Midlands Chiefs Endorse Kuvimba’s, Sandawana Mine
Midlands Chiefs Council through its Chairperson Chief Ngungumbane-born Zama Mkhwananzi have endorsed the Kuvimba Mining House (KHM) Sandawana lithium project and commended the mining house for working hand in glove with the Mberengwa community for it to benefit significantly from it’s lithium resources.
Chief Reporter
On Friday KMH’s Sandawana Mines through its General Manager Mr Godwin Gambiza met the 15 chiefs of the Midlands Province for a community engagement to ensure Sandawana Mines’s Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) initiative serves the community.
According to Gambidza the engagement event with Chiefs was successful with 15 out of 16 Chiefs attending the event. Kuvimba believes that Chiefs are the custodian of culture and therefore responsible for community growth and development. He said Sandawana Mines will engage stakeholders like the council to ensure communities benefit from the resources mined in their area.
“This is our first major engagement with stakeholders here in Mberengwa. We had another small gathering with Chiefs within the Jurisdiction of the Sandawana area, but we then said look we want a more inclusive approach where we not only focus on chiefs within the Jurisdiction of Mberengwa but all the chiefs within the Midlands Province. This is a resounding success that 15 chiefs were able to attend, the only absentee is because he’s not feeling well. Chiefs are the owners of the land that we are mining so it is important that they give us their blessings. This is just the beginning, other than meeting the chiefs on a quarterly basis, we will also be engaging other government stakeholders like the council to ensure the community really benefits from the mining sector,” Gambidza said.
Chief Ngungumbane said Sandawana Mines should adopt the local Enterprises development (LEDS) to ensure companies operating within the Mberengwa District benefit from the lithium resource mined in Sandawana.
“On behalf of the people of Mberengwa, we expect Kuvimba to engage the District because lithium and its Associated minerals are found in this District.
“We want to compliment Kuvimba for employing locals as they have said 80 per cent of the people are coming from this District. We would want to challenge Kuvimba that we have our sons and daughters of this District that provide services to first consider and empower the people of this District,” he said in part
The Chief also said that KMH was supposed to develop Mberengwa to ensure that the people benefit from the lithium resources mined in their area.
“We expect them to develop this area, this area looks very remote and it does not befit the status of Sandawana Mines and that of Kuvimba. We want them to establish essential services here. We expect that Kuvimba should develop this area.
“We expect Kuvimba to improve the source of livelihood, we want in the medium and short term for the mining company to provide water to the people.
“We expect them to tar our major roads,” The Chief said.