With the country preparing for the hugely awaited general elections next year, peace ambassadors in Matabeleland South have expressed their concerns over the distribution of mining resources on political grounds as politicians seek to gain political mileage.
Bribing voters before elections is a prevalent practice and marginalised groups are usually targeted with vote buying. In areas like Gwanda, Matobo and Umzingwane in which thousands of young people survive on artisanal and small scale mining, it has emerged that the allocation of mining resources is being done on political and partisan basis.
It is alleged that artisanal and small scale miners are now victims of political patronage networks. Local miners are linked to the patronage machine mainly through political bigwigs. Some of these politicians practice vote buying by providing mills to process ore mined by artisanal miners while others are alleged to be providing materials like mercury that miners need to enhance their mining activities.
With 95% of the mining land in Mat-South under EPOs of which the owners are believed to be those with allegiance to the ruling elite; it has also come out that the owners of these EPOs are only allowing miners that have promised to vote for certain politicians or party to mine in these claims.
It is also said that some politicians seeking the votes and allegiance of miners are promising artisanal and small scale miners to protect them from being arrested by the authorities. The political bigwigs take advantage of the fact that artisanal miners are usually the victims of corruption as the police and other local authorities usually ask artisanal miners for bribes to let them into mining sites that they are deployed to safeguard. Therefore, when these politicians promise to freely protect them from such if they vote for them, they have no choice but to accept their offer.
To expand their public image in preparation for the 2023 elections, it is also alleged that politicians are promising free mining claims and other mining materials to those who attend their meetings and vote for them. In a sense, for one to have access to mining lands, he or she has to be aligned with the political bigwigs that are usually linked to the ruling government.
In response to cases of mining resources being used to solicit votes by politicians, a peace ambassador from Gwanda said, “It’s really a disturbing matter as it robs us, small scale miners, of ability to operate fully to our potential. You’ll find out that some commercial miners who are well up financially are the same who get first preference when it comes to resources distribution. This on its own creates some discord among the miners leading to, sometimes, wrangles that may lead to physical confrontations. Selective distribution of resources divides the community. I suggest that all stakeholders be called for a workshop and get equipped with relevant and necessary knowledge on how the resources should be distributed. And the distribution should be fair.”
Another peace ambassador from Gwanda said, “Vote buying paralyses democracy. ASM is affected in the sense that those from party B will not benefit while party A benefits. We demand transparency and non partisan distribution of mining resources. There is need to prevent politicians from interfering with the distribution of resources.”
Political interference has been identified as one of the major root causes for violence in the mining sector in that; politicians owning mining lands usually use resources available to them to fight over the ownership of some mining claims. For instance, some use the police to expel the artisanal miners linked with rivals while others pay hooligans who use Machetes to wrack havoc miners in their working environments.
The peace ambassadors said young people need to be taught and made aware of vote buying so they can make informed decisions.
Corruption in the mining sector should be completely eradicated to be able to revive the economic sector which enhances the development of communities.
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