An application that had been made by the President of The Zimbabwe Miners Federation to The Minister of Mines and Mining Development Honourable Winston Chitando that miners get a reprieve and get a waiver as a critical sector to continue operations during the National 21 Days Lockdown in terms of Statutory Instrument 83 of 2020 Public Health (Covid-19 Prevention, Containment and Treatment) (National Lockdown) Order, 2020 has been successful.
ZMF argued that Mining is an essential service whose operations require continuous processes may operate
with the minimum staff required for the care and maintenances of its operations as stipulated in the SI.
The Minister responded by giving a press statement dated 29 March 2020 which said
“Mining operations which face implementation challenges are requested to apply for a partial exemption to the Ministry of Mines and Mining Development through the Chamber of Mines and Zimbabwe Miners Federation. The applications should indicate clearly the nature and modus of operation during the lockdown period and the measures which will be taken to safeguard employees and other stakeholders from the potential spread of the COVID-19 virus. Once the application is lodged with the Chamber of Mines or Zimbabwe Miners Federation, the mining company in question may be allowed to continue operating pending a response from Government. “
Any miner/company therefore willing to continue with operations during this 21 Days lockdown is expected to write a letter from your company addressed to ;
The Chief Executive Officer
Zimbabwe Miners Federation
No 80 Mutare Road
SWK House
Msasa
Harare
Email: [email protected]
The application should give un undertaking as to ;
1. What steps you will be taking to ensure that you comply or observe the fight against Coronavirus and the guidelines given by Government.
2. An overview of your operations
3. When you started operation
4. Deliveries to FPR last 12 months
5. Employment profile
6. Location
7. Nearest Police station
8. Distance of mine from houses
9. Use of public road to work
10. State whether underground or open cast mining operations
11. Attach ZMF Membership number
President Emmerson Mnangagwa announced that Zimbabwe will shut down for 21days from Monday the 30th of March 2020 as the country joins the rest of the world in trying to minimise transmission of the deadly Coronavirus that has claimed thousands of lives globally since its outbreak.
Covid-19/ Coronavirus, Transmission
For COVID-19, each person with the virus can go on to infect around 2.5 people. If each of those people go about their day as normal, and infect another 2.5 people, within a month, 406 people would be infected just from that first infection. Thousands of people with either no symptoms or very mild symptoms have been spreading the virus unaware that they were even infected. This means that before health experts were aware of the problem and started to recommend control measures, the virus had already spread to multiple countries.