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A GWANDA miner has appeared in court for beating a workmate to death following a dispute over money while gambling.
The accused person’s two accomplices are still at large.

Marshal Sibanda (26), who works at Vulture Mine in Colleen Bawn area, was not asked to plead when he appeared before Gwanda magistrate, Miss Caroline Matanga facing a murder charge. He was remanded in custody to June 9.

Prosecuting, Miss Faith Mutukwa said Sibanda and his two accomplices assaulted Precious Siziba (23) from Filabusi on May 9 at around 4PM and he died the following day at around 6AM while admitted to Gwanda Provincial Hospital.

“On May 9 at around 4PM the now deceased and the accused were gambling together with two others who have been identified as Johnson Moyo and Shepherd Moyo. The accused person and his accomplices had a misunderstanding with the now deceased over payment of the money,” she said.

“The trio started assaulting Siziba who then fled from the scene for a distance of about 10 metres. One of them threw a brick at Siziba and it hit him on the head and he fell to the ground.

“They caught up with Siziba and sprayed pepper spray in his eyes and hit him on the head using unknown weapons until he lost consciousness.”

Miss Mutukwa said the accused person and his accomplices fled from the scene and left Siziba lying unconscious on the ground. She said Siziba was assisted by a passerby who rushed him to Gwanda Provincial Hospital where he was admitted but died the following morning.
The matter was reported to the police who conducted investigations leading to the arrest of the accused person. His accomplices are still at large.

The Chronicle

GOLD panners are costing the National Railways of Zimbabwe (NRZ) millions of dollars annually through vandalism of railway infrastructure by mining along railway lines across the country.

Illegal gold mining has contributed to train accidents that have led to the death of three people in the last 18 months.

The NRZ said Esigodini and Beitbridge in Matabeleland South, Shurugwi, Kwekwe in the Midlands and Bindura in Mashonaland Central are some of the areas that have been hard hit by the gold panning activities.

Government recently took a position to deploy security agents in Beitbridge to ward off gold panners operating along the railway line.
NRZ is now running a campaign aimed at identifying and arresting those damaging the railway infrastructure across the country.

In an interview yesterday, NRZ public relations manager Mr Nyasha Maravanyika said while Government deployed security agents to Beitbridge the problem is widespread in most areas with gold.

“It’s very massive especially in most parts of the country. The Minister (of Transport and Infrastructure Development Felix Mhona) mentioned Beitbridge but this is happening in many places. Other areas are Bindura, Kwekwe in the Great Dyke and Shurugwi, Esigodini and Beitbridge. These are the main areas that are hit by the illegal gold miners. Most of the time they conduct mining operations under the railway line,” said Mr Maravanyika.

“You will find that the railway line rests on big holes and this affects the railway line as there will be no balance and at the end of day, we lose millions in terms of money and lives are lost as well. The NRZ has taken a proactive role in terms of alerting the Government about the illegal gold panning.

Let’s also take note that in terms of the Railways Act, no human activities should be done at least 45 metres from either side of the railway line. These illegal gold panners are right along the railway line, sometimes they even take away some of our rail infrastructure.”

He said the parastatal has lost about $3,6 million through gold panning related vandalism of infrastructure and theft of copper cables in the past four years.

Mr Maravanyika said the vandalism of infrastructure has also led to death and called on courts to impose stiffer penalties on NRZ infrastructure vandals.

“We have also been let down by the judiciary giving perpetrators between three to six months sentences. As NRZ we are lobbying for deterrent sentences. The railway line is part of important national infrastructure and needs to be protected. By imposing heavy custodial sentences, we will protect not just the economy but lives. In the past 18 months we have lost three people through accidents which could have been avoided,” said Mr Maravanyika.

Damage caused by gold panners on railway infrastructure in Mazowe

Last week, Government was informed that gold panners operating at Matopos Research Institute Farm are threatening international research work aimed at improving agriculture in Southern Africa and beyond, through land degradation that has affected studies on crops and caused the death of pedigree breeding livestock.

The panners are also affecting pastures with farmers complaining that they are losing livestock as a result of haphazard gold panning activities in farms and communal areas.

Minister of State in the Office of the President and Cabinet in charge of monitoring and implementation of special agriculture-related programmes, David Marapira last week directed Ministers of State for Provincial Affairs and Devolution to work closely with the security agents and decisively deal with the illegal gold panners as their operations were threatening economic subsectors.

The Chronicle

Zimbabwe Environmental Law Association (ZELA) Deputy Director and Kimberley Process Civil Society Coordinator Mr. Shamiso Mtisi referring to South Africa’s draft artisanal and small-scale Mining Policy said formalization might be the solution in reducing challenges of illegal mining, trade, and export of gold in Zimbabwe.

Sophia Takuva

The ZELA Deputy Director said the introduction of digital technology through the government’s promised cadastre system in mining claims and concessions was also of importance in curbing conflicts in the mining industry in Zimbabwe.

“On the challenges of illegal mining, trade, and export of gold, formalization of Artisanal mining might be the solution. Introduction of BlockChain technology in ASM and Large-Scale sector might also help to curb conflicts and criminality,” Mtisi said.

Mtisi said Zimbabwe should take a leaf from South Africa’s draft policy on artisanal and small-scale mining which thrives to regulate and formalise the operations of artisanal mining through recommending permits for artisanal miners, defines artisanal mining as separate from small scale mining, and designate areas for artisans.

The permits would allow the government to regulate artisanal miners’ operations as well as allowing the government to tax them.

“South Africa just circulated a draft Artisanal and Small-Scale Mining Policy which recommends a permit, reserving permits to citizens, defines artisanal mining as separate from small scale mining, designate areas for artisans, payment of taxes and reporting,” he said.

The Zimbabwe Miners Federation (ZMF) an umbrella body that represents small-scale and artisanal miners in Zimbabwe has been calling on the government to expedite the formalization and regularisation of the small-scale miners’ operations to curb smuggling and increase revenue to the fiscus.

ZMF urges Small scale and artisanal miners to embrace and prioritize the development and growth of the communities they are operating in as a way of giving back to the community.

Zimbabwean exporters will be rewarded for exporting more, under a raft of new incentives announced by Finance Minister Mthuli Ncube on Monday.

Exporters, including miners, currently keep 60% of their foreign earnings in hard currency, while 40% is sold to central bank at the official exchange rate. Gold miners have said this leaves them without enough to cover their expenses, many of which are in US dollars.

Ncube has turned down their pleas and kept the 60% threshold in place, only announcing “incremental” incentives under which a company that exports above its monthly average can keep 80% of what it earns from that increased portion.

“In order to encourage gold production and deliveries to Fidelity Printers and Refiners (FPR), gold producers who deliver gold quantities above their average monthly deliveries shall be entities to a retention level of 80% on the incremental portion of the gold delivered to FPR,” Ncube said.

Companies that list on the Victoria Falls Stock exchange get to keep 100% of their incremental exports.

Gold producers have previously pushed to be allowed to sell their own gold abroad. In 2019, Canadian company b2Gold abandoned a bid for Shamva mine after failing to get assurances that it could export its own gold.

The new plan does not give in entirely to this demand, but says large scale miners that qualify for the 80% threshold can now directly export the incremental portion of their gold, the earnings from which they can use to secure credit offshore.

Export retention

In January, central bank cut the amount of forex that exporters can earn from 70% to 60%. In response, the Chamber of Mines, in a letter to the Ministry of Finance in February, said miners would have to cut production as the bulk of their expenses were in US dollars.

Said the Chamber: “A snapshot survey and submissions received from mining houses demonstrate that on average 60% of gross export proceeds are now taken by government departments and agencies (RBZ, Taxes, ZESA etc) leaving inadequate forex resource for the mining firms to sustain the operations.”

Treasury’s new incentives are structured differently from previous subsidy programmes blamed for stoking inflation. In January last year, central bank dropped the gold support scheme, under which gold mines were paid 25% of the gold price for each delivery of gold to Fidelity. The incentive was paid out in Zimbabwe dollars at the prevailing official exchange rate.

NewZwire

Zimbabwe, Zambia and South Africa have resolved to adopt urgent interventions to fully operationalise the Pan-African Mining Development Corporation (PAMDC) and manage it in the best interest of the three countries.

Through a tripartite arrangement, the governments of South Africa, Zambia and Zimbabwe agreed to form the Pan-African Mining Development Corporation, which was mandated to hold and exploit mineral rights which were bequeathed to Zambia and Zimbabwe by Cecil John Rhodes.

Recent governance challenges due to non-representation of South Africa on the PAMDC board as well as financial constraints as a result of non-contributions have threatened the operations of the entity.

“ERP now appeals to the honourable ministers to engage the counterpart in RSA to seek an immediate engagement that will not only preserve the objectives of PAMDC but also will ensure that all the parties play their part,” said Emerging Railways Properties (ERP) Manager, Logan Nyasulu.

The just-concluded ERP Council of Ministers meeting held in Livingstone, Zambia, saw renewed calls for urgent measures to address the governance issues and adoption of PAMDC turn-around strategy.

“While complexities of unlocking value from the vast mineral resources and interests in PAMDC are apparent, we should not lose sight of the cardinal work ethic which should be invested towards finding a lasting solution to the challenges highlighted here today,” noted Hon. Felix Mhona, Zimbabwe’s Transport and Infrastructural Development Minister.

According to a communique released at the end of the Council of Ministers Meeting, it was resolved that engagements should be made to persuade South Africa to meet its obligations under the tripartite arrangement.

Zimbabwe and Zambia have 66.7% shareholding in PAMDC held through ERP, while South Africa has 33.3% held through African Exploration Mining and Finance Corporation (AEMFC).

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