Matabeleland South Artisanal and Small-scale Gold Miners (ASGMs) have called for the recrafting and passing of the Mines and Minerals Amendment Bill (MMAB). They said most of them were never consulted in the drafting of the current proposed Bill hence it was not ASGM friendly.
“I only got to discover that the Mines Act was being Amended through meetings organized by CYDT. My concern is that many artisanal and small scale miners are not aware of that and to make it worse we have never had artisanal and small scale miners being invited to consultations so that their concerns are captured, yet it is well known that we are the biggest contributors of the bullion to Fidelity Printers and Refiners,” said Innocent Ndlovu.
The miners also demanded urgency in the recrafting and passing of the Mines and Minerals Amendment Bill. They said the current delays in solving mining issues had a negative impact on their operations and production. Patrick Ngwenya from Umzingwane said, “We have been waiting for Amendment Bill to be passed, and the delays has a negative impact on the operations of miners as it means that our operations are still not formalized and it means that there are still illicit gold flows as miners continue to mine and proceeds unaccounted for.”
The miners added that the Mines and Minerals Amendment Bill should provide for the legalization of artisanal miners, incorporate gender parity and promotion of vulnerable groups in mining development and provide for a one stop shop mineral governance system, to avoid policy inconsistence fueling corruption and mineral plunder.
Observations made by CYDT under its project themed Promotion of Access to Justice, Transparency and Social Cohesion show that the current challenges faced by artisanal and small scale miners are a result of the 1961 Mines and Minerals Act. The act which miners said has become outdated, has failed to combat corruption as well as protect the rights of artisanal miners whose activities have been criminalised for a longtime.
As indicated by the Printers and Refiners reports that the ASGMs have been leading in gold deliveries compared to the Large Scale Mining (LSM), the ASGM issues must be prioritised. Authorities must stop delaying to deal with the challenges faced by artisanal miners. Apart from being the biggest contributors of gold deliveries and the country’s GDP, the ASGM provides direct livelihood to more than a million Zimbabweans. The passing of the Mines and Mineral Amendment Bill will ensure the decriminalization of the artisanal mining, and the subsequent announcement to establish gold service centers, proclamation to formulate and implement the Artisanal Small Scale Mining (ASGM) Policy to facilitate enhanced exploitation of gold deposits under National Development Strategy 1 (2021-2025).
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