Families of four miners whose bodies are currently trapped underground at Task mine have regarded the government’s efforts towards the exhumation of miners who got trapped last year as helpless due to the absence of rescue efforts to retrieve the bodies.
By Shantel Chisango
The families, yesterday expressed their frustration to the government Eng Mr. Munodawafa responsible, saying they have been given false hope and empty promises. This was after Chief government Munodawafa called for a meeting at the mine to assure parents that the government had not forgotten about them.
Munodawafa however ejected the Media from the meeting and bizarrely declined to comment on the matter saying he can only do so after consultations with his superiors.
Speaking to Mining Zimbabwe after the meeting, the families expressed their frustrations.
“Government must not play with our minds and making us feel helpless for trying to co-operate with them. This is all a facade,” a frustrated parent said.
Furthermore, the parents condemned Task Mine for not assisting them in any way.
The retrieving of the bodies of the miners has been futile. Only the body of a 20-year-old Shingai Gwatidzo was exhumed on the 31st of October 2020.
Disputing the notion of paying people to retrieve the bodies, Chief Ngezi of Chegutu argued that the officials who had come late last year promising to pay people who would retrieve the bodies were bogus and passing-by politicians.
Families of the affected further said if the government is planning to do a mass-grave, it must do so and leave them out of it.
Zimbabwe Miners Federation (ZMF) was applauded by the parents for being of assistance from the day of the tragedy.
The meeting was attended by police-officers from Chegutu District, ZMF representatives, and families who lost their loved ones at the mine collapse.
Constantino Dzinoreva (47), Charles Mutume (31), and brothers Crynos Nyamukanga (44) Munashe Christian (17) remains, remain underground since the 8th of September 2020.
