry of Mines, Banks, Fidelity, the central government among other key stakeholders to come up with clear road map that is going to impose the formalization of mining in Mash Central and Zimbabwe at large.
“With recognition of the industry, we look forward to the integration and inclusion of ASM miners in organizational plans as companies begin to offer tailored services and programs to Miners in the province” said Mahlahla.
Mahlahla urged ASM to understand the vision that ZMF is selling to its stakeholders and to work professionally in order to achieve a feet like that which the giant moguls in the mining industry have reached,
“I urge you all to listen carefully and understand the vision and the necessary factors that affect us… let us take this opportunity to understand what ASM is doing” said Mahlahla.
Speaking at the same occasion ZMF president Henrietta Rushwaya said that valuable lessons are emerging through regional ‘multi-stakeholder’ mining dialogues taking place between the Ministry of Mines and regional stakeholders over the past couple of months enabling agreements about formalization of mining to take centre stage in a way that recognizes and incorporates ASM.
The event was also attended by various people such as the minister of state in Mashonaland central as the guest of honor- Monica Mavhunga, ZMF Mashonaland central executive, vice president Eng Murove, along with the small scale and artisan miners community and other decision makers from different entities.