Attacks on Chitando preposterous – Rushwaya
Zimbabwe Miners Federation (ZMF) President Ms Henrietta Rushwaya has called on miners desist from castigating the Minister of Mines and Mining Development Hon Winston Chitando over issues to do with government policy because he is just a mouthpiece of the government.
Rudairo Dickson Mapuranga
This follows recent embarrassingly uninformed, populist Social Media rants from a section of the small-scale miners led by disposed of former ZMF Mashonaland Central youth chairperson Blessing Togarepi.
Rushwaya said that the act by some miners who go around castigating the Minister over government policy is preposterous.
“The Minister is the mouthpiece of government and castigating him over government policies is absurd,” said Rushwaya.
The ZMF boss said that the position of miners should be focused on engaging and not labelling and rubbishing senior government officials using any form of media.
Rushwaya added saying that people need to be level headed when disgruntled and not to castigate and rubbish policies for the sake of it.
“As ZMF we follow government policies and where we have queries, we engage. Rubbishing and labelling senior government official using any form of media will not solve problems.”
“We need to be well conversant in subject matters which we castigate not just to rubbish for the sake of it,” said Rushwaya.
Rushwaya said that ZMF position on exclusive Prospecting Orders EPOs will be guided by the laws of the land if there is a need to engage the minister we will do so on an open-door policy.
Rushwaya said it is also not wise for individuals to castigate the minister when discussions are underway.
“Our position is: We stand guided by govt policies on such matters and if there is need to engage the Minister we do so since he has an open-door policy. We have engaged the Minister regarding the above and discussions are underway. So no need for an individual to be seen to be castigating the Minister when the Minister is doing everything possible to assist” Rushwaya said.
Rushwaya also said that EPOs are very important because they help the country in identifying the minerals in the country with their quantity.
“EPO’s are meant for companies with deeper pockets to provide mineral data through exploration. Without EPO’S and exploration, we would never know what we own. EPO’S are orders not Mineral rights like claims” said the ZMF President.
Renowned Zimbabwean geologist Kennedy Mtetwa said, it is extremely important for the country to grant EPOs and these EPOs actually can take a long time because world-class mines don’t get discovered in 3 years. It took many years of exploration to have the development of mines like Unki, Mimosa, and Zimplats.
Mtetwa also said that, by Zimbabwe stopping EPOs, it would push us behind by 10 years in getting new deposits from new EPOs. On global statistics, only 10 per cent of EPOs will return viable projects in 10 years. The banning of EPOs will come back to haunt the country in terms of serious mining.
EPOs are issued by the head of States through the mining affairs body as provided for by the mines and minerals act.